In this episode, host Steven Pesavento and guest Dom Farnan explore the journey from being a workaholic in the corporate world to embracing conscious leadership and holistic wellness. Dom shares insights from her personal transformation, the impact of her upbringing on her entrepreneurial journey, and how she integrated spirituality and healing practices into her business. From breathwork ceremonies to leading with authenticity, she discusses the profound shifts in mindset and culture that led to sustainable growth and fulfillment.
Key Takeaways
Resources Mentioned
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About our Guest:
Dom Farnan is a former corporate recruiter turned conscious leadership coach and connector. With a background in working with major tech brands, including Samsung, Snapchat, and Qualcomm, she transitioned from being a workaholic to embracing holistic wellness practices and conscious leadership principles. Dom is passionate about empowering individuals and organizations to lead with authenticity, compassion, and purpose.
00;00;00;19 - 00;00;09;04
Steven Pesavento
Welcome back to the Investor Mindset podcast. I'm your host Stephen Vento, and today I have Dom Farron in the studio. How are you doing today, Dom?
00;00;09;06 - 00;00;11;21
Dom Farnan
Yeah, I'm good. Thanks.
00;00;11;24 - 00;00;34;26
Steven Pesavento
I'm excited to talk with you because I think you're in an interesting place, a place a lot of other people, are finding themselves, and I know I've been in that place where you're grinding, you're working your butt off, and then something happens that ends up leading you to realize that, you know, there's another way to look at life, and you kind of go down that connected consciousness type journey.
00;00;34;26 - 00;00;53;01
Steven Pesavento
So I'm excited to talk about that. Your business and all the success you've created. So before we get into all of that, though, I'd love to start with a question. Looking back at earlier in your life, what events or influences from your childhood shaped who you are today?
00;00;53;04 - 00;01;30;12
Dom Farnan
Yeah, I think first and foremost, my grandmother had a huge impact on the way, that I was raised and just she's she was so heart led and unconditionally, unconditionally loving to everyone in our family and in community. So I think she definitely shaped me. from a business standpoint, I think my dad, he was entrepreneurial, he worked at UPS and had his 9 to 5 job, but then he had a side hustle, and always was doing something to make our lives better and, you know, make money.
00;01;30;12 - 00;01;38;16
Dom Farnan
And so I think I got a little bit of that energy from him for sure, as far as, you know, entrepreneurship and things like that.
00;01;38;19 - 00;01;54;01
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, that's that's really cool. What was it like? I mean, where was your mom working? Was your your sounds like your dad was doing a side hustle. What was it about that that made you think, hey, maybe entrepreneurship is a path I could go on?
00;01;54;03 - 00;02;12;25
Dom Farnan
Yeah. It's funny. So my mom worked. She worked at, like, art galleries and, you know, was a secretary or an admin. So that was she had an office job. My dad worked says 9 to 5. And I remember one day, he came home and he unloaded his truck and had this big machine that he was pulling off of it.
00;02;12;25 - 00;02;33;02
Dom Farnan
And my mom was like, what is this? And he said, well, it's a screen printing machine. And and I had a dryer and we're going to print t shirts. We're going to make a lot of money doing this. And he just had this wild idea. And my mom lost her marbles and was so angry that he spent, I don't know, their last bit of money in savings on buying this thing.
00;02;33;02 - 00;02;55;10
Dom Farnan
And he just trusted the process and the idea that he had. And so he called himself the Uniform man. And then he started printing shirts and swag and things and it was my first experience even working. I work with him in our garage, and I would learn how to print and then deliver stuff when I could drive to his customers and, make myself a little bit of money.
00;02;55;10 - 00;03;11;05
Dom Farnan
And I don't know, to me, it it seemed it was hard. It was hard work, but it seemed interesting. I was like, okay. I didn't know you could just randomly like, have a, you know, some business out of your garage. All right. I'll give this a shot. And so I think that was where I got the itch.
00;03;11;07 - 00;03;39;24
Steven Pesavento
I think it's like really powerful to have somebody in your life who is a dreamer, who believes that something is possible, even when all the people around them are telling them, no, you can't do it. And, you know, for me, it was my grandfather. He passed away when I was young, about fourth grade. But the memory of him being such a happy person and the kind of life he lived in comparison with, you know, the kind of challenges that we had as a family growing up was just always so inspiring.
