Ep.2 I Trump–Newsom Clash, Booker vs. Patel Fireworks, A United Governor Vision, Mindfulness in a Landline World

In this episode of Game Changer by Empowerhouse Coaching, Amanda Escobedo unpacks what recent headlines reveal about leadership, culture, and presence:

• Trump vs. Newsom: when rhetoric turns ego-driven, what happens to influence and problem-solving?
• Booker vs. Patel: a viral Senate shouting match and the leadership lessons hidden in the chaos.
• United Governments: governors across party lines model grounded, intentional leadership.
• Mindfulness & Landlines: slowing down in a fast world to restore clarity and connection.

From political clashes to mindful living, this episode challenges you to reflect: What does good leadership look like for you — and how can you model it today?

🔗 References:

• Trump–Newsom Exchange
• Booker vs. Patel Hearing
• United Governors Clip
• Mindfulness & Landlines Article

#Trump #GavinNewsom #CoryBooker #KashPatel #PoliticalLeadership #GovernmentLeadership #LeadershipMatters #CultureChange #UnitedNotDivided #InfluenceWithIntegrity #AuthenticLeadership #GroundedLeadership #LifeCoaching #ExecutiveCoaching #InnerGame #MindsetMatters #PurposeDriven #LeadWithIntention #ChangeTheGame #CreativityInBusiness #InnovativeLeadership #FutureOfWork #BusinessCulture #ImpactDriven #MindfulnessPractice #SlowDownToSpeedUp #PresenceMatters #LeadWithPurpose

Transcript

Amanda Escobedo (00:03.382)
Welcome to the Game Changer by Empower House Coaching. This is your podcast to master the mental game, elevate your brilliance, and build a legacy of progress and impact. My name is Amanda Escobedo. I'm your host, Intergame Coach, and I'm here to help you change the game. Welcome to episode two. Welcome back.

Before we get into some headlines, just wanted to provide you with my fun little weekend that I had on my lovely little 11 mile.

As I previously mentioned before, a big part of what I specialize as a coach is cultivating creativity. my goal, one of my goals within this podcast is to give you tools to cultivate your own creativity. And as a reminder, creativity, the way we're really defining that is your approach to life, how you navigate challenges, problems. Our goal is to get you to flow through life so we don't get stuck at brick walls of frustration. And creativity can literally apply to anything.

how you approach problems in business, how you approach problems in marriage, how you approach parenting, how you approach health issues, how you approach health goals, whatever it is that you're trying to achieve.

it's a creative process and creativity really requires a self-discovery journey. It requires you to lead with curiosity. And so this weekend I ran the most miles I've run in my life. I'm training for my first half marathon. I signed up for the Long Beach half marathon and I actually signed up for this half marathon quite a few years ago. I've been on this running journey for a while. The mental model that I've had has not been great. I've been really trying to

Amanda Escobedo (01:47.442)
work through it. I've never really identified as a runner and it always confused me because I feel like I have really long legs. I should be fast. This should be easier for me and has never felt easier but for some reason I've just had this little nugget of desire to continue to figure out how to master running. And I was actually connecting with a girlfriend this week at the gym or this past weekend and I was telling her about like my miles that I ran and this race I'm training for and her response was

hilarious to me because she was like I don't understand why anyone would want to do that and she's at her response and the reason why is because she mentioned I don't have like the mental mindset to do something like that and I responded I was like that's exactly why you would do something like this it's setting these type of goals that in order for you to achieve the goal you have to cultivate the mindset required to achieve the goal and so

That's literally exactly why I signed up for this half marathon. And eventually I would love to do marathons. you know, the muscle fatigue, yeah it sucks. The windedness, the lungs, yeah that sucks. But the hardest part for me is really navigating the critter brain that constantly wants to stop and slow me down and have me quit. And one of the most beautiful, I'd say, transformational moments and progress that I've

really experienced in this running journey has been related to my mindset. And I have just gone through a lot of critter brain moments and I'm now starting to see like the fruits of the trees starting to flourish and my mental model is starting to feel better. My muscles are not only stronger, my lungs are stronger, but really I'm more proud of the mental game that has gotten a lot stronger. I'm actually starting to enjoy the experience of the run. And so this week,

I ran the longest I've run, is 11 miles. And I actually signed up for this run quite a few years ago. At that time, I didn't have a great training plan, fuel plan mindset at the time. And I didn't even know you were supposed to like train effectively and fuel body in a certain way. So you can only imagine how that race ran. in the half of halfway through the race, I like pulled something and I had to walk the rest of it. And it was just very defeating. And I remember feeling like, gosh, here's another example of

Amanda Escobedo (04:13.386)
why this sport isn't for me. And so, you know, these type of goals, like I've literally been working on running for decades. Literally.

