📍EEA: Unlocking Your Inner Strength with Thomas L. Rosenberg

RJ Redden [00:00:00]:

Your goggles, everyone. Yes. Welcome. Welcome to the epic engagement adventure. My name is, of course, RJ Redden. If you don't know me, I invite you to explore my world, but don't go anywhere, because when you talk about trauma, when you talk about changes in the world, when you talk about entrepreneurship, there's some stuff that usually comes up for people. And the moment I met this human, I knew that I needed to have him on the podcast. He's extraordinary. I'm proud to call him my friend. We are going to talk all about his practice and all about him, and it's going to be on fire. Welcome, Thomas. Welcome to the show.

Thomas L. Rosenberg [00:00:53]:

Thank you, RJ. It is a delight to be here, and I'm so excited we are able to play in the same sandbox today.

RJ Redden [00:01:02]:

I'm so excited. We talked months ago and I was so excited then to have you on the podcast. I'm more excited now.

Thomas L. Rosenberg [00:01:11]:

Wow.

RJ Redden [00:01:13]:

Yeah. There you go. So, my friend, could you tell the people some background info? What's your story? Where you've been? What's going on?

Thomas L. Rosenberg [00:01:23]:

Sure. So, my name is Thomas Rosenberg. I have a company called Regenerate Coaching and I am a Somatic executive leadership development coach. So focusing primarily on mid sized companies and leaders directors to C suite. My trip, I should say. My journey to coaching is always circuitous, as I think for most coaches, it's a circuitous route because coaching is a calling and folks have to get comfortable with the idea of, yes, this is really what I'm here to do. This is what I'm called to do. And I come from a medical and scientific family. I felt that I had to follow a specific career path. I knew it wasn't going to be medicine, but it could at least be technically focused. And so to be seen as a man, to have gained that approval. I moved into the energy, climate, sustainability world, but all along the way, I was helping people because I am passionate about helping people grow and transform, and I really love seeing what's possible when people recognize their authentic self and get comfortable with change. And so that's really been the core of my journey, has been where even if I was working in an environmental initiative context, it was really helping people get comfortable with change, lead through change, and flourish as an individual, as an organization or community.

RJ Redden [00:03:16]:

Wow. And you say that you kind of came from that background of being who people thought you should be and then kind of moving into the space where you are now. I know a lot of my listeners out there are probably familiar with that type of journey. What's the thing that made you go on the journey from where you've been to where you are right now?

Thomas L. Rosenberg [00:03:49]:

So after approximately 20 years in the energy, environment, climate, space, I found myself spinning my wheels and I had a really cerebral sense of leadership and I was trying to move from the advisory space into a single organization. It just wasn't happening. No matter what I did, no matter how I played my cards, I kept batting my head against the stonewall. And in 2014, so actually nine years ago and two days, I had a near fatal bicycle accident. And coming out of that surviving that, I realized that I didn't want to spend whatever life energy I had left backing myself into somebody else's box, that I was here to do something different, that I had gifts that I wanted to share before I leave this mortal walk. As I recovered, it took me two and a half years to recover from the traumatic brain injury before I could trust my brain again. And about that same time, we held space for a dear friend who was passing from cancer. And she was an incredible model, an example of how someone can share their gifts fully, live richly, and die surrounded by community. And I said, that's what I want. That's how I want to live the rest of my life. And coaching is that vehicle for me. And it was within a month talk about how the universe conspires. Within a month of that, I had taken a prerequisite course and had gotten accepted to a year long coaching program as an integral coach in New Ventures West. So all of that happened within a month of her passing. And it just was like, oh, that's so easy. I've taken this course, I've applied, and boom, within 24 hours, I got a yes, I've been accepted. And so that was 2016, and I opened up Regenerate Coaching in 2017. And I have part of what you're wondering, okay, I'm mentioning interval coach. What about somatics a lot of my recovery from the accident is due to osteopathic treatment and just becoming super aware of how much is held in the tissues, how much trauma, what happens to the body, how that shapes us. And I wanted to move in that direction. So. I learned about the Somatic coaching the Stroze Institute while I was getting my certification at New Ventures West. And since 2019, I have been building my repertoire in Somatic Coaching through the Stroze Institute.

RJ Redden [00:07:20]:

Excellent. And I have to ask you about the name Regenerate Coaching. Regenerate. Tell me about that.