00;03;39;24 - 00;04;05;27
Steven Pesavento
So I think it's really powerful to have have that influence. And so I know you you went into the entrepreneurial world, your recruiter, you're recruiting tons of people. You have a big team, and then you know, what I call and, David Brooks calls the Second mountain. You had an experience where you realized that maybe you were climbing the wrong mountain, that maybe there was another level of happiness or fulfillment or what was this all for?
00;04;06;02 - 00;04;15;13
Steven Pesavento
Tell me, what was it that happened for you that drew you into thinking maybe there is another level that I could unlock here.
00;04;15;15 - 00;04;41;19
Dom Farnan
Yeah, I think Covid brought it all to the surface for me, because for the longest time when I was running, my clients as a recruiter, and then I hired my team, I was a workaholic and I was a suppressor, so I never felt feelings. It felt like for like 20 years and I was avoidance. So I would just travel and not really be checked into my life, my marriage, my motherhood.
00;04;41;21 - 00;05;05;18
Dom Farnan
and I felt like my worth was really tied up in the amount of money I made and the amount of effort I put out every day, and how hard I worked, and what I could buy to show people all of my status or to be accepted. So it was very external facing for a long time. And then Covid, when we were locked down here in Jersey and we couldn't leave like there was four months, I didn't leave my property.
00;05;05;21 - 00;05;30;16
Dom Farnan
Not that it was that scary, but like, I just really went inward and and stayed home. And it was at that point where I didn't have anything else to, you know, make me distracted where I started to hear my inner voice going, yeah, this isn't really working, or you're not really happy. So what are you doing? And, like, look around you, but you're miserable.
00;05;30;16 - 00;05;35;04
Dom Farnan
And so that was that was the beginning, I would say of my of my journey.
00;05;35;06 - 00;05;59;03
Steven Pesavento
Yeah. It's amazing how when we deal with challenge or tragedy or we have that space to really have to focus on what and start listening to what that voice is, that that despite it being extremely difficult, despite it being one of those moments that in at the time, we don't want to feel, for me it was, you know, the loss of a younger sister is unexpected.
00;05;59;03 - 00;06;22;28
Steven Pesavento
It was a tragedy. No one to blame. But then when you compound that with Covid, it really puts life into perspective and it forces you to look deeper, to look inward instead of outward for that expression of what a great life really is. What what was it that first, second, 10th step that you took that really opened your mind to seeing?
00;06;23;00 - 00;06;40;08
Steven Pesavento
Well, hey, the way I've been doing this really isn't working. And the reason I ask for all the listeners is because I really believe that in order to live a wealthy life, it comes down to not only creating financial success, but you also have to get yourself in a place where you can enjoy it.
00;06;40;10 - 00;07;05;08
Dom Farnan
100%. I think for me, the first thing that I did when I got to my place where it was like a, you know, Monday morning in May that I couldn't get out of bed and I was feeling really depressed in 2020, was thinking about getting a coach. And I immediately felt like maybe if I have a coach, then I can get my shit together in my business, and then I can, you know, start to understand why I am the way that I am.
00;07;05;08 - 00;07;34;01
Dom Farnan
And I toyed with that question, so I found a coach connected with her, immediately decided to invest in working with her, and thus began everything else. And so probably within eight months of working with her, I found a mastermind that was called Conscious Leaders Mastermind, run by Gerard Adams, and I decided that sounded interesting. So I enrolled in that, and then I went to a retreat in 2021 when things started kind of opening a little bit.
00;07;34;03 - 00;07;54;03
Dom Farnan
And so it kind of was one thing after another, and it snowballed quickly. As far as my, evolution, I then started leveraging plant medicine for healing, which was totally not on my radar at all. I leveraged breathwork, I did a lot of things that were so unheard of for me. Like, you have to remember, I grew up in corporate.
00;07;54;06 - 00;08;12;27
Dom Farnan
I was working when I was 17 and I was so like straight and narrow rule following perfectionist that if you told anybody any of this stuff, people would be like, what the heck? This doesn't sound like her at all because she's so, by the book rule following. and so that's really what's even led me here now.
00;08;13;00 - 00;08;40;12
Steven Pesavento
Yeah. It's incredible how making that decision to bring a coach, an advisor or a mentor, somebody into your life who can help you reflect back what it is that those thoughts and beliefs are that you have can help opening up the channel to, you know, another possibility. But let's talk about breathwork for a second, because I think a lot of the listeners, you know, W2 professionals making a ton of money, business owners, people want to unlock another level in their life.
