Have you been moving through life feeling like there’s something else out there?

You can’t put your finger on it. Even though nothing outwardly seems off, there’s more to the story than you’ve been told or that you can see. Something’s not adding up, but how do you make 2+2=4?

For Jill Valdez, this crept up on her in a hundred small ways. Although she went through some experiences that were far less traumatic for her than they are for others – there was always something else behind door #1.

Born to an 18-year-old mother who put her up for adoption, Jill was raised in a conservative Christian home – but it didn’t feel constricting to her. Her values included faith and knowing that you reap what you sow – all well and good, but she’d come back to question those later.

When she was 15, she felt like she lost both her adoptive parents at once when her mother died and her father emotionally abandoned the family as he became a workaholic to deal with grief that would affect him for many years. Jill went through a rebellious-teenager streak, but recognized that wasn’t the life she wanted. Both she and her husband were called to traditional pastoral work, which she enjoyed until she decided to change how she leads people. Jill went through a lot, but somehow it always worked out. Everything seemed fine. But Fine, as you know, is a 4-Letter Word.

It definitely was NOT fine when shortly after her sister died, a man at church asked, “where’s your smile?” For f*cks sake, her sister had just died! It also wasn’t fine when her beloved nephew Kirky died just 11 days after being diagnosed with acute leukemia. Nor was it fine that Jill wasn’t sure she knew where she came from, other than that she was adopted.

So, she did her homework, found her maternal grandmother, and gave her a call. It took two hours to get through… but her grandmother, with whom she had never communicated before, instantly knew who was calling. As Jill got to know her biological mother, she discovered that being put up for adoption was a blessing. They have a great relationship now – and good thing they didn’t know each other when Jill was growing up!

In a moment, when you meet Jill, you’ll discover what could be a new point of view about why things happen. That in order to be authentic, it’s okay to question your values and the world as you see it, even if you come to agree that it’s… fine. Or more than fine, for that matter. And as you hear about what Jill is doing now with her consulting work, helping her clients get out of the weeds of chaos, it may hit you like a boomerang right at the end how everything she’s gone through has led to this moment.

Jill’s hype song is "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey.

Resources:

• Jill Valdez’ website: https://www.linkconsulting.info/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillvaldezlink/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/j_valdezlink/

Invitation From Lori:

This episode is sponsored by Zen Rabbit.

Smart business leaders know trust is the foundation of every great workplace. And in today’s hybrid and fast-moving work culture, trust isn’t built in quarterly town halls or the occasional Slack message. It’s built through consistent, clear, and HUMAN communication.

Companies and leaders TALK about the importance of connection and community. And it’s easy to believe your organization is doing a great job of maintaining an awesome corporate culture. Because you’ve got annual all-hands...

What if… one of your core values that should be empowering turned out to be something that held you back?

It’s meant to build confidence to try things. But it becomes a sort of low-key vicious cycle that subconsciously holds you back and curbs your ability to change.

That silent boomerang would be ironic for a professional change agent, but that same boomerang has been both catalyst and inhibitor of Suzanne Hopson’s story.

Growing up, Suzanne was taught, to quote her exact words as she said them in the conversation you’re about to hear, to “never think that there wasn't something I couldn't do”. I listened to the recording three times to make sure I heard her right. Did she mean it just like that? Was it a Freudian slip?

Well, she goes on to say that would have been a limiting belief IF she had it, but that life taught her – sometimes rudely – that she couldn’t do what she set out to do. It was a double-edged sword. So was the other core value, that you can’t do anything by yourself. While we can achieve more as a collective than the sum of our individual efforts, it can also mean that you can’t do anything on your own. I’ll let you sit with that one and hear from Suzanne on that.

So where did all of this leave Suzanne?

After three decades working in the multifamily industry, she came to an inflection point where she began to ask whether she should remain in her executive role or strike out on her own as an entrepreneur. Having to go through the experience of laying off employees, due to no fault of their own or her own, was a catalyst.

As you’re about to discover when you tune in for my chat with Suzanne, she did quit her executive job and start Here2Elevate™, which works with companies and their leadership to see the world as they want it to be and learn how to make it that way. Two factors played a big role. One is the power of mentorship, both positive and negative. The other is coming to terms with the visceral power of change management – the “grit” of it.

