Episode 192: From Conditioning to Conscious Choice with guest, Subash CV

Choice usually sounds like a simple decision, but the more we coach leaders in real life, the more we see how messy it gets under pressure, noise, and competing priorities. Garry Schleifer sits down with ICF Master Certified Coach Subash, author of “From Conditioning to Conscious Choice,” to make a bold claim feel practical: choice is not an action. Choice is a state of awareness, and when awareness expands, better decisions start to emerge with less force.

We talk about Indic wisdom as a living school of thought that reaches beyond religious labels, then translate it into coaching moves you can use right away. Subash shares his “golden triangle” model for coach development: coaching skills, the business of coaching, and the deep self-work that builds real presence. You will hear specific awareness practices he relies on, from fitness and meditation to reflective journaling, mentoring, and even learning music as a discipline of attention. If you care about ICF-aligned coaching presence, this conversation keeps coming back to a simple reality: who we are is what we bring.

We also go deeper into karma and how it relates to coaching relationships and outcomes. Subash introduces “detached attachment,” a way to stay committed to the client and the process without becoming obsessed with results. From there we connect dharma to values-driven goals, explore servant leadership, and discuss mantra as the power of sound, silence, and pause in a coaching conversation. We close with a leadership arc that feels timely: moving from IQ to EQ to SQ, spiritual intelligence, as a grounded way to serve the larger system.

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Watch the full interview by clicking here. 

Find the full article here.

Learn more about Subash here.

For special offers, write to info@regalunlimited.com and use the code "CHOICE" 

Grab your free issue of choice Magazine here - https://choice-online.com/

Transcript

Welcome To Beyond The Page

Garry Schleifer 0:07

Welcome to Beyond the Page, the official podcast of choice, the magazine of professional coaching, where we bring you amazing insights and in-depth features that you just won't find anywhere else. I'm your host, Garry Schleifer, and I'm excited to expand your learning as we dive into the latest articles, have a chat with a brilliant author right here beside me, who is behind the article, and uncover the article, the learnings that are transforming the coaching world. When you get a chance, join our vibrant community of coaching professionals as we explore groundbreaking ideas, share expert tips and techniques, and make a real difference in our clients' lives. This is your go-to resource for all things coaching. But for now, let's dive into the podcast. In today's episode, I'm speaking with Master Certified Coach Sabash, who is the author of an article in our latest issue, The Power of Choice. Yes, finally. The article is entitled From Conditioning to Conscious Choice: How Indic Wisdom Elevates Empowering Coaching Conversations. A little bit about Sabash. As I said, he's an ICF Master Certified Coach. He also holds an MBA, and he's the co-founder of Regal Unlimited. A former corporate leader turned CXO coach and coach educator, he brings a distinctive blend of evidence-based coaching, presence work, and Indic wisdom to empower conscious choice and transformation. He has mentored more than 600 coaches worldwide. That's a lot. Thank you for your contribution. And supports leaders in navigating complexity with clarity, resilience, and purpose. Thank you for joining us for the podcast, Sabash.

Sabash CV 1:46

Thank you very much, Garry. And thanks to you and team. You're doing a great job with choice Magazine. I love what you do there. Thank you.

Garry Schleifer 1:55

Thank

Meet Subash And Regal Unlimited

Garry Schleifer 1:56

you. Thank you. And I want to ask, what's Regal Unlimited? What's is that your coaching? Is that leadership? What's that for?

Sabash CV 2:05

So Regal Unlimited is into leadership development through coaching, mentoring coaches, and bit of healing. Yeah, my wife, who is a partner, legal partner, she's also a certified healer. So we do a bit of healing. So yeah, that's what Regal Unlimited is and now where Regal comes from, we all are naturally regal. It's like you know, sugar has a natural taste of sweet. Similarly, we at the core, we are regal with unlimited potential. That's what we're trying to tap into.

Garry Schleifer 2:48

Very well said, and very true. Thank you for that reminder, too. And for our listeners and viewers, Sabash is reaching us today from India from his residence. So what inspired you to write for us at this time?

Sabash CV 3:04

So anything I get to reflect on Indic Wisdom is a topic I jump in. So since I subscribe to a magazine, doesn't offer to write, so I reached out saying that I can write something on Indic wisdom. And I don't know your team picked it up, gave me this opportunity, and thank you for that.

Garry Schleifer 3:28

Oh, you're

Defining Indic Wisdom For Coaches

Garry Schleifer 3:29

welcome. So you're gonna have to explain to me and our audience how would you define Indic wisdom?

