Leo Flowers shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Leo, really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
The first 90 minutes of my day look like me waking up journaling; writing down my goals and dreams and things I’m grateful for along with any grievances for the moment. I referred to them as my 4G‘s; ghost grievances, gratitude, and goals.
Then I spend some time reading something nourishing that feeds me like Pima children or the daily stoic or Marcus Aurelius‘s meditations or even a Bible proverb.
After a journal after I read, I will go for a walk. Try to get anywhere from 10 to 15,000 steps in. Sometimes I’m listening to a podcast on audiobook and sometimes I’m just chewing on my own box and trying to find clarity where there might be chaos
Then I come home and I do some HRV breathing five seconds and five seconds out for a few minutes.
Somewhere there, I would’ve kissed my girlfriend on the forehead and said good morning. Gave her a nice little hug after. Also would’ve drank a liter of water with a little bit of squeeze lemon and some sea salt as an electrolyte concoction.
After walking, I would do some of my physical therapy exercises. Just had a laminectomy, which is a back surgery for my sciatica going down both legs.
When all that is done, I take a three minute cold shower. At the end of my day I like to do a hot Epson salt bath.
Then I get to work.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
So the name of my company is thrive with Leo LLC and the mission is to make peoples lives better. I read a book on Zen and it mentioned the intention of leaving things better than how you found it. So I like to leave people better than how I found them.
And this is achieved through three means one through stand-up comedy. I travel the world doing stand up whether I’m performing in clubs colleges on cruise ships and even for companies I’ve even performed for a few private events and birthday parties. With my Comedy I’m not just trying to be funny but also have a message and tell my story..
My second moyd is via my podcast where it’s a suicide prevention podcast. I have a masters and counseling psychology and my thesis was on preventing suicide and African-American males. My podcast now is geared towards everyone not just African-American males. We’re at almost 800 episodes and we’ve had some fantastic guests like Dr. Andrew Huberman, Dr. Laurie Gottlieb, Singers actors and anyone with a live experience and suicidality.
My last mode of leaving things better than how I found them is through coaching. People who have checked all the boxes in their life, and yet are struggling to find meaning. People who feel lost and want to get back on track.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What breaks the bonds between people—and what restores them?
What breaks the bonds between people is not what it said, but it’s typically what is unsaid. If you ever said “I love you” to someone and they didn’t say it back that sticks with you.
If you’ve never said “please” thank “thank you“ “I’m sorry“ “tell me more,” “I was thinking about you the other day…” all of these things when left unsaid accumulate and can add up to hurt, pain.
We can restore this broken bond between people through follow up questions. Like “hey I’m not sure I handled our conversation in the best way last night. Just wanna follow up and see how you felt about it and are feeling about it.”
Following up is such a great way to let the person know that one you’re thinking about them and two you care about them in three that you’re acknowledging that you’re not always right or aware. This then opens up more conversations of deeper connection and intimacy and vulnerability.
Ultimately leading to a mountain of trust.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
The Buddhist say that life is suffering and if you’re lucky you get to pick your own suffering. I like that because you can’t control whether or not you’ll be successful. You can’t control the outcome of anything however we can control our effort in the energy we put into things..
As a result, the question isn’t whether or not I’m gonna suffer because it is a part of life. The question is will the suffering lead to any growth and be something that I can build on so I’m not undergoing the same suffering that leads to insanity and also when you get to pick your own suffering, that is what build your confidence. However, if you feel like you’re suffering is always external and people are making you do things and forcing you to do things then that only feels a resentment, anger and despair.
Basically suffering teaches you the power of choice.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Whom do you admire for their character, not their power?
The person I admire for their character is this lady in my old neighborhood I used to live in Marina del Rey, California and on occasion, I would see this lady who is over 65 and always dressed to the nines had to tow everything on her body while bought out the patterns to color it fit she always look like she was going to an event
One day, I ran into her at a grocery store and asked her why she dresses so sharply what does she do for work? She responded that she is retired but one should always start the day with intention. She used to be an architect.
She is someone wide admire for her character because even when no one is watching and when there’s not an office that she’s going into she still gets up out of bed every day and dresses herself as if she’s going somewhere and I discovered that she buys fresh ingredients daily to cook for herself. I love people who see the value of themselves and hold themselves to a higher degree of excellence even when no one is watching.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
If I had 10 years left, I wouldn’t stop doing anything. Every day I’m moving with intention extremely grateful for what is in my life and recognize the blessings of being able to save or my friendships relationships and the work that I do. I’m on the path I meant to be on
Contact Info:
- Website: https://LeoFlowers.com
- Instagram: @leoflowers2000
- Youtube: @LeoFlowers
