- Welcome to Love's Everyday Radius, a podcast brought to you by the Hoffman Institute. My name is Sharon Moore and I'm one of your hosts. And on this podcast we talk to Hoffman graduates about how their courageous journey inward impacted their personal lives, but also how it impacted their community and the world at large. So tune in and listen in and hear how our graduates authentic selves, how their love, how their spirits are making a positive impact on our world today.
In other words, get to know their love's everyday radius. Alright, welcome back everybody. So today my guest is Matt Brannigan. Matt is of course a fellow Hoffman teacher. He's also a professional certified coach. He's the director of faculty at the Hoffman Institute. He's got, and he's also a master resilience trainer for the US Army.
How amazing is that? He's got a bachelor's in sociology, a master's in transpersonal psychology, and a fascinating story including years of service in the US Army, being in combat in Iraq, and all the while being devoted to his personal growth and transformation, as well as the growth and transformation of the people he led. I can't wait to hear more. Matt, welcome to the show. - Oh, thanks Sharon. Um, quite an introduction.
I guess I've never, um, put it out there on paper quite like that, but I sound kind of interesting when you say it that way, don't I? - You're all kinds of interesting if you ask me, but let's start from the beginning. So, so I always kind of acquaint us back to we're at the Hoffman Podcast. You and I actually met through Hoffman. So let's start there. What, what initially drew you to taking the process in the first place? - At the time that I did the process, I was 25 when I did it.
And I had been working on myself in a variety of ways. I was part of this community of folks in Sacramento who had created, kind of led a training company of their own. So much different than Hoffman. It was, you know, more weekend trainings and some events, but it created this really nice community, got me really looking deeply at myself at a pretty formative time in my life.
I had kind of started doing some of that personal development work when I was 20, right off of three years of active duty, just trying to figure out the direction of my life. And I really enjoyed this community. There was so much wonderful connection, so much that I learned about myself and a lot of those folks had done the Hoffman process and it was for many, it was kind of seemed like as the next, the next step in, in your growth and on your journey.
And so, um, I had these really trusted people, um, that kind of steered me toward the process and it took me a few years to take it, not 'cause I wasn't interested, but, um, just kind of timing and, and all of that at the time. And, um, that's kind of what led me there. It was a pretty broad, there was a time I should say that it was, there was nothing in particular that I said, oh, I need to go to the process for this. It was more of a, a broad look at what was gonna be next in my life.
So I was kind of going with a sense of a vision or finding my vision, but it was in large part because I had seen so many people benefit from it that I thought, well, this has to be something special there. - Let me make sure I understood this. You were a 20-year-old already searching inward, asking the big questions like, what's the direction of my life? - You know, it wasn't something that I spent a lot of time as a child kind of figuring out what I wanted to do.
Like I had a pretty normal upbringing, went to school, did okay in school, probably not as well as I should have ended up going into the army, in part because I didn't have a clear direction of what I wanted to do. You know, most of my friends went off to, to college. That was something that was really important in their families and valued that was less. So neither of my parents had gone to college.
You know, one thing that my dad had always said for himself was that, and he had been in the Air Force, he said a few years in the Air Force, really gave him a better sense of who he was as a person. So I wouldn't have thought of it as personal development. When I made that choice, it was kind of like, I need, I wanna go to college, I'm gonna need to find money for college. The military was good for my dad, maybe it will be good for me. And I went in and it was good for me.
I, I learned a lot about myself. I challenged myself. I have great appreciation for my time and service, and those first few years of active duty are a large part of that. But then I came out of that experience and, you know, I came back to what I knew as home outside of Sacramento, but my parents had moved away. I didn't, you know, my friends were often in college, but it's the only place I knew to go back to and I was just kind of searching for, for what to do.
I met a girl and her parents happened to be very into their own personal development, so they encouraged me to do some work on myself in a, in a really gentle way. And I, you know, really fell in love with it. And I, and I started to see that there was a lot more to me than I had ever given myself credit for. So I just really appreciated that and it changed the whole trajectory of my life, I think.
