FINE is a 4-Letter Word

Always finish what you start.

Don’t give up a good thing; you’re good at it and make a lot of money at it.

The voice in your head is always right.

All this sounds like good advice, yes?

But what if one day you found out you had been slowly dying of this advice? I mean, literally, your health was deteriorating and you were wasting away?

Tabatha Jones had an intuition for years that something was wrong, based on the challenges she started to face getting out of bed in the morning.

At her foundations, nothing really stood out. She grew up in a typical middle class family and learned the values of hard work, responsibility, accountability, and being aware of the ripple effect caused by the example you set for others. She could sense when things weren’t right and had no problem speaking up when she saw injustice or unfairness.

Excellent traits. She grew up… fine. She got married and started what turned into a prosperous career doing work she was really good at and paid very well. It was all fine, until it wasn’t – after all, Fine is a 4-Letter Word.

While she loved the company she worked for and her co-workers, she started to feel out of alignment with how things were going. As a side-hustle, she began coaching in 2017, with a long-range goal of striking out on her own… someday.

Then came yet another company reorganization that went on for almost a year and ended up with her staying in the same job. While she negotiated for a raise and got it, it wasn’t fine anymore. Too much travel. Not feeling aligned with her purpose. The money was great, but she could barely get out of bed, much less fly from California one day to make an 8am Eastern meeting in Philadelphia the next.

She planned to quit her job and go full-time with her side business in March 2020, but then, as you might recall, the world flipped upside down. Sure, she didn’t have to fly to Philadelphia to meet with the Philadelphia people, but she still struggled, and finally gave notice in spring 2021.

In the meantime, she had been seeing a naturopath trying to get to the bottom of her health issues. A few months after she quit her job, her naturopath called her in to review the latest test results… which were stunning.

In a moment, when you meet Tabatha, you’ll find out what happened, including the very unique way she found out her previous job had been slowly killing her. You’ll also find out what her experience means for you, should you find yourself stuck in the ground like a tree whose roots are dug in too deep.

Tabatha’s hype song is "Confidence" By Demi Lovato.

Resources:

• Tabatha Jones’ website: https://www.empowered-leader.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tabatha-jones-4485854/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tabathajo
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coach_tabatha/
• Claim your copy of Tabatha’s “Career Confidence Playbook for Women 50+” by visiting https://www.empowered-leader.com/freegift/

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 with that, let’s join Tabatha and find out what’s going on here. My intuition tells me this is going to be big-time revelational!

In our society, we don’t know how to talk about a lot of super important things. We don’t learn, because we’re not taught. And that’s due to longstanding beliefs that we’re supposed to handle things a certain way.

Think about what happens if your spouse or life partner dies. You’re expected to have a period of enforced mourning. You look weird at best, or heartless at worst, if you keep going to work rather than take bereavement leave. Heaven forbid you take a vacation or something. They say it’s supposed to be funerals, wearing all-black, home alone miserable. Meanwhile, your life continues to tick on by.

Shari Begun had the learned experience that helped her break this mold when her husband died, but she couldn’t do it without a permission slip. In different ways, this both held her back and inspired her career and overall path in life.

After her parents divorced, she was primarily raised by her mother, a hairdresser who along with a younger business partner started her salon in a time before single women could get business credit on their own. First, Shari learned the importance of learning and education. As you’ll hear, her house was basically a library full of books, including THREE sets of encyclopedias!

From her situation, she learned independence and being strong. Although the seeds were planted early on, she just recently got her “permission slip” to become a confident, transparent, sharing leader – a recognized mentor to women in STEM-related careers making their voices heard and advancing in the workplace.

Shari went to college for electrical engineering, inspired by a family friend, a wealthy independent single woman who worked in the field. However, by junior year, she discovered she hated electrical engineering. Conversations with her college roommate’s boyfriend, a mechanical engineer who had gone into sales and become successful at it, led her to a sales career.

