210 | Nature, Art & Ritual: Sanemaking in Uncertain Times with Day Schildkret
Our guest on the pod this week is Day Schildkret. Day is internationally know for Morning Altars and has inspired thousands of people of all ages across the globe to be aware with impermanent earth art. Buzz Feed calls Morning Altars, "a celebration of nature and life." Morning Altars workshops have been taught at Google, the 9/11 Memorial Plaza, the Wisdom 2.0 Conference and many others.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
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Meaning Making, Nature, Art & Ritual: Day Schildkret Awarepreneurs Interview
SPEAKERS
Paul Zelizer, Day Schildkret
Paul Zelizer 00:01
Hi, this is Paul Zelizer, and welcome to another episode of The Awarepreneurs podcast, a leading social entrepreneur podcast. We are all about the intersection of three things, conscious business, social impact, and awareness practice. Each episode I do a deep dive in with a thought leader in this intersection, someone who has market tested experience, and has already transformed many lives. Before I introduce today's guests and our topic today, I have one request. If you could go over to iTunes or whatever app you're listening to the show on and do a rating and a review, it helps tremendously. Thank you so much. I also want to do just a quick apology in advance. I'm traveling and that my family's home and we're visiting for the first time in person for 18 months. It's so good to be here. But I do want to acknowledge I don't have my usual podcast studio with we're making do as best we can. But if you heard a little bit of background noise, or I don't sound as high quality, I just wanted to let you know why listener so thanks for understanding. today. I'm thrilled to introduce you today shield grant. And our topic is nature, art and ritual, meaning making in uncertain times. There is an internationally known for mourning, and has inspired 1000s of people of all ages across the globe, to be aware with impermanent Earth art, BuzzFeed calls morning authors, a celebration of nature and life. And morning author workshops have been taught in Google, the 9/11 Memorial Plaza, the wisdom 2.0 conference, and many other day, welcome to the show. Thank you happy to be here. Such an honor to have you here. And this topic of nature, art and ritual is such an important one. Before we get into that day, were called to wear printers. And one of the things we like to do to get to know people is to ask you about a wellness or resiliency practice that you personally use to resource yourself for this important work. But it's not always super easy.
Day Schildkret 02:02
Yeah, I mean, I think the easy answer is morning alters, which I can go into in a bit. But I think before jumping into my work as the response to that, I think I'll just share with you something I did this morning and have been doing recently. I I'm up here right now in British Columbia, on an island called Saltspring Island. And only I'd say a couple of weeks ago started to we started to feel spring, it's been pretty dark and cold and wet. And I've been taking my meditation practice outside. And this morning was just really special. It I usually wake up at about 530 in the morning, and I try and get to my desk by about 830. And I went outside at about six and it was just pouring rain. And I live under these really old cedar trees under this tiny house over this tiny house. And the rain was just beautiful. I mean, it sounded like I was in a rain forest. And I just sat outside in my warm robe and my furry blanket and just close my eyes and listen to the rainfall for about half an hour. And I don't know best way to start the day really. And just a really good way for me to remember in the midst of a lot of work and a lot of meetings and a lot of things on my schedule and a lot of lot of lot of technology. just good to remember like the simple beauty. So yeah, sitting with the rain has been my daily morning practice lately. And of course morning alters but I'll tell you more about that in a minute.
Paul Zelizer 03:54
Somebody who lives in the desert, I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but I love big trees and rain and I just tasting that flavor as you shared that day and how sacred It is to be an old growth forest and lots of green and lots of water. Not my daily embodied experience these but
Day Schildkret 04:17
I come from California and you know, I this morning, I was sharing that with a friend of mine and she was saying in response, you know, it's really dry here. And you know, they're all starting to prepare for fire season right now. And you know, it's it is a It's a strange privilege these days to be amongst the wet, you know, in the rain, it really is. But it's also very soothing to me, especially moving so fast.
Paul Zelizer 04:44
It's really poignant time and we're gonna get into why it's such a dynamic time and some of the things that are happening before we do that. So let's go we're gonna use this frame of mourning altar. So what is it and how did you get into doing more morning altars?
