Nancy Spears: What Buddhism Can Teach Us About Business and Success

Welcome And Subscribe

Larry Samuels 0:02

Hello and welcome to the Career Journey podcast, No Wrong Choices. I'm Larry Samuels, and I'll be joined in just a moment by Touchar Saxena and Larry Shea. This episode features the founder and CEO of Gen Connect U, Nancy Spears. Before Nancy joins us, please be sure to subscribe, like, or follow No Wrong Choices wherever you're listening. Your support helps us keep bringing these great stories to life. Let's get started. Now joining No Wrong Choices is Nancy Spears. Nancy is the CEO and founder of Gen Connect U, a digital platform that partners with top experts to create courses focused on professional development, leadership, wellness, and personal growth. Nancy is also the author of Buddha Nine to Five, a book that demonstrates how Buddhist principles can positively impact business and leadership, which is something I very much look forward to exploring. Nancy, thank you so much for joining us.

Nancy Spears 1:00

Well, thank you so much for having me. I'm grateful to all three of you.

Larry Samuels 1:04

I can go through a list to describe you uh based upon what I've come up with, but nobody knows you better than you. So if you would to set the stage, please tell us who who Nancy Spears is, in your own words.

Nancy Spears 1:19

Well, I won't go chronological because we don't have enough time for that. In a nutshell, uh, I've always just seen myself as someone who shares wisdom globally with all different audiences, all different ages. I've got 27-year-old twins who will tell you that I teach them nothing, but hopefully there's some oblivable learning along there. And uh yeah, I've just been blessed to meet a lot of interesting, creative, brilliant people in my life. And I see myself as a conduit between what they share with me and being able to share that wisdom with other people in the world.

Larry Samuels 2:01

And for Gen ConnectU, because I did mention that off the top, can you just give us a little feel for what your business is and and and what you do?

Nancy Spears 2:10

Sure. So Gen Connect U is very much uh like the masterclass for career, if you will. We've been uh creating and producing on-demand learning content for eight years now. Gen Connect was the parent company, and then I pivoted to e-learning about eight years ago. Basically, what we do is we follow trends of what people care about mostly at any given time. And this can be everything from advancing career to health and well-being. We meet brilliant people, we video them in production in studio, broadcast quality, beautiful product. And then we uh break those lessons down into three minutes, one minute, two minute, and then package them in courses and we distribute this content across a number of different uh companies, everything from LinkedIn Learning to Spotify, and then to individual companies like American Express Marketing and um doctor and gamble and companies like that.

Childhood Roots And Education

Larry Shea 3:12

Fascinating. I'm a visual learner, so I love that kind of like tell it to me straight, you know, give me a video and teach me, you know, like a sponge. So I'm sure we're gonna get into a ton of that. Um, but I have the fun part. Um I'm Larry Shea. Really nice to meet you, by the way, as well, Nancy. Thanks for giving us some time. Tell me about your childhood. Let's start at the beginning. Um, because I just think that our childhoods shape us so much in who we are and what we do. Did yours, I guess, is the first question. Where did you grow up? What was your family life like? And um, what was the original dream?

Nancy Spears 3:44

Yeah, so I grew up in a very modest family of um, I'm the oldest of five kids. My dad was a police officer his whole life. I always used to say my mother look must have loved men in uniform because first he was my first father was an Air Force colonel, and then my father that raised me was a police officer, and he actually uh ran the vice squad for the Broward County Sheriff's Department, which you know made me instantly be afraid of any kind of narcotic since early days. And so uh, but what really shaped my life was um being the oldest and and being kind of a role model for my brothers and sisters. And then education was the most important thing to me. I was the only one of five that actually did go to college and graduate from university, and that kind of paved the way for my future, not to say that it's for everyone, but it certainly was a pinnacle part of my life. I think the most important thing was that they let me just be me. So I flourished into areas that I really cared about. My favorite class was creative writing, and still to this day I write poetry a lot and follow poets. So just always thinking about, yeah, I feel like I'm a kid at heart, basically, always looking and exploring and being curious about the next thing.

Tushar Saxena 5:01

So, Nancy, uh, I'm Tushar Saxena, by the way, and the non-Larry of the group here. So your parents obviously wanted you to be the person here, just to be a person, you know, your own person, so to speak. So, did they put an emphasis on education for all of you? Or was it just that you seemingly were more focused on your want to gain knowledge?

Nancy Spears 5:21

Yeah, that's a great question. I hardly ever think of this part of my life, by the way. I don't know if you guys are the same, but you know, we kind of put things in containers. Um, but to answer your question, they definitely made paved the way for me. I was the only one that was sent early days. I was lucky enough to be the oldest. They put me in private high school right off the bat. It was an experimental school back then called NOBA High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And um, that really did kind of plunge me into, you know, understanding how critical education was. I was in a very um competitive environment. I was very, very shy. And I had to really lean into it and put myself out there on a daily basis in order to accomplish what I wanted to do. It's a great question. Thanks for asking that. Sure.

Larry Samuels 6:08

And what were your passions at that time? And and I guess the curiosity is what were your passions at that time? And did those somehow shape you or direct you towards the journey that you ultimately took?

