Transcript of Episode 18

LaMondre Pough: Welcome to 3DVU one conversation, three different perspectives. I’m LaMondre. Pough

David Perez: I am David Perez.

Richard Streitz: And I’m Richard Streitz. Thank you for joining us.

LaMondre Pough: 2020 has been to say the least an extraordinary year. An extra ordinary year. And we wanted to take some time to reflect and talk about some of the experiences that we’ve had and how we felt about it and, and really what that has meant, uh, to each of us.

But today we’re going to do something a little bit different. You know, the name of the show is 3DVU where today we’ll, we’ll have a fourth D. Uh, in that. So we want to welcome Debra Ruh. She is the CEO of Ruh Global Impact and the host of Human Potential At Work. And honestly, simply an amazing human being.

And we couldn’t think of anyone that would be better suited to have this conversation with. Debra, welcome to 3DVU.

Debra Ruh: Thank you so much. I love the show. I love the diversity of the voices and the age and the cultures. It’s very cool. So I’m really honored to be the first woman on your show.

LaMondre Pough: And the first guest! You are the absolute first guest.

Debra Ruh: That’s right, the first guest and a woman, yay!

LaMondre Pough: You are the first first.

So that’s, that’s an amazing thing and we’re really honored. Uh, to have you here. And honestly, that’s because, you know, we, we typically have very deep conversations just as friends, uh, across the board, but we really wanted to have, have another perspective and really talk about what 2020 has been, because it’s been a really rough year in many regards, but then there’s also been some amazing things.

That have happened. So we wanted to kind of kick off this or in this particular year with that conversation. So what has 2020 been like for you?

Debra Ruh: 2020, I know we were talking about this before we got on air and a couple of us, including me, got a little choked up because it’s been a hard year and it is, it has been a year of losses. And regardless of whether you personally lost somebody, um, we can all feel the collective loss. And I know I’ve been walking a lot of loss sadly, and, um, my husband has dementia and it, it is it’s become very profound.

He has it because of a traumatic brain injury he sustained as a child when he was hit by a drunk driver. Um, Just as he got his kite flying. So maybe that’s 2020, right? You have all these joys also. And sometimes I think I almost feel guilty when I’m having the joy. I mean, our company, I’m so proud to be part of Ruh Global with all of you and our company has really been thriving in this environment.

And I believe adding light to these conversations. So you have these beautiful things that are happening. But at the same time, there is major losses and people are walking intensity. Like none of us have felt in our lives. And I think we have to certainly practice being kind and we have to really give each other a break.

We just have to understand, you don’t know what somebody else is walking ahead of you. You just don’t know somebody cuts you off in traffic or they, you know, cut you off in the grocery store with their cart. You just don’t know what trauma these people are walking. And the political trauma and, you know, our, we had clients that were attacked.

It’s just really been an intense year, but I’ll make this one final comment. I believe we had to walk this path. We had, we we’ve had Black Lives Matter, for example, in the United States for years, and we haven’t taken it seriously and we’re murdering our citizens, while we all watch. You know, it was horrifying to watch what happened to our, uh, our black community this year, but it’s been happening for so many years.

And then you have things like the #metoo movement where women come out, it came out and really said ‘no more’. So I think even though it’s intense and super hard and you have the pandemic, this is the year when mother earth is saying, I want y’all to evolve. I want you to go home, think about what’s happened and I want you to evolve and let, let’s be better, let’s the, show the light forward, and let’s show each other the way forward and let’s stop deciding certain people don’t matter because.

LaMondre Pough: Right.

Debra Ruh: Sorry for the long answer.

LaMondre Pough: No, no, that, that, that, that was great. That was great.

David Perez: That’s that’s what it’s all about in 3DVU, really, to go in depth into, into answers and just exploring the topics as they are, as they come, because well, 2020 is complicated. There’s no way to summarize it in a couple of words or even a couple of paragraphs. Things have happened across the board in the economic landscape and the political landscape in the social landscape.

And that’s not even taking into consideration the personal things that everyone has had to work through to get to where we are. Right. I know we mentioned in a previous episode that. The end of the year is not necessarily going to change anything, but we love to feel like it does, like we’re closing a chapter.

Like we’re doing, something is going to be different next year. And maybe in 2021, it will be different just because there will be a change in power had we’ve been expecting for awhile, maybe because we are getting the vaccine. Maybe things are going to be better. But I agree with what Debra was saying.

The fact that things are going to be better comes from, from all the difficult things we have to work through. There’s there was no way for us to get to the progress that we have now at our reach, without us walking through where we had to walk through, it was just, it’s just been an incredible year in terms of change.

