Aww Shift Anthony Trucks

In today’s episode, our guest is Laura Gassner Otting. She is an author, catalyst, and Executive Coach. She inspires people to push past the doubt and indecision that keep great ideas in limbo by helping her audience think bigger and accept greater challenges that reach beyond their current, limited scope of belief.
[2:48] Why should I listen to you?
As an introverted person, I rarely initiate conversations with others. On a plane, for example, I would put my earphones in even if they're not turned on. It's ironic because I'm a professional speaker, and I'm comfortable speaking in front of large crowds. However, if I did feel compelled to talk to you, it would likely be because I care deeply like a Jewish mother. Perhaps you're having coffee with someone who is giving you terrible advice, and they've stepped away for a moment. I would turn to you and urge you to listen and avoid making a mistake. I would speak with such conviction and passion that you would either agree with me or think that I'm unhinged. In any case, you would feel hesitant to ignore my advice because you might upset me. I know this may sound crazy, but that's just how I am.
[10:20] Can you unpack more about your journey? 
Yes, the journey from being a reluctant speaker to becoming a successful one was definitely not an easy one. It required a lot of hard work, persistence, and courage to overcome the fear of public speaking and the uncertainty of pursuing a new career path. After my TEDx talk, I started getting invitations to speak at other events and conferences, and I realized that there was a demand for my message and my style of speaking. But I also realized that I had a lot to learn about the craft of speaking, such as how to structure a talk, how to engage the audience, how to use humor and storytelling effectively, and how to handle unexpected situations. So I invested a lot of time and effort into learning from other speakers, attending workshops and conferences, and practicing my talks. I also hired a speaking coach who helped me refine my message, my delivery, and my stage presence.
But even with all the preparation, there were still moments of doubt and fear. There were times when I questioned whether I was good enough or whether I had anything new or valuable to say. There were times when I faced difficult audiences or technical glitches or travel delays that tested my patience and resilience. However, I also had moments of joy and fulfillment when I saw how my talks were inspiring and empowering people to make positive changes in their lives and their communities. I received feedback from people who told me that my talks had helped them overcome their own fears, discover their own purpose, and take action toward their own goals. And that's what kept me going, even when the road was bumpy and uncertain. I realized that speaking was not just a job, but a calling, a way for me to share my passion and my vision with the world, and to connect with others who shared that same vision. 

[25:50] How does someone get to that point where they can turn off the monitor that says they need to be accepted by everybody?
Upon the release of my most recent TEDx talk on the concept of wonder, it garnered nearly a million views with approximately 20,000 likes and 700 comments. While it is safe to say that it has been well-received, there have been criticisms, such as a comment from one individual who questioned why I speak in a certain manner. I responded to this criticism by sharing a screenshot of it on my Instagram account and stating that this is simply how I speak. However, even with this response, the negative comments still affect me deeply. Amy Cuddy, who was also a victim of online bullying due to her power posing, advised me to stop reading the comments altogether, recognizing that it is a cesspool of negativity. Nonetheless, I find it difficult to silence the voices of those who criticize me, and I often find myself reading the negative co

