The Importance of Inner Work w/Rachel Lyons
Episode Overview
Join us on this week's episode of Making Better as we dive into an insightful dialogue with Rachel Lyons, executive director of Space for Humanity. With her inspiring transition from industrial to aerospace engineering, Rachel shares her deep-seated passion for space exploration and the transformative power it holds for humanity. We touch on the importance of emotional intelligence and self-awareness in leadership, the personal growth necessary to truly resonate with and lead others, and the impact of space experiences on global perspectives and change. Rachel's journey and the pivotal role mentors played in her life underscore the significance of following one's North Star and the courage it takes to forge one's own path. Don't miss these enriching insights into self-leadership and the cognitive shifts that space exploration can catalyze in individuals and society at large.
About Rachel Lyons
Rachel is the Executive Director of Space for Humanity and a holistic leadership coach, with nearly 10 years of experience in bridging the realms of space exploration and personal transformation. Rachel integrates her leadership experience with inner and interpersonal work, somatic and embodiment practice, and coaching.
Under Rachel's leadership, Space for Humanity made global headlines by sending two civilians into space, captivating audiences in the hundreds of millions. Rachel has woven strategic partnerships across the commercial space sector with organizations such as Virgin Galactic, Axiom, Blue Origin, and others. She holds a Bachelors of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Miami.
As a public speaker, Rachel has been featured at more than 100 events worldwide, and has been interviewed, mentioned or quoted in outlets including CNN, VICE, ABC News, PBS, Business Insider, USA Today, NPR, and Cheddar News.
Rachel believes commitment to inner growth is integral to true leadership success. Through her coaching journey, Rachel empowers clients to truly embody their vision, enabling them to create meaningful impact in the world.
Full Transcript
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Rachel Lyons [00:00:00]:
If people believe in their vision and they believe in what they're saying with their whole self and they feel it as they're speaking it, that is how you impact an audience and that is how people will listen to you and that's how people will want to be involved as well. So that's sort of where my work comes in and what all my works pointed to is it was like it's really from the inside out. And if you do the work to get past the stuff, that's like the challenges that are coming up inside of you that are stopping you from being able to fulfill on your mission, like getting past those and just getting really clear on what you care about and letting that North Star be the guiding light in your life and nothing else, that is how you create great things. That is how you bring in support.
Matt Gjertsen [00:00:58]:
Hello and welcome to the Making Better podcast where we talk about how to make ourselves, our teams, and our organizations better. Whether you are a business leader, a talent and development professional, or an individual contributor, this show will give you actionable insights to help improve your own performance and the performance of those around you. Our guest today is Rachel Lyons. Rachel and I have known each other for several years now. We both share a very deep passion for space exploration. For the past few years, she has been the executive director of Space for Humanity, a nonprofit organization which uses the spaceflight experience as a way to expand our perspectives on earth. As a public speaker, Rachel has been featured in more than 100 events worldwide and has helped build partnerships between organizations like Virgin Galactic, Axiom, Space and Blue Origin. Her efforts also include holistic leadership coaching to help people expand their perspective, specifically their perspective on their career, company and lives.
Matt Gjertsen [00:02:02]:
Through her coaching journey, Rachel empowers clients to truly embody their vision, enabling them to create meaningful impact in the world. I know this is going to be an extremely powerful discussion, so I can't wait for that. But before we get into it, I do want to remind you that if this is your first time listening to the show, please make sure you subscribe so you never miss a future episode. And if you are already subscribed, I would ask that you share this show with at least one other person because that, after all, is how we grow. I can't tell you how much it means to me. So with that, Rachel, how are you doing today?
Rachel Lyons [00:02:39]:
I'm great. I am here in warm and sunny Florida and super grateful to be with you, Matt.
Matt Gjertsen [00:02:47]:
Excellent. Well, I'm grateful to have. You know, we have been. We've known each other for quite a while I think we met when I was at SpaceX and you were getting started at space for humanity, we went out to lunch and had some great discussions for those people who don't know, because I have a huge interest in space. But as exciting as we both find it, there's still plenty of people who aren't up to the latest and greatest space news. So for people who haven't heard about it, what is space for humanity? What have you been doing the last couple of years?