Day Schildkret 04:58
Yeah, I'd say What is it is it's a very simple practice that I do as seven steps. And very, very basically it's I, I leave my house, I grab a basket or a bag, I wander around my neighborhood, Wherever I am, I collect beautiful things that catch my eye, flowers and feathers and rocks and bark. And I sit down someplace, and I make a piece of impermanent art, more often symmetrical. And I often make it as a dedication. So something's happening in my life, or something's happening in the world, I dedicate it I market, I make it into something meaningful. And then the last step is I let it go, I let it kind of become dissolved, I let the rains take it, or the wind blow it away, or the the, the petals fade, I just let it become impermanent. And, and inside this very simple practice, a practice by the way that so many indigenous cultures around the world do. I'm currently reading a book on the the coolum in India, which is, you know, every morning, mothers and grandmothers make impermanent art out of flour, and cornmeal and salts outside of their homes, in southern India, and they, they make these patterns passed down through the generations. So I, over the years of doing this practice, I've learned how integral This is to so many cultures around the world. And, and I've just found my own way into it. And, and learned even that long, long time ago, this has been connected to my own culture, which is as a Jewish person. And, and then this call this this practice began, about almost 10 years ago, now, I had a double whammy, Paul, my father died. And I had a major relationship breakup at the time. And I was just grieving So, so intensely. And the only thing I could do at the time was to walk my dog outside, and I, she would walk into the hills, and I would just, you know, have the leash in my head would be down, just because I'd be so sad. And and, and really racked by how quickly my life just changed how quickly the ground fell out from under me. And I kind of gave away the story because I told you the practice, but essentially, throughout that walk, I would find these beautiful objects like a crow feather, or a cluster of elderberries. And one morning, my dog, Rudy, and I would go to the top of this hill, and we sat under this eucalyptus tree. And we found these beautiful amber colored mushrooms that were growing under at the base of the tree. And I just started to arrange them, I arranged them I took some Eucalyptus bark, and some caps from the tree and some flower petals I found along the way. And I made this piece of art that morning, which is kind of the origin story of this practice. And it felt like I was arranging the many broken pieces of my life, the things that made no sense anymore, the scattered ness of that comes with death and breakups. And I temporarily put it into some semblance of order, some symmetry, just temporarily and and that that hour went by like it was a minute. And for the first time in like eight months, I felt more whole. I felt like my grief had lightened in a way. And I knew something was there. And so I made a commitment to myself, Could I come back to that tree for 30 days and do one each morning. And so I did, I made one each morning, my dog and I went on a walk, we sat under the same tree I made a completely new piece of art. And eventually this this practice of dedicating it both to my healing but eventually to what was happening around me to you know, my friend had a baby or a friend of mine lost their job or something happened in the world. Like in our country. We had a big election at the time. And I started to make it almost like it was a meaning making practice. Like it was helping me better understand where I was in my life and how to better process my emotions and how to make sense of the world. And the craziest thing happened. I started to put this out on social media and well I was getting responses from people in Poland and Iran and Brazil and England who were inspired to go out to their place and make the same kind of art for their own reasons, a death in the family or a birth in the family or a marriage or a divorce. And so suddenly this movement happened that is now called mourning altars. And it's really, it's, I mean, something that was born from trying to process my own grief into something that's helping people around the world is truly remarkable and humbling. And I'm on the verge in two weeks, we're starting our first ever international teacher training 100 people from five continents. And so it's really a remarkable thing to to bring forth a practice that is both so simple, and so profoundly healing at the same time. So that's, that's a little bit about mourning altars.
Paul Zelizer 10:58
Beautiful. And congratulations Day. Before we hit record, you told me, you were hoping that teacher training that you just said, You got 100 people, you were hoping for 60. And you got 100, right. Yeah,
Day Schildkret 11:09
That was that was our like prayer, our wish and a prayer,
Paul Zelizer 11:13
fingers crossed, if we can only get 60 people and get it to listen to that listeners, like one of the people. One of the reasons people listen to this podcast is to get into the nuts and bolts as well as how to be inspired about positive impact oriented businesses. But also get into the details like, is this a thing? And how do people do deep transformational work?
Day Schildkret 11:34
And I'll tell you this, Paul, you know, because I don't want it to sound just like it's, you know, like zero to 100. You know, I wrote this book, morning alters first. And I went on tour with that book for
Paul Zelizer 11:48
When was that Day? When did you write your book on meaning making? 2018?
Day Schildkret 11:49
Yeah. And I went on tour with the book. And, you know, that that tour was, there were some real highs and some real lows. You know, I mean, some real highs I made, I gathered 500 people together at the 911 Memorial Plaza in New York and made a huge altar out of the ground zero, I mean, real highs, you know, and some real lows, I would travel places, you know, to Washington, DC and go to a bookstore to give a talk, and there'd be like, eight people showed up. You know, and, and along the way you feeling that question inside of me is just wanted in the world. And there's something I think for me when I can, can I when I can remember the deep purpose of this work, you know, like in the highs and the lows to just keep conscious of the deep purpose, like, what is this here for? Am I serving something that matters, and eventually just staying really committed to this work on meaning making and continuing to commit to my own personal practice of doing it. And also, you know, bringing it into the world more, I was listening to my audience just deeply listening. And I kept on hearing teacher training, teacher training. And at the same time, I realized, you know, it's like a seed, I want to give the seed away, I don't want to be the only carrier of this seat. And so I kind of put out a little like fishing line to my audience, and just got back. I mean, we literally just said, like, Hey, if you're interested in joining in this thing, here's a waiting list. You know, I was expecting maybe like, 30 people, and we got 300. Wow. And, and all of these wildly wonderful reasons. I mean, like social workers working in nursing homes and psychologists working in prisons, and camp counselors working for camp and art therapists, you know, who have clients and all of these people who really wanted to take this practice and bring it to their communities in need. And I realized that, Oh, this is this is the place where I want to be to, which is I love teaching. And so it's this perfect marriage where I get to hand over the seeds of this practice so that they can exist in the world and, and then I get to teach, which I love doing, I really love this teaching about this practice, because there's so many layers to it. I mean, it's really, really simple and profound. So and that starts in two weeks. And I'm really looking forward to it.