00;08;40;14 - 00;09;02;08
Steven Pesavento
It's becoming more popular. But when I first was introduced to it, maybe 5 or 6 years ago, I thought it sounded like the craziest, goofiest thing laying on the ground in a yoga studio, breathing for an hour and going to a place that is really hard to describe if you haven't experienced it. What was your experience with breathwork and what did it open up for you?
00;09;02;11 - 00;09;16;24
Dom Farnan
Yeah, my first experience with breathwork was April of 2021 at a retreat into Lume. We were invited to do a breathwork ceremony. I had no idea. I didn't even use this language. I was like, what the hell? Okay, so so.
00;09;16;27 - 00;09;18;11
Steven Pesavento
The normal people, people on.
00;09;18;12 - 00;09;18;24
Dom Farnan
Right.
00;09;18;26 - 00;09;19;20
Steven Pesavento
Base, you know?
00;09;19;21 - 00;09;42;11
Dom Farnan
Right. So I was like, okay. And the the facilitator says, okay, well, we are going to do Holy Tropic breathwork. This is how it goes. By the way, you may feel like a psychedelic like experience or a expansion of consciousness. I had no idea what this meant. And I was like, okay. She's like, you know, could even be like an LSD journey.
00;09;42;11 - 00;10;02;29
Dom Farnan
I'm like, okay, what did I sign up for? I'm scared. I have no clue. But I trusted the process and I trusted who I was sitting in ceremony with. And then I just went for it, laid down, closed my eyes, and within I'd say five minutes. I was in another dimension. I felt like I had gone to heaven.
00;10;02;29 - 00;10;30;18
Dom Farnan
I saw current me, you know, pulling new me in to heaven. I saw my grandma. Like there was a lot that happened in that hour. And then after that I cried so much. I had a lot of big somatic release. And then I sat there and really had to integrate that. But it brought me a lot of healing because for the longest time prior to that experience, I had carried the grief of losing my grandmother for 13 years, never fully got over it.
00;10;30;18 - 00;10;50;01
Dom Farnan
Oh, you know, like grief is something you never get over. It's just it, I guess it your relationship with it evolves over time and sometimes it doesn't. But for me, that was so healing because I really felt connected to her. And I had closure and I went back. I mean, in that experience. She said to me, you are the healer of your family.
00;10;50;04 - 00;11;12;09
Dom Farnan
You can go back and tell everybody that I'm okay. You're going to be okay. And like, now you can like carry this forward. So I felt a lot more like I had this mission in life and just began a lot more publicly speaking about this spiritual journey and experience that I was on that was very uncomfortable for my family, for my friends, for my parents.
00;11;12;09 - 00;11;26;16
Dom Farnan
Like everyone's like, what the heck is going on with her? and yeah, I mean, breathwork is is it? I used to host ceremonies at my house. It's so powerful and so beautiful, but it's not for everybody. Like, not everyone gets into it.
00;11;26;18 - 00;11;45;17
Steven Pesavento
And I think I think the thing that's really important to underline here is when you first hear about this stuff, it sound, at least from my experience, it sounds kind of goofy. It sounds woowoo. It sounds like, I don't know about this hippie dippy stuff, and I was very straight edge and not really interested in in things like this.
00;11;45;24 - 00;12;07;26
Steven Pesavento
But for me, the the short version is that I had massive headaches for years and I couldn't figure out how to get rid of them. And then I had a person show up into my life who had happened to have worked with Richard Branson, Oprah and Maria Shriver and had this incredible ability to literally heal people. And, it's a story for another day.
00;12;07;28 - 00;12;40;23
Steven Pesavento
But after having that experience, it opened up my eyes to another world that was there, another world that's possible. And it's fascinating how, you know, in the space, people use words like ceremony and healing and things like that. But at the core of it, essentially breathwork, you're just breathing. You're breathing only through your mouth. You're doing it very intensely, and it puts your body into a state that really can unlock, another level of thinking, another, you know, level of release of emotions.
00;12;40;23 - 00;13;10;00
Steven Pesavento
And, there's some crazy stories that we could get into about things that I've experienced or the police coming to my house while I was doing breathwork and releasing emotional trauma and and then laughing when I told them that I was meditating and, you know, some wild things, but the, the core point and the reason I thought it was worth us talking about is that there is other ways of dealing with challenges in your life beyond the traditional medical system that can truly make a difference.
00;13;10;00 - 00;13;28;06
Steven Pesavento
And the truth is that when you make that change on that level, with that frequency, it can open up a ton of capabilities for you to then in your work in business and investing life, to start attracting money and income and success and happiness into your life from such a better place.