Nancy Spears 6:23

Well, the passion for creativity, for exploration, that was huge for writing. Also, I was early days in um Catholic school. And so that whether, you know, the experience was not as important as just understanding how to follow the rules and how not to follow the rules. And that's kind of what drove me in a different direction when I was able to make my own decisions around my spirituality.

Larry Shea 6:50

You talked about writing. Um, is that something that you've always done even as a younger person at this age?

Nancy Spears 6:56

Yeah, I started writing when I was probably around nine, and I was even published in little local newspapers and stuff like that early on.

Larry Shea 7:04

Is it self-reflection stuff or growth stuff or you know, free thought, like free writing? What what kind of writing are you practicing at this time at a young age?

Nancy Spears 7:14

Yeah, free writing and and things that impacted me. So that's what kind of drove more to the poetry side, but it was really about trying to understand a concept, basically. Trying to understand a concept from a different lens, from my own lens. Where'd you go to college? So I went to West Virginia University, which I call the uh the Harvard of Appalachia.

Tushar Saxena 7:39

Of course. Was your major there? Was your major there writing?

Nancy Spears 7:42

It was. It was journalism, public relations, communications with an emphasis on writing. How was you? How were you as a writer? Back then, tenacious, um, consistent, fairly good. Good enough to graduate.

Larry Samuels 7:57

As you were writing and and exploring your creativity, uh, eventually you got into to marketing and advertising, I believe, down the road. When did you start to see that as your path forward? Or or did you? How did you want what did you do after graduation? What was that next step for you?

Nancy Spears 8:17

I know it's shocking when you think about it today because I actually worked in what I graduated in. So many people don't do that anymore. Unless, you know, let's let's be fair. If you're like my daughter is in her final year of law school at Fordham, so she knows she wants to be a lawyer. But most people graduating in the late 70s, really, they they don't know, you know, really unless it's very specific, like computer programming from Stanford. Um yeah, so I did. I I went on to get a um PR job for um hotel company, and from there ended up in sales and communications in the hotel business, ended up as director of sales for Weston Hotels, then started my own company that was more branding, marketing, event planning. Got really lucky. Uh, Nike was our first client, and we launched the Nike Airshoes. So that was just good karma. And um, from there, that company did really well. And I um ended up working with 10 of the top 12 worldwide Olympic sponsors uh for many of the games, the Olympic Games, um, and including Coca-Cola and Swatch and John Hancock, and it's just kind of a plethora of industry, which was also really fun. And um, then I sold that company to the Interpublic Group when I was pregnant with my twins.

Tushar Saxena 9:36

Uh, you are lucky enough to speak to two guys who are actually, I'm a Fordham grad, and Larry Samuels actually teaches at Fordham.

Nancy Spears 9:43

What are you going to be teaching?

Larry Samuels 9:45

A business communications course.

Nancy Spears 9:47

Fantastic.

Tushar Saxena 9:48

Well, my I am uh I'm a graduate of uh Rose Hill 94. So my four years there were wonderful. And so when you were in school at that point, obviously you were a very good writer, but you were you went as a journalism major, something along those lines. Did you see yourself going into journalism at all?

Nancy Spears 10:04

Well, some form of it. So PR, you know, that's journalism light. Sorry for any of my friends who have successful PR companies. I mean, now they have, let's face it, it's so interesting how the industry has just pivoted and shifted at the age of digital. So back then, when there was not digital, it was very fundamental. And today it's just there's so many options. Back then there was not even an event planning degree. And now there's whole schools around that. It's just fascinating to me. So I think I knew that I always wanted to be in some form of communications.

Larry Samuels 10:40

You mentioned before that you worked with 10 of the, I guess, 12 biggest Olympic sponsors. Is that right? In what capacity? What were you doing?

Nancy Spears 10:51

Yeah, so the Olympic Games, such a money machine. Actually, LA was the one, the first games that were profitable. So they came up with a formula around um the top 12 Olympic sponsors. So these are global companies. And so what we did for them was every way we could think of to integrate those rings into their own marketing during the game. So this would be actually pre-contact with a customer through communications, and then on the ground, everything from building out their hospitality suites to branding all at their own events that they were going to host, and then everything that touched it post-event two.

Larry Shea 11:33

I I want to just jump back a little bit because I don't want to gloss over this part. You know, oftentimes we we do this podcast and our guests will say, Oh, I got this job, and then I got that job, and then I started my company, and then it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. How did you do that? This is a career journey podcast. Do you remember how you got some of those first jobs? Was it you answering an ad? Was it somebody you knew? How are you getting those first jobs to get yourself out of college and into the workforce at that time?

Nancy Spears 12:04

Yeah, so this is why I keep talking to my children so much about the value and importance of relationship and networking. And, you know, I do think that the virtual and digital and it's really shifted that so much that people aren't even rubbing shoulders the way they used to in an event or whatever. And so we've lost that, you know, human touch. Basically, it was total pure networking, one client referring another, referring another. We were part of the uh started in Atlanta in 1996, and I was very involved with the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau. And another, that was just one sector of the business. So we did a ton in um sports, we did a ton in the insurance industry, a ton in pharmaceutical, which actually became my passion point was to launch pharmacy drugs. You know, we launched everything from Avista, which was the U.S. Women's Health Division for Eli Lilly and Company, all the way to Gem Citabine, which, you know, was Eli Lilly's um oncology drug. So we worked with multiple J and J, Merck, Eli Lilly and Company, Glaxo Farm. And so how we met those people to answer your question, that's a long way of answering that, is that we would, you know, be referral to referral. Many times it would start at trade shows. So we'd actually go to a trade show and talk to the big exhibitors. And I don't know if people still do that anymore, but that was really a major lead generation for us.

