Movers Showcase December 2025

Hello, hello, hello! Welcome everybody to the Movers Showcase! Round of applause for being here in this absolutely insane time of year. I'm trying to bring the festive spirit with me to the front of the stage. Welcome, welcome. Here, I gotta back up so you can see the whole hat.

There it is.

Just so you know, you're like, what is she wearing? That's what I'm wearing. I'm bringing the festive spirit. Happy December. It's like May. December and May are those months where there's just so much happening all smashed into one month, and it can be a lot. So you're here, whether you're watching us live Are you watching this another time? Let's just take a big ol' deep breath because you made it.

You're here.

We're so glad that you're here. Welcome, welcome. And wow, do I have such fun treats for you. And not candy treats, not holiday treats, but like brain treats. I have brain treats for you as we step into another Movers showcase. So for those of you who are like, I don't know what this is, Sally, somebody told me to come, somebody told me to be here, and you're here and you're not quite sure what's what. Well, let me just first tell you a little bit about who I am and what I do and what this is all about. My name is Sally. Sometimes people call me Sally Z because my last name is Zimney and it kind of sounds like mm. So we just go with Z and we're so thrilled that you are here. I am the very lucky person who gets to coach the incredible people that you are about to hear from for the next little chunk of time. I have a lineup of 6 of my speakers who are here today, and they are doing this. I'm their coach, and they are stepping into this space because they believe in their message. And they know that moments like this can actually truly change the way people think, change the way they see the world, change what they do and how they do it. We believe here at Be Moved and these programs that these moments can move the world. That is why we do what we do. And so I like to call my speakers movers because I really believe that that's what they are. They are movers and they can move the world if they can do the hard work of being moved themselves. They understand that part of their purpose here on earth is to move and be moved, that their words and ideas just might move this world of ours. Now, most importantly, They're here because in order to do that, they have to first do what I like to call showing up anyway. And what that means is sometimes you've got to put yourself out there. You've got to try before you're ready. You've got to be brave in the process of moving others. There's no way around it. The only way is through. And so can I just tell you something that is so cool? About these amazing speakers you're about to hear from. They are showing up anyway. They have really recognized that confidence is kind of a— it's BS. I'm just gonna say it. I think confidence is BS because confidence is a feeling. And sometimes we feel it and sometimes we don't. And sometimes we don't even know why we're feeling it one day and not feel another day. Instead, these amazing humans are showing up to do the hard work of development. We like to call it building self-trust so that whatever happens in these moment, as they develop these messages and share them with the world and show up at big stages and small stages around conference room tables, on TEDx stages, at the conference keynote, that their work in getting there is about building self-trust, that in that moment they can trust themselves and move the world with that beautiful self-trust. And we build it just like you build a muscle by using it. And so today, as you understand what this concept is and how it works for all of us here, They are coming to us in a really wide range of what you might see as ready. Some of them have brand new messages to share with you today. Some of them are still reading from a script. Some people, we're gonna have a conversation because they are still like wrestling with the message or it's brand spanking new and they wanna play with it and also practice telling you about the message. So this is our play. Our sandbox today. We get to play in the sandbox today. And your job today, I'm going to ask you to do just a few things. One, your job is to engage. Leave a comment, cheer 'em on, let them know what you appreciate. I believe that positive coaching and reinforcement is way more powerful than sharing critical feedback. We do that too. But the timeliness, the relationship all matters. And let's just be frank, the comment section is not helpful or place for feedback. So your job is to offer all the encouragement and engagement that you can as somebody who is here and witnessing this. And they're, they're brave, they're readiness. You are here to cheer them on. Second thing, love for you to be patient with us because technology is sometimes a little wonky. We're bringing 6 people in from all different parts of the country. Everybody's managing a lot right now. So if there's a moment where we're like, uh, hold please, we're going to figure this out, just pause with us, be patient, and we will get back with you as soon as we're ready. And I'll let you know when that happens. So we'll say, we'll get started again in a few minutes. So hang with us. And then lastly is to just open up your heart and be ready to be moved yourself, to learn, to grow, to get inspired. Uh, I have some brand new talent here with me today, and I'm so excited. One of the best parts about my job is I get to learn from these amazing speakers who have come to me to help develop a message that really can turn into a movement, and I become devotees of their movements as well. And I'm so excited for that to happen to you. So with that, I think we are ready to begin with our first speaker here. I cannot wait for you to meet the incredible Jeff Viznik, and, uh, we're gonna start with a conversation with Jeff, and I'm really excited about this because Jeff's journey is one that I think a lot of us can relate to. Jeff primarily speaks to the architecture, engineering, and construction industries, and he has done it all. He has, you know, had all the leadership positions, all the titles, and he's been in this industry for a long time, led teams of 40+ people, grew lots of revenue, check, check, check, did all the things. So from the outside, it really looked like he was living the American dream, but on the inside, it felt really different. So Jeff started his own journey at getting back into alignment so that he could avoid the burnout that he was seeing rampant so much in his industry. So now Jeff is a certified Fearless Living coach and trainer, and he is on a mission to help people stop chasing the impossible dream of work-life balance and instead find something far more powerful: alignment. He believes, and I love this, that we each have a limited amount of energy and focus. Hello, is everybody feeling that? I am. We, we all have a limited amount of energy and focus, and so where we choose to apply it really, really matters. So I am so excited to dive in even deeper with Jeff about his work. So please help me welcome Jeff Visnik. Here he is.

Yay!

Hello, Jeff.

Glad to be here.

Welcome, welcome. So how— like, did I do a pretty good job summarizing?

You did.

Yeah.

What did I—

what did I miss in your story? Like, bring us back to your transformation of being go-getter Jeff to really recognizing something. It looked great from the outside, but something wasn't working on the inside.

Yeah, so I had worked my whole career to get to this point within a company where I was, I was running an office. I was a principal in charge of all the things that were happening in the office. And the company that I worked for was family-run and went through a change in leadership. And with that change in leadership, it took about 9 months to chase off every leader in every office and 25 of my 40 employees. So I ended up getting fired. I had a non-compete and, you know, you roll with the punches, you think you can manage it. And, uh, if I fast forward about a year, I was watching the AFC Championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the New England Patriots when Tom Brady still played. For the Patriots, and Patrick Mahomes was just coming up for the Chiefs.

And, uh, Patrick Mahomes at the time.

Yes. Um, and being a Broncos fan, I didn't really like either team, but I was, I was very tired of watching Tom Brady play in the Super Bowl and beat the Broncos. And so I'm watching this game, and as the game goes on, I'm, I'm cheering more and more for the Patriots to win. And at the end of the game, my wife looked at me and said, what are you doing? Because we now have to watch Tom Brady in the Super Bowl again. And I had to think about it, and, uh, it turns out the person who took over the company I worked for was a Chiefs fan. And a year later, I really wanted him to suffer for what he had done to me, and the only way that that was possible was if his football team lost.

Wow.

Even though he wasn't probably thinking about me at all.

So that was a sign. You were like, I wish ill upon this person. Yes, something is off.

Yes.

