Rarely is the path to any goal or successful outcome an easy and direct ride. Yet the public most often sees or hears only about the end result and / or when the media picks it up. What’s missed and what the public often doesn’t hear about is all that happened in route, the work that was done, the sacrifices made, the life lessons learned, and the temporary setbacks that had to be overcome on the way to any given goal or destination.

My objective is that through these interviews, the reader will pick up pearls of wisdom and overriding universal life principles that they can apply to their own life regardless of their destination.

- Joseph Sale, Founder, Optimum Performance / Human Performance Systems

 Joe Sale / Bruce, please talk about your background and history leading up to the writing of your book Ethical Intelligence / Five Principles for Untangling Your Toughest Problems at Work and Beyond.

Bruce Weinstein / When I was in high school, one of our assignments in government class was to pick three books related to politics, read them, and write reports on each. One of the books I selected was something I’d seen in my dad’s home library and been intrigued about: Plato’s The Republic. I couldn’t believe how entertaining it was; not at all a dry, boring book of philosophy, it read like a great movie script, filled with terrific dialogue about things that matter. This experience prompted me to major in philosophy at Swarthmore College. (I’ll admit that another reason I chose philosophy as a major is because Steve Martin, one of my heroes in stand-up comedy, had done it!). This led to my decision to go to graduate school in philosophy at Georgetown University and eventually become a professor. But ultimately I wanted the world to be my classroom, so I left academia to become The Ethics Guy and teach ethics everywhere. My dream has come true; I live it every day.

Joe Sale / Why did you choose ethical intelligence as your specialization or focused area of expertise?

Bruce Weinstein / It’s simple, really: I can’t imagine anything more fascinating to study, write about, discuss, or teach than how we ought to live our lives. The ethically intelligent life is the best way to live.

Joe Sale / Bruce, do you believe there a relationship between ethical intelligence and work / life balance?

Bruce Weinstein / My friend Joanne’s grandfather Charlie prided himself on never having missed a day on the job. He had grown up in poverty and wanted to make sure that his family was provided for in a way that he himself had not been. The upside was that his family, which included Joanne’s dad, Brian, had a comfortable place to live, plenty to eat, and new clothes when they needed them. The downside is that Charlie missed all of his six children’s high school graduations. He never attended any of the kids’ baseball games, choral concerts, or swim meets. His son Brian grew up without seeing his dad very much.

Not surprisingly, Brian adopted the same work ethic, but with a twist: he did take time off for his two kids, but work was always involved in some way. Brian was the head of the PTA, a deacon of the church, and the coach of Joanne’s softball team. Late every evening, after a busy day at his job and various community activities, Brian would plop himself down on the couch to watch TV — and promptly fall asleep. Joanne’s memories of her father, now deceased, are usually associated with work of some kind. She loved her father dearly but wondered what he would have been like away from the many jobs he undertook. “I’m grateful for all he did for my brother and me,” Joanne told me recently, “but I wish we had just ‘hung out’ once in awhile. I would have liked that, but it’s too late now.”

No issue presents a greater challenge to our ethical intelligence than what is referred to as “work-life balance.” The way we approach it determines not only the quality of our lives but also the quality of the relationships we have with our family, friends, and community. Work-life balance is an ethical issue because a key principle of ethical intelligence, Be Fair, calls upon us to give others their due, and one of the things we owe to others (and ourselves) is our time. In fact, our time is the single most valuable resource we have because everything we do is based on its availability. It is also irreplaceable; once we’ve spent it, it’s gone for good. How we allocate our time between our careers and everything else speaks volumes about our commitment to fairness. It shows how ethically intelligent we are with respect to every important relationship we have.

I should say that I don’t like the phrase “work-life balance.” It suggests that we have our careers on the one hand and everything else on the other, but work is a part of life, not apart from it. Still, this is the term of art, so to be consistent, I do use it, under mild protest.

Joe Sale / How does ethical intelligence influence personal health, well being, and quality of life?

Bruce Weinstein / In the following ways:

• The principles of ethical intelligence help you make the best decisions possible, because they bring out the best in you.

• Life is easier when you’re honest, because you don’t have to remember which lies you told , when you told them, or who you told them to.

• Striving to live according to the principles of ethical intelligence –as difficult as this can be—is the best way to get the thing you want out of life.

Joe Sale / Bruce, What is the relationship between ethical intelligence and emotional intelligence?

Bruce Weinstein / Suppose that you and I know each other well and we meet for coffee one day. You ask me how I’m doing, and I say, “I’m fine.” But several signs suggest I’m anything but fine: I avoid eye contact, which is unusual for me; my voice is quieter than it normally is; I’m not smiling, which isn’t like me; and I seem unusually distracted. It is your emotional intelligence that allows you to notice these signs and to correctly conclude that I’m not fine at all. Someone who doesn’t possess your level of emotional intelligence (or any at all) wouldn’t notice that something is amiss when we meet.

But now comes a tough question: What should you do? The answer isn’t obvious. Is it better to mention the fact that I don’t seem all right to you, or should you just ignore it? If our chat over coffee doesn’t give you any useful information about what’s really going on, would it be right to follow up with a phone call or email, or simply say to yourself, “He’s an adult, and if he wants to tell me what’s going on, he will”? Emotional intelligence alone won’t — and can’t — tell you what you ought to do. That’s because emotional intelligence is a psychological matter, but the question “What’s the right thing to do?” is an ethical one. To be fully human, it’s not enough to have emotional intelligence. We need ethical intelligence, too.