Tushar Saxena 13:32

So from that, from that point of where you're you're actually working within organizations to build out portfolio, so to speak. At what point did you come to the determination that I'm going to start my own company?

Nancy Spears 13:44

Oh, that was when I had the company. Um, prior to that, I was in hotel sales.

Tushar Saxena 13:49

Got it. Yeah. Okay, okay, that's where we were.

Nancy Spears 13:51

Yes, I was the director of sales at the West and Peachtree Plaza. And at that time, that was the tallest hotel in the world. And we used to tell people that the elevators actually did work, which they never worked, but um at a point.

Larry Samuels 14:05

That was part of the PR, part of the spin.

Nancy Spears 14:08

Part of the spin. So that's where that's where the relationship started. Actually, it was our client with Nike, Mary Mise. She said, You should be doing this for yourself. And I thought, oh, why not? And so that's what we did.

Larry Samuels 14:21

So she made the suggestion that pulled you forward into this new universe.

Nancy Spears 14:26

Yes.

Larry Samuels 14:27

And did you just create your own business organically, or did you have a partner? How did you do it?

Nancy Spears 14:32

Initially I had a partner, and then at some point I wanted to really grow it, and she wanted to keep it on a different level, a smaller container. So I bought her out and kept on. And eventually, um, when I got pregnant with the twins, I knew I couldn't live on Delta United Airlines anymore. And so I sold it to the interpublic group, and then I had a three-year earnout, but then 9-11 hit. And so um my twins were in Aspen and I was in Atlanta and said, this isn't good. They were only two. I went back to IPG and renegotiated the deal. But they were a fabulous company to work for. A gentleman named Rick Murray, who's still very prominent in the industry, he was um head of all the communications for Golan Harris. And Al Golan was a legend in his time too. You know, he was uh good friend. Their first client, I think, was McDonald's. So, um, and that was part of the IPG company. And so I got very blessed with meeting the right people at the right time.

Larry Samuels 15:32

How many years did it take you to scale your business?

Nancy Spears 15:35

Uh, about 12.

Larry Samuels 15:36

To the point where IPG would be interested.

Nancy Spears 15:38

Yeah, it was 12 years.

Larry Samuels 15:40

Wow, what a run.

Nancy Spears 15:41

Yeah. So I don't think there's really four-year startups or two-year startups or all of this nonsense. It's nine to twelve, fifteen years to really grow a real, a real company.

Larry Samuels 15:53

That's been my experience too.

Larry Shea 15:54

And it sounds like you didn't have a difficult decision going out on your own. It sounds like you were pretty much it was lifestyle, circumstance, and you just took that leap of faith. Was there trepidation in the beginning when you were starting that company?

Nancy Spears 16:08

None at all. It was really close your eyes and jump. And we hired that way too. We hired people, my team, they were just so dedicated and would just do anything for the client, for their company, you know. It was really a magical time to see people work together sometimes into midnight and not not say a word about it. They just wanted to get the work done.

Tushar Saxena 16:32

When you when you become the boss, so to speak, um, do you have a philosophy when you are when you're creating your own business? Like these are the kind of people that I want to have working with me. This is the kind of business that we want to put forward to our clients. Is there a real philosophy that you have that you initially come out with when you when you're starting when you're throwing your own shingle out there?

Nancy Spears 16:50

Yeah, I I think a few things. First of all, you never ask anyone to do something that you can't do yourself or won't do yourself. And so no job is too small or too difficult, you know.

Tushar Saxena 17:03

So I think it was what Pat Riley once in a in the book, The Winner Within always said, never demean your time in the trenches, right? So that type of that type of idea, right?

Nancy Spears 17:11

Yeah, exactly. So that was one. Um, the second was to treat everyone as yourself, as family, regardless of how big. So, you know, this old open door policy, I don't even think that term exists anymore, but it was really true. And the best ideas could come from anyone. And that's still the way that is, I believe. So, you know, really encouraging everyone to speak up and to come up with a great idea. And the people that I hired were always much smarter. And I always said they're really smart, good looking, and impossible to manage.

Tushar Saxena 17:47

What was the size of your initial team?

Nancy Spears 17:49

The initial team, I don't know, we kept growing. It was small in the beginning. It was like, you know, hire one and then two and then five and then ten.

Tushar Saxena 17:57

What was the size of your final team before you sold?

Nancy Spears 17:59

Well, we were in seven cities in the U.S., but it was still quite small. It was under 50 employees. So you set up an office in San Francisco with two or three people, the same in New York, Chicago.