Thomas L. Rosenberg [00:07:31]:

So the ethos of my work this is the best place to start. The ethos of my work is reconnect to ourselves so we can more easily connect to each other, so we can reconnect to the planet. And for me, what I feel like is the is it's really essential for us as humans at this moment in time, to really reconsider what our connection to the planet is and to whether that's in terms of climate change, whether that's in terms of immigration, whether if that's in terms of wars right, because of natural resource scarcity. So how are we showing up and what is our relationship to ourselves? And how is that impacting a sense of isolation or community, a sense of connection to how we feed ourselves, how we honor members of our community and their ability to contribute their dignity. So really being able to have those conversations. And so for those who see that connection, that understand that link to a regenerative community or to regenerative leadership, then I bring that in explicitly. And for those who don't, that's fine. It's there implicitly, and you will still benefit from it.

RJ Redden [00:09:07]:

I love the name because the regeneration aspect, what's coming to mind is a starfish. If one of the arms gets injured, it it regenerates back and you know, and then, you know, in terms of your work, what's possible to regenerate. Yes.

Thomas L. Rosenberg [00:09:36]:

Fascinating to take that a step further if you think about what happens with the body. Right. The benefit of working. Somatically is, instead of just talking about something up here, because that's what we do. We grow up and we stay in the head, is when you come back to, you have the opportunity to recognize the two other brains that we have heart and gut. And you have more options in terms of how you respond to a certain circumstance. And that can make such a difference to sort of saying, okay, so what's the most appropriate in this moment? I may be feeling fury and I can let that run through me. I'm not getting stuck. Or it can be deep sadness, or it could anxiety, whatever the emotion is, and just saying, okay, so I can feel that. And how am I extending into the world in this moment? And what's the most appropriate way.

RJ Redden [00:10:43]:

It opens up so many more possibilities? I know for myself, sometimes for my clients, it's a process of recognizing that you do have different choices and choices you may not want to make. But we always have a choice.

Thomas L. Rosenberg [00:11:04]:

Yes.

RJ Redden [00:11:04]:

And waking people up to that must be joyful work.

Thomas L. Rosenberg [00:11:10]:

It is. And it's also being able to create a container that they can feel comfortable letting go of their fear, one acknowledging their fear of stepping towards that. Because we create these wise adaptations as children, often to a place of overwhelm. And it's turning towards that and saying, okay, thank you for getting me this far, and you're actually holding me back to who I want to become. So how can you soften that grip and allow that energy to move towards something that's deeper and find out what's along that path? I'm surprised in my own journey about what's arisen. So that's a story that I had and I'm carrying stories that other people I gained by osmosis, shall we say, intergenerational ancestral. It might have been something my father said, or the way that my father showed up, or my grandfather, or my grandmother.

RJ Redden [00:12:25]:

Yeah. Kara Jean, I'm going to put this comment up. My contacts are a little fuzzy right now, so I'm just going to put your comments up. Kara very good. Well, I'm fascinated by this and also another question. You said at the beginning you choose your clients are executives. Is there a reason behind that or is that just where you're most comfortable working?

Thomas L. Rosenberg [00:12:59]:

In my experience with so one, it's a choice, right? I could choose to for me, leadership is a way of being in the world. It's not just role and title specific. And we spend a lot of our time at work, particularly in this country. So what would it be like if the organization thrives because the people thrive? What if people were able to really recognize how we're talking about a lot about dei and about psychological safety and all of these different elements. And if you don't think about what that looks like at work and how that can show up, that can also extend to your family, your community, whether that's a religious community, your church, your temple, your mosque, or it could be your your physical community, your hometown right. Or your chosen family. But just seeing how that extends into all those different places and being able to have more self awareness so you know how you're showing up, I think that's really powerful. And that's going to give you that sense of, oh, so now I can see how I was preventing people from connecting with me. I'm yearning to have this. Okay. But I don't understand why it's not happening. Well, if you're standing there with your hands, I want this, I want this. It's like but your body is saying no because at some point in your past, something similar caused the hyper vigilance to pattern to begin, and you're still stuck in that. So how does that show up in your leadership, in your communication, in your interpersonal relationships?

RJ Redden [00:15:09]:

It's an incredibly important question. So many times in life, we're experiencing situations that hold us back. We're experiencing maybe different people, but I've often grown the most from figuring out where I was holding myself back. And what invisible barriers am I unconsciously throwing up there? Yeah, gosh. Well, I'm flashing this across the bottom here. Regenerate coach if you want to talk to Thomas, go to that website. There's a great big button, like, right up there above the fold that says, let's talk. So I'll hide that for a little while. But yeah, there are so many things that touch our hearts and our minds every day and that shape us consciously or unconsciously. And it's a beautiful thing to go through life more intentionally. And that's what you help people do.