- So you met this girl and her parents were involved in this, and when they talked about this, was there a genuine curiosity on your end like, huh, that's interesting, or was it, I better do this because this is the parents of the girl that I like? - Well, it's kind of funny because what was happening is I'd want to go out on a date and she always had to babysit. And so she was, well, is 14 and 16 years older than her brother.
So, um, most of our dates were spent, um, hanging out with her brothers, getting them dinner, getting them ready for bed, and, and then her parents would come home and they'd be in such a great mood and they'd, they'd share a little. And so I was kind of witnessing the impact that it had on her parents and the ways that they were actually doing continued work on themselves and even giving back within that community. So as the summer it started as a, a summer relationship.
As the summer progressed, I just kept hearing more and asking more, and they just became a tipping point for me where I realized I just needed to do some more exploring of myself that I was, I I needed to find some way of getting out of this kind of, I would say like a funk I was in as a result of this transition from being in the military and having a sense of purpose and knowing what I was gonna do each day into, you know, trying to figure out what's, what's the job gonna be?
What do I wanna study at school? You know, all of these things that were still uncertain for me. And so I asked about it and they encouraged and I found myself in a weekend training program and it, it was, it was life changing for - Me. I love that and I can't help but have curiosity around. Was there congruence in the next steps of your other fellow, uh, soldiers? You being so open to this transformation and going inward, how, how does it relate to your experience of active duty?
- It's an interesting thing. I, I don't think I thought of it much then in my early twenties, but all the while I had stayed in the military, I had stayed, I'd gone from active duty into the National Guard, you know, there was something familiar, something I appreciated about it, something that I still really love and enjoy about my time in the military, which is kind of the way challenges are set up to be learning experiences and to sharpen and hone one's leadership.
But I think there was a while there initially where I kept those two sides pretty segregated from one another. I I didn't talk much about what I was doing personally to my military friends or the people that, that served with me. And, you know, that changed over time. And I think as I opened up about my experiences and what I was learning about myself, I was able to see that, you know, just 'cause somebody's in the military doesn't mean they're not seeking to know themselves.
And, and I would actually venture to say that many of the folks in the military, by nature of the challenge of the job and what you're at times confronted with, has people searching more deeply than we likely give them credit for. That was my experience. - And when you were keeping these worlds separate, was it, was it, um, you were not speaking of the personal work around the military community and vice versa, you were not speaking about your military around the transformational community?
- No, I would speak of my military around the transformational community. I wouldn't speak of the transformation around the military community. And I think for a while there, people are familiar with the idea that there is often a stigma, uh, associated with mental health around the military and for many first responders and, you know, in a, in a variety of areas, military being just one of them.
And so I had bought into that idea and didn't want to share too much about my own personal journey for risk of being judged or even worse that, you know, an acknowledgement of some, you know, sense of need to grow or discontent with oneself could be perceived as, uh, a problem in a military setting. So I was really cautious around that initially. And what I've come to find out is it's not, not true at all.
I mean, there, there are some people, of course, as there is in any environment that had their judgments and keep the, you know, certain stigmas alive, but it's not as broad or widespread as, as one might think. And that certainly became, I believe, more and more clear as my military career progressed. - Yeah. So what was the turning point, or if you can pinpoint it, where here you are, I imagine climbing up the ranks pretty quickly.
I suspect you're one of the youngest leaders as I as I know your leadership in in Hoffman. I suspect that has been a theme for you. Can you pinpoint a moment where suddenly find yourself as a leader and boom, these worlds collide. You do bring in the value that you feel on inner work and transformational work and you know, mental health, et cetera. Can, can you pinpoint when that changed for you? - I wouldn't say I can pinpoint it.
It doesn't feel precise, you know, in reflection, I think it's the first time I've been asked that. But I went into the military in 1996 and did three years of active duty, and that was a relatively peaceful time. So I found myself stationed overseas. I was in Korea for about 16, 18 months of that time. But there was no, you know, major threat there. It was like the military, the training that you do is so often in preparation for a threat.