Whatever you’ve come to believe about change management and change in general, you may find yourself seeing a new point of view.

Suzanne’s hype song is “Fight Song” by Rachel Platten.

Resources:

• Suzanne Hopson’s website: https://here2elevate.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzannehopson/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/here2elevate
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/here2elevate/
• X: https://x.com/suzanne_hopson

Take Suzanne Hopson's Business Performance Assessment Quiz to discover how your team measures up in key areas like profitability and strategic thinking. Start now: https://elevated-business-performance.scoreapp.com

Invitation from Lori:

This episode is sponsored by Zen Rabbit.

Smart business leaders know trust is the foundation of every great workplace. And in today’s hybrid and fast-moving work culture, trust isn’t built in quarterly town halls or the occasional Slack message. It’s built through consistent, clear, and HUMAN communication.

Companies and leaders TALK about the importance of connection and community. And it’s easy to believe your organization is doing a great job of maintaining...

So, you think you have it all.

A great career, a nice apartment, an 800 credit score. You're officially a grown-up with the adult job. The world looks at you and says, "wow, everything's going your way". It seems like everything's fine. What else could you ask for?

But it's not fine. You look around and know something's missing. Maybe you mutter some four-letter words - "fine" is a 4-letter word, after all.

Something's telling you there's a lot more out there. Maybe your grown-up life is stopping you from actually growing into the person you were always meant to be.

For Heather Wyatt, it was a realization that perhaps she was never meant to fill the role written for her by society.

Though she didn't realize it immediately, her role was written during her childhood as the daughter of a single mother who moved around a lot for financial reasons. Like many kids who move around a lot, Heather admired friends who stayed in one place, living in houses with two parents where everything was "normal" and "fine".

When she tried out the "normal grown-up" thing for herself, she realized the idea of being an adult in the same town she grew up in, sending her kids to the same school she went to, having her previous classmates be her kids' teachers, was the makings of a living nightmare. Actually, Heather got bored at the prospect of staying in the same place for too long.

Along the way, she discovered that bartending, supposedly not an "adult" job, not only paid a lot more, but helped her develop communication and selling skills far beyond anything she could find working in an office. Then COVID came along and she went into health coaching. Quickly, she discovered that health coaching was a dead end, at least for her, but she didn't want to be a business coach either.

So, blending her bartending skills and her knowledge of health coaching led her to where she is today, organizing wellness parties and retreats under the Goddess Getawaves brand.

In a moment, when you meet Heather, you'll learn from her the power of adaptability, perspective in understanding different realities, and the courage required to embrace change. It's a fascinating journey of self-discovery that could be the ride you need to hitch if you're looking around muttering four-letter words to yourself about how "fine" your current reality is.

Heather’s hype song is "Castle" by Halsey.

Resources:

• Heather Wyatt’s website: https://goddessgetawaves.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-wyatt%F0%9F%A7%9C%E2%80%8D%E2%99%80%EF%B8%8F-64285124b/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100069429799210
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_heatherwyatt/
• Also, check out our episode with Gabe Lullo, called “Do Hard Things”.

Invitation from Lori:

This episode is sponsored by Zen Rabbit.

Smart business leaders know trust is the foundation of every great workplace. And in today’s hybrid and fast-moving work culture, trust isn’t built in quarterly town halls or the occasional Slack message. It’s built through consistent, clear, and HUMAN communication.

Companies and leaders TALK about the importance of connection...

Have you ever found yourself spending a crazy amount of time and energy trying to figure out why things happen in life? Wondering what you did to attract it? Desperately seeking answers right now, and coming up frustrated when you can't make sense of it.

But what if the whole plan is like a puzzle that doesn't form a picture until you've been given most of the pieces and taken the time to make them fit? You'll look back one day and see how it all comes together.

You could say Flip Brown has gone through life being, in some ways, both a product of his times and a traveler through a different time than everybody else was living in.

Growing up, he had a father who was ahead of his time in terms of fighting racism and homophobia, but a man of his time in emotional intelligence. His mother was a teacher who had to give it up when she became pregnant with Flip. She was doting and kind and taught Flip how to read early so he was ahead of his classmates. And when Flip was eight years old, she joined a cult religion.