Joe Sale / Bruce, in closing, please share one life lesson or universal life principle that has had the greatest impact on your life.

Bruce Weinstein / The best songs have music that amplifies, enhances, or suggests the lyrics. I Want to Make the World Turn Around, written by Steve Miller, performed by Steve Miller Band on Living in the 20th Century (Capitol Records, 1986) is one of those songs. I was in graduate school when this overlooked gem was released, and after I heard the lines, “Turn the darkness into light/turn the wrong into right,” I picked up the phone, called a volunteer hotline, and asked what I could do. I ended up working at the House of Ruth, a shelter for homeless women.

I’d been studying ethical theory for years, but it was a simple lyric in the context of a great chord progression that prompted me to actually do something for my community.

* * *

Postscript: I travel around the country speaking about ethical intelligence, so if you’re looking for a lively, interactive keynote speaker for your next meeting, I’d love to contribute! For more information, please contact Michael Frick of Speakers Platform: 877-717-5327 x101.

Ethical Intelligence is available now in paperback and eBook formats at Amazon.com http://tiny.cc/gu0h8 , Barnes & Noble http://tiny.cc/lssbw, Apple’s iBookstore http://tiny.cc/wjnf4 and your favorite independent bookseller!

About Bruce Weinstein

Bruce Weinstein, Ph.D., The Ethics Guy®, has a simple purpose in life: he wants to enrich your appreciation of ethics in everyday life and to help you make the best decisions possible. He writes the column, “Ask the Ethics Guy,” for BusinessWeek.com.

His clients include the National Football League, The National Guard (South Carolina Division), HDI, Vistakon/Johnson & Johnson, Pri-Med, the National Grocers Association, the Eastern Michigan University College of Business, and 300 other leading groups.

Dr. Weinstein appears as an ethics analyst regularly on CNN and has also appeared on NBC’s “Today Show,” ABC’s “Good Morning America,” MSNBC’s “Live,” FOX Business Network’s “Cavuto,” FOX News Channel’s “O’Reilly Factor” and “Fox & Friends,” CNBC’s “Capital Report,” Bloomberg Television’s “Personal Finance,” and NPR’s “Leonard Lopate Show.” Visit him online at The Ethics Guy.

To find out more about the book, Ethical Intelligence / Five Principles for Untangling Your Toughest Problems at Work and Beyond by Bruce Weinstein, please visit New World Library. 

Rarely is the path to any goal or successful outcome an easy and direct ride. Yet the public most often sees or hears only about the end result and / or when the media picks it up. What’s missed and what the public often doesn’t hear about is all that happened in route, the work that was done, the sacrifices made, the life lessons learned, and the temporary setbacks that had to be overcome on the way to any given goal or destination.

My objective is that through these interviews, the reader will pick up pearls of wisdom and overriding universal life principles that they can apply to their own life regardless of their destination.

- Joseph Sale, Founder, Optimum Performance / Human Performance Systems

 Joe Sale / Dorothea, allow me to share a short list of your credentials and background. You are a Diplomate in Comprehensive Energy Psychology. You have been a nurse clinical specialist and clinical psychologist for more than 30 years. Much of your practice is focused on mind / body / spirit integration. You are the author of 9 books covering the expansive topic of energy therapies. Please discuss your personal journey that has led to your career involving Energy Modalities / Healing Touch and the writing of your fascinating book Healing Touch / Essential Energy Medicine for Yourself and Others.

Dorothea Hover Kramer / Since childhood I’ve had a sense of human energies beyond just what the five senses reflect. I became a nurse to help people not just to give medications so I kept asking about how we could assist our patients in better ways to relieve emotional stress and lessen pain. After receiving a master’s degree in public health nursing and a doctorate in educational psychology and becoming a psychotherapist, I still wondered what would really help most effectively since humans are multidimensional—physical, psychological, and spiritual beings.

In the 1980’s change was afoot in healthcare with the emergence of holistic, integrative thinking and the first energy healing program, Therapeutic Touch, in hospital settings. Within the American Holistic Nurses Association, I encountered authentic nurse healers like Janet Mentgen with whom I helped to organize the Healing Touch educational program in 1989. The program currently has more than 100,000 practitioners and is known worldwide in integrative healthcare settings as well as mainstream hospitals. I moved on in 1999 to co-found the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP) so that psychotherapists could also use energy-oriented modalities in their practices. Both of these networks are thriving because public interest in modalities that address the whole person has grown so exponentially.

Joe Sale / A good place to start is with foundational and functional definitions to lay the groundwork. For the readers that may not know, what is Energy Medicine, Energy Therapies, Healing Touch, and Energy Psychology?

Dorothea Hover Kramer / “Energy medicine” and “energy therapies” are the broad phrases used to describe all modalities that address human distress in which the practitioner uses one or more aspects of the human electromagnetic vibrational field to bring about relief. Energy psychology is the branch of energy medicine that is most focused on psychological well-being and uses resourcesof the human biofield, the meridian accupoints and/or the human energy centers. Healing Touch is one of more than 250 currently identified modalities of energy medicine that address whole person healing. It is the leader in energy medicine because of is well-defined and credentialed educational program, its large numbers of practitioners, and its worldwide outreach.

