#18 TNT Dennis Sarkozy: Bridging Spirituality and Business He calls it Hippie Woo Woo, I call it Hippie Hooha, in either case, we love it. ❤️🔮 As the final installment of the TNT in NYC series, this episode of THE NOMAD THEORY features Dennis Sarkozy, life-coach, party enthusiast, and corporate yogi. ☯️ Listen and read the show notes/quotes here 🌈: ☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️ Dennis moved to NYC two years before our interview and took special care in making sure he didn’t end up as a apartment dwelling recluse. 🍎 For example, the man did not purchase a bed for six months after arriving, instead opting for a blow-up camp mattress and sleeping bag. “This isn’t actually so bad,” he said after the first two nights, “I could get used to this.” 🌞 Perhaps even more absurd in some people’s eyes, Dennis didn’t read any books for the entire first year he lived in the Big Apple. It was a practice in forced socialization, so that he have no choice but to go out and make friends instead of relying on the characters from a book for entertainment.📕📙📘 The practices have paid off, it seems, as Dennis is currently an event coordinator and puts on several large gatherings a month. Most of which are sponsored by NYC companies and provide environments for people to engage and become cooler people without having to focus on a religion. ✔️ Dennis hooked it up with this interview, allowing us to use the podcast recording studio at his BetaWorks incubator for the afternoon.🎙️ ❤️🧡💛💙💚💜 Thanks a million for listening to THE NOMAD THEORY🌏 Stay Wild folks! A.C. Ridenour🍌
4:00 "Yoga is a practice of presence in many ways more so than looking a certain way."
5:00 Dennis works with a lot of corporate executives. He noticed they have learned to create internal superstitions after giving up on religion at some point. He helps them put a name to it.
6:00 "I was the bridge between spirituality and business... You can call it anything you want. We can call it mindfulness... Or stress management... By selling it to to these corporations, people who wouldn't normally be exposed to these subjects find themselves in a yoga studio"
17:00 At some point people call Dennis "too positive". He will hope for the best but prepare for the worst, but also be open about when he is nervous.
18:00 "I hope to always approach a person as a future friend"
27:00 One of Dennis's friends only carries a single roller suitcase. In the summer he trades his pants and in the winter he trades his shorts. This way he can travel and house-sit anywhere in the world on a whim.
35:00 Dennis and I talk about drinking and ecstatic dance. In NYC the dance events can have over 600 people and run for up to 5 hours. They have them 4-5 days a week and people rarely drink alcohol. It is a wonderful exercise, in my opinion, to go to a party and not drink. It forces you to be a different kind of social.
45:00 Dennis works with local NYC companies that sponsor his events. He tries to find businesses that will benefit from having their products around the type of people who attend his events and they gladly provide refreshments for no charge.
47:00 I asked Dennis if he would call himself "enlightenment". He answered by explaining his philosophy of Stoicism and a book called The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday. His Mother was basically a natural born Stoic and lived by the principles of the book without having heard of them.
49:00 "You build a staircase one step at a time" - Dennis's Grandpa