Consistent with his times, Flip did hallucinogens, which affected his state of mind for decades to come. In contrast with his times, he changed careers many times in an era where you picked one thing and stuck with it until retirement.

He’s worked as a psychologist, nonprofit executive, international product manager, mobile crisis team clinician, retail salesperson, and wilderness workshop leader. He’s also been a hardwood furniture craftsman, windsurfing instructor, gigging musician, cross-country ski instructor, a cappella singer, and gardener. Wow!

Intuition served him along the way, when he abruptly quit a job with no plan, only to be immediately offered a much better one right out of the blue.

A lot of this might not have been "fine" by society, but Flip thought it was fine, partially because he didn’t realize how experiencing sexual abuse, as well as his father’s workaholism, patterned him. But as we all know, Fine is a 4-Letter Word.

In a moment, when you meet Flip, you'll be mindblown by one of the inflection points that helped Flip see it all come together – therapy using the plant-based medicine psilocybin. You'll be washed away by his experience with alcohol and his unique personal journey away from it, triggered in part by losing his brother-in-law on the Pan Am Lockerbie flight.

He relates how his experience on the mobile crisis team at a community mental health center dealing with acutely psychotic and suicidal people prepared him for his current work in executive coaching, team facilitation, and interactive skillbuilding.

Flip’s hype song is "Come Together" by The Beatles.

Resources:

• Flip Brown’s website: https://businesscultureconsultants.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/flipbrown/

Invitation from Lori:

This episode is sponsored by Zen Rabbit. Smart business leaders know trust is the foundation of every great workplace. And in today’s hybrid and fast-moving work culture, trust isn’t built in quarterly town halls or the occasional Slack message. It’s built through consistent, clear, and HUMAN communication.

Companies and leaders TALK about the importance of connection and community. And it’s easy to believe your organization is doing a great job of maintaining an awesome corporate culture. Because you’ve got annual all-hands and open door policies, and “fun" team-building events.

But let's be real. Leaders who are serious about building real trust are finding better ways to strengthen culture, create connection, and foster...

We’ve been conditioned to believe that rest is optional—like guacamole on your burrito.

You can have it, but you’ll have to pay extra.

Let’s zoom out for a second and look at where this belief came from.

The hustle mindset didn’t just show up one day because Gary Vee started yelling about it. It’s deeply rooted in industrial-age values—when your productivity on the factory line was literally tied to your worth and your wages. The more you produced, the more valuable you were. Full stop.

Then came the Protestant work ethic, remember the Puritans from history class? They believed hard work was not just good, but godly. Resting? That was for the weak or the wicked. You’re either grinding or backsliding. There was no in-between.

If you’ve been listening to my show for more than 2 episodes, you know that when they’re answering that “what were the values and beliefs you were raised with” question, most of my guests say hard work. We’ve all been ingrained with this belief and accepted it without question.

Fast forward to the 1980s and '90s - Wall Street, power suits, "I'll sleep when I'm dead" culture. Burnout was a badge of honor. In fact, Bon Jovi released a song in 1992 called “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead.”

Actually, as I was outlining this episode, I looked up when that phrase originated and found Benjamin Franklin supposedly said, “There will be plenty of time to sleep when you're dead.” Clearly it’s been around for a while.

We celebrate busy. We glorify “the grind.” We worship the to-do list like it’s some kind of sacred scroll.

And now the whole country humblebrags about how little they sleep or how slammed they are, as if being overworked makes you more important. (It doesn’t. It just makes you more tired and cranky.)

So when someone does stop and rest, or take a day off without needing a “valid” excuse, it feels rebellious. Almost irresponsible. But that reaction? That guilt? It’s not truth - it’s just programming.

And it’s overdue for a rewrite.

Tune in now and discover for yourself:

✅ My personal story of zooming to burnout at 200 miles an hour, when I went beyond being “fucking cranky” to “totally wiped out”

✅ How to redefine and reframe “rest” and make it not only part of, but a catalyst, for your ability to achieve more

✅ Practical tools that you can use to create a “permission slip practice” that breaks the hustle-and-grind circle for you

✅ And much, much more!

Resources:

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

Invitation from Lori:

This episode is sponsored by Zen Rabbit.