Joe Sale / Dorothea, in your book, Healing Touch / Essential Energy Medicine for Yourself and Others, you say that, “One of the most pressing realities of 21st century life is that most people are sadly disconnected from the awareness of their own bodies.” My question is a 3 pronged question. Why are people disconnected from the awareness of their own bodies? How do people become disconnected? How can people reconnect with the awareness of their own bodies?

Dorothea Hover Kramer / We live in a “high tech” world; most people spend more time seated in front of computers and TV’s than in building connection with others, using their own bodies, or the natural world around them. The brain seems to be all there is. In addition there is a tremendous focus on external events rather than on one’s inner being, values, and behaviors. Recapturing one’s true essence can be achieved by learning to listen to the body, taking attentive care of it, and learning to develop our own self-healing capacities.

Joe Sale / In your book, Dr Mehmet Oz is quoted as saying that “Energy Medicine is the next great frontier in medicine”. What do you see as the future for Energy Medicine, and all energy modalities like Healing Touch?

Dorothea Hover Kramer / The public is eager to learn how to stay well. The understandings of energy medicine put the power to manage one’s health into the hands of each person with its practical knowledge of self-care methods. The field of energy medicine will continue to grow as people come to realize the limitations of conventional medicine in addressing the issues of chronic illness and positive aging.

Joe Sale / What is the theory behind Energy Medicine and Healing Touch?

Dorothea Hover Kramer / The electromagnetic nature of the human body has been known in science for several centuries but has only come into actual use in medicine recently with instruments such as the MRI and EKG which measure vibrational frequencies. That these aspects of the human body could be enhanced directly through hands-on gestures or the presence of a centered practitioner is the basic theory of energy medicine and the practice of Healing Touch. Specific theoretical material, the scientific basis of the work and the current research are discussed at length in the book as well as actual methods for relief of stress, pain, or anxiety that anyone who is interested can readily learn.

Joe Sale / Dorothea, what is one concept or idea that a person can apply to their life today to improve their health, wellness and experience of life?

Dorothea Hover Kramer / Body and mind are closely intertwined. Every time you activate a positive thought such as “I am a loveable and capable person.. I deeply love and accept myself” you activate the neurological wiring, the body’s biochemicals, and cellular information systems to feel better. Adding touch to a specific area of the body, such as the heart center, further empowers this message. Repetition of the pattern begins to entrain your bodymind and replace negative patterns.

Joe Sale / Dorothea, in closing what is the one life lesson, life principle or universal life law that has had the greatest impact on your life?

Dorothea Hover Kramer / There is much I can do to help myself as I align my body, mind, and spirit with the beauty of the Universe and its many creative gifts for me even in the darkest times.

About the Author

Dorothea Hover Kramer, EdD, RN, DCEP, is a founding elder of Healing Touch and cofounder of the International Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology ( ACEP ). Her other eight books include Second Chance at Your Dream and the current practitioners’ textbook entitled Healing Touch Guidebook. For more information on this book and Dorothea Hover Kramer’s work, please see healingtouchbook.com.

To find out more about the book Healing Touch / Essential Energy Medicine for Yourself and Others, please visit Sounds True.

Rarely is the path to any goal or successful outcome an easy and direct ride. Yet the public most often sees or hears only about the end result and / or when the media picks it up. What’s missed and what the public often doesn’t hear about is all that happened in route, the work that was done, the sacrifices made, the life lessons learned, and the temporary setbacks that had to be overcome on the way to any given goal or destination.

My objective is that through these interviews, the reader will pick up pearls of wisdom and overriding universal life principles that they can apply to their own life regardless of their destination.

- Joseph Sale, Founder, Optimum Performance / Human Performance Systems

 Joe Sale / Marc, a good place to start is at the beginning. You are most well known as the President and Publisher of New World Library, one of the leading independent publishers in the United States and an internationally renowned author of numerous books including Visionary Business and The Greatest Secret of All. How did New World Library come into being?

Marc Allen / It all started the day I turned 30 years old. I woke up in a state of shock, and realized I wasn’t a kid anymore. I was living in a little one-room apartment in a funky part of Oakland, California; I didn’t have a job; I had no savings whatsoever.

I spent much of the day pacing back and forth in my room, and I remembered a little game I had played back when I was 22 doing a back-to-the-land experiment (which lasted only 5 months, and was a disaster). One night we were sitting around a fire, and one couple said, “Let’s play a game we play at church camp. Let’s imagine five years have passed, and everything has gone as well as you can imagine — what would your life look like?”

We went around the circle and spoke. I don’t remember a word of what I said, so it obviously had no impact on my life, but the day I turned 30 I remembered the game, and decided to play it. This time I wrote it down: I took a sheet of paper, put IDEAL SCENE at the top, and imagined five years had passed.

Much to my amazement — mainly because I had had no interest in business up to that point — I imagined I had a successful publishing company, publishing my books and my friends’ work as well. I took another sheet of paper and wrote GOAL: CREATE A SUCCESSFUL PUBLISHING COMPANY at the top, and wrote the beginning of my first one-page plan to start and build the company.

Our first few books were fairly funky affairs. I wrote the first three we published (all now out of print), and then my friend and partner Shakti Gawain wrote Creative Visualization. The book started selling purely by word-of-mouth — the entire company was just the two of us, part time, and we had no marketing department whatsoever. But the book sales built and built and helped launch the company.

