Community as a Place of Belongingness and Safety

[00:00:00] Lucas Root: Welcome to Elements of Community Podcasts about discovering and exploring the elements of community. I am Lucas Root and each week we talk with a community leader about what makes their community thrive and bring value to both the leaders and the members. Join me as we unpack the magic of the Elements of Community.

[00:00:22] Cam, thank you so much for joining me on the show. I'm really excited for our audience. You and I have been working on putting this together for actually months.

[00:00:49] Cam Kashani: It's been a long time.

[00:00:51] Lucas Root: It's been back at like me missing a calendar appointment. You missing a calendar appointment. Like it's been actual months.

[00:00:59] So I'm excited to have this conversation and I'm excited for our audience to be able to get what we've been working on for so long.

[00:01:06] Cam Kashani: Same. Same. Very much looking forward to it. Thank you for having me.

[00:01:09] Lucas Root: My pleasure. Again, I'm excited. Can you tell the audience a bit about yourself.

[00:01:15] Cam Kashani: As in what I do?

[00:01:17] Lucas Root: Yeah.

[00:01:17] Cam Kashani: Sure. So my career has evolved quite a bit. I actually, if you had asked me when I was younger, if I would be doing what I'm doing now, I would be like, that's not possible.

[00:01:28] Lucas Root: I feel the same way.

[00:01:31] Cam Kashani: Yeah. And you know what, that's really beautiful because that means you're being fluid with life instead of attaching yourself to any which way.

[00:01:38] And change is the only constant. It's important to be fluid, right? So I don't like to limit myself to one particular title. I'm a coach, I'm a speaker, I'm a teacher, I'm a healer, I'm an intuitive. I help women become their most empowered self by focusing on the divine feminine. And the divine feminine is the most authentically empowered aspect of a woman.

[00:02:05] And I got into this work through my own journey. I was very much disempowered for many, many. Didn't know who I was, wouldn't speak up for myself, wasn't honest with myself, was always lying to myself trying to believe that I was happy when I was not. It was too painful to look at it otherwise, I was in, you know, unhealthy relationships, toxic relationships, and at some point thanks to going through a life changing divorce.

[00:02:36] Is when I finally began my spiritual awakening, finding my power, stepping into my power, and had that holy shit moment of I need to do this forever and help women realize how powerful they are. Because if I can, then anyone can.

[00:02:53] Lucas Root: I love that. And I agree, you know, there's so many things going on in life. If I can do it, anyone can do it.

[00:03:00] Cam Kashani: Yeah, totally, totally. And my background before that, I was in technology like, I was a technology entrepreneur, but a different type of technology entrepreneur. I initially had like a failed medical technology startup and then that led to a very successful space that was created for technology startups and entrepreneurs, like a co-working space before co-working was even a thing.

[00:03:25] This was back in like 2009, 2010, and the co-working space that we had was built Community first, and it ended up building the entire LA technology ecosystem. Like we had Uber, Instacart, Zip recruiter, the early Tinder team. Like it was a very, very cool the place to be, so to say. But from that to this, it was a whirlwind to get here.

[00:03:48] Lucas Root: Wow. That must have been a lot of fun.

[00:03:51] Cam Kashani: It was so much fun. Like work felt like a playground every day, you know, I go into this space and I would see like these brilliant people working on amazing things and you know, getting to hang out with them, talk with them, empower them. Even my coaching kind of began then without me realizing it.

[00:04:10] Cause people would always come to me for encouragement, for guidance. I was a mentor to a lot of the startups there. But yeah, it was so much fun. Really, really cool people. Really, really cool ideas. Got some really cool stories out of it. It was a good time.

[00:04:24] Lucas Root: That sounds like so much fun and I get feeling like you're in a playground when you go to work. Like I get that.

[00:04:29] Cam Kashani: It's the best . Yeah. You get it.

[00:04:32] Lucas Root: I do. I get it. That's so cool. I love it. Thank you. Cam, you said you built this community first. What does community mean to you?

[00:04:42] Cam Kashani: Yeah. Community to me is a sense of belonging and a sense of safety, and every human being's fundamental need is to belong.