Shari’s career blossomed as she rose to become the first female customer-facing VP in her company, in a very male-dominated STEM-related industry. She also grew in her calling as a mentor to women in STEM. Everything seemed fine. But five months later, she abruptly learned why Fine is a 4-Letter Word.

It was Shari’s birthday. As she and her husband returned from her celebration, he started having trouble breathing. 45 minutes later, he died. This was an inflection point. Career-wise, her ship had just come in. She was devastated over losing her husband, but wanted to keep on working. What would people think of her?

In a moment, you’ll discover how this moment of catastrophe, catharsis, and catalysis came together to make this Shari’s ultimate moment (so far) and change a lot of people’s lives. But first, she needed to get a permission slip.

Why?

Shari’s hype song is "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne.

Resources:

• Shari Begun’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharibegun/
• Also, check out Episode #140, Replacing Fine with F*ck Off! with P.J. Roscoe, which covers some similar themes as this one.

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, come with me as we join Shari on her morning walk. You’re going to love her story of becoming conductor of the “crazy train”!

Before we begin, let me alert you that the content of this episode includes conversation about mental health struggles and suicide, which can be distressing for some people. Don’t worry, we don’t go into too much detail, but if you are uncomfortable about that kind of thing, you may want to avoid this episode.

Imagine it’s 3:00 AM, and your life is coming apart at the seams.

You don’t know how you can keep going, and maybe you’re not sure you want to. Even if you believe this will pass if only you could get some sleep, you really need someone to hear your story and provide you some sort of comfort and support.

Who would answer the call if you dialed their number right now? Is there even one person who comes to mind?

Keith McNally was there and realized there was not one single person in the entire world who he felt would be there for him in his hour of desperate need.

Growing up, he followed all the Catholic traditions and holidays, and gained the values of being kind, being yourself, and doing what’s right. After high school, he joined the Marines. Then went on to college and all the way through to completing his PhD. He embarked on a successful career that included working in IT and being a professor of information technology.

Along the way, he discovered how his values didn’t so much change as he redefined their meanings and how he interpreted them. However, he says, he spent most of his adult life not knowing who he really was. He played roles and carried titles and filled expectations of others. But he didn’t dig into and examine what was really important to him. Didn’t ask himself, what is my life about? What is my philosophy of living?

Which is why, perhaps from the outside, things looked fine for a while – but Fine is a 4-Letter Word.

Between 1996 and 2021, he attempted suicide five times.

It was after that fifth attempt that he took a good, hard look at things and realized he wasn’t sure who he was, who he was meant to be – and that he had nobody to talk to about anything, really.

In a moment, when you meet Keith, you’ll discover the baby steps he took to turn things around. It started with simply talking to people on LinkedIn and listening to them tell their stories, which led to him launching several podcasts and YouTube channels.

In the same time period, he started to focus on his physical health in a new way, adapting his exercise routine and his diet. And just when he was getting in better physical shape, building his resilience muscles and support networks to prevent another suicide attempt that could leave his teenage daughter without a dad – he had a heart attack.

So once again, he gave the Grim Reaper the finger – and now he’s gearing up to hike the entire Appalachian Trail!

Keith’s hype song is “Gonna Fly Now” by Bill Conti.

Resources:

• Keith McNally’s website: https://drkeithmcnally.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drkeithmcnally/

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 let’s go see Keith. I think you’re going to enjoy this conversation – after all, it’s conversation that saved his life!

“Life is short” is one of those cliches that gets thrown around with the idea that you should let things roll off your shoulders or not spend time analyzing the past.

The truth is, though, that life is longer than you realize because...

A person lives on in the memories of those who knew them, are familiar with their stories, and share these stories so that other people may know them too.

Frank Favaro’s grandfathers both died in 2004 when Frank was 27, but they are very much alive for him due not only to their stories, experiences, and lessons, but how they instilled in him both the values and the expectations that have simultaneously driven Frank’s success and sometimes gotten in the way of it.