00;13;28;08 - 00;13;50;17
Dom Farnan
Yeah, yeah, I agree. I mean, breathwork became, kind of staple in my wellness kit for sure. And it's something I led. ceremonies with my parents and invited my whole family to do one and had a facilitator come in, and we had 20 people in our family that had never experienced this, and it was really powerful. And it was deeply healing.
00;13;50;20 - 00;13;57;10
Dom Farnan
and there's variations of it, you know, there's some that you can do in the morning for five minutes by yourself, and there's other ones that will take you really deep.
00;13;57;13 - 00;14;37;11
Steven Pesavento
Yeah. So shifting gears, maybe we'll come back to other forms of exploratory things, noted Joe Dispenza and others. But let's talk a little bit about what you do professionally to kind of tie this in to the world of not only recruiting, but advising and building a business. So after going on this journey, how did your business shift? And just as a reference, you've worked with huge, big name brands from across the world, maybe share a couple and then talk to us a little bit about how you're bringing in this new way of looking at the world to helping businesses create more culture.
00;14;37;13 - 00;15;00;29
Dom Farnan
Yeah. So for a long time I was a consultant and solo. I probably worked with 400 and something companies before I built my team, and we collectively work with 100 and something over the last few years, including Samsung and Snapchat and Qualcomm and these big tech brands that you could think of. We've probably worked with them in some capacity.
00;15;01;01 - 00;15;27;14
Dom Farnan
It was interesting because when I started my team, I wasn't on this journey. So I wrote a book called Now Here My Journey from Toxic Boss to Conscious Connector, and it talks about this whole experience, because when I started my team, I was coming from a place of being solo and being the best and having a big ego and then wanting to train people on my approach to recruiting, which isn't rocket science, but I did it well, and so I wanted to scale that out.
00;15;27;16 - 00;15;58;05
Dom Farnan
But but I was a control freak. I was a perfectionist. I like I said, I had a big ego. so when I started my healing journey, I really wanted to invite my team to come along on the journey with me, but also call me forward and be able to hold me accountable. So that's when I changed my title to Chief Conscious Connector and really said, look, I'm going to embark on this conscious leadership journey, and I really want to try to lead from my heart and from an expanded state of awareness and all of this stuff.
00;15;58;07 - 00;16;25;03
Dom Farnan
Everybody was side eyeing me. My husband included, were like, yeah, good luck, you're crazy. This isn't going to work. Like nobody's going to be able to fix you and whatever. So I just trusted the process. But in this, as I started to deepen the connection with myself and my spirituality and heal some core trauma and do all of the things I was doing, like I mentioned before, I brought a lot of this work back to my team.
00;16;25;03 - 00;16;58;03
Dom Farnan
We would do breathwork and meditation on zoom because we were a big global team. some of them I sent to certain retreats for healing, others I just, you know, we incorporated consciousness into our culture. We won 6 or 7 awards in a year or two around those efforts, and really created a culture of enrollment where everybody was enrolled in their own role and contributing to the vision in support of the values, living and behavior and principles and all those things just started to work together.
00;16;58;06 - 00;17;24;02
Dom Farnan
It wasn't perfect. It was bumpy. It took 18 months to overhaul my culture. that's when we got on Inc for the for the last couple of years, because we experienced 187% growth over three years. But it was challenging, you know, it was challenging. And at the same time, right now we're in such a different place. So right now I'm solo again and we had our big, massive growth.
00;17;24;02 - 00;17;43;07
Dom Farnan
And then a lot of things shifted in our, industry and in hiring and significantly slowed down. And so middle of last year, I started to wind down my team and really determined what I wanted to do next. And maybe start to climb my third mountain, which is kind of where I'm at today.
00;17;43;09 - 00;18;01;21
Steven Pesavento
Well, I think there's something so powerful in that. The first thing is that when, a visionary, a leader, a CEO goes through any kind of change and that change, their then bringing back to their team, there's going to be people on that team who no longer are in alignment with that vision.
00;18;01;23 - 00;18;02;09
Dom Farnan
Percent.
00;18;02;11 - 00;18;20;25
Steven Pesavento
With those values. And so there's always going to be kind of a change that happens as a result of that. The the irony is that can be very scary and it can create a lot of resistance. And it often can stop people from wanting to make the change that they know is going to be good for them, because they know there's going to be an impact on people around them.
00;18;20;27 - 00;18;36;25
Steven Pesavento
How did you look at that as you were pursuing this change personally? Because I feel like it's very valuable for others to hear that, that this is okay and this is something to expect.