[00:04:51] And it's probably one of the biggest things that we neglect and one of the biggest things that we are not fully aware of, which is how we end up having games and terrorism and all these different things because they're using the psychology of belonging. So when used correctly, with good intention and in a way to help people and to bring people together, it can be absolutely life changing and create some really, really cool things.

[00:05:23] Lucas Root: Yeah, I agree. I love it. Belonging and safety.

[00:05:27] Cam Kashani: Yes.

[00:05:28] Lucas Root: Yeah. Amazing. Do you have a community you'd like to talk about now?

[00:05:32] Cam Kashani: Well, I'm building a community very slowly, very organically. I call it the divine feminine community. And it really started out of a space of, I want a place where I can bring women together, where we empower one another, uplift one another, kind of like the antisocial media, you know, social media is such a shit show, and it's just a bunch of people like, pretending they're happy and showing off, and it's just the energy of it has a lot of shame and has a lot of pain.

[00:06:09] And so this is more like a very authentic, close knit community of women. Come with your shit, whatever it is, we're here to love you. We're here to accept you. We're here to help you.

[00:06:23] And again, I'm building it slowly but surely. It's basically like an online group right now, and we meet online every month where I work with the women and help them through different challenges through coaching and whatnot. And every now and then we meet in person if they are in the area. I'm in LA not everybody in the group is in LA but so far it's going beautifully.

[00:06:46] Very, very organic and slow. I don't know where it's going. It's not something that I'm sitting here like, oh, this is gonna be the biggest community in the world. Like, I'm not attached to it becoming anything. It just very organically came forward and I'm seeing what happens with it. But it's a beautiful space and the women absolutely love it.

[00:07:07] Lucas Root: Yeah, I love it. Yeah. My previous interview I had so much fun on, and he said to me social media is to community like junk food is to real food.

[00:07:21] Cam Kashani: Oh my God. It's a great analogy.

[00:07:25] Lucas Root: Yes, that's it.

[00:07:26] Cam Kashani: It is so accurate. Oh my gosh. Yep, social media is the death of everything for real. Like it is. It is where you go to die, like you open. And personally, I've learned to become much more intentional with my time on social media. Like, I really only follow uplifting accounts, inspiring accounts, spiritual accounts, things like that. I don't follow like you know, the Kim Kardashians of the world and the things that make you feel bad about yourself.

[00:08:00] Like, I don't follow any of that, but still it can be a time suck. And it can really just, yeah, it can rob you of many, many things. You have to be very, very mindful of it.

[00:08:13] Lucas Root: Yep. Now, great, awesome, amazing, true community also sucks up your time, obviously. I think I know what an answer to this question is, but what is the difference in community sucking up your time from social media sucking up your time? How would you describe that?

[00:08:31] Cam Kashani: I mean, I would rephrase it. I don't see that an authentic community wouldn't suck up your time. It would energize you. It's a very different feeling. Like you leave Instagram and you're like, do you feel good? No. You feel empty. You feel kind of like, did I really just spend 30 minutes doing nothing?

[00:08:52] You know, you don't feel like recharged and with a real community, it's a family, but like a healthy family. It's a space where you can you know, you feel good about yourself, you feel supported, you feel love. So the oxytocin in your body and different brain chemicals are enhanced with good things, not with the constant need to, I need to check this again. I need to check this again. Anything change? Anything change?

[00:09:23] Like the dopamine and the serotonin levels that get affected through social media, so it's very different.

[00:09:29] Lucas Root: Junk food.

[00:09:31] Cam Kashani: That's another way to say, Yeah.

[00:09:34] Lucas Root: Yep. It's like your mouth is like, yeah, give me more of that stuff and your body is like, What are you doing?

[00:09:41] Cam Kashani: Yeah, exactly, exactly. So if you listen to your body, which is something I teach women to do, cuz it is absolutely essential.

[00:09:48] Your body has every answer to everything. And if you listen to your body, your body will tell you social media-bad community-good

[00:09:57] Lucas Root: Yeah. I get it. For people who haven't had real community in their life, how do they know that they've had it? How do they know they've found it? What do you look for?

[00:10:06] Cam Kashani: Safety. Is there a space where you feel safe? Is there a space where you feel you can show up and not be judged? Is there a space where you can show up authentically as you? And if the answer to that is no, then put some effort into finding that, even if it's just one person. You know, it can start as just one other person, and then you can add onto that.

