Yoga Meets Leadership with Gagan Levy of Guru
Gagan Levy discusses his book 'Start Your Own Damn Cult,' exploring how ancient yoga principles can be applied to leadership, business, and building authentic movements. The conversation covers the eight codes derived from the eight limbs of yoga, practical applications for leaders, and the importance of play, integrity, and systemic thinking in creating regenerative impact. Gagan shares examples of movement building led by his agency, Guru, and talks about most surprising challenges he’s faced leading his agency for the past 17 years. We then wrap up by talking about how we all need more compassion for ourselves, each other, and the planet in order to build a better world.
Key Topics
The inspiration behind 'Start Your Own Damn Cult'
Personal journey of writing the book and overcoming challenges
The eight codes derived from the eight limbs of yoga
Applying yoga principles to leadership and business
The role of integrity and do no harm in building movements
The importance of play and joy in serious work
Systemic thinking in regenerative food and business movements
Examples of movements embodying the principles
The challenges and opportunities of leading a creative agency
Using AI and culture-centered design for marketing
Sound Bites
"Culture can't spell cult without culture."
“You think about the physical movement side of yoga, but a lot of folks don't know that there's actually eight limbs of yoga.”
“I couldn't stop writing for four days. It flowed through me. I literally felt like I was a vessel and it was pouring, spirit was just pouring through.”
“I started to see people be more innovative when they were more playful.”
“We're catalyzing cults from the inside out. We’re helping them come into alignment with all the stakeholders in a flow state, and then we can amplify that.”
“AI is totally disrupting creative work, you know, writing, designing, ideation. It's disrupting the whole industry. It's a really juicy moment and it's causing us to polish the mirror and evolve.”
“I'm a surfer and one of the most important things to me is how we take care of our oceans.”
“A better world, to me, means one where we have more compassion for ourselves, for each other, and for the planet.”
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