00;18;36;27 - 00;18;58;25
Dom Farnan
Yeah, it's kind of a natural process. I think you have mentors and other people in community when you're starting to do that, a level of personal development work or inner work or healing or whatever you want to call it. when you surround yourself with community and people who have walked the path before you, then it doesn't feel as scary and you can start to unpack some of the things that you're saying.
00;18;58;25 - 00;19;15;04
Dom Farnan
Because for me, people were questioning me and my family was, pushing back on me and making it challenging and in some cases triggering me to see, like, is she really going to freak out or is she healed? You know, like there was fights literally with my husband where we'd be like, well, I thought you were healed, but you're not.
00;19;15;04 - 00;19;39;12
Dom Farnan
You're just back on your same old vibes, right? And so the interesting thing about all of this was like, yes, I'm starting to walk this new path, but I'm still a human being in the same body that I've always, ever been. So I still am triggered. I still have a lot of stuff I'm working through. It doesn't mean that just because I make this choice of like, I want to be in my higher self all the time that I'm going to be, you know, it's still life.
00;19;39;12 - 00;20;04;01
Dom Farnan
And so I think you have to you learn to give yourself grace through your experience and come from a place of compassion and acceptance and acknowledgment that everything is welcome. Your full range of experience is welcome. And I felt like for me, I stopped judging myself, even stop judging myself on my like healing because initially I was like, well, I want to heal these ten things and then I'm great.
00;20;04;01 - 00;20;22;00
Dom Farnan
And it's like, no, it's like whack a mole. You heal one thing and then 85 other things pop up and you know, you can go on forever. Also, you realize that the journey is the way. There is no destination that you arrive at, and then you put your stake in the ground and go finally, it's all done. You know, it's never like that.
00;20;22;02 - 00;20;45;00
Steven Pesavento
Yeah it is. It's a challenging place to go from being an achiever, perfectionist, outward focused, emotionally suppressed to a place where you are now opening up in a different way. You're trying to connect with people in a different way. And for those people who have been close to you for many years, there's a trust factor of, is this real?
00;20;45;03 - 00;21;04;10
Steven Pesavento
Is this a short term thing? Is this a game, a strategy? And yet when we go through that process, we strengthen our ability to show up. The more times that we do that over and over again, and those people begin to have a higher level of trust in the fact that that is who we are and why we're doing the things we're doing.
00;21;04;13 - 00;21;26;24
Steven Pesavento
There almost has to be this testing. It's the universe or whatever you believe in. Is there to challenge us so that we can step into that growth. And so with this shift in your business, what is it that you are uncovering next as far as focusing on creating an income and creating an impact out in the world?
00;21;26;26 - 00;21;50;22
Dom Farnan
Okay, yeah. So it's been quite a journey. You know, after I wrapped up most of my team middle of last year, I took July to regroup with myself because it was crazy growth and all of this happening. And then I needed a minute. So I spent the summer walking my son to the beach, and that was beautiful. And then I started to feel like, okay, I want to get busy again in August or September and figure out what I want to do.
00;21;50;22 - 00;22;16;29
Dom Farnan
So at the time, I decided to start experimenting with coaching and having my own level of coaching clients, both one on one and group coaching within companies, bringing conscious leadership into teams. and so that's a bit of what I do. And then as luck would have it, I started hearing from former clients and recruiting tiny little clients that they wanted my recruiting help again, thinking I had my team still, but I don't.
00;22;16;29 - 00;22;35;00
Dom Farnan
So I have also started recruiting hands on again, which has been, I'll just say, a spiritual experience in and of itself because you know, I was leading a team, training a team of recruiters for a long time, and now I went back into the seat. And for a long time, like the first few weeks, I felt like I was an imposter.
00;22;35;00 - 00;23;06;28
Dom Farnan
Like, I don't even know if I can do this. I haven't, like, physically been in the seat for a while. but it was also a confidence boost because within a matter of a week, it felt really, really good for me. It felt good to be back into recruiting like my roots, but at the same time, from this higher level of consciousness where I was unattached to a lot of the things when I recruited before, before I even hired my team, I was super high strung, very stressed out, people pleasing, constantly being projected on and absorbing everything.
00;23;07;05 - 00;23;26;23
Dom Farnan
So a candidate would yell at me, the hiring manager would yell at me. I would take all that on all day and I would wear it. And it was really heavy. And now I lead from a different place with my clients, so I get to kind of bounce between these avatars of coach, recruiter, career coach and like all these different sides of myself.