And so I, I use that opportunity to, to seek out some help and, uh, found a great coach who specialized in fear. I didn't know she specialized in fear at the time, but she did, and she had such a transformative impact on me that I decided I wanted to learn from her how to do what she did and bring her messaging and kind of what I learned about myself to people in the industry that I work in and love.

Yeah, beautiful. So now let's just get really tactical for what you do when you're out speaking to audiences, um, in this industry. Where are you typically speaking? What are you— where, where— if somebody saw you at an industry event, what are you likely doing? What are you talking about?

Um, so the 3 things that I talk about the most are stress, burnout, and then work-life alignment.

Yeah.

Yeah. And obviously stress and burnout are very closely related. And when you're out of alignment in your work and life, uh, it can lead to both things.

Yeah. So as you talk about stress and burnout, they're close, but they're different. You've had a podcast for a long time about burnout, and now you're focused more on stress. Just help us understand what the difference is between those two things and why you think that difference matters.

Yeah. So, you know, I think stress can be a really good thing. Most of the great things that we accomplish in our life are done under stress. But if we stay in those moments where we are under stress for too long, then we start to get to the point where chronic stress has kicked in. And the only way that we have to protect ourselves when that's happening is to disengage from what we're doing.

Yeah.

To try to conserve energy, which leads to exhaustion and to protect ourselves. And that's where I think the burnout piece comes in is when we stay under chronic stress for too long, then we, then we eventually burn out as a way to protect ourselves.

So burnout is actually the result of being under chronic stress or stress that doesn't actually help you grow?

Correct. Yeah.

And what's important—

yes, stress is very important. You know, we don't accomplish anything in life if we're not in stressful situations, right? Any time we try something new or step outside our comfort zone, there's going to be stress. And a lot of good can come from that. But in a, in the construction industry, when we have deadlines and constant projects and all the, all the things that are happening, it's pretty easy to find yourself in that chronic stressed out state for a long period of time.

Yeah.

So bring us into that world, if you would, for a moment, because the, the data and the stats of what's especially real right now in your industry. It's like, it's big red flag moments. So just tell us a little bit about that. What, what's the situation on the ground?

Yeah, so electrical contractors have the highest suicide rate of any profession in the United States. The construction industry has some of the highest divorce rates of any industry that we can work in. And, you know, I think it's— we're doing things on such a large scale, right? When you're building a building, there are tens of millions, hundreds of millions, billions of dollars on the line, and the process is so drawn out and happens over a long period of time that it can really be easy to find yourself stuck in that cycle of staying on all the time. And, you know, I think When I first came into the industry, there was a lot of, uh, you're gonna do this because we told you to, you're going to be here this weekend because we told you to, you're going to work extra. And if you look at how companies make money in our industry, we're all salaried employees, and so there is a benefit to having people work more than their 40 hours a week because you get more work done, you don't have to pay them. So it's, uh, it's kind of ingrained in the industry, and I, I know it's in a lot of other industries too, but Yeah, but, but there is—

it does sound like there's especially dire situations happening and you've experienced it yourself. But now, now you're the coach. Now you are trying to be part of the solution because you really care about this industry and you're watching all this happen. So I'm curious for you, Jeff, as you've made this transition from experiencing the problem to trying to solve the problem, what is one of the, the insights that you have recognized as you've kind of seen it from this other perspective that you think is really important for people to know?

Yeah, I think the biggest thing is, um, our expectations of what, what's going to happen when we're in certain situations drives a lot of our behavior. And the reality is, in any situation Even though we think we may know what's going to happen, we don't. And so it's really important to disconnect from those expectations, right? If I don't do this, I'm going to get fired. I'm going to get not a promotion. I'm not going to get a raise, right? So that those ideas of what's going to happen if we don't do something drive us to do a lot of things that aren't necessarily in our best interest. And so if we can figure out how to show up in our environment in a way that makes us proud of ourselves. The rest kind of works itself out. And even if you get fired, um, which I have done a couple of times, um, you know, some good things are on the other side of it. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't get fired.

So yeah, yeah, that, uh, really coming back into alignment with your own boundaries, your own values, why the work's important to you, getting back in touch with those grounding principles for yourself to help see you through.

Yeah, yeah. I always go back to Sam Walton, who's the founder of Walmart, and, you know, most of us would look at him and think, wow, this guy is amazingly successful. He created generational wealth for his family. You know, his family now owns the Denver Broncos, tying it all together. But his take at the end of his life was that he wasted it because he didn't think about what was actually important to him. He just kind of followed other people's paths. And I think in our industry in particular, we do that a lot, right? I should, I should get to this position. I should get to that position without ever asking ourselves, what do we actually want? And how does this thing called work fit into our bigger picture of our life? And, you know, so that at the end of our life, we can look back and say, Yeah, overall I was successful and I spent my time here well.

Yeah.

And not, not be defined by I was an engineer, I was an architect or whatever.

Right.

Because none of that matters at the end of the day.

Right.

Yeah.

Okay. So, Jeff, as we wrap up here, what if somebody was watching this today and really feeling that sense of frustration, heaviness, that something is really off and I need to do something about this, what is the very first step that they should take, could take?

I think it's— that's a great question. I would say first, don't blame yourself. I think we, a lot of us, have a tendency in those situations to think that we're doing something wrong or that it's up to us to change the situation and I would say in most cases, you know, it's not, um, you're not doing something wrong. You're just in a situation that is— you're not even aware of what your body is doing to you at a subconscious level to keep you in that situation. And so the first step is always awareness and having some kindness and compassion for yourself along with that awareness.

Yeah, so a little bit of grace for yourself.

A lot of grace.

A lot of grace. Amazing.

Yes. I had to learn how to define what self-compassion even meant because I had no idea.

Mm.

Yeah. Which is, I think, actually not all that unusual. We talk about it. It's like, can we really allow ourselves the space to struggle and to know what to do with that struggle? Yeah, to put it in the right place.

Yeah.

Oh, beautiful. Okay, so Jeff, um, where can people go to find out a little bit more about you?

Uh, you can look me up on LinkedIn at Jeff Iznik, or my webpage is reclaim-me.org.

Awesome. Reclaim-me.org. Here it is right there for everybody. Reclaim- claim-me.org. Big round of applause for Mr. Jeff Visnik. Thanks for coming, Jeff.

Thanks for having me.

Great job.

I know, way to jump in. Way to jump in, Jeff.

Right?

Got to overcome that fear somehow, right?

You what?

You got to overcome that fear somehow.

The only way is by doing. And so even though you were like, I'm not ready for this, I said, Uh, how about, how about this? Let's just adjust the goal a little bit so that you still have the opportunity to meet people, to talk to people about what you're doing. So thank you for appreciating showing up and giving it a go.

I appreciate you for nudging me.

