I'm Alex Avanth.

Spiritual Technologist, Ordained Monk, and Muay Thai Fighter.

I have spent half my life building a career first in corporate, then in my startups, and have found my path as a builder, technologist, and futurist, specifically aiding companies and people to adapt to the changing world with an emphasis on emerging technology and behavioral economics. On the personal side, I have spent the greater part of my life as an avid meditator and love philosophy; I hold an MBA and a degree in neuroscience, and at one point, I was also Ordained as a Theravada Buddhist monk.

While my peers might describe me as calm and collected, I would describe myself as someone who has struggled to keep it all together. I believe the world damaged my ability to be calm as I have worked with industries and cultures where I made money but at the expense of my mental well-being. In parallel, as social media emerged, I found myself comparing my life to others, further adding fuel to the rage of feeling behind and never good enough.

Every day I would struggle to outsmart, outperform and outearn others. One night it all came crashing down. On the verge of a breakdown, I finally understood that I would never be the smartest, richest, or most successful in the room, but I could choose to be the calmest. Since that night, I have strived to always keep calmness as my competitive advantage in life, for my decisions, and in trying to help others.

Read more about Alex at www.alexanderavanth.com

I'm Lisa Braun.

Sustainability Advocate, Vipassana Practitioner, and Yogi.

My earliest memories are from different corners of the world. Having had parents who worked in international development, I’ve been raised by cultures spanning the dark forests of Germany, the savannahs of Rwanda, and the sound of waves of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea. The biggest takeaway from my childhood is that peace is sacred, and calm is wealth.

As a young professional and an MSc in Sustainable Development, I’ve devoted my life to pursuing systematic well-being for our world and its living things. Today I work for the UN as a climate partnership consultant.

My career has been in enabling institutions and people to do good together through public policy and hands-on execution. This has taken me to work around southeast Asia, having had the opportunity to call Indonesia, the Philippines, and now Thailand my home. It is a blessing and a curse to choose to live an uprooted life. While others settled in, I’ve been pursuing what makes me at peace.

Outcalm became a tool to work with when trying to bring peace into the lives I care about. I could not put words for my ability to make others feel at ease and understood by sharing my presence with them. Combining Outcalm in my yoga practice, work, and relationships has transformed the way I live and allows me to be at home wherever I am.

Read more about Lisa at www.lisamariabraun.com