It was such a good lesson of there's always more. I don't mean more work. People always talk about this as work. I mean it as there's always more possibility for expansion. It's how much do you wanna expand in this lifetime, in this vehicle we call a body. Welcome everybody. My name is Drew Horning, and this podcast is called Love's Everyday Radius.
It's brought to you by the Hoffman Institute and its stories and anecdotes and people we interview about their life post process and how it lives in the world radiating love. Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Hoffman Podcast. Christi Foley is here today. Welcome, Christy. Thank you. It's great to have you. You do so many great things, and one of the things you do is you are on the Hoffman board. I am.
You're serving as vice chair, and you're also on the board of Las Cumbres Ranch Educational Fund, and you're previously on the board of Sense of Home and Veterans Path. You're a member of Forward Global, and you have a long history in connection to Hoffman in part through your dad. Right? Oh, so I've learned about the process from my dad. I was living in San Francisco at the time, and my dad flew up to go to the process. My parents had just split up, and I think someone said, go do Hoffman.
And so he, came up, and I was like, what are you doing? He's like, I don't know. But you had to fill out all this stuff, and I don't know really what I'm doing. So off he goes. And, I was gonna see him at the end and pick him up, not from the center, but, you know, pick him up in town.
And so while he was gone, I was at the time, I was 35, and I was in a place in my life where I would say I had all the things you were supposed to have in life and, you know, all the things your parents tell you you're supposed to do or society, s magazine, you know, whatever. Like, here, this is what success looks like. So I was working at a tech company. I was running a department, had people working for me. I had a wonderful boyfriend. I just bought my first place in San Francisco,
and I had a dog. And it had all the things that were on the list. And I remember coming home one night, and I was standing on my deck kinda looking up at the stars. And I was like, gosh. Is this it? Like, what else? There was a void, and I didn't know what it was. Coincidentally, at the same time, just read what my dad was going to, and it was like someone threw a brick at my head saying
this is for you. And just reading about negative love syndrome and how the process was described, I knew it was something for me. So before he got out, I signed up. And when he got out, I picked him up at his hotel, and I said, I don't know if you liked it, but I'm going in 2 weeks. And he immediately he immediately started crying. He said, I thought that was about my marriage. That was nothing about my marriage. And he said it was the most incredible experience of my life.
And just watching him that day, how he interacted with people was just fascinating. How he treated, you know, the guy at Starbucks and just that his presence had shifted. So that's how I got there. And my dad was very passionate about it, and he's was a you know, sent everybody and anybody he could. In 2012, he passed away. And then soon thereafter, I started spending more time with Ross and Liza, and they asked me to join the board, I think, in 2014. So you it's been 10 years now? Yeah.
A great 10 years. It's definitely my favorite thing to be a part of. It's an honor and a gift in my life. One of the things that the old White Sulphur Springs site, there was a garden and a plaque, dedicated to him. What was his connection to that garden? Did you help support the formation of the garden? How how did that work? My dad was a big supporter of scholarships, so he wanted everybody and anybody to go whether they had the means or not.
But I think that was something Razz and Liza just wanted to do to honor him, and it was a beautiful thing. They just called one day and said, we'd like to dedicate this to your father. And I believe when the site burned down, it was still standing. The peace garden was still standing. The plaque was still standing. Yeah. Beautiful. I actually went back when I first met you. I went back and did the process. They had revamped the process. What year was that? That was 2015 or 14 even.
It was right after I joined the board. They had been revamping the process, and they invited people who had taken it before to take it. And so I jumped on there. And you were there too, and you didn't know as a board member. And I didn't know you were gonna be a future teacher. But I remember going back and doing the process and having that tree there was really special. I bet. So you you see the presence your dad brings in his post process. You're witness to it, and 2 weeks later, you go.
What was it like for you? What happened? What did you notice? I really had no idea what I was getting into. I hadn't done anything like that. That kicked off a very big journey, a spiritual journey for me that is now life, but Hafen was the inception point of that for sure. And I remember walking and going, what the heck is this place? At some point in the 1st day, you get up and you you introduce yourself.
And I still remember to this day saying, I walk out of my office every day, and I feel like I have a basketball in my throat. And I want it gone. That was, all I could really describe. At that same time, when I came to the process, I realized now in retrospect all the other things that were lining up for me. So at that time, Oprah was doing this wildest dreams tour. And she was running around in a tour bus, basically, grinding people's wildest dreams.