And when I got back in 1999, you know, went into the National Guard again, there was no, uh, major concern. And then September 11th happened, and shortly after that I was reactivated. And by January of 2002, I was deployed overseas, I was in Kuwait. So I wasn't, at that time, I wasn't in, um, Afghanistan where we were ramping up our, our efforts there. But we were deployed as a unit with, you know, some sense of, of urgency and concern of what was happening in the region.
And I think as a leader in an environment like that, when people are, you know, particularly in the National Guard, when you are having a separate life, you know, families, some folks had children, jobs and all of that, and then you're uprooted from that put into that environment, even though it's what you've signed up for, it is a bit of a shock to the system.
So as a leader in those environments, you're not just leading military actions and operations, but you're responsible for the morale, the welfare, you know, you're dealing with, with the people that are under your leadership, around the issues that are showing up at home and the families, you know, the difficult pieces of mail, they get the concerns of the health of a a family member and they can't be there for it. And so that need to be in support of one another is essential.
And I realized that if I was gonna do that to the best of my ability, I needed to actually reconcile those parts of myself and be open and vulnerable in the sharing of what I was learning. And, and people, you know, you, you form a certain bond and closeness, people are receptive to that. So it really just requires or, or required, in my case, you know, stepping aside and letting go of the idea that there is this stigma and that people don't wanna, don't wanna hear and don't wanna learn.
And once I did that, it was, um, much easier to be connected, to lead more efficiently, effectively, and create the best experience possible with the, the folks that I was living with, serving with, working with, eating with. You know, all parts of our lives are intertwined for those periods of a deployment. - So let's drill down a little bit here. So I get that your, your intellect, you realized, oh, I better, I need to reconcile this.
You really understood the enormity of this, the, the support that was essential, like you said, but what actually gave you the courage? You know, i, I, I guess I'm speaking from personal where I realized something in my mind, but it takes a whole journey and a whole process to get the courage to step into that. Where did you get that courage? How did that happen for you?
- I don't know if I can say this on our podcast, Sharon, but in that, in that work that I was doing prior to Hoffman, there was a little saying that would sometimes be used in the community in moments of fear. You'd just say, oh, what the fuck? Go for it. Anyway. And I had really started to adopt that, you know, not in all situations and, you know, certainly have to use thought and, you know, decision making.
But for the most part I realized that the only thing that was standing in the way, and this is what that saying highlighted for me, the only thing that was standing in the way was my own perceptions of myself and what I could or shouldn't do. You know, fear of embarrassment, those kind of patterns that arise around that.
And at a certain point when the stakes are high enough, and I think they are, when you're deployed and, and living with and supporting people in all aspects of their life, those are really high stakes. And so to just simply honor that and say, okay, I don't need to withhold this important part of myself that could be helpful to others, it just felt like a necessity at a certain point and, and at a core level.
So it wasn't just a thought, it was like, okay, like we're in this together, we have each other's back and I might as well reveal myself. - And was it an invitation for others to meet you there and have the same liberation of telling you their truth or telling each other their truth?
- Yeah, I mean, I think that there's, in the military, we, we talk, we, we have this term and it starts this earliest basic training, but of, of battle buddies and if you have a, a battle buddy, you know, that's, that's really having someone's back at all costs. And you know, not every person in a platoon or a unit is gonna be, you know, your closest battle buddy.
But I think when you find those people in that environment, that um, ability to just kind of be open, to be raw, to be vulnerable, to be truthful with one another, really supports the greater experience. And so I know that it deepened my relationship, certainly to the people that were serving underneath me. It doesn't mean it was always perfect, you know, sometimes my leadership skills as they were developing at that time, I look back and I go, Ugh, gosh, why did I do that?
Or why did I say that? Or, you know, why did I get irritated or frustrated in that way? And that at that time, and I can still look back and learn lessons from mistakes I made. But as a whole, I think by the connections, make the experience just a better time when you're in an environment like that. But also a better learning and development for people as, as individuals and in their own, you know, military leadership, which at the time was an important consideration.