But just sticking to it, this is part of the creative process. And the other part that I just wanna highlight is running really exposes imbalances in your body. It can be feel hard on your body, but the perspective that I have rather than running as hard on your body is it exposes opportunities for me to strengthen areas I didn't know I needed to strengthen.

and or balance areas of my body I didn't recognize were imbalanced. So for example, this last couple of weeks, I've been struggling with the hip pain and knee issue and ankle issue. The hip piece was the hardest part and I've worked with the chiropractor. My dad is a massage therapist. He's also a certified stretcher. So, and I've been working with also the massage gun, just trying to literally find where is the source of this hip pain. And one of the things I want to highlight when it comes to creativity, a lot of the time,

the pain points we are experiencing are not actually the root of the issue. They are the results of something else. Whether it's in your marriage, right? Like if you have your wife or husband yelling at you, you never take out the trash. It's likely if an explosion happens, it's likely not the trash. It's another underlining issue. And so similar in business, if you're having a customer issue, the pain point that you're solving for, the solution is likely not

the result of the customer experience. There's another issue you have to solve for that's actually creating that result. And so when I think of, for example, like the bodily experience and the pain that I've been experiencing, what I actually found was the hip issue. I had a hip issue on my left side. I found it was my upper right glute, my right side. And once I found this hot spot in my upper right glute, like all of a sudden I felt shooting pain down the leg. I didn't even know I had issues in my leg.

Amanda Escobedo (06:18.29)
And then it also shooting pain within my hip and just kind of holding on to that hot spot everything released and now I felt a lot more balanced and better That's a creative process and you know the old me would have just been like gosh running isn't for me This is hard on the body. This is just you know. I'm always just gonna be in pain I'm getting older and now I actually don't feel like that at all any type of pain that I experience is an opportunity to get curious and be like ooh What part of my body needs to be rebalanced or healed and it's a journey. It's a creative

process. So let's get into some highlights, the fun part of the podcast. Some of you may have seen either just like the X-post or some headlines related to Gavin Newsom and Trump and if you did you saw that Gavin Newsom told Trump to take his dementia meds grandpa.

Now I want to kind of pick apart both of their posts and again highlight some key leadership behavior opportunities for both of them as leaders of our country. diving into Trump's post on X, he led with shockingly, I have just learned that Gavin Newscum, his name calling right at the gate, coming out with the punching bags. The governor of California is in final stages of approval to build low income housing in

Pacific Palisades. How unfair is it that to those people that have suffered so much, Newscum has allowed houses to burn by not accepting hundreds of millions of gallons of water from Pacific Northwest and now low-income housing starts rising long before he gets permits to California citizens to rebuild but long after federal permits were issued. Lee Zeldin, EPA Administrator and I

as your president have done the job and produced all the permits long before anybody expected that to happen. Unfortunately, the Governor of California and Mayor Karen Bass have failed you.

Amanda Escobedo (08:22.446)
And Gavin Newsom's plan to build low-income housing is what caused the destruction of the late great New York City Mayor John Lindsay's political career and John Lindsay was a Republican. Now Gavin Newsom's response, he said, take your dementia meds grandpa, you are making things up again. And then he screenshotted Donald's post, highlighted key areas in yellow and then had bold

red lie, literally lie, attached to each highlighted yellow and then brought in some, I guess, some facts to rebuttal.

Now this exchange, let's talk about this exchange, another rhetoric of our divided leaders. And this type of rhetoric is an example. When you're leading with this rhetoric, it actually overshadows the intention of your message. So for Trump in particular, he had an aim with this message. I believe there was an intention to raise concern about Newsom's actions.

But all of that was lost. Newsom's actions, Newsom's decisions, but all of that was lost because of his accusatory language, his ego-driven boasts. All of that was lost. And the tone invited Newsom's equally sharp response. So fire met with fire. Now what's most fascinating to me about this ex-post and this ex-duo dynamic between the two is this isn't just two random people online.

bickering at each other on the internet. These are national politicians, US president and governor of the largest states of the United States, California. These are two of some of the most influential voices which are shaping our American leadership. They shape how we in turn deal with our differences.

Amanda Escobedo (10:26.326)
Yet this behavior felt so juvenile and so egocentric. It was more point scoring than problem solving. And in the private sector, I couldn't help but reflect, but something like this would never fly. If two senior executives publicly traded insults on a Teams chat or a Slack's channel,

HR would be flooded with complaints, the board would intervene, and accountability would be immediate. At this level, leaders are expected to model composure.

respect, clarity, because culture cascades from the top. So when we say it's okay for our national leaders to demean and belittle each other in public, it signals to the country, the United States of America, it signals to the people, fire meeting fire is acceptable. And that perhaps,

More than policy itself is what is shaping our culture today. It's normalizing division over dialogue, ego over empathy, and immaturity over influence. In addition to leadership, culture, this rhetoric really the tone, it blocks creativity, problem solving. With both of these, fire meeting fire.

these egos meaning egos, the critter brain is out to play. And when the critter brain is out to play, we become dumber. You actually, it is really hard to critically think and problem solve when the critter brain is out to play. Additionally, this type of rhetoric, the way the communication is led is it leads with the person, the human is the problem instead of getting clear on the problem that we want to solve for. And when we identify the

Amanda Escobedo (12:28.556)
human as the problem. The problem with identifying the human as the problem. That means the only way to solve the problem is to get rid of the human. Let that sink in for a little bit.