Smart business leaders know trust is the foundation of every great workplace. And in today’s hybrid and fast-moving work culture, trust isn’t built in quarterly town halls or the occasional Slack message. It’s built through consistent, clear, and HUMAN communication.

Companies and leaders TALK about the importance of connection and community. And it’s easy to believe your organization is doing a great job of maintaining an awesome corporate culture. Because you’ve got annual all-hands and open door policies, and “fun" team-building events.

But let's be real....

In his 2023 report "Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation", the US Surgeon General at the time, Dr. Vivek Murthy, declared loneliness and social isolation a public health epidemic.

Aside from feelings of ennui and lacking support structure, loneliness can trigger or increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and even premature death!

So, while he doesn’t quite come out and say it, and he might not have been thinking exactly along those terms when I spoke with him, Steve Fales might have had a brush with death.

Steve grew up in a single-parent home. Although he had a brother, his brother was 11 years older and serving in Vietnam while Steve and his mom were living in what he repeatedly describes as “a dead end street in a quiet town with lots of kids and dogs around and playing all the time and other stuff kids do”.

He started out working on the floor in a grocery store before he applied for a job in their advertising department – and got it. His experience eventually drove him to start his own advertising agency, where he carved out a niche in the air conditioning industry. Things were going fine… until his growing firm was selected as a provider of choice for a major manufacturing firm.

But Fine is a 4-Letter Word… and what some might call Steve’s ship coming in gave him panic attacks. For months he started his days by wretching and dry-heaving into the toilet. Outwardly, he was the envy of his peers and the idol of his friends… but he carried this dark secret.

Does this sound familiar, by the way?

Join Steve and me on a deep dive into the impacts of loneliness on our society. There’s a reason it’s an epidemic. With surveys showing one in 4 people reporting they eat alone every day, and everybody wandering down the sidewalk with their eyes on their phone… we’re surrounded by people yet frighteningly disconnected.

Not to reveal the takeaways before you even hear the episode, but the solution to your loneliness and disconnection comes not from being around other people, as much as it comes from within you.

Steve lays it all out for you.

Steve’s hype song is "I Know You're Out There Somewhere" by The Moody Blues.

Resources:

• Steve Fales’ website: https://www.stevefales.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenfales/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/steve.fales.18
• Claim your copy of Steve Fales’ book, “Loving Your Neighbor: A Practical Guide” (plus the group discussion and journal prompts), at https://www.stevefales.com/books/loving-your-neighbor/

Invitation from Lori:

This episode is sponsored by Zen Rabbit.

Smart business leaders know trust is the foundation of every great workplace. And in today’s hybrid and fast-moving work culture, trust isn’t built in quarterly town halls or the occasional Slack message. It’s built through consistent, clear, and HUMAN communication.

Companies and leaders TALK about the importance of connection and community. And it’s easy to believe your organization is doing a great job of maintaining an awesome corporate culture. Because you’ve got annual all-hands and open door policies, and “fun" team-building events.

But let's be real. Leaders who are serious about building real trust are finding better ways to strengthen culture, create connection,...

Perfectionism is something that gets beat into a lot of us.

Sometimes literally, as you’ll find out from my guest.

Imposter syndrome goes hand-in-hand with perfectionism. You see, when you’re programmed to hold yourself to extremely high standards, nothing you do seems like it’s good enough. You’re not enough. And what if someone finds out?

Now imagine you got ripped off by not one – but two – business partners, and lost all your savings more than once. On top of that, you never graduated college, yet held down job after job that required a college degree, in part because others who believed in you more than you believed in yourself went to bat for you.

What a wild ride – and that’s Gary Frey’s story.

He’s been a perfectionist since he was a little boy, the older of two children. Education was important in his family. His dad almost got his Ph.D. but didn’t finish his dissertation, and his mom was a nurse. As a grade-schooler, he spent a lot of time with his strict, stern German grandmother, who would feed him German food he hated and spank him if he didn’t eat it.

When Gary was eight, his grandmother died of a stroke. For two years, he thought he somehow killed her, until he finally asked his parents.