[00:10:28] It doesn't have to be a whole existing space. It could be one person leading to another, to another.

[00:10:33] Lucas Root: I love that. Is that what you're putting together in your community?

[00:10:40] Cam Kashani: Yeah, so mine is like, I'm doing it application only. I'm making it as authentic as possible and you know, really being mindful of the energy that shows up.

[00:10:53] And as an intuitive, I'm able to do that pretty well, I think. So, so far, so good.

[00:11:01] Lucas Root: That's awesome. So far so good. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Right? If it's working, keep going with it.

[00:11:07] Cam Kashani: Exactly.

[00:11:08] Lucas Root: Yep. Awesome. And so safety means a lot of things to a lot of people. And I really appreciate that you actually started to define that a little bit.

[00:11:17] You said you feel like you can show up authentically. You feel like you're not being judged. You feel like you can be who you are. Right. Cause to some people, safety might mean something more like I don't feel like I'm going to get punched in the face physically, literally. Do you want to add to that? Is there more to the idea of safety?

[00:11:36] Cam Kashani: I mean, when I think about safety, I think about my nervous system. And I think about, where is my nervous system feeling most at peace? Where does it feel like it can just relax? And be calm and I don't have to be on, and I don't have to be hypervigilant and I don't have to look in every corner if there's danger, you know?

[00:12:04] And danger can be mean different things to different people. Like you said. It could be mean physical abuse, it could mean emotional abuse. It could mean being judged. It could mean being ridiculed or bullied. It could mean so many different things. So where is this space where my nervous system is able to rest and feel safe?

[00:12:26] There's really no other word for it. So it's a matter of the nervous system and the nervous system like controls other aspects of your body, right? So like, if you're feeling anxiety or if you're feeling clammy hands or anything like that, that's a big sign that your nervous system's out of whack in that moment.

[00:12:46] Lucas Root: Have you ever felt the kind of safety that you feel inside a really supportive community elsewhere?

[00:12:54] Cam Kashani: Yes.

[00:12:54] Lucas Root: So that people can tie that idea together.

[00:12:58] Cam Kashani: I will take this a little, like a different direction. It really just begins with you. Do you feel safe with yourself? And the world is then a reflection of that, right?

[00:13:08] So I've done a crap ton of work on myself, which is why I'm able to do the work that I do now. I've been healing myself for over nine years. I've done countless different seminars and even got my doctorate in spirituality. In spiritual studies and really have done everything I could and can to create that sensitive safety within me.

[00:13:36] So that would be the number one step is, how do I view myself? Do I love myself? Do I accept myself? Like what is the relationship with you? Like, am I a safe space for me, or am I constantly putting myself down, ridiculing myself, calling myself stupid, having this horrible, you know, recurring inner dialogue within myself.

[00:14:02] What does all that look like? That would be the number step because once you start to love and accept yourself, the outside world will reflect that and things will show up. And what happened with me was exactly that. I did me first and I had communities but none of them felt super safe because I was still judging me.

[00:14:25] So even if the community was a beautiful and safe community, I was still walking in with, am I gonna be ridiculed? Am I gonna be laughed at? Am I gonna feel this, that, whatever. Like, I had all these thoughts going through my head. And so once I healed those is when I was able to be a part of something and feel completely safe and offer that to others because I no longer judge myself.

[00:14:51] I don't judge others. Right. So it's a beautiful kind of dynamic that shows up.

[00:15:01] Lucas Root: That's awesome. Thank you. And now the community that's building organically, slowly, beautifully. Feels like that?

[00:15:11] Cam Kashani: Yes, exactly. And every time we meet and have our like online Zoom sessions or whatever, I reiterate that you know, this is a space of safety.

[00:15:21] This is a space of no judgment. This is a space where come as you are, all of you is welcome here. There's nothing you need to hold back on. There's nothing that's not, you know, there's nothing that's too much. There's nothing that's anything. So, yeah,

[00:15:40] Lucas Root: And to tie the bow, all communities should feel like that, right?

[00:15:46] Cam Kashani: Ideally. Ideally, Yeah. Do they? No. We live in a world that is less than ideal by far. But yeah, I mean, ideally, and that's what I think is what made my previous company of mine successful is you walked into the space and you felt like a human being, not like a transaction.