Larry Samuels 18:10

As the company was scaling, as the company was growing, you you'd grab a client and you'd hope to get the next client. And like, was there a really big moment as the company was developing where you thought to yourself, holy cow, we're gonna do this. We're about to take off.

Big Meetings And The Energy Lesson

Nancy Spears 18:26

I think it was more like ebbs and flows, you know. So what happens is it's sales, sales, sales, and then, oh my God, how are we gonna handle this? And then it's full-on operations. And then, oh shoot, we've spent so much time on operations, you know, I'm looking at the revenue for the following year, time to sell. And so it was really more like that than one big, massive breakthrough moment. I mean, certainly we had some times that were really, really pinnacle for us, you know, Coca-Cola uh in Salt Lake City, that was massive, you know, in terms of their big, big events where they flew in their bottlers from all over the world and being able to, it was a privilege to do everything we could to make sure that that that coveted brand uh for Coca-Cola was represented in the most stellar way, most beautiful and most creative way possible at the games. It was a responsibility, really, really, more than just our work. It was the client's work that we were just fulfilling in our own creative way.

Larry Shea 19:22

I want to talk to you about your preparation for these big level meetings. I mean, you're talking about meeting with Coca-Cola and larger companies, and so you must have some boardrooms where you're the show and you got to go in there and sing and dance and do your thing and get the sale or do the work. How do you prepare for those meetings? Do you get nervous? Do you I know meditation's part of your practice? Do you use meditation? What is your philosophy when it comes to big tasks and getting it done and selling people?

Nancy Spears 19:54

Well, really, it's about giving them what they want in a unique way. So, yeah, of course, um, I would get nervous and I still get nervous. But it's funny when you look at it, now we have digital and AI, and it's just so different. AI has changed the whole game. I mean, really literally, back back in the very beginning, we would we would actually, my creative team would actually build three-dimensional models to show what something was going to look like. You know, you don't have to do that anymore. Right. But um, yeah, there were uh so to answer your question, if I always put myself in the mindset of who I was presenting to. And most of the time it worked. There were a couple funny times when it didn't work. One time the NFL commissioners party back then was the most expensive event on the planet.

Tushar Saxena 20:45

Sure.

AI Skills And Prompting Basics

Nancy Spears 20:45

We were really, it was ours to lose. But the presentation was two days after the close of the Olympic Games in Atlanta, and we had some serious things that happened behind the scenes to the we were all working really 17 straight days with very little break. And then I had to come up to New York to to make the presentation to the committee. So that was kind of an ego to out committee, to be honest, you know, you can imagine. And so it was going quite well, I thought. And then they said, Well, how do you see this particular aspect of the event? And I just like went blank and said, May I get back to you on that? And I just thought that was just such a pathetic. Still to this day, I'm mad at myself for not co-dancing that one. And we didn't get it. So, and I don't like losing. So that was I guess the the lesson is you have to have you have to have your you asked a question about like your own personal vibe and energy, and and I was depleted. So make sure that you've got enough energy to do do the job.

Tushar Saxena 21:55

Before we move on to Buddhism as a leadership skill, which I know that you've written about. I want to talk to you a little bit about AI, the incorporation of AI into the current day landscape. First of all, how do you use it as a tool if you use it? And then how how do you see it influencing the business moving forward?

Nancy Spears 22:12

Yeah, it's a great question. I'm obsessed with AI. I can't get enough of it because it is basically it's going to touch everything. And so it's essential. It's essential that every person that's serious about their career embrace it as best they can. So at Gen Connect U, we already have a series or a bundle of courses around AI, and it's just getting started. We have seven amazing courses already. Well, we'll go into studio. Each course is 25, 30 grand to just produce. So we want to find the best of the best in a specific field. Of course. Early days still, um, finding the right people to film and share their knowledge and wisdom around a topic as important as AI. And also to create content that's got, you know, scale and make sure it's evergreen and, you know, isn't dated in six months. And that's a big challenge with AI too. I think one of the courses, believe it or not, that is really going to be, I think, so fantastic is just the fundamentals of AI on prompting. Now that's one that I'm still thinking, okay, maybe the shelf life is going to be shorter, obviously, you know, than anything more theoretical. But I think this particular expert, his name is Ronsley Vaz, he's brilliant. He basically says that only about 10% of corporate America knows how to prompt.

Tushar Saxena 23:44

Wow.

Nancy Spears 23:44

That's so interesting. Meaning what to me.

Tushar Saxena 23:46

Meaning what?

Nancy Spears 23:47

To get the answers they need from the tool, from the AI tool.

Tushar Saxena 23:50

Okay.

Nancy Spears 23:50

So he shares how to do that. Then we have one by Gopi Khalile, who he's the uh head of all strategy for AI for Google. And so he talks about it from a from as a leader. How do you implement AI and how do you make sure that it's being used throughout, you know, your company and in your teams effectively and in a collaborative way. So yeah, I think we're just getting started. And and I just wish I was about 25 years old so I could start all over with.