Paul Zelizer 14:35
So I want to get into what it looks like now because there's some incredibly exciting things happening in this movement. Flash company de wind does back a little bit. So you had this incredibly disruptive time your dad dies, a relationship falls apart, kind of like the ground falls out. You land in this practice as a sane making practice for yourself in a very pointed town. And then starts to get some momentum. Anything you want to say to somebody who's in that kind of phase that things like. I remember when my marriage fell apart and things were really complicated and trying to transition from social worker to social entrepreneur, that was a really hard time. Anything you can say to somebody who's in that more formative, and maybe even sand coming through their fingers of what the old life is, and the new life is unfolding.
Day Schildkret 15:30
Yeah, I can't say something to that. I just wrote a book about that. Which we'll get to. But yeah, I'd say at any threshold moment, whenever there is enormous change. When you're saying goodbye to something and hello to something, which is what I you know, it's that is the threshold.
Paul Zelizer 15:50
And the title of the new book, by the way,
Day Schildkret 15:53
the title of the new book is called Hello, goodbye. The full title is Hello, goodbye. 75 rituals for times of loss, celebration and change. That's the full title. And, and there are 36 life transitions in the book from birth, becoming a grandparent, divorce, miscarriage, death, losing a pet, I mean, there's lots of these meaning making moments coming out of the closet. And so I'm trying to name these moments, these big threshold moments, but really, the underlying intention of the book is these moments are marking you. And they're also being asked to be marked. So it's not enough to just be marked by the moment, the moments are asking us to mark them back. And the way to do that, is that we have to slow down and almost pause at the thresholds. And to make meaning there. A metaphor would be are you familiar with cairns, like on a trail?
Paul Zelizer 17:05
Oh totally. You're talking to a trail runner here, okay. An ultramarathoner.
Day Schildkret 17:10
Okay. Yeah, so that's very similar, I would say, you know, marking the moment ritualizing a moment is, is very much like building a cairn on a trail, it helps us to understand both where we've come from and where the trail turns or, or curves or changes. And they orient us, they let us see, you know, like, okay, I've come all of this way. And it's, it's like the trend is about to move here. I can mark and say, that happened. And by saying that happened, by acknowledging that something's changing, we can reorient ourselves, we can gain some sense, semblance of meaning making, when things are are kind of on their head. And so I'd say, you know, based on your question, when something is changing, in your personal life, in the culture in the world, I mean, my book is opening up with the pandemic, because I wrote this whole book. You know, last year when the pandemic happened within one week, 95% of my jobs fell away. I mean, it was a remarkable time. And I had to mark that moment, you know, because, look, I can talk a good talk about change, but it happens to me too. And I have to practice what I preach. And so I mark those moments where suddenly the ground fell out from under me, I market, I acknowledge this as happening, I bring some semblance of meaning there, and even even beauty, you know, kind of make that Karen, beautiful, if you can, and then I carry on, and that Karen helps me remember what's important. It helps me realign with my values. It gives me some courage, and also reconnects me with the bigger path when my bigger journey and my relationship with the world. So you know, this is a lot. I'm trying to, to kind of whittled down to whole book into a few sentences. But, you know, when it comes down to it, to me, ritual is one of the most important things we can do in the presence of change. And it makes us feel more human. So a better way of saying,
Paul Zelizer 19:29
beautiful, so 2018, you write this book, you start to put it out on social media, and people start to say, Whoa, this is interesting, like talk to us, like how did it start to go from this is one man like, just trying to make sense of a complicated and painful time in his life to like, Oh, wait, there's a thing here, like walk us through a little bit of that process? Yeah,
Day Schildkret 19:54
I'd say. I'd say part of it is me. Being willing to share something deeply intimate and tender. Which is, and I do that in the form of my art. So it's, it was a moment where I, where I was sharing something that was going on, but it had a greater purpose, which was, I would say, metabolizing, the pain that I was experiencing into some beauty. And that was married at the time with a, like a crazy spiking of social media followers. It just so happens that my kind of art, you know, it's a perfect marriage for something like Instagram. And, because it's a visual setting, and I'm making, you know, nature art, and so it's a great, it's a great marriage. And I'd say the third piece of that, which is, to me the most compelling is, it's not just about me and my art. In my life, it's I mean, I my bread and butter is inspiration. So I want you to go out and make your own, and do it in your way and make it for your reasons