His paternal grandfather, also named Frank Favaro, grew up fighting in a tough neighborhood to keep his lunch money, then had to fight to stay alive when the Mob took over his contract as a light heavyweight fighter, then went on to become a fighter as a union leader. Yet Frank Sr., who had a seventh-grade education, read poetry and discussed its lessons with his grandchildren.

His maternal grandfather, Jim Biggins, was the nicest guy you’d ever meet and showed Frank how to be a great husband and father. Yet Jim’s own daughter (Frank’s mom) got divorced and left her son emotionally scarred by what she DIDN’T do.

Frank Sr. taught him to look a person in the eye, while Jim taught the value of connections. Together, these values underpin the guiding principle that has brought Frank success working in six industries and as an entrepreneur, which is to find out who people are and how to create emotional connections with them.

With all that, he should have been just fine – but Fine is a 4-Letter Word.

In a moment, when you meet Frank, you’ll discover how being a wrestler in high school not only left him feeling beaten down like a failure and demolished his will to apply himself in college, but pinned him down emotionally, leaving him unfulfilled in his career. Expectations are a lot to wrestle with, especially when they’re someone else’s.

Then you’ll learn how zooming back to the experience of his parents divorcing when he was seven years old, the lack of support he received when he blamed himself for it, and the stunning reason his parents, who were great people who loved him, did not offer him that support or even think to do so, left its marks.

These unrelated threads came together to show Frank the importance of the customer experience – his life’s work. And in their own way became pillars of his work, just as the memories of his grandfathers are living pillars for him.

Frank’s hype song is “Believe” by Lenny Kravitz.

Resources:

• Frank Favaro’s website: https://serve-centric.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frank-favaro-b1507b80/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frankfavaro1/

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.

Here comes Frank, walking down the path toward us. He’s the first guy I’ve seen walking in a long time who didn’t have earbuds in. Let’s join him!

In the written description of my podcast, Fine Is a 4-Letter Word, I begin by asking:

“Wasn’t it just a couple years ago you were sitting on the beach at spring break in Ft. Lauderdale – listening to the Pet Shop Boys, U2, and Def Leppard - with your entire life ahead of you? Now you’re looking back 30-plus years and wondering what the hell happened.”

Basically, I’ve just described what used to be called the mid-life crisis. I started the show shortly after I’d embarked on some major mid-stream changes and was hearing similar rumblings from many of my friends.

But I’ve long maintained that this isn’t a crisis!

What if everything that happened was just groundwork setting you up for your current success – and that there’s a lesson to be found in how fast time seemed to zoom until one day you looked up and said “Holy s*it, I’m 52 years old!”

This is what Katie Carty Tierney tells those who have yet to go through it.

Her early life didn’t seem like much of a crisis – she came from a good home where she learned that when you say you're gonna do something, you do it; and if you make a mistake, own up to it and work hard to be better.

Growing up, she wanted to be a brain surgeon, then a pediatrician. As a college freshman, as part of her studies toward becoming some sort of doctor, she was made to do something in a biology lab she didn’t agree with, which I’ll leave to your imagination.

So she pivoted to business analysis and research.

This led Katie to a career in the computer industry as a consultant, which she enjoyed until she and her husband decided she would be a stay-at-home mom just before the birth of her first child in 2000.

Her husband was doing well in his career, so she became a stay-at-home mom for a while, volunteering for various networking organizations and stuff for the kids. She figured she’d never go back to work and everything seemed fine.

But Fine is a 4-Letter Word.

In 2007, Katie took an opportunity to go back into the workforce, and it’s been a wild ride since then.

In a moment, when you meet Katie, you’ll discover how her need to hang out with adults again led her down new career paths, including landing a job that required her to go through fifteen – yes, fifteen – interviews.

What did she learn from that?

And looking back with 20/20 hindsight, how has becoming an empty-nester for the first time in 23 years not only brought things full-circle, but also given her a wealth of information to pass along as she blazes the trail for others?

You’re about to find out.

Katie’s hype song is "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor.

Resources:

• Katie Carty Tierney’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiecartytierney/

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.