Now let's break this post down just a little deeper and then go into what could happen in order to get the message and the intent across. Now Trump's post really leads immediately with name-calling, calling you some new scum. He leads with boxing gloves out. Trump leads with very general opinions as though they are matters of facts. So governor of California, Mayor Karen Bass failed you.

How unfair is it to the people that they have suffered so much? And the other piece too, saying or referencing Lee Zeldin, EPA administrator, and I, as your president have done the job and produced all permits long before anyone expected them to happen. That statement really leads with ego, leads with a superior energy. And the brain does not like superior energy at all. Now Trump's opportunity,

for him to get his intention across, to inform the American people of some decisions that have been made that he has deep concerns about. He could have led with, I have just been informed of housing decisions made for palisades by Governor Newsom, which brings me deep concern.

And then again, instead of making Gavin the problem Trump Trump could have named the specific issues. either it's permitting speed that's an issue environmental impact safety and inviting scrutiny on those solutions for those injured issues. He could have gone into detail about that. And then the other opportunity rather than stating his opinions as though they were matter of fact leading with I believe or from my perspective, right?

Amanda Escobedo (14:32.068)
Anytime we say I believe or from my perspective, we open up the conversation and the dialogue to other beliefs and perspectives. What we're saying is there are other beliefs and perspectives in the world and I'm sharing mine. And then if you're going into I believe or from my perspective, pooling in an example, a data point of why you think, of what is good or is bad and how you came to that conclusion.

So that is, I'd say, some opportunities on the Trump perspective. But on the other side with Gavin, he's not off the hook either, right? Likewise, Newsom could have maybe rejected the framing without rejecting the person. So by shifting the focus back on facts, outcomes, and his perspective on the issue, and that could maybe look like, well, I respect your concern, Mr. President, right? I believe, going into I believe, it's misleading.

why and then pulling in data points etc etc. But I'd say in an ideal world with something like this, what I'm still confused on is why politicians can't have discussions and disagreements behind closed doors rather than jumping straight on to subject public platforms and maybe they do. But again coming back to the private sector world and the private sector leadership conversations dialogue

get very heated. Generally the heat happens behind closed doors and then they come out in alignment. The intent is to lead in alignment because if there is a break in the leadership system, think of parenting. If there are two parents that are not united in the parenting vision, in the parenting process, then that child will recognize that and start to take advantage of that. They will start to model the behaviors or

find the kingkoles of the lack of alignment and use it in their favor. And so there is an opportunity here for our leaders to really have disagreements, not only respectively from a ground of state of mind, professionally, but also an opportunity to have their disagreement behind closed doors and lead from a united front.

Amanda Escobedo (16:54.19)
It's a little bit about some headlines there. The other headline I wanted to dive into, this one in particular, I really spent a lot of time reviewing, mostly because I found myself observing, reflecting with a sense of bias. So this was on the Cash Patel Cory Booker shouting match, which took place during a Senate hearing that went viral, of course. So within this, I've watched in particular,

like a 12 minute exchange. So it was a little bit of before when Senator Cory Booker was asking pointed questions towards FBI Director Cash Patel. Now this hearing, it was really part of a Senate oversight hearing. It was meant to hold Patel accountable to his leadership and decisions at the FBI. And what made this clip go viral wasn't really oversight. It was about the escalation between Booker

and patella. Now,

couple of reflections with watching this, I'll say immediately, well, before I go into my own personal bias, one thing I do wanna highlight for Cory Booker in particular, I do think he did a really good job leading with questions that were based on fact-finding. I did feel from my perspective, they were very objective. And I'd say objective, but in a way that he was trying to gain clarity to validate or invalidate

his assumptions and his assumptions were very clear. It was questioning Cash Patel's leadership and his decision making. And so we had very pointed questions that were trying to get to the root of whether his assumptions on his leadership were accurate or not. So one, I want to give him credit on just the type of questions he asks. And then number two, I want to give him credit on just his energy. So going back to, know, in the coaching world, we have three different categories. There's a lot of, you know,

Amanda Escobedo (18:57.366)
general how people can show up. You can show up in what we call an inferior state of mind and that's where judgments are in play but the judgments are usually reflected on yourself. Your inner critic is very loud and or the judgments have this fear of

judgments from the external world. So it could be one of those two. On the other side, you have this superior mindset and that's really judgments on everybody else. And we think we're better than everyone else. We're questioning their capabilities, how they get this far without knowing that much. It's more egocentric, ego-led. And then there's this middle ground. It's very much this grounded state of being where you're really grounded in the present moment. You're grounded in who you are. You're cool, calm, and collective. And when you're

in this grounded state is actually when you're in your personal power. You're a lot more conscious, intentional. You're aware of your triggers and your

intentional in your responses. So that grounded state of mind as well is also what cultivates a sense of trust from the person on the other side of you and a bit of can cultivate a bit of synergy. So I share that because I think overall,