- Do you see parallels between your experience in the military and being a Hoffman teacher and even being the leader of Hoffman teachers? As the director of faculty, - I sometimes say that the hardest thing I ever did was teacher training. And I say that knowing that I've been through basic training and, uh, combat tours. So, you know, there is, there is that part of it, but the, you know, the similarity is in the way in which there is an intensity of experience.
So I think I, you know, I impart gravitated toward Hoffman beyond the personal part about it.
But when I think of the career that I've taken on as a Hoffman teacher and as the director of faculty, you know, one of the things I really value is the intensity of the experience to come into a week of retreat and give full attention and energy to the people, the experiences, the team that I'm teaching with, you know, to just lay it all out on the table in that week is very similar to my experiences in the military.
And I, I think that for me is energetically is like how I like to invest my time. I like the intensity, I like the, the focused purpose. I like the clear direction. So there's a lot of similarities in that way. - And let's go back real quick 'cause you've got my attention. You say that teacher training is the hardest thing you've ever done, and this is coming from somebody who's been on combat tours legitimately. Can you say more about that? - Goodness, I loved the process.
I loved the work I've done before the process. I loved the work I've done on myself after the process, but there's nothing that I have done in my life that has so fundamentally changed the way I view myself and the way I understand that of what I'm capable of than Hoffman teacher training. I had more struggles, more uplifting moments, more questioning of myself, but also more appreciation of myself than at anywhere else in my, at least in my professional life or my personal development.
You know, there's things I can speak to in my marriage that have, you know, created those same things or in important relationships, but there wasn't a day in Hoffman teacher training where I don't think I was deepening or broadening my understanding of who I am and who I'm capable of. And I really credit both the training that was created for us, but also the, the group of really special people that I got to train with in allowing that space for that to happen.
- I mean, I a hundred percent relate. I, teacher training was a pivotal moment in my life as well. And, and very similar in in what you said, um, the process was, was pivotal too. I I will put that out there, but, but I, I hear you that teacher training is something special, but I just think it's fun to hear from somebody who's literally been in combat, combat say that teacher training was one of the hardest things in their lives. - Yeah. And um, the process was all of those things too.
But I think, and, and maybe it's because of the maturity that had developed in that time, maybe it was because I did the process got activated shortly after, spent a year well spent six months training and then a year in Iraq, so an 18 month period, and then came back and ended up applying for teacher training.
So I think the understanding and awareness I had of myself had grown so much that it enabled Hoffman teacher training to take me to such a different level, um, than the process alone could. So it's, it's likely a combination of factors there. - That's interesting. I often think when we get the, 'cause you, you took the process when you were 25 and, and on occasion we'll get the 25-year-old students. And I often wonder what would this be like when they come back as 39 year olds or 42 year olds?
And obviously we can't project our experience on everybody, but it's interesting to hear that there was a shift in, in your capacity or in your maturity. So the training spoke to you in different ways. - Yeah, it really, it really did. I mean, I think, you know, my experience in Iraq exactly a year after I did the process that I found myself flying to Kuwait first and then to Iraq like a week later. And it wasn't lost on me that I had done all of this work from the process.
And yet I also, I can look back now and say I didn't really fully integrate it, it was only about two weeks after I did the process where I got notification that I would be activated. And then there's this long lag time, but my experience at least was that once I knew I was getting deployed overseas to a combat area at a time where tensions were really high, it became the primary thing, that thing that I thought of that occupied my life that I gave consideration to.
And so I think my experience of being able to take the learning that I got in the process and really put it into life by my own choices was somewhat halted and stunted at that time. So it was a longer journey of that integration for me.
I mean, there were, there was periods I think in that year following the process where it was as if I didn't remember that I did the process because I had such a singular focus on, okay, what do I need to do to be in shape to get the men ready to be able to make sure that, make sure that everything is taken care of. And and also to include when you go away from the life that, you know, for 18 months, there's a lot of just logistical things to, to handle and to take care of.
- And so you said the process was halted and then when did it start to integrate? Obviously there was a pause, but when did it start to show back up? - There was, and I can really point to this and I, and I do know that this was a real turning point. So there was a point where I was, you know, a funny, somewhat funny aside, I, I got married a few weeks before shipping off.
