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Rip Esselstyn on Growing a Movement and Being Open to Opportunity: PYP 237

Rip Esselstyn is founder of Engine 2, a food and education company dedicated to eliminating chronic disease through a whole food, plant-based diet.

As Engine 2 continues to grow in influence and reach, Rip is stewarding the company to new opportunities. As a food brand associated with Whole Foods and an education provider to their employees, Engine 2 is poised to explode with Amazon's purchase of Whole Foods this past year.

I see Amazon as a potential blessing and curse, both in its current behavior, and its continuing disruption of retail into the future. I wanted to get Rip's take on the opportunities and dangers inherent in a tight relationship with Amazon.

I also had a wonderful time at Plantstock 2017, at the Esselstyn family farm in Claverack, New York, and watched a number of friends, clients, and acquaintances experience profound breakthrough during that weekend. I wanted to explore what I had seen with Rip, and get his take on what Engine 2's vision is for its public events.

As an introduction to the conversation, I had a chat with Doron Avizov, who attended Plantstock, and shared with me the profound influence the event had on him. Doron is a coaching client of mine, and a participant in the Big Change Program, so he's no stranger to plant-based living and skills. And as accomplished and experienced as he is, nevertheless he was touched deeply by the Plantstock experience.

Here are a couple of photos to punctuate Doron's description of his journey. Before was taken May 2015 (in the North Face jacket). And after was taken October 2017.

Back to Rip.

What really struck me about our conversation is how Rip's perceptual filters work. My default mental mode is to watch out for external threats and internal weaknesses, while Rip is just the opposite. He's always looking for the positive; for the opportunity, for the upside, for the good.

And I suspect that attitude has played a large role in the success of the movement he spearheads.

In our conversation, we covered:

  • transitioning to a plant-based diet at the University of Texas based on his dad's research
  • “I didn't have to eat the meat at the athlete's table any more”
  • watching his parents walk their talk and not decline as they aged
  • “my dad is a plant-eating beast”
  • emulating top triathlete Dave Scott's diet
  • the Engine 2 experiment – getting his firefighting brothers on a healthier trajectory
  • “I had no interest in writing a book”
  • writing it anyway
  • from The Engine 2 Diet to the Whole Foods scientific advisory board
  • being a “healthy eating celebrity”
  • the key to success: reach out and help as many people as possible
  • the power of “following your passion”
  • the fortunate decision to get a degree in speech communications decades before it was relevant
  • the magic of Plantstock
  • the future of Engine 2 events (they're coming to North Carolina next summer!)
  • serving their “avatar” participants who watched Forks Over Knives and were inspired to dive deeper
  • the Amazon opportunity: to serve more people (including millions who've never set foot into a Whole Foods store) with healthy Engine 2 products
  • and much more…

Enjoy, add your voice to the conversation via the comment box below, and please share – that's how we spread our message and spread our roots.

Links

Engine 2

Whole Foods Market

Forks Over Knives

YouTube player

Dr Howie Jacobson

This podcast is a labor of love and a way to give back to the world that has given me so much. That's why there aren't any sponsors (except me :).

My day job is helping leaders and their teams master their mindsets to remove all obstacles to heart-centered high performance.

Here are three gigs that I do:

1. Executive and Senior Leadership Mentoring and Facilitation

I work with high performing executive teams in organizations — and executive teams that need to become high  performing. My focus is mindset mastery, because it’s our mindsets that either support high performance or get in the way.

At this level, everyone’s got the skills and experience to excel and contribute at the highest level. What holds people back is mindset stuff: specifically the triggers that get them out of creative engagement and into fight-or-flight defensiveness.

My practice is all about teaching people to respond differently to those triggers by updating old maps — essentially removing the glitches that the triggers grab onto.

2. Executive Coaching: Quick Wins for High Performance

I work with individual executives and leaders, one on one. The program is called Quick Wins for High Performance, and what we do is, we work strategically on one or two areas that are holding you back and keeping you from performing at your best.

