Gratitude Through Hard Times

Do you know your four key quadrants and how to bring them into balance? On this episode of Gratitude Through Hard Times, Host Chris Schembra welcomes back best-selling author Robert Glazer, who is taking us inside his Elevate framework. As the founder of Acceleration Partners, he and his team provide clients a unique framework through which to optimize the core capacities foundational for healthy, thriving enterprises. You’ll come away from this lively give-and-take with concrete steps for restoring life elements that are “out of whack” and in need of more attention. “It requires deep self-awareness and real authenticity to be the type of leader you actually are,” says our guest. “If I don’t understand my values and why they are my values, I’m showing up as a completely different type of leader.” Don’t miss pivotal insights from Robert’s most recent book, "Elevate Your Team: Empower Your Team To Reach Their Full Potential and Build A Business That Builds Leaders," and frontlines perspectives on the leadership challenges we’re facing daily, both personally and organizationally. Is it time you got your spiritual, emotional, intellectual and physical capacities into alignment? Sign up for Robert’s on-demand course (use code GRATITUDE to receive $20 off). And once you’ve done your core work, let us know about the values that define you!

You can hear lots more about how to push your personal limits by listening in to Robert Glazer’s The Elevate Podcast. Or purchase his latest book, "Elevate Your Team: Empower Your Team To Reach Their Full Potential and Build A Business That Builds Leaders."

Want to stay in touch with what Robert’s up to? You can receive his weekly Friday Forward newsletter, click here.

If you’d like to learn more about Chris and his 7:47 Virtual Gratitude Experience or subscribe to our newsletter, please visit this link.

Click hereto hear more fascinating conversations with Fortune 500 CEOs, professional athletes and entertainerswho have shared their human stories on Gratitude Through Hard Times.

KEY TOPICS:

• Because he’s a repeat guest. Chris slightly tweaks the pod’s signature gratitude question to ask: How has gratitude been foundational to Robert’s “other-ish” orientation in life.
• From the Jump: Acknowledging the value and benefits we receive from the people who come into our lives and the relational elements that cement true success in life.
• About Robert’s Writing Method: Interweaving the spiritual, emotional, intellectual and physical elements that are the framework for his myriad best-selling books.
• State of Mind: If you’re constantly coming into conflict or dealing with negativity, it’s probably time to ask: Are you bringing the best version of yourself?
• Rejection as a Catalyst: How the “Valley of Death” shapes ultimate business outcomes – if we adopt the tools necessary to adapt to and navigate the terrain.
• Reframing Growth: Why it’s important for leaders today to figure out how to bring their entire team along through waves of expansion that are humane and sustainable.
• Robert’s Four Core Competencies to Elevate Organizational Cultures:
  • Spiritual Capacity: Understanding bedrock strengths and values.
  • Intellectual Capacity: Improving your ability to think, learn, plan and execute on goals. It’s your personal operating system!
  • Physical Capacity: Tending to personal performance and optimized well-being.
  • Emotional Capacity: Cultivating strong relationships and how you react to outside individuals and circumstances.
• Finding Your Values: About Robert’s online course and how it expands our spiritual vocabulary and capacity.
  • Examining the role of trust.
  • Bringing awareness to core narratives that drive leadership styles.
  • Finding solutions that reinforce psychological safety in the workplace.
  • Take the free Four Capacities Quiz or use cod GRATITUDE to get $20 off the his on-demand core values course.
• The Role of Vulnerability: How sharing personal stories and normalizing our common humanity empowers teams to look inward, get honest and make necessary adjustments.
• The Growth Mindset: When we explore, attune to and build our core capacities our leadership abilities expand in ways that enable us to be agile and flexible.
• Shifting the Story: How developing the capacity (and helping our teams) to process negative autobiographical experiences turns those negatives into powerful positives.
• Parting Thoughts:
  • Remember to model the importance in today’s hybrid world of being intentional about creating breaks and separation between work and home.
  • A vacation is allowed to be a vacation. Take a real break!
  • Consider using delayed delivery to manage the flow of email – for your benefit and that of others up and down the organization.
  • Don’t forget that setting boundaries empowers everyone!
  • Maintain not just a work-life balance but a life in balance – spiritually, emotionally, intellectually and physically.

QUOTABLE

• “I think gratitude is an orientation … It’s outside of ourselves, thinking about what we can do for others.” (Robert)
• “If you’re focusing (only) on internal, self-reflective things, you’re forgetting about the most important part of humanity, which is to be in relation and connection with and acknowledge the benefits of others.” (Chris)
• "When we show up as an exhausted, diminished version of ourselves, we’re not really helping anyone else.” (Robert)
• “If you’re meeting a**holes every hour of the day, you’re probably an a**hole. It’s your state of mind. How we feel changes our perceptions in all those interactions with others.” (Robert)
• “The whole aspect of capacity-building within an organization is learning, evolving and future-oriented.” (Robert)
• “Leaders are having to wake up and say, ‘You know what? We can’t do the growth-at-all-costs model anymore because we forgot about our people.’ ” (Chris)
• “A big piece of organizational emotional capacity is psychological safety.” (Robert)
• “It requires deep self-awareness and real authenticity to be the type of leader you actually are … If I don’t understand my values and why they are my values, I’m showing up as a completely different type of leader.” (Robert)
• “We make mistakes. We review them. We don’t make them again. We focus on the things we control, not the things we don’t control.” (Robert)
• “What’s cool is that emotional capacity is how you react to challenging situations. It’s your emotional mindset. It comes as resilience, hope, pride, self-confidence, optimism in the face of really difficult circumstances.” (Chris)
• “When you can assign a list of positive benefits to a negative autobiographical experience and give gratitude to it and make it part of your story, it becomes the best thing that ever happened to you.” (Chris)
• “Don’t allow a focus on external variables … If a sales team lost a deal, it should not be about the competitor’s price. It should be about how we showed up, were we prepared, what was the feedback? Things that you can control.” (Robert) 
• “It takes a great level of discernment to look within and acknowledge the things that you can actually control and should change. That takes wisdom.” (Chris)

LINKS/FURTHER RESOURCES:

• Find all of Robert’s books at this link.
• Learn more about the Anatomy of Peace at The Arbinger Institute.
• Discover Robert’s course on expanding core capacities here.
• Find out more about Alcoholics Anonymous’s Serenity Prayer.
• About "Grateful Processing," a concept developed by Prof. Phillip Watkins of Eastern Washington University.

ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Robert Glazer is a serial entrepreneur, award-winning executive, bestselling author, and keynote speaker. Founder and Board Chairman of global partnership marketing agency Acceleration Partners, he has significant experience in digital monetization, affiliate & partner marketing, customer acquisition, e-commerce, and direct-to-consumer marketing. He has served as a board member and advisor to many high-growth companies in the e-commerce and marketing verticals. Bob shares his ideas and insights via Friday Forward, a popular weekly inspirational newsletter that reaches more than 300,000 individuals and business leaders across 60+ countries. He is a #1 Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and international bestselling author of five books: Elevate, Friday Forward, Performance Partnerships, Moving to Outomes, and How to Thrive in the Virtual Workplace. He has also been columnist for Inc., Forbes, and Harvard Business Review, and hosts the Elevate Podcast, a top podcast for entrepreneurship in more than 20 countries.

 

FOLLOW ROBERT:

WEBSITE | LINKEDIN | INSTAGRAM| PODCAST

ABOUT OUR HOST:

Chris Schembra is a philosopher, question asker and facilitator. He's a columnist at Rolling Stone magazine, USA Today calls him their "Gratitude Guru" and he's spent the last six years traveling around the world helping people connect in meaningful ways. As the offshoot of his #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling book, "Gratitude Through Hard Times: Finding Positive Benefits Through Our Darkest Hours,"he uses this podcast to blend ancient stoic philosophy and modern-day science to teach how the principles of gratitude can be used to help people get through their hard times.