and your life. And so I think, you know, it was this call to action, and inspiration that really, I think catapulted it into something that, to me feels very much like, kind of meditation 2.0, where I'm bringing people into a not just a mindfulness practice, but but a nature connecting practice. And also, I mean, on top of it, I'm helping people relate to impermanence. And that is kind of the I think, you know, one of the most important things that we can do today is get better skilled at being in relationship to change. So at the time, in 2000, I'd say 2008 was when the book was published. But you know, all of this started 2000. I mean, my dad died in 2011. So, and I had a totally different career at the time, 2011, and I was the principal of a school of the high school. And this career called me, as I don't know how else to say it. It, it said, Stop with everything else you're doing and take this leap. And I mean, you know, in retrospect, it's kind of crazy. Because I'm making art that I can't even sell, you know, I can't sell the originals, because they get blown away. So I had to find my own way of bringing this into the world. And so I at the beginning was making calendars and greeting cards. And eventually, I had this really wild experience finding a publisher and making a book. And you know, there's lots of these little like, as I said, highs and lows in the career, but my, I'd say the thing that really was the the kind of the double whammy that brought it into the world was my, I'd say stubborn persistence, my belief in it actually being something that can help people and it being received by many people around the world. And, and I, you know, Instagram is a really weird place, but I'm doing my best in those places to be genuine, and heartfelt and honest, and my art is like that. And my personality is like that. And I think it just feels very in sync with, with my desire to help people and, and help them not just heal, but help them really connect back into this wonderful world that we live in which unfortunately, we're destroying at the same time. So and I see beauty making and ritual as a way of doing that.
Paul Zelizer 24:00
Of what you're saying about using social tools and connection tools and technology data, using them in heartfelt, authentic ways. And also that sense of purpose. Like there's a reason you're on Instagram, even though I don't mean to pick on Instagram, but it is a weird place. Can we just say that? You did say that? It's a weird place, right? And there's a reason you're there. And it's not just to put up pretty pictures that a lot of people like although a lot of people did like them. There was a reason you were doing that. Is that fair to say?
Day Schildkret 24:36
Yeah, yeah, I'd say you know, where did I just say I just maybe was interviewed somewhere else. I just, I remember recently I said you know, there was a kind of a crossroads where I I literally remember thinking to myself, I can do this as art. You know, I could just there are plenty. There are people on Instagram who are making beautiful Nature art, you know, pretty things out of flowers and whatnot. And I said, You know, I personally, I, I am very proud and of my of the creations I've made. I've made over 1000 altars over the years. And if you know, I mean, the people that have my book or calendar know that they're beautiful, and I have no, you know, I'm very proud of that. But at that crossroad, I remember thinking to myself, well, is it enough, and the thing that kept on, you know, it's just, it's not, and it's not, it's not my personality, you know, it's not just enough for me to make something pretty in the world. I think that that's beautiful, but it's just not authentic to me, it had to be married with a greater purpose of helping people. Because it helps me, you know, and, and I wanted to give that back. I'm deeply, you know, altruistic in my bones. And so, you know, I want to help people. And the thing about that book, by the way, is that that book is very much written for a personal practice, it's meant to help people and I've gotten, you know, 1000s, of DMS and messages throughout the years from people were telling me how much it helped them. I've done workshops at you know, I'm going back this summer to a cemetery in Minnesota, I just did a workshop a couple of weeks ago with Oklahoma University, to mark the Tulsa race massacre. I feel like it's a help. It's been helping people, the thing I'm really turned on about right now is helping communities and bringing this to people who are at the heart of their communities, and it needs something different. When I go someplace, I don't know, the people. You know, I'm teaching this practice, and they get to experience it for a day and you know, lives might be changed, or maybe not, but it's something different when I'm teaching someone who that who is trusted, and known in their community or amongst their clients or whatnot. And they get to bring this practice to them, they get to adjust it to meet the needs of their community, for instance, you know, people in incarcerated in a prison have totally obviously different needs than like, kids in an elementary school or people in a Memory Care Unit, you know, and so I'm most excited to uplift and transform this practice into something not just personal but community effort, add something that helps that addresses the needs of, of communities.