[00:16:09] And you felt like you were part of a family. And everyone knew your name and how are you and how's it going? And in that world of building companies, that was really, really rare. A lot of people were looked at as transactions. And so, when's the next time you're making money and when's the next time you're doing dish?

[00:16:29] And when it was like constant, like, it just stupid shit. So once they are in this space, which was very much like, how are you, how is your heart? How are you feeling? Are you taking care of your body? Everyone's like, what the fuck? This is so different than everything else that we're used to out there.

[00:16:50] So, you know, I mean there's different levels. And now the community that I'm building takes that way further. Right. It's like, are you healing your trauma? And what's coming up for you in your heart? What's coming up for you in your body? Do you love yourself? Do you accept yourself? Do you hold yourself? Do you nurture yourself? Like we take it way. It's like focus fully on that.

[00:17:11] Lucas Root: Yeah. Amazing.

[00:17:14] Cam Kashani: That's fun.

[00:17:15] Lucas Root: It's interesting that you bring up transaction. Is it possible to be loved and supported and still have a transactional model in place?

[00:17:24] Cam Kashani: Well, I mean, yeah, you gotta charge for it at the end of the day, if that's what you're referring to.

[00:17:28] I charge for my community, I charge for my previous company. All of it can have a business model that is, you know, that makes sense for somebody who's putting their time and energy into it. Absolutly. But you have to separate that from the human being. Like you don't look at the human as a transaction, but they are paying a membership to be a part of this beautiful space.

[00:17:52] It makes sense. And money is just energy, right? So when you look at money as an energetic frequency, Instead of the end all be all. It really makes a big difference.

[00:18:04] Lucas Root: Yeah. People forget that it's currency, which means it's supposed to flow and in the process of flowing, sometimes I add to it, sometimes I subtract from it.

[00:18:14] Cam Kashani: Exactly. Exactly.

[00:18:17] Lucas Root: Yeah. Amazing. Thank you. So carrying this flow along. Leaders are a part of community. I think they're, you know, inextricable. It's a piece of community. It always will be. Leaders emerge communities emerge, communities create leaders and then sometimes even projects create leaders. Do you have some thoughts on leadership in community?

[00:18:44] Cam Kashani: Leadership in community specifically, or leadership in general.

[00:18:49] Lucas Root: In community.

[00:18:51] Cam Kashani: You know, leadership in community shows up differently because it's not so much of a, like a fight, it's more of a collective dynamic. Right.

[00:19:03] Lucas Root: A service.

[00:19:05] Cam Kashani: Yeah, totally. And people in a community function differently where people aren't fighting to be heard. And people aren't fighting to be seen. And so this collective dynamic allows a leader to naturally emerge and that leader can shift throughout the time of the community. Right? It doesn't have to be that one guy, the president. No. Like when I had the previous company that I had that with the technology founders, the co-working space, it was my company.

[00:19:41] And my ex-partners company, we had so many different people there running the space and so many different people there in charge of different things and they would do so willingly. Like we didn't even have to ask. We didn't have to ask them like, hey, we need someone to like, they would be like, Hey, can I do this?

[00:20:07] Like, it was so beautiful, you know? And there's no that ego's need, like I said, of being seen or being heard is diminished because you are being seen and being heard in a collective way. Right. So it really shows up in a different capacity. And I believe that a true leader is one leads others to a space of leading themselves and is giving that type of like a leader like that empowers others. So when a community is run correctly, every person there feels just as powerful as anyone else.

[00:20:56] Lucas Root: Interesting. This just popped into my head. And it, it's sort of the kind of language that's endemic to me, but it came out of this idea, this flow, right?

[00:21:06] A leadership for a project arises inside the project, not because that person wants to lead, but because that project wants that person.

[00:21:17] Cam Kashani: I like that. Yeah, absolutely. That's beautiful. I would agree. And there's a sense of alignment.

[00:21:27] Lucas Root: We came to that together.

[00:21:30] Cam Kashani: That's awesome. There's a sense of alignment that results from that. And alignment is, I believe, one of the biggest keys to life.

[00:21:41] Lucas Root: Thank you. Are there attributes that you recognize that are generally in common across leaders?