And I remember, for example, one time she a guy wanted to be on a soap opera. So she got him on a soap opera. And I just remember going, if she walked up my stairs and sat down on my couch next to me, I have no freaking clue what my wildest dream is. And I was like, woah. Like, I don't even know what I like and what I don't like. I've just been doing what I've been told to do as a human in the world and being successful and get the corner office and get your
college degree. And, like, I hadn't gotten married and I hadn't got kids, but I'm like, I really don't wanna do that right now. But I could see that the universe was lining up for me and setting me up for a transformation, and Hoffman was really the catalyst that awakened everything in me. So as a result, after the process, my boyfriend and I split up, and it wasn't because of any bad reason. He had gone through a change in his life with his father passing.
And I knew I wanted to explore life and do something else. And so we actually both quit our jobs pretty close to the same timing. He moved to New Zealand to teach tennis, and I went off traveling to Europe. And I rented my house out for a year, and I had to come back in 4 months for a wedding that I was in. So I I went for 4 months and just explored and went with a bag and no plans. And I started with plans, but I started kind of going the way I was going.
At the end of that year, I met a yogi from India and was invited to do a program with him. I learned a meditation process, then that started a journey of spending a lot of time in India and meditation practices and just exploring, I would say, my inner world. Yeah. There is something about that inner world that calls us to explore. Doesn't it? It certainly does. And calls is sometime a a whack over the head. Have you can you look back and see the wax over the head?
Oh, yeah. I have I've been whacked many times. And I welcome the wax. You know, when I went on that first trip to Europe and that was my second trip. I was in a chiropractor's office, and I had just finished working for YouTube. I was running marketing and PR there. And when I left, I went on this 8 day yoga retreat down in San Diego. And I never really done anything like that. And there was a chiropractor there that gave a talk, and I just was fascinated by his talk, and my
back was messed up. So I said, hey. Can I come see you? And I'm laying on his table, and I tell him I'm going to London next week, but I have no plans. I was so busy working. I didn't have time to plan at all, but I just have a ticket and a return ticket in 4 months, and I don't know what I'm doing. He just looks at me and he said, you need to meet my friend, h j. You guys are soul sisters. And I literally met this guy for 5 I'm like, okay. So this is pre cell
phones. I wasn't traveling with a phone or a computer, and so he connects me to her and I call her when I get there. And she just says to me, you know, I'm having lunch with my friend, Lawrence. I think you guys are meant to meet too. Why don't you come meet us? So I walk into Piccadilly Circus into this restaurant and meet these 2 people I've never met in my life, and we sat down and had the most incredible gathering for probably 4 hours.
I remember this one moment, I was kinda talking about what was going on with me. And Lawrence looked at me. He said, you're living in the in the unknown. And I was like, yeah, it's just being present. And so that's what I think of it as as living in the presence of the unknown. In the grand scheme of life, I just trust that I'm going to be directed and guided to where I need to be and however it is to serve in life and
to be in life and explore it. That simple sentence, living in the presence of the unknown. I think it's the deepest knowing in my heart. That's the place where all the magic happens, and it's getting I mean, it almost makes me wanna cry. Christie, I can hear it in your voice. Yeah. It's just it's the biggest gift I've been given, for sure. Don't make me cry, though. What's what's wrong with tears? Nothing. I just wanna also be able to talk to you about everything, and I I
love crying. So, you know, my crying generally nowadays is just the beauty. Like, there's just so many gifts in life. There's actually a good story. When I went on that first trip to Europe, I used Miles. So I flew business class, and I knew I was gonna go to London for the 1st 4 days. And then I was going to Turkey and then kinda going all through Europe. So when I landed in London, I went into the you know, they have
the lounge if you fly business class. And so I went in and I took a shower, and I hadn't found a place to stay yet. And, again, this is pre. No cell phone. No computer. And this flight attendant was in the lounge, and she kinda saw me just I wouldn't say flailing around, but just kinda like, what's this girl doing? And I told her my story, like, you know, I don't know where I'm staying yet. I'm gonna find a place right now. She's like, well, let's get on the Internet and find you a
place. So we get on and it's dial up at the time. This is 2,005. And she said, well, my it pulls out a map, and she says, well, my daughter lives here. This is a great place in Kensington and then or you could live over here or stay over here. And so she helped me find a place, but I was in there for 4 hours because I was so scared to leave.
That I just you know, I traveled a bunch, but it had always been on an expense account with family, with friends, you know, fruity cocktail locations or skiing or business. So to just have a bag, be by yourself, and in a different country was intense for me. And, you know, now the funny part is is probably my favorite thing in life is travel. And I didn't know until I actually took that leap into the unknown of that trip. And it was
scary a lot of times. I had a pretty gnarly experience in Turkey, and I I quickly got a a wedding ring to travel with the next 3 months. But it it was also a gift. Like, you you learn so much of how to care for yourself and how to trust people and how to explore and still have safety within yourself. And it became one of my greatest passions. Is that the way you travel at times now where you head out into the unknown, maybe unscheduled parts of your trip and allow it to unfold?