Joe Sale / Marc, in our earlier conversation we discussed work / rest balance. You have created unique personal work / rest systems that have worked great for you over the years and have been sustainable. For example, if I remember correctly, you always take Monday off and start your work week on Tuesday afternoon. Please talk about your personal work / rest systems in more detail and why they are effective for you.

Marc Allen / Looking back, the fact that I started the publishing company with the little Ideal Scene exercise I did kind of tricked me into creating something pretty remarkable, because I started by asking myself what my ideal company would be, and what my ideal life would be.

It was obvious, when I asked those questions, that — ideally — I didn’t want to work too hard; I definitely didn’t want to be a Type-A workaholic. In fact ideally I wanted a life of ease; I wanted to work only when I felt like it.

Once my company started doing well enough that I didn’t have to do outside work to support it, I was able to create my ideal schedule, which just kind of evolved naturally:

Sunday is family day, where I relax and hang out with the family and do whatever they want. Monday is my day — I never go to work on Mondays and never plan anything. I take the day entirely to myself, except for dinner and the evening with my family. It’s my favorite day of the week. Sometimes I do a lot of writing or working on some other projects; sometimes I do little or nothing. I always take at least one nap and have a meditation session (which I do flat on my back). One Monday I had three nap/meditation sessions.

I don’t do mornings, either. I like to sleep in, because it frees up my evening so I can stay up really late if I feel like it. I’ve never been a morning person, so now I usually sleep until 11:00 or so (though it varies day by day).

Tuesday afternoon, I’m ready for work. I go into my office at New World Library, and there’s no place I’d rather be. Wednesday and Thursday afternoon I’m usually at the office as well. Friday afternoon is flexible: sometimes I’m at the office, sometimes I’m in a recording studio or doing some other project.

Saturday I usually keep open, and do whatever I feel like. I often write on Saturday, or run around and do errands. On Sunday, I never work. I always take a break. That’s the schedule that works for me. It all just kind of happened as soon as I gave myself the freedom to work when I felt like it, and goof off when I felt like it.

Joe Sale /Buckminster Fuller is quoted as saying, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” Buckminster Fuller is also said to have made the decision to live his life like an experiment. You have said that in your early thirties you came to a similar conclusion. How did that play out?

Marc Allen / I remember it vividly: Again, it goes back to the day of my thirtieth birthday. As soon as I began to write my Ideal Scene — which required me to dream my greatest, most expansive dreams, because, after all I was writing down my ideal life — doubts and fears arose, full force. I was filled with vehement inner voices telling me it was all obviously a waste of time; it was impossible for me — someone who had failed at everything I’d tried — to become a successful writer, publisher, and musician. And it was all too much to shoot for — my inner voices told me to pick just one thing and focus on that. And then, when I wrote that I wanted to do it all in an easy and relaxed manner, a healthy and positive way, my inner critics and skeptics shouted “Impossible! It’s never been done in the history of humanity! You’ve got to work really hard to succeed!…” They went on and on.

Then I remembered a story I’d heard about Buckminster Fuller: When he was in his twenties, he said he decided to either commit suicide or else look at his life as a totally unique experiment. Fortunately, he chose the latter and near the end of his life summed it all up as a “fifty-year experiment.” I grabbed on to that word, and told all my doubts and fears that it would be a worthwhile experiment for me to go for my dreams — all of them, my entire ideal scene — and to do it in my own lazy way, working only when I felt like it.

My doubts and fears said, “Impossible!” I said to them, “Look, let me try it as an experiment for a year or two. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll be no worse off than I am right now.” Seeing I was flat broke, my doubts and fears had to agree with me. And so I started taking the first obvious steps in front of me to start a publishing company, write a book, record an album, learn something about real estate — doing it all the while in an easy and relaxed manner, a healthy and positive way.

Within a year, I could see my experiment might possibly work. It even started to dawn on me that working when I felt like it, in an easy and relaxed manner, was a lot better in the long run than pushing myself to work for forty or fifty hours a week. I have created a very successful company, and I’ve very rarely worked more than 25 hours a week focused on the business.

Joe Sale / In one of your books you mention how creativity comes from a place of ease. You have usually prefaced your affirmations with the phrase, “In an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way, in its own perfect time, and for the highest good of all….” Those words alone seem to have a calming, parasympathetic effect in and of themselves and also project a tone of trust in the process. Please discuss this in more detail.

Marc Allen / I found that phrase in a book I read years ago by Catherine Ponder, a Unity Church minister. And I discovered that just repeating those words, In an easy and relaxed manner, a healthy and positive way, in its own perfect time, for the highest good of all, has (as you mentioned) a calming effect on the body.

When I was writing one of my books, I realized too that those four words — easy, relaxed, healthy, positive — in themselves overcame a huge number of the doubts and fears I was assailed with. What are those doubts and fears saying to us, after all? It won’t be easy; it’s hard; it’s complicated, it’s too much for you. And it’s stressful; life is a struggle — and on and on. I kept repeating that phrase as a little mantra, and it had a powerful effect helping to minimize and even overcome my doubts and fears.

Joe Sale / Sustainability is a word that is used quite often in today’s world in relation to environmental issues. The concept of sustainability also has its place in personal lifestyle systems and business systems. What are your thoughts on this?

Marc Allen / It’s totally obvious to me that working in an easy and relaxed manner, a healthy and positive way, is far more sustainable — and far better for your health — than working from stress, from pushing and forcing.

