Beth Anstandig - The Human Herd: Awakening Our Natural Leadership

The Human Herd

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE HUMAN HERD

In these challenging and disorientating times, Beth Anstandig is the person you want in the arena with you. Her smart insights, instinctual wisdom and life experiences are profound. Her book promises to be valuable for both our personal and professional lives. By encouraging us to pause, shell help us to be more in touch with the animal within and create the space we need to make sense of things and make smart decisions.

Alison van Diggelen , BBC Contributor Host of Fresh Dialogues

Beth Anstandigs work delivers the reader into the heart of Natural Leadership with ease and grace. Page after page she gently reawakens our innate understanding of what it means to be part of a community that shares a common mission. Here she has masterfully woven lessons from her life experience, her unbridled love of nature, and her academic training into a model that reminds us how to lead in an authentic, inspiring, and effective way. She paves the way for each of us to reconnect with our ability to build trust, safety, inspiration, and respect within our team. If you are interested in unearthing the natural leader within yourself, I highly recommend you take a deep breath, settle in, and read this book.

Maggie Merritt , Executive Director, Steinberg Institute

If you were a child who stared into animals eyes and knew they could speak to you, you were right. This book is for all of us who tried to talk to animals as children, because we knew they had something to teach us.

Sam Lamott , Podcast Host, How to Human Owner, Hello Humans

I wish Beth wrote this book years ago. Ive been on a deep dive into unravelling my stuff, and this book joins the dots of everything Ive been looking into. Beth brings her experience as a therapist and as a horsewoman and combines them into a book that will help a lot of people on their journey to discovering their true selves.

Warwick Schiller , Podcast Host, The Journey On

Well into my self-development journey, Beth has written the book that brings it all together for me. A lifelong animal owner and lover myself, Beth shines a light on why Im more myself with them than any human. She gives us a pathway to find our way back to our authentic selves with her engaging stories and practical tools and exercises.

Robyn Schiller , World Champion Equestrian

The moment my eyes fixated on the first word and my mind began to process the stories, I was immediately swept away on a journey full of sensory stimulation and deep introspection. Beths ability to seamlessly fuse narrative, descriptive and technical writing styles into this brilliant and practical masterpiece is striking. Beths experiences quickly become the readers experiences by very nature of the amount of colorful detail Beth provides. You feel as if you are in the moment with her. But even more captivating is Beths ability to draw the reader into a place of recollection of ones own moments of vulnerability, personal exploration, and spiritual growth. For anyone looking to lead with more conviction, authenticity, vulnerability, and empathy, this book will get you there. For anyone looking to better serve the people around you, this book will get you there. For anyone looking to discover your voice and show up as your most genuine and uninhibited self, this book will get you there. For anyone seeking a true awakening of your fullest leadership potential, turn the page and join Beth on the journey. The Human Herd will get you there.

Karrah Herring , Chief Equity Officer, State of Indiana Governor Eric J. Holcomb

For those of us who are communicators for a living, this is a must-read. We spend so much time stressing to put the right words together to tell people what we want them to know. But so, so, so often we forget about what people actually need to hear and how they need to hear it, especially when times are tough. As Beth reminds us, Our cities are crowded, our schedules are overbooked, our workplaces are stifling. These unforgiving elements take a toll and our inner animal retreats in order to protect itself. In a world full of noise, Beth looks us square in the eye and challenges us to strip down our manmade defenses to form better connections within ourselves and with others.

Megan Hakes , Crisis Communications Expert Founder, H.PR Strategies

This book will crack open your inner human-animal soul. Its an intimate look from a brilliant and transparent mind at how we can be our deepest selves, a roadmap set to poetry and words drawing out of oneness into something more alive: natural-born leadership! The first time through is gripping. It may seem like just reading about whats possible, and a rediscovery of self-awareness through relatable stories told beautifully enough so anyone can understand why these same lessons apply not just about leadership, but life.

Bryan Kramer , Forbes Columnist, CEO H2H, Podcast Host of Humanly Possible, TEDTalker

Natural Leadership has offered me both a focused lens in which to view the world as well as concrete tools that I can rely on and apply in any situation or relationship. The steps that Beth walks you through are immediately relevant and applicable in any life circumstance. But the learning she offers is not just intellectual. She weaves her personal experience with vivid imagery and story that renders a deep visceral resonance. From the first stories she shares, you sense a shared knowing. I attribute this to our mammal bodies and the collective experience that resides in our mammal DNA. But what is most compelling about Natural Leadership is Beth herself. She completely embodies Natural Leadership. Bearing witness to how she lives her life is the true testimony of the power of Natural Leadership.

Amy Hublou , M.A., M.F.T., Founder, Imagine That Farm

During these times when the world has become so disconnected, and the crucible of the pandemic has created energies that are rippling through our world, we must empower ourselves to refine our skills and reconnect to our Humanness. The Human Herd provides such an opportunity and indeed awakens us all to pay attention to the stirrings of our dormant selves. We know the work that needs to be done even as we fear it. As one willing to be willing, I continue to practice Natural Leadership in my personal and professional life. I have been reintroduced to the wilderness within and found the critical connection to my own humanity.

David P. Hott , Director of Operations, Loaves and Fishes

As someone with a lifelong involvement with horses, a lover of animals and nature, this book gives powerful insight and tools into how we as humans can tap into our animal bodies and awaken our authentic and Natural Leadership. Beth does a wonderful job at articulating how awareness within ourselves, others, and our environment can help us dig deeper into relationship and meaning. The stories helped me relate, the concepts brought it home, and the exercises created change. Utilizing the Natural Leadership model has helped me establish healthy boundaries with friends and family, helped me be a better manager by leveraging scope and feel within coaching relationships, and most importantly, helped me vocalize and connect with my needs.

Samantha Zorn , Program Facilitator for People Development, Google

So many of us are living life in the passenger seat. On autopilot. Beths work and this book is a call to arms to get in the drivers seatstop living life by default and live by design. Beth speaks to each of us of the need for self-preservation whilst also providing us with a manual for how to in a beautiful and deeply relatable way.

Kim Havens and Noa Ries , Co-founders of Kahilla

What profound words to compassionately nurture our internal natures. As a fellow rider and wounded healer, I can appreciate Beths parallels between the visceral experience of connection with nature and the clinical application of Natural Leadership to heal. A palatable explanation of neuroscience intertwined with the human experience,