So my wife, uh, Nicole, who, uh, was that girl I mentioned earlier, who I, you know, dated that summer and whose parents put me on a path to personal development. You know, we got married prior to me heading off to Iraq and there was a point, uh, it was a few months in and I finally had a chance to use the telephone and it was a, a satellite phone. And we got like 30 minutes in this special trailer to make a call.
And I hadn't been able to email ahead and texting from, there wasn't a thing at that time. So I called to try and get ahold of Nicole and she didn't answer. I called my folks and they didn't answer. No one knew I was gonna try and call, called my brother and my sister, no one answered. And then I'm down to like my last seven minutes and I called my friend Tim, actually he was a recent podcast guest, Tim Callen, who had himself a career in the military.
He had been an important part of my experience in personal development. He had become a teacher at Hoffman. And you know, I had these few minutes to talk with him and he knew just the right questions to ask. He, he asked me, I remember specifically, he said, how are you taking care of yourself? How are you using your tools? And I started to talk about like what the military provided me as tools. And he said, oh, I'm not talking about, I'm not talking about those tools.
I'm talking about your self-care. Like, are are you using the tools or, you know, are you checking in with yourself? And I said, oh gosh, you know, Tim, I haven't even really thought of myself. And he said, you know better than that you're a leader, taking care of yourself is essential to taking care of your men. And it just, it rang true to me.
You know, I hadn't been doing a bad job, but I think my, if I had continued not paying attention to myself, then eventually I probably would've hit some kind of tipping point in my own, um, capacity to hold as much as I was holding. And so I started to use the tools. In fact, Tim at the time emailed me some of the, the recordings that we had, which with the internet there, it took like two days to download the quad, the five, six minute quad check.
But I did, and then I started to use the tools and, you know, I look back in reflection and I know that that place of turning inward more taking care of myself was essential to coming through what was a really challenging experience, a challenging deployment and coming back whole. 'cause we see so much and, and hear so much about the, the impacts of combat on the, you know, mental state and the emotional state and the spiritual state of our soldiers.
And I know I actually came back having grown and feeling kind of solid and whole in myself even after a really difficult experience. - Wow, Matt, so many things come to mind for that. But, but two really stand out. One is just the importance of having a mentor. Um, you earlier, one of the first things you said was there was a community of trusted people there. And full circle here, having a trusted mentor puts you right on that path that you needed to be on.
And, and then to think about being in this setting where it's really truly life or death, decisions you make are going to impact people's wellbeing quite possibly. They're the fact whether they're gonna, they're gonna make it out alive. And yet you prioritize self-care that's different than us in our regular day-to-day life and, you know, suburban America doing self-care. There's something just powerful about that.
- Yeah, I, I'd be hard pressed to say I prioritized it, but I think I brought it into greater balance than the, the typical soldier. You know, when you think of self-care in that environment, it's often, did you eat, did you sleep? Are you taking care of your, your body? And I think there's been a lot of changes in the military.
You mentioned me, uh, serving as a master resilience trainer, which I was really proud to do toward the latter part of my military career, there's been a lot of focus and change to look at more holistically at how soldiers take care of themselves. But certainly at that time, there wasn't much resource that was taught for the kind of mental, emotional, spiritual aspects of, of self care. So I really knew that I needed to do that for myself.
- Yeah, I mean, but what I see is you're a person who is called to be literally in service, whether that be in the military, leading whatever mission you're on, as well as the people that you're leading or being here in our civilian land and leading people in transformational experiences. It, it seems to me that there is a common thread of wanting to be in service. And, you know, hearing that you came back whole, I I think that's a really important thing to point out.
As you say, that's not common. That takes effort. That takes some intentionality. Sure, you didn't prioritize it because of the circumstance, but the bottom line is just bringing it into intentionality served you in being a better leader and coming back whole. And then because you feel so called to be in service, look what you did. You continued to be in service.
- I came to find later, so I studied a lot about post-traumatic growth after my time overseas and as I was kind of pursuing my graduate degrees. And one of the things that they talk about is the importance of actually having communities of meaning making to be able to take those traumatic or stressful experiences and grow as a result of 'em.
