After selling his last business to the world’s largest publicly traded marketing services company, Peter decided it was time to go sit in a Zen monastery.

Since then he has taken on roles such as coach, meditation teacher, spiritual caregiver, and community builder to name a few. I wanted to have Peter on the show because he’s a unique combination of someone with tremendous business success that has also gone to profound depths on the spiritual path.

In this conversation, we explore his experience with the Zen tradition and how he has helped himself and others integrate its wisdom into everyday life to improve well-being and fulfillment.

This week's guest is Peter Corbett,  the Founder, CEO and Coach at Still Rush, a mindful leadership coaching practice. 

We talk about his decision to sell his agency and retire from advertising, his volunteer work as a spiritual caregiver, life, love, loss, and death, and the motivations that moved him to his new life.

After selling his company, Peter went on a journey to find his authentic self. This work included working with the dying as a Zen hospice practitioner. Practicing cold exposure by climbing a Poland mountain in negative 30C wind chills with just a bathing suit. And experiencing nature immersion by participating in a two-week survival course in a Utah desert with only a water bottle, a blanket, a knife, and the clothes on his back.

These rich experiences has led Peter to his calling: coaching CEOs and facilitating leadership mindfulness retreats. In this episode, we talk about his deep commitment to transforming leaders through mindfulness practices. And how by doing so, leaders can cause less harm to themselves and others, including in their personal and professional relationships.

Debbie talks with Peter Corbett, a retired CEO who moved to Brooklyn from DC, sold his tech company to J. Walter Thompson (part of WPP), and completely changed his life. 

Peter was a young guy in his 20s when Debbie knew him back in DC's tech heyday. He was well known in DC’s tech community as the founder and CEO of iStrategyLabs as well as the convener of popular tech meetups. iStrategyLabs was one of the first digital marketing agencies, known for its creativity in bridging online and offline. The company won lots of awards and grew to have dozens of Fortune 500 clients. But after almost ten years of running the company Peter moved to New York to open an office there. Shortly after, he realized he’d had enough of the CEO life. He sold the company for tens of millions of dollars and began living a completely different life. 

Now, at age 39, he is a Zen hospice practitioner volunteering at a hospital in Brooklyn as well as continuing his training. He also mentors entrepreneurs. Together they talk about how he found this new path, how meditation plays a crucial role for him and why he thinks it’s so important to contemplate mortality.

My guest for Episode 008 is Peter Corbett, who I’ve had the pleasure to know for a number of years as we’ve worked in various overlapping circles in the tech community.

We sat down to talk about his life as a "Retired Founder," including:

• What led to his decision to sell ISL to WPP

• How he knew he was ready to let go of a business he’d founded and built into a global innovator over the course of 10+ years

• How to identify when you’re not aligned with a project or venture anymore

• What he’s doing now, with the space created by letting go of running ISL full-time

• Ideas for how to avoid burnout as an entrepreneur

This is a great episode for any of you who has been running a startup, business, consultancy, etc, and has been wondering if it’s time to let go of that to pursue other things that are more aligned with what is your truth right now.

Post exit — Peter explored. He intensively meditated, took cold immersion and breathwork retreats in Poland and Iceland, joined a two week survival course in the desert, and did a 9 month training program in hospice and worked with over a hundred sick & dying people at the Brooklyn Hospital Center.

His objective was to reduce himself to a blank canvas. What’s next? What is important? What should I pursue now that I’m set financially for this life and many more (Peter’s words)?

Throughout his self-exploration Peter came back to this concept of being of service to others. How can he combine his experience of running a successful agency, scaling and then selling it with being of service to others?

Coaching

CEOs and Founders are now coming to Peter asking him for counsel on how to handle certain questions, challenges and/or scenarios affecting them individually and their businesses?

‘..it turns out CEOs have so much leverage and they can do so much damage if they're not operating consciously.’

Peter is selective with the clients he decides to coach. Unlike technology, it’s difficult scaling one human being. By being purposeful in whom he selects, Peter is able to invest his undivided attention.

Peter Corbett, retired founder and Buddhist practitioner, joins Paul Austin to discuss the intersection of start-ups, success, and spirituality.

Peter traversed the start-up road for the past ten years, bootstrapping his digital agency to a multi-million dollar exit. Listen in as Peter explains why his search for money, status, and achievement led to a developmental dead-end - and how his perspectives changed from intentional plant medicine use.

The Psychedelic Podcast // The Third Wave // with Paul Austin

Peter Corbett is a highly awarded, successfully retired/exited founder and CEO of iStrategyLabs – an 2x Ad Age Small Agency of the Year agency that developed campaigns and innovative solutions to clients ranging from Ford to the Mr. Robot TV series, Facebook, and Volkswagen just to name a few. He now spends his time helping the sick and dying, letting startup mentees pick his brain, and enjoying early retirement [as an executive coach].

Just a few of the points you’ll learn in this episode:

• What does it mean to be “familiar” with death? How does this inspire someone to celebrate life?

• Considering the mindset difference from helping people with systems of scale versus one to one.

• How do you measure value? How does trauma play a role in our professional lives?

• Learn the importance of recognizing our advantages and disadvantages

“Really take a look at what you’re doing and if it’s not essential, I don’t know how sustainable it’s going to be.”

Theme: Impermanence

Artwork: Ritual Bone Apron; Tibet/Nepal; 18th - 19th century; Bone; Rubin Museum of Art;

http://therubin.org/36v

Teacher: Peter Corbett 

The Rubin Museum of Art presents a weekly meditation session led by a prominent meditation teacher from the New York area, with each session focusing on a specific work of art. This podcast is recorded in front of a live audience and includes an opening talk, a 20-minute sitting session, and a closing discussion.

The guided meditation begins at 7:16.

This meditation is presented in partnership with Sharon Salzberg, teachers from the NY Insight Meditation Center, the Interdependence Project, and Parabola Magazine.  If you would like to attend Mindfulness Meditation sessions in person or learn more, please visit our website at RubinMuseum.org/meditation.

If you would like to support the Rubin Museum and this meditation series, we invite you to become a member and always attend for free.  Have a mindful day!

Peter Corbett, exited founder of iStrategyLabs talks about his journey through the startup world and shares his thoughts on fundraising for early stage startups.

Fundraising Radio w/ Konstantin Dubovitskiy