[00:21:49] Cam Kashani: In community? Yes. Okay. I was like, will. In community, self awareness. And that applies to every type of leader in community or not, but in community even so, like self-awareness is huge because it allows you to, again, to keep your ego in check and it allows you to show up authentically. And a community is a really powerful and beneficial community when run with authenticity.

[00:22:26] And like attracts like, right? So if the leader of the community is an authentic human being, then it will attract people that are like that. So a self-awareness, authenticity, and you know, I wanna say like a sense of vibrating from a space of love. Because a lot of leadership in the world vibrates from a sense of lack and fear. And so when you're vibrating from a sense of love and empowerment and truth and just goodness. It really creates beautiful outcomes like far beyond what you ever might have thought. So those would be the top three things I would say.

[00:23:23] Lucas Root: Amazing. Self-awareness is, Yeah. And that vibrational love. I'm feeling it.

[00:23:31] Cam Kashani: Self-awareness, authenticity, and love. Those are the top.

[00:23:34] Lucas Root: What does self awareness mean to you?

[00:23:37] Cam Kashani: Having myself fully and like I know who I am. I know what I want, I know what I need, and I'm aware of my wounds, my traumas, and my various limiting beliefs that hold me back from being my best and most authentic self. And that would be towards myself, towards my children, towards my partner, towards my community, towards everyone. I believe that without self awareness, you cannot live a really good life.

[00:24:18] You're never gonna be able to feel your true sense of self cuz you're either living in fear and you have a ton of limiting beliefs that are running the show for you and you have no idea about it. Right. And it really messes you up.

[00:24:36] And I did that for a very long time. Like the first 30 years of my life was really lived with like so much fear and anxiety and just not being enough, not feeling like I'm good enough, not feeling like I deserve things. And these aren't conscious right? But as I did the work to understand what was underlying my behaviors.

[00:25:04] I realized that, oh my God, like I'm walking around with that limiting belief. It's like wearing these fucked up glasses your whole life. You're seeing the world in such a different way, you know? And so once I was able to take that off, I'm like, Wow, life can be like this. So without self awareness, you're doing yourself a major disservice.

[00:25:28] Lucas Root: I agree. I love that you talked about knowing your wounds. And how they show up and how they limit you. And, you know, obviously we weren't recording in the green room beforehand, but we talked about like reacting to the world and, being in a reactive state and, and some circumstances where that shows up a lot.

[00:25:52] And an awareness of your wounds and how they're gonna show up means that you can choose in between an action happening to you, right? A situation. And your reaction to it. There's an opportunity for choice in there. Which is amazing. Inserting that opportunity for choice in between action and reaction.

[00:26:16] Cam Kashani: One of my favorite quotes is by Victor Frankel, and he says, I'm probably not gonna repeat it exactly as it is, but it's something along the lines of, In between stimulus and response, you have a choice. And basically in that choice you can change your life. You know, cuz so many of us are constantly in a, like you said, in a reactive state.

[00:26:38] The world is run by people in a reactive state. Like, can you imagine what kind of a world we would live in, what kind of leadership we would have if it was just like, people that were aware of their traumas and people that were aware of their pain. We have a bunch of little kids in big people's bodies making the decisions for our world. It's ridiculous. And they're all like throwing tantrums at each other all the time. So yeah, I agree. That is a huge thing.

[00:27:10] Lucas Root: Little kids in big people's bodies. That's awesome.

[00:27:13] Cam Kashani: It's literally what it is. And they call them like world leaders and like, I don't give a fuck. If you think you're a world leader, you're a traumatized little boy and you're just like throwing punches constantly and starting wars and you know, doing a bunch of stupid shit.

[00:27:34] The control factor, the fear factor, all this stuff is coming from trauma. They never healed themselves, and so they.

[00:27:43] Lucas Root: Or even they're unaware.

[00:27:45] Cam Kashani: They're fully unaware. Absolutely. Some of them don't wanna do the work, and even if they are aware, you know, it's too painful. But yeah, it would be a very different world if people were aware of their traumas and taking that time and space instead of reacting.

[00:28:07] Lucas Root: Yeah. Thank you. Is there one of the five elements of community that has been sort of swelling up inside you that you want to dive into?

[00:28:17] Cam Kashani: I don't know. I'm open to discussion If there's something you wanna bring up.

