By Lori Saitz
5
2626 ratings
The podcast currently has 217 episodes available.
When I was a kid, I remember having Thanksgiving with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
As an adult, there have been years where my husband and I spent Thanksgiving with just my mom or with a small group of friends.
In the most recent past years, before last year, it’s been having dinner with just one or two friends.
My point is, not everyone has a big dinner to go to - and that’s ok.
You’re not “less than” if you don’t.
And at the same time, it can feel lonely.
If this is your situation, you’ve got a few choices here.
One, you can figure out a way to alter your situation. Can you take the initiative to invite some others together and create an impromptu gathering?
Or can you volunteer somewhere you can make a difference?
Another choice is to find the good in being alone.
As you can see, there are many ways you can go about this.
Before you embark on today’s adventure, wherever it takes you, give yourself the gift of tuning in to this special episode and discovering for yourself:
✅ Why gratitude is a practice, not a platitude
✅ How connection is the remedy for loneliness
✅ What it truly means to show up and be present - beyond the mental and emotional aspects
✅ A roadmap to help you shift your perspective so you can also shift your entire energy and outlook
✅ How to hear, and trust, your inner voice and what it's telling you
✅ And much, much more packed into this powerful episode!
Resources:
Invitation from Lori:
Let me ask you, if there was a simple way to reclaim your peace of mind and not feel so frazzled, would you want to know what it is? Enter the “10 Proven Habits Top Leaders Use to Stay Calm and Focused Every Day” checklist — your quick guide to creating calm, intentional days.
These practices are so incredibly simple, you'll probably question their effectiveness. Like, how could just doing THAT alleviate my stress?!
But take my word - and all the science and research that's been done on these methods - implementing even ONE of these strategies will absolutely change your ability to manage your energy, embrace change, and foster resilience. PLUS, you want to cope with the distractions in your mind so you can stay focused and achieve your desired results? THIS checklist will give you the direction to do that.
Oh, and lastly, it isn't about perfection or doing ALL the things all at once. It’s about taking each small step toward progress, one at a time, consistently. Consistency over perfection wins every time. You deserve a life where you can breathe easy and not feel like a gorilla is standing on your chest all the time.
When you’re ready to say F*ck Being Fine, this guide is the place to start and it will give you new perspectives that can change your life starting today!
Go to https://zenrabbit.com right now to download it for free.
It’s time to step out of the clusterf*ck... of fear, regret, and disappointment, and into a place of peace, contentment – and gratitude in a way you’ve never seen it before, up until now!
When it feels like success and fulfillment continue to elude you even when you think you’re doing all the right things and making the right moves, it can be a real mindf*ck.
What’s holding you back? What’s the block? Why is it always one step forward, two steps back?
Todd Bertsch wrestled with this question for years.
He grew up in the 1970s and 1980s in a lower middle-class family where they didn’t really discuss their values or have a lot of those poignant teaching moments you saw in the popular TV sitcoms at the time.
Todd learned by watching and observing, and what he picked up was good enough: the value of hard work from parents who had multiple jobs and side-hustles, the value of inclusion from living in an ethnically mixed neighborhood, and the value of teamwork from playing sports. When he wanted something, he went to work and made the money to buy it.
These same values carried him into early adulthood, where he worked his way through college as a janitor and graduated with honors, worked in jobs involving marketing, graphic design, web development, and other pursuits at the height of the tech boom. Then he decided it was time to put all that to good use and start his own business. Today, Todd is a successful entrepreneur and podcast host with a great family, and everything’s fine. Check out his website to learn more. The End. Now, let’s bring Todd on and get started with the interview.
Right? WRONG!
Todd struggled through that path much more than he needed to because everything was NOT fine. Remember, Fine is a 4-Letter Word.