So, you know, so much of this for me, I look back at that community that I had started to, to create when I first got home from, from active duty at the age of 20 and started to work on myself and, you know, the, the friendships and shared community that I had as well as, you know, mentors like Tim and, and others in my life that, uh, I just had such tremendous support around me.
And, you know, that's so much of, I think what calls me to service is I've benefited so greatly from having wonderful people who cared about me enough to both challenge me and, and support me. And I, I couldn't help but want to do the same for others. - Well, and I can speak to being a fellow peer and teaching together and how I feel in your presence.
I can speak to being on a team when you are the leader, both while we're teaching and for the institute, you're ultimately the director of faculty. And I can just, I can feel your, your heart in, in everything you do. I can only imagine being in a setting that is high anxiety out of your norm, like you said, uprooted from your life in a foreign place, maybe have not communicated with family or know that somebody you love is going through something and you can't be there.
And knowing that you were the one who's leading them. I've known a lot about this, a lot of this about you, Matt, but just imagining that just almost brings me to tears knowing that these people were lucky enough to have you there. - Well, thank you. I'm not sure they always felt the same. You know, I, I think, you know, still I look back and I go, gosh, I was overseas. I was 26 years old. I knew quite a bit about myself, but it's nothing compared to what I know about myself now.
So, you know, I don't say any of this to suggest I was the leader that I should have been at that time, or could have been I should say. But I think for the most part, the people that I encountered, the people that I led or led along with, appreciate what I stood for. And, and that means a lot to me. And I also know that for me it's a continuing development. There's never a day that I don't look with curiosity about what I could do better as a leader.
And the nice thing is I do that now without the judgment that I used to in the past. - Thank you. Recycling. So let, so let's switch gears a tiny bit just 'cause I noticed we're, we're getting close to time, but you as a leader and you as a leader specifically in this realm of your life being, uh, a director of faculty, being a leader of the organization, what was it like leading our organization during this last year when we had a pandemic?
- You know, it's the, I often laugh with, uh, Liza, our CEO about how many phases of this pandemic there's been for the institute. And, uh, you know, I think one thing I'll say is that the partnership that I have with, with Liza has really enabled me as the director of the faculty to help kind of steer the direction of our offerings, our programs, what we've done this year in such an incredible way.
And in the midst of all that's happened with the pandemic, there's been such incredible innovation for us as an organization. Organization. You know, it's a really harrowing thing to have this pandemic occur and see that, you know what, 80 or 85% of our business was tied up in an in-person retreat. And the immediate concerns were so huge that we had to, to step it up immediately and, and do something different.
And I think what I appreciate is from the outset, Liza said, you know, the most important thing to us is the people that work for us as well as the communities of people that we support. And so she wanted to do everything in her power to make sure that, um, we kept our organization whole and moving forward, and that we still found ways to support anybody who was searching for the kind of support that we offer. And I felt really empowered by that.
And I think that's what I tried to impress upon the faculty. And we got to work in taking care of one another. I mean, you may recall back at the beginning, Sharon, we really stepped up how much we were in communication with each other as a faculty and you know, just opening Zoom rooms for, for people to just gather and connect.
And at the same time we were doing a lot of kind of creative ways of looking at what we could offer and providing the resources for our teachers to be able to provide the resources to people. And it was a lot of collaboration, you know, under a different environment. I would look back with it at it and just say how fun that was to innovate and create, you know, when you put it in the, the scope of what was occurring in the world at the time. It's less, um, fun to think of it just that way.
But in certain ways it reminds me of a military deployment where you can be so caught up in the intensity of everything when it happens, but when you gather around and look back at it after the intensity's over, there's a, a certain fondness of the experience and, and the learning and the kind of connections that happened at the time.
And I think this, I, I'm hopeful that I can look back at this the same way, but I'm, you know, most importantly I'm really proud of, of what we've done as an organization. I'm proud that we were able to support so many people in this past year. I see so many of the innovations we made as kind of lasting things. And, and they may seem small in certain ways, but we're an organization that had a really great product that I think we did at a extremely high level.