00;23;26;23 - 00;23;28;18
Dom Farnan
And it's been a lot of fun.
00;23;28;21 - 00;23;45;05
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, it's really powerful also, to be able to let go of the ego, of being a leader of many and being in that position to then going back to doing the thing that brought you to that in the first place, but doing it from a different energy, from a place where.
00;23;45;08 - 00;23;45;11
Dom Farnan
You're.
00;23;45;11 - 00;24;06;08
Steven Pesavento
Enjoying it and you're feeling the fulfillment. So you've obviously built business, you've made a great income, you're now back in a transitionary period. What role has investing played in your life, whether that is investing in the market, investing in businesses, in real estate, in yourself, in a variety of things?
00;24;06;10 - 00;24;33;27
Dom Farnan
Yeah, I've done all of the above. So I'm currently an investor in, a small location called, Shine Sedona, and it's a healing studio in Sedona led by Anahita Ananda. She's amazing. I was at a retreat with her a few years ago, and so I went in an investment with her in 2021. And then I'm also an investor in an app called source, and they are, leading the human energy crisis regeneration movement.
00;24;33;27 - 00;24;48;11
Dom Farnan
So it's an app with coaching and also tracking your heart rate variability. It's like they said of aura. And, if aura and something else had a baby and ditched the hardware, that's like what you would get on the source app.
00;24;48;19 - 00;24;49;15
Steven Pesavento
Yeah.
00;24;49;17 - 00;25;01;14
Dom Farnan
So I've invested in businesses, I've invested in real estate. I currently still have this house that we rebuilt and live in, and then I've done a lot of investing in myself and I've got to be honest, like, to me, that's the biggest ROI.
00;25;01;16 - 00;25;23;08
Steven Pesavento
I, I couldn't agree more. I think investing in yourself does lead to the biggest ROI, and it's the place that everything else starts from and comes from, because you get to continually take those skills, that energy, and be able to reapply in different ways. And so I think it's it's a really valuable thing for people to recognize that when going through transition, things are going to change.
00;25;23;08 - 00;25;40;07
Steven Pesavento
Some of the things you wanted to change, some of the things you don't want to change. But at the end of the day, if you know what your outcome is and for you what I'm hearing, let me know if I'm wrong, was to truly create a better connection with yourself, the world, your family, and to do so from a different energetic place.
00;25;40;12 - 00;26;03;11
Steven Pesavento
And so with that, as the focus, some of the other monetary things will fall away. But from that new place now you can start bringing in new income streams. But on the investing side, I think it's it's a cool place to be able to outline for people because a lot of folks, you know, I run a private equity company, we invest in businesses and in real estate and, you know, we create really strong returns.
00;26;03;11 - 00;26;29;18
Steven Pesavento
And people are 100% hands off, meaning they invest the capital and they get 80 to 90% of the returns. But in the position that you're in, both as an advisor and investor, you get to take your skills alongside your capital and deploy those into helping grow a business. Talk to us a little bit about what that's been like, being able to bring your unique expertise and helping other business owners do what they do.
00;26;29;20 - 00;26;52;02
Dom Farnan
Yeah, I think that's been the most fun. So working on the source platform and with that team in particular, has brought me a lot of joy and fulfillment because it feels very aligned. And Jessica Corbin, the CEO, just really practices what she preaches as a regenerative leader leading this movement of regenerative business, which again, is going to be like, what are these terms?
00;26;52;02 - 00;27;21;06
Dom Farnan
And this is Woowoo and all this stuff. The bottom line is it is the future of work, and it's removing this mechanistic top down dominator power structure and making it more co-creative partnership, where everybody together in the collective, has to work together to see the results, just like the cycles of nature. Right. And how how everything in nature kind of works together to regenerate and regrow and, and all of that.
00;27;21;06 - 00;27;45;10
Dom Farnan
But working in an environment like that with a leader like that has taught me so much to me. I always say to her like, she's the most solid, unwavering example of a leader that I've been able to work alongside. And so it's been amazing to invest, but also be in it with them, building and helping them shape, you know, how they're going to market, what we're going to do as far as product and all of that.
00;27;45;12 - 00;28;14;17
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, it's a really cool place to be because yes, you can invest in something that you're going to operate and do all the work. And yes, you can invest into something where you're passive, like the stock market or private traded fund like we do. But there's something special about being able to take a skill and an expertise that you have, and being able to use that to help somebody else on their mission, while also having a profit benefit and earning more as a result of that.