In school, he was the smart kid who couldn’t play any sport involving moving balls or athletic coordination, but he eventually found his niche in swimming. He went to college on a prestigious scholarship, finding himself in a fraternity known for academic and athletic excellence, but feeling “less than” the rich kids in his house. Then he didn’t finish college – becoming the first in his family NOT to graduate college. After that, it was off to his career…

As you’ll discover when you hear from Gary, he got ripped off by two business partners. He repeatedly lost everything he had, got used by an employer who needed him to hook a major deal then fired him the day it closed, and had to move to different states to start over.

Perfectionist Gary found himself getting recruited out of the blue by companies who heard about him and wanted his expertise for roles that required college degrees and viewed him as a success. What was he going to do, tell them he had two corrupt business partners and lost millions of dollars?

He said it was fine… and Fine is a 4-Letter Word.

You’re about to discover how Gary emerged from the trap of perfectionism, learned to believe in himself, and the tools he used to achieve it.

Gary’s hype song is “Warrior” by Matthew Ward.

Resources:

• Gary Frey’s website: https://garydfrey.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garydfrey
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/garydfrey
• Claim your copy of Gary’s book, “Silence the Imposter: 7 Weapons to Silence Imposter Syndrome” at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJLLLV61

Invitation from Lori:

This episode is sponsored by Zen Rabbit.

Smart business leaders know trust is the foundation of every great workplace. And in today’s hybrid and fast-moving work culture, trust isn’t built in quarterly town halls or the occasional Slack message. It’s built through consistent, clear, and HUMAN communication.

Companies and leaders TALK about the importance of connection and community. And it’s easy to believe your organization is doing a great job of maintaining an awesome corporate culture. Because...

Do you sometimes feel like you’re mailing it in?

Sure, you’re achieving your goals, hitting your numbers, and getting boxes checked on your to-do list. On paper, you’re a success.

But it still feels empty, like something’s missing and you’re not really succeeding.

How do you know for sure? Who’s there to help you figure it out? And what example are you setting for those who see you as a role model, even if you don’t know they look up to you?

These are questions Suresh Bhagchandani found himself grappling with one day while going over his sales numbers with his boss.

Suresh was born in raised in India, with three older sisters and his mother. His father died when he was young and his family had limited financial resources but an abundance of strong values. Among the values and beliefs he gained was that if you’re a good human and do the right things, good things will come along.

When he was 21, he and his mother moved to the United States where he enrolled in community college and then UNC Chapel Hill. Being an immigrant and landing in a small town in North Carolina, he searched for how to fit in in this unfamiliar territory.

For one thing, he was stunned by how people here brew and drink coffee!

Suresh began to find his purpose, and his friends, when he got involved in organizations and activities that placed him in social situations.

This gave him a fine appreciation of the power of networking, which catalyzed his life that day when his bosses told him he was doing a “fine” job – but Fine is a 4-Letter Word.

This is a conversation about what it means to adapt, push past limitations, and create opportunities.

And I love that we get into not only the importance, but the power, of properly identifying your friends, acquaintances, and the various roles different people play in your life.

Like, do you have a “board of directors” who guide you in your decisions? And if you’ve decided that 100% is just mailing it in, how do you get to 120%? What will your kids think?

Hang on because first…

Suresh’s hype song is "Started From The Bottom" by Drake.

Resources:

• Suresh Bhagchandani’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sureshlb
• Also, be sure to listen to our recent episode, Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It, for an important lesson in the practice of gratitude.

Invitation from Lori:

This episode is sponsored by Zen Rabbit.

Smart business leaders know trust is the foundation of every great workplace. And in today’s hybrid and fast-moving work culture, trust isn’t built in quarterly town halls or the occasional Slack message. It’s built through consistent, clear, and HUMAN communication.

Companies and leaders TALK about the importance of connection and community. And it’s easy to believe your organization is doing a great job of maintaining an awesome corporate culture. Because you’ve got annual all-hands and open door policies, and “fun" team-building events.

But let's be real. Leaders who are serious about building real trust are finding better ways to strengthen culture, create connection, and foster community.

That's where I come in. Forward thinking companies are hiring me to produce internal/private podcasts. To bring leadership and employees together through authentic stories, real conversations, and meaningful connections. Think of it as your old-school printed company newsletter - reinvented for the modern workforce. I KNOW, what a cool idea, right?!...