Connect with Katherine Dudtschak Website: Sincerely Inc. LinkedIn: Katherine Dudtschak Instagram: @kdudtschak Connect with Tom LeNoble Website: Tom LeNoble LinkedIn: Tom LeNoble Book: My Life in Business Suits, Hospital Gowns, and High Heels Tom LeNoble: Every Storm Leaves Fertile Ground to Plant There is a question Tom LeNoble asks the people who come to him. He asks it after he tells them about the storm. Every storm, he says, leaves fertile ground to plant. The storms in our lives do the same. What are you going to plant? Tom is a confidential advisor to founders, executives, and nonprofit leaders, CEO of the Academy for Coaching Excellence, an award-winning bestselling author of My Life in Business Suits, Hospital Gowns, and High Heels, a professional speaker, and host of the podcast Opening Pathways. He names himself, above all, a philanthropist, and what he means is not a name on a building or a seat at a gala. He means a smile. A hello. Sitting with someone in need, without expectation of anything in return. This conversation walks backward through the chapters that made him: a one-bedroom Florida shack, a curious child his grandfather nicknamed Varmint, a corporate career from MCI to Facebook, a healing wheel of his own design, and three diagnoses that each gave him six months to live. He is 71, and retired from being retired to be inspired. Key Moments - Tom opens with the philanthropic mindset: the teaching that a smile, a hello, or sitting with someone in pain, offered without expectation of return, is a philanthropic gesture available to every one of us right now. - He unpacks the title of his book: the business suits, the hospital gowns, the high heels, and why who we are today is the sum of every part we have ever been, including the parts we kept private. - Katherine gathers his essence aloud, naming him fiercely curious, expressive, sensitive, courageous, and an artist. Tom receives it and says: everything she named is exactly what he uses to do his work. - The closing teaching: when you see someone who cannot reach the knot, hold their hand so they can reach it themselves. That, Tom says, is what the Haystack method is built on. Quotes to Remember "What the storm does, just like the storm from the sky, is creates fertile ground to plant. The storms in our lives create the same fertile ground. When I ask people, what are you going to plant?" "Your smile, a hello, sitting with someone that's in need or in pain is a philanthropic gesture. You don't have to have your name on a building, write a check or go to a gala." Reflection for Listeners What stays with me is the moment Tom described going back to work after receiving a diagnosis that would have stopped most people entirely. He drove to his car, spoke to the thing that had just entered his life, and then started the engine. There was no performance in the telling of it. It was just the next thing he did. I have been thinking about what it means to choose to be alive in a moment so completely that the choosing itself becomes the act of service. Tom did not offer me a framework for that. He just showed me what it looks like from the inside. About the Host Katherine Dudtschak is the founder of Sincerely, host of The Sincerely Show, and author of Sincerely, Katherine. She writes and speaks about leadership, service, and interior life. Disclaimer This conversation is for reflection and perspective only and should not be relied on as therapy or professional advice. Please seek qualified support where needed before making any decisions based on the information you learn through this conversation. This content is also subject to our full Terms and Conditions, which you can review on our website at sincerelyinc.com.