And change is exhausting and that’s, I guess what we’re all feeling. It ex, we’re exhausted, emotionally and physically and psychologically.

Debra Ruh: And collectively, and collectively David. Sorry, Richard.

Richard Streitz:  I was just gonna say, you know, it’s, it’s so very true. Um, with the level of exhaustion and, you know, um, Debra, one of the things that you said that, that sort of, uh, sticks in my head. And, and it is, is you mentioned that, you know, we have to sort of go through this in order to get to the other side. And, and, and I put it sort of in conjunction or in parallel to, you know, when a parent sees a young child and, and has caught them smoking, you know, so this is gonna date me now, right, too. And then says, okay, well, if you’re gonna smoke, you’re gonna smoke an entire pack of cigarettes.

Right. And then, you know, and to teach them a lesson. Right. And so they do. And of course, usually they get sick. Because of the age and so forth. And the, and, and the, the over-consumption, and absorbtion of, of nicotine and blah-blah-blah. And so they, they get ill, they get sick and then, you know, and then they get better and then hopefully they, they learn.

Okay. You know, that, that wasn’t, doing all of that is not a good thing. I think in many ways in parallel at a macro level, that’s really what we’ve been going through. Uh, the, the issues that we’ve been experiencing, socially, economically, and politically have been building up for a number of years. And I think 2020 is sort of a combination of saying, okay, you want to do this, go for it, do it.

And, and so, and, and this is what we, you know, this is us smoking the full pack of cigarettes all at once, because it’s, it’s really a culmination of all of these things happening simultaneously. And I think one of the great things that the new year, new birth, new, new opportunities, the, the hope, um, of, of a new beginning, uh, you know, uh, hope eternal with, with the new year.

I think that is something that’s woven into all cultures and all societies with, with the beginning of a new year on a new cycle and coming, and the fact that, you know, uh, David, as you said, coming off of, you know, we have this new election. So we have a new administration that’s going to be coming in.

We’ve got the vaccine. We’ve just, you know, that, that will start going, you know, we’ll start swinging now the opposite direction of where we have been from, with, with the coronavirus at the pandemic level. Um, and you know, economically there’s a lot of rejuvenation and things that are happening that are, that are shifting there as well.

Uh, you know, so I think there is hope eternal about the positiveness of the new year and what we have to look forward to as we are seeing sort of solutions that, that, that are coming, that are bringing to a close sort of this period of time.

LaMondre Pough: Yeah. You know what I was just thinking about at the beginning of the millennium, um, year 2000, I can remember so many organizations and companies creating this long, the, these strategic plans that were long range, strategic plans, and almost everyone named them vision 2020. You know, and of course the play on 2020 vision clarity and all those kinds of things. And of course, no one could have foreseen what that actually meant.

Yes. People for, foresaw, a pandemic, yes people, you know, saw, uh, racial uprising and intentions and, and, and, and all of those things. But no one could have conceived as how that stuff would impact us. And no one thought that all of it would happen at the same time. I was just thinking back on it. And, and as Debra, as you were speaking, you talked about, you know, the situation.

That happened with the racial tensions and of course the #metoo movement, and then the political issues that we saw. And then I started thinking, but I also remember that there were huge wildfires happening at the exact same time. There were multiple hurricanes happening at the same, we had to go to the Greek alphabet because we ran out of names.

We ran out of names.

Richard Streitz: We’re smoking that pack, right. 

LaMondre Pough: For the storms. This is, this is literally the pack that you’re talking about. And, you know, we, we saw wild swings in the economies around the world, you know, and when I started to think about the analogy of the, of the cigarette pack, Richard, I swear to you this, this was, this had to be the funkiest pack of cigarettes ever.

This was not your regular, this was not your regular pack.

Richard Streitz: These were your, your camel long unfiltered.

LaMondre Pough: Listen, these were the, these were the, these were the cigarettes that Fred Flintstone sang about. Okay. Before they had some warnings on the packages. And, and, and, but in all of that, in all of that undulation and all of that change, there was some very beautiful things that came about that as well.

For example, because we experienced so much loss so quickly, we began to reevaluate what was really important in our lives. We began to realize that connection really meant something there that you can see someone every single day and still not really be connected with them, but when they’re gone, when they’re not there, or when you don’t have that access to them anymore, you recognize, wow.

We really need to elevate our conversation. We really need to focus more in, on the person and not necessarily the tool, but what was interesting about that? It also showed the importance of everyone having the tools, look at what happened with the kids and education in terms of not everybody having reliable internet connections.