Paul Zelizer 27:40
listeners, you know, I have my spiritual highlighter day, I call it that when you say something, when a guest says something that just want to like, yes, celebrate. This is one of those moments and listeners, what David's just saying about being purposeful with the technology tools. So for me, it's the podcast day, it's Instagram. I love deep dialogue. But it's not just about the deep dialogue. There's a reason I do this, because I want you listeners to be able to hear from people who've built awesome transformative things and make a good living, how they did it. So you can borrow from it and take what fits and do it in your business. So you can help other people and make a good living. So that's my why they just told you his why. When people write in and they say, I'm really struggling with these tools, Paul and technology and you know, oh my god, there's so much noise and there is the signal to noise ratio on different social channels may not always be what they wish they are. But if you can listen to what they just share, there's a real gem there. And I hope you can find your way with purpose in these tools, because they're very powerful. And if you're leading with that sense of helping others and being really intentional about that's why you're on these tools, I see people have a very, very different experience than those who are just out there doing what everybody else is doing and contributing to the noise. So thanks for sharing that they really appreciate. Yeah, yeah, I
Day Schildkret 29:07
think the tools are really, really important. I'm, you know, I social media has been a very important tool. I'm also in the fall launching a podcast as well, which has the same title as the book, hello, goodbye. And that feels like, you know, podcasting feels like a really important tool. And, you know, really just activating all of these different ways of reaching people. I mean, you know, as much as I hear people put down these technological tools, the fact that I, you know, have people that are joining my upcoming teacher training from Africa, from in the middle of China, rural towns in China, from Iran, I mean, how else would they have found me except through these tools, and so there's something again, it It's like everything. It's it could harm or it could hurt. And what's the most important is how we use them? Not do we use them, but how. And I think that's an important distinction.
Paul Zelizer 30:14
So let's do this in a moment, I want to come back and hear about second books and podcasts and teacher training with like, 40% more people in them than you thought you got their words going. Before we do that, I want to just take a quick break and hear a word from our sponsor. Do you have something that is about making the world a better place, and you want it to grow both in terms of the impact helping more people and the income? In other words, you get to live a good life? If so, I'd like to encourage you to think about podcasting. And here's why. When I did the researching about podcasts, when I started to think about my own relationship with podcasting, three things really stood out. One is that the people who listen to podcasts are what we would call in the research entrepreneurs base early adapters. In other words, we look for new ideas. And if they make sense at all, we try them. Number two, people who listen to podcasts are natural leaders. In other words, we're the kind of people that our family and our friends and our community and at work people go to us and say, Hey, what do you know about blank, because we always seem to kind of a finger repulse about what's going on and multiple layers and people lean in to us. And number three, podcast listeners make more money, not just a little bit more money, but quite a bit more money. When you put those three together, think about it for a second listeners, put those together. And think about your new idea and who can help you move the needle. If you'd like to learn how to leverage podcasting to help your social business grow, where preggers has a podcast success team will help walk you through every step of the way, whether you want to be a host, or you want to be a guest, and how to do that skillfully how to find podcasts and pitch them and can you know, make it convert in terms of moving the needle for your goals. We'll walk you through that you can find out more at were printers.com forward slash podcast dash success. And I want to thank everybody in our podcast success team who helped sponsor this podcast. Today in the second part of the show, we like to joke about putting on our entrepreneur glasses, right? So get granular if you put on your social entrepreneur glasses, and you look at morning authors right now. Like what are some of the things you're doing in terms of different products and services? How are people finding you? What are their sources of revenue stream? Like? What are the bigger sources? What are smaller sources just kind of give us a sketch what's true right now at this social enterprise, which is touching people all over the world cool, called morning?
Day Schildkret 33:05
Well, you're catching me at a pretty significant time. I have been tending things for a couple years now. And we're we're at the place where things are really fruiting. So. And there was no guarantee that that would happen. But it just so happens that it is. So where you're finding me right now is this thing called morning altars, as I said, is launching its first ever teacher training. I think right now, we snuck in some extra people. So there's over 100 people joining us in two weeks from all over the world. And I'd say that is that's kind of weird. That is what's taking up morning altars. But there are these little shoots that are coming out of mourning altars, which is brand expansion right now. I have a I honestly it's happened very quickly. But over the past, I'd say six months, I currently have a team of about five people that I'm employing. So and we are we are devoting ourselves to both this brand expansion, specifically towards ritual that is going to be headlines with this new book coming out in January. The new podcast that's coming out in in the fall. And a whole slew of courses that we're starting to work on that are based in the book. And so this is a very exciting time for my work because we are kind of holding morning altars in its own constellation and that's a huge impetus behind teaching others To do it, because I really want to give that away, I want to keep on doing my practice and making my art but I really want other people to be doing the gigs because I get a lot of gigs that I don't want to do anymore. So I will be giving those to my teachers and, and therefore I can focus on this larger forum that I will be speaking into, which is on ritual. And just this year alone. I mean, since the pandemic, it's been absolutely wild. I mean, mainstream rags, like the new york times the Harvard review, The Wall Street Journal, they've all put out these calls for more ritual in the world. I mean, people are hurting, of course, and I've been hurting my family has been really, really hit hard by the pandemic, and, and so and so I'm seeing the need. And, and I'm seeing a need for more rituals than just morning altars. And so. So that's what this book is devoted to. And that's where the next stage of my career is devoted to. And it's been really wild, Paul to be at a place in this career that I have. I mean, I built from the ground up, and to have a team. I mean, I have an online business manager, I have a strategist, right now I have a curriculum builder that worked on the curriculum with me, I have a personal assistant. And you know, I can't do this alone. And it's really right now a team collaboration. And so that that is wonderful. I love, love, love working in a team. And I, and I'm seeing the fruits of it. And so it's a it's a scary thing to have a lot more people to pay. But I'm also earning a lot more. And so I'm at this place of real growth in my work, and also my vision of what I want to be doing.
