You're working hard. You're checking boxes. So why does it still feel like something's off? Toms Astahovskis shows leaders and teams how to find flow, and actually stay there.
GROWTH PILLAR: Leadership & Ops
WHO THIS IS FOR: SMB owners / Solopreneurs / Team leaders / Anyone who's productive on paper but drained in practice
WHAT THEY'LL GAIN: A practical framework for personal flow, team flow, and flow culture — plus the one daily question that shifts everything.
Toms Astahovskis helps leaders stop burning energy on the wrong things and start building systems where work actually flows.
He's a mindset and flow coach, digital nomad, and founder of Dream Accelerator Toms. Born in Latvia, he's worked as an electronics engineer, web developer, yoga teacher, and hostel manager, and built a coaching method that pulls from all of it. He calls it Tarot Coaching, and it gets to root causes fast.
In this episode, Toms breaks down flow at three levels. Personal flow is when you can get in the zone on your own. Interpersonal flow is staying in it when other people are around. And flow culture is when the whole team — the structure, the meetings, the feedback loops — is designed to support it instead of break it.
He covers the biggest myth about productivity: that pushing through is faster. It's not. A short pause before acting, he says, is almost always the more efficient move. He also shares why happiness is the clearest signal that flow is working — and why complaining is the clearest sign it isn't.
Toms also introduces his Flow Masters community: built for people who want flow as a lifestyle, not just a two-hour work sprint.
Key topics covered:
Connect with Toms:
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Next Steps
Bernie (00:22)
a question to the listener.
Why does your business keep moving forward, but you constantly feel drained and out of sync with your team? Our guest will break down why traditional productivity is burning out founders and teams and how shifting into flow changes everything. He'll explain how to gain personal flow without working at longer hours, how to create interpersonal flow so teams work with you, not against you, how leaders can build a flow culture that boosts performance without pressure.
This isn't about hustling harder. It's about aligning energy, focus, and people. So work feels lighter and results improve.
Our guest Tom's Astahovskis from Dream Accelerator Tom's.
He's known as the dream accelerator, Tom's, and he's a transformative coach who empowers leaders to unlock their superpowers and achieve peak performance. A digital nomad born in Latvia, Tom's brings a rich and diverse background to his work, holding a master's degree in electronics and experience as a freelance web developer, yoga teacher, and hostel manager.
from his expertise in life coaching, hypnotherapy and tarot readings, Tom's has developed his own unique system called Tarot Coaching, which combines these methods to deliver rapid transformative results. His holistic approach incorporates tools like gene keys and human design to help clients reach their goals.
Today's passion lies in sustainable productivity coaching, guiding others to harness the power of flow state for lasting success. He also speaks very good Spanish and, but only in the present tense because he didn't get into the grammar of it. I know that feeling. And he's also a returning Knack 4 Business podcast guest. Tom's welcome back and do you have a favorite quote or saying sir?
Toms (01:55)
my favorite thing is that when I started doing the Tarot readings, I actually didn't do it for telling future. I did it for getting idea how subconscious impacts us and not to buy the stuff I don't want to buy. So all I wanted is learn symbolism so I don't buy stuff that I don't want to because all the advertisements use symbolism.
Toms (02:17)
So that's my favorite thing.
Bernie (02:20)
You having seen that you've studied, you've gone from the electronics area and you studied electronics to coaching. That's quite the, not about face, but it's, that's a whole different level. know, it's electronics is more like, you know, pieces coming together, understand electricity, you know, components, architecture and structure. Coaching is the, you know, dealing with people and you know, sometimes we're not always, we're not always cut the same way from the same cloth.
We don't all become robotic. So what broke the system or the soul?
Toms (02:50)
So how I changed from electronics to life coaching, astrology, that's why I actually like these tools. Astrology explains it quite simply. My mind is in Virgo and it likes details and understanding how things work. And from my perspective, understanding how mobile phone works is exactly the same understanding how human mind works. So difference between
Electronics and coaching is none of the difference because in both cases, I still try to understand how the system works. It's just the subject system slightly changes. And how I got from electronics to coaching was simply after going in a internship in Japan, which is very far away from Latvia, where I'm from, I realized that I actually want to be outside of Latvia. I want to travel. I want to live, the world. And
As I started gradually going on the journey, first I was a web developer, then I went to the hostel because I wanted to, okay, I'm a web developer, freelance, but I need to get my clients. Where do I get clients with zero social skills? So it's like, me put them in social environment like hostel. So I put myself in a hostel and in a hostel I started doing yoga. And as I was doing yoga, I eventually discovered also coaching. it's like that was my journey and answer your question. Nothing really broke. just.
gradually went that way naturally.