FOLLOW CHRIS:

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Dear You! On this episode of Gratitude Through Hard Times an immigration activist and legal powerhouse teaches us how to write letters to the selves we intend to become. Hillary Walsh, President and Founder of New Frontier Immigration Law, explains how this simple tool can help us determine – and then manifest – the things we want to be, do and have. It starts with articulating a vision – then identifying the week-by-week, month-by-month steps necessary to make it a reality. It’s exactly this kind of focused goal-setting that has driven Hillary’s growing legal advisory firm and foundation. You’ll learn how she transcended childhood abuse, as well as stints in foster care and lockup, to become a crusader for the rights of those without a voice – victims of domestic violence, human trafficking and a broken immigration system. Gratitude is at the root of Hillary’s ambitious goal to empower marginalized people – the core mission that animates her whole team at New Frontier Immigration Law on even the toughest of days. Says Hillary: “The only way out of a ditch is not to dig more. It’s not to have someone pull you out. It’s up to you to levitate out.” Now there’s a thought for your next motivational letter!

Did you try our 60-second letter-writing exercise? If you’d like to share the thoughts you composed while listening to this episode, we’d love for you to send them to us via this contact.

The short documentary at this link will give you the overview on Hillary’s work and the passion she brings to immigration law. Click here if you’re interested in learning more about the goal-setting retreats we discussed.

If you’d like to learn more about Chris and his 7:47 Virtual Gratitude Experience or subscribe to our newsletter, please visit this link.

Click hereto hear more fascinating conversations with Fortune 500 CEOs, professional athletes and entertainerswho have shared their human stories on Gratitude Through Hard Times.

KEY TOPICS:

• If you could give credit or thanks to one person in your life that you don’t give enough credit or enough thanks to – that you’ve never thought to thank – who would that be? Her longtime friend Lisa, a beauty pageant mentor who supported Hillary as a feisty teen-age competitor in pursuit of scholarship money. Decades later, it stands as “the most authentic demonstration of friendship and love” Hillary has ever known.
• Lonely at the Top: Bringing the intensity required to achievement and innovation can predispose judgment, projection and high expectations that not everyone shares.
• How Hillary Stays Committed: Ongoing goal-setting and targeted plans are key, as well as detailed letters to her future self that articulate concrete goals.
• New Frontier University: The platform, which will offer revolutionary access to education and skills, launches in the next six months.
• A Letter to Myself in Sixty Seconds:
  • Investigate/Determine the things you want to be, do and have.
  • Who do you want on your team five years from now?
  • Imagine the gift you want to have cultivated five years from now.
  • Include specific data and personal targets, then build backwards month by month, week by week.
  • Speak your desires directly to the universe.
  • Put it in writing: “Dear (Me), It’s 2028 and I’m so glad I’ve been able to x,y and z.”
• New Frontier’s Big-Picture Goals: 
  • To serve and support those who have experienced domestic violence and human trafficking.
  • To compensate for shortcomings in the social welfare system.
  • To provide options and a voice to undocumented people who are victims.
  • To create a new line of defense for those who have suffered trafficking.
• Hillary’s Ups & Downs:
  • Challenge: Hiring and identifying partners has been an “intense learning journey.”
  • Challenge: Losing confidence when senior hires “tank your leadership culture.”
  • Victory: The funny, irreverent, high-energy team she has assembled.
• A Great Fix for Down Moments: Grab a piece of paper and jot down three things you have to celebrate and ask others around you to do the same. Try creating a dedicated Slack channel! You’ll feel gratitude shift the energy!
• Parting Thought: If you feel like your team isn’t working for you, then it’s time to stop and take stock. Whenever you think your people are your problem, it’s because you’re out of alignment with your own core values!

QUOTABLE

• “I hate pretending because authenticity is one of my core values.” (Hillary)
• “I’ve accepted that my life is going to be very out of balance. I think seeking balance is the enemy of innovation and achievement.” (Hillary)
• “I’m very dissatisfied, which is why I want to change so much and make a really lasting impact that outlives me.” (Hillary)
• “I don’t need people to know my name when I’m gone, but I need the shit that I did now to matter in three generations.” (Hillary)
• “You’re fighting for something really, really, really big and meeting resistance. And that resistance comes in the form of loneliness … self-doubt … Imposter Syndrome … pleasing others and challenging your ability to do what you need to get done.” (Chris)
• “As I started figuring out the ‘what’ I wanted to do, the ‘who’ that was going to make it happen started showing up in my life.” (Hillary)
• “We get so caught up in the minutiae. We are very short term-oriented people, but we can pause and broaden our perspectives.” (Chris)
• “Long-term thinking helps us to remember in the short term why we’re doing things. It’s a reminder of core values.” (Hillary)
• “Gratitude is not just about being grateful for positive things ... It can be used to help pick you up out of a hole, to find positive benefits in negative autobiographical experience. It’s a tool for resilience, self-confidence, self-efficacy.” (Chris)
• “You think you’ve got it all figured out and then your business levels your ego in this exhilarating but exhausting kind of way.” (Hillary)
• “The only way out of a ditch is not to dig more. It’s not to have someone pull you out. It’s for you to levitate out.” (Hillary)
• “Money won’t solve every problem, but having the comfort of knowing you consistently have enough and that you can change your trajectory … is a gamechanger.” (Hillary)
• “In order to see the change you want to see in others, first you have to make change within yourself … It’s not about changing others. It’s about clearing up your side of the street.” (Chris)

LINKS/FURTHER RESOURCES:

• "Lonely at the Top: The High Cost of Men's Success," by Thomas E. Joiner.
• About The One Thing goal-setting retreats and the book by the same name.
• View Will Smith’s Academy Award-winning performance in "King Richard."
• "The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World," by Dorie Clark.
• More about Marty Seligman’s Theory of Positive Psychology.
• "Find Your Freedom: Financial Freedom for a Life on Purpose," by Jamie P. Hopkins.
• About The Arbinger Institute’s "Anatomy of Peace."

ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Hillary Walsh helps immigrants live free in the United States. Through her experiences of suffering child abuse, being put in foster care and serving a stint in lockup, Hillary became committed to fighting for the rights of others. In the past 10+ years of practicing immigration law, she’s represented clients before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of Nevada, the Ninth, Sixth, and Fifth Circuit Courts of Appeals, the Board of Immigration Appeals and immigration courts nationwide. Hillary is also a mother of four, a military wife, a law professor, a TEDx speaker, and an award-winning immigration lawyer. 

FOLLOW OUR GUEST:

WEBSITE | LINKEDIN | INSTAGRAM| YOUTUBE

ABOUT OUR HOST:

Chris Schembra is a philosopher, question asker and facilitator. He's a columnist at Rolling Stone magazine, USA Today calls him their "Gratitude Guru" and he's spent the last six years traveling around the world helping people connect in meaningful ways. As the offshoot of his #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling book, "Gratitude Through Hard Times: Finding Positive Benefits Through Our Darkest Hours,"he uses this podcast to blend ancient stoic philosophy and modern-day science to teach how the principles of gratitude can be used to help people get through their hard times.

FOLLOW CHRIS:

WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | LINKEDIN | BOOKS

What is it about building wealth that is so fraught? As we learn on this episode of Gratitude Through Hard Times, our relationships with money are deeply rooted in narratives that map back to our childhoods and often are mired in confusion or trauma. Lifting the veil on our complex dance with financial planning, respected industry leader Jamie Hopkins, Managing Partner of Wealth Solutions at the Carson Group, is sharing with Host Chris Schembra the framework on which he has built his latest bestselling book  "Find Your Freedom: Financial Planning for a Life on Purpose." Through the course of 23 carefully choreographed and info-packed chapters, we learn about some of the most common roadblocks to wealth building, how our personal money stories shape financial destiny and why it’s so important  to challenge patterns of thought that do not serve. This lively conversation touches on everything from the importance of selfishness to the power of community to the multidimensional nature of giving. Most importantly, Jamie underscores how truly rich, impactful lives start at the core of who we are – with what we believe we deserve. “You are worthy of great financial freedom. That is the most important thing,” says our guest, whose work is all about helping clients make the shift. “If you don’t believe that, all the other work, the investment strategy and tax tactics will be siloed off from the impact and your true meaning.” If – like so many of us – you’re stuck in scarcity, this episode is your first step towards abundance!

Did you know that we move better when we move within communities that align with our goals and support integral decision-making? Click here to get started exploring the important research and strategies featured in Jamie’s bestselling books, "Rewirement: Rewiring The Way You Think About Retirement!" and "Find Your Freedom: Financial Planning for a Life on Purpose."

If you’d like to learn more about Chris and his 7:47 Virtual Gratitude Experience, please visit this link. And clickhereto listen to previous episodes of Gratitude Through Hard Times.