Underneath all that, Todd had a hell of a temper. It showed up when he constantly got ejected from sports games, so much so he became “famous” in his town for being red-carded at soccer more than any kid in the whole league. In his 20s, he lived in a house that was basically a drug den, until he got in a really bad argument with two guys who beat the f*ck out of him! Looking back at some of his interactions at companies he worked for, he says that if the person he was back then worked for him, he’d have fired his ass!
And then it all changed. In a moment, when you meet Todd, you’ll find out that it wasn’t really some dramatic shift in who he was or how he did life, but more a decision not to be so trigger-tempered. You’ll discover what support systems he relied upon, what inspired and motivated him, and how the practice of Positive Intelligence not only improved his results, but enabled him to mentor others.
Todd’s hype song is “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor.
Resources:
Invitation from Lori:
Let me ask you, if there was a simple way to reclaim your peace of mind and not feel so frazzled, would you want to know what it is? Enter the “10 Proven Habits Top Leaders Use to Stay Calm and Focused Every Day” checklist — your quick guide to creating calm, intentional days.
These practices are so incredibly simple, you'll probably question their effectiveness. Like, how could just doing THAT alleviate my stress?!
But take my word - and all the science and research that's been done on these methods - implementing even ONE of these strategies will absolutely change your ability to manage your energy, embrace change, and foster resilience. PLUS, you want to cope with the distractions in your mind so you can stay focused and achieve your desired results? THIS checklist will give you the direction to do that.
Oh, and lastly, it isn't about perfection or doing ALL the things all at once. It’s about taking each small step toward progress, one at a time, consistently. Consistency over perfection wins every time. You deserve a life where you can breathe easy and not feel like a gorilla is standing on your chest all the time.
When you’re ready to say F*ck Being Fine, this guide is the place to start and it will give you new perspectives that can change your life starting today!
Go to https://zenrabbit.com right now to download it for free.
And now, let’s meet Todd. He looks like such a mellow, easygoing guy… but I see in his gaze a determined glint… that eye of the tiger!
As humans, we’re designed for interdependence – we cannot go it alone. We’re designed to be part of networks and complement each other’s journeys. The title of this episode is one of the reasons I started this podcast – to help listeners know they’re not alone in their feelings and life journey.
But what happens when, due to your levels of sensitivity and empathy, you become so much in service to the feelings and needs of others that not only does it hold you back, but it holds others back?
Scott Hackman, growing up as a highly sensitive child before terms like “empath” entered the vernacular, thought everything was fine, all things considered, before his own value system hit him like a ton of bricks flying in out of nowhere.
Growing up, he learned the value of service toward others, more by having it modeled by his family and what he gleaned on the surface from religion than someone sitting down and explaining it to him.
This carried Scott through several iterations of his journey – his marriage, his time working in religious ministry, when he was involved in the family business selling coffee, and then to his work with entrepreneurs helping them design succession and saleability plans in their businesses.
Overall, he seemed to be on a journey of growth and everything seemed fine.
But Fine is a 4-Letter Word.
Along with having learned the value of service, Scott was also exposed to traumas as a result of unspoken and not consciously acknowledged generational patterns. All that service actually took the form of people-pleasing, and it became more of a survival skill. In his early 30s, Scott found himself admitted to inpatient psych due to suicidal ideation.
As I said… it seemed to come out of nowhere like a ton of bricks.
In a moment, when you meet Scott, you’ll discover his fascinating learning journey toward a new level of self-actualization that he didn’t know existed – that in fact, many don’t know exists.
Among other things, you’ll learn about the difference between a recovery mindset and a growth mindset, and how these things intertwine. You’ll also see that it’s possible to find good things in bad situations – to essentially go back and rewrite chapters of your life so the story serves you, now and in the future.
And, you’ll discover why Scott says that he and his wife, who he’s been with the whole time, have so far had at least four marriages.
This will amaze you.
Scott’s hype songs are listed on his Spotify playlist, “You’re Not Alone”.