Bernie (04:09)
Very nice. So productivity and flow. When I think of the word flow, if you're watching a river or a stream, it flows. And productivity, I think of a factory, a box is coming off a conveyor belt, if I oversimplify it.
How do you get that piece of productivity so that it is flow? Walk me around that picture because one is like a very mechanical thing and the other one has a graceful art to it. But yeah, it has the same outcome.
Toms (04:35)
Yeah, so many people have different definitions of what flow is, what does it mean, and the same thing for productivity. And purely from perspective of energy, let's say energy is a full-flow river. If you put a bunch of rocks in the river, then that water needs to kind of bend around, there's resistance, waves, and all kinds of disturbances happen. And it's probably not the best way how to construct a river with lots of objects in it and lots of turns and twists.
So what flow is literally having streamlined continuous flow of energy, in this case through human body, through mind, through emotions, through actions. And if there's any kind of disturbances, resistance or hesitation, let's say the same factory example. If factory stops working, one person stopped working or one machine suddenly stops working, that's like mind starting doubting itself for a while and then action is no longer fluid.
And factory works the best when it flows through the whole operations, through the all chain works in a harmonious way. The same thing for human error, whatever the task there is.
Toms (05:35)
So.
Toms (05:35)
That's what I see in my flow and productivity is the same thing, is just most efficient way of basically using energy that we have as humans.
Bernie (05:43)
You know, as you talked about it in the description of your story, being nomadic, is that you being the river as opposed to being the riverbed and you're just kind of going around the flow and just finding where the best fit is?
Toms (05:56)
Yeah, you could say that it's like when I realized that I can be anywhere in the world and I can choose my destinations and place where I work from. yeah, it's like, doesn't matter whether I make a port and allow sailors to come to me or I am the sailor and flow and explore different ports. In both cases, there's a flow of experiences. And I chose, okay, I actually want to see more
people and I'm more excited about the idea of sailing around instead of building a port and servicing sailors. That's just me.
Bernie (06:30)
That makes sense. So you've been many things. You've had many, many jobs. You've done yoga, hypnotherapy, a developer. How did you, how did you blend all these elements into one, into one, one package into one service in your nomadic life? And by the way, I think it's also cool because as you change location, right, you also pick up new things, right. And new understandings.
Toms (06:52)
Yeah.
Toms (06:52)
So
one thing I've noticed with travels and changing location is you meet different people with different traits. And the more you meet different people, the more you realize there are some things that are kind of same. There are certain patterns and certain traits that are universal amongst many people. And then different tools like yoga, like hypnotherapy, and then there's astrology and all these things. They're just different tools to show you the same system, human body, human experience, from different perspectives.
When it comes to converging into one method, for me it's always contextual. There needs to be some kind of outcome, some kind of target. And within that target, I can use tools. Like knife is just a knife. It doesn't have any meaning whatsoever. But once I put it in a context, slicing bread, making cakes, it suddenly has a use. And that's how I see these different tools. They're just tools. Developer.
maybe giving me idea like more like mechanical thinking frameworks, more, more of a frame of mind, how to see people, how to see patterns that there is cause and effect. And I can always find a cause and maybe the patience towards quirks of technology and human also have quirks. So kind of everything kind of fits in nicely as soon as there's an outcome or target. And it's like, okay, this is where, I want to get go. And how do I get there? And then
Sometimes I use some tools and sometimes I don't use other tools. So it's the same with the baking cake. Sometimes I don't need a knife to bake a cake. Like I may need to eating it but not for baking.
Bernie (08:19)
So when you're reaching out to help somebody with flow and we kind of covered what flow is.
How do they know they have a problem with flow? Is it just, you know, they're just feeling kind of cruddy? Things aren't going as expected. Is the expectations the issue as opposed to what the outcome is? What's the flag for them to go, you know, I should reach out to Toms.
Toms (08:39)
So.