KEY TOPICS:

• If you could give credit or thanks to one person in your life that you don’t give enough credit or thanks – have never thought to thank – who would you give that credit and thanks to? Two new friends who came into Jamie’s life unexpectedly and without any forced ties or premeditated reasons for being in each other’s orbits.
• Find Your Freedom: About the Carson Group’s brand evolution and focus on building wealth and creating impact through a codified financial blueprinting process.
• "Find Your Freedom: Financial Planning for a Life on Purpose:"How Jamie’s latest book reflects a macroeconomic movement towards more sustainable – and human-centric – market economies and financial planning as a profession.
• The Monster of Wall Street: Jamie takes a brief look back at his work on the Bernie Madoff case and the ways in which that “complete abuse of trust” shaped his career.
• Trust Is Everything: Why good faith is essential to the healthy, collaborative advisory relationships Jamie believes must extend across the entire financial planning industry.
• It Starts With Our Stories: Jamie shares the trauma central to his childhood, a working-class upbringing upended when his father died unexpectedly in a construction accident.
• Giving As a Mask: A look at some of the complex dynamics that can occur when we dissect the motivations and compensations associated with gifts and philanthropy.
• Distinguishing How We Give:
  • As the outgrowth (very often reflexive, even non-sensical) of a habit.
  • As the communication and manifestation of a Love Language.
• Two Key Chapters:
  • Chapter 23: Celebrate (and show gratitude) for your accomplishments for continued success. It’s key to maintaining positivity and momentum.
  • Chapter 20: The Power of Community. A look at why having a network that reinforces your values and long-term goals fosters kinder lives and better decision-making.
• Parting Words of Advice: You are worthy! Even if a sense of financial scarcity lurks, you have it within your power to claim impact, meaning and value. And if you struggle with it? That’s okay, too. You are in good company!

QUOTABLE

• “Part of your personality is to help those around you succeed by challenging the system.” (Chris)
• “I like this notion of having friends that don’t rely on me for money, aren’t asking me for things and (came into my life) serendipitously.” (Jamie)
• “(At Carson Group) we noticed that people the last couple of years were starting to crave more than a spreadsheet … They were craving meaning and impact on the world.” (Jamie)
• “(You) can have a lot of success and still live in fear … and I think it’s a natural fear that a lot of people hold from a scarcity background.” (Jamie)
• “Generally speaking, everybody make selfish decisions … That doesn’t mean that there aren’t some selfless acts out there, but I think most decisions are based around this core sense of ourselves and survival.” (Jamie)
• “You’ve got to be a little bit selfish sometimes and pay yourself first so that by the end of your career you’ve received the dividends of these little selfish acts of paying yourself along the way.” (Chris)
• “It’s not about the numbers. It’s about what we are able to do … That’s what financial planning and freedom is about for most people.” (Jamie)
• “We are not just individuals on an island. We are part of a community. We crave it and actually make better decisions inside of communities.” (Jamie)
• “As we become closer to more people, we actually make more altruistic and bigger picture decisions. When we become more isolated we actually make more selfish decisions.” (Jamie)
• “You are not determined by your net worth or your intellect or the job you have or even who’s around you. Your success is determined by whether or not you can have a positive mental attitude and believe that you are worthy.” (Chris)
• “You are worthy of great financial freedom. That is the most important thing … If you don’t believe that, all the other work, investment strategy and tax tactics will be siloed off from the impact and your true meaning.” (Jamie)
• “I’ve seen a lot of people – a lot of you listeners with some of the best networks and intellect in the world – completely squander it because you didn’t believe that you were worthy of it.” (Chris)
• “A lot of you are fast-growth founders. You need to be planning for your own personal retirement, even in the midst of trying to plan on the financial well-being of your company. You need to be doing both at once.” (Chris)

RELEVANT LINKS:

• Click here for Episode #72, “Learning from Failure,” featuring Ron Carlson.
• All about the Carson Group’s “Blueprinting” process at this link.
• Check out the new Netflix docuseries about Bernie Madoff here.
• Scientific research about why "Birds Fly Faster in Flocks."

ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Jamie Hopkins is the Managing Partner of Wealth Solutions at Carson Group, a national wealth management firm that offers coaching and partnership to financial advisors. A nationally recognized writer, researcher and educator, Jamie is a regular contributor for Forbes, InvestmentNews and MarketWatch. He has been published in dozens of financial, educational and legal journals, and he’s the media’s go-to expert on retirement income planning and tax law.

FOLLOW Jamie:

WEBSITE | LINKEDIN | TWITTER

ABOUT OUR HOST:

Chris Schembra is a philosopher, question asker and facilitator. He's a columnist at Rolling Stone magazine, USA Today calls him their "Gratitude Guru" and he's spent the last six years traveling around the world helping people connect in meaningful ways. As the offshoot of his #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling book, "Gratitude Through Hard Times: Finding Positive Benefits Through Our Darkest Hours,"he uses this podcast to blend ancient stoic philosophy and modern-day science to teach how the principles of gratitude can be used to help people get through their hard times.

FOLLOW CHRIS:

WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | LINKEDIN | BOOKS

As Host Chris Schembra reminds us at the close of this episode of Gratitude Through Hard Times, it’s never too late to learn something new – IF we’re willing to take a pause, step back and offer ourselves grace. And few people embody this practice more vividly than his guest, Allison Hare, who is redefining what it looks like to be a so-called late bloomer. As the host of “Late Learner,” a popular podcast (formerly known as Culture Changers) that explores what it means to open up to new things at any stage of life, she encourages us to embrace spontaneity, authenticity and the unexpected. Having grown up programmed from childhood to be hard-charging, self-supporting and financially aspirational, Allison spent many years as a highly successful sales executive. Problem was, over time, the path she was on was depleting her – and burning through her creative energy. It wasn’t easy to shake everything up and risk her secure status quo, but the outcome is undeniable. This is a woman who radiates joy and positivity. Today she is sharing that source of light by helping her clients, seminar participants and podcast listeners to get similarly unstuck. “It was an insane leap of faith when I made the decision not to make any decisions for the foreseeable future, until I could hear my own voice,” says Allison. She’s inviting us to much the same: Pause, get quiet and make space for that inner knowing and the integration of gratitude. Are you ready to celebrate not just goals achieved, but the journey itself? This conversation will give you great ideas and tips for doing exactly that!

Check out Allison’s upcoming Calm in the Chaos retreat experience or book a free discovery call with her at this link.

If you’d like to learn more about Chris and his 7:47 Virtual Gratitude Experience, please visit this link. 

And click here to listen to previous episodes of Gratitude Through Hard Times, featuring Fortune 500 CEOs, Academy Award winners, Grammy Award winners, Superbowl champions and more!

KEY TOPICS:

• Love/Hate: Allison loves being a host and invites guests on her show based on a gut instinct. What she least likes? When she comes across as … less than her sharpest!
• Mirroring as a Tool to Create More Meaningful Connection: About the neurological impact that occurs when you repeat the last three words spoken by the person with whom you’re in conversation. It makes them feel authentically heard!
• Signature Question Time: If you could give credit or thanks to one person in your life that you don’t give enough credit or thanks to – that you’ve never thought to thank – who would that be? Herself! It feels self-indulgent but it’s true, and a source of struggle.
• Cultural reasons why we can be so resistant to feeling gratitude towards ourselves:
  • Gendered upbringing that emphasizes modesty for women.
  • Biblical emphasis on not being boastful.
  • Social norms that frown upon being “conceited.”
• I’ll-Be-Grateful-When Syndrome: By tying our ability to feel gratitude and be happy to achieving certain metrics we set for ourselves tends to undermine good feeling available to us all along the journey.
• Comparing your success to the success of others is a recipe for perpetual ingratitude.
• Allison’s Gratitude Inventory:
  • Rest, pause and reflection.
  • Taking the time and space to get quiet enough to hear her own voice.
  • Consciously detaching from deeply ingrained messages that did not serve.
  • Claiming freedom.
• The No. 1 Testimonial from Participants in Chris’s Gratitude Experience: This was a space for me to pause, reflect and connect. Clarity is self-empowering!
• Words of Wisdom: Let it be easy! Move towards places with the least resistance.
• Allison’s New Direction:
  • Her successful “Culture Changers” podcast has been rebranded “Late Learners.”
  • She’s leaning into sharing her journey out of corporate America and into self-discovery and lifelong learning.
  • The new roadmap is a work in progress whose DNA is a sense of wonder.
  • It’s all about the question: What can happen when you head in a new direction?
  • A focus on teaching herself and others to take a brand new path – or embark on no path at all and just see what comes along!
  • A sense of wonder and surprise prepares the way for unexpected delight.
• Feeling Stuck? Try This Simple Exercise: Break out of routine and instead pursue an “unplanned plan,” opening up to something new or spontaneous! (Chris and Allison share a very recent such adventure and how it lit them up!)

