Choose954 Podcast #75 With Achim Nowak

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPuMrF-T3lc&list=PLOQvdw7d0cd9RZZkd2lZy2hmrnJv-cfLI&index=24

Evan Snow: And we are back here on the Choose954 podcast, episode 75, with Hollywood local and our upcoming AAF Creative Zen speaker, Kim Nowak, from his beautiful residence here in Parkside, Hollywood. If you didn't know about Choose954, we started a social movement to cultivate culture and community here in Broward County, where we're both very proud to live. We keep people in the know about a lot of great things going on in an effort to make this a better place to live, not just a better place to vacation because we live here. The point of the podcast is to connect you with amazing people like him who do important stuff in the community. You're going to find out a little bit more ahead of Kim's talk coming up this Friday morning at Drastics, but without much further ado, why don't you introduce yourself a little bit at a high level here?

Kim Nowak: Hi, Evan. Like many of us, I wear many hats. I'm an executive coach; I coach really successful people. And what I love about coaching successful people is that they don’t want to be more successful; they're looking for more enjoyment, more purpose, and stuff like that. I write books—I've written a bunch of books about personal growth and expansion. I'm passionate about Hollywood, especially Parkside. I've been here for 18 years. I'm on the board of the Parkside Civic Association. And it's funny to be in a neighborhood—you know, and anybody who comes to Drastics, by the way, we're on the edge of Parkside. So I'm telling you about where to go. But 18 years ago, people would say to me, “But when you make enough money, you're going to leave Parkside, right?” It was like this was an up-and-coming neighborhood. And now, suddenly, it's the hot neighborhood, and everybody wants to be here. And I’ll tell you that story because it goes back to, like, how do we define success for ourselves? So some people's narratives were, well, if you're successful, you're not going to be in Parkside. And now it is, if you're successful, you're going to be in Parkside.

Evan Snow: There you go. I love all of that redefinition of what that is. For those maybe that aren't familiar with where Parkside is, can you give some geographical reference?

Kim Nowak: Parkside is this tiny little neighborhood between Federal Highway and South 21st, just south of downtown Hollywood. It's a little sliver—it's one of the oldest neighborhoods. And it’s graced with this beautiful overgrown street canopy, so it has this very romantic feeling. And you can walk to downtown—I can walk. I’m three blocks from Drastics, so that's pretty amazing.

Evan Snow: Yeah, and I guess two blocks, one block from the Boulevard?

Kim Nowak: Absolutely.

Evan Snow: Even better. Amongst the overwhelmingly generous, thoughtful, and considerate welcoming committee that welcomed me when I moved to downtown Hollywood last year, I've just been met with nothing but good people, good vibes, and, fortunately, thought-provoking, inspiring folks like Kim, who's going to share his thought-provoking, inspiring story this Friday morning with us during our monthly breakfast lecture series called Creative Zen, where we bring in somebody local to share their story to connect, engage, and inspire our creative community one Friday morning a month. So you can find that free event with coffee and a free guided meditation this Friday at Drastics on Tyler Street, and we will provide some more information, link in the comments and all that. But before you share your story there—we don't want to give it all away—could you give us just a little context as to who you are and how you got to this point where you're writing books and coaching successful people?

Kim Nowak: Well, I can tell many stories about my life, but the moment I remember that really stands out and changed my trajectory—you know, I used to live in Manhattan; this was 20 years ago—and I'm at this little social function, and I'm chatting with this fellow, and you know, “What do you do? What do you do?” And he said, “Well, I run a temporary staffing agency, and I have an office in Brooklyn, and I have an office in Tampa.” And out of my mouth came completely unfiltered, “I could never do that.” And he looked at me, and he called me out. He said, “Of course you could.” And that moment—you know, I’m internally grateful; he will not remember me—I realized the belief systems that weren’t serving me. Then I got a book deal for my first book, and I realized I better build a business around it. I've written a bunch of books since then, but I realized I can run businesses that are creative. I need to adjust my thinking around it. I don't do gigs now—I run businesses. And I think of myself as a serial entrepreneur now. But that started with that fellow calling me out and saying, “Sure, you can do that.”