Toms (08:40)
I've been struggling actually myself to define flow because there's so many definitions out there and there's no like one universal definition that says, okay, this is what flow is and this is what it's not. Like it's not that straightforward. However, what is curiously enough, because I speak with many people and sometimes I ask them, do you know what flow is? And often most of the times they would say, no, I have no clue what it is. Like, what is it like?
Because depending on the context, they may think different things like flow mechanics. So maybe they think about following intuition, like many of these ideas what it could be. But once I actually descriptively describe that like moments where you feel fully engaged, reality disappears, like watching a movie, like you're in a movie and like you forget everything else in your life. Do you have that experience? Yes, I have that experience. And then I asked, well,
Do you have sometimes when you have a deep conversation with a friend and then time flies and you just are so into conversation that nothing else exists. Do you have those experiences? They will say, yes. Well, then I say that's flow and that's the beauty of it. Everyone has experience of flow. And once you say these few things, they realize, yeah, I know what it is. And when people come to me is when they realize that, wait, I can be in flow in anything I do, even if it's something
I don't prefer to do like accounting for many people or taxes. You know, like anyone can get into a flow in any activity if they want to. if they need to do some, like if they need to do work, might as well do it in most productive way. So there's more time doing other stuff that you actually want to do. So regardless, whether you want to be more productive than things you actually enjoy doing, or you want to be more productive in things you don't necessarily enjoy as well, why not get over it in the fastest way?
And sometimes it's not about flow. It's per se, it's more like realizing it. You can automate, delegate, eliminate, or optimize the tasks you need to do. Because sometimes you actually don't need to do at all. And that's also some things that get discovered with coaching, just introspection. So that would be my short answer about what flow is. Everyone knows what it is. It's bringing it to a productive and useful case and realizing it could be a skill as well.
Bernie (10:47)
So we've talked about, you know, the person and I get the flow with the individual, but if you're working with a team or in a business, you know, then everybody else has, you know, we're the same yet we're not right. And so if you, if you're working for a company, you kind of know what the company does. You kind of know what the outcomes are supposed to look like. If you're working in a farm, you know,
It's a produce or livestock. If you're in a factory, it's the widget comes off the line, you it moves. You're part of the process. How do you, how do you find the flow? you look at it as a team process? Is it a kind of a design? This is how things should come together and flow. Cause you know, in, Japan, you know, they, have different, different views and how design should work. You know, if something, how do you always improve things?
And you know, that's, that's a design. That's not necessarily the people and the people now have to understand this is kind of the best way to do something versus the inner, the inside the person going, you know, okay, I got to do this change. If you're a solopreneur, you know, the Kaizen and you were all in one, but if it's you and 20 other people, you know, getting that flow, how do you address those two elements? Those, those two areas.
Toms (12:05)
Well, how I like to address it is make it simple and realizing that if it's a theme, it consists of individuals. So first and foremost, every single individual in the team must be able to get into flow. So it's addressing, can I do it on my own when I'm alone? So that's my, first base level and I call it personal flow. So when I'm on my own, I know what to do. Can I be in the flow? Like there are no distractions and I control every single aspect of myself, like my environment.
my thoughts, I'm in full control and first dealing with that part. And then once I'm good at being in flow on my own, it's okay, let me add some distractions, let me add some people around. And then it's interpersonal of course, like can I still be in flow when there's a chance that someone may talk to me, there's other people, other emotions. And then we master that part. And finally, I'm okay working on my own thing, on my own with other people around me.
then it goes into the culture and dynamics. And it's like, okay, is the leadership, is the company, is the structure, is the culture created in a way that it actually supports flow? And one of the things I noticed many companies are implementing is that they have so many meetings that people show up for, there's no input there. Like they have nothing to with the meeting. Like, and it's just a flow breaker for them. And then they have to...
Bernie (13:15)
and they have rich.
Toms (13:22)
spend an hour in a meeting where they have nothing to do, and then they need to spend 15 more minutes to remember what they need to do. So, and then once they got into the doing the thing that they need to do, they have an email. Now I have to answer the email because the company policy says you have to respond within a half an hour or so. That was how I would call this type of system, non-conductive flow. And that's the third level realizing is what needs to happen.
Toms (13:39)
So.
Toms (13:49)
to individuals so that they feel comfortable and connected to being in flow. So everything's contributing to creating an amplified flow instead of breaking.