You bet. That's what I do. All right, big round of applause for Jeff. Thank you, Jeff. Okay, everybody. Oh my gosh, so fun to get things going. And, uh, we've got 5 more speakers for you. Some of them, I'm gonna hand the mic off to them. They're gonna take the mic and run with it. And that is true of our next speaker, Janet Marling, PhD. She's legit. She's got all the credib— all the credibility, all the authority for what she's about to share with us. And we're so delighted to have her join us in the Movers Collective here in the last few months, because she's had the opportunity to start to think about, "What's next for me? And how can I bring the— this idea and this message out beyond the expertise of the world that she's been living in, so that more people?" can benefit from this idea. So let me just tell you a little bit about Dr. Janet Marling. She is the co-founder and former executive director of the National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students. How cool is that, that there is a National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students? And if you're wondering what a transfer student is, well, that's exactly the problem that she has been solving. See, today's students aren't following the same straight path that we used to imagine. 4 years at one school, graduate, done. We tend to now be more mobile learners. And so Janet has been the person making sure that those students get equitable and inclusive access to education and the resources they need to actually finish. So she now works with everyone from individual institutions to state agencies, foundations, legislative bodies, She is a professional, of course, speaker, a trainer, a consultant who operates at what she calls the intersection of long-term thinking and real-world execution. I love that. I have so many speakers who are in the education realm in some way, and they're so fun to work with because they bring with them so much research and insight and depth and care about what it is that, uh, they have studied and what they're bringing with us. And that is so true about Dr. Janet Marling. So today Janet's going to be talking about maintaining momentum, because starting something innovative is one thing, but keeping it going, especially when you are a really values-driven and mission-oriented, like so many people are in the education realm. It's so important because that's where the real work happens. So please put your hands together for Dr. Janet Marling!

Hi there, Sally! Thank you so much for that amazing introduction. I'm super excited to be here with you all today. And first and foremost, I just want to tell the audience members that if you're not in higher education, I suspect that you could pull some tidbits from this simply because we all understand that there are things that we want to involve ourselves in, there are things that we're really passionate about, and there are things that we're given the opportunity to do a deep dive into. And then we have to figure out how to maintain that momentum once the structure disappears. And so I know that you can find a particular example of that and come along with me in this presentation to a group of professionals who are wrapping up their year-long grant process, looking at credit mobility and helping through partnerships and innovative processes, helping students get the credit for the work that they deserve. So welcome. And let me say to all of you, congratulations. You have had what I would consider to be quite the intense year. You've been studying together dedicatedly for one solid year in this project. And I have to be really honest with you, I'm a little envious. You have been speaking collaboratively over the course of a year, but in pockets. You have taken quarterly phone calls together, you've done trainings with professionals from across the country, and you have had time to develop relationships with people that you didn't know before this project. And that is amazing. But I also understand that it's not been an easy year. Let's look at the world around us. I mean, talk about a year to be pulled from your day-to-day chaos. Talk about a year to take on yet another transfer— or transfer-related or not— higher education initiative. I know there's a lot going on in your spheres, but you need to be 100% proud of your accomplishments because not everybody could do the deep dive that you've done that really results in the difference between students being propelled towards their academic goals and potentially deciding that college isn't for them. Now, I'd say that we all share a shared understanding of what this work that you all have been engaged in for the last year means to students. It means that millions of mobile learners have the opportunity to have their hard work their investment financially and intellectually recognized, both figuratively and through reality. And we understand that having the ability to understand how to apply those credits really then goes into academic momentum.

