Folkes Unfettered| Commentary That Cuts

This is an intimate and at times emotional conversation about resiliency, and the importance of finding the internal courage to bounce back from professional or personal stressors that threaten to destroy our mental, physical, spiritual, or emotional health. In this brief episode, Gene shares the 5 pillars of Resiliency by sharing stories of his own resilient nature, and the resiliency of his friends, family, and colleagues. However, not everyone is resilient, some have succumbed to the pains and troubles of this life, suicide, or mental illness, and some have endured the pain of disease, like cancer or some other life-threatening illness. We go beyond simply defining the word, but, we look at how to be more resilient. Gene shares a phrase his mother would say, about being resilient, the phrase is You can "Give In (Being flexible), Give out (Resting), but, never Giving Up (Quitting). 

We are all going through something, and though our challenges may be specific to us, they are not unique, and this should provide us comfort that we may be able to draw strength, hope, and determination.  "My hope is built from nothing less..."

A gentle reminder to catch the latest episode of Folk(e)s Unfettered on your favorite streaming directory as you head into the office, take the kids to school, get in a workout at the gym, or drink your coffee. Monday's episode is an inspiring and uplifting conversation about Being Resilient and how it has impacted my life and the lives of my friends and family and can help you to bounce back or endure whatever it is you are going through! 

We take our show on the road to Jay-Z/Rocnation's Made In America Fest to discuss with Executive Director Leah Stauffer of Half A Million Kids foundation about the importance of adoption, her vision, and the mission of her charity, and we get very personal about our respective experiences being foster children ourselves.  Listeners are invited and encouraged to help spread the word to those families interested in fostering or adopting a child, or having discussions with friends so that they can tell other friends about the importance of providing children a safe place to call home.  The goal of this episode is to assist this organizational mission of placing half a million kids in permanent homes.

Although we are late dropping this episode of Folk(e)s Unfettered's nugget of Wisdom this Wednesday, we have a very good reason for doing so, we have been doing acts of service and we have been taking care of our physical health as I prepare for an upcoming surgery. This means I have been dealing with the Veterans Hospital and Veterans Affairs and there will be a series on Veterans' healthcare and the bureaucratic obstructions designed to increase the difficulty of veterans who were injured in service to their country to be acknowledged as having a service-connected disability, even if the servicemember's records show treatment for an injury. But, First, let's tackle the subject of what I call Soft skill thieves, these are individuals who come to you under the guise of wanting to collaborate on a project or enlist your services, when in fact, they are seeking to gather the information they can acquire without compensating you for picking your brain. In this episode, I share my experiences and my solutions to avoiding these time-wasters in order to discern individuals who value my time, experience, and expertise and are willing to pay for it, from those who are simply seeking to hack my brain for free. 

We begin a new segment we are calling Wisdom Wednesday. Consider these short segments as a shot of mental caffeine to boost your creativity, strengthen your focus, and fuel your spiritual tank to continue your path of purpose. We will provide quotes and thoughts from ancient and modern texts to remind you of your higher, greater purpose, which is to serve. We are all here for a reason, and with all the noise around us, and the pressures within us, we can become burdened and full of despair about who we are, why we are important, and how disconnected from the source of life we may have become. In this inaugural episode, We share Week XXXIV from The Daily Stoic Journal by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

Holiday, R., and Hanselman, S. (2017). The Daily Stoic Journal (Portfolio/Penguin).

We kick off our Alchemy of Leadership series with the founder & Chairman of White Thorne Holdings, Steve Beaman, a Self-taught, self-made millionaire. Who has traveled from the depths of financial despair to the heights of financial prosperity, professionally, and from the heights of happy marriage to the depths of divorce and destruction, personally. Steve has seen it all. Father of six children, bible-believing Christian, and formerly a founding partner with Chicago  Investment Analytics a Wall Street  Research firm sold to Charles Schwab in  2000, Steve spearheads White Thorne Holdings, a small business incubator, and business think-tank. The Company was created using Steve’s money to build and develop companies that serve the small to the mid-size business community and presently holds several small businesses including The Elevare Club, Kashify, Merchant Master, LLC., JobFormance, LLC, and  Acciva Ltd, LLC These four companies work with the small business community to help them succeed.