QUOTABLE

• “The thing that once got you in trouble is also the thing that helps you out so much – being a good mirror of what’s happening.” (Chris)

• “In my head, if I’m not further along (my entrepreneurial journey) then I don’t have a right to trust me yet … and in the process give up my own power.” (Allison)

• “What an interesting thing that we as a society as a whole are so bad at giving ourselves gratitude.” (Chris)

• “It’s very easy when you have big goals and big dreams … to measure your progress or happiness or gratitude on whether you’ve achieved that or not.” (Chris)

• “My value was truly wrapped around my productivity, my earning, my ability to stand on my own two feet without a man … and it was an insane leap of faith when I made the decision not to make any decisions for the foreseeable future, until I could hear my own voice.” (Allison)

• “One of the biggest lessons over the past (almost) year is that the harder I run, the harder I get yanked back … It’s almost like I’m trying to microwave something that requires baking.” (Allison)

• “Money and prosperity and all of those things don’t have to be exclusive to something that I hate. It’s just finding the right combination and giving myself freedom and space to figure out and listen to my body.” (Allison)

• “My mission has always been, If you feel like you’re stuck, it doesn’t mean that you have to quit your job … but it does mean taking a new path, a new pivot, a new direction.” (Allison)

RELEVANT LINKS/FURTHER RESOURCES:

• "Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as If Your Life Depended On it,"by Chris Voss.
• "Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones,"by James Clear.
• Perfect locale for an “unplanned plan”: Just Add Honey.

ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Allison helps Entrepreneurs, Executives, and Business Professionals Disrupt the Status Quo so that they can create a better tomorrow. She’s also a podcast host and producer, most recently at the Late Learner Podcast, which is ranked top 1.5% worldwide and was voted the Top Podcast in Atlanta Magazine of Dec 2022. She also authors the Allison's Journal blog, 

FOLLOW ALLISON:

WEBSITE | LINKEDIN | TWITTER|INSTAGRAM

ABOUT OUR HOST:

Chris Schembra is a philosopher, question asker and facilitator. He's a columnist at Rolling Stone magazine, USA Today calls him their "Gratitude Guru" and he's spent the last six years traveling around the world helping people connect in meaningful ways. As the offshoot of his #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling book, "Gratitude Through Hard Times: Finding Positive Benefits Through Our Darkest Hours,"he uses this podcast to blend ancient stoic philosophy and modern-day science to teach how the principles of gratitude can be used to help people get through their hard times.

FOLLOW CHRIS:

WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | LINKEDIN | BOOKS

Passionate. Smart. Honest. Nice. These may not be your typically hard-charging business terms but for Chris Jackson, President at Stream Realty, they are bywords for long-term growth and success. As Host Chris Schembra’s guest on this episode of Gratitude Through Hard Times explains, the commercial real estate powerhouse has long prioritized a human-centric approach – with amazing results! Chris sand his team at Stream foster not only a healthy workplace culture but resilience and retention of top talent. From the most senior leadership to the most recent hire – the shared mission is all about emphasizing integrity, authenticity, family and loyalty to the brand. It’s clearly a recipe that’s working! Over the past 20 years, Chris and his team have built this privately held company into a $5.8 million revenue juggernaut with 294 million square feet of real estate under management around the nation. You’ll learn about Chris’s 25-year marriage, a partnership that exemplifies the power of unconditional support, as well as the priority he places on showcasing team members, clients and partners alike. And with his “eternal optimism,” Chris finds a silver lining in even the bumpiest of economic times. “Downturns are what hold the greatest opportunities,” he says. “If you treat downturns as an opportunity for growth and connection, you’ll build relationships that outlast any market cycle.” With its forward-looking workplace vision, Stream Realty challenges all of us to consider the power of making gratitude, empowerment and humility a core component of any business plan.

You can learn much more about Chris and what Stream Realty has to offer at this link.

If you’d like to learn more about Chris and his 7:47 Virtual Gratitude Experience, please visit this link. And click hereto listen to previous episodes of Gratitude Through Hard Times. 

KEY TOPICS:

• When a Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: About the art work on display in Stream’s HQ office – created by a broker and an embodiment of the human-centric, empowering ethos Chris promotes.
• The Signature Question: If you could give credit or thanks to one person in your life that you don’t give enough credit or thanks to – that you’ve never thought to thank – who would that be? Chris pays tribute to Heather, his wife of 25 years and the unconditional partnership they share.
• Understanding the Narrative! About the “Six Emotional Arcs” that define a gratifying story – and in particular the perennial “back and better than before” storyline.
• About how Chris learned to turn downtimes (such as pandemic) into an opportunity to cultivate trust, resilience and ultimately growth (by standing by the team and doing the next right thing).
• Why Stream Realty has come out of Covid19 and other challenging circumstances stronger than ever. The secret sauce? Integrity and a commitment to the entire team.
• Hard Lessons Never Go to Waste: Chris shares the story of how he turned an impulsive (and, it was quickly clear, also misguided) career move into a career-defining pivot that became his 20-year journey with Stream.
• Word to the Wise: Eagerness, change and passion are great. But check the impulsivity!
• Thoughts and feelings that fuel ingratitude:
  • Anxiety.
  • Fear.
  • Guilt.
  • Anger.
  • Shame.
  • Regret.
  • Conflict.
• Thoughts and feelings that fuel gratitude:
  • Empathy.
  • Courage.
  • Compassion.
  • Curiosity.
  • Action.
  • Innovation.
• How “eternal optimism” shapes Chris’s leadership style and infuses it with:
  • Empathy.
  • Gratitude.
  • Awareness of the contributions of others.
  • Ability to celebrate and share the spotlight with others.
• About the core values (compassion, empathy and empowerment) central to the growth culture that supports a diverse group of 1,400 Stream employees nationally.
• Striking the Balance: Chris uses sports as a metaphor for knowing when to celebrate, when to regroup and how to keep the focus on an overall winning record year over year.
• Giving Up Control to Get Control: Myriad outside forces shape the real estate market, but Chris advocates taking charge of those things you can, like:
  • Your attitude.
  • How you treat one another.
  • Your effort.
• Top Tips for People Launching their Careers:
  • Find a company whose values align with your own.
  • Prioritize environments that will support growth and advancement.
  • Look for leaders who will champion and promote you.
• How Gratitude Shows Up with Stream’s Clients  and Partners: 
  • Constant awareness that without their trust and confidence, there is no Stream.
  • Long-term relationships based on reciprocal integrity and loyalty.
• About what Stream has to offer that publicly traded corporations (beholden to stockholders first) cannot in terms of prioritizing the team.
• Credit Where It’s Due: Taking note of Chris’s eagerness and the ease with which he gives praise to and calls out by name co-workers as well as customers and partners.
• What Chris is Grateful For:
  • Incredible relationships – family, friends and colleagues.
  • An opportunity to champion a company and industry he loves.
  • The journey ahead and blessings he has known along the road so far.
• In Closing: What Stream Realty and its vision offer us as we reassess today’s market, career opportunities and the pursuit of empathic, empowering workplace cultures!

QUOTABLE

• “It’s a crazy world out there … but we can hopefully inspire an attitude of curiosity, flow, innovation, so many amazing things!” (Chris S.)
• “Downturns are what hold the greatest opportunities. If you treat downturns as an opportunity for growth and connection, you’ll build relationships that outlast any market cycle.” (Chris S.)
• “We’re fortunate to be a privately owned company so we can do what we want, when we want and do right by our people. And the consequence of that was that our people … saw us do the right thing (curing pandemic) in terms of taking care of people and their families.” (Chris J.)
• “We’ve always come out of (setbacks) stronger because our people trust us more; they feel safe and the foundation we’re all standing on is that much better.” (Chris J.)
• “If you wake up and dwell on the negative, you are plagued. You are falling victim of ingratitude. If you’re waking up and appreciating the good, you are maintaining an attitude of gratitude.” (Chris S.)
• “Being a great leader is all about empathy and gratitude. Without those two characteristics, you’re not able to recognize the qualities, skills and contributions of the other members of your team.” (Chris J.)
• “That’s the thing with real estate. You can only control what you can control. There are outside forces that you have no control over. (But) you can control your attitude, how you treat one another, your effort.” (Chris J.)
• “Without our customers and partners, we would cease to exist. We would have no reason to be here … They’ve trusted us with big and important decisions.” (Chris J.)
• “This is the leader of a very large company telling you how they built a culture of recognition and appreciation – of gratitude – and how that’s really fueled a lot of their success.” (Chris S.)