And so what did that mean in terms of, in terms of that child’s education? How can we, how, how, how can we better serve. Our rural and underserved communities. Those conversations were conversations we were already having, but now it was like, no, we really have got to do something about this. So while it hurt, and while there were major issues that came about from this. I think it also pushed the conversation to a place that we really have to do something about this now, it can’t just be, ‘wouldn’t it be nice if’ now it’s ‘we have to do this in order to survive’.

David Perez: Yeah, it’s amazing because I remember that less than a year ago. Yeah, at the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, it was impossible to even consider a universal basic income. It was never going to happen. Now it’s a real conversation that we need to have because people need income when things like these happen, which are going to happen, economic downturns are gonna keep being a thing and you need to provide for people.

So that they don’t die of hunger. It, it was like the perfect storm for us to be able to realize that the people that have been telling us to create progress in all of these areas were not telling us to create progress just for the sake of progress it’s it was because it was necessary. It undressed all the inequalities. And it made us realize that if we don’t provide for each other, we all suffer. We need to work together. And I know that sounds communist, it’s, the thing is it’s social.

Richard Streitz: Right.

David Perez:  We need to provide for each other.

Debra Ruh: It is social.

David Perez: We need to help each other and be better about that.

Richard Streitz: You know, one, one of the interesting things is that stress always um, exposes the weakness in a system, uh, and you know, with all of the things that we’ve seen across, uh, you know, the natural political, uh, economic and social, um, uh, pressures that we put and strained on our systems expose all the, the weaknesses. Again, nothing that we’ve done or experienced this year is anything new per se.

It’s the extreme level of it building up because of it sort of having built up over a number of years and now everything, the, the, uh, the convergence of all of these things simultaneously, as LaMondre, as you were saying, is, is really what sort of exasperated and truly exposed everything for what it is not just, uh, not just theory or hyperbole or what have you.

I mean, everyone could see very clearly the weaknesses in our systems, um, across the board globally. Um, and so David, you are absolutely right. I mean, I think what it’s done is it’s forced everyone as a result of it, and this is the good thing about what’s happened, you know, as we’ve gone through the, all of this, we see that there is, uh, we can see that there is, can be a better way to do and deal with all of these issues.

And, and we sort of have to now, it’s not just, ‘oh, well that happened last week. The new news cycle is in, and you know, we’re going to worry about this and this it’, what has happened is so profound at a global level, that it can’t be ignored. And now I think it’s actively, uh, Uh, uh, generated movements that will bring us to a much brighter future.

And I think 2021 is really the start and culmination of that.

Debra Ruh: I agree. And I think that as, as y’all have all said, we had to walk this because the reality is, you know, it was, it was really horrifying when we, you know, we, we all went home to stay safe and, uh, 40% of children in the United States didn’t have access to education for example, but the reality is people all over the world don’t have access.

They don’t have access to education. They don’t have access to employment. If you’re part of a disenfranchised groups like people with disabilities or you’re, you know, you’re a refugee, you know, the average life, the average time spent in a refugee camp is now 20 years. That’s, it’s ridiculous. And so I think a lot, there’s been a lot of things that have been done to society and that some of it is, us just not knowing how to solve it.

The, the issues are too big. How do I, as one individual stop black people and brown people from being abused by authority figures. I I, how, how can I stop that? Uh, and I think a lot of us just didn’t know what to do to solve these gigantic big problems, but I think we started figuring it out this year because go home and think about what you’re doing.

And, and, and I also want to acknowledge that COVID is still here and I feel terrified of it. I know a lot of us are, I also have a daughter that is 33 years old that has down syndrome. And she, uh, she was very ill in 2018, which caused her to become morbidly obese. And that puts her so horribly at risk if she would get COVID-19.

And so there’s also the fear. It’s wonderful that we have the pan, the, um, vaccines. But what if my loved one or myself gets COVID-19 before you can get the va, it’s almost like more scary, you know, it’s like, hold on, wait. You don’t want to be the last, anyway. So I just want to acknowledge all of that confusion and fear that we’re all experiencing as well.

And there’s just, you know, it’s fascinating to me, the, the I’ve always heard the ying and the yang and. Did, you know right now, it just felt like in 2020, the energy changed. The, there is some people who are saying we’re going through an Ascension where the human race must evolve if we’re going to survive. We cannot keep and, I’m sorry, but I think the amount of money that we spend on military all over the world, the efforts we make with war and all that.

Uh, I know I am so tired of that. I want us to get together, you know, in the States right now, we’re, you know, under the current president, uh, we attacked, you know, black and brown people. We attacked immigrants. We attacked, you know, ‘Mexicans are all rapists and drug dealers’. What? Oh, ‘China’s all bad’. Wait a minute, there’s 1 billion 500 million people in China.