It—

you all understand that we are trying to minimize the cost for these students, and you all very much understand that these students have complex lives, that school and learning isn't the only thing that they're engaged in. So I think that that student-centered focus really propels us forward in so much of the work that we're doing. Your work has been really critical to your institution as well, because right now in this really crazy economy, institutions are struggling to remain viable. They have so much to offer to, to their students, yet the bottom line sometimes can feel a little afraid, and you are helping students to maintain that vitality. In that vibrance so that they can educate the citizenry of the United States. And then also, I hope that each of you have found a special place in this project to maybe push yourselves into some creative thinking, to see yourselves maybe executing policies and processes at your institution just a little bit differently than you've done in the past. And for all three of those things, you, the student, and also your institutions, that's helping higher education remain relevant, which is so important for continuing the foundation of our country. So congratulations, you have had an amazing year. So let's think about then what happens next. This is the last convening of this group, which I shed a tear. I mean, really, I don't know how you're feeling right now, but on your behalf, I'm feeling a little sad. And we know that the work is important. So when we think about what comes next and we're looking for a way to kind of push that momentum forward, it requires one thing, and one thing above all else— it requires intentionality. Now, I know everybody in this room is well-intentioned, but intentions live in your mind. Intentions are plans of what you're going to do. Intentionality is what you actually do intentionally. Intentionality includes having strategy, having goals, and having tangible actions that lead to prescribed outcomes. So we want to be thinking very intentionally about what happens next with that intentionality. So let's take a minute, if you don't mind, and think a little bit about this from your personal perspective. Because you each are going to have to decide where you're going to land with this project moving forward. Perhaps you're being taken off this project, perhaps you're handing it off to somebody else, or perhaps you're looking for ways to take what you learned and springboard it into something else. So I'd like for us to maybe think about these 4 questions from an individual perspective. So when we think about, um, the momentum that we want to put forward I'd like you to think about this first question here: What is motivating me? Now, some of you might have gotten involved in this project because you were voluntold. It happens to all of us. It may have been by the nature of your title, your position, your availability that you were placed in this position today to be here. But what is motivating you? And it's okay if your initial motivation was something different than it is now, but right now and how you're moving forward, what is motivating you? Second, what is your commitment level? And let's be really, really honest here, because we can want to be committed and we can think we're supposed to be committed, but let's be really realistic. How committed are you to taking what you've learned here and making it continue in the future, taking it forward on behalf of your mobile learners? So think about it on a spectrum from 0 to 10, kind of like where do you fit? And there's zero judgment because bottom line is we don't live in your world, but what is your commitment and what can be your commitment? All right, number 3, we're going to get to that doing part. What do I want to do? Like literally do. Are you in a position where you are shepherding the process but not involved on the day-to-day? Are you somebody who's taking the reins and actually implementing the initiatives that you all have determined are important for your institution? Where do you fit in that? And what is it that you are going to do to advance the work that you've been engaged in for the last year? And then finally, again, reality check. What can you realistically do? We all want what's best for our students. We want to see them connect with their learning in the classroom with what they're learning at work and creating some neat amazing amalgamation of all that to then propel them to a credential and a better career, a better work environment, whatever that is for them, whatever their goals are. So we're not saying that it's bad to not be able to do— we want this for them, but let's look realistically at what actually can happen. So again, for those of you who aren't in higher ed, be thinking about that one thing in 2026 6 that you want to be intentionally focused on with all the intentionality of your being? What might that be, and how would you answer these questions? All right, so we've declared a few individual intentions here, and now let's place this back in the context of our group work. All right, it must feel amazing to know that you've spent the last 12 months together and that you advanced your ideas so incredibly far in that short amount of time. Now, no judgment if your teams are still gelling or if you're not quite where you expected to be. That's all part of the process. That's okay. But there has been significant shifts happening over the course of the last 12 months, and I encourage you to again celebrate in that. And I also expect that with the end of the grant period, there are some questions kind of percolating around here in this room. That maybe you don't want to say out loud, but if I asked you to raise your hands, you would probably maybe nod along with me. But the questions that might be permeating your brain right now include, holy cow, how in the world are we going to continue without our amazing Emily? She has shepherded us so very well throughout this whole process. What about our folks at CCA who have brought in amazing speakers to help us think a little bit differently? What will we do? Some of you might be thinking, our partnerships are still in their infancy and a little bit fragile. How in the world are we going to be able to do this without the scaffolding that's around us? Some of you might be saying, hot dog, we made it! We did all the things that we were supposed to do, but how now do we turn it into another project? These are all really, really good questions, and so we need some sort of container to start thinking about what's next. And so I think of these as momentum multipliers and came up with this momentum multiplier framework for you. And it has 3 parts. Here are the 3 parts. First of all, when you think about your projects, clearly throughout this whole year you've been doing lots of assessment. You've been thinking about where you're coming from. But as you think about it in this context, what worked? What didn't work? What do you have in place to keep you moving forward? Where are some potential pitfalls? How will you be communicating going forward? What will that look like? How will you be documenting what it is that you've learned so far so that somebody new can come right in seamlessly and pick up where somebody else leaves off? Evaluate where you've come from and where you're headed. Now, it's really important as we go through this framework that you don't see it as prescriptive but rather something that's a little bit more diagnostic. So don't get too hung up on what you haven't done or what you need, but just be thinking about where you are right now. Second of all, when you're thinking about the work that you've done so far, it needs to be elevated. You all can't be the only ones who have benefited from this year-long process. It's not just you and your students, it's your entire ecosystem. That needs to know what you now know, not only about students, mobile students, but the processes that you went through. Do your supervisors know what you've been doing for the last year? I mean, seriously, they know you've been going to meetings, sitting on Zoom calls, but do they know what you've learned, what you've accomplished, what you are now doing differently? They might be impressed by that. You can't be the typical higher educator who wants to downplay their expertise or their contributions. This is the time to elevate what it is that you've been doing, because when you do that, it makes room for others to do the same. And then finally, we want to replicate. What did you learn that worked that might work for somebody else if they tweak it in their own context? How can we help them figure it out such that it makes a little sense? And in that, how can you be thinking not just about your project, but thinking about the entirety of a student's kind of life cycle? What happens in the process before what you just solved for? And what happens after? Are there ways that you can start thinking about solutions for the rest of what's happening? Or can you maybe just change a variable in the problem that you solved? Maybe you have been thinking about advising and now you want to think about the transition process or career development. What's that variable that you could change but maintain your process and move forward? If you take time to evaluate, to elevate, and to replicate, I can assure you that you will realize that you've done way more than what you have put together for your grant organizers on your outcomes reports. So we need to take a minute to think about Credit Mobility 2.0 and to really honestly stretch ourselves beyond credit mobility, because getting credit mobility is important. And you have been at the precipice of that. Important work. And we know that credit mobility is one of the most difficult challenges in the higher education system, and you have been doing it and doing it beautifully. But we can't stop there because that's just the first step. And I liken credit mobility in the longer term of the mobile learner life cycle as kind of like the sourdough starter, okay? It's like that living organism, that living kind of culture that is the base ingredient for some pretty amazing pancakes, uh, some pizza dough, and my favorite, cinnamon rolls. All right, but in amongst— in addition to that nice base that you have, you have to then also throw in some additional ingredients: your salt, your flour, your water. Then what do you do with that? You do what you've been doing for the last year. You take time to rest the dough. You think about what it is that you put in there, and then there are times that you very intentionally knead it, pull it, fold it, and shape it into that thing that comes next. And so that's what needs to happen with your thinking, because with credit mobility, that's not the end of the story. And nor should it be the end of your thinking about helping mobile learners be successful. You need to think about their needs across their entire educational spectrum, and in that, be thinking about the ingredients, those things that will make them successful. And then that's whenever you mix in those policies and those processes and those things that we know to be better promising practices And then you shape an experience that allows students to just hop right over those hurdles to get to the finish line, whatever that looks like for them. So as your time together is coming to a close, I once again want to congratulate you for everything that you have put into the last year. And I want to say that you are at an advantage. You know more now than a lot of folks in your positions. You've had the benefit of working together in consortia and working across state systems. You leverage those relationships, leverage the innovative approaches that you have come to know and embrace, and take that knowledge and share it with others. Because I guarantee when you do that, you are making the future so much brighter for today's diverse and mobile learners. So best wishes for continued success, and I can't wait to see what comes next. Thank you.

Okay, I can't hear you.

That's okay, I just do this for a living. Sometimes we forgot to— we forget, we forget we're on mute. Amazing.

What?

It happens.

It happens.

Well done to you. Um, this is good. This is gonna sound surface, but I really love your shirt.

Thank you.

It matched your picture behind you. Was that intentional?

Somewhat. I didn't want to recede into the blandness of the wall, so I tried to be a little less jarring and a little more palatable.

So yeah, it's great, it's great. And obviously you bring so much depth and knowledge, and we will get to that, but I just want to point this out because I think that's really important. I have kind of a busy background, so I have to wear very solid things, and you have a, a pretty quiet background, and so you have a little more room to play with the color and the vibe. So beautiful.

Well, excellent. Thanks.

Well done.

How do you feel?

I'm relieved, very relieved. This has been a great exercise to really push myself. I don't have to give a final talk until the end of January So I've got a little bit of time, but this was really good to start thinking through what my audience would need and just how I might want to put it together and to really edit myself from trying to make the final draft now. Like, this is an iterative draft, so it was very, very helpful.

Oh, what a powerful idea. The iteration of trying, learning, adjusting, trying again, learning, adjusting. That is Speaking in a nutshell, it's literally the fastest way to growth and impact. So congratulations for your willingness to jump in and do it. I kind of, because, you know, you were like, okay, I'm going to go for it. I'm going to do it. I had no idea that you are, you are really ready. And it's such a, a, you know, this is your particular audience.

Mm-hmm.

So these are the people who you have worked with and spoken to. Your role is shifting a little bit as you bring yourself more, um, out externally. Mm-hmm. So since we have a moment, would you just talk to us about the shift that's happening and the— what you're really embracing as your message as you become the speaker, the consultant, um, moving on your own?

I have spent the last 30-plus years working at institutions and also working within the National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students, which has a national presence but still on a college campus, was housed there. So a lot of my work has been with professionals at the forefront of working with students. And now where I'm shifting is what I've been referring to is getting to solve different types of problems across the higher education ecosystem in creative ways with really cool people. And so what I'm trying to communicate is the importance of stewardship towards the entire ecosystem. And in that, thinking very clearly about how you can't just have strategy, nor can you really just have a list of promising practices that you think are going to work, but rather it has to be this nice blending of the two where you've really thought through context, you've thought through collaboration, and you've thought through community. And all three of those are really important in figuring out what is going to be best for your piece of that ecosystem. And higher education is so fluid. And whenever we think about college, we oftentimes think about brick and mortar, but we are also looking at credits that are coming from work-based, in, you know, employment. We are looking at credits that are being earned in high school and brought into the higher education system. We are looking at competency-based learning or just credit for prior learning that isn't necessarily happening in the classroom at the moment. So there are so many ways that our citizenry is learning, and we're just trying to figure out how to make that make sense such that they can get through to a credential faster. And I'm trying to not only leverage that knowledge but then also just help larger systems and larger ecosystems kind of think about how that is a piece of the puzzle. And when you look at transfer and mobile learners, if they win, all students win, because what's good for those individuals is typically good for most learners, right? Right.