Paul Zelizer 36:56
What is the take from you today? And again, what would you share? Like what what have you had to stretch into to go from mostly solo, maybe a little bit help, but you know, I can hear the growing edge of team of five, and paying people and it's scary, but it's also exciting. And it's that, that dynamic time of when adventure starts to scale? What have you had to learn? And who have you needed to become and what would you share with the listener, who's, you know, maybe just a little bit earlier, they've been mostly solo, they're paying their bills, they're, you know, got a roof over their head, but now it's time to start to build something that's more than one person. And that's a new phase for them, what would you share to that person?
Day Schildkret 37:44
Yeah, it is a, I'd say, whatever you're feeling that makes sense. To me, it was a lot of fear. And I had to wrestle with my own scarcity mindset, you know, saying that I don't have enough, or I'm not enough, or this won't, you know, this won't be able to support me or whatnot. I mean, it's, it's really, in some ways, it's letting go of control. But at the on the other hand, making allowing there to be space for that fear for me, also gave me a real capacity to trust in my choices. And, and, and sometimes the choices were not premeditated. So it's not like I kind of went in and decided that I wanted this large of a team, things just happened, and I kind of continued to follow the call. And so a lot of the learning has been to trust my gut. To trust that in order to grow, there has to be offerings, or, you know, sacrifices or payments. And, you know, another way of saying it is you got to feed the thing for it to grow. And so that's what I've been doing is feeding it. And there's been, I mean, I'd say some of the hard learning has been there's, I have a lot more things to do. All of these things have converged at a certain time in my life where like, I'm finishing a book, we're in the last three weeks of edits right now. My teacher training is launching in a couple of weeks. And I'm about to personally I'm about to move. And so there's a lot of things to do. And I think a big learning curve for me has been how do I set a boundary and maintain kind of the creative, playful, joyful work amidst a Lot of busy ness and things that need to get done in little things that the business needs. And, you know, it's been really rewarding lately to hear like my OBM say to me, like, I want, I want to take on more of this stuff, so you don't have to. And that's been, you know, that Edge of Control, like, oh, I've been doing it for so long. Can I trust him. And so I've been, you know, giving it over. And, and watching other people manage it, so that I can, for instance, finish my book. And it's been really, it's, it's warmed my heart to feel other people tap into the purpose of my work and want to support it in the world and want it and want it to be healthy and managed and cared for. And I'm not alone. Oh, my God, to not feel alone. That is, like, really? You know, it's, it's, it's making me teary right now.
Paul Zelizer 41:03
I'm tearing up with you. I could not feel alone. And yes, so glad you have that support day. And I want that for you, too.
Day Schildkret 41:13
Yeah. And, and, you know, to find other people who are doing their work, you know, like, my work is my work, their work is their work. You know, my strategist loves strategy, my OBM loves making order. And systems. You know, the person I'm working with is genius with curriculum, he loves building curriculum, I mean, so everyone's doing what they love. And of course, like we're not, you know, like one note, people, my OBM is also musician. And I, and I, like him encouraged him to like play piano on some of our meetings. But it's, it's very rewarding to be in a ecosystem where other people are using their gifts and skills to support this work. And that I more and more get to kind of like, find my better placement in the business, which is, I'm a content creator, I'm an art maker, I'm a teacher, I have like three more books, especially children books that are coming through that I'm going to pitch my literary agent, because I have more space, they'll do less of the things I don't want to do. And I have, you know, there are systems being made that are supporting the work. I mean, having over 100 people on a teacher training is a lot of work. You know, there's a lot of onboarding, there's a lot of nurture sequences, there's a lot of, you know, concierge thing, dealing with people that are in suddenly out or have questions or want to change things. I mean, it's a lot of work. And I'm, I'm so glad that, that, you know, my OBM wants to do it, and I don't have to. But, you know, there's no way that I could do this, without these people. And as the business grows, I am sure we'll probably need more. So that's exciting. And, you know, it's I also because I'm, me, someone who's deeply connected to nature, and someone who I, I hope it's coming across as pretty genuine. I have no interest in scaling at a rate that feels unsustainable. So I'm comfortable going at a pace that feels good for me and continuing to feed all of these things, but also realizing like there is a place where it can get out of balance, and, and out of integrity and it could be just devoted to the growth. And you know, if you're a nature lover like me, you know that everything happens in cycles. And so it's good to remember that there are times where it's super busy, there are times where it's slower, there are times where it's growing, there are times where it's stagnant, and that's okay. It's important to be in the cycle of things. And to go at the right pace, you know, trees are not growing like a, you know, hundreds of feet in a year. They just don't. So I for me, that's the kind of business I want to have, which is like, you know, a steady, well tended business that is very much remembering its original purpose and, and is you know, attracting other people, especially team team members, that also are deeply aligned with the original purpose of the work
Paul Zelizer 44:59
because I like to call it when when clients come to me day and they say, you know, how do I grow my business? How do I grow business, especially, you know, these kinds of businesses, there's more of them than there were 40 years ago. And the fundamental practice, I like to say, is steady loving presence in the marketplace. Yeah, that'd be loving. And I'm hearing you articulate that slightly different words, but that intentionality day, and I, I, again, just celebrate it, and hope you hear that listeners, what they just gave you is something that will carry you a long way, if you take it and implement it in your business.