Rachel Lyons [00:03:17]:
Totally. Yeah. And, Matt, that feels like almost like a different lifetime when we met for lunch.
Matt Gjertsen [00:03:23]:
Everything pre Covid is another lifetime.
Rachel Lyons [00:03:25]:
Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, space for humanity. We were founded in 2017 by Space investor, founder, CEO of Voyager Space. His name is Dylan Taylor, and we were founded with the goal at the time to sponsor as many people as possible to go to space commercially. And I say a goal at the time because we've since achieved that goal, and we have sent two people to space, and we were involved with a third going to space and plan to send many more in the future. But what I will share about the mission behind the why? Because some people, they hear that point blank and they're like, what's the point of that? And what I always love to share about people and the reason that I love space is because there is this, what is called a cognitive shift that happens to astronauts. So when astronauts go to space, they're floating weightless in space. They look back at our planet, they see it glowing with the brightest colors they have ever seen.
Rachel Lyons [00:04:39]:
It's interconnected, it's fragile. The atmosphere is paper thin, and then in every direction. Otherwise, they're looking into, literally into infinity, with stars scattered everywhere. Astronauts going to space and having that experience will change their perspectives forever. And oftentimes, they come back down with a completely new perspective about everything that is happening on our planet, from the environment to politics, to humanitarian issues, to even just their place in their local communities. And oftentimes, astronauts come back down with a desire to do something about it, like a desire to create change. I know of all the astronauts I've gotten the honor of speaking to, so many of them have come back down and had this become their life's mission, like, to share this with the world. And so what we do is we sponsor people who wouldn't otherwise have access.
Rachel Lyons [00:05:36]:
They can't afford the ticket, which the listeners likely are aware if they're listening to your podcast, that tickets are available to go to space right now, and we can talk about.
Matt Gjertsen [00:05:46]:
Yeah, there's multiple ways now. It's incredible.
Rachel Lyons [00:05:51]:
There's the most ways ever in all of human history as of the past two, three years. So, yeah, people can buy tickets to space. They're very pricey. Or you can still become a NASA astronaut and go the science and engineering route, study multiple languages, probably Russian, become a scuba diver, do all the things that you need to do to even be looked at by NASA at this moment, and then, if you're lucky, get selected out of like 14,000 people. So anyways, it's something that hasn't been accessible to, obviously, the common person at all. We take applications on our website, people apply to our program. We select them based off of their potential for impact. So we want people who are going to go up there, have that, what I would call awakening experience, and then come back down and use it as a way to create greater change in their communities.
Rachel Lyons [00:06:54]:
And we have a training program. We help them along it. We really help them with that impact. So that's the fundamental mission, is like democratizing access to space and using that grander perspective as a way to solve some of our greatest challenges.
Matt Gjertsen [00:07:09]:
It's kind of the ultimate example of what I hear some people talk about is like, you have to be selfish to be selfless, where sometimes you need to take care of yourself. It's kind of like, at a very small level, it's like putting on your own oxygen mask before you put on somebody else's. You got to take care of yourself so that you can take care of other people. This is kind of the ultimate example of that, of where clearly it's still an experience that you are having for yourself. It's this thing that you are trying to achieve, but by doing that, it just changes you in such a fundamental way. And this has been known for a very long time. In the recent episode with Loretta Whitesides, we talked a little bit about this, and everybody should look up William Shatner's reaction when he came back from his trip into space and just his complete awe, and you could tell it really shaped him. But even going back to the late sixty s and the early 70s, it's very strongly believed today that the modern environmental movement, all the regulations that were passed, everything that we've been doing through the help preserve planet Earth, really kind of came out of this basic fact that for the first time we got a single picture of the whole Earth, right? Whereas the astronauts were traveling around the moon, they sent back these images where it was just, you could know it, you could intellectually know something of this is a planet, but it's different to really see it as like, ah, that's just the earth, and we're all right.
Matt Gjertsen [00:08:51]:
So it's a pretty incredible experience that moves everybody who undertakes it, apparently.
Rachel Lyons [00:08:58]:
Yeah, exactly. And there's so much that I could say in response to that. Matt, you're like, touching on, obviously, the thing that I have studied intensely for the know, seven years. But the one thing that I'll share, and I was just chatting with someone at a party about this, actually. They were saying how William Shatner going to space has touched the most amount of people possibly ever. I don't know if that's actually true, but him as an individual has touched a lot of people. A lot of people have really gotten the impact of this from seeing him come back down, like, so deeply tearful, so deeply moved by what he saw. And not to state the obvious, but this is what happens when we send artists.