[00:28:21] Lucas Root: I think, correct me if I'm wrong. I think the fifth element which I use Common Heart as a placeholder. I think that's one that's coming up through this conversation. That's what I'm feeling.

[00:28:37] Cam Kashani: Yeah. I mean, that's how I live my life. So good observation. I just, you know, heart, it's something that we are conditioned to shut down and it is what makes us really thrive. It is what makes us feel joy. It's what makes us feel alive. It's what makes us feel like, you know, love, it's love. Like love is the best thing in the whole fucking world.

[00:29:09] We all know that. And we're beings made to love. We're beings made of love. That's really all we are. Everything else is an illusion and a bunch of societal conditioning.

[00:29:22] Lucas Root: A video game. A video game.

[00:29:26] Cam Kashani: Exactly, exactly. Bingo, it's all a big fucking video game. And you know, we've been conditioned to protect our heart, shut our heart down.

[00:29:41] Even the foods we eat are poisoning our heart. The medications people take are disconnecting them from their hearts. Alcohol people drink is disconnecting them from their hearts. Like so many things that is considered normal, quote unquote, and just a part of everyday life are resulting in us completely disconnecting from our true selves and our true essence and our true heart.

[00:30:07] And I do believe we're at a space now in the world where this is changing. And there will be a shift and it has been coming. You know, I think that Covid was a big part of that. Like just the world is changing, it's changing and in the next 10, 15, 20 years, 30 years. I think it's gonna be very different than it is right now.

[00:30:33] And I feel like the revolution is one of the heart that it is time for us to take responsibility of ourselves. Time for us to stop trusting what we know should not be trusted in the government and in the world, and so many other things. Stop blindly trusting things. Stop going with the narrative. Connect to your heart.

[00:30:56] Connect to your intuition. You know, during Covid, a lot of people, I continued to live my life and a lot of people would be like, aren't you scared? Aren't you scared of getting something? Aren't you afraid of this is that, the government says that, the government says, the government says, and my response was consistently, I trust my intuition over the government and I knew what was good for me.

[00:31:24] And I'm not saying everyone should have done what I did. But for me, what I did was great. You know, I didn't wanna live my life hold up in my house. I didn't wanna do that to my children. I didn't wanna do that to anyone. So I trusted my intuition over everything else, and it got me very far. And if more people believe in their own truth, As opposed to the bullshit that they're being fed out there, which has very much to do with your heart and your heart being open. It would be a very different world.

[00:31:57] Lucas Root: I grew up with. I talk about this infrequently, but regularly on interviews and stuff. I grew up with a poster on my wall that was a video game poster, and I have long since forgotten what video game it was for, because the poster wasn't there for the video game for me.

[00:32:13] The poster was a picture of a bear and rock plane, and right in the foreground was a big, huge, like video game broad with a skull on top of it and the words underneath said, If you don't use your head, someone else will.

[00:32:28] Cam Kashani: Wow. There you go. Bingo. Exactly. And that's what they are doing to us. And we are allowing it. And it is time for.

[00:32:41] Lucas Root: In fact encouraging it.

[00:32:43] Cam Kashani: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so it's time for us to really take responsibility for ourselves, trust ourselves, begin to heal our own wounding, become more self-aware, so that they stop controlling us and we live the life that we were meant to live, as opposed to the life that they are making us live.

[00:33:05] Lucas Root: Yep. Well, at every action that we take, every single one benefits someone.

[00:33:10] Cam Kashani: Yeah. Always.

[00:33:11] Lucas Root: Question is, is it benefiting me?

[00:33:16] Cam Kashani: And the more you benefit you in an authentic way, the more you benefit others.

[00:33:23] Lucas Root: Yeah. And let's forget. I mean, let's not forget, let's remember that me and my truly my true community, me and my community are only one step apart.

[00:33:33] We're not five steps apart. We're not 10 steps apart, we're one step apart. It's right here on my shoulders, right? As I was saying to you before, it's Joe on my right and Jane on my left. Like these people, they're in my arm, right? They're right here. And to, to truly benefit me, I have to remember the things that I do need also benefit Joe and Jane.

[00:33:57] Cam Kashani: Yep. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. And you know, on that note, I'll add one other tidbit. Is this illusion of separation that we've been conditioned to believe as well. That like, you know, although you are over there and I am over here, we are all one energy and this whole thing that has shown up in the past few years in the world of cancel culture and making other people wrong, and the division that's shown up from the vaccinated to the unvaccinated and like just so many different things that they've fed into to separate us, is poisoned.