Thomas L. Rosenberg [00:16:19]:

Yes, exactly. It's about cultivating. How do you want to live the rest of your life? And maybe it's even just the next five years, ten years. And it doesn't matter if that's focused specifically in a work context or if that's focused on a broader context, sort of saying, well, this is the legacy I want to leave for my family, my community or whatever it happens to be.

RJ Redden [00:16:45]:

Yeah.

Thomas L. Rosenberg [00:16:46]:

Or I just want to inhabit my body comfortably. I've worked with people that way too.

RJ Redden [00:16:53]:

Yeah, well, the kind of work you do is inspiring to me because it really is. It's about going forward consciously. How do you engage your audience?

Thomas L. Rosenberg [00:17:12]:

How do I engage? I probably need to work on this a little bit. But one is cultivating a network of referral partners. So whether that's fellow coaches or other professionals, whether they be marketing or sales, coaches or lawyers, what have you, that might be working with businesses who recognize that yes, there might be this contract issue and that's what they're working with, but there's also a business leadership issue or an organizational concern. And so that's one way. And then another way is regular emails. So trying to monthly newsletters and also reaching out on social media on a more consistent basis. I don't put something out every week, but I certainly try. And in some places most of my people I feel like are on LinkedIn. But I'm also especially with the implosion of Twitter exploring.

RJ Redden [00:18:31]:

Can I put a dumpster fire up?

Thomas L. Rosenberg [00:18:33]:

Yeah, right. I have really pulled back on using that as an outlet and I'm reconsidering how I'm engaging on Instagram and Facebook. So those are my primary channels of engaging. And then when people sign up for my newsletter, there's a series of emails that they get.

RJ Redden [00:18:59]:

Yeah, good stuff, good stuff. If I may offer an insight because it's hard. It's hard for people who are carriagene facts. My God, by the way, you need to meet that lady because she's going to rock your world. She's amazing. Often for people who are heart driven which preaching the choir here. We have trouble with that concept. I know I have trouble with the concept of it of email list and this and that and post on and all of that stuff I have issue with. And a friend of mine, Michael Whitehouse, put it so succinctly when he said that he considers his email list, he considers it a private social network.

Thomas L. Rosenberg [00:20:08]:

I like that.

RJ Redden [00:20:09]:

I like it too. Because you know what? I will fall over dead if I have to write another article. Ten Tips on how to Make Your Summer Fabulous. Oh, I don't care. Knowledge anymore knowledge posts. It just seems like that maybe has run its gamut, at least for me it has because do I really need to assume that everybody in my audience needs to be taught this? No. You know what I mean? I want to online and we were discussing this right before we came on. It's about balancing that vulnerability with I'm going to teach you who I am. Because for me I'm a coach. You need to know who I am. You need to trust me before you hire me. If you do not trust me, do not hire me. I have many friends to recommend because it's not going to be a good relationship. So what I want to do is fly my flag, put my values ahead of me, talk about what things mean to me, talk about why I make decisions. Honestly, it's scary. It's scary because people get bullied online every day, and I've had enough bullies in my life, darling. Holy moly. And so if you can take something from that, your own private social network, I've been working on that idea, and that has helped me come out of that place a little bit.

Thomas L. Rosenberg [00:22:14]:

Yeah, it raises some interesting questions for me, just around how I might start segmenting that email list, because I feel like there are certain people who would really resonate with receiving certain things. And the other thing too, to your point, is, really, how can I show that I've been following this same journey that I'm taking my clients on? Because that's being the white male being expected to show up. Like, what does professional look like? You're coming from a career path where you have to show how much you know in order to have credibility. The problem is the result is often just overwhelm and there's no space for the client or prospective client to feel, oh, I have to go do other work first. They can't sit with all of that and parse it. They have to go away. And then you're kind of like, rather than helping them in the moment, you're delaying their actual coming and engaging with you. And it's just like, no, we can do this together. And that was actually one of the biggest reliefs that I experienced when I started coaching, was, oh, I can just be the one with the questions. I don't have to know it all because, frankly, it doesn't matter what I know. It really matters what the client knows and uncovers for themselves. And it's a journey of co creation and co discovery.

