IAM2321 – Author and Speaker Helps Build an Eco-Sustainable Community

Teresa de Grosbois is a globally recognized authority on influence and leadership, and the founder of Vista Mundo, a retreat center in Costa Rica.

Teresa is also a four-time international bestselling author and focuses on conscious leadership, personal growth, and empowering others to lead with influence.

Teresa discusses her creation of Vista Mundo, an eco-sustainable community in Costa Rica – the retreat center serves as a hub for people seeking to reconnect with nature, practice sustainable living, and explore leadership.

She emphasizes that the community is a collaboration of visionaries, each contributing their dreams to shape the ideal space of conscious living.

She highlights how living and working with such a supportive and dynamic community has enriched her growth.

Teresa shares a practical hack for entrepreneurs: the power of taking a moment to breathe and calm your mind.

Furthermore, she discusses how meditation and quieting the fear-driven, primitive brain can help entrepreneurs trust their inner wisdom and make better decisions.

Website: Vista Mundo Retreat

Linkedin: Teresa de Grosbois

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Transcription:

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Teresa de Grosbois Teaser 00:00

If we let our left brain rule the show and let our primitive brain rule the show, because a lot of times there's a lot of fear, dialogue going on at a subconscious level for human beings in general.

And when you learn to override that, when you learn to live more intentionally, more consciously, as people say a lot of possibility opens up in life.

So many entrepreneurs are starting to realize this now. You know people who are living really big lives, living their dreams.

Intro 00:29

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:56

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have an awesome guest back on the show today. I have Teresa. Teresa, excited to have you on the show.

Teresa de Grosbois 01:05

It's great to be here. Thanks for having me, Gresh.

Gresham Harkless 01:07

Yes, I'm super excited to have you on. We had such a great conversation before, so I'm super excited to dive in to hear a little bit more about all the awesome work that Teresa's doing.

And of course, before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about Teresa so you can hear about some of those awesome things.

And Teresa is a globally recognized authority on influence and leadership. A four-time international best-selling author and the founder of Vista Mundo.

A retreat center in the mountains of Costa Rica. Vista Mundo serves as a hub for individuals and leaders seeking to reconnect with nature, explore sustainable living and foster impactful communities.

With a focus on conscious leadership and personal growth. Teresa has hosted workshops, writers retreats, and leadership programs that attract participants from all across the world.

Her mission is to empower others to lead with influence and build meaningful legacies, whether through entrepreneurship, personal development, or adopting a more mindful approach to life.

And Teresa was a guest on episode 557 of our I AM CEO Podcast and she does so many awesome and profound and I can't come up with so many accolades on how impactful she is as a leader.

But one of the things I really loved that, she talked about in her book, we talked about a little bit in our previous episode was that influence can be something that is learned.

And I think so many times we don't think of it as a skill, but to be able to kind of adopt that and kind of understand the steps that, that we can take to be more influential and how that can impact our lives, worlds, societies in so many different ways is truly, truly remarkable.

So, Teresa, excited to have you back on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Teresa de Grosbois 02:42

Absolutely, thank you.

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Gresham Harkless 02:44

Awesome. Well, let's get it started then. So to kind of kick everything off, let's hear a little bit more on what you've been working on, what I like to call your CEO story and how you've been, you've been making such an impact since we last spoke.

Teresa de Grosbois 02:55

Well, I think you already know the story of me founding the Evolutionary Business Council and leading or helping people trying to become thought leaders and just stepping their games up to really cause shift and change in the world.

But I think since we last spoke, a lot of us at the Evolutionary Business Council started realizing, we really do need some like, better boots on the ground, more one-on-one community developed.

And that inspired me to found an actual physical community here in Costa Rica, which is the Vista Mundo community, the heart center of which is the Vista Mundo Retreat center, which I own.

And it's been a lot of fun. Like we have had speakers, trainers, authors, people who are just interested in empowerment and living consciously, people interested in longevity coming to visit us from all over the world. And it's actually been one of the funniest things I've ever done.

Gresham Harkless 03:50

Yeah, I can definitely imagine that. So I guess could you take us through a little bit more on like, what you're doing there so that we could kind of get a better, I guess, glimpse into like everything that you've done and are looking to kind of do to make that impact.

Teresa de Grosbois 04:02

Well, I'd call us an evolution of all the communities that are building eco-sustainable communities around the world, which I love that notion of getting back to basics and building.

But when we thought about building an eco-sustainable community, we also started asking the question, what if we were also like a transformational community, like a community founded on the principles of consciousness.

And by that I just mean, in alignment with all the research that says, if we let our left brain rule the show and let, our primitive brain rule the show.