Resources:
Invitation from Lori:
Let me ask you, if there was a simple way to reclaim your peace of mind and not feel so frazzled, would you want to know what it is? Enter the “10 Proven Habits Top Leaders Use to Stay Calm and Focused Every Day” checklist — your quick guide to creating calm, intentional days.
These practices are so incredibly simple, you'll probably question their effectiveness. Like, how could just doing THAT alleviate my stress?!
But take my word - and all the science and research that's been done on these methods - implementing even ONE of these strategies will absolutely change your ability to manage your energy, embrace change, and foster resilience. PLUS, you want to cope with the distractions in your mind so you can stay focused and achieve your desired results? THIS checklist will give you the direction to do that.
Oh, and lastly, it isn't about perfection or doing ALL the things all at once. It’s about taking each small step toward progress, one at a time, consistently. Consistency over perfection wins every time. You deserve a life where you can breathe easy and not feel like a gorilla is standing on your chest all the time.
When you’re ready to say F*ck Being Fine, this guide is the place to start and it will give you new perspectives that can change your life starting today!
Go to https://zenrabbit.com right now to download it for free.
So now, let’s meet Scott. As I see him from a distance, he looks very energetic and well-rested – what’s his secret?
In a world where women are told to have it all, do it all, and be it all, the reality they face while actually trying to do these things is far more complex.
The pay gap looms large – over the span of a career, it takes 132 years to close – while the confidence gap, the leadership gap, and the broken rung in the corporate ladder persist.
Erica Anderson Rooney has faced all these challenges intimately, personally, and head-on as she’s climbed the ranks to the C-suite while raising a family. But wait – there’s more.
Erica grew up as the daughter of parents who divorced when she was very young. Both were loving parents, and they lived close to each other so that she could spend half the week with her dad and half the week with her mom.
Having to live in two different households, each with different expectations, rules, and ways of doing things, led Erica to become a chameleon and put other people first in order to get by as smoothly as possible and avoid conflict and friction.
Three of her values were learned from her mom. Go to school and get good grades so you can have a good-paying job and financial independence was the first. This led to the second, which was to never be in a situation where you have to depend on a man – a fitting lesson given the circumstances. The third was to be a good person, be kind, be generous, and always show up and do the right thing.
These values carried Erica through childhood and college, into her first career, and into her marriage. Everything seemed fine, because of a fourth lesson she had learned – but that was the problem, as Fine is a 4-Letter Word.
See, the fourth lesson was that alcohol solves a lot of problems, whether it makes you feel happier, helps you forget why you’re sad, or loosens your inhibitions. Or helps you “ease up” when trying to be a chameleon has you grinding against your authentic self.
By dulling the edge, Erica missed that she wasn’t in touch with her authenticity. She’d go to a concert and say “this is great” in order to please whomever invited her, even if she hated the music. But sometimes, she would have a glass of wine to cope with houseguests she didn’t want to deal with. A glass would turn into two, then three – then a whole bottle. She’d wake up not knowing what happened or what she said, or sensing tension with her husband and not even knowing what they had fought about the night before.
In a moment, when you meet Erica, you’ll hear about the path to claiming her power to allow her authenticity to come through.
Erica’s hype song is "Owl City" by Verge ft. Aloe Blacc.
Resources:
Invitation from Lori:
Let me ask you, if there was a simple way to reclaim your peace of mind and not feel so frazzled, would you want to know what it is? Enter the “10 Proven Habits Top Leaders Use to Stay Calm and Focused Every Day” checklist — your quick guide to creating calm, intentional days.
These practices are so incredibly simple, you'll probably question their effectiveness. Like, how could just doing THAT alleviate my stress?!
But take my word - and all the science and research that's been done on these methods - implementing even ONE of these strategies will absolutely change your ability to manage your energy, embrace change, and foster resilience. PLUS, you want to cope with the distractions in your mind so you can stay focused and achieve your desired results? THIS checklist will give you the direction to do that.