Sabash CV 3:38

Great question. So India is blessed with what five to ten thousand years of history, right? And beyond that it is mythology. So there's a lot of wisdom that comes from our sages and saints. I know people identify this with say Hinduism as a religion. No, it is much deeper. It's a school of thought that we identify in Sanskrit, which used to be our original language as Sanatan Dharma. Sanatharma is righteousness, Sanatan is universe. So you know it's something that has evolved over centuries as a thought process, right? Very, very difficult to answer that question.

Garry Schleifer 4:26

Right? When you're trying to put together thousands of years of history and exactly, yeah. Well, you say it very well in the article and

Choice As Awareness Not Action

Garry Schleifer 4:35

you apply it very well. For example, and I'm gonna quote something. I was rereading it, of course, this morning, and Indic wisdom goes a step deeper. Choice is not an action, choice is a state of awareness. When awareness expands, choice emerges naturally. So that begs the question: how can coaches develop awareness?

Sabash CV 5:00

Yeah, great question. I follow a model called a golden triangle, which consists of the three angles, equilateral angle. By the way, triangle is considered to be the perfect structure. The base is coaching skills. So what I develop as a coaching skill with my training, mentoring, reflection practice. And for me, it was a lot of hard work after two decades in the corporate to transition from a marketing business PL role to something like coaching. So you know it's just about sharpening that coaching skill along the way. The other base triangle is the business side of coaching. See, I earn my bread and butter from coaching. I have a team to manage, I have bills to pay, I have a family to run. So the business of coaching is integral to the coaching skills. These are like two sides of a coin. But what is on top is is of great interest. Everyone knows about these two sides, right? Business and coaching skills. For me, that is about the deep work or the self-work that I need to do. Because coaching skills can only get me to a certain stage. Business side, the whole marketing can only get me to a certain stage. But what opens up unlimited potential and opportunity is the work that I do on myself. So, you know, one of my mentee coaches who was actually a practicing monk, he said the coachee, the client pays us for coaching, for the work that we do on ourselves. So, coaching was always self-work, right? So, and the outcome of that is awareness. Yeah, I'm just just leading you to the triangle to awareness. Now, to answer a question, it's what are those one, two, three things that I need to do so that I can develop my awareness, which would be very different from what you would like to do. Because we are wired differently, we come from different cultural backgrounds, we come from different cultural experiences, right? So, to that extent, what I do, what are the one, two, three things? And you know, if I can take the liberty of saying it's just not from this birth, if you believe in that, if you believe in the concept of rebirth, it's something that we have evolved at a sold stage. So for me, a couple of things that resonate for me deeply. Number one is what I do at a physical level, the fitness orientation that I bring in. Because unless at a body level I'm not fit, I can't radiate that energy. So for me, it is walking a bit of games and yoga. I'm not growing younger, so for me, now it's more like none of us are none of us are. As a youngster, I was very fond of sports and games. The second one is anything that is meditative, whatever practice that resonates for you, right? And but I feel it it's absolutely a no-brainer that meditative practices makes us more meditative. Being meditative is self-awareness, it's not meditating, it's not an action, it's being meditative. So for me, second is any meditative practice, and I do some amount of meditation and other practices. Number three, it what has helped me immensely is , you spoke about mentoring 600 plus coaches. It's been a fascinating journey, mentoring coaches, because they ask you the kind of questions that make you reflect. I'm forced to reflect, right? There is no escape and come back and build that muscle. So I think Mark Twain said you learn, practice, and teach, you get good at it, right? So a lot of mentoring has also helped me. Finally, again, this is something very personal. I'm a very bad singer, Garry. There is no singer in me.

Garry Schleifer 9:05

Welcome to the club, Sabash. So am I.

Sabash CV 9:08

Yeah, but I learned music, I learn vocal music, which is an Indian form of classical music, because the music is about maths, the process, and the science, and also an art for sure. So, these are some of the practices that makes me connect with within myself. Yeah, and of course, last but not the least, I'm famous or infamous for promoting this in a community that is reflective journaling, something that I discovered on this path. Just reflective journaling makes us so very reflective and deeply self-aware. This is some of the practices I resonate a lot, and I've recommended a lot of my friends and clients and mentees, coaches. They have found it valuable, but we still have to find out what works for you, what works for me.

Garry Schleifer 10:01

Yeah, exactly.

Sabash CV 10:03

Because we are unique, yeah.

Garry Schleifer 10:05

Well, you remind me of the part of your article for those that haven't read it yet and I quote, a coach's presence becomes a catalyst. When the coach is grounded, non-judgmental, and spacious, the client naturally accesses their own centered state and obviously increases awareness. But who you are is what you bring, maybe. Yeah. So yeah, thank you. So, you know, for our coach listeners is to remember to do your work because it's important for our clients, and I think a lot of us know that, but this is a great reminder. Yeah, thank you for that.