Larry Samuels 24:22

No, it's interesting as you bring that up. Um, I have worked on it. So I'm a business executive, sold a company, et cetera, et cetera. And now and I have a podcast, I uh teach college courses, and I do a lot of different things to keep myself engaged. And it was very interesting for me because Chat GPT showed up in the middle of one of my classes. And all of a sudden, you know, I had to figure out how I'm going to use this within the world of education. And as you talk about prompting and queries, et cetera, et cetera, at first it was a thread in a way because you just didn't know what to make out of it. But but to your point, I very quickly learned that there's so much value here, and the students have to know how to use this stuff, that I began to work it into my curriculum where the individual projects I kind of wanted them to do on their own to learn the fundamentals. But for the team stuff, I wanted them to work with it and to learn how to create the greatest business pitches and presentations possible. Because that's that's the real world. Like we have to accept the fact that it's here. You have to embrace it and really become a master of it in order to succeed. It's just such an exciting time.

Nancy Spears 25:36

Yeah, I think that's right in education, especially in the universities, and we can use Fordham as the example. The landmine for a student, I think, and I don't know if you found this or not, Larry, is that to use it as a crutch as opposed to a tool to ban their own mind. Exactly. I can tell you, like at my daughter's university at Fordham in the law school, those professors can tell within one sentence if it's AI written or not.

Larry Samuels 26:01

Oh yeah. I could tell immediately. I took a kid into the hallway and had a very serious conversation with him.

Finding Buddhism And Basic Goodness

Nancy Spears 26:08

That's great. Yeah. So I mean, you know, it's it's because it's such early days, there's that temptation, but it's also so how to learn it, how to use it the right way as it continues to proliferate every week.

Larry Samuels 26:21

So, you know, you you touched upon Gen Connect You. We we want to dig more into that obviously going forward, but there's a topic that I really want and we really want to explore while we have you. So um, Buddhism is something that is very important to you. And you have written about it, you've talked about how it has played a meaningful role uh throughout your career. And uh I have a few different questions. I'll start with when did you discover Buddhism and how did it come onto your radar screen?

Nancy Spears 26:58

I I became a series practitioner about 25 years ago, but I was dabbling in it. I was almost spiritual window shopping. I alluded to the fact that, you know, Catholicism was it wasn't resonating. So I I window shopped for a while and um looked at various, you know, Hinduism and meditation and TM and all of these different things. But Buddhism, there was a teacher, a great teacher, her name's Pema Chodra, and she was a third-grade school teacher who um her husband was cheating on her, and she left him and started studying with Chogam Trump Armpoche. And Chogam Trump Armpoche brought Buddhism to North America. He was genius. And and so there's a place called the Shambhala Mountain Center, which is in Redfeather Lakes, Colorado, and it has the largest stupa in North America. It's huge. So I went there because Pama Chodrin was teaching, a course. So I went to basically uh connect with Pama Chodrin, Pama Chodra, just never look back. It was just an old shoe as soon as I stepped foot on their property. And I think the best thing I can say about Buddhism is that it's ubiquitous. But the truth of the matter is, is that the fundamentally it's just about basic goodness. And so you can take those principles, just that whole mindset of basic goodness, and it touches everything you do. Everything you do. And you can catch yourself when you're not coming from a space of basic goodness, which we all do from time to time. It's interesting. It almost can finish your breath and it finishes your sentences, and it's lives in the the thought of an awakened heart or doing the right thing really begins to permeate every decision you make in life. I can't wait for that to happen for me, by the way.

Larry Shea 28:51

Right? I I just um I want to talk about the juxtaposition of Buddhism in business, because I think sometimes in business we have this feeling that it's you're out for power or money or something glorious like that. And so to ground yourself in Buddhism, which as you said comes from a place of goodness, and I don't at all pretend to know any of the major tenets of Buddhism. I think sometimes we think we know what it is, but as you said, you're studying and practicing and you're just touching on things right now that you know you have a world to explore. But how do you juxtapose maybe a feeling of somewhat selfishness trying to achieve something in the business world with being grounded and a place of goodness in Buddhism?

Generosity Without Being A Doormat

Nancy Spears 29:41

Without getting too deep into Chugum Trumple used to say, um, generosity is the virtue that produces peace. And so I break that down to what I would say to my children when they were young. If you want to be miserable, think of yourself. If you want to be happy, think of others. And that's kind of really where it starts. And so if you go full circle back to the question that I hadn't even thought of in 15, 20 years that Larry asked about, you know, how do you get business? How do you network? How do you walk into a it's the same thing. If you're thinking about what the outcome is for the other person, the person that's actually paying or that's working for you, or that's the recipient, the consumer, it makes it so much easier. And so I think that's how you can kind of thread this awakened heart all the way through everything you do. And it just comes from a space of generosity. Now, there is a thing called idiot compassion. And that's basically where you're not on edge, you're just constantly your doormat. And that's definitely not helpful. No one learns from that, and you get stamped on. There is a balance between being on cue in terms of checking yourself, in terms of what is what the goal is, but always coming back to what the actual value behind that goal is and what you really want to get out of it and how it's impacting everything and everyone that it would that goal would touch. And that comes from that awakened heart mentality.

Tushar Saxena 31:10

So then how does Buddhism define success? And I'm not just talking about personal success in that sense, but let's say how does Buddhism play into the notion of business success?