Bernie (13:58)
So here's kind of a question, and I'm kind of doing a flip on this, on the flow. And I get why the flow is handy, because if you're in the flow, everything, you're not feeling resistance and you're not feeling anxiety or distress. But sometimes, you know, if you're doing, let's say weightlifting, let's say no pain, no gain. Right. And so is there an aspect of flow where you have to have a moment where
It's not working out well. Is it just not so much that you've done something wrong? For example, if I were to drive my car on a sunny summer day, it's not the same thing as when there's an ice storm, right? Because now I've got a whole different set of driving skills that are not every day as opposed to a nice sunny summer day. In the business side of the fence, is it healthy to have moments where
That's not working. Sit back, reflect, and then work it out. Or is it always, if you have no contrast, things won't show up.
Toms (14:50)
how I like to approach this idea, does it have to be a challenge? I don't think that's a good question to ask in the sense that, challenges come and happen. Like we don't need them, but they happen regardless. So do we really need them? I would say, no, we don't really need to create more challenges for ourselves. necessarily. However, the flow founder, Mikhail, Mik, chain, see me.
highly, cheeks only high, that to that, with a really crazy sermon. So he wrote the book about flow state. And in the book, he basically mentions that flow is where challenge meets scale. So most of the times, challenge is defined by environment, and there's not that much we can do with the challenge. As you said, like weather, I cannot control the weather, but I can control when I take my car out in that weather. I also can control other things. So basically,
Toms (15:19)
He
So.
Toms (15:38)
Challenge is there already. So it's not about what's healthy, what's not. The question is, what do I do with this challenge? Do I chunk it down? And obviously when challenge arrives, the most productive place is in a channel where it's not too stressful, but not too boring. So it's in the sweet spot in between. To answer your question, it's like, you always seek the flow. That's the outcome. So as you seek the flow, you know,
Toms (15:56)
So.
Toms (16:03)
what are the external challenges, what are internal challenges and match that to being that sweet spot. And obviously if you're driving in an ice storm then you might not be fully relaxed like a chill flow but you still are focused and aware to match your skills and relax and reflexes so you might be more like on edge but still you're in the flow. that's one of the things that it's really important for people to understand that
Flow is not like this one feeling and it's always the same. It's the fluidity of mind and ability to move in a harmony. That's the indication of flow. And it can happen when you're stressed. And you also mentioned about, do I have to have this stress feeling? Stress feeling is there regardless. Like even if you're full, you can have the feeling. The question is how centered and calm you remain as you feel those feelings because they were going to happen. You're going through a day, suddenly someone chokes at you.
Well, of course you feel the stress initially, but what's your reaction? If you're flow, then you realize it doesn't give me any danger. Someone's calling me name. What do I do now? So, and then you go with it. So yeah, that's my, so it's basically matching challenge versus skill and then acting accordingly and aiming for that flow. Adapting to environment instead of trying to convince us of I need to be in stress or no stress, like it doesn't work.
Toms (17:06)
.
Toms (17:19)
This is gonna happen.
Bernie (17:19)
So I think we kind of touched on it. What are some of the myths that people have about productivity?
Toms (17:25)
Hmm, that's about perfect.
think one of the main ones is that it takes longer and is less productive to get myself into a flow or train myself to be in flow than to push through on this one thing. It's basically making those small tiny exceptions that I know how to get this task done. I know how to get it done in a way.
and not necessarily looking for a flow way, flow-based way. It's a, know I can get it done. I can force myself, push myself, I push myself in a burnout. Like, or this, this, this kind of mindset is like, it's faster actually to, it's the best way to push myself instead of actually taking a break, maybe going for a walk, figuring out what needs to be done, why it needs to be done and doing flow-based ways. Because most of the times taking a short pause,
before acting is the most efficient way, even if it takes time out of the doing part. So I think that's the most biggest myth. Like, but people may not believe mentally, but in action, they actually act like they will believe that, now I need to push through, like, this is just one thing, like, and I'm gonna push through, that's the myth. That it's actually effective to do that, and it's actually not.
Bernie (18:33)
So there are small habits that you can do to always improve the flow. you know, it's sort of like, you know, like you're doing, let's say a weight training on our exercise or you're going to do competition sports. You know, it's training. don't, you don't become the expert in, in, in one hour, you know, or learning a new language. It takes practice to get perfection. Is there something you can do every day to get into that head space where personal flow improves?