Karma And Detached Attachment In Coaching

Garry Schleifer 10:44

This is a favorite topic of a lot of people, but it's usually in joking format. But karma, it's integral to Indic wisdom. How would you describe it being connected to coaching?

Sabash CV 10:58

I can spend next one hour just talking about this. This is something that resonates a lot. I've kind of tried to understand deeply. One the first part of karma, it's not I believe this, okay and this is not superstition. This comes from my understanding of the concept. It's not by chance that we are meeting and having this conversation. There's some connection that brings us together. That is karma for me, right? Every client that comes to me, there is some connection, it's not accidental. I always say nothing is by chance, right? Everything is by choice. And I am so glad that you call your magazine choice, right? We all are choices that we're making. Yeah, what emerges out of an engagement is also partly client's karma, not just my karma, it's just not my effort. So if an engagement goes well, I'm grateful that in spite of me the engagement has gone well. Yeah. So sometimes, despite my best effort, despite making everything that I can, the engagement or a conversation may not go to my satisfaction or to the client's satisfaction. For me, that also is client karma. Now, this is not coming from a space of total detachment. Now, I use the phrase detached attachment. I am attached to the process, I am attached to the client, but I am not obsessed with the client, I am not obsessed with the outcome. No, if you have heard of our holy book, Bhagavad Gita, Gita talks about you have only responsibility for the action. You have no responsibility for the outcome. And you know, that's something that I constantly remind myself, and because that is collective karma, what emerges out of a conversation or an engagement depends on what the client brings to the table, what I bring to the table, and what the organization, the stakeholder brings to the table. And it is so liberating, it's so liberating that karmic angle gives me so much of liberation that I'm able to be fully present. And what then I'm curious what emerges in the conversation, right? At the same time, I'm not saying that I always tell my clients I come from a sales background, business P and L background. I am very particular about the actions that you take between the sessions, but still, if I'm reminded, if I'm reminding myself that I'm not attached to the outcome of the client, that is that is the client's choice. Yeah. How many client's choice is client's karma too? Does it make sense? Does it doesn't it?

Garry Schleifer 13:55

Yeah, very much, very much. You know, one of the things that really resonated with me was the beginning of this part of the conversation when you said being reflective of the karma. And right away I could see myself writing, why am I connected to this client? Why am I connected to whatever, right? Like a big why of sorts to just you know, just to leave an opening for what's possible, as opposed to like questions. It is not a question for the sake of questioning, but a question for the sake of seeking and seeking an opening, right?

Sabash CV 14:31

Beautifully said, yeah. No, I think we're not listening to understand, we are listening to reflect, we are listening to potential. At least that is effort. Are we all am I always listening to potential? No, I'm still working progress, and I'm very happy with that journey myself.

Garry Schleifer 14:51

Yes. Well, yeah, we're always on the journey. That's one of the reasons I do this is to keep learning and growing, and if you want to apply karma, I'm still here. There's a reason, right? 24 years later, I'm still publishing choice. Yeah, no, that's great. So let's go back and introduce a little bit of Indic wisdom and application.

Dharma Led Action And Serving Leadership

Garry Schleifer 15:16

So, what are the core elements of Indic wisdom that resonates for you as a CXO coach and also as a mentor coach?

Sabash CV 15:25

Yeah, thanks for that question. One, as I said earlier, my job ends with selfless action. Right? It's just not action, we call it karma or karam yog, that is the the yoga of action. So I have a responsibility to take action, right? And that action should be based on dharma. Dharma, you know, also uh very popular is righteousness. So if if my action is backed by dharma to the extent possible, right? I resonate a lot with John Whitmore, Sir John Whitmore's acronyms of you know smart, pure, and clear goal, right? So goal setting, as long as the goal is backed by righteousness or dharma, for me, something will resonate for the client and the client will move towards the action. The other thing that resonates a lot for me is and if there's a Sanskrit phrase that says we are born to serve. You know, it's a Sanskrit phrase which says we are born to serve. The body, the object the body is given to us to serve. Now that is what servant leadership is, the way we understand. So all leadership was always about servant leadership. So that is another thing that resonates deeply with me from an Indic wisdom. Karma we already discussed. Then about the mantra, right? Now again, the word mantra is used very, very shallowly in a day-to-day mantra can resonate a lot of energy, you know. The sound carries a lot of effect and energy. So if you are focusing on the right sound and the effect, which translate into a coaching conversation, the pause that I give, the resonance that I bring into the conversation deeply helps the client to reflect and move into action and awareness. So these are some of the core terms that I bring into my work. The last one is , I always encourage my clients and my coaches who may mentor to move from an IQ to EQ to SQ. We all know about IQ, thanks to the work of Daniel Goldman and others, we all are very familiar with EQ, whether it is in coaching or in leadership, but that that is not the end of it. We have to necessarily move to spiritual question, not social question, spiritual question, which includes social question so that we serve the larger community. And you know the chaos that we are in now, geopolitics or otherwise, I think it is more relevant today. So it's about moving from an IQ to EQ to SQ. That is another expression that I use you know very regularly in all our workshops and programs. Yes. Wow.