There is a time for everything. A time for activity, and a time for stillness. A time to work with focused laser-like energy and a time to goof off and do nothing at all. When you honor your body’s natural rhythms of high energy alternating with low energy, and when you take time to relax and rejuvenate when you feel like it, then you don’t burn out at your job, and you rarely get sick. You keep moving toward your goals and dreams, one step at a time — but you find you can do it in an easy and relaxed manner, a healthy and positive way.

Joe Sale / The process that you have taught for years includes 4 basic steps to create the personal life or business outcomes a person prefers.

The steps are:

Create your ideal scene

Write your goals

Create an affirmation for each goal

Write a 1-page plan for each affirmation

I mentioned to you in our earlier conversation that the process reminds me of a human technology / neurological technology or a way of operating the brain and nervous system in a very specific way in order to produce or at least have an influence on creating specific results or outcomes. Can you discuss this in more detail?

Marc Allen / You’ve put it very well. I stumbled onto something on my thirtieth birthday that was exceptionally simple and easy to do. It doesn’t take much time, and even a lazy person (like me) can do it.

I’ve come to believe that the simplicity of it all is one of the reasons it’s so powerful in helping us create change in our lives. The reason why, I think, is that it gives simple and clear instructions to our limitless subconscious mind. It gives our brains operating instructions, you might say.

We start by writing our ideal scene, daring to dream of the life we want five years in the future. Then we make a list of goals that are necessary to achieve in order to reach our ideal scene. Then I highly recommend that we rewrite each goal as an affirmation, as if it’s now coming into being, in an easy and relaxed manner, a healthy and positive way. Keep the affirmations with you and repeat them occasionally.

The final step is to take each of our goals, write them at the top of a sheet of paper, and make a brief one- or two-page plan to reach those goals. When we write this plan, we’re giving our subconscious minds operating instructions: This is the plan; this is what I intend. Then take the first obvious step in front of you, then the next. The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

Joe Sale / Marc, I’ve done substantial reading and research related to personality types and business / entrepreneurship. Richard Branson, Warren Buffet, Steve Jobs, Ray Kroc and others all appear to have different personality types yet have been successful. You also have built New World Library into a successful company. How would you describe your personality?

Marc Allen / I’m lazy, creative, easy going. I’m a dreamer. I write and play music. I read the movie and book review sections of the paper rather than the business section. I love creating new books and giving and recording seminars. I don’t have much energy for promotion and marketing, and almost no interest in the financial side of my company — except for keeping an eye on the bottom line!

Every one of us is a unique individual — I even feel that every one of us, in our unique way, is a creative genius. Real success, true success, is being who you are, fully and completely. Be unique! There’s no one like you — you’re an original.

Joe Sale / Marc, two of the more recent books you have authored are Visionary Business and The Greatest Secret of All. Please share a few key points from Visionary Business.

Marc Allen / The 12 chapters of Visionary Business are 12 keys to creating a success business and career. The keys that are fairly obvious and don’t require a lot of explanation are: Begin by imagining your ideal scene; write your plan as a clear and concrete visualization; discover your higher purpose; see the benefits within adversity, and keep picturing success; plan your work and work your plan; give abundantly and reap the rewards; and discover the core beliefs you have created about yourself and your world, and learn how to change those beliefs that are not supporting you.

For those that enjoy audio, I go into much greater depth in my Success with Ease Audio Course, a 12-download course you can get on my website, MarcAllen.com.

Joe Sale / In closing, please share the one universal life law or universal life principle that has had the greatest impact on your life.

Marc Allen / Within each and every one of us is a clear, calm visionary who can guide us through every minute of the day. Once we learn to connect with our inner wisdom — to ask ourselves questions and wait patiently for the answers to emerge — there is no obstacle too great that can prevent us from living the life of our dreams.

Look within and you’ll find

every answer you need.

About the Author

Marc Allen is an internationally renowned author and president and publisher of New World Library, which he co-founded (with Shakti Gawain) in 1977. He has guided the company from a small start-up with no capital to its current position as one of the leading independent publishers in the country.

Marc is a well-known musician and composer as well, having produced five albums of music for his label Watercourse Media.

His latest book is The Greatest Secret of All. It may be Marc’s most important book, because it gives us not only one of the clearest explanations of the “secret” of creating what you want in life, but also the far greater secrets of a life well-lived, a life of happiness, inner peace, ease, and fulfillment, where you contribute to making the world a better place for all.

Rarely is the path to any goal or successful outcome an easy and direct ride. Yet the public most often sees or hears only about the end result and / or when the media picks it up. What’s missed and what the public often doesn’t hear about is all that happened in route, the work that was done, the sacrifices made, the life lessons learned, and the temporary setbacks that had to be overcome on the way to any given goal or destination.

My objective is that through these interviews, the reader will pick up pearls of wisdom and overriding universal life principles that they can apply to their own life regardless of their destination.

- Joseph Sale, Founder, Optimum Performance / Human Performance Systems

Joe / Michael, please talk about the purpose and mission of Nourish America and its significance, especially in the current economic climate.

Michael / Thank you for asking. Nourish America’s mission is to improve the health and well being of those at risk for nutritional deficiencies in the United States by providing nourishing foods (including naturals and organics) and nutritional supplements. This includes at-risk children, pregnant mothers, families in need, low income seniors, veterans and National Guard members, as well as supporting first responders and disaster victims in times of crisis with.