Oh look, I think I see Katie over there rummaging through a small-town antique store! She and her husband look so cute, holding hands like teenagers in love. Let’s go say hello! 

Remember that time you slammed your hand in the door? I heard you screaming obscenities for days. And depending on how it happened, it might have stung for a minute or caused you pain for a week.

But imagine your hand didn’t heal. Instead, it revealed you were slowly being ambushed by a silent killer. Act One to a new story you never saw coming.

This is Susan Jackson Lee’s story, and it ends on a cliffhanger.

Susan grew up in a military family as the only daughter in a family full of men, where unsurprisingly she learned the values of discipline, timeliness, and hard work. Her father didn’t believe women should be doctors or become successful on their own – he was old-fashioned like that. But this upbringing also taught her the value of never taking “no” for an answer – or as she puts it, “a no meant a yes for me”.

She went to college and, unlike most of her classmates, was specifically interested in sales. Because she was usually the only person in line for sales jobs at the recruitment fairs, getting in was easy. And since then, Susan has grown in her career from a salesperson, to a manager of a federal business, all the way to vice-president at an Interior Design organization.

Along the way, Susan met and married her entrepreneurial husband, started a family, and was fortunate to be healthy and fit. It seemed like she had everything going for her, and everything was fine.

But Fine is a 4-Letter Word, and one day everything slammed to a halt – literally.

One day while out running errands, Susan jumped out of her car and accidentally slammed the door on her hand. OUCH! I wince just thinking about this! She got a tetanus shot, but her hand wasn’t healing. So she got an MRI, followed by a diagnosis of…

Lung cancer.

How could this be? Susan didn’t smoke or drink, she ate right, she took care of herself, and she was disciplined about her health. Lung cancer?!?

In a moment, when you meet Susan, you’ll be stunned and amazed by the many lessons she learned while going through treatment, going into remission, and picking up the pieces of her life. Along the way, she let herself go to hell on purpose and got the idea she was about to lose her job, but she didn’t. At the time of our recording though, she had just given notice at her job.

What’s up with THAT?!?

Susan’s hype song is "A Beautiful Day" by India Arie.

Resources:

• Susan Jackson Lee’s LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/susan-jackson-lee-5878a13
• Susan's new website: www.field2futureconsulting.com

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.

Here comes Susan around the corner. Not surprisingly, she’s out for a walk. Let’s head over and meet her!

2024 has been quite a year.

I spent most of the year as a nomad, traveling throughout the Southeast United States moving from town to town, housesitting for a lot of awesome cats (and a few awesome dogs).

It was an amazing adventure that led me to see lots of new places, meet people in real life I’d only known online, and discover a few things about myself along the journey.

But as I moved around, I lived with uncertainty. Tonight I would be in this one house, but where would I be tomorrow night? Would I have a place to go the next night after my current gig ended? When would I find out?

Not only that, but this past summer my dad passed away. I was fortunate to be able to spend the last week of his life with him in Florida, however it also served as a reminder of how things change, how things come and go, and how important it is to cherish and savor what we have now.

As we wrap up the year, I find myself settled down in a new apartment in Charlotte, North Carolina, determined to begin a new and different kind of adventure. As I traveled around the country in 2024, one of the things I missed out on was a sense of community. In 2025, we’re changing that.

Now, as your 2024 comes to an end and you look forward to the new year, give yourself the gift of tuning into this episode and discovering the takeaways that may serve your journey as you move to the next chapter in your life. And as you do so, take a moment and ask yourself these questions:

✅ What is your theme word for 2025? (Mine are "community" and "transformation".)

✅ What are some things that you want to do and bring into 2025 in your life? ✅ Conversely, what are you leaving behind? What is no longer serving you that you do not need to drag into 2025 with you?

✅ What are your intentions for this coming year?

✅ What are you building for yourself?

✅ What would you ideally like your life to look like?

✅ What are you committing to doing or not doing to get there?

✅ What do you feel good about right now having accomplished or done in the past year?

✅And how are you going to celebrate?