Because a lot of times there's a lot of fear dialogue going on at a subconscious level for human beings in general.

And when you learn to override that, when you learn to live more intentionally, more consciously, as people say a lot of possibility opens up in life.

So many entrepreneurs are starting to realize this now. People who are living really big lives, living their dreams.

And so we created that we were not only going to be an eco sustainable community, like biophilic, food forest, growing, the food that we eat, that kind of idea, not at a really rigorous level, but trying the best we could to eat locally and eat sustainably.

But we also wanted to be a community that drew in people who believe and teach principles of consciousness.

So right now, for example, there's not only a group of people here on site that, love the idea of sustainable living and love the idea of living in a conscious, empowered way, but three of them happen to be trainers that teach the stuff.

And so, it's interesting because anytime anybody's struggling with something, there's like a coach right outside your door or someone who can support you right outside your door to help you move to a more powerful place so that you can really create amazing things in your life.

Gresham Harkless 05:59

Yeah. That ends up being so powerful. It's kind of, for lack of better term, kind of taking your own medicine, so to speak.

But it sounds so transformational in the sense that of course you're doing that there in that environment and that in that place.

But also, the people are also teaching kind of like the same thing. So it ends up being, so much powerful, very similar to lead to everything you've been able to do and being able to build, to be able to kind of not just, give people fish, but actually teach them how to fish and how impactful that could be, so to speak.

Teresa de Grosbois 06:26

Yeah. In some ways, it's a grand experiment. Right. Because we're really looking for the visionaries that'll help us figure out what does this need to be, and so we're kind of creating it as we go.

It's really cool when you pull in people who have a lot of personal flow and a lot of synchronicity to them because I don't think I could have dreamed as big as the vision of this community is starting to get.

I needed other people to bring their dreams here, too, and help, create a merger of everybody's idea of, okay, if we were going to build heaven on earth, what does it look like? We all have to get along.

So that means we have to be committed to resolving issues  in a very proactive and powerful way.

Gresham Harkless 07:15

Yeah, absolutely. And I don't know if this is part of like your secret sauce, the thing you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique.

But I almost feel like sometimes when things are changing so rapidly and all these things are happening, we can sometimes dig our nails and our fingers and everything in to be resistant to that change.

But you seem to have this awareness of, I guess, the essence of human that journey, what it looks like, the vulnerability, the connection, just all those things and be okay with kind of not, saying it has to be this way, but you're open to that. Do you feel like that's part of, like what sets you apart and makes you unique?

Teresa de Grosbois 07:49

Yeah, it is the secret sauce, because one of the things I learned a long time ago is if I try and have all the answers, life is frickin boring.

And I think life is a lot more interesting when you don't try and be the smartest person in the room. One of the things I love about the group of individuals that's here right now is some of them are like amazing coaches and teachers, and I need help as much as the next person.

Like, I just this morning I got triggered by something like, I had a bit of a conflict with someone and it wasn't huge, but it was just really bothering me, I hadn't resolved it powerfully and I just walked downstairs and knocked on my neighbor's door and I'm like, I really need 10 minutes of coaching right now.

‘m obsessing about something and I need to be able to get this energy out of my space, like, because it's not sitting well with me.

And he worked with me for like 10 minutes and bang, just gone. Resolved, because often when we're upset, it's more about us than it is about the other person, and when you can get the upset out of your space, it's super easy then to go and know how to resolve that issue with the other person.

Because you're not coming at it from an upset place. You're just coming at it from a place of, okay, I just need to have healthy boundaries and a quick conversation.

And that's all it is, so I feel really blessed actually to be able to live here with this, not only live here in paradise, but with this group of people is pretty amazing.

Gresham Harkless 09:22

Yeah, it definitely sounds amazing and awesome to be able to kind of have space and create space for that.

But, I think so many times we feel like, and especially people that have been able to succeed so many things like you have.

We sometimes get lost in the sauce, so to speak, and say, we have to be the smartest person in the room, we have to know all the answers.

And I really hear, like the words that's coming up more than anything else is that ego word where we have to be bigger, better, stronger and show that.

But I think that we get to progress and we get to learn, we get to sharpen the saw, so to speak. And iron, sharpening iron happens when we don't have to have all the answers and being able to kind of dampen the ego so that we can learn.

And we can be better and we get more obsessed about the why, the impact that we can have rather than we have to do it this way or it has to be my way or I have to be the smartest person in the room.

Teresa de Grosbois 10:10

Yeah, I think that's where synchronicity becomes so important. It's one of the greatest traits we can ever have as a leader.

Whether you're a leader in corporate or whether you're an entrepreneur or just leading a session in something, is the whole notion of inquiry.