Rachel Lyons [00:09:45]:
This is what happens when we send people who know how to feel their emotions and can be impacted that deeply by something. Because not to knock engineering, but the engineering mind is not trained for that. Someone who's that skilled in engineering is not trained for that. Someone who's as skilled as he is in his craft of acting. He's like a master at being able to feel and receive stimulus around him and being able to share it effectively as well.
Matt Gjertsen [00:10:16]:
Emote.
Rachel Lyons [00:10:17]:
Yes, exactly. And so I think it's just the perfect example of why I think it's an Apollo astronaut. He went to the moon, he came back, and he was like, we should have sent a know. That's why it's not just about the communication. It's also about how these human beings are oriented and their ability to take in the actual.
Matt Gjertsen [00:10:41]:
Well. And that's the whole inspiration, or a big part of the inspiration, I'm sure, behind the whole dear moon mission through SpaceX, where they are sending up a mission to orbit around the moon, and it's all people who are chosen for exactly that reason. We could go deeper into your moon, but I think you did just touch on something that I think is an excellent transition of this idea of how very often in space, it is very engineering heavy because it's an engineering problem. And so we've sent a lot of engineers up into space and scientifically oriented people, math oriented people, and now we're just starting to get this opportunity to send people with kind of a little bit of other backgrounds into space. But you are now kind of working a lot on helping leaders in this industry, in this very engineering heavy industry, to coach them to kind of achieve more potential as a leader so that they can be. Chances are, if you're a leader in a space organization, it's a high likelihood you have an engineering background. But maybe that doesn't give you all the skills you need to be a good leader. And I know when I talk about leadership and when most of the people listening to this probably talk about leadership, we talk about leadership skills.
Matt Gjertsen [00:12:00]:
We talk about how to give feedback, how to talk to others, how to set goals. It's not quite engineering, but it's engineering. E. It's still like these skills that you're using to shape the world around you. And based on our discussions, it sounds like you have much more of this kind of idea or philosophy that if you really want to reach your true potential as a leader, it comes out of a lot of this other non engineering stuff, this inner work, this understanding your emotions, understanding yourself more deeply. Did I say that right? How did you kind of come to this idea?
Rachel Lyons [00:12:38]:
It's a great question. Yeah, and you definitely spot on. So it's a really good question. And since you had Loretta on, I can actually bring her in. So I discovered my love for space. And I was 19. I was studying industrial engineering at the time because I was strong in math and science, and I knew it'd get me a good job. I didn't have any actual passion for the subject, though, at all.
Rachel Lyons [00:13:04]:
Discovered my love for space immediately switched into aerospace engineering was just like, I want to help us become interplanetary. I want to build the rockets and the spaceships to help know, do amazing things in this universe. And Loretta was one of my really early credit, I would say. I mean, discovering my love for space was the first. Just like paradigm shifting, like, much greater sense of awareness of self and of what's around me and all of that. And then Loretta supported me in the next stage of my path. Know, just doing some different transformational programs and inner work. And I just continued to commit to stuff in that realm, like stuff around gaining self awareness, stuff around getting to know myself.
Rachel Lyons [00:13:50]:
I would say my greatest mentors in Space, Dylan Taylor, our founder, being one of them, always spoke about how important self awareness is. And I remember learning from Dylan, like, this true understanding of the personalities of the people that you're working around actually helps you be able to better work with them. And absolutely, I think understanding yourself can help you understand others. Like, understanding your own ticks, the stuff that excites you, that can help you understand others around you. And then all of that makes for a better leader. Leaders. There's a lot to say about leadership, and there's a lot of. I'm sure if anyone looks around, they can identify leaders that they resonate with and that they're like, wow, that's an amazing leader that I would want to learn from.
