Host Julie Harris Oliver welcomes leadership coach and experience designer Rishikesh Tirumalai to discuss how “disruption” can mean returning to harmony with natural cycles, the body, and authenticity. Rishi shares his path from tech and solo travel to teaching and coaching, including how getting sober and working with a coach changed his trajectory, and reflects on being a young Indian man in a coaching world that often undervalues asking for help. They explore leaders finding integrity and fun in their roles, the courage of slowing down amid urgency culture, and the relationship between authenticity and activism in a colonizing power. Rishi also speaks about grieving his father’s death, discovering inner stability, seeking agenda-free connection, and holding a seasonal intention of non-striving while listening for when action is needed.

00:00 Welcome to Deep Work

01:17 Rishi’s Coaching Journey

01:48 Panama and Leaving Tech

03:58 Discovering Coaching and Sobriety

05:16 Outlier in Coaching Culture

07:18 Disruption and Family Roots

09:09 Alignment With Natural Cycles

11:46 Authenticity as Activism

12:53 Leaders Finding Fun

14:47 Holding Possibility Through Grief

16:02 Dad’s Passing and Adulting

21:20 Expansion Without Striving

24:12 Non Striving in a Harsh World

28:29 Slowing Down as Disruption

33:22 Support Without an Agenda

36:03 North Star Fun and Care

36:42 Closing and Call to Action