LINKS/FURTHER RESOURCES:

• Click here to learn more about the artwork by Adam Jones, a senior VP at Stream Realty.
• More about author Kurt Vonnegut’s "Six Emotional Arcs of Storytelling."

ABOUT OUR GUEST:

With 25 years of experience in commercial real estate, Chris serves as President of Stream Realty Partners, overseeing the company’s business units and driving the growth and expansion of Stream’s businesses nationally. Stream is one of the fastest-growing commercial real estate firms in the country with offices nationwide, over 250,000,000 square feet of commercial buildings under leasing and/or management, and $3.3 billion in transaction volume annually.

FOLLOW Chris:

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ABOUT OUR HOST:

Chris Schembra is a philosopher, question asker and facilitator. He's a columnist at Rolling Stone magazine, USA Today calls him their "Gratitude Guru" and he's spent the last six years traveling around the world helping people connect in meaningful ways. As the offshoot of his #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling book, "Gratitude Through Hard Times: Finding Positive Benefits Through Our Darkest Hours,"he uses this podcast to blend ancient stoic philosophy and modern-day science to teach how the principles of gratitude can be used to help people get through their hard times.

FOLLOW CHRIS:

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As Chris Schembra’s guest on this episode of Gratitude Through Hard Times demonstrates every day, bringing an attitude of gratitude to the sales process fosters the kinds of quality relationships that are foundational to long-term success. Alex Ridder, VP for Global Accounts at The Adecco Group in Switzerland, has helped make the $20 billion-a-year global recruitment company the powerhouse that it is by emphasizing connection. And there’s nothing squishy about it! As you’ll hear highlighted throughout the show, studies and research clearly demonstrate that emotion and promotion go hand-in-hand. Chris and Alex talk about the importance of bringing empathy into the workplace, whether through expressing appreciation for team members’ efforts or building trust relationships with clients. Alex explains why transactional sales are self-limiting and while holding space for people to explore pain points and reach out for support opens up infinite consultative possibility. Human interaction, these two gratitude gurus agree, is a key differentiator in the marketplace. In a world of automation and depersonalization, it's our ability to offer openness and trust that sets us apart – professionally as well as personally. Tune in to learn about the hard science that backs up the power of gratitude to build community, secure relationships and cement positive outcomes all the way around. “I don’t believe gratitude has a finite limit,” says Alex, who is also an Ambassador to Adecco’s Win4Youth initiative. “Interpersonal conversation creates a much more transparent and joyous conversation … which then leads to greater business outcomes.”

If you enjoyed this episode and would like to learn more about Chris and his 7:47 Virtual Gratitude Experience, please visit this link. And click here to listen to previous episodes of Gratitude Through Hard Times.

KEY TOPICS:

• If you could give credit or thanks to one person in your life that you don’t give enough credit or thanks to – that you’ve never thought to thank – who would that be? While there are numerous people to thank on a regular basis, it’s his dad Rick that Alex can never thank enough. 
• Although “all about the numbers” as a sales guy, gratitude plays a prominent role in Alex’s life that can’t be quantified. It’s infinite!
• No Destination: There is no perfect thank-you note or endpoint for expressing gratitude. It’s an ongoing journey without specific metrics or obligatory reciprocity.
• Authentic emotion is a key ingredient when communicating gratitude. The practice isn’t meant to be a check-the-box, but an expression of something heartfelt and genuine.
• It’s a Fact: It feels good to give and to receive gratitude. Most people overestimate potential awkwardness and underestimate the good feelings they’ll experience.
• Gratitude in Groups: In addition to the pleasures of giving and receiving, an added element of gratification and teambuilding comes from witnessing such exchanges.
• Peer-to-Peer Gratitude: Make it a public event to encourage the free flow of generosity, trust and affirmation.
• About the Difference Between Being Grateful to Some Thing and Some One: It’s less about the transaction and more about the emotional journey.
• Here’s an exercise to try: When you think about the things for which you’re grateful, look for measurable, specifics to identify and articulate the why.
• About the Relationship Between Luck and Gratitude:
• Alex explains what he believes is the “soft correlation” between having a positive mentality, gratitude towards the people around you and positive outcomes.
• Chris explains that luck is what happens to you while gratitude is a perspective you embrace irrespective of what happens to you.
• How do you wake up and set intention for the day? Do you put gratitude front and center? The choice is yours – and the results undeniable!
• Emotion to Promotion: A Google study has demonstrated that long-term sales relationships thrive when they are based on mutual, reciprocal generosity and trust.
• Why human interaction is a key differentiator within hyper-competitive marketplaces:
• Personal touch helps uncover specific pain points.
• Personalized solutions distinguish themselves by not being homogenized.
• The stronger the relationship, the more likely a solution and sale emerge.
• How empathy and holistic relationships – which springs from gratitude – are game-changing superpowers when injected into the buying/selling process.
• About sharing market insights that Adecco clients can use to build community and connect in meaningful ways.
• Why eliciting gratitude also often creates serendipitous interpersonal connections that knit teams together through psychological safety and trust.
• Melding Atelic with Telic: The importance of immersing in activities as both journey and destination, integrating gratitude along the path to achievement and connection.

QUOTABLE

• “There’s an infinity of gratefulness that you have and as you continue to appreciate what people have done for you … I don’t believe gratitude has a finite limit.” (Alex)
• “When your gratitude practice is mainly formulaic or commoditized, it’s doing good but not using gratitude to its fullest.” (Chris)
• “We advocate giving gratitude when you genuinely want to give gratitude, when you genuinely feel the emotion.” (Chris)
• “There is a mutual gratification in giving and receiving gratitude in an altruistic way.” (Alex)
• “To be grateful is to be grateful to someone. Be grateful for the person behind the thing you are grateful for in a measurable and specific way.” (Chris)
• “A positive attitude that includes a grateful disposition towards others is going to lead to more positive interactions with others, which others might skew as lucky.” (Alex)
• Gratitude is a choice and perspective. You can either wake up in the morning and dwell on the negative or wake up in the morning and appreciate the good.” (Chris)
• “It’s hard to architect luck but it’s very easy to architect gratitude. The choice is yours.” (Chris)
• “Showing gratitude can be a strong way of starting the empathy conversation and also to really allow for a trusting environment.” (Alex)
• “Interpersonal conversation creates a much more transparent and joyous conversation for everyone in general, which then leads to greater business outcomes – if I’m putting my sales hat back on.” (Alex)

LINKS/FURTHER RESOURCES:

• More about Sara Algoe's research on the power of witnessing gratitude.
• "I Want to Thank You: How a Year of Gratitude Can Bring Joy and Meaning in a Disconnected World,"by Gina Hamadey Bergman.
• Think With Google: "Promotion to Emotion: Connecting B2B Customers to Brands."
• About the community engagement and advocacy work of Jeni Asaba at Jamf, who creates affinity groups for Apple-focused IT admins.

ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Alex is the Vice President for Global Accounts at The Adecco Group in Switzerland, where he takes a people-first approach to enhance client experiences through strategic and consultative engagements. As the world’s leading workforce solutions company, Adecco offers flexible and permanent candidate placement, outsourcing and managed services across all sectors. Alex is deeply involved with Win4Youth the global charitable initiative of the Adecco Group. This programme encourages people throughout the world to be healthy, and through their healthy activity, the company responds with millions in donations supporting youth. 

FOLLOW ALEX:

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ABOUT OUR HOST:

Chris Schembra is a philosopher, question asker and facilitator. He's a columnist at Rolling Stone magazine, USA Today calls him their "Gratitude Guru" and he's spent the last six years traveling around the world helping people connect in meaningful ways. As the offshoot of his #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling book, "Gratitude Through Hard Times: Finding Positive Benefits Through Our Darkest Hours,"he uses this podcast to blend ancient stoic philosophy and modern-day science to teach how the principles of gratitude can be used to help people get through their hard times.