Oh, and lastly, it isn't about perfection or doing ALL the things all at once. It’s about taking each small step toward progress, one at a time, consistently. Consistency over perfection wins every time. You deserve a life where you can breathe easy and not feel like a gorilla is standing on your chest all the time.
When you’re ready to say F*ck Being Fine, this guide is the place to start and it will give you new perspectives that can change your life starting today!
Go to https://zenrabbit.com right now to download it for free.
Now, let’s meet Erica. She’s tending to a succulent plant that has grown and spawned other succulents. This ought to be interesting!
Imagine you’re less than 30 years old, and so tired you’re afraid to drive because you might fall asleep at the wheel and cause an accident.
Picture the frustration of seeing doctor after doctor after doctor, only to be told you’re not sick, just depressed.
Then, after getting so many wrong answers, you conclude you have a brain tumor, because that seems to be the only possibility left.
And while all this is going on, you’re also in a toxic relationship that, as part of the final scene, has you seeking a Protection from Abuse Order.
This was Anne Desjardins’ journey to health.
She was raised in a traditional, loving family environment that emphasized caring for others and continuous self-improvement. Her father was an ER physician. Her grandfathers and uncles were doctors. Her parents also had what today we would call side hustles. All of them listened to cassette tapes about business success, meaning Anne heard a lot of these too and they left an imprint.
Anne went to college for international business, but left after one year because it wasn’t for her. She already knew that following her family’s path and becoming a doctor wasn’t for her either, since she passes out at the very sight of blood. When she did return to college, her value of helping others led her into a liberal arts curriculum. She graduated and began a promising career in sales. She fell in love. It was still early in the game, but everything seemed fine.
But you know, Fine is a 4-Letter Word.
Right around the time of her breakup, she saw a massage therapist who told Anne, “your soul is dying”. Pretty soon, it felt like her body was dying too. Along with memory loss, she suffered from night sweats, hives, and insomnia. Even her dental hygienist noticed something was unusual about the plaque on her teeth. Desperate for sleep, she began drinking vodka straight out of the bottle. Numerous doctors and specialists tried, but failed, to come up with answers.
Until finally she got the answer: Lyme Disease.
The seven years of struggle to finally get the answer she needed touched off a seven-year battle to get healthy again. In a way it was poignant that she had come to believe she was dying of brain cancer, only to find out she was bitten by a bug and the cure was a regimen of antibiotic treatments.
In a moment, when you meet Anne, you’ll hear how she decided not getting better was NOT one of her choices. Additionally, her journey highlights her core value of service to others, as she’s now become an empowering voice for Lyme Disease patients and others.
Anne’s hype song is “Girl on Fire” by Alicia Keys.
Resources:
Invitation from Lori:
Let me ask you, if there was a simple way to reclaim your peace of mind and not feel so frazzled, would you want to know what it is? Enter the “10 Proven Habits Top Leaders Use to Stay Calm and Focused Every Day” checklist — your quick guide to creating calm, intentional days.
These practices are so incredibly simple, you'll probably question their effectiveness. Like, how could just doing THAT alleviate my stress?!
But take my word - and all the science and research that's been done on these methods - implementing even ONE of these strategies will absolutely change your ability to manage your energy, embrace change, and foster resilience. PLUS, you want to cope with the distractions in your mind so you can stay focused and achieve your desired results? THIS checklist will give you the direction to do that.
Oh, and lastly, it isn't about perfection or doing ALL the things all at once. It’s about taking each small step toward progress, one at a time, consistently. Consistency over perfection wins every time. You deserve a life where you can breathe easy and not feel like a gorilla is standing on your chest all the time.
When you’re ready to say F*ck Being Fine, this guide is the place to start and it will give you new perspectives that can change your life starting today!
Go to https://zenrabbit.com right now to download it for free.
Now let’s bring Anne in. She seems quietly determined, like she’s a girl on fire!
Fear often holds you back, even if it doesn’t make sense to be afraid.