Are you sure they’re all bad? Cause I don’t think so. So I think it’s almost like the, the, the, I’m going to say it like this. So everybody don’t think I’m woo woo. But I think that focusing on, ‘I’m going to get mine and the three of you, by the way, just don’t get in my way. And I won’t accidentally hurt you as I’m getting mine’. Those days, those are gone. And that’s what 2020 I think is saying ‘no more’. We don’t want to do this anymore. Why don’t we get together, work together, help each other. Why don’t I care about you being successful, Richard. LaMondre why don’t I care about you? Why don’t I think, what can I do as Debra Ruh to support LaMondre? What could I do to support you, David?

What can I do to make the world a better place? By the way, that doesn’t mean I’m not going to be falling down and crying and hysterical in the background because I’m scared for my, my family, myself, my husband. But at the same time, what can I do to make your walk a little bit easier? And, I, and, you know, this has been prophesized for so many years by so many people.

Um, the indigenous people prophesized this, Nostradamus did, the, the, um, there was a very famous, uh, woman from Russia that got caught in a tornado [inaudible] interesting life. But, there have been people that were predicting something like this would happen and we’re like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I was raised as a Christian and I know I’ve read the book of revelations many times, scares me to death. Wow. As you’re saying, you know, LaMondre, you were talking about the fires. Well, poor Australia was on fire. The amount of wildlife that were lost that were wiped out so that they’re not even on our earth anymore because of these wildfires in California and in Australia, the, the earth certainly is talking to us.

And I think we need to understand this earth is living and how do we support and protect each other as we walk these extremes, because I think we’re all multiple of you have said this, but. I don’t think we, I’d like it if december 31st would come, and 2021 is here. That was a hard year. Okay. Yeah. It’s all glory and fun.

No, we’ve got cleanup. There’s a lot of cleanup and we can’t let go of this stuff. We can’t let go of black lives matter. You can’t let go of #metoo. We can’t say all Chinese people are bad. That’s ridiculous. We’ve got to stop making other people, our enemies. And we, so the work continues in 2021. There’s a lot of work to do.

And it’s up to each of us to say, not on my watch, not on my watch. I am going to continue. We can’t give up on these fights cause it’s too hard, too bad. We’ve got to move forward and make sure everybody’s included and we’re protecting our planet. We’re protecting the other inhabitants. Go ahead laMondre.

Let me give the mic to, you.

LaMondre Pough: No, I, I agree with that wholeheartedly. And as you were speaking, I started thinking about so much of the work that, that we do. And what I mean by that is that really, this is about sustainability. When you really look at it, because the way we were operating prior to this. Was we were consuming and expanding and throwing away more than we could reproduce, more that we could regenerate more than what we could reuse. And the issue with that is that is an unsustainable practice. And here’s the thing, I’m not just talking about environment. I’m also talking about our economy, as well as society in general. And honestly, this, the great pause of 2020 is what I want to call it.

The great pause of 2020 really forced us to start thinking about, wait a minute, we’ve got to put some checks and balances in place and look at the system as a whole and see what ways can we, see in what ways we could make it so that these things are, can regenerate, that these things can repair. You mentioned about the number of, of, of species and animals that may have been lost due to the wildfires.

And here’s the thing. Once the species is gone, we can’t get it back. We can’t recreate that. And not only can we not recreate that, we have no idea the amount of loss because of what that species contributed to our entire system. And so once we started thinking about that, when we started thinking about it in terms of what, because that species disappeared, it’s not just about that particular species.

It’s really about the whole. That means that the whole has now suffered because that species is gone and it goes to the same thing. When one of us is discriminated against, when one of us is, is, is not met with justice. That means that all of us don’t know what justice is. We all, none of us see justice then.

And so when we start to think along those levels, it is a much more complex way of thinking. It is a much more complex way of living life, however, it is necessary. And this is one of the reasons I believe that it is the Ascension, that it is that, Debra.

Debra Ruh: I agree. And you know what? I did this in the background, cause I’ve learned not, I don’t have to have a great memory anymore, but it, you know, at first they estimated that a billion animals were, uh, killed, impacted, uh, wiped down in Australia and then they, they redid it and they now are finding that 3 billion animals were impacted.

3 billion killed, hurt, maimed, um, or wiped out. To the forest fire. So this is, yeah. And, and, and sometimes I think you can get so scared by things like this that I know with me. I had multiple many, many, many days where I didn’t want to get up out of bed. I really did not want to. I really liked sitting under those covers.