In today's episode, our guest is Lisa Bilyeu. She is the co-founder and president of Impact Theory, a digital media production company focused on empowering content. In addition to co-founding Impact Theory, she also co-founded the billion-dollar brand, Quest Nutrition. Her career trajectory has been an arc from housewife to entrepreneur, transforming my business focus from nutrition to entertainment media, and now jumping in front of the camera to host the YouTube show, "Women of Impact," which centers on all things female empowerment!
[3:25] Why should someone listen to you?
I actually don't think people should listen to anyone first. The truth is that everyone will give you advice, but there's only one you. It's important to listen to your own voice and figure out what you need to hear. I have my own perspective, my way of living, and the things that I've learned from my own experiences. I can share my stance, opinion, and thoughts, but ultimately it's up to you to decide what will serve you best. I believe that sometimes the right message comes from the right person at the right time. It could even be a stranger or a barista who gives you better advice than I could at a particular moment. I know this may sound like a cop-out answer, but it's important to acknowledge that everyone has their own journey and path. So many people look to successful individuals and take their words as gospel, but when they fail, they make it about themselves. It's important to remember that people are only giving their opinions, and it's up to you to decide how to use them to grow and change.
[6:55] How did you get to a point where you developed a little bit of trust?
Oh, that's a great question. I think you have to just touch the hot stove. Even when people tell you it's hot. You have to get burned. Secondly, we talk about intuition. But what we don't talk about is that intuition is like a skill set. It's like a muscle you have to train. And so what we've done our entire lives is what we've trained our intuition, to the point that if someone walks in the room, and starts looking around frantically and moves slowly, your intuition says, maybe you should keep an eye on this person. They're acting quote-unquote. Now people just like to say, oh, no, that's intuition. No, it's not. It's 20 to 30 years of you identifying that when people walk into a room and look like that. So intuition, to me, is a skill set. 
[18:08] Have you ever experienced difficulty in making different statement?
Yes, absolutely. It's been a real challenge for me to articulate what I'm looking for, and Tom, my husband, has pointed out that I tend to repeat myself without getting to the point. I've come to realize that I need space to express myself and talk things out, as it helps me understand my own thoughts and emotions. However, I've also recognized that leading with emotion can cloud my clarity, and that makes it difficult for others to understand me. Tom and I have established an agreement on how we communicate when we're in a state of emotional distress. For the first 10 minutes, I just need space to talk and let out my emotions, without any interruptions or suggestions. After that, Tom checks in to see if I'm ready to move on to finding solutions. It's been helpful for us to have this open agreement, as it avoids the typical "men try to fix it, women just want to talk" scenario. If I still don't have clarity, Tom will help me identify that, and I'll take some time to reflect before coming back to him. 
To give an example, I started to feel disconnected from Tom, even though we work together every day as business partners. We recognized that we communicate differently with each other depending on whether we're in husband-and-wife mode or business-partner mode. I tend to be more wordy and emotional, whereas he is more direct and to-the-point. We've learned to establish which mode we're in before starting a conversation, which helps us communicate more effecti

In today’s episode, our guest is Tessa White. She is an expert on career and company transformation with more than 20 years of experience in human capital strategy. She helps individuals successfully navigate careers and companies reimagine their workforce potential.
[2:27] Why should I listen to you?
You should listen to me because I believe I can help you avoid decades of struggling to navigate the difficult corporate workplace. I can provide shortcuts to some of the problems I've encountered on my own journey, drawing from my unique perspective as a former head of HR who has overseen the careers of tens of thousands of people. I have had numerous backroom conversations and learned valuable lessons about how to promote smoother career growth, which can be highly beneficial and even life-changing. Overall, I'm confident that my insights can make a real difference in your life. I hope you find them as useful as I do.
[3:42] Do you mind taking us back and walking us through that?
Sure. Well, if I go back far enough, I ended up as a single mother with three children, no college degree, and the daunting task of figuring out how to provide for my family. I had no real career to speak of, so I decided to pursue a job in HR because I believed that I had good communication skills and typing ability. It just so happened that I landed a job working for Stephen R Covey, the well-known author, and speaker who was a pioneer in the field of personal development. I learned a tremendous amount from him, which set me on the path to success. Fast forward 25 years, and you would find me as the head of HR at a Fortune 50 company, working with Blackstone in New York, and driving board meetings. However, the journey from nothing to something was far from easy. When the pandemic hit, I decided that I wanted to focus on helping people navigate their careers, rather than just protecting companies. This led me to start a business called 'The Job Doctor,' which I launched from my own home. On day three, my daughter shared some of my advice on TikTok and it quickly gained popularity, with 10,000 people following me in just three days. Since then, I have been able to help thousands of people navigate their own career journeys, which has been a truly rewarding experience.
[6:16] Prior to that, what was your plan to get out into the world? 
When I worked at Vivint Solar, I had the opportunity to work with young millennials and Gen Z salespeople who were doing door-to-door sales with 4000 rows and flat build caps. I noticed that they were learning and thinking differently, and I had to quickly adapt to their unique styles. After leaving Vivint Solar, I realized there was a need for short-form learning that could be easily accessible through social media. Traditional long training sessions wouldn't work for these young people. So, I decided to meet them where they were by utilizing social media to provide quick, bite-sized learning opportunities. It wasn't a matter of being smart, it was just being wise.
[10:00] Where did you start? 
I believe that people often underestimate themselves, especially women. They sell themselves short and think they're not capable of achieving their dreams. As part of my coaching sessions, which I call "read my brain," I help people take the first step and guide them with my knowledge about different career paths to help them pick the right one. I act as a cheerleader in the background, encouraging them and telling them they can do it. It's amazing to see how capable people are when they believe in themselves. I had a client who was a single parent cleaning hotels for a living, and now she's making over $100,000 a year as a software engineer. The name "the job doctor" comes from my role as a doctor who comes in to help people with their careers.
[11:25] How would you explain your job? 
I assist individuals in various aspects of their careers, such as interview preparation and resume building to increase their c

