Libby Wagner & Owen Ó Súilleabháin / Beautiful Business Podcast
Business Artistry & The Studio with Libby Wagner & Owen Ó Súilleabháin
“When we approach our world like a work of art, suddenly things start to flow and we start to move in conversation with the world around us and things start to change.”
— Owen Ó Súilleabháin
In this episode, Steven Morris, Libby Wagner, and Owen Ó Súilleabháin discuss:
- Commodifying arts and the artistry of conversation
- What does artistry really mean?
- Reverence and humility
- Beauty in business, in leadership, and in life
Key Takeaways:
- Conversation is an art form and it’s more studied in companies or businesses.
- Artistry is the impulse and the yearning to create. It’s the genius that visits us. It could also be a need that arises.
- Reverence is humility. It’s about creating and nourishing what has been created. It is also honoring the world of possibilities and really serving for the greater good of those around them.
- People want a beautiful life and a beautiful business but of course, corruption and loneliness is ever-present in an imperfect world. Once a leader comes face to face with this reality and attains humility, we admit that we want a different way. We have to let go of models, ideas, and mindsets that aren’t serving us.
Get “The Beautiful Business” book by clicking on this link: https://the-beautiful-business.com/
Check out The Studio: https://studioleadership.com/
Connect With Libby Wagner
Website http://www.libbywagner.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/libbywagner/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/boardroompoet
Twitter: https://twitter.com/boardroompoet
Connect WIth Owen Ó Súilleabháin
Website: https://www.owenandmoley.com/ | https://www.pbs.org/video/owen-and-moley-o-suilleabhain-eksjuw/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/owen-%C3%B3-s%C3%BAilleabh%C3%A1in-95422b3/
My Two Podcast Questions:
How would you describe a “beautiful business?” And, is there an example of a beautiful business you know or have worked with?
I think a beautiful business is a business that comes out of what we described when we were talking about the circle of artistry and that it begins with, dare I say, a holy or sacred intention. And that it means to do something better or worthwhile in the world, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s entrepreneurial or, corporate and that there is a way of doing, well by doing good. And, that it’s that its people and its processes and its profits are all aligned with something that matters. And, it’s evolutionary. It evolves. This means that sometimes it may begin and end, and that this existed for the time it did, because it was supposed to, and now, it’s, not anymore, but yeah, I think without looking at the definition, that’s the official definition in the book.
— Libby Wagner
I think it’s a self-diagnosing condition and we navigate that individually, each person has their own definition of what that means. And we find that path by listening to what has been called our conscience and attuning our inner ear to the voice of our conscience is something that is practice space. We can lose, we can be able to practice with that. And some people are highly attuned to their conscience and know when you’re on the right road, or when you’re right, when you’ve strayed from the right path. And when we stray from the right path, we allow other voices to drown the voice of the conscience. And we can become a bit related to that much so that we don’t hear the conscience anymore, but yet a part of us knows that something’s not right. And something there’s, something that there’s something on the other side of things. The beautiful thing is too, we can re-tune our ear quite quickly to that conscience, and we can break through the other, the cacophony and the noise that we’ve allowed into our, world. It’s a, very personal thing. It’s a very individual thing. And each one of us knows whether we’re on that path and whether we’re straying from it ourselves.
— Owen Ó Súilleabháin
Libby’s choice for a Beautiful Business:
“In the past year, I’ve done quite a lot of work with community health care organizations across the US these are federally funded organizations that provide health care in either areas that are underrepresented or people don’t have access. These are my clients and I love them. I would say that the work of many healthcare organizations in the last year was quite beautiful. They persevered, they stayed connected, they dealt with trauma. They cared about each other.”
— Libby Wagner
Owen’s choice for a Beautiful Business:
“I work with an organizations and insurance broker firm in the bay area. And I work with a leader there of about 400. And he’s managed to steer that company through the chaos, the wild, crazy world of the last year and a half, or more, and without, having to lay anyone off. Wow. That’s been a prime focus of his, service. And he could have really made his life a lot easier by stepping back a bit and retiring that I could have just retired, a lot of people did, but was that the right thing to do at the right time? I believe he was.
I love the, whole local turn people working locally in their communities, very, small local businesses, crafts, agriculture, the organic, there’s a local family farm here that we get our, our vegetables from in the, in their third generation. Again, the younger generation could leave the farm, but if they did, I dunno, where I get my organic vegetables from. So that’s beautiful and precious, I would give them anything they want to support what they do.”
— Owen Ó Súilleabháin
What “Non-Business Book for Business Leaders” would you recommend?
Libby Wagner recommends:
Travels with Charley
Description from Amazon: An intimate journey across America, as told by one of its most beloved writers. To hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the trees, to see the colors and the light—these were John Steinbeck’s goals as he set out, at the age of fifty-eight, to rediscover the country he had been writing about for so many years.
Owen Ó Súilleabháin Recommends:
Early Music
Description from Amazon: This debut collection of poetry by Irish musician Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin illuminates deep themes of human experience with a profound, unwavering eye. With chapters titled Admonition, Love, Belief, Water and Myth, the poems display a true virtuoso’s ear for rhythm and language, leading the reader through joyful, mythical and surprising landscapes with articulate, soulful cadence.
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