Cory Booker's questions, his energy, and then also his perspective. He did a good job. There was at some point he got very just annoyed. He was trying to ask these questions. Patel was kind of being very avoidant in his response with some of these questions. From my perspective, Cory just came to the conclusion, I'm not gonna get all my answers from, he's just gonna keep dodging me. So he just closed up his questions and went straight into his closing remarks. And he led with, I believe, and then went into Gash Patel's

Amanda Escobedo (20:49.328)
terrible leader and then he brought in some data points to back in his perspectives and so Again, one of the things I give him credit for is leading with I believe you're sharing. This is my belief I could be wrong, but I'm not just sharing my belief. I'm also sharing examples which have fed and fueled this belief now on the other side cash Patel His I'd say there was a lot of areas of opportunity from watching this clip

immediately you could see Cash Patel's out agitated in his energy. So, and the agitation, to be honest, I can't tell if it's in an inferior or superior mindset. His answers, he is very slow in response, emphasizing words, has like this head nod, like with an attitude, but part of his slow response and emphasizing words from my perspective is coming off demeaning.

And like the narrative and the story that I tell myself from Cash Patel and why, like what's going on in his head is like, that's the dumb question. You already know the answer. Like how dare you kind of like challenge my leadership. I make results. That's like his critter brain was just loud and out to play. And so the whole time I really didn't see Cash Patel in his power. Now,

what triggered the actual escalation at this hearing.

After Cory Booker went into his closing remarks, which really was like not very nice, it was accusatory saying, basically saying Cash Patel is a poor leader and has bad intentions. And he doesn't believe some of the things that Cash Patel has said in some of his statements. And then in response, it was Cash Patel's opportunity to respond. And he led with that rants of false information does not bring this country together.

Amanda Escobedo (22:49.708)
And it's that line that took Cory Booker out of his power. And that's where this escalation happened because Cash Patel said that line, that rant of false information does not bring this country together. And then his closing remarks were intended to his own. He had data of all these great things that he's done given results.

and like he's cleaned up all this cocaine. He's arrested all these people all within seven months. But all of that was lost because now they were both barking at each other. And part of the reason of Corey being triggered, his Corey's response was something along the lines of what did I have it written down here?

But overall he was basically saying like I follow your social media and like that rhetoric there is dividing our country So like how dare you say I'm dividing us by this rant that I'm on when you yourself are dividing this country I've seen your social media posts so

I'm gonna go through some examples and opportunities within both of them, but again, mostly Cash Patel's behaviors, which I find interesting, which is why I had a lot of deep reflections and watched this video a few times because...

Again, my goal is to be objective here in highlighting these news. My goal is to highlight leadership behaviors and then also just tools to lead alternatively, more empowering, influential in a way that unites us, solves problems. When I watched this video, I found myself being defensive and protective over Cash Patel, which I found very interesting. And I was like, why am I leading with protection? And it's because as I just kind of sat, got curious,

Amanda Escobedo (24:47.632)
myself and unpacked this.

You know, a lot of the data and the quote unquote evidence that Cory Booker paired with his argument that Cash Patel is a poor leader and has bad intentions, it was a lot of based on reduction in force. So Cash Patel has like purged a bunch of people, fired a bunch of people. And then also like Cory Booker brought in a quote from somebody that had been terminated that's been with, you know, the government for like 20 years.

not something nice about Kash Patel. And was basically claiming that he's like, destructing and destroying our FBI agency. And so my brain went to my past experiences. So I've been working in HR for years and I've been a part of a lot of culture transformations is what I'd like to see. And what that really means is if you think of technology as an example or any type of organization, at some point if they're trying

If they're falling behind against the competition or maybe they've invested a lot of money in technology but they haven't gotten a return, they'll likely bring in a new leader, whether a CTO or a CEO, a new leader to turn the ship.

around. Now in order to turn the ship around, generally immediately there is cost at play. So that new leader will be challenged to cut costs. They will be challenged to bring in revenue. What's your pathway to green? They will be challenged to bring money back to the shareholders. So all of that requires a lot of change and all of that requires a lot of disruption and a lot of that generally requires new leadership and a lot of new people.

Amanda Escobedo (26:34.466)
Now, why is that?

Well, when you have a new vision and you have a new direction, you have to think of how did we get here in the first place? And if they had the mindset that I've seen within organizations is if we had the right leaders, we wouldn't be in this place in the first place. So generally what I've seen in some organizations, some of the leaders are the first to go and they're generally like the executive team. Now, within the other pieces, you've got a lot of talent there and

So we are trying to move and turn the ship, depending on how big this organization is, how many people there, like what's the culture, what's the dynamic. That change is disruptive to a lot of people. And the brain heats change. And if somebody has been in an organization for 20 years and has never been challenged to operate in a new way, the critter brain is likely to be triggered.

with this change. so generally leadership is coming in to see who's on board with this change, who's excited on the vision. Maybe they don't have all the skills, but we can work with the right mindset and the right attitude. And they're also trying to observe who's resistance. Are they able to be influenced?