In today’s episode, our guest is Zee Clarke. She is a Harvard MBA who went from leading teams at Fortune 500 companies and startups in Silicon Valley to teaching mindfulness and breathwork to people of color. Trained in India, Zee leverages her toolkit of yoga, meditation, breathwork, sound healing, and Reiki to ensure that all people of color have the tools to thrive despite any challenges that race, gender, or sexuality might present.
[2:55] Why should I listen to you? 
If you’re a black person, you should listen to me because I can share with you tools that can help you deal with racism and racial profiling and also help your mental health. But if you’re an ally or aspiring ally, you should listen to me for education about the reality of the experiences of people who look like me in this country. 
[4:56] When did this torch become something you wanted to carry? 
So I grew up in Washington, DC, also known as the "murder capital" of America. I grew up in a low-income, predominantly black neighborhood, and I went to a fancy private school in the suburbs of Washington, DC, where I was the only black person in a school filled with rich white people. So the first time that I experienced this feeling of, "Do I belong here?" I'm not good enough. What is happening, why is nobody speaking to me, and why are people treating me differently? That was the first day of school when I was eight years old. I share this with you to say that this feeling continued throughout my education. I went to Harvard Business School. I worked in financial services early in my career, and then after business school, I went to the Bay Area, where I worked in Silicon Valley in tech. And so during that entire time of my corporate career, I would be the only woman in the room, sometimes in tech. My mental health was in the gutter. I wasn't eating, and my doctors were like, "Something's got to change your stress levels; they're causing your current state of being," so I quit and I went to India. I joke that I did the black girl version of Eat, Pray, Love because I was meditating. I'm doing yoga, and I've never felt so good in my entire life. I did not know that this was possible. And so I felt very passionately that I needed to share these tools with others, particularly black people and people of color because we have higher rates of high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and all sorts of other things that now medical research is showing are a direct result of racism and microaggressions.
[8:00] How would you define microaggression? 
A microaggression is a comment or action that unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude towards a member of a marginalized group. It can also be when people question your competence, when you don’t feel seen or heard, or when they mistake you for somebody that looks nothing like you. There is a long list, but in short, we are being treated differently because of what we look like. 
[9:45] Where do you think this came from? 
I think it's a lack of empathy. A lot of people who commit microaggressions might have good intentions, and that is why the definition means "unconsciously" or "unintentionally." They might have good intentions, but the impact is usually negative. Some of these things come from parents, too. When you hear your parents speak negatively about a certain group of people, you think they are right, but the truth is they also learned it from their parents. 
[11:56] What do you think should be the first thing we think about when these things happen to us and when we choose to respond to them? 
Well, my book is called Black People Breathe because breathing is very critical to regulating our nervous system. When these things happen, we get triggered, and that is when our systematic nervous system kicks in, and when that happens, your heart rate tends to go up. You might start sweating, you might clench up, your shoulders might come up, and all of that kind of ju

In today’s episode, our guest is Nick Sonnenberg. He is an entrepreneur, Inc. columnist, and guest lecturer at Columbia University. He is also the author of "Come Up for Air: How Teams Can Leverage Systems and Tools to Stop Drowning in Work." He is the founder and CEO of Leverage, a leading operational efficiency consultancy that helps companies implement his CPR® Business Efficiency Framework. 
[2:27] Why should I listen to you? 
You’d listen to me because the stuff that I’m interested in is the most valuable thing that anyone could give someone, which is the gift of time. 
[3:55] Can you walk us through your journey? 
I called my book "Come Up for Air" because the first thing I hear people say is that they're drowning in work, especially in recent years. I’ve been drowning in work for a long time, so everything I talk about is not from theory but from what I have experienced as a person. I know the pain of growing a company and working 100 hours a week; before then, I worked as a high-frequency trader on Wall Street, where I worked my ass off too. But one thing I've done exceptionally well is training myself. I know what drowning in work feels like, so my company does operational efficiency consulting and training for teams and other companies. We brainstorm with the team and come up with a new technology. It could be a new way to use that technology and it could have nothing to do with it but for me, time is the most precious resource and it’s so easy to fall into the trap of doing things the same way in an inefficient manner because you are used to it. 
[6:20] How did you balance that? 
I've always been passionate about time. As a high-frequency trader, I build algorithms for computers to trade stocks at micro and nanosecond speeds. I gained an appreciation for the value of time because a microsecond could mean a million. I decided to leave finance after 8 years, and I developed a freelancer marketplace where we do tasks and projects for people under the umbrella of giving back time. In the first year, we grew to 7-figure revenue with 150 team members fully remote. It sounds good, but under the hood, we had three-quarters of a million dollars in debt and almost half a million in losses. I was close to bankruptcy, but I decided not to because I knew where we were. I had a game plan on how to fix it. I stuck to it and things started turning around. After a while, I decided to pivot that company from a freelancer marketplace to leveraging operational efficiency, consulting, and training, which is the core of my book. I was able to do that because I know what it feels like to be drowning. 
[11:45] How does somebody build into releasing? 
I think part of it is a systems issue and a people's issue. Trust comes in different levels. You can trust someone on an ethical level but not on another, and that causes a lot of friction and anxiety. You have to be aware of the lack of trust coming from an ethical issue, a competence issue, a poor process, or a system issue. But documenting the right way to do something is a great way to kind of lessen the stress. They are not going to do it the same way you do, but as long as you’ve built some kind of process and SOPs, they will get it right. Some things are harder to outsource to others, but you can probably get rid of 80% of your plate. Just invest your time in documenting things the way you want them done. 
[16:10] How does one decide whether to keep tasks in a submission on the board or off the board?
I think anything that gives you joy or taps into your unique ability should be kept, and anything outside of that ain't a good candidate. I think there's a famous Ink magazine article about Mark Cuban, who likes doing his laundry. Now, his hourly rate is much higher than whatever it would cost to outsource. But if it gives you joy, then you’re not touching that. One of your unique abilities can also be hosting a podcast, and that's a really good use of