Um, but 3 billion. I just wanted to point that out.

David Perez: Yeah. And to, to just take again what you guys were saying, the, the fact that we wanted to make sustainable changes, we wanted to make changes that were actually going to stay for a while, because for, for a long time, it seemed like we were just patching things up, trying to fix fires when they appeared instead of creating real solutions. And when we saw COVID happen and everyone be on the same boat at the same time on the same basic energy, we, we realized that there was a big opportunity for, for change. Right? But that didn’t mean that we had to stop working because opportunity is exactly that, it’s an opportunity, but you have to cease it.

You have to take it. You have to work for it. You have to work for change. If not change is not going to happen. If you don’t do anything change is simply not going to happen. And we realized that we had that opportunity of creating, creating a better future. So what did, at least Ruh Global do? We started working harder because we knew that we had to, and we were all scared.

I can tell you that we were scared that we were going to lose all our contracts, because what do you cut first?

Inclusion, diversity, things that are not necessary for business. And I say necessary in quotations because it is absolutely essential for all of us to be included, integrated, and respected for things to move forward in a sustainable way.

Because if you leave someone behind, then you’re not making a better future. You’re just perpetuating inequalities. And that’s not gonna help anyone. That’s not gonna help the future. We need to work together and do what UNESCO’s slogan is. You can not leave anyone behind. We need to keep everyone on the same boat and moving towards the same future.

And to do that, we need a lot of education. We need a lot of work. We need a lot of work and we need to keep working and work harder now than ever before, because change is near. And that’s when it gets heavier. The load gets heavier and you just need to push stronger and stronger.

Richard Streitz: Yeah. You know, what’s interesting is that, um, what, what’s happened is the pendulum has swung so far the other way that it now needs to change direction and start swinging back the other way.

That doesn’t mean that it automatically, at the beginning of the year is going to be in the opposite direction, it means that what we’ve done is shifted direction and it’s got a swing, which means it’s got to go through that whole arc now. And that’s the work, that’s what we all have to be committed to do.

Um, you know, certainly as, as with, with everything, you know, uh, certainly talking about the extinction of species, uh, that that’s happened because of some of the things of the planet, talking screaming at us, not talking it’s beyond talking now. Um, you know, I mean, it, it’s part of that pendulum having reached its climax and the other direction has to do with how we’ve been pushed as consumers, um, um, took to buy things and, and the end, the act of that, uh, you know, the, the commercialism and the consumerism that isn’t just, um, also a part of, of Americans, but also, uh, globally, but certainly as, as Americans, consumerism has been pushed to the absolute max as consumers. We’ve we’ve, you know, contributed a lot to this, um, to, to the negative aspects that have happened on the planet. Certainly not only Americans, but, but, uh, our marketing systems has pushed us as consumers to this at a sub, at a subconscious level.

Um, and, and that’s not necessarily the best thing for the planet it’s been the best thing for the success of our business and commerce. Um, and, and it’s that lack of balance that has happened. And that’s part of that pendulum swinging so far, the other direc, other way where, um, where our, our, uh, economic success, success and business and, and, and so forth are, uh, has been so successful, has been pushed to be so successful that it is, it is we’ve forgotten the idea of being balanced, uh, in regard to a society and being good stewards and being good Americans, as you know, one of the things that America has always been so good at and, and really what other countries have looked toward America is being leaders in regard to, um, Uh, being good stewards of our land, right.

We have the national parks, which we were, uh, you know, which was a huge thing for us at the turn of the century, making sure that we carved out, um, and that was something that is, you know, we led the world and being able to in, in, in putting a focus on the importance of, of land and respect of, of, of the environment and, and, you know, somehow over the seventies and eighties, that pendulum started swinging. It started getting lopsided in regards to the balance of, of consumerism and, and, and marketing and, and, and the importance of, of corporate success and, and, and, and all of that. And, and so here we are now at 2020 with the pendulum slamming into the side all the way in one direction.

And, and, and, but we’re realizing it. And, you know, as a result of that, the good thing. And this is again, what’s so important. I think about the 2020 mark is that it has exposed that to us all to a point that we can’t ignore it anymore. And we know we have to do the hard work now to start swinging it the other way and start putting more balance back.

Debra Ruh: Well said.

LaMondre Pough: Absolutely. You know, I, I tell you, it, it, um, it really, it, it really has been an eye-opener. Um, for all of us that, that, that for real wake up call, that things are different. And I know people say I can’t wait for things to return to normal. I, I think normal is, is, is the thing of the past, what we knew before it’s just that, it’s what we knew before. But I don’t think we’re going to see those days ever again. Now having said that we will establish what new normals are and we will find a way to forge forward in that. And that’s where I kind of want to go now. I want us to talk a little bit more about how we move forward and what does moving forward look like for us?