Rachel Lyons [00:14:50]:
And they can identify leaders that they're like, heck no. I don't want anything to do with that person's style. And I think a lot of that can point to what are the underlying values of that person. Is it like reaching a goal together that's to better humanity and being inspired along the way and building something amazing? Or is it sort of like a sense of wanting power over wanting a sense of importance, that sort of thing? And you can tell. You can always tell. There's always a mix. But anyways, so for me, my journey really started as the role demanded more of me. I was like, I knew I needed to commit more and more to my own growth so that I could show up for it.
Rachel Lyons [00:15:42]:
I had never done a public speaking engagement before. Space for humanity. And something that I will be speaking publicly about in the future is one of my first public speaking engagements. I almost had an anxiety attack on stage. I was in pure freak out mode. And who wants to. I want to say this respectfully, but it's really hard to fully take in the message of someone who's, like, panicking on stage versus. And this is where it goes into when I say helping people embody their vision.
Rachel Lyons [00:16:19]:
If people believe in their vision and they believe in what they're saying with their whole self and they feel it as they're speaking it, that is how you impact an audience, and that is how people will listen to you, and that's how people will want to be involved as well. So that's sort of where my work comes in, and what all my work pointed to is it's really from the inside out. And if you do the work to get past the stuff, that's like, the challenges that are coming up inside of you that are stopping you from being able to fulfill on your mission. If you get past those and just get. I'm trying to think how I want to say this, but getting past those and just getting really clear on what you care about and letting that North Star be the guiding light in your life and nothing else, that is how you create great things. That is how you bring in support. Yeah.
Matt Gjertsen [00:17:26]:
So you just said if you do the work, which I 100% agree with. So for you, what do you see as the work? There's a big journey there that you've been through, many listeners have been through. That's a journey that never ends. But when you talk about helping leaders through this, what do you see as the work that you need to help them do?
Rachel Lyons [00:17:50]:
Yeah, so that's such a good question. I would say that it's different for everyone and there's just no prescription here. There's no prescription here. There's no one single style. There's no also like one coach or one leader that's going to be the perfect fit for two different people. The first thing that I would say is, around the work is people need to find things that resonate with them. And sometimes you have to start with something. Like sometimes you just have to start.
Rachel Lyons [00:18:25]:
You just have to start to figure out what you want and what you don't want, which I did that too. In the beginning. I did some programs that I am like, I would not step foot in that room now, almost ten years later, I would not go near there. But I'm so grateful that's where I started. And so around the work, I would say it's like whatever each person's individual journey is along the path of self awareness, like the ability to get to know yourself better, get to get clear on your priorities in a deeper way, get to get past whatever's stopping you. Become stronger in your sense of self and more clear. Another really big part of my work is the overview effect does this. It has you let go of paradigms that we've inherited, whether it's through societal norms, through the educational system, through your parents, through your friends, our whole lives.
Rachel Lyons [00:19:27]:
We've inherited a lot of shoulds or ideas or things that dictate so much, they end up dictating so much of our behavior. Yeah. All of these paradigms that end up dictating our day to day experience. And so a lot of my work is also about. There's a term I've heard like unlearning, but though it's deeper than unlearning, but it's like letting go of paradigms that we've inherited so that you can actually create your own reality. That's true for you.
Matt Gjertsen [00:19:59]:
Yeah.
Rachel Lyons [00:19:59]:
And that's leadership. That is actually leadership.
Matt Gjertsen [00:20:05]:
Yeah. And I think it's so much of that idea, before you can lead others, you have to lead yourself. And so I'm sure it's about starting with understanding what those things are for you, what resonates with you, what your mission is, what you believe in, what you're passionate about. And until you know that for yourself and can kind of push yourself towards those things. It's going to be pretty hard to push other people towards those things, I would guess.
Rachel Lyons [00:20:35]:
Exactly, yeah. And it's almost like. And this might sound crazy, but it's like following the breadcrumbs. For me, first it was space, and that was completely true. And then it was like aerospace engineering was really exciting, and then I joined the groups. That seemed really exciting. And then I learned about the overview effect, and then I learned about space for humanity's mission, and then I followed the leaders that I really were inspired by. It's just like 1ft in front of the other of what is the most exciting thing to me right now.
Rachel Lyons [00:21:08]:
And honestly, nothing about that has failed me.