And part of the mindset is, they looking for all the reasons of why this can't work or are they trying to figure out how to make it work? Those type of mindsets are what's going to come into leadership evaluation. And so all of this is going into my mind because generally within this transformation, not everybody makes the cut. And so within that, you're going to have a lot of disgruntled people, especially if they've been within an organization for years and then disgruntled people that maybe get impacted and lose their job.

Amanda Escobedo (28:20.896)
There's emails that go up the CEO chain and so

Cory Booker is really standing and feeling for the people that have been let go of the government and he sounds like he knows them maybe and he's taking this as a negative and I'm not saying right or wrong whether this is evidence against Cash Patel or maybe Cory Booker doesn't have enough perspective of what it takes to transform and make a vision become like reality.

So that was the perspective that I had was that Cory Booker is probably missing perspective. Like I understand these data points that Cory Booker has mentioned, I've seen time and time again and are a part of change transformation and trying to achieve a new goal and a new vision. Now, having said that, when I remove my bias and I recognize that, I was like, wow, I'm being very protective over cash Patel. What I found fascinating is once I removed the bias,

I actually notice and observe different things going on in this dynamic and it actually had a lot of my criticism and leadership opportunities posed at Cash Patel. So.

A couple different things again, going back to energy, the critter brain and energy. That is the opportunity here. I'd say mostly for Cash Patel going back to Cory Booker, I thought did a good job being grounded in his energy while he was pressing his point. Whereas again, I felt Patel slipped into a superior ego driven, annoyed, defensive avoidance mindset. And true leadership is really just presence, open and intentional.

Amanda Escobedo (30:04.588)
Now, the opportunity for Cash Patel, I'd say, is...

You know, I can imagine he was already, what's the word I'm looking, not looking forward to this hearing and was probably agitated before he walked in. And the opportunity is to pause and lead with intention. So if you know that you're going to walk into a situation that you recognize can be escalated, you recognize can be contentious, you recognize has the opportunity to trigger you, that is your moment to pause and be intentional. And how do you need to show up?

in order to show up in your power. And really that requires you to get clear on what your power looks like. So what's an example? Well, I'll give you two different examples. One is every time I go to do a coaching presentation, let's say one of the last ones I did, there were like 200 people. And as much as I love public speaking, I still get the jitters. I still get very, very nervous. And so I have to calm my jitters down, my brain critter down.

all the fears down. And part of that is I redirect my energy and focus to what do I want the people on the other side of this presentation to take away? What do I want them to feel? What do I want them to experience? And when I think of how I want them to feel, experience, and what I want them to absorb from this presentation, then I reflect on myself on who do I need to be? How do I need to show up in order for this outcome

to be true. And so let's say in a presentation as such, I might lead with empowerment. I want to lead with inspiration. I want to lead with influence. I want to lead with competence. I want to lead with energy. And so what I will do is take those five words, identify who I want to be, and I will sit and I will meditate on those words until I feel that I am now embodying those five words and showing up intentionally.

Amanda Escobedo (32:08.45)
within that. Now similarly, if I am walking into what I believe can be a contentious conversation, there's going to be a dialogue of disagreements and I have the possibility of being triggered is what I'll say. Then part of that is walking in intentionally as well. Again, going into what's my desired outcome of this conversation and who do I need to be? How do I need to show up in order to more closely effectively

Get that outcome. So similarly I'll call in those five words And then there's other tools that I'll pull in and I will say I'm a human being I mean not always successful But leading with intention will help bring you closer to that point of power Which is you in the present moment? What we're trying to do when we lead with intention is to manage and minimize the critter brain and so if you do not consciously intentionally

minimize and manage that critter brain, then the critter brain will take over you.

Now, another leadership opportunity that Cash Patel had here is it feels like he's, from my perspective, his really only strategy with coming into this hearing was having data point of results of things he's accomplished within the first seven months. And so he had those data points ready, which I think is good. However, from an outside perspective, like I have nothing to compare to with that data point. They sound nice, but I

don't know how that compares to the previous FBI agent leaders or FBI agency. I don't know what those results compare to. But besides the results, we're here to talk about where leadership might have gone flat on his end, where promises might have gone unfulfilled, or where mistakes might have been made. That's how we got to this hearing. And so...

Amanda Escobedo (34:13.676)
What could have been an area of opportunity is Patel leading with ownership, owning his mistakes, owning his errors, sharing at that hearing or to the people more in advance as soon as something has gone wrong, his leading with ownership and then reflecting on what he learned, what went wrong in particular and then providing.

a new direction on how he is going to pivot to help reduce the likelihood of that happening again. So as an example, know, two things that Cory Booker highlighted was, know, Cash Patel had promised on releasing the EPSTEAM files and then he didn't.