Evan Snow: Do you remember who that was?

Kim Nowak: I don't remember him at all. I wouldn't know his name. I wouldn't know how to find his website.

Evan Snow: Everything happens for a reason.

Kim Nowak: Absolutely.

Evan Snow: Was that before or after the Tobago experience?

Kim Nowak: It was after. I lived for a year in the early ‘90s on a beautiful, remote island, Tobago. And what I love about that experience—I spent six weeks in the Arizona desert near Sedona, and if you have a spiritual— you know, that's an energy vortex; you were there recently. And I did some pretty far-out stuff—I'm not going to go into all the details now—but one thing that happened, I was definitely doing some vision quests, and I kept seeing an image of a white house on a cliff overlooking the ocean. And a Freudian therapist could say, “Well, that’s just primal imagery,” but I knew that that was a real place. And in the spirit of entrepreneurship, six months later, I lived in a white house on a cliff overlooking the Atlantic in Tobago. Before I had that vision, I didn't even know where Tobago was. So there's a long story about how I got to Tobago, and obviously, the year in Tobago changed my life.

Evan Snow: Amazing. Once again, everything happens for a reason. Sedona is a very special, amazing, energy-filled place. For those that maybe aren't familiar with the books and some other stuff you do, could you give some context as to what you do write about and then also maybe a little bit about your own podcast?

Kim Nowak: Yeah. The first book I wrote was called Power Speaking: The Art of the Exceptional Public Speaker. And it's funny because I went, like, does the world really need another book about public speaking? And you know how we can talk ourselves out of stuff.

Evan Snow: Sure.

Kim Nowak: But I realized immediately I knew what I wanted to say about public speaking—I've been coaching speakers. Then the second book is called Infectious, which is about energetic connections. I believe at the deepest level—I mean, you and I are talking right now—but the deepest connections are about energy, like energy of thought, emotion, all those things. Then I wrote a book that's, if you put it in a bucket, it would be in the mindfulness space. And I’ve been meditating for 30 years, doing all the stuff. But sometimes the way we talk about those things, we almost make it sound more complicated than it is, and it's couched in forbidding language. So I wanted to write a book again through my lenses, and it's called The Moment, and it's really about what does it mean and look like to be more in the moment. It's very personal. That's my most recent book, and it's had a wonderful life around the world, and I'm grateful for it.

Evan Snow: Amen. I can see the mindfulness and the benefits of mindfulness resonating off of you, and you definitely have great energy—you're a very peaceful, positive person. I've since become a yogi and a manifest practitioner myself, and now slowly even transitioning into mindfulness advocacy. For somebody that might not be familiar with meditating and mindfulness, and maybe thinks it’s—how should I say this—out there, what would be advice, suggestions, or some thoughts that you would share with somebody that's looking for a little bit more peace, a little bit more mindfulness, but doesn't know how to go about finding it?

Kim Nowak: I think a common misconception is that mindfulness means we meditate every morning for 30 minutes. And I advocate for that—it's a wonderful thing—but that's a means to an end. That's a means to more fully being present every moment of our lives. In my first career, for 12 years, I was a professional theater director and acting coach in a previous lifetime in New York. I love saying this because the Tony Awards were just last night, which was an amazing celebration of creativity. But actors really work on having a stronger connection to their senses, and the senses connect us to everything around us. So one way to get out of our heads and be more fully present is to—people say “smell the roses,” but basically just see, sense, smell more. Give yourself permission to do that, which requires slowing down a little bit.

Evan Snow: Yes. I appreciate you sharing that with us. I had a brief moment where I put my mindfulness to use just outside as I parked the car. It was hot; my water bottle fell over to the ground; I was getting flustered. And I literally just went—[deep breath].

Kim Nowak: Yep.

Evan Snow: And does it solve all problems in life? No, but it certainly helped make the moment that much better and more enjoyable. So we both couldn't advocate, suggest, and implore you to instill some breathwork, mindfulness practice into your life if you're looking for something like that.