Nancy Spears 31:22

Yeah, I mean, it's just is it making a healthy positive impact on the world? Is the outcome positive and how is it impacting other people? I really think it'd be so much the world would be so much a better place if it would be simplified and it wouldn't be all about me. I really do think that companies that are great are companies that really think about how this is going to impact the world. But there's Hinayana, which are the basic rules like the Ten Commandments, and then there's Mahayana, which is awakened heart, and that's the notion of compassion, and then there's Vajrayana, which is the fusion of wisdom and compassion. But Buddha Nine to Five was written around Hinayana. So I took the eightfold path and I found case studies of companies that were doing one of those eight things right in business. That that's what kind of created the whole notion around that book. So it would be like right vision, right mission. So if you look at like right action, Mark Benioff, when he started Salesforce, put a meditation room in their first building.

Tushar Saxena 32:27

Right. Wow.

Nancy Spears 32:28

And um he could do that because he owned the company. So I think that's an example of taking the right action to impact his employees who would then go in there if they needed to meditate, clear the thoughts, go climb into the space between the thoughts, and then they could come back with a better outcome for their customers. So it's a definitely three-circle awake at heart theory.

Tushar Saxena 32:53

So if that's the case, then then it it seems like the philosophy in many cases that you know you're looking to make a positive impact, whether it be for your clients or just for uh just in general. And then uh I I I'm assuming then after that, it's the notion of the the byproduct of that is financial success.

Nancy Spears 33:11

It could be and it could not be. I mean, it doesn't have to be. Let's put right that should be that should just be the icing.

Tushar Saxena 33:18

Or does it even come into play?

Ego And Human Connection

Nancy Spears 33:19

It has to, or you it because without money you can't you can't make impact at some point. Sure. Right. That's so it is kind of like a push-pull, but it's it's really what the intention is, what the intention is, even with the money. You know, we see we see the dark side of that every day in the news. We don't want to go there. It really, so that's when you go back to the the whole idea around leadership. And um, I was actually, it's funny we're having this conversation. Um it's exciting to me because Rick Murray, who I mentioned, that was actually the one that found Gen my first company, CEM, and convinced IPG to buy it, he just reached out to me recently to say, hey, let's let's write a book on conscious leadership. And what's interesting is that at Gen Connect U, we created um another organization within the company called the Leadership Skills Institute, and it's based on the premises of conscious leadership. So, and there are eight C's. So, because I like the number eight to answer your question, none of those eight C's actually directly relate to the pathway of making money. But ultimately, interesting, if they're integrated, you you will make money without even thinking about it.

Larry Samuels 34:36

Sure. As we're talking about this, uh I'm I'm thinking about the word ego. So, in a in what could be a competitive environment in the world of business where you're trying to get the deal and position things in the right way, et cetera, et cetera. And as people are trying to climb the ladder, and as you navigate hierarchy and things of that nature, ego, I imagine, comes into play in some way. And I believe that a big part of Buddhism is moving beyond the ego. So I'm curious, like having run a company and having managed people, have you dealt with ego as a challenge that that needs to be managed?

Nancy Spears 35:23

Yeah, it's a great question. And I mean, even doing this podcast with you guys, I I do not like talking about myself. I like talking about the other person. We used to say there would be, oh, there would be uh, oh, I can't remember the name of the buyers. There were four buyers, but one was always about ego. You'd see their awards on the wall when you walked in, and you knew right off the bat they were actually the easiest ones to crack because you just are talking about themselves. Really. I I would say that I have not, I've gotten worse at dealing with that. Let me break it down. I don't know if you've ever had the experience of dancing with someone, let's say in high school, and the person that you're dancing with is looking over your shoulder to see who else they could dance with. It's kind of like that in in the big boy, big girl world. So Davos, the World Economic Forum, is not comfortable for me. But I go every year because I have to.

Tushar Saxena 36:26

Right.

Nancy Spears 36:27

And I think that's what you're talking about. I plunge myself into situations where there's a lot of ego in the room. And what I do is just break it down and say, okay, that person who owns this is the CEO of the largest bank in the world goes home to the same kind of things that I go home to.

Larry Samuels 36:49

Yeah.

Work Life Balance And Goal Discipline

Nancy Spears 36:49

You know, maybe with a little bit of a different balance sheet than I have. But at the end of the day, you know, they are a human being. And if you look them in the eye and smile and don't let your own ego get in the way of that connection, it's not that hard.

Larry Shea 37:07

Interesting. It seems like a perfect time to bring it up because you're talking about your spirituality. Uh, you mentioned your children before, um, but you're the boss. You're the big boss. Like, how do you handle that work-life balance? How do you find time for meditation and spirituality? How do you find time for your children? Because you have, I'm sure, a plethora to-do list that has to get done on a day-to-day basis. How do you manage that?

Nancy Spears 37:33

Yeah, you know, you just, I'm not good at that. I mean, I work a lot. I still work a lot. But I I think there's discipline and doing the things that you're important. So when you do your goals, like every year for the last, I don't know, 40 years, I've written my goals for the next year. And I have seven of them because it's because I break my life down into silos. And sometimes I hit the goals in the silos, and sometimes I don't. You revisit those goals at least once a month, check in to see how you're doing, just keep pushing on. But it is discipline. And if you have the uh the secret sauce for that one, I'd love to know it.