Toms (18:59)
So.
Toms (18:59)
That's a good question because one of the things you need to be in the flow is have a clear outcome. So you need to know what you want to achieve because then you need to measure your progress. So that's part of the sequence of getting in the flow. And one of the very simplest hacks or habits you can have to make sure that you always know what you want is ask yourself, what do I want? Because most of the time is if I go throughout my day and start focusing too much on problems, I can wait.
So especially in programming and debugging, I can waste so much time on researching problems, understanding the cause and all these things, but eventually I need to start implementing the fix, the patch basically. And I can go on many tangents, especially in programming, there's so many tangents. I can solve this problem in five different ways. I need to choose one path and I can start implementing one path and halfway through I realize,
This is going to be longer than I expected. Maybe I need to retrace myself. If I constantly ask myself, what do I want? Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this small research here? Why am I doing these things? The more I ask myself, what do I want? The more I remember the things in a big picture and small picture. And just asking this one question, what do I want? What do I want? Will put person in a solution oriented mindset and remove all kinds of other junk that happens when I focus on problems or
Toms (19:51)
So.
Toms (20:15)
going to too many details or too broad mindset. So just having that vision is really, helpful.
Bernie (20:21)
So how long does it take a person to, typically, because again, the variable is the person, how long does it take them to find that flow if they're totally, not distraught, but they're totally, if things aren't going well, they're stressed, how long does it normally take for them to go from that state into the flow state where, just chill?
The old things will be challenging. Yes, you will, you will feel there's like the resistance if you're doing training. but at the same time, that's good. And now you just kind of, you're less stressed or distraught. How long does that cycle take to drift a person over from one lane to the next?
Toms (20:55)
It's a very interesting and almost philosophical question because...
I really truly believe that the same as you believe, so it shall be done unto you. So if I believe it takes me 15 minutes, there's, there's so many research like in this, you more like a mythical level of saying that the switch tasks, your brain needs 15 minutes to get adapted. And the question is, is it really true? Is it really true that it takes 15 minutes to switch? Sometimes it seems that way and sometimes it's not. What I find is the brain.
is extremely capable and it can shift in a split second. Like literally it takes split second to shift from being in a disempowered state, feeling stuck to feeling in a flow and finding your way around it. However, it may take time to get the whole system on board. And that's deeply individual based on so many variables that it's really unreasonable to say it takes 15 minutes, 20 minutes.
One rule of thumb that I believe may be true or universally is saying that emotions last 90 seconds. So emotional reaction in the body from creation to depletion lasts 90 seconds. So if there's any emotion lasting longer than 90 seconds, there's only one way how it can happen is that something's So something's feeding emotions, being recreated. That's how moods happen. Something's continuously creating that emotion.
Toms (22:12)
If be being recreated
Toms (22:19)
And that applies also to the flow. I may get into a flow in terms of my mind instantly, but I still have this baggage of emotions coming from all directions and God knows what's creating those emotions consciously and subconsciously. And it may take time to like fully remove them off my field and fully feel as I'm in the flow. But the actual decision to get the flow happens instantly. And then it's okay, how persistent am I and how disciplined am I to actually be able to
Toms (22:21)
So I.
Toms (22:46)
bring myself in a full being and really lose myself in activity, which is indication of flow. And yeah, if you believe it's gonna be 15 minutes, it's gonna be 15 minutes. But my experience is that sometimes it doesn't take at all. If I'm really drawn to activity, takes split second, like switching between tasks, split second. And sometimes I do take 15 minutes. It's more, how excited and how much do believe in an activity you want?
Things you're excited about takes no time. Things you don't want to have to do, usually takes a bit longer because there's a bit of resistance and by convincing yourself, do I really need a little taxes today? Maybe not. So that's how it works.
Bernie (23:21)
So in a team environment.
How do you know that you've had success with flow? that's part one. Part two then, how do you know that, you know, let's say it's sort like when I put my hand underneath the tap of water, is it hot or cold? Well, it's cold now, but I've turned on the hot water portion of that valve. It just hasn't achieved its peak state. So I have to put my hand back in within a few seconds. How do you know that, you know,
you're there and how do you kind of sense that you still are there? Do you test a month now with a team or two months or is it is it apparent?