We weren't looking to necessarily change. We had enjoyed being really good at the primary thing that we do. And this, you know, turned that upside down. So we had to make change. And, and you've been a large part of that as well, this podcast. Um, even though the idea was there prior to the pandemic, it really stepped up and came to fruition because we said, okay, how do we reach more people? How do we inspire, how do we support?
- I, I love this 'cause for those who are listening who are graduates, we often talk about how we meet life and life is going to happen unpredictably. So case in point, the pandemic and like you say, we had a product and we were great at facilitating it and executing it, and we weren't necessarily looking for change, but life brought us this moment in time, this crossroads, and we showed up on the right road as an organization mainly with your leadership. I, I share that feeling, Matt.
I think it's amazing that we still have the same teachers on staff. We did not, you know, you said, um, like one of yours and Liza's main concern was keeping it whole, keeping our people and continuing to provide resources for the community at large. And I too look at it in complete amazement at what has happened this year. - Yeah. And the community has also been great to us.
I mean, I think it, it speaks, I believe to what we've helped create, which is that when we're struggling and, and so many others are struggling, you know, our community came forward to whether it be sign up for programs or make donations or help spread the word. And, you know, we've grown as an organization in our reach in this year and we owe that in large part to the way the community stepped forward.
'cause I think I, you know, I, I heard from so many people in particular, I mean, there was the pandemic and then there was also the loss of white sulfur springs. And, you know, for me, and I, I think that was the scariest moment as a leader in this organization because, you know, people know our teachers and some people know the staff that works in our San Rafael office, but most, most everyone who ever came through white Sulfur Springs benefited from the amazing people that worked there.
And, you know, it's one thing to, to have a global pandemic that's affecting most all businesses, it's another thing to lose the site that so many people worked at and their job was attached to that site. And I think one of the amazing things that happened and talk about the universe providing is that, you know, we were quickly able to find another retreat site that we have, um, use of at Earthrise for the foreseeable future.
And we've actually been able to keep those staff that worked at White Sulfur Springs employed and connected to the work of our organization there. And I think that's, you know, to me that's pretty magical to be able to have that happening and to get through this year and, and see the same faces that I saw, the location's different, but, you know, the people remain the same. - Talk about meeting capitalism with heart, heart first. It's, it's a, it's a, it's an effort.
It doesn't come naturally if you just surrender to the capitalistic ways. But this is, you know, we are living in capitalism and yet this is so heartfelt, so soulful. Beautiful. One thing that I, you know, you talk about innovation and collaboration, um, you're working on a project right now, which I'd love to just mention a, a a a little bit for those who end up hearing the podcast before it happens. We have a conference coming up. Can you speak to that? - Yeah, thank you.
I'm really excited about this and it's been something that we've considered at different times over the years and haven't actually acted upon, but what we're doing is the first Hoffman Virtual conference, so it'll be April 1st, second and third, all done virtually. And what, you know, was occurring to me and others was that we were in this year of innovation, we were supporting people in so many different ways.
Again, different than the process, but supporting learning and growth through collaborations with other organizations. We did something throughout the summer that we, we called Conversation Lab with our friends at my intent, my intent.org. And it was just a way to support others and provide opportunity and experiences through a more conversational tone.
And, um, we got such amazing feedback from so many people about what they were experiencing on those people that hadn't ever heard of or participated in the Hoffman process, or many of 'em hadn't done much work at all. And, you know, just kept giving us different ideas for how we could kind of further create opportunities to connect people and to create, um, learning and growth. And so this virtual conference, it's gonna be a combination of experiential workshops.
Many of the Hoffman teachers are gonna lead sessions and we have a number of panel discussions and fireside chats, a few keynote speakers. So it's, there's an array of, of things. And the other nice part is by doing this one virtually, it's really accessible to a lot of people.
We can record all the sessions, so whether people attend live and get to participate and, you know, ask questions and be in the experience in the moment or whether they, you know, watch a recording later, we can share this kind of work more, more broadly. And the other part I like too is, you know, we at Hoffman have never spent a lot of time that, you know, this podcast aside, we haven't spent a lot of time introducing people to the other wonderful people that do the process.