FOLLOW CHRIS:

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What if everyone’s overarching go-to-market strategy were kindness? Well, for Host Chris Schembra’s guest on this episode of Gratitude Through Hard Times, it’s a concept that has been central to building a $200 million company. CEO Sam Jacobs launched Pavilion, his membership-based leadership community, after coming to a deep understanding of something very basic: We start to gain when we learn to let go. He is sharing with us the human-centric elements that are foundational not only for successful business ventures but for successful (i.e. peaceful and meaningful) lives. Sam explains how he moved away from grasping and attachment to outcomes in favor of something more authentic expansive. You’ll come away from this heart-centered conversation with a clear understanding of the interplay between how we talk to ourselves and what we offer the world; why failure can be our friend and how to take a long-term approach that replaces the transactional with ongoing connectedness, personal fulfillment and long-term business growth.

Sam founded Pavilion in 2016 as a support network for revenue leaders and has since opened chapters globally, establishing a robust platform for peer-to-peer connection, training, development and career resources for all high-growth professionals. Most recently, Sam is out with a new book that will change the way you think about engaging with the marketplace, whether as a corporate employee or aspiring entrepreneur. Pick up Wall Street Journal bestseller "Kind Folks Finish First: The Considerate Path to Success in Business and Life"and you won’t be able to put it down!

If you’d like to learn more about Host Chris Schembra and his 7:47 Virtual Gratitude Experience, please visit this link. And click here to listen to previous episodes of Gratitude Through Hard Times.

KEY TOPICS:

• What’s a moment of adversity that you’ve overcome in your life or career that you’re actually grateful for? After four firings from five jobs in a short period of time, Sam seized an opportunity to change his trajectory and patterns of thought/behavior.
• Ultimate Job Satisfaction: Knowing how to generate happiness and a sense of peace.
• About how high participation and low attachment correlates with a universal flow of abundance in our direction.
• Negotiation as a career hack (and source of protection) amidst constant turnover:
• Do your due diligence.
• Pre-negotiate your severance.
• Be realistic about the shifts that happen after the honeymoon phase.
• Sam Defines Success Based on Three Key Elements:
• What you’re good at.
• What you’re (truly) interested in doing.
• Where the market is moving.
• About Pavilion’s evolution, based on letting go of pre-conceived notions and creating self-sustaining revenue as well as a source of kindness and light in the world.
• Contemplating an entrepreneurial risk? Consider what might happen when you stop giving all your best ideas (and energy) to someone else’s enterprise.
• Sam reflects on the agility required to move with markets, keeping fluid and aligning through empathy with what’s happening in real time (as Pavilion did while riding the waves of pandemic)
• Sam’s Principles for Kindness – and Success:
• Thinking long-term rather than transactionally builds connection.
• Releasing attachment decreases neediness and increases openness to surprising outcomes.
• Winning every single negotiation isn’t the endgame. It’s about building relationships over time.
• Sam’s Formula: How to manifest $25 million in funding and a business valued at more than $200 million by emphasizing not what’s missing but the joy in what’s already here!
• Creating the Mental Attitude to Prevail:
• Don’t chase the dollar!
• Re-channel negativity (true or not) towards the big-picture goal.
• Change the negative narratives in your head.
• Retrain the Brain: Substitute affirmations and self-care for unkind mental tapes.
• It takes nothing from anyone else for us to be kind to ourselves!

QUOTABLE

• “What I expected when I started my career was that as you became more and more senior you achieve some level of stability, prosperity and independence but that was not happening for me.” (Sam)
• “Five years ago I decided … I cared more about a feeling of being independent, believing in myself, establishing some level of stability. What I most wanted was peace.” (Sam)
• “Gratitude is the frequency most harmonious with abundance.” (Sam) 
• “(Pre-negotiated severance) is not about the money, it’s about reducing the level of anxiety you have when you show up to work every day.”  (Sam)
• “When you work for somebody else you’re not even renting, you are selling – forever – your best ideas to somebody else.” (Sam)
• “If you can listen to what the market is telling you and try to respond and provide a solution rapidly, then you can be aligned with the market. It’s a process – not a static state.” (Sam)
• “It increases the likelihood that wonderful serendipity will happen when I don’t need anything specific to happen tomorrow.” (Sam)
• “I’m really good at being generous and thinking long-term … and it always has a way of coming back around.” (Chris)
• “I try to do the right thing and treat people well … I’ve left my mark on this planet and hopefully I’m only halfway done, so that’s something to be proud of.” (Sam)
• “One of the cool things you can do in life is to not be so goal- or purpose- or destination-oriented but just give yourself the chance to do nothing, take a walk in nature with no particular aim.” (Chris)

LINKS/FURTHER RESOURCES:

• "Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It," by Chris Voss.
• Click here to learn about the works of Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman. 
• "The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World," by Dorie Clark.
• "Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success," by Adam M. Grant.
• "The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself,"by Michael A. Singer.

ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Sam is focused on helping people unlock and achieve their professional potential. He has built Pavilion in order to help members, employees and stakeholders realize the greatness within themselves. Through its paid membership for leaders of all levels, Pavilion is dedicated to providing support, assistance, education, and career growth. A global organization with over 9,000 members and hubs in every major city, Pavilion is all about helping members (and their teams) perform better in their roles, develop the skills necessary to take the next step and expand their networks to create an engaged and supportive professional community. 

FOLLOW SAM:

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ABOUT OUR HOST:

Chris Schembra is a philosopher, question asker and facilitator. He's a columnist at Rolling Stone magazine, USA Today calls him their "Gratitude Guru" and he's spent the last six years traveling around the world helping people connect in meaningful ways. As the offshoot of his #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling book, "Gratitude Through Hard Times: Finding Positive Benefits Through Our Darkest Hours," he uses this podcast to blend ancient stoic philosophy and modern-day science to teach how the principles of gratitude can be used to help people get through their hard times.

FOLLOW CHRIS:

WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | LINKEDIN | BOOKS

This episode of Gratitude Through Hard Times features Josh Golden, CMO at the marketing powerhouse Quad, who is unpacking his special brand of digital marketing and communications magic. It’s no coincidence that he has blazed a trail by making transformational inroads at legacy companies like Xerox, Ad Age and NBC Universal. As he explains to Host Chris Schembra, Josh believes “when you connect people together and are a positive influence, they kind of want to do hard things!” This consummate connector shares with us the “why” that drives both his humanity and humility. As two A+ students of gratitude, Chris and Josh share insights into falling in love with what we do in life – an intentional process that can be cultivated with patience and kindness towards others as well as ourselves.

Enjoy this heartfelt conversation about the art and science behind effective leadership as well as the challenges Josh has navigated while acquiring the tools necessary to guide organizations – and inspire teams – to bring their best. Does that mean meeting fixed goals, one by one? Not necessarily! For Josh, who also hosts "Three Things I Know for Sure" and "Eureka," the emphasis – whatever the career or life context – has to start first with genuinely loving the process and enshrining collaboration as a living, breathing goal in and of itself. You’ll come away from this passionate exchange ready to double down on the kind of can-do attitude that inspires rapid-fire growth and steady satisfaction. Looking for motivation? This episode of Gratitude Through Hard Times will leave you fired up and ready to go!

Want to know more about the science and behavior that result from an attitude of gratitude? It’s all detailed in Chris’s book, "Gratitude Through Hard Times: Finding Positive Benefits Through Our Darkest Hours." 

If you’d like to learn more about Chris and his 7:47 Virtual Gratitude Experience, please visit this link. And click here to listen to previous episodes of Gratitude Through Hard Times.