Given the current economic climate, we are finding a much greater demand for our programs as more and more individuals and families are making the hard decisions regarding how to allocate the very limited funds they have to meet their core needs for shelter, food, medicine and health care, as well as keeping the heat and lights on. Also, over the last eighteen months a large majority of the Nourish America program sites have been experiencing a more than 100% increase in the number of people coming in seeking food and other aide. Sadly, many of these programs have had their funding cut by more than 30%; some have had to even close their doors. So the need for nutritional support programs has grown while support for such programs has dropped significantly. It’s a tough situation.

We’re committed to continuing this work because it is so needed. By providing organizations, agencies and schools the nutritional support they need for their clients, Nourish America is assuring that nutritionally at-risk Americans are getting a nutritional hand up when they need it the most. As you well know, Joseph, without proper nutrition, our brains do not work very well to address life’s challenges, our bodies do not have the energy they need to respond and move forward, our hearts are discouraged, we lose faith and hope there is light at the end of the tunnel and that we can find our way through.

Joe / Michael, the U.S. Census Bureau has recently reported that the U.S poverty rate rose to 15.1% last year. We haven’t seen these levels since 1993. It’s clear that the holes in government safety nets are growing larger. That being the case, we are facing a new social, political, and business landscape where nonprofit 501c3s and for profit corporations can hopefully pick up some of the slack. What are your thoughts on this?

Michael / I have three thoughts on this. First, we are definitely living in “interesting times”. The rapid changes in the geopolitical climate, the emergence of a global commons economy where no one nation’s economy and currency can insulate itself from what is occurring in the rest of the world, the beginning of the great die off of the baby boomers and the ascendency of the millennials, as well as the large scale climate changes that seem to be occurring, are just some of the factors that have made it impossible to play by the previously accepted rules and assumptions in just about all temporal arenas of life. Second, one of the transitional outcomes of all this in the United States has been the recent recession as well as the possibility of a double dip recession. The banking and mortgage housing crisis, the job market, the rapidly disappearing middle class, the inability of our elected officials to get beyond partisan politics, are all, both the results and causes of a substantial loss of power to our nation’s economic engines. All this to me is why we are at record highs in the poverty rate than you mention. Third, over the last two decades, the non-profit sector has been forced to, in a word, “grow up”. Fiscal transparency and accountability, outcomes based metrics for funded programs to determine cost/benefit analysis, the emergence of donor advised funds coupled with an infusion of highly successful entrepreneurs eager to create new models for social change, as well as more intense state and federal oversight are some of the reasons for this. As a result, innovative corporate social responsibility campaigns, as well as cause marketing initiatives, have emerged as the idée d’entreprise de la journée between the for-profit and the non-profit sector.

Joe / Michael, I ask this question in most of my interviews because it motivates people to reflect on their life. When Steve Jobs gave his well known commencement speech for Stanford University in 2005, he shared much of his personal story and how looking back on his life, he was able to connect the dots, meaning, things made sense in hindsight, looking back, but not when he was going through the challenges. He implies that his earlier experiences in life prepared him unknowingly, for what he would be doing later. Does your path seem like a logical progression looking back at this point?

Michael / Well, they say hindsight is 20/20, but I believe that is only true if you are willing to look with courageous honesty at your life. Is it a “logical progression”? No, not really. The truth is, the meaning and sense of my life path defies, or rather transcends logic. There has always been something of the invisible, the guiding hand, in my life. Since my early childhood, like a divine burr under my saddle, I have always been like the hound of Heaven, wondering and asking, “Why am I here?” “Who am I?” This search for truthful answers to these perennial questions put me early onto the spiritual path. My whole life has been about finding the answers to these questions. It is not the work I do, it is not the successes and failures I have had, nor is it the lovers and wives and children I have known, nor even my emotions, my ideas, my feelings and thoughts, it is finding out who I truly am beyond all that at the core of my being. All those other things are, as Ram Das stated, “Grist for the mill.” My deepest desire in life is to become a Self Realized, truly free, awakened being. Will I attain this? I don’t know. Still, to me, it is the only thing worthy of my time, my energy, and my life. So, you may ask why do I do the work that I do at Nourish America. Surprising to many, it is not for moral, religious, or “do gooder” reasons. Very simply put, I do it because that is what is front of me that needs to be done. Do I believe that what I do will make some sort of ultimate difference for good? In all honesty I have absolutely no idea of the ultimate impact of anything that I do in this world on this world. Yet, over the last ten years I have witnessed hundreds of thousands of people be benefited by what Mary and I do at Nourish America, and for this, I am both grateful and humbled.

Joe / Nourish America programs are extremely cost effective at less than .10 cents per day per child. This insures that children’s basic nutrient requirements are being met. Please discuss this.

Michael / In 2008, 16.7 million children in the United States were found to be food insecure sometime during the year according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Even with numerous types of programs to address this problem, ranging from community based food pantries to federally administrated food stamp programs, the number of children at risk continues to increase year by year. From 2007 to 2008 an additional 4.3 million more children, an increase of more than 25%, were added to our nation’s count of food insecure children.

Over the last 25 years, most experts have come to recognize that there is no one solution to this complex, multi-faceted problem. Not only that, all the earlier promises of ending the risk of malnutrition for children in America has given way to the realization that such a utopian vision may be further away than most had hope with no permanent solutions in sight. Regrettably, we are faced with the stark reality that the solution to this multi-generational problem still may be generations away. Given this, is there anything else that can be done in our efforts to assure that all children have access to the essential nutrients required for healthy development, growth and well being? Is there an intervention that is economical, efficient and effective to such a degree that it has the realistic potential to move us substantially forward on the road to assure that all of America’s children get the basic nutrients they need? I believe there is.