Day Schildkret 45:37
Yeah, I think the thing to be really mindful of is the flailing, you know, to think that you are not in the right place, or you should be someplace else, or that you know, something's going wrong, or you need to do more, I mean, those all might be true, but I think approaching the tasks at hand, deeply tethered to your life and to your body and to the place that you live, and to the simple, good things that nourish you. I think that's really, really important. There is a, and I'm guilty of this too, you know, technology has its own momentum that can zap your energy that can pull you out of your center that can make you jealous that can make you you know, think that you don't have enough or I mean, there's a lot of clickbait stuff that's, that does that and, you know, and, and because fear sells. And it also, you know, it is a motivator in a way. But so I think it's important that as we continue to go further and further into technology and into these platforms, that we have other practices that ground us. And you know, as I said at the beginning of this podcast, sitting outside in the rain this morning, you know, just listening to it fall in feeling the warmth of my body, and, you know, just sensing the birds in the morning. And, you know, that really just reminded me of like, why I'm doing the work, you know, and it's just so easy to forget. So we need these little daily reminders that can help us remember when we forget,
Paul Zelizer 47:22
they look ahead five years. And I know we don't have a crystal ball, you don't know exactly what it's gonna look like. But what would you like the flavor of the impact? Can you give us a sense of give any intuitions what kind of things might be coming or the scale that morning authors might be operating at five years from now?
47:45
Sure.
Day Schildkret 47:47
Yeah. I I'd say that. I want to distinguish me from mourning alters, that is part of what's happening. Morning alters will continue to exist in its entirety. I love what it is. And as I said it will have more publications, I'm going to do an alphabet book, I'm going to do sticker activity book for young kids ages eight to 12. There will be more workshops, there will be many more teacher trainings. And mourning altars will kind of exist in that in that ecosystem. In five years, this new brand that I'm bringing in, which is headlined under me daisho credit, is devoted to ritual. And it's standing on the shoulders of mourning altars, because mourning altars is a ritual, but it is much bigger than that. And specifically, I'm interested in being a part in this expression, I really don't like it, but I think everyone knows what I mean, thought leader in ritual space and and bringing it to communities to individuals helping people go through life transitions, helping businesses go through transitions, I mean, really helping everyone in anyone through transitions through the through ritual. And and so this, the book that I'm that I'm publishing in January, or it's being published by Simon and Schuster in January, is a Vanguard for this new brand. And so we'll have the podcast have amazing guests talk about their life transitions and if they did or didn't make meaning of them. This book will spawn courses, you know, for people that are going through, you know, mourning or people that are experiencing loss or people that are celebrating New Beginnings and probably you know many many other books about it, but I'm looking to really stand on the precipice of ritual interest to offer that back into the world as a resource, during unpredictable times, you know that we need ways to slow down and make meaning when things seem really meaningless, or things seem chaotic, or things he just knew. So I'd like to, I'd like this business to be one that that is where I become a leader in that in that space, and create more and more resources to help people.
Paul Zelizer 50:36
You mentioned the book, the new books, podcast can be called the same thing. Hello, goodbye. Anything else you want to say about that book? Yeah, the book.