We let people choose into their graduate groups. We don't mark it off of other people typically. We don't tend to do anything that would ever violate the confidentiality of the process. And yet we have. So, and you know this as a teacher, Sharon, we have so many fascinating, amazing people that do the process that are doing wonderful work in the world. And this is also a, a time to kind of showcase and celebrate some of our amazing graduate community.
- I would say that's been one of my biggest gifts with the podcast is when I'm in teacher mode, and you might relate to this, but when I'm teaching it, I'm, I'm just teaching it and it's all encompassing and this, this virtual world has given us access to these people who have gone through the process, but from a completely different lens. And one of the gifts for me of the podcast is falling in love with our graduates, falling in love with these people who have chosen to go and do the process.
And then learning who they are as a result has been, I'm floored by how amazing these people are. - Yeah, me too. I mean, I love the way that the process puts everybody and their humanity at the forefront, right? And we even have it as part of our ground rules. We don't talk about what you, you do in the world. You know, we, there's kind of a leveling that occurs where everybody enters the process the same. And even as a teacher, though, I might know what somebody does as a career.
I might even recognize a name in advance of them arriving at the process. By the time we get into the room and we're doing the work together, everyone is very much the same or similar or the the contrasts are not important or often relevant at all. Then after the process and working with graduates or, or seeing something in the news, sometimes it's, I'm often reminded like, wow, these really incredible people with incredible platforms for change chose to come and do this work with us.
I, I love that and, and I also am really excited about this conference and its ability to kind of allow people to hear from some of those people. And it's only a, a small number of those amazing people that'll be participating in this year's conference. But I think we look forward to, through the podcast, through conference, through speaker summits, we look forward to kind of sharing and broadening that community and yeah, just having more of that goodness.
- Yeah. Beautiful. I love how you said it. I I haven't heard you explain the why behind the conference. So, uh, it really rang true is just connecting all of these amazing human beings who, who have prioritized doing the inner work and then come out of that journey and done these amazing, fascinating, impactful, uh, ways of being members of, of our world and bringing them all together in one place over three days.
It's gonna be amazing. And it, it, you know, you've mentioned this term community of meaning. It feels like we're all going to be a part of this community of meeting virtually connected for three days. - There's really great ways, and I'm sure a lot of people are ready to get off of Zoom and, and not utilize that as much, which I think is one of the reasons why it's nice that this is recorded and people can drop in, see what they want, know that they can pick up other things later from it.
It's all by donation. You know, kind of pay what you can. So you know, anyone that wants to attend, whether they've done Hoffman or don't even know what Hoffman is, they're all welcome.
And what I think that that environment allows though is a sense of community at a time where, you know, for many, and I know this is a big part of my coaching community, has been harder to come by and like we see a may, perhaps a light at the end of the tunnel with that and a chance to return to communities as we know them.
But I also think there might be great expansion of what community can be as a result of what we've learned about ourselves and about our ways of connecting in this past year where that was all put to test. - Matt, it has been such a treat to feature you. I know you are one that does not like to have all attention on you. And so, um, even I got to learn new things about you. I find your story fascinating. I find you brilliant.
I find your leadership to be exquisite and I am honored to be a member of your community and I'm excited to have you be a member of mine. Thank you so much for showing up today and letting us into your heart and into your world. - Oh, thank you Sharon. I'm, uh, I'm glad to have done it. Thanks for asking me and, uh, yeah, I really appreciate all that you're doing as well. It's nice to be sharing this journey with you. So thank you.
- All right, and to all your li all the listeners, I hope you all enjoyed this episode and we hope to see you at the virtual conference and in many other places that will show up. Have a great week. We'll see you next week. - Thank you for listening to our podcast. My name is Liza Rasi. I'm the CEO and President of Hoffman Institute Foundation. - And I'm Rasi Rossi Hoffman, teacher and founder of the Hoffman Institute Foundation.
- Our mission is to provide people greater access to the wisdom and power of love - In themselves, in each other, and in the world. To find out more, please go to hoffman institute.org.