Matt Gjertsen [00:21:15]:
Yeah. Where do you find. Because I do think some of what you're saying, kind of a way to phrase what you were just saying, is kind of like a follow your passion. Follow what you're interested in. I often find when you're listening to people talk about this, there can be kind of a balance, or it's almost like a chicken and egg of which comes first, the passion or the competence? Because sometimes you just get really passionate about something because you're good at it and you like it, or you're not passionate in it because you're bad at it. In your journey, have you found any of that? Of that? It was, I guess, what was leading you more? Was it the passion or the opportunities? Because there's going to be lots of times where maybe people have a passion, but they're really bad at it at first and it discourages them. What do you think about situations like that?
Rachel Lyons [00:22:14]:
I mean, it's a really good question and there's no answers. There's never any firm answers. We just really do our best at any given moment. Yeah, but for me, it's just like such a mix, too. I actually don't have a firm answer for you at this moment. I was really blessed to get the opportunity to be the executive director of space for humanity, and my passion drove me to do more than I ever imagined that I could.
Matt Gjertsen [00:22:50]:
Sure.
Rachel Lyons [00:22:50]:
And I was in no way good at the role when I started. And I still have growth points.
Matt Gjertsen [00:22:57]:
I still have growth points, totally.
Rachel Lyons [00:23:00]:
But I was in no way good at the role. I think I had some. What I did have was a natural interest. Like, for example, like public speaking, building partnerships, fundraising, leading a team. It's a lot of interpersonal work. It's a lot of sharing a vision. It's a lot of building community to help people get involved. Those are all things that are exciting to me.
Rachel Lyons [00:23:30]:
And though I wasn't necessarily good at a lot of it, some of it I was good at. When I first started, I had the natural interest to build my skills there. And luckily, I had a passion that was big enough that made it a no brainer. It didn't make it easy. It was not easy, but it made it a no brainer.
Matt Gjertsen [00:23:53]:
Yeah. It was that passion that probably fueled you, your ability to get better.
Rachel Lyons [00:23:58]:
Yeah, exactly. And that's sort of what my work points to with leaders is like, helping people get crystal clear on their visions, then those become the most important things in the world, whether you're doing it as your vocation and getting paid for it or not. And then the other thing I'll say is, as I mentioned, I studied aerospace engineering, and I was really trying to fit myself into a shoe that didn't fit. And a lot of the people in my year, they loved going to the machine shop, and they loved building things, and they loved all of that. And for me, I was just, like, not my thing. And it just wasn't something that was enjoyable to me. I didn't want to tinker, and I'm sure for them because they're incredible engineers.
Matt Gjertsen [00:24:51]:
Yeah. So that's probably some of what then, too. What you're doing with your coaching now is kind of helping people identify those points of friction and see if there are other paths. I always remember when I first started swimming in high school. I swam competitively in high school for about four years. For four years. And I remember when I first started swimming, for the first two weeks, I was trying to convince myself, it's not quitting if you don't like it.
Rachel Lyons [00:25:22]:
Yeah.
Matt Gjertsen [00:25:23]:
Because I hated it. It was awful. And I do think it can be hard, and this is where coaching can really help. It can be hard to know the difference of, like, am I quitting, or is this just, like, the wrong path? Right.
Rachel Lyons [00:25:37]:
Yeah.
Matt Gjertsen [00:25:37]:
And that's hard to identify.
Rachel Lyons [00:25:41]:
And that could apply in relationships. How many people stay in marriages for a decade or more, decades, that actually isn't the right fit for them? And then I've heard stories of people who they finally get the courage to quit, not the right term. And then soon after, they meet a person who it just really works with. That's something I've been really interested in lately, is how often do we stay in a thing for too long because of shoulds that we have, like, we should be doing it or because of just, like, fear of losing it. And when we actually cross that threshold, there's so much more space in our lives for us to create something that's even.
Matt Gjertsen [00:26:38]:
Was just as you were talking, I was thinking of a book. Annie Duke, who's a former professional poker player. Her newest book is called quit the power of knowing when to walk away. So it is exactly what you're talking about here, because when you find the right things, it can be super powerful.
Rachel Lyons [00:27:00]:
It's not without pain. Also, if it's something that we love, someone that we love, it's not without pain. And that's like part of the initiation.
Matt Gjertsen [00:27:13]:
Yeah, absolutely. So you've talked us through a lot of your journey. So to kind of close out here, one question that I always like to ask at the end of through all that, when you look back, what do you think is the one skill that has helped you the most?