Toms (23:57)
So.
Toms (23:57)
One of the key indicators of true flow is appreciation of the process. So people are genuinely happy. If the people are not genuinely happy doing the thing, they're not in flow. They cannot be in flow in that specific moment. And that's one of indicators. So for example, if the person is complaining, they cannot be happy at that moment. So obviously they're not in flow while they're complaining. So these small things like not smiling, having complaints, having kind of back talking, those are indicators that
Toms (24:04)
So.
Toms (24:25)
At that specific moment, they're not in a flow. They might be in a flow when they work, like their sales, for example. You are in a flow when you're doing sales, but what do you do in between? So you kind of, those are small indicators. And the more you spend time in flow, the more you want to flow also in between. And those are great indicators. The more happy you are, the more open and enjoying life you are, the more likely you are in the flow. Obviously you can be happy and...
not necessarily be in flow or you are in flow but not in the right direction, which is also a very important thing like I can be in flow but my flow goes in not the same direction as company and then there's resistance and yes I'm in a flow individually but it's not in harmony and in same place where a company goes and then then of course you notice there's again lack of fulfillment, resistance, maybe resentment and that shows up so anything negative showing up
is the best indicator and the best way how to get them is just simply talk with people like talk with people and ask them how do you feel what's happening and Those would be the simple things anyone can do
Bernie (25:23)
It's interesting the flow of the people. It were I'm thinking of in some businesses you'll have a say you can have the accountant, you can have the marketing person who does artwork, you can have the guy on the factory floor during production. Each has their kind of their own flow, their own way of flowing, which might be a best way to describe it.
together, you know, there's a reason why that you and I would not love doing tax returns. It ain't our jam, so to speak. Not that we couldn't do it, but just, you yeah, that's not me. And other people, that's their sweet spot. And nothing wrong with it. Absolutely nothing wrong with it. How do you manage the differentials between people that
You know, some are extremely detail oriented, some are more fluid, you know, it requires a different process and different thought process. I didn't want to take anything away from any one group because sometimes they look at each other going, you just do that. You're either too rigid or you're too flexible. How do you manage? Cause if you're getting the team together, you need these different resources and these different flavors.
How do you make sure that their flow, each of them has that flow that comes in, but at the same time, their persona, their happiness quotient of what they do is still intact?
Toms (26:40)
Well, it comes back to the same thing I mentioned before, the vision. But basically, if I as an individual and company know my place and contribution to the company, and I know that I'm going in, let's say I'm building a, let's say, amazing hotel, like I'm building a hotel building. And I know that I'm a manager of place, I need to hire people. And then there's the janitors and there's cleaning ladies and there's a kitchen and there's so many things happening in the hotel.
Toms (27:06)
So.
Toms (27:07)
How
do I make sure that everyone's doing well? And I believe there was a book, I forgot the name of it, which was going in a similar direction. And literally is about selling the vision, realizing that my place is really important as a key aspect. And if I know how other people fit into the picture, then it's easy for me to interact with them in a harmonious way. Because I know for me to do my job best, I need to make sure that other people also do their job best. I know how it fits into like a puzzle, basically.
You can see the whole picture in puzzle only when the old pieces are in and all only when all pieces are fitting together well. And the same thing happens with people. Once I know what's the picture we're building, the vision, where are we going? And once I know how other people helped me to get there because I want to get there as well. Like I want to be part of this amazing journey in a hotel. It's really selling on that vision and realizing this is your place. This is your contribution. This is the other people contribution and you need everyone.
Toms (27:52)
So
Toms (28:02)
to get there in the most harmonious and flow-based way. It's usually that, is helping people remember, realize, and contribute towards that bigger vision. Everyone wants to be of something bigger. Every religion will know you that. Everyone wants to be a part of something bigger. And that's kind of one of the things that human beings have, and just allowing people to have that.
Bernie (28:24)
So what's the process for an individual versus a team to get that flow? what do you do? You you sit down with them.
You know, mahog what? Like, I say that kind of humorously off hand, but what is the process? How do you initiate this? And then how do you maintain this so that, know, if they get in 15 minutes, it's going to be a short conversation. But if it's, you know, if it's going to take longer because there's ingrained habits that are jamming the person up or the company up, how do you engage them?
Toms (28:52)
So.