Yeah.

And I, I just think the point about the whole system has changed so much that We are, you know, I've seen it with my own kids even. They're getting college credit in high school and they were like, what do we do with it? Who accepts it? Who doesn't accept it? What does that mean for your college search and where you end up going or not going? It's complicated. And so you're advocating for not just a small slice of, I like how you call it, the citizenry. Like who we are educating for the future, it actually is quite a large swath of not just young people but adults and continuing education and all the different ways that we learn and get credit for that learning. It's actually a really, um, big system that operates within the education spectrum. It's, it's a lot. And uh, everyone is really so lucky to have your expertise now kind of unleashed on the world. You know, it was like you were working within this group.

That's right.

Important work. Now you're really expanding what that means. So will you give us a sense of what it is, what that looks like? How can people work with you? How— what are the ways that you bring your expertise to people?

I will be bringing my expertise to folks in multiple ways, specifically focused obviously speaking. Um, the, the group that I am like speaking to in this situation again are ending their time together in a group that was very structured. So I can bring my expertise to have that kind of what next phase, which is really important. I also have the opportunity and abilities to speak to statewide convenings. I do that quite a bit. So whether it be focused on transfer or other types of higher education, really bringing just, just people from across the state together to have those conversations. It's a really great place to kind of get some solid expertise and then potentially follow up a keynote with a workshop or some other opportunities to really dive into the information that's shared. Because sometimes in a keynote it's really hard to go deep.. And we really want to spend time. So I've got the abilities to go ahead and do the broader pieces as well as those that are going to be more specific and tailored to individual learning. And then also just the consulting piece. If there's a specific problem that needs attention, we're going to really take a look at that from an ecosystem perspective and really also think about the context and the capacity. Because we know too often that it's the implementation— it's not the, it's not the enthusiasm, it's not the ideas, it's not that, it's just that it's difficult to implement some things that maybe have worked in other places. So unraveling that a little bit and then figuring out what it looks like in each individual institutional perspective is part of where I excel.

Awesome, awesome. Thank you. I wanted to give you a chance to, uh, let people know how they can engage with you in that way. Uh, we are going to put links in the description below this video once it— once it's complete. We'll add the description and we'll include links to all the different places where they can connect with all of our speakers today, including your LinkedIn page, which I think is where we are sending people for you today, Janet. That's an amazing place for you to connect with Janet. So we'll look for that link below in the description of this video. But for now, let's just give Janet a big warm round of applause one more time. Thank Thank you, Janet. Well done. Appreciate your time. Oh, hi, Robin. Hi. I threw, I threw Robin on stage and then I pulled her back off because I was like, oh, not yet. We're so excited. We're so excited. Robin's next. You're coming, Robin. Don't worry. Don't worry. We're going to get you on stage here in a second. I want to introduce you first though, Robin, because, uh, one of the really cool things about my job along with learning from all of these amazing speakers is the breadth of not just messages but experience that my amazing speakers have. And so we were just in a very academic realm and learning about team momentum and evolution and how we work within a complicated system to do that. And Now we are going to talk with Robin about fitness, and I cannot wait for you to meet Robin because she's going to kick your butt in the best way. Just working with her, I have to tell you, I— all I can think about is how I need to do more squats and I need to lift heavier. And she's going to tell you a lot more about all of that in a moment. Uh, and if you are not a fitness person, it's especially important that you're here because, and even if you are a fitness person, I bet Robin will have a challenge for you. And it's not just about looking better. That's not what drives Robin. And it's really inspiring. And I, like I said, I have, I feel my butt has been kicked in the best way, just having listened to Robin and her passion for helping people, women in particular, get strong and get stronger for life and what that really, really means. So she will describe herself as a self-professed gym rat, uh, and you will hear her talk about the importance of the gym in a moment because she really believes it can be the place for you to discover your own strength in a way that you cannot do on your own.. And Robin's got all the credentials. She holds certifications as an NSCA certified personal trainer. She's a CrossFit L1 precision nutrition coach, a menopause— menopause— menopause— I'm very familiar with menopause. I shouldn't be mispronouncing that. Menopause health and fitness specialist. And she has her functional movement system level 1 certification. So she is clearly certified in all the ways. But what I most love about Robin is her passion, her passion for helping others learn not just good form and technique, but really learn to believe in what is possible for themselves. And her main message today is to go to the gym. So without further ado, I'm going to hand the microphone off to Robin Bruggeman. Here she is.

