Daniel Allen, a coach, speaker, content creator and self-described artist of words, joins Niiamah Ashong on the Outlier's Edge Podcast for an open, unscripted conversation about love, service and leadership. He describes seeking to embody the presence of divine love and service, and how he notices he has left that space when his focus moves to the past or to a worry about the future. What emerged is a picture of leadership done from a spirit of love with the soul in mind, inside a conversation Niiamah Ashong chose to co-lead rather than direct.
Episode at a glance
- Guest: Daniel Allen, Coach, speaker, content creator and self-described artist of words who seeks to embody divine love and service
- Host: Niiamah Ashong, coach to outlier leaders
- Show: Outlier’s Edge Podcast, released March 14, 2023
- Format: conversation, 44 minutes
- Topics: Embodying divine love and service, Learning out loud, Being versus performing, Leading with gentleness, love and fun, Reality as a creation, Co-leading a conversation
What Daniel brought to the conversation
Daniel Allen seeks to embody the presence of divine love and service, and he is always looking for ways to serve in a culture he sees as focused on getting more. He moves through his days as a father of four, a coach, a speaker, a content creator and an artist of words, and he is creating a video channel, audiobooks and a coaching practice that helps men shift their thinking so they can create openly and freely. He and his wife recently moved their family to a new state to go out and make it happen as entrepreneurs. Niiamah Ashong describes him as someone who has grown his intelligence in spiritual and soulful ways and who does his learning out loud.
What emerged
The central idea is the difference between being and trying. Daniel Allen says that whenever he is focused on anything but what's in front of him, he finds himself reaching to be a particular way, and he reacts instead of responding; his declaration is to lead his children with gentleness, love and fun. He sees reality as a creation, which means it can be recreated, and a lesson he took from watching his children is that there are no messes you can make that won't be cleaned up, so you are free to play and explore. For Niiamah Ashong, that freedom became an experiment in co-leading the conversation and in his own version of vulnerability.
Questions this episode answers
Do you lose anything when you give love or joy?
Daniel Allen says no: when he hands someone a marker, it is no longer in his possession, but when you give of your love, your joy or your peace, you don't lose any of it. As the other person experiences it, it grows exponentially for everybody from there.
How can a leader tell they've slipped from being into performing?
Daniel Allen recognizes he is out of that space when he is focused on something from the past or on a future concern. Whenever he isn't in the moment, he finds himself reaching to be a particular way, and he reacts instead of responding.
How can a leader handle tomorrow's worries without draining today?
Daniel Allen believes you'll be able to take care of tomorrow's issues with tomorrow's resources, so you don't have to spend today's resources, physical, monetary or mental, on them. He values planning, and at the same time trusts that in the moment you will know.
What makes leadership effective beyond directing people?
Daniel Allen points to leadership done from a spirit of love, with concern for the soul in mind. That means the leader remembering that those under their charge are souls as well.
Why face what you're resisting instead of pushing it away?
Daniel Allen's question for anyone listening is what are you resisting, because what is resisted persists. He says fighting something off, putting it off or ignoring it doesn't make it go away, and that standing toe-to-toe with what feels like an enemy shows it just wants love.
In their words
I seek to embody the presence of divine love and service.
Daniel Allen
When you give of your love, when you give of your joy, when you give of your peace, you don't lose any of it.
Daniel Allen
What we resist persist, and fighting something off, putting it off, ignoring it, not looking at it does not make it go away.
Daniel Allen
Key moments
03:08 – Learning out loud
06:13 – Embodying divine love and service
07:16 – Giving without losing anything
11:25 – Where is the problem right now
14:34 – Noticing when he's not present
16:08 – Tomorrow's issues, tomorrow's resources
17:10 – Leading children with gentleness and love
29:54 – Leadership with the soul in mind
36:11 – Free to play and explore
39:53 – What are you resisting
About Niiamah Ashong
Niiamah Ashong is a coach to outlier leaders, host of the Outlier’s Edge Podcast, and founder of the Trailblazer Collective. He coaches leaders who are creating something only they can make: a company, a body of work or a movement. Make a difference with your difference.
Work with Niiamah: 1:1 with Niiamah | World of Difference
Continue into Outlier’s Edge World:
Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Youtube | Website | Guild Community
Reader Interactions