Kim Nowak: If I can just expand on what you just said, because I identify myself as a serial entrepreneur these days, so I love starting things, I commit to them. But also, if something doesn’t work out for whatever reason, it’s not supposed to be. The old me would have tried to make it happen, push through. So that exhale, take a breath, and say, “Okay, dear God, or whatever you believe, higher power, universe, sounded good, but that was probably my ego, and I’m not supposed to be doing this. Let it go. Move on to something else.”

Evan Snow: Amen. About the serial entrepreneurship part and how mindfulness does impact that—I was going a million miles an hour for many years prior to thankfully discovering yoga and mindfulness. And people would say, like, “You’re burning yourself out, you’re burning yourself at both ends of the candle,” and stuff like that. And I really wasn’t thinking about it. I’m like, no, I have to put in the work, I have to stay up until two o’clock in the morning doing stuff to be successful, to show that I’m doing work. And you really don’t. And since I’ve discovered the powers, practices, and benefits of yoga, meditation, mindfulness, my life’s never been better. I’ve never been in better shape; I sleep better. Also, learning sleep is pertinent to life.

Kim Nowak: Yes.

Evan Snow: So many things. That’s why now we’re putting the Zen in the event that we have this Friday morning where you’ll be speaking, where we do integrate a free guided meditation. Maybe some people have never meditated before, and that could be their first exposure. So I appreciate you sharing that and encourage you guys to check out that. What was the last book?

Kim Nowak: The Moment.

Evan Snow: The Moment, okay. And if they'd like to find out and learn a little bit more, how about telling us a little about the Fourth Act podcast?

Kim Nowak: Yeah. It's funny, in this series of—we know people always say, “We do a podcast, do about...” and then I think people assumed I was going to do one on leadership, and I’m a trained actor, so I have a deep voice. You know, these are people’s reasons for doing one, not mine. I ended up doing one because I really wanted to have these conversations. So it’s called My Fourth Act, and I’m a former theater director. So in a traditional, well-written play, it has five acts, the classic plays. And the fourth act is the act where you’ve resolved most of the drama in your life, but you’re not ready to die yet. So it’s this sweet period where amazing things can happen. So I said, let me talk to people who have great fourth acts. And for some people, the fourth act is something you’ve done all your life, and you’re ready to go even deeper with that. And for other people, it is something that you never thought you would do, but you’re no longer doing it for money, for attention, for recognition—you’re just going there. So I’ve been blessed to talk to just amazing people. I mean, I’ll give an example. The episode I’m releasing this week is by a woman who has been on my social radar for the last 10 years. She’s a really well-known leadership blogger, African-American physician. Her name is Martina McGowan. She’s 70 years old, and out of nowhere, she decided to write a book of poetry called I Am the Rage. And she says, “I’m introverted, but this is a way for me to express my rage.” And the book, published last year, got lots of recognition. The Black Caucus of the American Library Association just picked it as the best poetry book of the year.

Evan Snow: Wow.

Kim Nowak: So this is fourth-act stuff in how—I’m using her as an example for all of us—she said, “I never thought I would write poetry. I was a leadership blogger, but I took a writing class, and in the writing class, poetry is what came out.” And somebody said, “Read what you wrote, Martina.” And she said, “I read it, and everybody said, you have to do more of that.” And what I love about this story, in my own life, I like to joke—I don’t do anything alone. I am in mastermind groups; I hang out with other entrepreneurs. I launched my first business by being in a business think tank in Manhattan for a year. So her story is a classic one about how we move forward into new terrain.

Evan Snow: Amen. It really shows from the episodes I’ve listened to that everybody goes through life; everybody’s a human being, just like everybody else is a human being. There are highs, there are lows, and then you bounce back. And hopefully, there are more highs than there are lows. But we all deal with our own [situations] the way that we deal with them. I remember the first time that we met for coffee, I forget her name...

Kim Nowak: Deborah Walsheim Cooper?