You can have everything you ever wanted – a fantastic career, creature comforts, money to afford anything you need, plus “f*ck-you money” in the bank that gives you the freedom to not have to do anything you don’t want to.
And even with all that, you can still have an empty, nagging sense like you don’t really have anything at all.
This has been Constantin Morun’s journey.
Born in Romania, at the tail end of a vicious dictatorship that offered its people no consumer goods, banned typewriters, and forced citizens to use light bulbs so dim they couldn’t see around the room, it was easy for Constantin to find himself without freedom of expression and surrounded by scarcity.
While he was raised with love and compassion, he also knew what it felt like to be left in the dark, both figuratively and literally.
In 2000, when Constantin was 17, his family moved to Canada. There he was in a new land where he didn’t understand the language, the school system or the level of diversity he’d never seen or experienced before.
He did well in college and got a degree in mathematics, but his work wasn’t his passion. So he became a professional poker player while also coaching poker players, made a lot of money at it, but succumbed to pressures from others who told him he needed to get a “real job” at some point.
This brought him to the United States and into the corporate hustle, and within seven years he was doing extremely well. As a result of hard work and accomplishment, he got a promotion. Everything seemed fine.
But Fine is a 4-Letter Word.
In a moment, when you meet Constantin, you’ll hear about how just when it seemed he had it all – all he felt was an enormous emptiness inside. Which led him on the powerful journey of redefining terms like “regret” and “fear” and through which he discovered that, when all is said and done, these things are little more than illusions.
Prepare to discover the concept of “decoy fears” and that when bad things happen, there’s still always something good in it for you, as long as you’re willing to look for and see it.
Constantin’s hype songs are brain music you can find on Brain.fm.
Resources:
Invitation from Lori:
Let me ask you, if there was a simple way to reclaim your peace of mind and not feel so frazzled, would you want to know what it is? Enter the “10 Proven Habits Top Leaders Use to Stay Calm and Focused Every Day” checklist — your quick guide to creating calm, intentional days.
These practices are so incredibly simple, you'll probably question their effectiveness. Like, how could just doing THAT alleviate my stress?!
But take my word - and all the science and research that's been done on these methods - implementing even ONE of these strategies will absolutely change your ability to manage your energy, embrace change, and foster resilience. PLUS, you want to cope with the distractions in your mind so you can stay focused and achieve your desired results? THIS checklist will give you the direction to do that.
Oh, and lastly, it isn't about perfection or doing ALL the things all at once. It’s about taking each small step toward progress, one at a time, consistently. Consistency over perfection wins every time. You deserve a life where you can breathe easy and not feel like a gorilla is standing on your chest all the time.
When you’re ready to say F*ck Being Fine, this guide is the place to start and it will give you new perspectives that can change your life starting today!
Go to https://zenrabbit.com right now to download it for free.
And now, it’s time for our meetup with Constantin. He’s sitting over there by himself, but seems to be quite engrossed in some sort of dialogue. Let’s give him a penny for his thoughts!
You know the saying: your network is your net worth.
You can intentionally engineer the results by curating your circle of influence over time, keeping in touch, and being on the alert for subtle connections the casual observer might miss.
And then you might unintentionally end up on a flight with the CEO of your former employer, take your chance on grabbing the seat next to him in first class, and seize the opportunity to create networking connections that help him close a major deal.
Helen Fanucci took both approaches and had been able to practice and master the art of finding what’s possible.
Her parents instilled this in her by showing her she could achieve anything she put her mind to. When, as a young girl living in Boston, she told her father, who was the minister of a congregational church, that she wanted to go to the MIT, and asked if he thought she could get in, he told her the only way to find out was to try.
Spoiler alert - she got into MIT.
But before that, as Helen was finishing seventh grade, her mother died of ovarian cancer only a year after her family had moved to Seattle. During a visit to Boston she realized that although she was struggling to fit in living in Seattle, she could find her place if she intentionally looked for and created it.
