We were lucky to catch up with Steve Ware recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Steve, thanks for joining us today. One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?

The craziest bit about what I do now is that it was never planned. I never set out to be a mindfulness teacher! I hated (and still hate) the words mindfulness and meditation, they sound like BS, navel gazing – a giant waste of time.

But after a 20 year career at IBM I burned out, my sleep went from fantastic to dreadful, my anxiety levels from normal to constantly-high and I needed something.

A colleague said “Why don’t you try mindfulness, you seen the science? It’s unbelievable, and businesses like Google are using it now….”

I told them where they could put their mindfulness books and apps(!), but a part of me was curious, a part of me thought I should at least try this 2500+ year tradition to see if it did anything. I didn’t tell a soul aside from my wife, but I downloaded an app to see what this was about.

I practised for 10 days, and there was SOMETHING there, something that was tiny but tangible, seemingly insignificant but everything all at the same time. I was a tiny bit less anxious, I slept ever-so-slightly better, I was a bit less overwhelmed by work.

A couple of months later my colleagues came to me and said “What are you doing differently? You’re way calmer, more present, less reactive….”

When I told them, they asked “Can you teach us?” and these 4 words changed my life, as they ultimately led me to going to the University of Oxford to study mindfulness, and introducing & teaching the first (and only) HR-approved mindfulness programme in the whole of IBM.

The course was wildly successful – managers returned from long-term sick early as a direct result of the course, blood pressures returned to normal after a decade of hypertension, sleep was once again sound, and productivity went up massively. Senior leaders started making better decisions in the highest stakes situations, and the power of mindfulness in business well and truly revealed itself to us.

I lost my job in the pandemic of 2020, and decided that there was only one thing I wanted to dedicate the rest of my life to. Helping many employees as possible find more peace and quieten their minds. To fall in love with life again and to rediscover a peace they thought they’d lost forever.

Since leaving IBM I have worked with some of the biggest brands in the world (Salesforce, LinkedIn etc) as well as small and medium sized businesses. It’s not always easy but I love this job, but the strange thing is I would say that it found me, I didn’t find it.

Steve, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I think I covered all of this in the previous question?

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When I lost my job in the pandemic of 2020, IBM gave me the princely sum of £12k for 28 years’ service.

Not a King’s ransom, in fact it’s the statutory minimum amount they could’ve given me.

My friends were angry. How dare they treat you like this when you dedicated almost 30 years of your life to them.

“You must be fuming!” they said.

The answer was compliced.

To start with I was angry, of course, it’s not a lot of money for A LOT of work and years of service. But it forced me to re-evaluate my life – quickly – and take a decision on where I wanted things to go.

If they’d given me £80k I’d have taken a year off and achieved very little probably.

With £12k, bills to pay and the clock ticking ever more loudly in my ear, I sat and thought about what next.

It was very much head vs heart

Head said “Find another corporate job, regular salary, healthcare, pension etc”
Heart screamed “Can we do what we KNOW WE LOVE now please? Let’s give people the greatest give we can give them. The ability to reduce and manage their stress in this crazy world.”

Without mindfulness, my heart wouldn’t have been heard, let alone listened to.

My mindfulness practice allowed me to feel the fear and do it anyway. To step into the unknown, to live so far out of my comfort zone for months at a time that I’d forgotten what it looked this.

This was resilience, this was freeing. This was everything.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

My USP is me. There are thousands of mindfulness teachers everywhere you look, App Stores are filled with meditation apps, YouTube is bursting with guided practices.

So why hire me?

Cos I’ve been there and done it. I’m a wounded healer that people can relate to. In order to transform your life through mindfulness you have to see yourself in your teacher and trust the process cos it won’t always be easy.

My scepticism was immense to start with but I managed to get out of my own way JUST ENOUGH to try this incredible ‘thing’ we call mindfulness. So I welcome the naysayers, I welcome the cynics, I love the discussions.

I’m not here to convert anyone, I don’t even ask people to believe me, I just invite them to try it and see what’s true for them.

My best source of clients has been referrals, I also generate inbound leads through LinkedIn. I don’t pay to advertise anywhere.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.stevewaremindfulness.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-ware-mindfulness/