KEY TOPICS:

• If you could give credit or thanks to one person in your life that you don’t give enough credit or thanks to – that you’ve never thought to thank – who would that be? Josh lives in a world of “a thousand thank-you notes,” never leaving his appreciation unspoken. 
• Points on the Compass: Josh holds a space of gratitude both for lessons learned from a person who treated him badly and a deep well of goodness bequeathed by his father.
• What Resonates: Josh makes a practice of observing leadership behaviors and noting what works – authenticity, emotion, humanity. That’s what gets people engaged!
• Solving Puzzles: Josh looks to untangle hard things and then invites others to come along with him in rising to the challenge!
• Transformational Leadership and how Josh got there:
• Honing his craft – communications and storytelling.
• Learning what it means to manage people – assembling the best possible team and inspiring them to do great work.
• Evolving a replicable plan that motivates talented teams to tackle challenge, growth and change.
• Maintaining a Positive Mindset: Why a can-do attitude leads to rapid-fire growth!
• How the best working relationships resemble a process of falling in love, working together to build upon something flawed but always beautiful.
• If you aren’t in love with what you’re doing in your day job, find that passion on the side and grow it into a deeper pursuit.
• You don’t have to quit your day job: Growing what lights you up professionally may take time and cultivation. It’s okay to pursue multiple paths, organically and at the same time.
• The Paradox of Goal Setting as a Philosophical Approach to Life:
• Measurable goals and activity drive dissatisfaction and disappointment. 
• An “atelic” mindset thrives on a love of doing rather than outcomes.
• Use Your Quiet Time! Josh uses moments of calm and focused, simple activity to clear his mind and reach next-level relaxation – and inspiration!
• Work In Progress: Optimal leadership starts with nurturing our own creativity and capacity through calm, reflection, gratitude and self-affirmation.

QUOTABLE

• “I don’t believe I could have gotten to where I’ve gotten without the people helping me.” (Josh)
• “I really get upset when I see a lack of justice in the world … It’s just so much better to be grateful and enthusiastic and positive. It’s so much better to be very rarely pointed.” (Josh)
• “When you connect people together and are a positive influence, they kind of want to do hard things!” (Josh)
• “Everyone wants their company to evolve. I just happen to be the marketer that they come to when it’s a task that’s achievable but needs the right motivation behind it.” (Josh)
• “If you fall in love with what you do … it’s this wonderful way to re-explore your own personal process.” (Josh)
• “If you can fall in love with your work, then it’s not really work. It’s like a great hobby that you’re getting paid for.” (Josh)
• “You’ve got to take care of that heart and soul within you in order to take care of someone else’s heart and soul, whether it’s your customer’s, a brand or a team you’re leading.” (Chris)
• “You can stay where you are – in hopefully a healthy and stable work environment – and develop your passion on the side but not put pressure on to monetize it.” (Chris)
• “If you are trying to win at each moment and get to the next plateau, you will be disappointed when you get there. There’s a let-down that happens actually.” (Josh)
• “The invention of a goal and the hitting of a goal in its own invention eliminates an activity that you love doing because you’ve just hit the goal.” (Chris)
• “The accomplishment of a goal is paradoxical because it robs you of something you love doing on a consistent basis.” (Chris)
• “The moments that I give myself when I’m not actively engaging … lets a secondary part of my brain that allows solutions to come to me.” (Josh)
• “In order to show up in an empathetic, curious, listening, humble and yet confident way for your team, you must do the good work on yourself – and appreciate the work that you do.” (Chris)
• “I love that a guru exists in the world who is letting us celebrate what I think is one of the most important characteristics we can offer: Feeling grateful.” (Josh)

LINKS/FURTHER RESOURCES:

• Learn more about Quad founder Harry Quadracci at this link.
• More about Stoicism and telic vs. atelic activity in this New York Times article.
• Two Great Books About Creativity and Time Management:
• "Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals," by Oliver Burkeman.
• "The Creative Curve: How to Develop the Right Idea at the Right Time," by Allen Gannett.
• All about Philip Watkins, a professor of Gratitude at Eastern Washington University and the power in assigning positive benefits while processing negative experiences.

ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Josh has had a high-profile career over two decades of award-winning experience in brand marketing, advertising, creative development, technology and production. Providing executive leadership across a wide array of businesses as a startup runner, publisher, agency & business leader, he maintains an entrepreneurial approach to grow brands, teams and revenue across multiple categories and geographies. 
 

FOLLOW JOSH:

WEBSITE | LINKEDIN | TWITTER

ABOUT OUR HOST:

Chris Schembra is a philosopher, question asker and facilitator. He's a columnist at Rolling Stone magazine, USA Today calls him their "Gratitude Guru" and he's spent the last six years traveling around the world helping people connect in meaningful ways. As the offshoot of his #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling book, "Gratitude Through Hard Times: Finding Positive Benefits Through Our Darkest Hours,"he uses this podcast to blend ancient stoic philosophy and modern-day science to teach how the principles of gratitude can be used to help people get through their hard times.

FOLLOW CHRIS:

WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | LINKEDIN | BOOKS

Even though he ran the sprint as a member of the track team at Cornell, Chris Schembra’s guest on this episode of Gratitude Through Hard Times looks at life as a marathon. Steven Izen, the hugely successful entrepreneur behind Lokai bracelets with meaning and plant-powered Elements Drinks, shares insights into how he has taken a personal obstacle (dyslexia) and leveraged it as a superpower and why giving his team time off on Fridays is good for both individual and corporate health. This far-ranging conversation takes a look at humility, balance and the importance of connection (especially in our often disconnected and remote post-pandemic world). You’ll enjoy learning about the alone-but-not-lonely practices that nourish Steven professional and personally as well as the power he has found in releasing attachment and emotional reaction to outcomes. He and Chris wrap up with a call to action: Energy is paramount! So remember always ton promote positivity and self-care for yourself and those around you. “If you are finding balance in the things that fill your bucket outside of work, in life,” says Steven, “you will be the best version of yourself.”

If you’d like to learn more about Chris and his 7:47 Virtual Gratitude Experience, please visit this link. And clickhereto listen to previous episodes of Gratitude Through Hard Times.

KEY TOPICS:

• If you could give credit or thanks to one person in your life that you don’t give enough credit or thanks to who would that be? Easy! That would be Mom, whom Steven thanks privately all the time, but never in professional contexts.
• Modeling Humility: Steven’s mother has always walked the walk by making other people’s needs a priority.
• A spirit of adventure and nod to the highs and lows inherent in life has infused Steven’s entrepreneurism since its inception as a tribute to a treasured grandfather’s diagnosis with Alzheimer’s – “the lowest low” he’d ever experienced.
• About building out www.lokai.comover the past decade, what fuels Steven’s bracelets with meaning and the ventures he has added to his portfolio.
• No Time for Doubters: Steven has been fortunate to have – and cultivate – a circle of supporters who appreciate his tenacity and work ethic.
• Steven and Chris share workarounds that have helped them manage (with great results) their respective dyslexia and ADHD.
• Obstacles as Advantages: How so-called weaknesses strengthen alternative muscles.
• From Mt. Everest to the Dead Sea: About blending the hopeful and humble; competitiveness and long-term averages.
• About recalibrating our understanding of balance. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and best fortified against burnout by incorporating all facets of personal health and well-being.
• Steven provides perspective on quick-hit entrepreneurism and the truth of what it takes to succeed in the long run – pursuing the journey, not the destination.
• Balance Fridays: Steven’s innovative (and humane) effort to provide team members time once a week to care for themselves physically, emotionally and practically.
• As a board member for the Make-a-Wish Foundation, Steven has had an opportunity to observe seasoned executives who are exemplars of work-life balance as well as purpose-driven values, priorities and decision-making.
• How to Get Out of Your Own Way: Neutralize emotion and attachment to outcomes!
• Human Connection is a central priority for Lokai, which is remote and thus requires an intentional commitment to team-building interactions.
• About the loneliness epidemic – chronic disconnection in a post-pandemic culture.
• Steven combats loneliness by embracing quality time communing with himself and focusing on a small, intimate group of close friends and family.
• Message for the Carols: Thanks to two moms from their sons!

QUOTABLE

• “A lot of the gratitude and purpose in giving back that I incorporate into everything I do comes from (my mother).” (Steven)
• “Everybody experiences highs and lows in life. It doesn’t matter your age, demographic, your income level.” (Steven)
• “I never let the dyslexia hinder my ability to succeed … and have always taken that mindset into everything I do, including business.” (Steven)
• “If I believe in something I’ll have to be stopped by a brick wall because I’ll do whatever it takes to make it happen.” (Steven)
• “If you are finding balance in the things that fill your bucket outside of work, in life, you will be the best version of yourself and be able to continue for as long as you want.” (Steven)
• “A connection to self is the thing that sometimes stands in the way of meaningful connection with others.” (Chris)
• “Energy is everything. What Steven helps you do through his bracelets is get energy … helps you find balance between the Mt. Everest of humility and the deep Dead Sea mud of hope.” (Chris)
• “Time is important. Money is important. Relationships are important. Energy is most important … You can get things done by being strategic, smart and doing things right.” (Chris)

LINKS/FURTHER RESOURCES:

• More about the Make-a-Wish Foundation
• About "The Loneliness Pandemic,"chronicled by Harvard Business Review.
• "Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals,"by Oliver Burkeman. (Chris reads an excerpt on page 155).
• More about Elements Drinks and Lokai.

ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Steven’s Lokai brand of beaded bracelets are on sale at more than 5,000 locations in 170 countries. The $18 collectible multicolored rubber bangles have been spotted on the wrists of athletes and celebs alike. Committed to giving 10% of net profits to charity, Steven has raised more than $9.4 million to date. He is also founder of Elements Drinks and serves on the board of the Make-a-Wish foundation.

FOLLOW STEVEN:

WEBSITE | LINKEDIN | INSTAGRAM

ABOUT OUR HOST:

Chris Schembra is a philosopher, question asker and facilitator. He's a columnist at Rolling Stone magazine, USA Today calls him their "Gratitude Guru" and he's spent the last six years traveling around the world helping people connect in meaningful ways. As the offshoot of his #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling book, "Gratitude Through Hard Times: Finding Positive Benefits Through Our Darkest Hours,"he uses this podcast to blend ancient stoic philosophy and modern-day science to teach how the principles of gratitude can be used to help people get through their hard times.

FOLLOW CHRIS:

WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | LINKEDIN | BOOKS

The data are in – and impressive! Plant therapy is incredibly healing, a documented anxiety reducer that can even ease depression. What is it about the power of putting our hands in the soil? Host Chris Schembra’s guest on this episode of Gratitude Through Hard Times illuminates the magic ingredient: The gratitude we cultivate when we stay in the present moment, which is the core mission of Founder Donna Letier’s experiential gardening company, Gardenuity. A hit especially with corporate leaders interested in promoting empathy and reflection among team members across the enterprise, Gardenuity offers a platform not only to focus and quiet our attention but also to access the joy to be found in the simple act of getting dirty. 

You’ll learn on this podcast about the complementary app Donna has developed specifically to help us stay in the now, where misting our plants and tending our gardens is a first step towards opening our hearts and bonding with others. “When you actually see and witness plants’ growth, it teaches you instinctively that we’re not alone; that everything is actually interconnected,” says Donna, whose vision for Gardenuity was sparked by a very personal story she is sharing with pride and joy. The much-studied benefits of nurturing plants as a form of cultivating personal engagement obviously resonates across the workplace, whether live or remote, since 85 percent of corporate clients rebook. At the intersection of gratitude and wellness, Donna’s beautiful direct-to-your-doorstep personal gardens occupy a space rooted in our mutual humanity and desire to connect. Accessibility to gratitude, thanks to Gardenuity, is now available to all of us in a gardening kit you’ll want to share with colleagues and friends!

Just click here if you’d like to get started with your garden today, at a special discount Donna has put together for friends of Gratitude Through Hard Times.
Many thanks to all our repeat visitors! Click here to listen to previous episodes of Gratitude Through Hard Times. We’ve got more than 200 in the archive and would love you to listen, rate and review! Your engagement, shares and comments mean the world! 

If you’d like to learn more about Chris and his 7:47 Virtual Gratitude Experience, please visit this link. And don’t forget to check out his bestselling book, "Gratitude Through Hard Times: Finding Positive Benefits Through Our Darkest Hours."

KEY TOPICS:

• About Gardenuity, which resides at the intersection between gardening and wellness. An experiential gardening company that delivers customized containers direct to your doorstep – and absolutely dominating the space.
• Opening Question for Donna: If you could give credit or thanks to one person in your life that you don’t give enough credit or thanks to – that you’ve never thought to thank – who would that be?
• Her husband Scott – who has given Donna encouragement just to show up as herself. No need for perfection! (He is terrible at receiving compliments, but deserves to hear them!)
• Praise is a love language easily silenced by consumer technology that can mute connection and access to the present moment. Gardening does just the opposite!
• Meaningful Moments of Pause: The wellness benefits derived from gardening don’t require devoting a whole weekend. All you need to do is get your hands dirty!
• In its mission to foster connection and accessibility to wellness across workplace cultures, Gardenuity takes a three-pronged approach: physical health, mental health and health of the planet.
• Donna’s daughter “Joyful Jillian” inspired Gardenuity through her perseverance and resilience in the face of significant special needs. She is the embodiment of gratitude.
• About the research that underscores the instinctive response humans have when they interact with gardening or nurture a plant of any kind: 
• Reduces anxiety by 63 percent.
• Reduces depression by 38 percent.
• Gratitude and anxiety can’t coexist psychologically. According to a recent study of 10,00 trauma patients, the anxiety level among 86 percent dropped drastically shortly after they placed their hands in the soil.
• A new study out of Australia highlights what the act of connecting with nature does from a mental health and resilience standpoint.
• What a Gardenuity “grow kit” looks like when it arrives at your door and the awesome app that walks even the most inexperienced gardeners through how to interact with dirt, assemble garden components – and stay mindful in the process!
• Chris’s “try this at home”: How about equipping team members across the enterprise with plants to share at a Monday morning all-hands hybrid meeting and have everyone write notes of gratitude into the group chat. The outcome? “Your team is going to be more creative, more empathetic, more innovative and work together better as a team.”
• Continuity and success are baked into Gardenuity because its app provides ongoing reminders and community around the act of tending our gardens, individually and collectively.
• How Gardenuity helps corporate teams connect through:
• An active onboarding process that includes live feedback.
• Conversation prompts about nature, which is a natural connector.
• Outdoor and indoor workshops, live and virtual, in which participants receive gardening kits, with everyone from execs to entry levels rolling up their sleeves.
• An amazing 85 percent rebooking rate!
• Learning to Listen Better. Donna reflects on how our ability to hear evolves through life:
• In our 20s we listen “to get ahead.” 
• In our 30s and 40s we listen in a hurry.
• In our 50s and beyond, we find and experience the joy of listening.
• Closing Thought: Gardening and Gratitude are intimately connected. If you want to get started on your Gardenuityjourney at a discount, Donna is offering Gratitude Through Hard Times viewers/listeners a discount at www.gardenuity.com/7:47.

QUOTABLE

• “I think gardening teaches you to be present. The similarities between gardening and gratitude and the science about how gardening grows gratitude is vast. I think we can all learn lessons from both.” (Donna)
• “Humility is not thinking bad of yourself or less of yourself. It’s just thinking about yourself less.” (Chris)
• “Our mission has been to make gardening and gardening experiences accessible to everybody.” (Donna)
• “Wellbeing must be accessible. You shouldn’t need to travel across town or show up to the office or dedicate your time outside of your own day-to-day ritual to receive the benefits of wellbeing.” (Chris)
• “When you actually see and witness plants’ growth, it teaches you instinctively that we’re not alone; that everything is actually interconnected.” (Donna)
• “A lot of amazing leaders are recognizing that if we give our team a foundation with a lot of different tools to manage their own wellbeing, we’re going to be better off. Gardenuity is one of those tools.” (Donna)
• “The best way to retain your existing talent during these really hard times is by engaging them and building resilience and having them come together in meaningful ways.” (Chris)

LINKS/FURTHER RESOURCES:

• Chris’s reflection, written for Rolling Stone Magazine, on the ancient stoic Seneca and "Why Receiving Gratitude is Hard."
• Order your own “Gratitude Garden” at a special discount by clicking here!

ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Donna believes in the power of storytelling, smart data, and gratitude. With over 20 years of commerce experience, spanning public and private companies, she lets data and consumer realities drive strategy. Finding the connections between products and consumers ensures a smart perspective for solid businesses and tools that are operationally intuitive and aligned with consumer trends and technology innovation.

FOLLOW DONNA:

WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | BLOG | TWITTER | LINKEDIN | EMAIL

ABOUT OUR HOST:

Chris Schembra is a philosopher, question asker and facilitator. He's a columnist at Rolling Stone magazine, USA Today calls him their "Gratitude Guru" and he's spent the last six years traveling around the world helping people connect in meaningful ways. As the offshoot of his #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling book, "Gratitude Through Hard Times: Finding Positive Benefits Through Our Darkest Hours," he uses this podcast to blend ancient stoic philosophy and modern-day science to teach how the principles of gratitude can be used to help people get through their hard times.

FOLLOW CHRIS:

WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | LINKEDIN | BOOKS