East West Coaching And Spiritual Labels

Garry Schleifer 18:34

So it begs the question, is a challenge to coach Western CXOs versus Eastern with Indic wisdom, or do they get it faster?

Sabash CV 18:51

Great question. Yeah, there is there is no difference, frankly. Why? Because the cultural nuances, the upbringing, the early stage experiences do matter because ultimately, this there is this ICF competency 7.1, which speaks about beliefs, biases, values, needs, all these words are mentioned that competency in the marker. So these do define who we are as a person, right? So there is a difference in the way we deal with a client in the west or east. But you know, I also come across clients or mentor coach, mentee coaches who say, you know, I'm not spiritual, I'm not religious. So there are people here also who are not religious and who are not resonate. But for me, my assumption comes from one of the things that I've learned from Indic wisdom that we all are spiritual beings on a human journey. We are not human beings on a spiritual journey, we are spiritual beings on a human journey. That resonates deeply with me on the coaching concept of the potential, maximizing potential that ICF defines. So there is no difference, there is no difference between East and West. And people, some people, including a couple of my friends who say that I'm not religious, I'm not spiritual. I find them most more spiritual than people who don't go to a temple or a church, right? So it's just a label, yeah.

Garry Schleifer 20:23

Yeah, so there's no difference. That's that would describe me too. I'm in that group. Oh very cool.

Reclaiming Authorship Through Conscious Choice

Garry Schleifer 20:32

I want to remind our listeners of a brilliant quote at the end of the article. In a world overflowing with complexity, noise, and pressure, this is a profound gift, the gift of conscious choice. When clients reclaim conscious choice, they don't just make better decisions, they reclaim authorship of their lives. Wow. That's powerful. Thank you.

Sabash CV 21:02

It's all a matter of choices, right? Yeah. Conscious decisions, it just becomes blissful. Absolutely.

Garry Schleifer 21:16

Yeah, totally. Thank you. Sabash, what would you like our audience to do as a result of the article in this conversation?

Sabash CV 21:24

My invitation is try to look at this deeply, and it's not just looking at India, Asia, or any other geography, because at the core, all all roads lead to one destination. This comes from centuries of wisdom. It's a fascinating school of thought worth exploring. And you know, every master who has walked, I mean, if you look at it that across geographies and religion and faith, all of them were great coaches. All of them are great coaches. Whether you look at Prophet, Jesus, Krishna, or Zarastra, every or Buddha, every religion, right? So there are more commonalities between these school of thoughts and diversity. Let us discover that. That is my message. Let us explore that.

Garry Schleifer 22:18

Thank you. Well, and thank you for writing for choice and for joining us for this podcast. Appreciate your wisdom on Indic wisdom.

Sabash CV 22:26

Thank you. Thank you, Garry. Once again, kudos to your team for such a wonderful work of managing this magazine.

Garry Schleifer 22:33

Thank you. Well, and I hope you write for us again on

How To Reach Subash

Garry Schleifer 22:36

another topic. Sabash, what's the best way to reach you?

Sabash CV 22:40

I'm more active on LinkedIn. So that's is very easy to find me, just Subash C V. Otherwise just drop me a mail, Subash@ RegalUnlimited, the firm's name. I'm reasonably active there too. I'm quite prompt.

Garry Schleifer 22:58

Okay. Yeah, and you're ahead of us on the time zone challenge, too. So what we send today, you'll answer before we wake up. Well, thanks again for joining us for this Beyond the Page episode.

Sabash CV 23:09

Thank you. Thank you very much for the opportunity.

Subscribe And Get Choice Magazine

Garry Schleifer 23:12

That's it for this beyond episode of Beyond the Page. For more episodes, subscribe via your favorite podcast app, most likely the one that got you here. If you're not a subscriber to choice and you're watching this video, you can sign up for your free digital issue by scanning the QR code in the top right hand corner of our screen. If you are in listen only mode and you're no longer driving or you've stopped the treadmill, go to choice- online.com and click the sign up now button. I'm Garry Schleifer. Enjoy the journey of mastery.