After graduating from MIT, she worked as a manufacturing engineer for IBM in Silicon Valley. Worried that IBM’s culture of spending your entire career there could leave her stagnant, she pivoted into sales. She grew into the role through building her network and seeking knowledge where she could find it - until an unsettling discovery led her to leave IBM and work for a prospective client.
Cue the coincidental meeting with the CEO of IBM on the airplane and Helen’s opportunity to use her networking skills to create a relationship between the CEO and her new employer’s CEO. By all standards, everything was going just fine.
But Fine is a 4-Letter Word.
In a moment, when you meet Helen, you’ll discover how going on maternity leave changed everything. How spending a career in corporate America inspired her mantra of “this won’t last forever.” And why all these years later she’s started her own company that helps B2B companies with their go-to-market using AI tools.
It's a fascinating story, and you have to hear Helen tell it in her own words.
Helen’s hype song is “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison.
Resources:
Invitation from Lori:
In my special guide, 5 Easy Ways to Start Living the Sabbatical Life, you can discover, step-by-step, how you can stop settling for “fine” and look at your life with a fresh set of eyes. Even if, like many people in today’s high-speed world, you’re not in a position to take a month or year-long sabbatical.
You know how you normally hear the disclaimer “Don’t try this at home!” In this case, you CAN try this at home. And not just “try,” DO.
Once you read it, you’ll
✅ Discover a counter-intuitive approach to making intentional changes in mindset and lifestyle.
✅ Learn how to own your feelings and your struggles so you can address them.
✅ Find out how to face fears, step out of your comfort zone, and rewire your beliefs.
It’s only 7 pages, so it won’t take you long to get through. When you’re ready to say F*ck Being Fine, this guide is the place to start and it will give you new perspectives that could change your life starting today!
Go to https://zenrabbit.com right now to download it for free.
So now, it’s time to meet Helen. We’re headed to the pickleball court, and there she is – on her phone working on a movie!
When you work in sales, you of course want to build trust with your prospects and make them feel like you have their best interests at heart and aren’t simply selling them something just to earn a commission.
Resilience, adaptability, and continuous learning are as important to your success as empathy, patience, and effective communication.
Then there’s the question of whether you enjoy sales and believe in what you’re selling, or if it’s just a job and you’re doing the best you can to be decent at it. These, and other sentiments, are why today’s conversation with Gabe Lullo, the CEO of Alleyoop, is so important.
Gabe grew up in Buffalo, New York, which itself requires a lot of grit because you deal with really cold weather and a lot of snow. Add to that, Gabe and his sister were raised in modest circumstances by a single mom who worked two jobs so her kids could go to private schools and get a great education, even though it cost 90% of her income.
At the same time, he was close to his grandfather, a sports coach who modeled the “coaching” rather than the “bossing” approach to leadership.
When he turned 18, his mother made him go to bartending school. The idea was that no matter what happened with his career, Gabe could always make money.
In college, while taking classes and doing internships, he worked nights as a bartender, a vocation that in hindsight taught him so much about sales, marketing, relationships, and more in a way that you simply don’t get in the classroom. He first considered law school, then pivoted to finance, and then 9/11 hit and all opportunities in that sector evaporated.
Nevertheless, Gabe persisted, and he became a partner in a business venture, got married, and started a family. It was tough going there, but everything seemed like it was going to be just fine.
But Fine is a 4-Letter Word, and his business partnership broke up, sending him back to square one with an infant daughter to care for.
In a moment, when you meet Gabe, you’ll discover how the next pivot in his journey, doing cold-calling as a Sales Development Representative (SDR) at minimum wage, touched off a meteoric journey that less than a decade later landed him in his current position as CEO of that company.
Doing the hard things has paid off, and as a result, Gabe has found a level of passion and fulfillment he hadn’t imagined would be possible while shoveling through those Buffalo blizzards. Now he’s about to lay it all out for you.