Definitely. I mean, I do all sorts of different things. I've, been in a tent on the bottom of Mount Kailash with a sleeping bag and one other person squeezed up next to you. I've been at a fancy 5 star hotel. Like, I'll I'll do everything in between. So I definitely those first couple years of traveling were more go for 3 or 4 months and explore an area.
So, for example, my next section of trips, I wanted to go to I've always wanted to go to Africa and India at that time, but I was too chicken to go by myself. So when I went to London that second time without a plan, I decided to go to Africa to Tanzania, and I found a volunteer program that it was a month long and you would go live there, but you would live
with other volunteers. So it was structured. And I was still scared to go by myself, so I decided I was gonna fundraise for my enrollment into that program and then fundraise as much as I could for wherever they ended up placing me to work. Then I knew I was held accountable by all my friends, and I was representing all of them and a steward of their funds. So it was a great way to get there and feel supported, but still be, you know, very much in the unknown.
That's fantastic. So what has it been like to be on the board now 10 years? What's that journey been like to serve in that position over the course of the last decade? One, it's been personally amazing for me to have the connection. So it's a community, a family to me that I feel very deeply connected to. When I lived in San Francisco, going to integrations was just a gift for me and the connections I've made with different people throughout
those 10 years. You know, I'll be in a different country, and and somehow it'll come up and they're like, I took the process. And you're like, oh my god. Or I it's just amazing the people that you encounter and that you're immediately related is the best way I can describe it. So that's been wonderful. Hoffman as an organization, it's been a joy to see the growth. And I think a lot of that is a
couple things. I think in society, mental health and well-being, it's a higher priority, and it's more accepting that we all need support. And it's not this, oh, there's something wrong with that person. It's everybody needs to be supported in this way. And I think also a lot of people have influenced talking about their mental health and their well-being and their journeys publicly, where they've mentioned the Hoffman name has been very supportive and brought a lot of people to the process.
In a way, part of what you're saying is Hoffman has brought mental health out into the open. Yes. Out of the shadows. And I think the people who have attended Hoffman have the word-of-mouth that happens is how people I would say how people generally have gotten there in the past, how peep and and through therapist referrals and things like that. But really probably the really the last 5 years, but
probably a little bit longer. People who are known in the public sphere have been talking about their life journey, and they've shared Hoffman. And that has transformed the amount of enrollment that we've had. And it's a beautiful thing to see because, you know, I've been through a lot of different things since I've been to Hoffman. It'll be 20 years next year that I did Hoffman.
And I would say to this day, Hoffman is still one of the 3 most profound experiences of my life that has completely transformed my life. It's the gift that keeps on giving. It's something where for me, there's a transformation that happens that you can't go back. You may experience situations and a pattern may come up, but there's something in you that you have an awareness now that you didn't have before or that I didn't have before. And so now I I just know, oh,
I'm just running a pattern. It's okay. Forgive myself and move on. It's a very unique program, and I've been through a lot of different experiences on this journey since Hoffman. And I still recommend it to everybody and anybody that is on a path or seeking. The person that comes, it has to be self selecting. So you have to really wanna be there. I've seen people come because, like, oh, my, you know, my dad's paying for me to go or, oh, my wife wants to do it or my wife needs to go, so
I'm gonna do it too. But it's really the person who is saying, I want this. That's where it's really effective, and and I would say that's most people that come. What you're talking about there is, like, the agency, the importance of people choosing it themselves. It's so important, and this is why we don't push people to go. We don't tell other people to tell people to go. We say, live your process.
And then when the time is right, people will self select into the process, and they're the ones that have the best, most transformative process because they knew it was time for them. 100%. You know, if I can shine my brightest and live my most authentic truest self, if that resonates with somebody else and they ask me, how did this come to be in your life? How did that come to be in your life? Then I share it. I don't go running around saying, hey. You
should go do the process. You know, I have some people that have gone that are like, wow. You're the 3rd person that told me about this. And it that happens a lot, believe it or not. And I've also had people who I've mentioned it to them probably 10 years ago, and they just went in the last year. And they'll come up and say, why did you not? I said, I told you that was your decision. They're like, god, I can't believe I waited that long. It's gotta be the
right time for the individual. And for me, it was definitely the right time, and I was grateful that it showed up for me, which I think is true for all of life is life shows up when we're available and open to it and provides us whatever it is we need. Yeah. And earlier, you spoke to, you know, our marketing. You know this because you're on the board. Our marketing budget is very, very small, and we don't do any advertising, and it is all a word-of-mouth. In the pandemic, people realized, yikes.