00;28;14;19 - 00;28;39;03
Dom Farnan
Yeah. The other thing I'm thinking about, too, is I reimagine what my company 2.0 and recruiting in the future is looking at taking equity. in the the searches that I'm running with the startups that I'm working with instead of actually making money, you know, off a retainer or anything like that, really being in it with them and invested and helping them grow their companies at scale.
00;28;39;03 - 00;28;42;16
Dom Farnan
So I'm excited about kind of exploring that idea.
00;28;42;19 - 00;29;12;12
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, I think there's a powerful opportunity because a lot of startups can't necessarily afford to pay 30 or 40% of what that person's wage is going to be, and to be able to participate as a kind of a key team member. so as we get close to wrapping up here, I've got a couple more questions. But before I do, I want to give you an opportunity to share where people can follow you or, grab a copy of your book.
00;29;12;15 - 00;29;28;22
Dom Farnan
Yeah. So my book, you can easily get it on Amazon or other online book retailers. You can follow me on Instagram at. I am Dom Farnan and I'm also on LinkedIn, Dom Farnan. And then my website is Dom farnan.com.
00;29;28;24 - 00;29;53;11
Steven Pesavento
Yeah. Well, so when we're looking at a company, culture and culture is extremely important for, a huge number of reasons. What are some of the things that you see are the biggest problems that people are dealing with culturally? And, and how do you approach that from a conscious perspective towards seeing change happen?
00;29;53;14 - 00;30;18;26
Dom Farnan
Yeah, I think that the culture is a reflection of the consciousness of the leader. So I think it's really important for people who are in leadership positions to actually take that seriously and respect it if they want to and, take responsibility and ownership for what that means for me. Before I started my journey, I was a leader of a team.
00;30;18;26 - 00;30;38;15
Dom Farnan
We probably had 30 people on the team, and my team was a mess and people weren't communicating and things weren't getting done. And there was drama and gossip, and I just pointed the finger out to everybody like, oh my gosh, you guys, this place is a mess, blah, blah, blah. Okay, really? Well, who's at the top of that and who is at the top of that?
00;30;38;22 - 00;30;58;23
Dom Farnan
And you know, maybe look in the mirror and see what you need to do to, you know, make some enhancements. And so I often start with that when, when leaders come to me with my culture is broken or this or that, it's like, okay, we're not even talk about your team. We're not talking about you. That's where we need to start.
00;30;58;25 - 00;31;18;06
Dom Farnan
and I think once you take that level of accountability and responsibility, then you can start working through stuff with your team. Right after this session, I have a discovery call with a client who wants help, you know, overhauling their culture. And really, I'm going to take it back to, as the CEO, what is your role in helping to set the tone?
00;31;18;08 - 00;31;42;08
Dom Farnan
Because whether you like it or not, if you're in that leadership role, people are looking to you to lead and you know, it's it's not on everybody else who reports into your who reports into your managers. They are contributors to the culture. But you've got to set the tone and you have to embody, your values, your values needs a ladder up to a vision that you're able to paint and articulate and get people excited about.
00;31;42;10 - 00;32;03;06
Dom Farnan
You know, how we did this very practically within my team was finally in 2022, I wrote a big vivid vision statement. That was a two year outlook. It took me three months to write it with an editor. And then I had a meeting in July of 22 where I had basically like a rally, all hands articulated this vision.
00;32;03;08 - 00;32;26;11
Dom Farnan
It was funny because I had 100 and something people on the zoom, and I really wanted my leadership team to watch their body language, to see who was excited, to see who was bored, to see who wasn't on camera. And I also invited those people like, hey, if this doesn't resonate with you, will then you know what? Now is probably a good time for us to talk about where you can go that's not in our company, and we'll help you exit.
00;32;26;14 - 00;32;33;13
Dom Farnan
And we had some people leave, and that was totally good with us at that point in time. So really, I think it starts with leadership.
00;32;33;15 - 00;32;54;20
Steven Pesavento
Yeah. It's super important to be willing to draw a line in the sand of this is the standard that we set. These are the vision, the values. And if it's not a fit, we're happy to find you something. That is I think a lot of leaders are in, a fear place where they know that they, need the team members and they want everyone to be on board.
00;32;54;23 - 00;33;04;07
Steven Pesavento
But if you're not willing to be in a position to have somebody leave if they're not a fit, then you're not in a position to actually change culture.