My hype songs as we enter 2025 are "I Am Not Okay" by Jelly Roll and "Fearless" by The Goo Goo Dolls.

Resources:

• My Website: https://ZenRabbit.com/    
• LinkedIn: https://zenrabbit.com/linkedin/
• Facebook: https://zenrabbit.com/facebook/
• Instagram: https://zenrabbit.com/instagram/
• Visit the “FINE is a 4-Letter Word” store at https://zenrabbit.printful.me

Also check out Episode #67, Gratitude Through Hard Times with Chris Schembra.

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 get started!

Growing up in the United States, I was fortunate to not know what it’s like to go through a day with bombs falling around me and my dad fighting in the war. For Robin Ayoub, this was his daily reality, and as he would eventually discover, getting away from it was how he found his way home.

Imagine being eleven years old and given 24 hours to learn how to operate a knitting machine because your family's survival depends on it. Then picture yourself going door-to-door every weekend, selling the sweaters you made, knowing you can't come home until every single one is sold. That’s where he learned what all good sales professionals know: the importance of making “one more call” or “one more stop on your route” before quitting time.

That was just the beginning of Robin's extraordinary journey from war-torn Lebanon to becoming a tech executive whose influence spans four continents.

Growing up as the oldest of five children, he was taught the importance of being productive and responsible. With a civil war raging around him, survivability was key. There was no time to lose.

Even with all this going on, Robin finished college and got a job as a bank teller. One day he was sent home because of a bombing raid. Long story short – listen to hear what happened – he ended up in the hospital. When he got out, he said, “that’s enough. I’m done here!” He took his younger brother and moved to Cyprus.

He found a job and from there helped his parents and four younger siblings get their immigration paperwork in order. They all moved to New Brunswick, Canada, landing in the middle of a snowstorm and not speaking English. Through luck, Robin found a Maronite priest who spoke their language in the phone book, and within a short period of time he found work sweeping a construction site – a great use of his education in computers.

But, it turns out the hotel they were expanding on that construction site needed somebody to update their billing software. Since programming languages were universal, his lack of English at the time didn’t stop him. This opportunity led Robin to more jobs in computer programming, which in turn launched him onto what has become a rich, successful entrepreneurial journey.

In Lebanon, daily bombardments were normal. The constant threat of violence became background noise. And he thought it was all fine. But as we know, Fine is a 4-Letter Word.

In a moment, when you meet Robin, you’ll discover how he looked back and realized how living with bombs falling around him showed him the importance of his family, his work, and his opportunity to inspire and lead others. You may be particularly interested in how it informed his definition of “perfect”.

And I can hardly wait for you to hear where you can find Robin and his family every single morning at 6:30, without fail.

Robin's hype song is "Daddy Cool" by Boney M.

Resources:

• Robin Ayoub’s website: https://www.L10NFiresideChat.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robinayoub/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robin.ayoub
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robin.ayoub/
• X: https://x.com/robinayoub

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 go meet Robin. Hopefully we’re not catching him in a plane, train, or automobile.

You’ve probably experienced sleep paralysis at some point – that weird “twilight zone” where you’re caught between the conscious world and the world of dreams, aware of your surroundings but noticing they have weird shapes.

Usually you can break out of sleep paralysis within a few seconds and after catching your breath, you’re fully aware you’re awake again and safe from whatever monster was trying to get you. But imagine being in that twilight zone for more than six weeks, where even though you’re trying to scream and wake yourself up, there’s no way out!

This is where Craig Andrews found himself a few weeks into his COVID diagnosis.

Craig’s wife claims he was raised by wolves. He and his brother went for long walks, built a log cabin in the woods, and lept into swimming holes filled with sea nettles and jellyfish, which can be nasty toward humans invading their space. One day, the Andrews boys miraculously found a swimming hole with no sea nettles and no jellyfish. When they told their dad, he shook his head and told them they had been swimming in sewage.