Yay, thanks so much, Sally Koering Zimney. This is so exciting to share this message. I had an experience not too long ago, and it was really strange for me because it felt like nobody else was going through it and nobody had gone through it before. None of my friends were talking about it. I'd bring it up and they'd kind of get shifty-eyed and mumble and get embarrassed. It was almost like they didn't want to talk about it. So it was menopause, a totally universal thing that happens to half the world's population. But no one at the time was talking about it and no one seemed to recognize what I was going through. And it didn't seem like they were going through it. Obviously they were. But I noticed menopause the most at the gym. I love the gym. I am a gym rat. It's my happy place. And I love to be there, but there were definitely days that during menopause I really didn't want to be there. I would get tired and irritated, and I was easily frustrated. I mentioned it to my coach and other people in the gym, and often I didn't get a huge response. And I even suggested that my coach write about it in his blog, and he never did. So I started to do my own research, and what I noticed is that there just wasn't really a ton of information, and studies about menopausal women and fitness were really almost non-existent. It is getting better, and there are more people talking about it and advocating for it. But what I did learn is that estrogen is our friend as women, and she is leaving us. Estrogen does everything for us. She helps us build muscle, maintain bone health, regulate blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol. She even helps us burn fat. But after menopause, she's gone, and none of that is getting done like it was before. But our lives don't end at menopause, so we have to adapt to this new way of being. Women really need to be lifting heavy weights. They need to be doing focused cardio training and they need to do plyometrics. But if you look around in most gyms, you'll see that there are a lot of men lifting weights and mostly women doing kind of mindless cardio. The more I looked around at gyms, the more I realized I kind of need to open my own gym. I needed to build something that was designed for women and the women that nobody's been talking to. So when I was 53, I decided to go for it. And honestly, I got a lot of pushback from mostly other gym owners who suggested I was too old and who questioned my energy. They underestimated my vision, and one of them actively tried to prevent me from opening a gym, which really only made me want to do it more. Our 30s, we start losing— we start moving in less active— into a less active stage of life. So biologically, we start losing muscle, agility, balance. We start slowing down. And you don't notice it because you're in your 30s, but it really is happening. It's kind of a catch-22. We're living longer thanks to modern medicine, but our bodies are aging. Our healthspan is not matching up with our lifespan. So we have to start planning ahead because the older we get, the more time we have for fun things like, you know, people are starting to play more pickleball and they're traveling and they want to play with their grandkids. So we need to train for our future selves. We need to adapt to living longer and so that we can live better. So this is a lecture about fitness for everyone, but mostly it's about women claiming their strength in a world that has ignored them. We know a lot more now. There are strategies for living better and having— being healthier longer, even after menopause. So as I've said, we are aging every day starting in our 30s, and 3 major things are happening. First, we're losing muscle mass starting in our 30s. Men and women, we lose 3 to 8— 3 to 8 of our muscle mass each decade. And once we get to our 60s, it starts to go faster. And not only are we losing muscle mass, but we're losing our fast-twitch muscles. So these are our big powerful muscles that help us do things quickly, like catch ourselves when, when we're falling or when we slip. Women lose that muscle even faster through menopause. Because of the loss of estrogen. We also start losing bone density. So starting in our 30s, we lose about 0.3 to 0.5% of our bone density each year. Women lose 2% each year through menopause and can lose up to 20% in the 5 to 7 years after menopause. By the age of 80, some women, depending on your ethnicity, can lose up to 33% of the bone density in their hips. Again, because we're losing estrogen or we've lost estrogen. And then the third big change is that we lose cardiovascular fitness. We start losing it in our 30s by about 10% per decade. And this is men and women. Women do lose it a little bit faster because of the loss of estrogen. So again, all of this is happening because we're moving toward a less active stage of life. So if you think about your parents, you know, you see them aging, they get slower, they're losing strength and balance, they're shrinking, they're stiff, they shuffle. You know, if you picture your mom about 75 years old, she seems healthy. She walks with her friends, she gardens, she's cooking. She seems to be really busy, but she gets sick with a cold maybe, and she's on the sofa for a little while. And in that time that she's sitting on the sofa, she's losing bone, muscle mass on top of what she's losing just from being older. The decline is subtle. You may not even notice it. In your mind, she's just aging. Next, maybe she has to go in for some routine medical procedure that she— that has her down on the sofa for a couple days. Or maybe your dad gets sick and she wants to be home with him. Or maybe she works too long in the garden and hurts her back or feels more tired than usual. All of these little things set her back because she's off her feet for a few days. 6 or 8 months later, she's weaker. She's lost those fast-twitch muscles and she slips on the ice and breaks her hip. The result: 40% of people who break a hip lose mobility long-term. 14 to 36% of older people die within a year after they break a hip. At a minimum, The loss of muscle mass your mom will incur as a result of that fall affects her strength and her balance, and that increases her risk for another fall. But we don't have to age like our parents. We can go to the gym. I'm speaking to everyone, men and women, but mostly I'm here to speak to women. I know there are a million reasons that women don't go to the gym. They're busy. They've got jobs and kids and spouses and friends and parents, or they'd rather run or go cross-country skiing outside or do yoga or Pilates. All important things. But there's another reason that women don't go to the gym, and that reason is fear. Women have a lot of fears around the gym. Fear of being out of shape, of people judging your body, of being the weakest person in the room. There's fear of being out of breath. Of being sore, of being uncomfortable or getting hurt, fear of not knowing how, fear of wasting time, fear of appearing vain, often fear of prioritizing ourselves, fear of being old. But I'm here to tell you, you do not need to love working out to start. You don't need to feel confident to begin. You do not need to be in shape, skinny or strong to show up at the gym. You don't need a friend to go with you. You don't need to know how to do it before you get there. And you definitely, definitely, definitely do not have to be old— young. You don't have to be young to go to the gym, but you do have to prioritize it. And you do have to realize that it's not about vanity. It's about living life better. I didn't grow up athletic. I didn't grow up fit. I wasn't naturally gifted. I worked at it rep by rep with a lot of fear and insecurity and angst. So if you're listening to me, I've already said I love the gym and you may think it's not that hard for me, but I'll be the first to say I have hated plenty of workouts. I've been frustrated and pissed off enough to walk out of the gym in the middle of a workout. I've compared myself to others. I've even cried at the gym. But I always love what it gives me. It gives me that buzz throughout the day, that soreness 2 days later that reminds me that I did something. And I want you and everyone to love what strength, strength gives you, whatever that is, for the long run. That feeling of walking taller and prouder, of feeling strong and feeling accomplished. Think of working out as a purposely applied stress. A stress your body responds to hormonally by building muscle and bone and even mental grit. So today, today I want to share with you the 3 foundations of a long and strong life. First, we have to build muscle. We women have been conditioned to lift, lift 10-pound dumbbells in our basements and to think toning is enough and to believe that lifting heavy and having muscle is for men. I can't tell you how many women have told me that they don't want to lift weights because they don't want to get bulky. Ladies, if you think about how hard your husband or your sons work to be bulky, they work for hours at the gym and often with little to no bulk. So please know that you are not going to get bulky, but you do need muscle. Muscle is what allows you to climb stairs without thinking about it, to put your own bag up in the overhead bin on an airplane. To hike, bike, or ski, and to feel, feel powerful in your own body. But more than that, muscle makes you healthier. It helps lower blood sugar and cholesterol. It increases cardiovascular fitness, and it boosts your metabolism. But if you're not using it, you are losing it, especially when you go through menopause. Your friend estrogen leaves, and your body starts losing muscle like it's trying to win a competition. And here's the kicker: you cannot tone your way out of that. You cannot cardio your way out of that. You have to lift your way out of it. Heavy, with intention, with good form, with support, and with a coach who can help you. Lifting heavy, it means heavy, and it's hard. You have— you need to apply a stress to get a response. Your muscles need to feel worked enough that you feel the need to adapt. Adaptation means more and stronger muscles. And I'm telling you, you are stronger than you think and you are not too weak or too old to start, but you are too important not to. I train my mom. I have been for several years. When I started training her, she was in her late 70s and she's had— she had never lifted weights before. I taught her how to back squat, deadlift, overhead press, bench press, all of the things. And she loves it. And my mom loves a boat ride. So you offer to take her out on Lake Minnetonka on your boat and you will have a friend for life. A few months after we started training, she went out on a friend's boat and the thing that stood out to her was not the boat ride. It wasn't the beautiful weather or the lake or the houses she saw on shore. It was that she could get on the boat without help. She felt stronger and more confident. So here are 3 simple things you can do tomorrow to increase your muscle mass. First, start squatting. Squat, sit down and stand up, or just tap your butt down to a chair. Whatever you need to do. Squatting. Do some push-ups. If you can't do a push-up on the floor, do one on a wall or on a table or a chair. Work your way towards a more horizontal position. You can even lay down on the floor and just snake your way back up into a plank. It doesn't matter. Eat more protein. Most people don't get enough protein. The presence of protein in your body stimulates muscle growth, especially when combined with resistance training. But really, just go to the gym, find a good coach. You need to be lifting weights that are heavy for 5 to 8 reps. Okay. Imagine you are going on a trip to some far-off place. Africa, Europe, somewhere far, you pick. You're heading to the airport and there's traffic and you're running late, so you're stressed. Your heart rate is elevated before you even get out of the car, and you still have to get your bag from the car to check it in and then get yourself through security and to your gate and on the plane. And that's just the first leg. You have another flight to catch. You're tired. Maybe you have to get your bag through customs or hoof it through to the other side of the airport. Your heart rate's elevated from stress, and now you have to run. You're winded and you can barely keep running. Will you make it? Cardiovascular fitness is defined by VO2 max, or your maximal aerobic capacity. This is the maximum amount of oxygen your body can process during high-intensity exercise. A high VO2 max is the number one predictor of longevity. It's not your weight or your BMI, and it's not your ability to be good on a diet. It's your VO2 max. And this brings me to something that many women don't like, and that is being out of breath. I see it every day in the gym. Women will walk or jog and get a little out of breath, but if you ask them to sprint— and by sprint I mean 15 to 20 seconds at 105% effort— the hardest, fastest sprint ever. You should finish it completely out of breath and unable to speak. It's a big, huge exertion of power. Suddenly, those women, they remember a dentist appointment. Many women in the gym will swear they're going as fast as they can, and as soon as they're done, they'll start talking to their friend on the next bike, totally able to speak. I get it. The intensity feels scary. You're out of breath. You feel out of control. It hurts. It's really hard. It can make you feel a little sick. You feel exposed. You feel like you're going to be the slowest one. You might not win. I feel it too. I know what I can do on a rowing machine in a minute. And sometimes I feel angsty at the thought of doing it. What if I can't? What if it hurts? What if I don't win? But here's the truth. Cardiovascular intensity, intervals, sprints, short bursts, is one of the most powerful tools you have during and after menopause. It improves heart health, metabolism, energy, and even your mood. Studies show that high-intensity training is the most efficient way to improve cardiovascular health and lose belly fat. Plus, it gives you power. I have a client who on day one in my gym told me she does not work hard. She goes to the gym only because she has to She hides in the back and does the bare minimum. She warned me not to expect too much from her. It was like she was challenging me. Challenge taken, because all you have to do is stand behind someone when they're rowing and they will absolutely run— row faster. And so now she's kind of kicking ass. Not only is she lifting heavy, she's sprinting and pushing herself like no one else. She grunts She cusses. Sometimes she tells me she hates me. But her work is paying off. She feels different. Her clothes feel different. She feels better in her own skin. And her health indicators are showing up differently. High-intensity intervals don't have to be long, only about 20 to 30 minutes max. But they do have to be honest. You have to push the line of discomfort to make a change. You have to apply a stress so that your body can learn how to recover and adapt. And it will, because it wants to be ready for the next time. Next time might be the next time you're at the gym, or next time might be the time you're running for your next flight, or running for a ball on the tennis court, or skiing down a hill. And yes, sometimes they suck. They burn. You question every life choice that brought you there. But when you finish, your body will owe itself, itself a debt all day long. And the payer is your metabolism. That accomplishment rewires something inside you. And that's what I love about fitness, because it's the most direct path to remembering that you can do something hard. So here are 3 simple things you can do tomorrow to increase your cardiovascular health. If you are a walker, Start walking faster. Get to a point where you can talk, but maybe only a sentence or two at a time. This is called Zone 2, and it's a great way to establish a cardiovascular base. Add in some sprints. While you're on your daily walk, run as fast as you can for 15 to 20 seconds. And when I say as fast as you can, I mean seriously, run as fast as you absolutely can, and then continue walking for a couple of minutes. And then just repeat that as many times as you like. Build in some endurance. Extend your sprints to a minute. Start as fast as you can, do that sprint, and when your sprint slows to a jog— and it will— try to hold on to it as much speed as you can for the rest of the minute. But really, just go to the gym. Having someone stand behind you is a great motivator, and having people alongside you doing the same thing is way more fun. Now, I have a client in her 60s. She was diagnosed with osteoporosis, and thankfully her doctor told her to start lifting weights. She came in very hesitant, afraid of lifting because she had gotten hurt before. We started deadlifting an 18-pound kettlebell and squatting with 10-pound dumbbells. 10 months later, she's back squatting 65 pounds and deadlifting 125. She feels strong and accomplished, and most importantly, her bone density data are improving. I bring this up because we should talk about something I mentioned earlier—falls. One slip on the ice, one wrong step, one misjudged curb, and your life changes. Having muscle is a fall prevention tool. In general, muscle keeps you strong and stable. But your fast-twitch muscles are what catch you when you slip. These are the muscles that keep you responsive, quick, and upright. The problem is, after 30, your body starts phasing them out like last year's jeans. This, coupled with the fact that we are also losing bone density, it's a recipe for breaking a hip, a disaster, and for some, a death sentence. Good news, you can rebuild your fast-twitch muscles and maintain your bone density. How? Lifting and plyometrics. You may be asking, what, what, what are plyometrics? Plyometrics are quick explosive movements—hops, bounds, box jumps, even burpees. Yes, even burpees, the hated burpees. Jumping can be really scary. I've had many people look at a box and say, no, absolutely not, I am not jumping on that. They are absolutely positive they'll miss and fall on their face. But this is kind of a use-it-or-lose-it situation. How else will you have those muscles that tells your body, hey, we've got to be prepared for that slip? And in Minnesota, in the winter, this is for real. We need fast-twitch muscles and strong bones, just in case. So strength for your bones. Speed for your reflexes, power for your life. Women deserve to move with agility, confidence, and power, not to tiptoe or shuffle through the world hoping they don't fall. This is not about looking good. It's about living well without fear. It's about preserving your independence for the next 20, 30, or 40 years. So here are 3 simple things you can do tomorrow to maintain your bone density and your fast-twitch muscles. First, start jumping. You can hop, do some side-to-side, forward and back hops, or buy a jump rope and remember what it feels like to be 10. You can always do burpees. Also, sprint and lift heavy weights, just like we talked about before. Both require big, powerful muscle and stimulate bone growth. Pay attention to your calcium and vitamin D intake. All the lifting, sprinting, and jumping in the world is not going to grow bone without calcium. And also go to the gym. They have boxes to jump on and lots of heavy weights. Besides, doing burpees by yourself is really not very fun. My gym has been open for about a year and a half now, and I've had many women come in in all stages of fitness. Some have never done any lifting of any kind. They've never even been in a gym, and some run or do spinning classes, but they've never lifted a barbell. Some have done yoga but have never done any cardiovascular training. Most have never done a box jump, and 99% of them hate burpees. But the one thing they all have in common is that they're on the spectrum of fear. There's skepticism, there's uncertainty, there's fear. Fear of judgment, pain or injury, fear of getting bulky, all the things I mentioned before. Especially as we go through menopause when everything is changing. We feel old, fat, stiff, moody, emotional, and self-conscious. But we need these things: weightlifting, intentional cardio training, and plyometrics. I'll be honest, working out, it is hard work. You will be uncomfortable. It will come with soreness. You will not know how to do everything, and you won't be able to do everything, and that's okay. It's okay. Go to the gym and start where you are, not where I am, not where your best friend or your spouse is, where you are. Eventually it'll get easier. And even if you don't love working out itself, you might love the people, the camaraderie, and the community. You will definitely love how it makes you feel when you're done. Physically and mentally. So if you're waiting for confidence, stop. If you're waiting to feel in shape enough, stop. And if you're waiting to have time— oh, who has time for anything? Please stop. It's time to lift heavier, jump higher, move quicker, and take your strength seriously, because no one is going to do it for you, and your future self will thank you. Go to the gym, it'll be fun.