Evan Snow: Yes, and that was a fascinating story—how she lived here.

Kim Nowak: Yeah, Deborah Walsheim Cooper lives half the time in Aventura, half the time in New York. I met her at a social function in Miami. I immediately knew I wanted to have her on my podcast. But you know, when she was 26 years old, by pure accidental serendipity, she became Elizabeth Taylor’s spokesperson in the middle of the AIDS situation. It changed her life. I wanted to talk to her. How did that happen? I want to lead you to one more episode that I think is relevant to creatives. Two weeks ago, I released a conversation with a fellow named Philip Smith. Philip is probably one of the most acclaimed visual artists in Miami. He has stuff in the Whitney, in Beijing, in a permanent collection at the Perez Museum, Whitney, Dallas Museum of Art. But he had a really orthodox childhood with a wild, creative father. And for a while, he was the managing editor of GQ magazine in New York. He has this incredible career. So we talked about, as an artist who is successful and makes good money off his art, how do you go deeper with your art or with your attention in the art in the middle of all the social turmoil in the world? He’s not going to something new, but he’s investigating as a successful artist—he’s been doing this for a while—where do I go from here? Those are really interesting questions for all of us. Where do we go from here?

Evan Snow: Well, I think what I’ve learned from myself is that I can’t make a difference everywhere.

Kim Nowak: Yes.

Evan Snow: So I have to be clear about where I can make a difference. Where I play has to also energize me and not burn me out. When Philip Smith and I talked about it, he said—you talked about the intention behind his work. He spent 30 years in a dojo in Japan, training in that culture. But he said, “I can make a difference every day when I go to the supermarket in the way I interact with people.” Every moment, to the title of my book, I have a chance to make a difference. In my case, I choose to play in Hollywood because I love the city. I used to serve on the Hollywood Historical Society board. Now I’m on the Parkside Civic Association board. So I pick playgrounds where I feel like I can make a difference. When it comes to Parkside Civic Association, also, I make a better difference if I like the people I play with. And so my playmates in Parkside Civic—we're very cool. We have a lot of fun. We’re very active.

Evan Snow: You’re making an impact.

Kim Nowak: Yeah, and we make an impact.

Evan Snow: Amen. And if you haven’t checked out the new website...

Kim Nowak: Several websites. So the Parkside Civic Association website, if you Google Parkside Hollywood, it’s the first thing that shows up. We’re highly ranked. It’s parksidehwd.com. It’s really cool—it gives you a sense of what a marvelous neighborhood this is. And if you want to check out the different playgrounds where I personally play, there’s a website that’s my name, akinowak.com. You can find out about the podcast, my books, and all of that stuff.

Evan Snow: Amen. I was referring to the great job that you guys have done on the Parkside website, and I will actually give you a little extra kudos and credit. A lot of people don’t know all of the hidden gems that are here in Hollywood. You guys did a great job not just highlighting some of the local businesses or restaurants, but some of the public art—the Downtown Hollywood Mural Project, the fact that we have Indonesian restaurants and Thai and so on and so forth. So I appreciate the work that you guys do as literally passionate members of the community that want to inform, connect, and engage your neighbors, your fellow community members, and make this a better place to live. We had a great podcast episode you helped set up with Ken Parkside...

Kim Nowak: Yeah, Ken Crawford.

Evan Snow: Yes. So you can find out more. Maybe this is something in your third or fourth act that you would want to get involved with—civic, community-driven, sometimes nonprofit, sometimes not nonprofit organizations that literally do make an impact in the community. And ultimately, that's what fills both of our cups—to support the community. I really do want to say it really does make a difference. I never felt this sense of community in Fort Lauderdale. It's too siloed. There are so many transient people there. It's fast-moving; it's always changing. I love the pace here. It's definitely a slower way of life here. There is some change, there is some development happening, obviously. I'm all for the growth of the city, but Hollywood really cares. They really do a great job. There were two amazing festivals this weekend at Arts Park and at the beach—both you could walk to. And obviously, the sun's shining 240 days of the year, so all those good things. So I really do appreciate not just everything you do personally and professionally, but even on your volunteer time with the Civic Association and even coming and supporting Creative Zen as an attendee.