Cash Patel announced a suspect prematurely to Charlie Kirk's assassination. He said, we got the guy and then he retracted and said, yes, we don't. Right. And so.

As an example, these are two powerful error moments that can immediately lose trust within your leadership. But if you lead with ownership, you own your results, I made an error, I did fail, I made a mistake, compassion can easily be drawn in from people because we all have the same human experience and recognized mistakes are made. Compassion, integrity, and trust can still be instilled when it is followed by reflection.

learned what exactly went wrong and you are providing a pivot in how you are going to approach this situation differently next time. When you do not lead with ownership, when you do not lead with reflection, when you do not lead with how you are going to lead differently, share your pivot, you allow for the brain critter of others to create assumptions. They are going to fill in the gaps. And so if you're quiet about the Epstein files, you said you were going to do this

Amanda Escobedo (36:09.112)
and then you didn't. Now people, the critter brain are going to jump to conclusions on why you didn't do it. When we talk about Charlie Kirk's assassinator and you communicate that we got the killer or we got the murderer and then you backtrack and said, no, we didn't. If you don't tell us what happened there, then we are going to assume the worst case scenario, which is you lack competence. Right? So what we want to do is get ahead of the critter brain. We want to block assumptions by leading with ownership.

So my closing thought here in particular is really in leadership, the other part outside of all of this, one thing that came into mind for Cash Patel is like just in general leadership is hard. And what do I mean by that?

Whatever type of leader you are, if you own a business unit, you own a sector, you own results. And so when results aren't made or big errors, depending on what kind of business you are, like an error that could happen if you think of aerospace can cost hundreds of thousand dollars or millions of dollars or somebody can die when something goes wrong and it's within your business unit or sector as a leader, you own that mistake. Whether you did it or not, if your people did it, you own

that mistake. And so naturally you might be accused, you will be challenged. And if you also have a vision, you are trying to achieve something that has never been before. It's really hard for the brain to conceptualize something that's the possibilities. If the possibilities have never happened before innovation, whatever it is you're trying to create, if it's a new experience, it's really hard for our tiny little brains to get into your brain to understand how

this can be and so you will likely be challenged and misunderstood in your vision misunderstood in your approach and so leadership requires a lot of courage it requires a lot of accusation it requires a lot of groundedness and resilience in order to you to survive that journey and I that's not what I want to say it's not it's what I have definitely

Amanda Escobedo (38:28.072)
experienced and leadership requires you to learn how to do hard better. The higher you grow in your leadership, the more responsibility you take on. You do not take on less problems. Your problems become bigger. And so the more you can learn how to navigate these smaller problems and build your resilience, build your courage, the easier leadership gets. But

leading it's a challenging journey. It's not for the weak. That's for sure. That's for sure. Now I don't want to end on a negative note when it comes to our government and our politicians.

My parents, they know I'm doing this podcast. They know my new vision. They recognize my mission. They understand how I'm trying to influence this nation and all of you to really be the game changers and unite and solve the problems of the world and hopefully fuel your purpose by becoming passionate about some of the problems within the world that you want to solve. And knowing that they shared a clip which was

surprising. And what I mean by surprising, when I take in my news sources, I listen to a lot of different podcasts, I have different

Articles coming into my emails that I read and then also I watch CNN and Fox and then like I listen to NPR I'm trying to diversify how I get my news and Like it specifically I share that with CNN and Fox what I from my perspective see and observe is They fail to share the news objectively. That's very much either a narrative that feeds

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the news, right? Either swings to the left or swings to the right. And generally it's very pointing fingers against the alternative side, et cetera, et cetera. But my parents came across this interview that was on Fox News and it was very inspiring and empowering. And it was quite a different tone than I'm used to in watching any of these TV channels. And the clip really brings together

two different governors across party lines who emphasize unity, cooperation, and shared values despite our division.

And the two governors that were interviewed, it was Republican from Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, and then you had Democrat of Colorado, Jared Polis, I believe is their name. And so just some slight highlights from this video. I'm not going to read the entire thing. It was like a 12 minute thing, but just some slight highlights. I believe Governor Stitt mentioned something about talking about how people can work together.

lowering the temperature, focusing on solutions and unity.

We had Kevin Stitt speaking on avoiding tribalism. He mentioned, politician affiliation doesn't determine if you're a good person or a bad person. We're Americans who love our families and love our countries. Let's remember that. And then we had another note, let's say by Kevin Stitt on bipartisan of national government associations that mentioned we shouldn't be playing

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politics like they do in Washington DC. Now overall, what I really loved about just again this interview, these two were just quite the duo, synergy, intentional, grounded. Their message was just really embedded in hopeful and inclusion. Rather than focusing on what divides us, they pointed out what unites us. They focused on family, community, mutual

respect and the idea that differing perspectives, they are a part of the American fabric. They expressed optimism that despite politician polarization,

there's still a strong desire among Americans for collaboration and decency. And the clip frames this as a common ground effort rooted in a grounded energy rather than accusatory or fear driven rhetoric. So one of the things that really stuck with me with this video going back to their expression of optimism of