We’ll go with David on that one.

Debra Ruh: Oh, good.  David, tell us…

Richard Streitz: Yeah, tell us about the future.

David Perez: Predicting the future is going to be very hard.

LaMondre Pough: Right.

David Perez: We don’t know how people are going to react to all the different things that are happening. We don’t know what new practices that we’ve learned through COVID are going to say, but what we can absolutely be sure that’s going to happen is that things are going to be better.

That’s been a constant of the human nature, that things get better with time. We become more inclusive. We become better stewards of resources. We have learned a lot because before all of this happened, there were no, as I was saying before, there were no conversations about actual sustainable change. Now we are having those conversations about actual sustainable change, companies have realized that they need to be involved in those conversations because they’re pillars of our societies and they’re there, they’re making decisions that affect every single one of us. So I think that it goes back to what you guys were saying. We’re going to be elevated. We’re going to be in a better place, because we’re going to be thinking, expanding our thoughts, expanding how we interact with each other, expanding we’re, we’re, we’re gonna be a lot more, we’re going to have a lot more love in our hearts, I think.

Because we understand that everything is very fragile. I know that things, things for everyone have been hard, but that hardship shows you how easy it is to lose everything. And it gives you also the opportunity to create a better future. And I can’t predict what’s going to happen. And that’s exciting as well.

There is, there’s an exciting part of walking into the unknown, but knowing that you have a, a say on what’s going to happen and I’m going to do my best, and I know that we all are going to do our best to create change that’s for the good of all people, not just for a few people.

Debra Ruh: Well said, David, and I think that what we learned, I know that what I learned and I had already known this.

And so what I did was I worked on this muscle and it is a muscle, empathy. It is so important to have empathy. And so what we did at Ruh Global Impact, we did look at this differently. We’re like, okay, this is so hard. And this is so scary. And this is so frightening and we’re terrified, but. Let’s do what we always do.

We always consider, I always tease Richard about this. We’re always the Scouts out front that’s clearing the land, making sure there’s no, you know, nothing’s going to get us or whatever, and we have to be the light forward, but I think we all have to have better empathy muscles, because there’s one thing that I’ve done.

As an elder, I’m six, I’m in my sixties. That’s what I’ve decided. I’ve admitted I’m 60, but as it goes on, I’m in my 60s, yay celebrate. But I think it’s very important that the elders understand that we are not creating good legacies. For those behind us. And so it is very important that we step up and say, you know, I think it’s really terrible that we don’t have enough brown and black people leading on these conversations.

And so I take my microphone and I give it to LaMondre because LaMondre is a brilliant speaker. So that makes a lot of sense for me. But at the same time, I create legacies that way. And then LaMondre can do it for others. And we were having this conversation on one of the webinars I was on. And, um, another leader said a similar thing.

We have to give up our seat at the table to make sure that the people that have not been included in the conversations are more meaningfully included. And, um, somebody else said, no, no, no, don’t do that. Just pull more chairs up to the table, which sounds good. But the reality is. There’s only a certain amount of chairs at the table.

I’ve been in events where I wasn’t at the main table. I was at around the, on the outside or I was at the main table and I was embarrassed that I was at the main table when I saw all these amazing young, diverse leaders and they weren’t. And so how do they get at the table? They, at least they partially get at the table, when you say ‘you don’t want me. You want LaMondre’ for example. And I’d said that with one of our clients, and I think at first they thought I was saying, I was just trying to get out of doing it. And I said, no, honestly, on this particular one, you want LaMondre. And so they agreed. So they had LaMondre speak for them and then forgot what my name was.

It’s like, who are you? We vaguely remember it now. Just kidding. But that’s what people are afraid of. They’re afraid. Yeah, but they’re afraid that if I give the microphone to you LaMondre, somehow I will become not relevant anymore, which is the exact opposite of what actually happens. So it’s very important to admit and acknowledge.

We’ve got a lot of work to do. And as Richard said, very eloquently of, you know, how the it arcs. Uh, I, I consider it, that we’re, we’re still in the mud and we’re running around the mud and it’s all over us and we’re in, we’re enveloped with mud, but now we start working our way out. I mean, as Richard was talking about consumers and we were good Americans to be a good American, Oh, we know we have a financial crisis in 2008 and nine.