I believe that micronutrient (i.e., “vitamins”) intervention programs provide an effective, efficient and economical intervention on the continuum of care for our nutritionally at-risk children. There is a growing body of peer reviewed studies over the last 15 years that provides evidence for the effectiveness and value of such programs for at-risk children. Intervention studies have shown that an at-risk child receiving a high quality multi-vitamin shows significant improvements in age-related physical development, general health and well being, school attendance, cognitive development, academic performance, as well as behavioral function and psychosocial skills. Also, such programs are highly cost effective, easy to implement, and efficient with regard to staff time and costs to manage and run. For just pennies a day a child who has forgotten how to laugh will laugh again, a child who dreads tomorrow will find hope for the future. Micronutrient intervention programs for children in need offers our nation a much needed nutritional insurance policy assuring that regardless of what food a child receives from meals, or lack thereof, on any particular day, that child will still have the essential nutrients they need for healthy grow and development. In this way, through micronutrient supplementation, more of America’s children are given the opportunity to reach their fullest potential, to not only dream, but to realize their dreams.

Joe / Nourish America creates tailor made corporate social responsibility programs for businesses that support it. Please talk about that process.

Michael / Working with our corporate partners to craft an innovative, effective custom made corporate social responsibility program is one our passions. Given my background in both the for profit and non-profit sectors, I have an appreciation of the values, cultures, and bottom line of both and how they can work well together for a greater good. For example, next week I am meeting with top executives of a global company to discuss how we can work together. My number one goal is ask the right questions, to listen to them, and to determine in dialogue with them exactly what would be the best components to include in such a campaign. This can include inside the company improving employee moral by encouraging employee participation at Nourish America program sites, co-branding opportunities to support their public relations and marketing bottom line, as well as increased consumer loyalty. I work to design and implement a corporate social responsibility program for them this is not only dedicated to helping Americans in need but to supporting their company’s image through strategically developed and targeted public events, social media outlets, news articles, human interest stories, press releases and events in printed and emedia and when and where appropriate. For me, with our corporate partners, I am big on “after taste”. In the arena of world class ice cream judging, it is not the flavor, the texture, the taste, the color that determines the winner. It is the after taste. In the forefront of all I do, is the question, “What is going to be their experience after we are done? Will they want more?” In other words, “What is the after taste I am creating for this client?”

Joe / What is cause marketing and what are its benefits to corporations?

Michael / The weakened economy has created both danger and opportunity to the retail market. The danger: losing critical income through loss of customers and decreased spending. The opportunity: creating new and unique ways of growing a customer base, inspiring them to continue to purchase your products, as well as recommend your products to their friends.

With all other factors being relatively equal, most consumers, when faced with buying decisions will choose product(s) from a company that contributes to their community over its competitor. Called affinity buying, it is due to the fact that consumers like to purchase products from companies who support their values. In fact, contributing to causes or service organizations and promoting your contribution through cause marketing efforts helps strengthen brand loyalty.

Today’s health consumer often referred to as “cultural creatives”, or “LOHAS buyers”, clearly value companies who contribute to service organizations which reflect their values. Cultural Creatives represent the socially aware consumer with socially responsible values and bourgeois affluence. They are committed to improving their community, and expect the same from the businesses they frequent. Companies that contribute to causes, such as infant and child nutritional programs, environmental organizations, battered women’s relief centers, humane societies, breast cancer research, capture the attention and loyalty of these consumers.

Major corporations have long respected the marketing value of affinity giving. American Express donated $1.7 million towards the reconstruction of the Statue of Liberty. Philip Morris purchased and shipped food to the refugees in Kosovo. The value and positive impact of the Kosovo effort was so profound that Phillip Morris spent millions more creating and airing national television spots advertising its good work. Many natural products manufacturers, educational/research groups, and publishing organizations are also seeing the value of supporting non-profit service-based organizations. More recently, is the growing trend of local giving as exemplified by “Oprah’s Big Give” campaign a few years ago. People are now interested in making a positive difference in their own community.

For the company, it is an opportunity to reflect in their brand, their customer’s values to motivate and enhance their purchasing decisions. Values play a role in every decision we make. Cause related marketing allows consumers to participate in supporting a good cause through their purchases, with a focus on the cause. It creates an enduring and emotional relationship between a brand and its consumers. In other words, it is an elegant tool for addressing the social issues of the day by providing resources and funding that boost your brand and contribute to your bottom line.

Cause marketing and corporate social responsibility campaigns has proven and continue to proved to be an effective way to inspire enthusiasm in customers to be loyal to your products, services and brand. We believe that partnering with Nourish America in a well crafted cause related marketing campaign will build brand recognition, increase customers and strengthen customer loyalty for your product lines.

Joe / What are the greatest challenges Nourish America faces in order to continue to provide daily essential nutrition to impoverished Americans in need?

Michael / In a word, capacity building and the cash to do it. Over the last twelve years, except for one year, Mary and I have been the only staff. In that time we have assisted more than one million in need in America and really made a positive difference in their lives. Still, we need to add staff so we can grow, and that takes cash. In order to do this, we are focusing on doing three areas: 1) Finding new donors and corporate sponsors, and 2) Growing our board of directors, 3) Expanding our telling the Nourish America success story.