They believe there are many Americans that desire collaboration and decency. And I love that they focused on that piece because I'm sure as you are scrolling in your social media, I don't know, if you're on Reddit channels, whatever it is and you're on, you're seeing a lot of people going against each other. But there are also highlights of people that are uniting, talking about uniting. And so how do we redirect our brain, our focus,

on those stories that exist rather than consuming all these other stories that feel like a lot that fuel our fear and our anxiety. So I love that they focused their strong belief that there are Americans that desire collaboration and decency. Now why is this video I truly believe is an example of great leadership? There's quite a few reasons. One, if we go back to

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energy superior inferior grounded both of them lead with very grounded energy and the essence that you get from them in this interview is they speak with humility calmness and authenticity it feels so authentic a general genuine relationship and conversation there's no shouting there's no blame no one is trying to dominate the conversation they both lead with steadiness and

Now the other part that I really want to highlight here is you can tell they led with a lot of intention. This interview was completely intentional. Their intention is completely visible. Build bridges, acknowledge differences, affirm shared hopes.

And so when they lead with recognizing what's our vision, what's our goal for this interview, then you're able to effectively show up in harmony with that. And so this interview wasn't just rhetoric, it was reframing signals of what kind of citizens and leaders they believe Americans can be.

And then the overall message, hope and unity over polarization. So instead of amplifying fear, outrage, division, they really focused on what connects people. Cherishing our differences, valuing family, friendship, all having the same goal but different paths.

These are the values that many can agree on regardless of the party. And the last note is this was really a message of empowerment. One of the closing lines really talked about, it's not about really telling people what to think, but inspiring people to see themselves in the shared ambition of better. Game changer. This is what brings a more united.

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country. This is leadership that really flips us rather than lifts us up rather than divides us. So one of the things I want to lead leave you with is a powerful question. Powerful questions are what cultivates creativity. Powerful questions are what help us solve problems. Powerful questions are really

would unlock our intuitive intelligence. And so my powerful question for you is, with the goal of this podcast, be a game changer, be the change you want to see. What does good leadership look like for you? How can you model it in your life? At home, at work, with your friends, even in traffic? Now,

You can sit with that question.

Allow your intuitive intelligence to answer it. So just sit with what is leadership look like for you and how can you model that. But I do want to leave you with a coaching tool to consider and try on this week. So in the coaching world, one of the things I do with my clients, once we align on what their vision and what's their desired outcome, I create curriculum that helps support and enables their success. We give them practical mindfulness and emotional intelligence.

One of the things I love to do is give them with what I call a live with mantra. And a live with mantra is really, we might put post-its all over their world. We might create a screen saver on their phone. And these are little reminders of little messages I want you to show up as. It's a very, it's almost like a record scratch, an intentional process on how to be, how to think, to, how, really how to show up. And so one of the coaching tools in the mantra

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I want you to consider is living with just like me. What does that mean? Well, just like me is a powerful way to minimize judgments and to call in compassion. And so what that looks like is if you are sitting in traffic,

And let's say somebody cuts you off and that critter brain is just getting triggered and it's like, how dare that mother bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, that and just cut me off. Once that critter brain starts going, that's your signal to call in just like me. And you'll finish that sentence by saying, just like me, there's been a time that somebody has been in my blind spots and I've cut them off and almost hit them.

when someone doesn't hold the door open for you. And that critter brain is like, the world these days, people have lost their respect, their mannerism, chivalry is dead. Your brain critter is going off because somebody didn't hold the door for you. That is your moment for you to call in just like me and finish that sentence. Just like me. I've been in a moment where I was in my head and I wasn't aware of my personal surroundings and I probably let the door slam on the person behind me.

When somebody triggers you in a conversation, when you're in a dialogue and someone says something that does not align with your belief system or your values, it's an opportunity for you to say, just like me. Just like me, they have their own imperfections, their stories, their assumptions. Every trigger...

Every moment of frustration, every assumption, this is your opportunity for you to learn how to be intentional with settling into your power. Pause, recognize the trigger, come back to the present moment and be intentional with calling in compassion, which can look like calling in just like me. We're all doing our best.

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in this world called life as effectively as we can. We're all leading from our own experiences and restrictive perspectives. We're all doing the best we have with the tools and the information that we have today.

Now, we are all leaders and I'm inviting you to lead from exactly where you are. Leadership isn't about winning arguments. It's about being successful. And your success is about healing the divides. It's about choosing unity over division. It's about leading the change instead of waiting for those around you to create the change. It's about leading in a way that reminds us all.

who we are. We are flawed. We are hopeful. We are human seeking purpose in pursuits of happiness. So I want you to go out this week, carry this conversation from you into the world, lead with intention, lead with groundedness, lead with unity, lead with just like me.

Now I want to close you on a fun, quick article. And this one is not political related. It's really related to mindfulness. And the headline is landlines are back, a lesson in mindful living. Now, just a quick summary of this article. It's an article about just the surprising rise of retro tech. And what they're saying is landlines are back.