Just go spend money and we’ll solve it. Just go. That’s what we’re told as Americans go be good consumers. You wouldn’t be a good American, be a consumer. We don’t buy that crap anymore. And it’s like, you know what? I’m not going to buy something just because I, so I think it’s important to acknowledge that the world wasn’t working for a whole lot of people.

And so now we have the opportunity to help the world work for more people. Because what if that little boy in a wheelchair, in a village in India is the one that figures out how to solve dementia? Oh my God, please, please. Can we let everybody get at the table so that we can, we can adapt like the beautiful humans we are, but at the same time, honor this planet that we’re on and honor the inhabitants.

Also, we are moving into the age of Aquarius. Um, it’s not just hopeful thinking December 21st is a winter solstice and we move into the age of Aquarius, which is by the way, David said the word: love. Love connects all. We’re about to do a campaign on that. Love connects all and the, the energy, the love energy that’s coming in for the Aquarius age.

It’s going to last a long time and it is going to be beautiful. Still got to do the hard work. Still going to give up your mic. Still got to give up your chair. We have to be the way forward, but it’s almost like the universe and the planet is conspiring with us to make it work better for all people. Now, if you’re a person that you have a lot of money and you’re just taking care of yourself and ‘whatever, get out of my way, I’m’.

Okay, but the universe is also speeded up. So whatever you focus on, it comes to you. And I have been witnessing that. I’ve been shocked by that and the power of attraction, but the reality is something has happened. The energy has speeded up and I’m going to have Richard talk about this because he’s smarter than me, but.

It’s not just me saying it, you know, uh, the age of aquarium things have actually speeded up to where it’s impacted our radars and our sonars. I’m goingt to let Richard talk about that. He knows more about that than me, but I’m fascinated with it. It’s not just me saying, Oh, there’s a session going on, the age of aquarium.

No, there’s actually something that has happened and we’re tracking the electrical impulses in, and you know, that there’s predictions that we, you know, alien races are going to meet with this in the next few years. Uh it’s like. It’s wild. And I don’t know about you guys, but during this pandemic, I went down some really interesting rat holes just to say, well, what do you mean 5G causes COVID?

How in the world going to do that? So I explored some things like Bigfoot tied to UFO’s anyway, some silly stuff. As I was trying to find my footings, I couldn’t find my footing. So I went into some weird conspiracy places, but I didn’t like the energy of a lot of it. The energy is very scary and not helpful.

And, we’re living in fear and everything, but I also have to be hopeful that there’s a way forward. So Richard, let me turn it over so you can talk about the hard stuff.

Richard Streitz: Well, a couple of different, a couple of different points. You know, one of the things I wanted to just mention briefly is certainly the transition.

From, and this goes in line with the idea that we’re talking about, about, uh, um, uh, rebirth and, and, and the, you know, spring and, and all of that. And at a, at a different sort of level, that transition is happening with leadership in general. And, and this goes to, um, the youth coming up, you know, what’s happened is, and one of the reasons I think we’ve gotten to where we are is because the older generations have not let go of the mic.

They’ve clawed themselves into these leadership positions at our corporate level, at a, at a pol, on political level and so forth. That, what’s happened is stagnation of thought and idea, and that’s never good that that’s, no civilization in the history of, of of record time can move forward. If you have stagnation in thought.

What’s absolutely critical for a successful and sustainable civilization. Um, regardless, I’m not talking about geopolitical borders or anything, I’m just talking about civilization in general. You have to have that, the transition of the new young thoughts and ideas coming in, because that’s how we develop.

That’s how we expand. That’s how we move forward. And I think a little bit that’s what’s happening. That’s part of what’s exasperated the conditions that we’ve expressed, uh, that we’ve seen, uh, as, as a culture in 2020 is the compression of that. The fact that we have ignored that, that the fact that there has been at least 20 years where the current, um, generation, uh, that that’s been in leadership positions have, have refused or ignored that sort of transition because they’re, they’ve gotten so powerful.

They don’t want to let go of that power. Not realizing that part of power is legacy and that you have to have good legacy to really create long, sustainable power. Um, and for, for any organization, uh, cultural, political or otherwise. Um, and, and so I think. But that’s part of what the transition that we’re seeing and, and what’s happened is the youth, the young generation they’re fed up with this, they’ve seen what’s happened.

They’ve seen the, the, the, the decay that’s created as a result of not being good stewards of land, not being good, social, um, uh, stewards of each other. And, and, and, and, you know, and the idea of love the fact that, you know, love and youth. Uh, is, is, uh, you know, love is around, uh, the, the, the, the youthfulness of, of younger generations.

