Building INFLUENCE SHOW
WATCH EPISODE 4
SEAN SAYS
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
This is Episode 04 from Season 01 Education. Season 01 contains eight episodes featuring guests who work in education. Each episode features a single guest, looking at their personal lives and careers, considering their perspective as a leader and creator. These interviews are candid and unfiltered.
ABOUT SEAN BELLAMY
Sean is a Varkey Teaching ambassador and the founder of the Sands School in the United Kingdom. In 2016, Sean was nominated as one of the top 50 teachers in the world by the Varkey Foundation.
Sean teaches Psychology, Geography and History, mindfulness and meditation. As an Ashoka Change Leader, Sean works with the Ashoka Foundation to develop human scale and democratic practice throughout the UK and Europe. He is also a team member of the Wellbeing Project Higher Education Initiative working with ten global universities to introduce wellbeing to their major stakeholders.
SHOW NOTES
- It started with ghost stories, a remote coastal village and tragedies and just not knowing (02:41)
- I realised I was good at communication and so, in my mind, I began to form this idea that teaching would be a possibility (03:27)
- There are days when you are a genius and there are days when you are utterly rubbish…. It’s really about endless improvement (05:32)
- The weird thing about the lockdown is that it multiplied the range of work I was doing exponentially (08:34)
- Zoom and these online platforms are an amazing medium for the multiplication of effort … not just meeting but making things happen (09:49)
- When you’re working on these multiple projects, you are also establishing your future career so you’re also seduced by the idea of “Would this work?” and “Could this be my next job?” (12:24)
- Only the top 1% get to the best universities (in South Korea) and so everyone is chasing these qualifications (15:40)
- The thing that has helped me develop my profile is to use the various platforms that suit the platform (not try to use it against its will) (20:00)
- The way I market myself is purely through the story of my work and celebrating the story of the transformation of children… and maybe, the transformation of my colleagues (23:37)
- We need to work on these platforms with a moral compass (23:49)
- Five forms of networking: networks of collaboration, networks of support, networks of challenge, networks of infiltration and networks which are the supermarket shelves (waiting to be found) (25:55)
- It’s a mistake to try and grow them (your network) too fast. It doesn’t work and it’s a function of your ego. It works best when there are strong relationships within that network and it takes time to develop (28:40)
- The conflict between the ego and the function of your network (29:49)
- The epiphany after my liver transplant (32:10)
- It could be that the people you work with become your voice (32:54)
- Making decisions about who becomes part of my network: a lot of it is down to luck, fate and synchronicity (34:32)
- Daily practice Qi Gong (34:55), feeling centred and noticing how many moments of synchronicity happen (34:59)
- Present to the real name of the person in front of you (39:00)
- Encourage more people to look for the wisdom in young people and the way we do that is work with voice, listening and choice (41:52)
- Suicide rates on native American reservations are incredibly high for young people (42:22)
- The felt thought (when you say it, it moves you) (43:21)
- Everything I teach is the medium for transformation and self awareness and waking up (46:46)
- I tell ghost stories on school camps and it’s in those times that I test my skills (48:16)
- Find the flow through endless practice (51:21)