Toms (28:53)
Yeah, depends on which level and what's the context. But generally speaking, it's just we have a checklist of flow indicators and we go step by step by step and we check them. Like, is there a vision? Is it clear? Like, just making sure that everyone has the same understanding of what is expected of them, that they know exactly what's the outcome, that they're having reliable feedback, that feedback is coming frequently enough for them to see that if they're doing correctly or wrong,
And basically going through all the flow indicators and checking if they're present or not on an individual level and team level and just switching and through conversation, like it's simple conversation and seeing how aligned there is in a specific nuanced task or as a whole. Yeah, depends on them. I usually work on a outcome base. basically once I have an outcome to achieve, then it's evident, okay, is this thing that we're contributing towards outcome or not? That is easy to say.
Is it moving as fast or slow? There may be five things. Which of them move faster? Tell me the goal, tell me the vision, and then everything is measurable against that vision. So basically that's how it works.
Toms (29:49)
So.
Bernie (29:57)
In the beginning, we talked about gene keys, human design and tarot coaching. So how do you bring this together? How do you explain these are the three elements that your tools that you're utilizing to help the people? It's sort of like, you know, here's the medicine. What does the medicine do? Right? Like, you know, when you go to see a doctor,
Well, that'll make you less hungry, that'll make you more awake, whatever the case might be. How do these things help the person? Not even so much help them. do you explain it to them so that they understand what's happening? So they get in the flow of the results.
Toms (30:29)
So actually I don't really need to explain the tools because tools are just tools and there people don't care about tools at all. They only care about is what do I want and how do I get it? And that's always the context I use any of these tools. It's like, okay, we're here right now having conversation, recording a podcast and we have a certain outcome. And the question is, why are we not having that certain outcome? And then something usually comes up and for me,
The chosen tools is fairly intuitive. Like, yeah, I may use tarot cards or I may not. I may use astrology or I may not. So these are just tools. Like, I use them on need-to-know basis. And if the tool works, amazing. But the most important thing is that they're just tools. And...
They are tools to reveal awareness. So they're tools that give you awareness of the problem and solution. So on their own, they're nothing. They have no value whatsoever until they're being used in specific context for a specific outcome. Then they have a value and a meaning. And their value is certain systems, certain structures that allow, guide the client through a journey, but they get awareness in a specific way
Toms (31:29)
using
Toms (31:38)
For example, in astrology, you have 12 zodiacs and 12 houses and many, many planets. And you have a system to guide people to get answers in a more specific way. And there's so many patterns that are really helpful. But at the end of the day, the value comes from taking action on that awareness. So that's the place of the tool. The tool is just allowing to have that deeper, faster connection with subconscious, the things that I couldn't even think of asking.
Especially in tower sessions, it's like once you see those deep symbolism, they just speak so loudly that things come up that like in a almost like a therapy session or psycho analysis, things just show up so fast, so vividly that I couldn't be able to ask a person from private life to go that depth to address it because business problem could be caused by some kind of personal issues and they personal issues usually affect the business performance as well.
And if I purely look at the business and don't touch their personal life, I may not get to the solution fast. But if I'm using these tools, usually these things come up really fast. So that's how I use them to accelerate the process. So people share the things they need to share. So I can address the causes that need to be addressed.
Bernie (32:48)
One thing we haven't touched on in our conversation yet is like, I get the flow piece, but also it's, cause it's, it's a very holistic, view, all right. Be in flow, but diet, sleep, exercise, are these other elements that come into play too? So the person is not sleeping well is always hangry, not hungry, but hangry.
you know, are these other elements that that feed into being able to get in that flow?
Toms (33:13)
Yeah, definitely. Like I just said, everything is connected. Like you cannot take out one piece of equation and expect it to work like in a puzzle piece. It's more about understanding as we go through the process is the leverage point or the impact. Like how much of all the variables I have because there's infinite variables, sleep, diet, relationships, communication, traffic, air quality.
Even how often you take all the trash, maybe there's smells around, like there's so many things that affect human body and perception that it's impossible to define all of them and no like complete system to say, these are the only things that you need to pay attention to. I would say it's almost impossible to create that kind of system unless you create some kind of structure that everything maps out of five things and then it's doable. But then at the end day,
It's everything impacts everything. The question is, what are the few things that really impact at this moment? And sometimes, yeah, sleep is important. If you're not sleeping enough, then fix that before we go into the mindset things or fix sleep before we go and try to figure out what's wrong with the relationship because maybe there's nothing wrong with the relationship. You just haven't slept enough and you're just, as you said, So these are the kind of things like when you look at the thing,
And you truly answer yourself, you already know it within like, it's just that self honesty is the key. And then you want to like, okay, out of all the things which are the most contributing towards the situation here, and then you know, honestly.