And I think that’s, what’s been missing, um, from the hardened older individuals that are in power. They’ve lost sight of the fact that you have to have love and empathy, um, to, as part of that decision-making process. And that’s been totally ripped out of what, uh, what guides our, our processes, um, again, political, economic, uh, social and otherwise.

And so being able to hand that, I think what we’ve seen and some of the, you know, the administration change, we’ve seen that there’s been sort of a generational shift that’s happening, that we have some more, um, young people that are coming in that are being given the opportunity to sit at the table and to have a voice.

Um, and we’re seeing that across the board. So, um, you know, so that’s. Certainly, uh, extremely positive to what’s happening and, and we need to allow for that, you know, the idea that we have apprentices that we allow for mentorship, uh, to, to prolong and, and make sure that we have good standing legacy policies as part of our future development, uh, absolutely key. Um, So I just wanted to get that out and in regard to speeding up.

Yeah. There’s a lot of things that are happening that, uh, you know, uh, uh, um, with, uh, geophysics and so forth and, and the astrological bodies and what’s happening around and outside us. Um, you know, that there’s a lot of things that are going on, not scary. I mean, they may sound scary, but they’re, they just are what they are.

This is, this is what happens in the larger cycle of, of our, um, you know, uh, of, of our solar system, of, of our, of our, uh, um, of what’s the planetary bodies on the outside, there’s a magnetism shift that’s happening. What happens is every, so often the poles shift, the, the magnetic poles. This is a natural occurrence that happens, and it’s not, you know, it’s not going to be scary, but it does create things that, that creates a, um, us as, as living beings that are mostly water to, uh, to adjust.

And so this is what’s, uh, you know, part of just us being a living planet, uh, you know, this is just key. Um, so anyway, that’s, I just wanted to touch on that.

Debra Ruh: Thank you, Richard.

LaMondre Pough: I absolutely appreciate that, Richard and I agree. I agree with what everyone, uh, has said, um, thus far and, you know, I, what I realized is that there has been a definite shift in the way that we have to think about this. You know, we were taught, we were taught so often that we should be able to measure everything that everything should be about, you know, this line and this the, you know, A to B and all of those kinds of things.

But the truth is the truth is, this is a cycle. This is something where we have to, instead of thinking the lines, we need to think a circle because we’re all in this together. We’re all a part of this together. And togetherness is not linear. Togetherness is really about harmony. It’s about not necessarily everything being the same, but things fitting, even though they’re different.

It’s the puzzle pieces that come together, different shapes, different sizes, different colors, but when put together, we all make a beautiful picture. And I believe that that’s what we all have been expressing today. And I will tell you, and I will tell you, there is a, there is a song and, and in the song, and I’m paraphrasing the song.

These are, this is not the, um, this is not the, uh, the actual lyrics, but in the song, it basically says I long for the day when love is holy and war is obscene. And I think that this is us getting there. This is us reaching to a place where what’s important is how we connect as humans and how we connect to the planet and what that means for us in terms of our economy and what that means in terms of us, even how we fit in the universe.

Because it’s all a part of it. It’s all a part of that cycle. So even as 2020 comes to a close and we’re entering into 2021. No, as David said, we cannot predict the future, but the future is ours to create. And that’s where there is power. The fact that we have the opportunity right now to determine what our tomorrows look like.

Yes, we’ve lost a lot. Yes. We’ve gone through some real hell, but the truth is we can turn it around and we’re there. So I really appreciate Debra you for joining us. And I know that Richard and David do as well. And I will tell you, I have been, 3DVU for me has been one of the highlights of this year for me, because I get to have great conversations with wonderful friends and, um, and just share and just share our perspectives and how we feel to the world. So today was great to have a fourth perspective on the show, so Debra, thank you so much for joining us today.

Debra Ruh: Thank you.

LaMondre Pough: And sharing your light and your love and your purple hair. So it’s a beautiful day, it’s a beautiful thing, and, and, and, and Richard and David, thank you guys. As always, this is, this is the end of 3DVU for this year. So this will be the last, this will be the last episode of 3DVU for this year, but we will be back next year with brand new episodes and new features. But we just want to say, thank you so much and 2021 promises to be a stellar year.

If we make it that way. So thank you again for your time. And this has been 3DVU.

David Perez: Thanks for joining us this week on 3DVU, make sure to visit our website ruhglobal.com/3dvu. That’s ruhglobal.com/3DVU. Where you can subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts or join our YouTube channel. So you’ll never miss a show. While you’re at it if you find value in the show, we appreciate it if you would leave a like or comment, or simply tell a friend about the show, that would really help us a lot too. If you would like to join our conversations, you can join our Facebook community 3DVU, three perspectives, one conversation. .