Gabe’s hype song is "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins.
Resources:
Invitation from Lori:
In my special guide, 5 Easy Ways to Start Living the Sabbatical Life, you can discover, step-by-step, how you can stop settling for “fine” and look at your life with a fresh set of eyes. Even if, like many people in today’s high-speed world, you’re not in a position to take a month or year-long sabbatical.
You know how you normally hear the disclaimer “Don’t try this at home!” In this case, you CAN try this at home. And not just “try,” DO.
Once you read it, you’ll
✅ Discover a counter-intuitive approach to making intentional changes in mindset and lifestyle.
✅ Learn how to own your feelings and your struggles so you can address them.
✅ Find out how to face fears, step out of your comfort zone, and rewire your beliefs.
It’s only 7 pages, so it won’t take you long to get through. When you’re ready to say F*ck Being Fine, this guide is the place to start and it will give you new perspectives that could change your life starting today!
Go to https://zenrabbit.com right now to download it for free.
So let’s head over and meet Gabe. He’s in his office with a lot of paperwork on his desk, and he has some incredible insights about the “danger zone” of success!
It’s called “continuous growth” for a reason.
When you cut down a tree, or a tree snaps and falls, the rings you’ll see reveal more than the age of the tree based on how many rings there are. Each ring will be a different width, a different color or shade.
Each of these rings tells a story about how changes in the environment impacted its growth and development as it grew from a sapling into a fully-fledged organism sprouting branches, growing leaves, bearing fruit, expanding its roots, or whatever other functions it performed during its life cycle.
Jennifer Frye’s story of surviving domestic abuse and finding her way to thrive by looking from the inside out makes me think of this metaphor.
Growing up, Jennifer was instilled with the values of hard work, work ethic, honesty, integrity, family, education… and guilt. Yes, she grew up in the 1980s.
Her father was a successful entrepreneur who worked a lot of hours and embodied the hustle culture. Though she grew up in a loving household, both her parents died when she was in her 20s. She was determined to be a success story and to do what she believed would be expected of her.
Jennifer got married, had a child, and started a business, so it seemed like she was set to emulate her father and everything would be fine.
But Fine is a 4-Letter Word.
Her husband gradually became abusive. First it was emotional abuse, trauma, gaslighting, and displays of power like blocking her from leaving a room or laying behind her car so she could not leave the driveway. She tried to make it work for the sake of their child having a complete home. Then, after she went out with a friend for her birthday, he accused her of being with another man and struck her.
That was the break. Though it was scary, and she didn’t have a whole lot to go on as her business was just starting to really take off, she divorced him and embarked on a journey to making it on her own.
Funny thing, though. She had already been managing the household and primary in raising their child, so on the surface level, aside from a struggle to make ends meet, things hadn’t actually changed all that much.
Until one day, she was emptying the dishwasher and found sheer joy at knowing she didn’t have a man who would cause her anxiety if she didn’t empty the dishwasher.
In a moment, when you hear from Jennifer, you’ll see how, like the rings of a tree, she discovered how as you go through the layers of bark, you find your tolerations that get in the way of gratitude and dispose of them.
And most of all, you’ll be energized by the power of the word “because”.
Jennifer’s hype song is "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" by Whitney Houston.
Resources:
Also be sure to check out Episode #81, Resilience in the Face of Adversity: A Dad’s Story of Overcoming Loss and Embracing Gratitude with Mike Fister – Mike connected me to Jennifer for today’s enlightening conversation!
Invitation from Lori:
In my special guide, 5 Easy Ways to Start Living the Sabbatical Life, you can discover, step-by-step, how you can stop settling for “fine” and look at your life with a fresh set of eyes. Even if, like many people in today’s high-speed world, you’re not in a position to take a month or year-long sabbatical.
You know how you normally hear the disclaimer “Don’t try this at home!” In this case, you CAN try this at home. And not just “try,” DO.