I need some therapy. I need some help. So that certainly increased enrollment. But you do speak to an important piece, which is people who have a platform, having taken the process, and then shared about their experience at the Hoffman process has really upped the enrollment because they've just heard this personal testimonial to their experience from Hoffman, and then people
sign up. And I think it also when people share their personal testimonial, especially someone of influence, it also I can imagine for a lot of people, it's like, oh, I'm not alone in feeling that way. Like, wow. Somebody who is that successful, that big in the world is experiencing the same thing I'm experiencing or something similar. So it's it just humanizes it. To be human what do they say? To be human is to be imperfect. We're supposed to be that way.
Our society, at least my generation growing up, that was not it's not what I was taught. Yeah. It's almost like in the closet. It's taboo. Those are powerful systemic forces that keep us from feeling human. I love that to be human is to be imperfect. Yeah. And I feel like when my my generation I'm 54. I really felt a lot, and maybe it's where I grew up also, but I really felt like there was this pressure of perfection.
And so the more people talk about our imperfections and our f ups and our, you know, everything, it just normalizes it. You know, I who I'm obsessed with and in love with right now is Pam Anderson. So right now, she's in a film that I'm dying to see. I haven't seen it yet. It is The Last Show Girl, I think it's called, but she also recently came out with a cookbook, and she's not wearing makeup anymore. And the funny thing is is how much press that's
gotten. But she's just talking about, like, just I wanna just live my life. I don't want to be a character anymore. I wanna play characters. And it's just such a beautiful expression of a human, of her authenticity and her shining her light bright. And it was by stripping all the things that society is saying is perfect. It takes courage, and it it's just beautiful. It's so beautiful. We'll post that in the show notes. I read the headline, Pamela Anderson no longer
wearing makeup. I mean, what a non newsworthy event made newsworthy. As a teacher and an employee of the institute, I'm grateful for your shepherding the strategic plan and the work you're doing on the board and the financial stability of the organization and all the expansion that we've been going through post COVID. Our wait list is now 6 months. We're certainly adding processes, adding teachers.
So, Christy, with with all the growth related to Hoffman post COVID, how is the board, and how are you navigating handling that from a fundraising perspective? I guess there's 2 parts. 1 is fundraising, but there's also strategic planning. And so this year, we created a strategic planning committee on the board, which I'm chairing, and we have leadership in that group as well. But it's really beyond that group. It's the entire organization, and that includes Friends of Hoffman, donors,
employees. So just a few months ago, we had a 3 day strategic planning conference at the site, and we had about 35 to 40 people there. And it was an amazing 3 days of exploring how do we grow and expand to serve more people with all of the blessings that we've received. You know, as we talked about with word-of-mouth and people of notoriety talking about us, we have a wait list. And, we wanna serve as many people as possible.
And we wanna continue to offer the process in the quality and the integrity that it is, and that takes training teachers and a steady growth that makes sure the quality is never compromised. So that process has been going on this last year and will probably be going on into the new year. And I'm really excited about that because it's been very collaborative with, I would say, all parts of the organization.
And I think that's only gonna support our need to fundraise for you know, I think our biggest fundraising piece right now is gonna be a capital campaign for our new site. I'm excited about that because to me, it's a long term home for Hoffman, and we really get to create what it is that we need in a facility to support this amazing process that we have. Yeah. And a nonprofit that has an endowment, I imagine, is part of it
as well. Right? Yes. And that is a big part of our fundraising plans moving forward as well. Christy, in our running into each other in various random places, We also ran into each other at a Joe Dispenza workshop in Denver. You've continued your own personal growth and a
lot of visioning. Joe Dispenza's work has lots of visioning and imagining, and certainly part of Hoffman's work is once you navigate patterns and unburden and let go of so many of the things connecting us to our past, then we can step onto the right road into the future, create what we want, envisioning is a huge part of that. Is that a practice you still use? It was great to see you there.
So what I love about visioning and about Joe's work is he has the ability to really talk about the work in a way that a lot of people understand it and can step into it. And they may not quote, unquote, be on a spiritual journey. So there's a lot of different versions of visioning out there. Hoffman's a great example. But Joe's work, the way he guides people through the heart and mind coherence
is just beautiful. And, you know, all the different paths I've taken in the last 20 years to explore a greater experience of life and also really say this should just become less of me. And when I say that, I think of all the layers that we gather over our lifetime of shedding those. And I wanna be less of that and more of this, and that this is that universal energy.