Kim Nowak: And what I just want to add—what I love about the event this Friday is it's a confluence of many things. I also love restaurateurs like Victor Troy and Gina Spencer at Drastics. Their food is amazing; it’s reasonably priced. They are true champions of the arts. They normally don’t roll out of bed at 8:30 in the morning, so they open their restaurant just for us. So the fact that we get to have a conversation in an intimate space in downtown Hollywood surrounded by arts—and it’s hosted by people who genuinely champion the arts—that’s sort of everything that’s really good about Hollywood.

Evan Snow: Amen. After I leave here, I’m going to go record a podcast with Victor, and he'll tell us more. But in case you don't get to catch that episode, not only have Victor and Gina showcased artists in the restaurant, they have art not only on the walls but they've actually taken the liberty of utilizing the tabletops as canvases. They've sourced local artists, most of them actually local to Hollywood, to place their artwork on these tabletops throughout the restaurant. The artists, a lot of them emerging, a lot of them relatively new artists—it means the world to them. Edie Pollock, Kim—so many artists that are so proud and so thankful for this opportunity of a local restaurant to give them that place to showcase. As well as during the Art Walk, every third Saturday night of the month, when we lead a free tour from seven to nine o'clock of the Downtown Hollywood Art Walk, Victor and Gina are nice enough to open a corner of the restaurant and a whole wall for a local artist to display and sell their work.

Kim Nowak: And free tastings of the food!

Evan Snow: Yes.

Kim Nowak: I always show up for free food, I just want to make that point.

Evan Snow: Amen. And just another note on Drastics—I think they're up to 10 sauces, and there's like 10 different skewer options, so you literally can make 100 different combinations if my math serves me correctly, between the different skewers—steak, chicken, fish. And then they're always adding new special stuff to the menu. They had oxtail recently, which is always nice to find here in South Florida. So that's where we're going to have this event, where he'll share his story this Friday morning in downtown Hollywood off of Tyler Street. The doors open at 8:30; there’s some mixing and mingling, free coffee, networking. The talk starts at nine. We’re out of there by 10. It’s a really great event. It served as my initial aha moment where I gained the inspiration to begin going down this path of community building and creative entrepreneurism, which is why I like to pay it back and pay it forward and continue hosting it for free. We just celebrated four years, God bless. So we really appreciate you taking the time out to come join us on Friday morning. If they want to connect with you further—you mentioned the website—how about social media or other ways to get in touch with you?

Kim Nowak: I’m in the usual places, so you can find me on Instagram, you can find me on Facebook. My books are available on Amazon. And if you want to reach out to me, send me an email—you can find all that on the web.

Evan Snow: Okay. And are you available for additional coaching clients, consulting gigs, speaking opportunities? Are you booked full at the moment?

Kim Nowak: I’m open to people calling me. I don't ever chase clients. I don’t pursue clients. I believe that the right clients show up. I am blessed to have a pipeline, so the phone keeps ringing.

Evan Snow: Amen. He really is a genuine, authentic human being and individual. Grateful for your support. I really appreciate your participation on the podcast and this Friday morning. If you guys have any questions, feel free to reach out to me. I'm an open book—evan@choose954.com. You can find us on all the social medias at @choose954. And the last question that I'd like to ask—you’ve already shed a lot of light on it—but why do you choose the 954?

Kim Nowak: I want to distinguish between Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood, which I did. You know, my work has taken me all over the world. I lived in Manhattan for 20 years; I've been in glitzy places. And what I love about Hollywood is it’s still a little funky. It's a 1950s beach town growing up, and it needs to grow up some. But we don't want to lose too much of the funky edge, which is why I came here. So it’s the antithesis to my business life, which is flying around, being in fancy hotels, and all this stuff.