Once you read it, you’ll
✅ Discover a counter-intuitive approach to making intentional changes in mindset and lifestyle.
✅ Learn how to own your feelings and your struggles so you can address them.
✅ Find out how to face fears, step out of your comfort zone, and rewire your beliefs.
It’s only 7 pages, so it won’t take you long to get through. When you’re ready to say F*ck Being Fine, this guide is the place to start and it will give you new perspectives that could change your life starting today!
Go to https://zenrabbit.com right now to download it for free.
Now, let’s head over to Jennifer’s house. It looks like such a warm and inviting place. We might be early though, because I think I hear her emptying the dishwasher!
Living through the pandemic changed all of our lives, in one way or another.
For some, it was coming to a realization that you didn’t feel like your business or your career was your true calling, in which case it’s possible you may have encountered someone like today’s guest during your journey toward finding something more aligned with your life’s purpose.
For others, it’s finding out that although you had a bunch of superficial or virtual interactions every day, you essentially felt alone. And maybe the friend or mentor you needed was someone you had never met, like in the form of a content creator, an author, or a podcast host.
This is Brian Fink’s story.
Growing up, his family was in the shirt manufacturing business. Today, he’s a talent acquisition partner who finds top-tier hires. One day, at a recruiting event, a candidate approached him and asked if he was one of the Finks who had owned the local shirt factory. It turns out, Brian’s grandfather had given his father white dress shirts as a reward for making Dean’s List at an HBCU, Albany State University, and to encourage him to continue doing well in his studies.
This encounter led Brian to the realization that because of what his grandfather did for those students and during the civil rights movement, that Brian’s striving to make sure things are fair and indivisible for everybody comes through family legacy.
Brian has enjoyed a storied career. He’s owned recruiting businesses, exited them, and helped others grow and exit their recruiting businesses. He has worked for companies like Amazon and AWS, Twitter, and Vanguard on his way toward his current work at McAfee.
As an “intrapreneur”, as he calls himself, he lives out the values imprinted by his grandfather as well as one of his grandmothers, who taught him to value friendships and the communities you create and serve.
This all sounds fine.. but Fine is a 4-Letter Word.
About 20 years ago, Brian found out he suffers from anxiety and depression.
In his search for understanding, acceptance, strength, and growth, he found himself drawn toward not only mentors in the workplace who create space for him to learn from mistakes and explore his talents, but also remote mentors – those authors, speakers, and podcast hosts. He reads voraciously to the point that he’s not really up on “pop culture” because he prefers books to television and movies.
Like the day he discovered by chance that his grandfather had been someone else’s father’s hero, there was one particular video he found that gives him incredible inspiration to find what he is looking for on the other side of fear.
When you listen to Brian, you’ll discover how he has found companionship and mentorship at a distance.
Brian’s hype song is “Sweetness” by Jimmy Eat World.
Resources:
Invitation from Lori:
In my special guide, 5 Easy Ways to Start Living the Sabbatical Life, you can discover, step-by-step, how you can stop settling for “fine” and look at your life with a fresh set of eyes. Even if, like many people in today’s high-speed world, you’re not in a position to take a month or year-long sabbatical.
You know how you normally hear the disclaimer “Don’t try this at home!” In this case, you CAN try this at home. And not just “try,” DO.
Once you read it, you’ll
✅ Discover a counter-intuitive approach to making intentional changes in mindset and lifestyle.
✅ Learn how to own your feelings and your struggles so you can address them.
✅ Find out how to face fears, step out of your comfort zone, and rewire your beliefs.
It’s only 7 pages, so it won’t take you long to get through. When you’re ready to say F*ck Being Fine, this guide is the place to start and it will give you new perspectives that could change your life starting today!
Go to https://zenrabbit.com right now to download it for free.
Now let’s meet Brian. He seems to have his nose buried in a book while whistling to something he’s listening to through his headphones!
The podcast currently has 217 episodes available.