Yay! Well done, well done. Thank you, Robin. Loved it. Love, love, love. So appreciate you and that. And yes, you have been kicking my butt in the best way just talking about this. Every night I'm like, I'm doing my squats, I'm doing my thing. So well done. Thank you again for the important reminder, ah, of these really critical ideas. And it's actually a great transition for our next speaker because our next speaker has a fitness background. Like, you'll hear about his VO2 max. It's amazing. And what— how do we, how do we take the lessons of that he has learned as a fitness person and apply them to the chaos in life that feels like this is, this is the challenging time that we are in. It's no longer a season, it's just the new reality. So you're about to meet our next speaker. His name is Tony Lloyd. He is the founder of Culture Shift Advisors and the architect of something called the Endurance Leadership Framework. And today he's here to share why endurance, it isn't just about survival. And I will tell you, it's not, it's not really about running, although we're going to learn a lot from that idea. It's actually, endurance is actually your strategic advantage and it's no longer a nice to have. It's really essential. And critical for us living in this world that feels quite chaotic, constant disruption. And his talk today is called The Endurance Advantage: How to Lead When the World Feels Unstable. And Tony has all the credibility in the world to talk to us about this because he has been there. He has— he's a Fortune— former Fortune 500 executive. He has built businesses. He has mentored entrepreneurs. He's had a best-selling book. He's had a best— or it's not selling, but a highly listened to podcast, top percent in the world. Tony Lloyd is bringing all of his expertise and helping us manage disruption and change when the world feels Uncertain, and I don't know about you, but I need this. I need this right now. So please help me welcome to the stage Mr. Tony Lloyd. Here he is.