So there's a trend going on right now. About 76 % of US adults no longer have landlines, but some parents are bringing them back. Why are?

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because landlines give an opportunity for children to connect with their friends, their family, without the distraction of the dangers of smartphones. And so there's no TikTok, there's no Candy Crush, there's no constant notifications, no strangers in their DMs. Now the benefits of having this landline is it really helps kids practice patience, phone etiquette, focus on attention, being present.

So with a corded phone as an example, you can't really wander around and multitask. You have to sit, listen, and be present. Now there's a bit of a culture shift happening in partnership with this landline effect. Now in order for this landline effect to be a bit successful, parents have found that they have more children bought into the experience when they band with other parents to normalize the landline experience. So as an example,

Author Jonathan Hat notes it's easier to bypass the resistance of smartphone pressure when you have families collectively doing this landline experience. So one main mother as an example convinced her neighborhood to adopt landlines, easing the when can I have my phone back battle for her. And so what I find even more hilarious is there's literally a

startup called Tin Can now selling these very colorful landlines for $75 if you want one proving that there's a real market for just simple tech. Now the purpose of me bringing this article is less about the landlines but more about the focus of mindfulness.

Right now, we are mindfullness-ly missing the world because we live in a fast-paced world. And so what struck me about this whole retro landline thing is what a creative way to solve for mindfullness.

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Right now with screens, with our phones, social media, we've got our podcasts, you're listening to me right now. Our brains are so busy all the time. We're like, as soon as we wake up, you're scrolling and checking your email, you're looking at social media. We're going and listening to one podcast, we're putting the music on. We're jumping from one meeting to another, one event to another, and the brain doesn't have enough time to just be quiet.

The more you can introduce more quiet, minimize the noise, the more you create intentional space for your intuitive intelligence to show up, your creativity to show up. so landlines are just one way to strip away the noise as they force again patients that you can't really scroll on anything if you're not really activating your phone.

And in this culture of addictive fasts, fast foods, fast replies, fast everything, landlines are a tool to help slow us down, reconnect us to the present moment and give us space for intuition to surface. So I'll leave you with a question, a powerful question. What can you do to slow down and be intentional about bringing mindfulness back into your life?

Now doesn't have to be a landline. It could be something as simple as a two to five minute meditation. Maybe you're moving your body with a walk or a workout or stretching with no headphones. Maybe you're journaling a few lines before bed, starting your morning walk or starting your morning with affirmations. Maybe you're doing a quick five senses check-in, anchoring in yourself into the present moment.

These are different mindfulness experiences that can help you be intentionally centered, grounded presence and minimizing the noise. Now these practices, while small, make all the difference. And if you feel as an example, know, meditation is not for you.

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I'd like to say if you're one of those people that have tried meditations and you're like, Amanda, been there, done that, not for me, I'm not good at it, then I would like to say if you're bad at it, you're actually doing it correctly. What does that mean? Well, I want you to think of meditation like your brain going to the gym. If I were 300 pounds going into the gym for the first time, I would probably feel like I suck at it. I'd feel like everything was heavy.

I'd feel winded, I would not feel confident, and I'd probably feel like I wanna quit. But if I kept up the habit and the routine of going to the gym, the benefits are less about my progress in the gym, but more about the experience outside of the gym.

all of a sudden I'd probably start to notice, wow, I just walked up the stairs and I'm not winded today. Or maybe I just cleared out the garage and I'm not sore. And it's those moments where you feel and experience that progress that I want you to consider is similar to, let's say, and then I'd say a flex of a bicep curl.

but for your brain. So if you put yourself into meditation and you find your brain wandering off, thinking about something else, you've now taken away.

from the guided meditation. As soon as you gain consciousness and you've recognized, have wandered away from the mis-meditation, that is your bicep curl. That is your flex. And so when you notice, you bring yourself back to the present moment, another flex. Your brain got distracted again and you recognize flex. You brought it back to the present moment, the guide, flex. Now what that progress looks like outside of the meditation is all of a sudden, you're in a meeting

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and you're a lot more focused. You don't have squirrel brain. You're not being distracted. You're not thinking about what's for lunch, what's for dinner, all the emails I have to send. You're actually paying attention. What progress could also look like if someone says something that would normally trigger you, but you're slow to respond and you are an observer and you notice, wow, I'm triggered in this moment. And so again, the benefits are less about what's happening inside the meditation. The benefits are what are happening outside. And if you're doing it wrong, you're doing it.

Right. Now that's all I have for you folks. I'm Amanda Escobedo. I appreciate you listening to the game changer if today sparked some insights, ah-hahs, or new perspectives.

I'd be so grateful if you subscribed, left a review, shared this episode with three people in your network who are ready to master the mental game and unlock their potential. It's your support that helps others discover this resource and invites them to be the next game changer. Join me next time on another conversation on leadership, culture, and creating impact that lasts. Thank you for listening.