Bernie (34:41)
So a couple of things, because we're kind of coming closer to the end here. If someone's listening feels productive but exhausted, what's the first step they should take today to start pointing themselves in the right direction?
Toms (34:53)
So.
Toms (34:53)
First is realizing that exhaustion doesn't need to be there and something caused it. So exhaustion is in a sense unnatural because in flow everything charges you up. You feel more energy after the flow and if you feel tired the flow leads you towards the rest and recovery. So that's natural part of the flow. It's not like I naturally feel like I need to take a nap. That's part of the flow. And it's realizing that exhaustion
doesn't need to be there and it can be fixed. And then being honest, like where are you not, where you're draining yourself because there's always a draining cause and where you're not allowing yourself to rest and recover. So if these two things are addressed, then person has swift recovery. And if they're not addressed properly, then they continue draining themselves or does not have as fast recovery as they would like because yeah, fix the draining and fix the recovery. Simple.
Bernie (35:46)
Perfect. You have something that's on the go. You have a program, a Flow Masters Community. What's that all about?
Toms (35:53)
So.
Toms (35:53)
Basically.
It's easy to get in flow on your own. Once you basically do a checklist, the magic happens when you have many people in flow coming together for the same. It's the group effect that I think it was wise as a Superman that I read the best by, by Steven Kotler, literally when you have people coming together for the same cause, the growth.
Toms (36:04)
common cause.
Toms (36:18)
learning and flow acceleration is the most magical thing and things that you think is are impossible suddenly become possible. And that's what I'm building is that container for people who love flow to come together and cultivate flow as a lifestyle instead of something that, okay, let me flip on flow for two hours as I'm programming, doing my work. And then rest of the day, I don't know what's happening.
I remember I was working with a client and I asked them like, when do you have the most flow? Well, when we have deadlines, like when we have a strong deadline, we just crank ourselves with coffee and then we go in the flow for a few hours or maybe a few days and then that's it. Like, but what do you do after? And that's what community is about, to realize that we don't have to crank ourselves up for coffee for a few days. We can have sustainable flow throughout the whole life. That's what community is about, bringing people together for that.
Bernie (37:11)
It sounds like balance is the key to the whole thing. Everything in balance.
Toms (37:17)
is an interesting thing because you can have balance and usually what I say about balance is when you go into the acro yoga basically two people put their bodies together to create crazy shapes and every person can be out of balance on their own but as a shape they're in balance so single piece out of balance but as a group they're in balance in that sense you need balance but you can always have
Toms (37:41)
So.
Toms (37:46)
a counterbalance that creates a balance within you as a structure. What is more, like more precise is harmony. There's always needs to be harmony within that means I'm not falling out. So I feel safe in this container where it's a team, a group. So yeah, it's about creating harmony.
Toms (37:49)
So.
Bernie (38:02)
Tom, if someone wants to reach out to you and get your services, you know, become in the flow, how do they reach you?
Toms (38:09)
So.
Toms (38:09)
website, Instagram or LinkedIn. have a website, thomasastokowskis.com and Instagram, same name, basically search my name on Google and you should find my contacts. That's probably the easiest way.
Bernie (38:20)
for the Flowmasters community, how do they find you there? Same off your website?
Toms (38:25)
So.
Toms (38:26)
There are links on my website and there's like TomsAstahovskis .com slash flow-masters. So yeah, it's available also link in my bio. So once they find me anywhere, there'll be links to community either from my website or from link in bio in IG or in LinkedIn. So it's pretty straightforward.
Bernie (38:45)
Tom, I want to say thank you so much for being a guest today and coming back. really appreciate it having this dialogue. It's enlightening. I want to say thank you to the Mac for Business listeners because if this is something you resonate with, reach out to Tom's. It's not just from books alone that he learned all this, but it's by actually going through the hard lessons and resetting and figuring things out. If you need to figure things out before you burn out, reach out to Tom's.