 
In today’s episode, our guest is Jenn Lim. She is a global workplace expert, bestselling author, speaker, executive coach, and the CEO and co-founder of Delivering Happiness [DH], a company that grows purpose-driven organizations with more profitable and sustainable approaches to business. Jenn launched two bestselling books—Delivering Happiness in 2010 and authored Beyond Happiness: How Authentic Leaders Prioritize Purpose and People for Growth and Impact. 
[3:40] Why should I listen to you?
I just love real talk. I simply prefer to dive in sooner than most people, and I enjoy getting to know people on a personal level. So the only way I think I can do that is by expressing myself from the core. We had meaningful conversations where I learned a lot of things. I learned more about how to implement sustainable scientific happiness in my company. 
[5:28] Where did that pop out for you? 
I think multiple levels, but the most important is my inner circle. We had to sit and talk to ourselves; some saw this as a good thing, while others saw it as a bad thing. We had conversations about setting the right priorities, doing the right thing, and lots more. 
[8:48] Can you break down the birth of this idea? 
I launched a book with Tony Shea, the late CEO of zappos.com in 2010 and the book was titled delivering happiness. We didn't have an idea about how well it did and realized there was a demand for happiness in the world. Tony co-founded a company called delivering happiness and the purpose was to help other organizations focus on how to create happy environments for the staff and customers. If there is happiness in an organization, you’ll have a more sustainable profitable business. At the end of 2020, I lost my co-founder and one of my best buds. It's not just about sharing all these stories but how we made all these organizations happier, more productive, and more profitable. Right now, it's more than just happiness but reinforcing the perception of happiness. 
[12:35] Do you mind sharing some of your lows? 
There was a time I lost my job, lost my title, lost my status, 911 happened and in that same year, my dad got diagnosed with stage three colon cancer. I eventually lost my dad and that shaped me into figuring out what is meaningful to me and I found out that it's a misalignment of values. So I shifted from money to the values that are dear and near to me. I had meaningful relationships that got me into the place of exploring. It wasn’t even happiness at that time but how to ground and stabilize ourselves in a world that is uncertain and unpredictable. 
[15:15] What do you recommend for people who are currently going through their darkest and low moments?
When Tony died, the book was already due, but luckily the publisher gave me a little bit more time. But during that time, I was too weak to do anything. I was at my lowest and depressed. When you talk to people about it, they try to cheer you up and recommend some quotes that will help you, but that does not really help. What really helps is picking up a mirror, looking inward, and seeing what you’ve done in the past when you were at your lowest. Reflect on how you got through those times. So processing and reflecting on your own abilities helps you get your resilience back. 
[20:25] How would you define happiness, and then go beyond it? 
We kind of base happiness on scientific research and data, and we try to bring academics into real life. What we’ve learned from that is that there are different types of happiness, including pleasure and all those things related to it. However, the most sustainable form of happiness is purpose. We hear that all the time, so it's basically being part of something bigger than yourself. From a scientific standpoint, there are various ways to increase internal happiness, such as having a sense of autonomy and development. So if you are thinking of what you may do, have more control, more progress, more conn