Rachel Lyons [00:27:30]:
Oh, wow, that's a great question. I would say. And I. Yeah, I think it would be. It's sort of like a two parter, but it's like willingness to look inward is the first one. But then a part of that is like willingness to take responsibility, especially as the leader. If there's a teammate that's not performing, if you're not meeting your fundraising goals, if you keep not making deadlines as the leader, you need to be taking responsibility for the reality that is happening around you. And it could mean letting go of a team member.
Rachel Lyons [00:28:21]:
It could mean adjusting your fundraising goals, whatever. Or it could mean something else. But as a leader, if we're not willing to take responsibility for what's going on around us and grow from it and learn from it, then we are in what I would call, like, an old leadership paradigm of, like, it's sort of like the one that I was saying before. It's sort of like the better than just wanting power. Yeah, just wanting power. Exactly. The one that's just wanting power versus the one who's like, we're in this together, and there's a direction that we're going, and we all have a responsibility in that. Including me.
Matt Gjertsen [00:29:01]:
Yeah, that makes sense. So then the last question I close with, I'm going to change it a little bit, because usually I ask about kind of at the organizational level, but since you work with a lot of leaders, what is the most common thing you see that leaders can improve about themselves? I know that there's never a right answer. There's all kinds of things I don't know. But do you see, especially with. In kind of your focus of that inner work, if I'm a leader right now, what's most likely something that I should reflect on and be like, do I fall into this? Is there a common theme that you've seen?
Rachel Lyons [00:29:39]:
Yeah, the most common theme that I've seen. I mean, I would say that everyone's really different. It's like everyone's the same, but also everyone's incredibly different. So I would say in terms of themes, I think I'm still watching and listening and discovering and I think thinking just to recent conversations that I've had with clients, one thing that I would want people to realize and know is how. And it might sound a little cheesy, but it's like you are responsible for the reality that you create. What I mentioned before, and I've had clients who go into a pitch meeting, and they're sort of, like, nervous and not really standing in their worth and kind of unsure if they should ask for less money, even though they know it's worth this much, and then they don't really land the deal. Or it's like, the deal is a little bit messy, and this person asked for something more, and it's just like, it just gets weird versus when they stand with clarity. Like, this is where my boundaries are.
Rachel Lyons [00:30:51]:
This is what I know this is worth, and this is what I know the value would be for you. Not always, but they will instantly land the deal when they have that clarity.
Matt Gjertsen [00:31:05]:
That's something that I've found in my life, is just, I'm on the jocko willing train of extreme ownership. The more you can take ownership of everything, but then also, as you're saying, truly take ownership of yourself and your ideas and have your standards and boundaries and create the world that you want to around you. It's really important and impactful.
Rachel Lyons [00:31:27]:
Yeah. And you know what the cool thing is, too, is that when you take. The more you take ownership, the more power you have. Because then you're not being like, oh, it didn't work out. Because that person over there didn't show up. You're like, oh, okay, it didn't work out. Now what can we do next time? I see that there's a place for me to work on this. Let's fix that for next time.
Rachel Lyons [00:31:45]:
It's like you have the power versus having it in question. Mark.
Matt Gjertsen [00:31:51]:
Exactly. Exactly. So this has been a great conversation. Rachel, thank you so much for your time. I had a blast during this conversation. If people want to find out more about you, what's the best way for them to connect with you?
Rachel Lyons [00:32:05]:
Yeah. So they can go over to my website rachel.com and then they can also reach out if they're interested in learning more about my work to info@rachelians.com excellent.
Matt Gjertsen [00:32:18]:
Thank you and we'll make sure to put links in that in the show notes. Hope everybody has a great day. Thank you Rachel for being here today. I look forward to future conversations. Thank you Matt, thank you so much for tuning in today. If you liked the discussion, make sure to hit like and subscribe so you never miss an episode. As a reminder, if your team is struggling keeping up with the training development demands of your organization, we want to help. Better everyday Studios is a full service instructional design team that can help you with everything from ideation to actual content creation and delivery.
Matt Gjertsen [00:32:53]:
Please reach out to us using the link in the episode notes below. Have a great day. Bye.
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