We reverse engineer the presenting problems — too much work and not enough time, underperforming employees and teams, maddening organizational inefficiencies, etc — and identify and rewire the suboptimal mindsets that are behind those problems.

The work is all about updating your mental maps so your actions and responses are always appropriate, proportionate, and strategic.

3. High Stakes Conversations for Fast Growing Small Business Teams

I help small business teams have high stakes conversations with skill, humor, and grace. When people feel safe, they can do their best, most creative, most collaborative work.

So that's what I do. If you'd like any of those results, drop me a line and tell me about yourself.

You CAN Change Other People!

Well, that's what Peter Bregman and I claim in our provocative book of that title.

What we really mean is, you can bring out the best in the people around you. If you think you're powerless to help people change, it's because you've been going about it the wrong way.

Discover our straightforward, replicable process here: You Can Change Other People.

 

Music

The Plant Yourself Podcast theme music, “Dance of Peace (Sabali Don),” is generously provided by Will Ridenour, a kora player from North Carolina who has trained with top Senegalese musicians.

It can be found on his first CD, titled Will Ridenour.

You can learn about Will, listen to more tracks, and buy music on his website, WillRidenour.com.

Gratitudes

Thanks to Plant Yourself podcast patrons – Kim Harrison – Lynn McLellan – Brittany Porter – Dominic Marro – Barbara Whitney – Tammy Black – Amy Good – Amanda Hatherly – Mary Jane Wheeler – Ellen Kennelly – Melissa Cobb – Rachel Behrens – Tina Scharf – Tina Ahern – Jen Vilkinofsky – David Byczek – Michele X – Elspeth Feldman – Leah Stolar – Allan Kristensen – Colleen Peck – Michele Landry – Jozina – Sara Durkacs – Kelly Cameron – Janet Selby – Claire Adams – Tom Fronczak – Jeannette Benham – Gila Lacerte – David Donohue – Blair Seibert – Doron Avizov – Gio and Carolyn Argentati – Jodi Friesner – Mischa Rosen – Michael Worobiec – AvIvA Lael – Alicia Lemus – Val Linnemann – Nick Harper – Bandana Chawla – Molly Levine – The Inscrutable Harry R – Susan Laverty the Panda Vegan – Craig Covic – Adam Scharf – Karen Bury – Heather Morgan – Nigel Davies – Marian Blum – Teresa Kopel – Julian Watkins – Brid O'Connell – Shannon Herschman – Linda Ayotte – Holm Hedegaard – Isa Tousignant – Connie Haneline – Erin Greer – Alicia Davis – Heather O'Connor – Carollynne Jensen – Sheri Orlekoski of Plant Powered for Health – Karen Smith – Scott Mirani – Karen and Joe Crabtree – Kirby Burton – Theresa Carrell – Kevin Macaulay – Elizabeth Rothschild – Ann Jesse – Sheryl Dwyer – Jenny Hazelton – Peter W Evans – Dennis Bird – Darby Kelly – Lori Fanney – Linnea Lundquist – Emily Iaconelli – Levi Wallach – Rosamonde McAtee – Dan Pokorney – Stephen Leinin – Patty DeMartino – Mike and Donna Kartz – Deanne Bishop – Bilberry Elf – Marjorie Lewis – Tricia Adams – Nancy Sheldon – Lindsey Bashore – Gunn Marit Hagen – Tracey Gulledge – Lara Hedin – Meg from Mamasezz – Stacey Stokes – Ben Savage – Michael K – David Hughes -Coni Rodgers – Claire England – Sally Robertson – Parham Ganchi – Amy Dailey – Brian Tourville – Mark Jeffrey Johnson – Josie Dempsey – Caryn Schmitt – Pamela Hayden – Emily Perryman – Allison Corbett – Richard Stone – Lauren Vaught of Edible Musings – Erin Hastey – Sean Owens – Sagar Naik – Erika Piedra – Danielle Roberts – Michael Leuchten – Sarah Johnson – Katharine Floyd – Meryl Fury – for your generous support of the podcast.

Disclosure

This post may contain amazon affiliate links. I may receive compensation from your actions on such links. It don't cost you a dime, tho.

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