[00:34:43] Like this is them really trying to take full control of our sovereignty. Because there is no separation. We can all absolutely live together in peace. It doesn't need to be a fight of, I'm better, you're worse because we believe in different things. Or I'm better, you're worse because you did something and I didn't, whatever it might be.

[00:35:09] Like, there's always a common ground that we can all get to and that's what makes a community successful and really special is that space where all religions exist together, all ideologies exist together. All different types of genders and whatnot exist together. There is no, Fuck you, I'm canceling you.

[00:35:31] Fuck you, I can't do this, like, what the fuck is that? That's more tantrums from little children.

[00:35:39] Lucas Root: With big bodies.

[00:35:41] Cam Kashani: Yeah, exactly, exactly. Like, it's really silly and people need to take responsibility for their own healing around that and stop just trying to make one another wrong. Like we're all in this together and we can all succeed together. When the division happens is when we die.

[00:36:11] Lucas Root: Yeah, I agree. So a core then is togetherness. A core is community.

[00:36:19] Cam Kashani: Yeah. A hundred percent.

[00:36:21] Lucas Root: Like it's core to us as humans.

[00:36:25] Cam Kashani: Absolutely.

[00:36:26] Lucas Root: I think we can agree on that, Cam?

[00:36:29] Cam Kashani: I think so.

[00:36:30] Lucas Root: You can agree on that. Amazing. Thank you. For those people who have been energized by this conversation, and hopefully it's every single person listening. Where can they find you?

[00:36:41] Cam Kashani: A few different places. Instagram at Cam_Kashani. My website, CamKashani.com. C A M KA S H A N I.com. That's where I have different links to, you know, if you wanna book a session with me or reading with me learn more about the different work that I do and whatnot.

[00:37:00] It's all listed over there. I also have a podcast called the Cam Kashani Show. It's been a little bit on hiatus. The past few months as I've been recalibrating, but what's there is really good and I will get back to it again.

[00:37:15] Lucas Root: Awesome. Thank you. My final question is a zinger that I don't like to prepare people for.

[00:37:21] Cam Kashani: I love that.

[00:37:22] Lucas Root: Yeah. What question would you have had me ask you that I didn't?

[00:37:25] Cam Kashani: The first thing that comes forward for me is, you know, just because this is the line of work I do and whatnot is, what's the biggest wound or trauma you have healed, or what's the biggest challenge maybe you would've gone through in your life? Like, I always feel like those types of questions are, really they allow things to go more authentically, more deep, and it opens up a space where people are like, whoa, they just go there. What else they gotta talk about .

[00:38:01] Lucas Root: Yeah. I love it. Yeah. Cool. Can you tell us what's the biggest wound you've healed?

[00:38:07] Cam Kashani: Yeah. Unworthiness. Which is something that so many women and men carry. It's this, I'm not enough and I'm not worthy. And it links to self sabotage. It links to imposter syndrome. So many different ways that it actually shows up in reality every day. And it took a very, very long time. And once in a blue moon it rears its head and I'm like, there it is. Thanks to the self-awareness, right? I'm able to spot it and I don't let it take over. But that would be my number one.

[00:38:46] Lucas Root: Wow. Amazing. Yeah.

[00:38:49] Cam Kashani: Thank you.

[00:38:50] Lucas Root: Thank you for sharing and thank you for being a guest here.

[00:38:53] Cam Kashani: It's an honor. Thank you so much for having me.

[00:38:56] Lucas Root: My pleasure.

[00:39:00] Thank you for joining us this week on Elements of Community. Make sure to visit our website, ElementsOfCommunity.us, where you can subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitch or Spotify or via RSS, so you'll never miss a show. If you found value in this show, we'd appreciate a rating on iTunes or if you'd simply tell a friend about the show, that would help us out too.

[00:39:26] If you like the show, you might wanna check out our EOC Inner Circle, where we deep dive with each guest on the inner workings of their community. We cover things like community model, profitability and engagement strategies. You can join the inner circle at ElementsOfCommunity.us/InnerCircle. Be sure to tune in next week for our next episode.