Craig’s sense of adventure may have contributed to him having low grades in school – who has time to sit around and study? It definitely contributed to him joining the Marines and serving several tours of duty abroad, then coming home to get his degree from North Carolina State. First he worked as a design engineer, which did not reward creativity. So a shift to marketing, selling semiconductors for mobile phones, was Craig’s next adventure. He kept at it, selling a product with steadily decreasing price curves, but everything seemed fine.

As you know though, Fine is a 4-Letter Word. Craig quit to start his own business when the margins got so low his employer insisted he fly coach - but that wasn’t the half of it!

On Saturday, July 31st, 2021 Craig and his wife woke up horribly sick. A week later, Karen was gasping for air. Then she got better but Craig got worse. By August 10th, Craig conceded to going to the emergency room. He couldn’t complete a sentence without taking multiple gasps of breath, and it would be another two months before he’d see Karen again. And three months before he’d leave the hospital in a wheelchair.

Despite being put on a ventilator, Craig survived. Despite being prescribed a medication for COVID that was known to cause kidney failure because the government gave bonuses to doctors for prescribing it, Craig survived.

In a moment, when you meet Craig, you’ll discover his journey through TWO worlds – the physical world where bad things were done to him and said about him in his presence while he was in a coma, and the subconscious twilight world where these experiences morphed into dystopian adventures.

Get comfy on the edge of your seat as you hear why the adventures stopped when Craig’s wife showed up, and where Craig found himself when he woke up.

Craig’s hype song is "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)" by The Offspring.

Resources:

• Craig Andrews’ website: https://allies4me.com
• Book websites: https://hopethatwontdie.com/ and https://makesalesmagical.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-andrews/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CraigAndrewsMarketing
• X: https://x.com/allies4me

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.

Hey, there’s Craig! He’s putting in a hell of a workout today. Let’s find out why is he enjoying a song about a loser who just doesn’t get it.

Can you feel the sense of dread just thinking about that time in your life when something went horribly wrong and everything you had planned was totally shot to hell?

And what’s worse? The fear of criticism and rebuke from those you count on to be part of your support network or their well-intentioned comments that don’t do a damned thing to help and actually make you feel worse?

Lilah Jones faced these questions when she got ripped off for thousands of dollars and almost lost her new house just when she had it in the bag.

For Lilah, her values are so important she lists them on her website: heart-centered hustle, authenticity, bold action, active listening, holistic well-being, and self-actualization. The first three were ingrained growing up as the youngest of 11 children, a situation she describes as a place of scarcity and survival of the fittest.

As she grew up, finished school, and started her career, Lilah came to appreciate that hustle does not have to be a painful thing and it doesn’t need to be rooted in survival. She did not need to have suffering attached to her accomplishments. With this mindset, it seemed everything was fine.

Then, in a sudden, dramatic way, Lilah found out that Fine is a 4-Letter Word when she had the opportunity to get scammed out of the down payment on her new house.

Literally, as she was at the closing meeting, she discovered scammers had sent her a link to wire the money to them instead of where it was supposed to go in order to close on the house. Lilah and her family, including her elderly mother, were at risk of becoming homeless! Meanwhile, her family was waiting for her and her husband to get back from the closing meeting to celebrate with a bottle of champagne ready to pop.

What was she to do?

Now, note that a moment ago I said “opportunity to get scammed” and not “misfortune to get scammed” – this is key.

In a moment, when you meet Lilah, you’ll hear her amazing story about how she quickly got almost all the money back and still closed on the house. This only happened when she took a chance on being vulnerable. And instead of being condemned, she found strength she didn’t know she had.

This is a story she has told time and time again. It not only made the news, but has inspired thousands of others to find their strength in vulnerability, so they can achieve more than they thought possible. It changed her life forever.

Lilah’s hype song is “Fantasy” by Earth Wind and Fire.

Resources:

• Lilah Jones’ website: https://www.lilahjones.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lilahjones
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_lilahjones/
• Claim your instant access to Lilah Jones’ free guide, “The Road to Renewal: Mapping Your Personal Off-Site”.

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 on Lilah. I have some thoughts already about what happened to her; I hope she’s interested and willing to listen!