Tushar Saxena 38:17

Let's move now to Gen Connect U. And I want to get I want to get the idea. Uh, I want to get from you like what was the genesis behind it? Now, I I think part of it comes from your own love of learning, which you said you had from uh when you were from very young till till now, this want to learn. What was the genesis behind Gen Connect U?

Nancy Spears 38:35

Yeah, so initially it was a media company. I was in Aspen, I was with a close dear friend named Kitty Boone who was running the Aspen Ideas Festival. That was early days. I said, How are we going to capture the wisdom of all these brilliant people that are coming on campus and you know, keep it on a shelf and and share it? And so we started out just interviewing. It was just called Jung Connect, not Jung Connect You. And we do 40 or 50 interviews in four days. I mean, everybody. Like it was and um incredible people. I mean, people like Reed Hoffman, you know, when he was just starting early days with LinkedIn and uh Liz Kaplow, who we've had on this program. Liz Kaplow, she is fantastic. I didn't have the privilege of meeting her until a few years back with the New York Woman in communications about six years ago or something like that. But anyway, then we we built up, you know, this huge library of content. And I said, what are we going to do with this? Because it can't monetize. I mean, I was distributing and syndicating content at the New York Times and a lot of Hearst and Meredith, and it just we weren't making enough money to keep the doors open. And so I started looking like, where is the need? Who, where's the traction going to be? And e-learning was just happening. LinkedIn a few years earlier had bought lynda.com and which after that Microsoft bought LinkedIn. So um, yeah, we just said, okay, I was just let's explore this online learning in industry. And it's really taken off online learning, as you know. Masterclass wasn't around then, but then Coursera came onto the picture, Udemy and ourselves. And we really were not anywhere near the size of any of those companies. But our product, we take a lot of pride in the product to make sure that it's not user-generated content. Not that there's anything wrong with user-generated content, but we made the decision to let's produce content that people will want to watch again and again and again.

Larry Shea 40:43

And how do you exactly pick this up? The the people who are going to present these subjects. Is it a team of people? Do you have last say on who's going to give that? I won't use the word master class because I know that that's part of that. But how do you go about choosing the people?

Nancy Spears 40:59

Yeah, this is a great question too. So my content team actually will vet it and then they'll come to me and we'll say, okay, let's look at, you know, the schedule, let's look at give me the data, give me the trends, why this person over that person. Um, right now, as I mentioned earlier, we're on a um real quest to expand the library around AI content. So that comes first. And then it goes back to just like the sales process. It's the it's a networking. You know, you meet one person, they say, Oh, you should definitely, you know, interview my partner in crime this.

Larry Shea 41:35

Fascinating. Real quick, best thing about being the boss.

Nancy Spears 41:40

Not being a boss.

Larry Shea 41:43

Okay. Because my next question is worst thing about being a boss. Being the boss.

Nancy Spears 41:51

Yeah, you know, it's just hard to have to make tough decisions every now and then, you know. That's when the when the going gets tough, you know. That's when you you differentiate yourself between being a compassionate person and an idiot, you know, trying to practice compassion. You have to really sometimes make tough decisions that are not fun. If you go back to the the pure intention, who is who's gonna suffer if I don't make this decision? It gets a lot easier.

Larry Shea 42:19

And very quickly, what's a typical day look like for you, or is there no typical day? I always like to ask that to powerful people.

Nancy Spears 42:28

I always try and get a workout in, do something, whether it's a long walk or a soul. Yeah. And then I definitely practice for 20 minutes. Usually the day is already filled, and then it just you hit the hit the treadmill running.

Larry Samuels 42:44

Nice.

Nancy Spears 42:44

Yeah.

Advice For Young Professionals

Larry Samuels 42:45

Very nice. So you've had an incredible journey. You have seen so many different things. You've now met so many incredible people through Gen Connect you. I'm curious. Uh, we talked about AI, we talked about students previously. You have children who are in their 20s. Advice for a young person. What would you tell somebody who is entering the work world now? What are some of the key things you've learned that could help them?

Nancy Spears 43:16

Definitely. We had an interview with Madeline Albright. She was such a that was such a loss when we lost her. She and we asked her that question, and her answer is one that just stuck with me forever. And it was this simple. So because the guy that was working for me said this is going to be a question that's beneath you, and she just stopped him dead in his tracks. And I'll never forget that because I think it's that that is the number one rule is that don't be so shy to ask the question.

Larry Samuels 43:54

You did great advice. Never be afraid to ask a question. Yeah. Well, Nancy. Uh I'm glad that we asked you the question today to come join our podcast. That'll be my uh my my hokey shtick at the end as we work our way towards the exit. But Gen Connect You uh is the company, the platform, the the website that everybody should check out. Um, you know, I had a chance to scroll through through there. There were a lot of familiar names of people that who've I've crossed paths with in my career, which I found pretty interesting. Um, but you know, Nancy, you're an inspiration. You're so creative. The the way that you bring Buddhism into the real world is just unique and something that I think we can all learn from. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Host Takeaways And Where To Connect

Nancy Spears 44:38

It's so kind of all of you to have me. Thank you very much. It was really fun.