Day Schildkret 50:46
I mean, I think first and foremost, what I'm what I'm so excited about is that I interviewed over 250 people for the book, which is in itself like a quite an accomplishment, there's a project
Paul Zelizer 50:59
for you, right? Yeah,
Day Schildkret 51:00
good Swan in our hour long conversation. You know, because I'm one person and I'm, you know, I'm I am also like, I, I mean, I can identify myself right now is, as you know, in different categories, that I have that one lens I'm looking through, which is me. And yet, I'm writing about all of these other life events. And so before even writing this book, I knew that I needed I needed to raise up other people's voices, you know, I can't speak about things I haven't experienced. And so, you know, on, on different chapters, I would interview sometimes 2530 people to get a sense of, you know, other people's experiences, their words, their lessons, their pain, their growth, and what they did or didn't do to mark that those moments and what they needed. So the book itself is broken down into two really, kind of, I call it almost like a recipe book. The first kind of crux of the book is that I go into a deep dive into each one of these transitions. For instance, you know, losing a pet, I'll just go into what that experience feels like, other people's stories of that, what a pet means having, you know, I lost my dog about three years ago. You know, and so I'm just going into the heart and soul, the feeling of that transition. The second part of each chapter is a ritual recipe. So it's a hands on kind of, here's what you need, here's what you can do, here's how it starts, here's how it ends. Here are ways to invite other people into it, here's a way to do it by yourself. But it's really like a recipe book. And like any recipe book, you know, you can take what works and leave behind what doesn't if you're, if you don't do gluten, you know get gluten free flour. And the same thing with this book. And so it is and and the book is broken down into like rituals for every day rituals for loss rituals for new beginnings, rituals for endings, rituals for crisis's. And so it's really a hands on book where you can it's a ref, it's a resource book, you know, it's I don't see it as a book where you're going to read the whole thing, laying in bed, this is going to be a book like a cookbook that lives on your shelf, and you know, someone dies, and you grab the book, you know, a friend of yours has a miscarriage, you grab the book. So I'm looking for this book to be kind of like your marked and dirty and fingerprints. And you know, maybe it got passed around all your friends. And it's a resource book, and it's really there to help you through your life transitions.
Paul Zelizer 53:58
So dad could hang out and talk to you all day. But I do that. Because you're busy and our listeners are if there was something you were hoping we were going to get to today, and we haven't touched on it yet, or there was something you want to leave our listeners with as we start to say goodbye. What would that be?
Day Schildkret 54:17
Well, I'd say first and foremost, you know, I love it. These podcasts are great. And I love you know, I encourage you to just take a peek at my art on Instagram morning alters a ltrs morning like this morning. Just so you can have a little luminar to your day. I think that that's just the delightful little experience. And, and I'd say just because we're we're on a business minded podcast, that my my thought in this space is how important it is to both tend to you. yourself in your business like tend to your body and your off line time and the breaks from work the non work time like setting really good boundaries with that the times where you tend your, your hopes and dreams and your grief and disappointments. I think that's, that's really, really important part of having a healthy business. And I also think, you know, in terms of tending the actual business itself, for me, I'm I'm really interested in people that are wanting to serve the world. And, you know, we have, unfortunately, too many examples of people serving themselves in the business world. And so I'm interested in being a support to anyone that that is in service to a world that is more connected, that is more healing, that is more loving, and that peace. So those are my two things, take care of yourself, take care of others, laugh a lot, I guess the last thing which I don't really share ever at all, but like before I write in the morning, I like to listen to some, you know, really old jazz and dance around my my place and just kind of lighten the Spirit. And I just remember not to take it all so seriously.
Paul Zelizer 56:29
Hey, thank you so much for being on the show today. We really appreciate it. Happy to be here. So we'll put links in the show notes for the book that's already out. I'll put the Instagram we'll put the teacher training and the general morning author site. Keep your eyes open for the new book coming out in early 2022. And before we go, I want to say we love listeners suggested topics and guests and a big shout out to Julie walk along term aware printers, community members that day and Paul, you guys need to talk. Literally, it's kinda went down, didn't it? Yeah, here we are. Julie. Thank you, Julie. We really appreciate it. And I tell that story to say every episode I say we love listener supported topics and guests, but like literally more and more of our topics and guests are coming from listeners that just happened this afternoon. Somebody else who's a long term listener said, Paul, you need to interview so we'd love Love, love listeners suggested topics. And if you have an idea, go to the aware printers website, go to our contact page, we have three simple principles that you know kind of like this is how we vet people, we try to be really transparent. If you take a look at that and say I think this is a fit, please send in your idea. For now, I just want to say thank you so much for listening. Please take really good care. These are intense. And thank you for all the positive impact that you're working in our world.
What is the Awarepreneurs podcast?
The Awarepreneurs podcast is a renown social entrepreneur podcast - Listen Notes lists us at one of the top 1.5% of all podcasts in the world. It’s hosted by Paul Zelizer, a leading social entrepreneur coach and community builder in the sector. Each episode, Paul does a deep dive interview with a thought leader in the space.
If you have an idea for a fabulous guest for this acclaimed social entrepreneur podcast, you can pitch your idea here. 🙏🏽