Joe / Michael, in closing, please share 1 life lesson and 1 business lesson that has had a significant impact on your life.

Michael / Great question. Life Lesson: Years ago, I cracked up a motorcycle. I was going fairly fast and hit a pile of gravel on a curving freeway onramp north of Arcata, California. My bike went out of control and I went down, skidding onto the freeway with my leg trapped under the bike. I looked up to see this terrified woman and her daughter looking at me out the front window of their station wagon as they were about to run over me. Fortunately, she slammed on the brakes as I skidded past her car while I was looking up at her chrome bumper six inches away. But, while all that was happening I watched as my whole life played before me like a movie, clip by clip, every event that ever occurred to me, in an instant feedback. I thought I was really going to die. Well, I lived. But, after that event, I realized that the only things that mattered when I was watching that instant replay of my life were the times where I had been loving and kind. All the rest was nothing, empty. So, my life lesson can be summed up with the last words my grandfather said to me with his last breath: “In life, all that really matters in the end is that you lived from your heart.”

Business Lesson: Two things, “Don’t be arrogant”. Over the years there have been three times I have personally witnessed three powerful men take “the great fall”. Who they are does not matter. Each man was very powerful, highly effective at what they did, very successful, very smooth operators. Each was full of hubris. Also, if you took the time to look deeply and honestly at each of them, each, at their core, each was a lonely, miserable man. All three took a great fall because of their arrogance. So, from this I learned that “Don’t be arrogant” is an essential practice for both long term success in business as well as for deep personal satisfaction and contentment with your accomplishments. The second is “Trim Tab Effect”. In the late 70s, I spent a good part of the summer with Bucky Fuller in Aspen, Colorado. What an amazing man. One day, I was eating lunch with him and he shared with me the concept of “trim tab effect”. Any pilot knows what the trim tab on an airplane is. It is the very small rudder on the tail that you make very small adjustment to based on the wind speeds and directions of your plotted flight course. Bucky shared with me his belief in the great value and wisdom in identifying opportunities for trim tab effects in business. In other words, “What are those small, low cost, low maintenance actions, policies, or practices I can take in the near term, that, over the long term, will have a great impact in helping me to achieve my goals?” Each of these lessons are special to me, and for them, I am grateful.

Joe / Please visit the Nourish America Website at http://www.nourishamerica.org/

About Michael Morton

Michael Morton is a recognized innovator on the cutting edge of health care. As a program associate at the prestigious Fetzer Institute, Dr. Morton was responsible for recommending and monitoring funded programs in alternative medicine, healthcare and education. He organized and chaired an international roundtable on the future of medicine as well as co-chairing a global conference on healthcare that brought 1000 delegates from 28 countries. In the late 90’s, Dr. Morton shared much of his expertise in these fields in his well-received book, Five Steps to Selecting the Best Alternative Medicine. Also during his career, Michael Morton co-founded the American Holistic Health Association and has served on numerous boards.

Public health and public health systems are designed to look at human health and well being at the population and community level in contrast to the individual level. Examples of potential issues or concerns that fall under the umbrella of public health include food quality issues, food supply issues, nutrient density of foods and their impact on disease onset, soil degradation issues and its potential influence on agriculture, disease trends, population studies etc. Environmental and air quality concerns and their impact on population health also fall into realm of public health affairs.

What are the tools of public health?

Epidemiology is one of the tools of public health that looks at big picture patterns that influence health and well being at the population level.

Bio statistics is another tool of public health that draws conclusions and in some cases makes projections based on data. An example of this is a report provided by the Center of Disease Control / CDC. According to the CDC report, 1 in 3 Americans will have Type 2 Diabetes by the year 2050 assuming continuations of existing trends. Currently, approximately 1 in 10 Americans has Type 2 Diabetes.

Healthy behaviors and health promotion are components of public health. Healthy behaviors stem from health literacy and health education. In other words when people see and understand the cause and effect relationships that occur from both good and bad health choices they can potentially make more self empowering choices with better health outcomes. What we are talking about here is lifestyle management and all its component parts including nutrition, exercise, stress, and stress management as well as the social components. The challenge that arises is that negative consequences that occur from poor lifestyle choices take time to accumulate before palpable damage occurs. If the negative consequences of poor personal health management choices were to occur immediately the propensity to make personal changes might be greater. Two examples are Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes. Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes don’t occur overnight. They are, in part due to the accumulation of lifestyle, nutrition and fitness choices or lack thereof that occur over many years.

Food fortification, food enrichment, or food nutrification can potentially fall under the umbrella of public health. These refer to adding nutrients, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, antioxidants, phytochemicals etc to foods in order to upgrade nutrient value. In some cases this may be a public health initiative focused on a specific dietary deficiency at the population level.

Other hot topic terms in the world of food fortification include designer foods, functional foods.

Nutrigenomics is another fascinating topic. Nutrigenomics addresses the concept that specific macro nutrients, micro nutrients, antioxidants or phytochemicals may influence gene expression. So, is there is a causal relationship between specific bioactive compounds being consumed and gene expression? Research in the field of nutrigenomics looks to answer questions like this.

The scope of public health in todays world is vasty different than even 30 years ago. With more moving parts to address the challenges are greater than ever.

Joe Sale, CNS, CSCS