Larry Samuels 44:42

So that was Nancy Spears of Gen Connect U. And yeah, I often feel like I lead into a wrap-up segment talking about how the person was dynamic or interesting or inspiring. And this just felt a little bit different. This felt like a really unique conversation that we haven't really had before with spirituality, uh, a different type of depth that we've really never explored before. This was just fascinating. Larry Shea, what are your takeaways?

Larry Shea 45:12

Yeah, I have so many takeaways. It was such a serious conversation, such an adult conversation, I think, is where to start because she had so many great nuggets to chew on about life and career and choices. And I think it all comes down to her curiosity of knowledge, her determination, her tenacity. There's so much there. Um, but I was surprised to learn that she she said she was shy as a child. Like you don't get that impression now when you listen to her speak. There's this level of confidence, and it really permeates in how she carries herself, um, certainly with us, but I'm sure in her career as well. So I was really taken by that. And the level of success right out of the gate with starting her own company and the Olympic sponsors and that whole thing. She really seemed like she had a great handle on what it takes to be successful. I also was taken by how she prepares for meetings. She admits she gets nervous. She admits that it's a tall task, but they did things differently back when she started than how they do them now. She talks about the importance of AI and preparation, but back then they would build 3D models and stuff like that, you know? Pretty fascinating just the way business has changed. But I think what permeates the entire uh interview for me is how tenacious she is and how determined she was to not just be successful, but to be uber successful and to give back and to do it in a certain way, you know, with Buddhism at the root. And it's just, you're right, Larry. It was something we really hadn't covered before, and I was impressed.

Tushar Saxena 46:52

Yeah, I'll I gotta let me follow on that, uh, Shay, and just say I appreciated her candidness. I appreciated her seriousness because, you know, we obviously we try to have fun with all of our guests, but you know, maybe once in a while, what we need is someone who's kind of just, you know, no nonsense discussion sometimes, right? Her inquisitiveness is what really, really struck me is that you know, she enjoys learning and Gen Connect U is very much an outcropping of that desire. Um she was great, uh, in my opinion. She really was great because she really, really gave you a no-nonsense view of her ability to make it in in the business world. The incorporation of AI and the idea, you know, if you can't beat them, join them. She's going all in on this, right? She's understanding that look, uh, this is the way of the future. And if you don't want look, if you don't change with the times, the times will change you, right? That's basically it. And then I think what she said, she quoted Madeline Albright about the notion of no stupid questions, right? Well, I I have my own version of that. There are no stupid questions. It's only stupid not to ask questions, really. That's that's really basically it. It's perfect. And I really, really appreciated Nancy's honesty and her seriousness when thinking about these questions. I'm glad we were able to kind of bring out some nuggets from her that she hadn't really thought about over the course of her career. None of us really do, but overall, I really, really enjoyed this conversation. She is successful for a reason, and she pointed that out.

Larry Samuels 48:12

Absolutely. And, you know, as I mentioned off the top, the the other aspect of this discussion was the spirituality and the humanity uh that she expressed. I mentioned during our conversation that at one time I ran a company that was founded by Buddhists. And it was an incredibly um rewarding experience where that spirit and that soul was really at the core of the business. And it was so incredibly unique. And in some ways, it created some conflict in terms of creating structure and a competitive spirit with certain things, et cetera, et cetera. And it was something that I had to figure out how to navigate. But um, Nancy clearly has done that and has embraced that and has built her entire fabric, career, and business around Buddhism and spirituality. I mean, she's written a book, which is fascinating, called Buddha Nine to Five, where she brings a lot of that stuff out. So it just was such a unique look at how business can be, how business potentially should be. And I learned so much from this discussion.

Larry Shea 49:17

Yeah, I'm glad you brought up that part of it too, because we we did pose those questions to her. We think about business as you're trying to achieve and conquer and she's very cutthroat, right? Yeah, and she bases it all in being centered and giving back and coming from a place of love rather than a place of ruthlessness. And that was just it's so important.

Tushar Saxena 49:39

That notion of I rather or that notion of we rather than I, right? Absolutely.

Larry Samuels 49:43

Which is sort of an interesting thing to bring up because, you know, as a very experienced business person, I've always believed that I has no role. When you're working out a partnership, when you're working out a deal, when you're building upon a long-term relationship, it's all about having a two-way street and no ego, and everybody should win, and everybody should be gaining something. That's what successful business is. And I find it interesting that sometimes people think about it differently. But successful business is collaboration and working together. And that's really what Buddhism to a to a certain degree or a small degree is about. So I just found the whole thing fascinating. So, for anybody out there, if you'd like to learn more about Nancy, the name of her platform, which is so great, is called Gen ConnectU. It brings experts together and really to us in a way that we can learn so much and gain incredible insights into stuff that you know isn't always available. So, with that, Nancy Spears, thank you so much for joining us. We also thank you for joining us. If you enjoyed our conversation, please support No Wrong Choices by following us wherever you're listening right now. You can also join our growing community by connecting with us on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook, or by visiting NoWrongChoices.com for great additional content. On behalf of Larry Shea, Tushar Saxsena, and me, Larry Samuels, thank you again for joining us.