So when I think of all of the different roads we can take and different guides that are along the way, whether it's Hoffman, Joe, you know, anything that we can do, I always say don't confuse the water with the tap. There's a ton of taps out there, but the water to me is all the same. It's that life force, that universal energy that is available to all of us and that is within all of us. It's what we're made of. There's no difference in any of us or any living thing on this planet.
And so I just have such gratitude for all the teachers that have come into my life and guides because I continue to use their guidance to down my journey. At different times, there's different taps that serve me more appropriately. So it may be a trip down to meet an indigenous wisdom leader in a different country. It could be 3 months in silence in India. It could be going to Joe Dispenza's piece or going to a Hoffman q 2, but they all are access to the water.
Yeah. And the the religion or the modality are less important, and instead, the universal life force, the energy is the part that you're saying to pay attention to. And to use whatever tool gives you that access. To me, Hoffman has been a pretty universal tool. I don't know anyone that I've met that said, that's a I haven't heard that. I really believe that there's different access points for all of us and and
at different points in our life. You know, a great example is I did my first process in 2,005, and I did my second process in 2014. When I did it the second time, I had spent between 2007 when I first met Sadhguru until that time 2014, pretty much dedicated to very deep yoga practices, spending a lot of time in India. And when I came to do the process in 2014, I kinda was like, oh, yeah. It'll be a great experience. I didn't think I'd get that much out of it, quote, unquote,
because I already did the process. So how can it be? But doing it 10 years later and after the journey, it was a completely different experience and just as deep. And it shocked me. And it was such a good lesson of there's always more. I don't mean more work. People always talk about this as work. I mean it as there's always more possibility for expansion. It's how much do you wanna expand in this lifetime, in this vehicle we call a body. That's what that really taught me is.
So I'm always open to taps because I just wanna expand more into that water. Beautiful. So one last question as we wind down here, and I wanna sort of go where we started, which is your dad. You know, him as the person who introduced you to Hoffman, How does he still live inside you? Do you feel like the work you're doing stewarding Hoffman into the future, that he's still with you? Is it a way of staying connected to him? What's that journey been like? The first thing that comes to mind is
this video. Actually, Hoffen, a long time ago, was doing a video of they wanted to interview donors. And there's a clip of him, and I used it in this presentation once. He was talking about giving. He's somebody who always gave. It's who I learned it from. And in this video clip, he says, I don't understand it, but the more I give, the more I get financially and otherwise. And it's been so true for me. So he's with me all the time.
You know, he passed in 2012, and he's still just as vibrant in my life experience. I think it's it's really through the work that I do with nonprofits. So in 2011, he had called me one day and he said, you know, I kind of was thinking maybe you and I can work on a project together. And I've been bugging him forever saying, hey. I wanna do philanthropy stuff with you. And he's like, oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I just kinda like doing it how I do it. And then he called me and
said, you know, let's do something together. And I was like, why now? And he goes, well, I can't travel the way you travel, and I wanna live that part vicariously through you. You can go see the projects. You can go be with them. He was diagnosed right after that. And so we never got to really do that. You know, I had always done philanthropy before that, but not at the level that I do it now. Now it's my life. It's very integrated, and I really learned that from him.
What's it like to talk about him and remember him in this way? It's a gift. Definitely a gift. You know, the other ways I remember him. I mean, I just yesterday was my nephew's birthday. And whenever I look at him, he reminds me of my dad. They both have the same eyes. And definitely when I look at my brothers, you know, you just as we get older, I'm like, oh my god. We do become our parents. But I see him in all my brothers and sisters and and my nephew specifically.
He was such a bright light, and he was somebody who lived big and lived all out. I mean, I feel like the guy had 9 lives. I feel like he lived it full. You know, I was blessed to be with him when he passed and a month before he passed, and it was one of the biggest gifts of my life was to have that experience with him. Yeah. I'm imagining that the work you do with Hoffman is is a way of keeping his memory and legacy alive. Oh, definitely. Yeah. It was definitely a passion of
his and my golf game too. That's another way to keep his memory alive. You've been working on your golf game, haven't you? I still haven't gotten the hole in 1. He he had many, but I'm working on that one. Well, for your dad and most importantly for you and the spirit and the work and the legacy you create for Hoffman, thank you, Christie, for this conversation. Thank you. I'm grateful. Thank you. I so appreciate it. Very, very grateful. Thank you for listening to our podcast. My
name is Liza Ingrassi. I'm the CEO and president of Hoffman Institute Foundation. And I'm Razz Ingrassi, 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 hoffmaninstitute.org.