Realtor pairs mindfulness with business

LOVELAND — Eric Holsapple would love to look you in the eye and talk about how yoga changed his life, probably while he flashes the constant smile of a relaxed and happy man. But first, he wants to make something clear: He loves capitalism. 

Critics of his thinking, which he details in his new book, “Profit with Presence,” dismiss him as too “woo-woo,” in Holsapple’s words, and he gets it. Yoga led him to mindfulness, the subject of his book and the principle for how he operates as a broker and partner for LC Real Estate in Loveland. Mindfulness sounds like a table setter for philosophies about how money ruins us and how business is ruthless and how consumerism is out of control. But Holsapple doesn’t believe any of those things. Capitalism has been good to him. He just believes it’s much better when mindfulness is a part of it.

“Business has this thing where it’s mindfulness or profit,” Holsapple said. “But I think mindfulness is the missing ingredient in business.”

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Holsapple, in fact, sees business as a way through the anger displayed by so many of us these days, whether you’re on the left or the right. He believes business can embrace his philosophy. 

“Business is a miracle,” Holsapple said. “America is a melting pot, but that melting pot is business. It’s where so many different people find common ground for a common goal.

“Lack of civility is terrible for business. I want all the options open to me.”

Holsapple wrote the book because he realizes people will have to find their own path into mindfulness, the practice of focusing one’s awareness on the present moment. He found his after running the U.S. operations for an Australian real estate company. It was a terrific job for someone in his 20s, but he worked 24/7 and drank too much and ate even more to decompress. When he stepped on a scale in Boston during a business trip, the number shocked him into making changes. Yoga was a step toward that.  

Holsapple finds many ways to practice mindfulness, and he admits that his book is a little heavy in the later chapters because he wanted to challenge his readers once they get beyond the first steps. But much of what he does remains rooted in the beginning, including mediation, which allows him to work on focusing on the present. 

“Meditation can be two minutes at the start, and then you gradually increase that,” Holsapple said. “If you don’t have two minutes, you REALLY need this.” 

That kind of focus, he said, is good for business, so it confuses him when many believe mindfulness doesn’t have a place in business. Mindfulness also helps him understand and get along with co-workers or clients who irritate him, which is a good skill for any worker. 

“Disagreement is healthy,” Holsapple said, “and we can figure out what we agree on. We could have a fist fight, but that isn’t productive.”

Its lessons in the power of service can also be good for business, Holsapple said. He’s made contacts through his service on many boards. One of them led to the development of a new shopping center. 

“I didn’t do them for business purposes,” he said. “But the outcome led to opportunity. I hate to call that business strategy, but it is a good part of business practice. And what good will your business be if your community flounders?”

He’s brought mindfulness to LC Real Estate, and the culture has helped attract students he met through his days of teaching at Colorado State University. 

“It definitely played a role,” said Christopher Johnston, market analyst and commercial marketing manager for LC Real Estate, who’s learned to practice mindfulness during his ultrarunning. “I could tell it was a group of people who cared about each other.”

Holsapple, like many, does worry about the strong divisions in the U.S., but he has faith in business as much as mindfulness. 

‘The signs are all around us that we need to find our way again,” he said. “I think business is our biggest hope to get us out of what we are facing as a country.”