Evan Snow: Very well put. You can be yourself; you can be successful in Parkside and Hollywood. I just can't say enough. I’ll give you guys just some quick updates as we wrap up here. God bless the city of Hollywood, the Community Redevelopment Agency, City Commissioner Carol Shuham, Mayor Josh Levy. A nonprofit that I started five years ago that a lot of you guys have been following has finally come to fruition here in Broward County with support from the city of Hollywood. The Thousand Mermaids Artificial Reef Project—we finally secured funding to construct and now deploy these reefs off the coast of Hollywood Beach. We just placed them this weekend on display to the public. You can find them easily at ArtsPark on the Circle in downtown Hollywood or right off Hollywood Boulevard. You can also find them right at Margaritaville, right in front of the bandshell, at Driftwood Community Center, and we’re actually going to add some additional locations so people can see these structures. It’s really cool before we put them in the ocean, using art as an awareness tool to let people know about the problems that are plaguing our coral reefs. And these artificial reefs are engineered with a lot of benefits to provide habitat for fish, coral restoration, research. It’s going to be a huge boost for ecotourism, people coming to stay here, dive, and work on these reefs and monitor these reefs and study these reefs. It's a really great thing, so we really appreciate the city of Hollywood there. We’re still leading free tours, as I mentioned, of the Downtown Hollywood Art Walk every third Saturday night of the month. I lead a tour of more of the Art Walk, the studios, the artisan market, the galleries from seven to nine o'clock. My dear friend Jill Weisberg, who is the project manager and curator of the Downtown Hollywood Mural Project, she leads a tour of the murals that she's curated at six o’clock. Both are free events; there’s a little break in between. We do it every month—if you can’t make it this month, do it next month. But it’s a really great event, a nice thing to come out for the family. So many great things in Hollywood—the Dream Car Classic Car Show every first Sunday of the month, a beautiful time in downtown Hollywood, walking down the boulevard, seeing these blasts from the past. Tons of free concerts at the ArtsPark. We just had Caribbean Fest this weekend.

Kim Nowak: And the great food in downtown Hollywood. Great food. If you come Friday, Drastics gets you a taste, but there are lots of wonderful places.

Evan Snow: Amen. I just had Krakatoa, the Indonesian...

Kim Nowak: Great place, huh?

Evan Snow: Omar, where do you find it? Satay is my favorite appetizer there, so I love that place. And you could find out more about the restaurant offerings on the Parkside Hollywood website. If you ever have any questions—you want to know if this is a good place, should I check this event out—don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’ve spent a lot of time acquiring all this knowledge in my mind that I love to share with people. It doesn’t do much good if I keep it inside. Anything else you want to add before we wrap up here?

Kim Nowak: No, just join us on Friday. It will be a beautiful environment, it’ll be an intimate conversation, and I look forward to meeting you.

Evan Snow: And I will say, this is probably one of the coolest backdrops that we’ve ever had. You want to tell them what this was?

Kim Nowak: Yeah, if you look at the sign—at Agile NYC, if you know the Agile community—I was giving a talk in 2013, and a fellow named Jim Knuckle, who does graphic recording, while I was speaking, was recording what I was talking about. So literally, this is a visual recording of a talk I gave in 2013 at a conference in New York, and I love having it around.

Evan Snow: So cool. Really appreciate your time. Thank you very much for having me.

Kim Nowak: My pleasure.

Evan Snow: We hope to see you guys Friday. If you need something to tell your boss, we have many accurate, truthful things—you’re gaining insight that you can hopefully bring back to your company. There is a networking component. You don’t have to network, but you can meet people. So we have some things you can tell your boss if you’re worried about missing an hour of work—we understand that.

Kim Nowak: Is that how you’re trying to bribe people, Evan?

Evan Snow: But it happens—you know, free coffee...

Kim Nowak: Free is enough.

Evan Snow: There you go. But I know sometimes it's tough—people work, they don’t know how to tell their boss. Hey, listen, you’ll be in by 10:30, maybe even earlier. It’s okay. But appreciate you tuning in. Love to hear why you choose 954. Don’t hesitate to reach out, and we appreciate your time. Hope to see you at some events soon. Cheers.