00;33;04;10 - 00;33;23;12
Dom Farnan
Yeah, exactly. Like if you have a toxic team member and people know it and you keep them around as a leader, it's so damaging and demoralizing for your culture. It's it's almost one of the things that you can't recover from. You have to be able like if somebody has a bad attitude and just generally isn't a great, nice person to work with, those people stick around.
00;33;23;12 - 00;33;28;03
Dom Farnan
Sometimes they have bad attitudes and they get away with it because they're high performers, you know?
00;33;28;05 - 00;33;28;28
Steven Pesavento
00;33;29;00 - 00;33;39;28
Dom Farnan
Like you have to exit them. Otherwise you're setting a tone and a precedent and you'll lose your your top people over time because people don't want to be around that. They want to be around other high vibe top performers.
00;33;40;00 - 00;33;59;16
Steven Pesavento
Yeah. Well, I know a lot of listeners are business owners or leaders in companies. And, you know, finding the right talent is is an absolutely critical skill. What are some of the things that people can do to not only attract those people, but be able to bring them into the company, to to be able to fulfill that vision?
00;33;59;18 - 00;34;20;18
Dom Farnan
Yeah. I think, you know, I'm coming out with a course called Hiring with intention, because I think you have to be intentional about the type of business that you want to build. And the team members that you know will contribute to it. So really fleshing out your vision is important. Then fleshing out your values, but not just talking about your values and putting them on your website, embodying them.
00;34;20;21 - 00;34;41;15
Dom Farnan
How do you show up? What are the behaviors that support value X that we say is important to us? Nobody is going to trust you if you talk about it all day, but you don't actually be about it. You know, that's that's an important thing. We overhauled my company values and I got on a call once with my team and I asked them, all right, so what are our company values?
00;34;41;17 - 00;34;58;09
Dom Farnan
Then it was crickets and nobody said anything. I'm like, oh that's interesting. Then they're googling and trying to find them on our website. And I'm like, so nobody on this call knows our values. That's concerning to me. But all it tells me is that I'm not the one that's bringing it forward and embodying it and setting the standard for what I expect.
00;34;58;09 - 00;35;21;04
Dom Farnan
Right. So I think it's important to really have a clear conviction around that and be able to structure your hiring process. Also, understanding like technically, what are the technical skills that each person needs to do, but what are the cultural contributors? You don't want to hire a bunch of the same people. You want diversity. You want innovation. You want differences in opinion and thoughts.
00;35;21;06 - 00;35;27;15
Dom Farnan
And so I think that that's another thing that people want should consider when, you know, coming up, their hiring plans.
00;35;27;18 - 00;35;45;29
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. Well, let's wrap up on this, Dom. So for the people who are listening and they're in a position where they want to change the culture at their company, they want to change their own personal connection or culture that they are experiencing. Personally. What is it that you recommend that they do?
00;35;45;29 - 00;35;54;18
Steven Pesavento
If they know they want to do it, but they just can't seem to make it happen?
00;35;54;21 - 00;36;20;28
Dom Farnan
Yeah, I would I would sit with the question, you know, why and who do you want to be? You know, who are you becoming? Who do you want to be. Why is that important? And then you can kind of start to play around with the how. But I don't think the house as important as really understanding this. The question of why and what your purpose is and generally when you can really unpack that.
00;36;20;28 - 00;36;42;05
Dom Farnan
And this could be through a meditation, this could be through a nature walk, whatever you call it, microdosing, whatever you do, it can come to you. But once you have some clarity around that, generally, like you said earlier, other things will fall away and your path will be cleared. Once you really have an idea of what it is that you're here to do.
00;36;42;05 - 00;37;03;06
Dom Farnan
So for me, I think all of this had to happen for me to end up back in the house in new Jersey that I never thought I'd live in after we lost it to a hurricane, to start at the bottom again, to start at the bottom of this new mountain that I'm deciding to climb, with the motivation being completely unattached from anything to do with money.
00;37;03;06 - 00;37;21;00
Dom Farnan
Because now I'm here to live my purpose and I keep being called forward. And it's a lot bigger than just making money recruiting, you know what I mean? That has nothing to do with who I'm trying to become and why I'm doing what I'm doing now. So, maybe it's sit with that question.
00;37;21;02 - 00;37;28;08
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, well that's beautiful. Well, Dom, thanks so much for joining us. And thanks for listening. We'll see you all in the next episode.
00;37;28;10 - 00;37;29;00
Dom Farnan
Thanks a lot.