Like society used to teach us that if we were leading, we had to have all the answers and we had to be the one in command and in control.

And like, the new generation of leaders are really starting to get that. As you say, the secret sauce is inquiry, because usually if there's a problem, someone in the room knows the answer or somebody in the room has a really good suggestion.

But if you don't give space to ask the questions and go into inquiry, you don't give the opportunity to see who the universe has put in front of you.

Often there are genius level people sitting two feet away from you and you don't even know it because you're not opening up and being in inquiry around what their strengths and what their gifts are so there's some real strength in building community.

One of the things I love about Vista Mundo is that it's now an actual physical community. The conversations we have over dinner are just off the frickin charts, and that's just so cool.

Like the amount of personal growth you can get when you hang out with other really cool people is just incredible.

Gresham Harkless 11:33

Do you have something that you've leaned on that can help you maybe build up that trust so that we do listen to that voice and say that we're gonna actually follow it. Do you have anything that can kind of has helped out?

Teresa de Grosbois 11:45

I think the best hack any entrepreneur can do is breathe. Because like never underestimate the power of a 30-second meditation.

Calm that voice in your head that's saying can't, can't, alarm, alarm, fear, fear, gotta defend yourself, gotta look good.

I'm too small to play with the big kids, I'm too white, I'm too black, I'm too whatever, right? That little voice in the back of your head is constantly firing. Take a deep breath and quiet it down.

And then trust your gut. And it's amazing the inner wisdom that most of us have, and that's why you start we're now living in a time where billionaires are now talking about the power of meditation.

And how important that is, and isn't that cool, that we have people like Warren Buffett talking about how important it is to be able to quiet your fear-based primitive brain and not just live by your left brain, but live by heart consciousness.

Isn't that fascinating? So I really do think the best hack you can ever do is remember to just sit quietly and breathe.

Even if you do it every 20 minutes, just do it for 30 seconds and just come back to a place of nothingness and see what gets created for you from there.

Gresham Harkless 13:10

That's so powerful. And so I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. A little bit more word of wisdom or piece of advice.

But it might be something you would tell your younger business self if you were to hop into a time machine and potentially your favorite client. But what would you consider to be your CEO nugget?

Teresa de Grosbois 13:25

I would say don't be afraid to constantly shine a light on others. The more you bring out others genius and others gifts, the more you're in appreciative inquiry.

The more you allow other people to step into their own leadership and nurture leaders around you, the more your own leadership and influence will grow.

Gresham Harkless 13:48

Absolutely. Now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition, what it means to be a CEO.

And our goal is to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So Teresa, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Teresa de Grosbois 13:58

For me, I changed the acronym. I call it Chief Evolution Officer. Because I think when you're a leader at that level that you're not only looking after the evolution of your own organization, you're looking after the evolution of yourself and the individuals within it.

And the best organizations are those who are the guardians of the growth of the individuals within them.

And I don't just mean intellectual growth, although it includes intellectual growth. You've got to learn new skills, you've got to learn new knowledge. That's part of every organization.

But what about if you're the kind of organization that wants everybody within them to be the best versions of themselves?

I love the TV show Ted Lasso because that was such a, it's a comedy, but it was a profound example of when a leader is dedicated to the people under them becoming the best versions of themselves that they can possibly be what's possible in an organization.

And that's why I really think we should be calling it the Chief Evolution Officer, not the Chief Executive Officer.

Gresham Harkless 15:04

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Teresa, truly appreciate that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time even more.

So what I wanted to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and of course, how best people can get a hold of you, find about all the awesome things that you're working on.

Teresa de Grosbois 15:20

Well, I just want to say, come on down, get involved. If you're interested in finding out more about Vista Mundo or you want to host a retreat here or attend a course here, you can visit our website at thecostaricaretreat.com

And if you want to get involved in a bigger way and become one of the visionaries creating this amazing community, then feel free to visit us at vistamundo.info that's where we have our free course for people who are interested in potentially moving here.

And I just want to say personally, thank you, Gresham. I know you're up to some really big things in the world, too, and this show does so much good for so many people. I so appreciate you having me on.

Gresham Harkless 15:59

I really, truly appreciate you for coming here and adding a little bit of sparkle and ingredients to our overall environment.

But I love everything you're doing in Costa Rica as well, too, because I think for those people that are really trying to do phenomenal things, creating that space and holding that space is such a phenomenal opportunity.

So thank you so much for doing that. Look forward to having you on again and again, again to hear about that journey and that process. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Teresa de Grosbois 16:23

Thank you.

Outro 16:24

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast, powered by CBNation and Blue16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community.

Don't forget to schedule your complimentary digital marketing consultation at Blue16Media.com. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

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