RJ Redden [00:23:58]:

What you mentioned just now may be what I love the best about what we've been talking about. Because what we forget very often as coaches who also need to be our own marketers, right. What we forget very often is it is not about us. Holy moly. Because honestly, sometimes I get on calls with people and they ask me questions. I have no idea what the answer might be. And my work is to absolutely go find it out and come back. Or let's look it up right now. Zoom is so great for that. Let's share a screen and make it happen. For me, it's absolutely empowering to go. The most important thing I can do as a coach in that moment when my people are talking to me is to be 1000% there and listen and ask them some questions, guide them along a path. I love how you coach people. I love what you're bringing to the world. Everybody, again, I'm putting that thing on the bottom. Regenerate, coach, if you want to talk to Thomas, I suggest you go do so, hit the button right now and get going. If this speaks to you, if this resonates with you, then maybe it's time. Maybe it's time. And I absolutely love what you're doing with the world because it is about co creation. One of my heroes is Freddie Mercury. One of my heroes is the guy that led a sing along at the 2012 Olympics when he had died in 1994. Have you ever seen that video, Thomas?

Thomas L. Rosenberg [00:25:59]:

I have not.

RJ Redden [00:26:01]:

Oh, it's insane. But he had this way of inviting people to co create that was so magnetic that people just couldn't resist. Every time you hear stomp stomp clap at a sports stadium, I don't go to too many of those, but occasionally I will hear this and everybody will join along and I will wonder if they knew.

Thomas L. Rosenberg [00:26:29]:

Wow.

RJ Redden [00:26:32]:

So co creation community. Also something you've taught me during this half hour is when you were talking about the person who passed away surrounded by community. Once again, my friends, our goals are not all the same. Making a million dollars is not what I have in mind. I have different goals in mind for myself. Not everyone has the same goals. And when we start to segment, like what you're talking about there, when we start to say, okay, who's right for what message right now, the more we begin to individualize and personalize as coaches, the better off we are. Well, we have to wrap it up. Do you have any final words of wisdom for the audience here.

Thomas L. Rosenberg [00:27:42]:

Regarding marketing and engagement or regarding Somatic?

RJ Redden [00:27:48]:

Dig in there. Give me what you got. Bubbling to the top. It does not have to be on a particular subject.

Thomas L. Rosenberg [00:27:57]:

Final words of wisdom. No pressure if you need me to.

RJ Redden [00:28:04]:

Vamp while you come up.

Thomas L. Rosenberg [00:28:05]:

No, it's all good. It's all good. One of the things that we work on in Somatics is bringing ourselves back to center. And so thinking about your line of dignity, which is your vertical length and being, how are you contacting the floor? How are you gently reaching towards the sky with your head, your width, which is connection both with yourself and with others, and then your depth. So feeling your back body. We are so focused on the front. What is it like to really feel the lived history that you've experienced, all of human history, ancestors known and unknown, that are behind you, and then bringing your awareness down to a sphere that is about three, four inches below your belly button in the center gazoon tight of your pelvic bowl. And that's your geographic center. And it's also the center of purpose, action and instinct in many different cultures. It's the hardai in Japanese. In Mandarin, it's the lower dantien. In Turkish. It's the kauf. What would it be like to operate from center on a daily basis and what becomes possible operating from there?

RJ Redden [00:29:51]:

I am loving that question that, my friend, is a thinker or a feeler, what would happen? It's a feeler, too. Yeah. What would happen?

Thomas L. Rosenberg [00:30:02]:

What becomes possible? Yeah.

RJ Redden [00:30:06]:

Well, that is awesome, my friend. I am so glad that you have come on today and given our audience some love, and I can't thank you enough for being here and just giving us Thomas. It's been awesome.

Thomas L. Rosenberg [00:30:27]:

Thank you so much. RJ, it's been an absolute delight being here.

RJ Redden [00:30:31]:

Beautiful. All right, well, everybody, you know, lots of stuff going on in the Bot cave. And so next week, we got power networking coming on next week on Wednesday. Come join us. Go to powernetworking live, and it'll lead you directly to the LinkedIn event. Come to that. Come to the AI thing I'm having in the first week of July. Come to the community. Wekickbot.com love to have you there. And with that, we're going to wrap it up. Go hit up Regenerate coach, my friends. You will thank yourself later, and maybe you'll thank me. I accept coffee. All right, my friend. I'll see you later. Bye.