Hi Sally Koering Zimney Zimney. Thank you so much. So let me, let me set my computer up where I can look at my slides and talk to you. So I want to tell you a story real quickly. And this story happened in 1975. I'm, I'm 67 years old, so 1975, I was 16 years old, and I was walking on a mountain path in Arkansas, Crow Mountain, Arkansas in particular. And it had been raining for about 6 days before this, and so I was just glad to be outside, and the sun was shining, and I was just very happy to be there. And I'm walking along and I, and I heard a sound to my left, and I knew there was a creek over there, but I realized that there was a waterfall. And despite what they'd say in the song, right, I go chasing after waterfalls. I, I don't know about you, but when I hear a waterfall, if I'm close enough to hear it, I have to go see it. So I go off the path and I take a left and I'm kind of getting near the edge of a bluff. And we have a lot of bluffs in Arkansas, so I'm, I'm kind of creeping my way up there because it's been raining for 6 days, like I say. And, and so I want to get around this sort of dirt place where maybe the dirt would cave in and fall out from underneath me because it's really wet. And so I make my way onto some large rocks, kind of like what you're seeing on the screen there, like some big Volkswagen-sized rocks. And I'm thinking, oh good, okay, now I've got it. So I get up and I just creep up towards the edge of this bluff, and I can hear the waterfall just off to my left. And as I'm, I'm, I'm sort of leaning forward and I'm trying to look left and I'm trying to see this waterfall, when the ground behind the rocks I was standing on began to slide, and these Volkswagen-sized rocks were tumbling, and they started to move. And I turned my body around sort of instinctively, and I started running. And as I was running, these large rocks were rolling down the hill, and my feet are just slapping the rocks as I'm reaching out, and I'm trying to get to that edge. So let me just ask you a question for a second. Have you ever heard this phrase, between a rock and a hard place? You know, I'm thinking to myself, if I fall right now, I'm gonna fall, and then the rocks are going to fall on me. And if I can keep myself upright a little bit, then maybe the rocks will pass and I'll be able to run and get to safety. And, and so it— recently I had a conversation with an executive, and she was sort of describing the things that are happening, and she, she describes so many problems that were happening in her business And I said, it sounds like you're between a rock and a hard place. And she said, no, rock and a hard place, nothing. I'm in a rock tumbler. I don't know if you've ever seen these rock tumblers, but you put rocks in it and grit in it and it just tumbles, and those rocks crash together and the grit scrapes their surfaces, and it just keeps grinding away at those rocks. It's polishing the rocks, but they are just sort of getting slammed against each other. So does it ever— does the world ever feel like that for you? I mean, does it ever feel like the world is unstable? Does it feel like that for you? I think it feels that way for me. A lot of times. It's like those rocks that are falling out from underneath my feet as I'm running towards safety. That's a common experience. I'm hearing that as I'm talking to business leaders and other people in the community. I was just talking to somebody in a Rotary Club the other day and they were describing how in their Rotary Club, it's like things are unstable. This is a very common experience that we're all having at the same time. So I, I want to talk for a second about like this unseen force that maybe is shaking your world right now. And so if we plot time on an x-axis and we plot change on the y-axis, and then we say how much is the world changing over a period of time. How much is the world changing in a period of time? What's the rate of change? And so if you go all the way back to like 10,000 BC and the agrarian revolution, when we first started farming together and living together in villages, and we started, you know, when the world would change, it wasn't, wasn't that dramatic. Maybe you have a, a drought one year, and then the next year you might have a flood, or maybe the Huns came over the the hill and they attacked your field and burnt things. And so, you know, things changed, but it wasn't a lot of dramatic changes. Sort of continued along the same line. And even around 1400s, when the printing press is invented, I mean, very few people could read. So still the elites were the ones who were getting the, the books, those who were privileged and property. They were the ones who were educated. They were the ones who were reading. Even as in the 1700s, as democracies began to emerge on the earth and we saw different forms of government, even then it was sort of incremental changes compared to what we had seen before. But around the 1800s, we had the Industrial Revolution, and suddenly we had machines that could shape our world and change things. And so we began to see sort of a, an an acceleration of the rate of change. And then right here, right at this little inflection point, all of a sudden the world changed in a very dramatic way. And I would put that change moment around 1947 when the transistor was invented. Uh, you know, the, the lyrics in the song, gunning down the old man with a transistor radio, in the 1960s Lots of people had a little transistor radio. Suddenly you took something that used to be a wall-sized unit and you put it in the palm of your hand. And so the transistor allowed us to shrink electronics very, very much. And so other inventions started following right after that. In 1948, the speakerphone was invented. So now suddenly you could talk to your telephone without touching it. 1956, machine learning, sort of the precursor to AI, started out of Dartmouth. Uh, 1958, integrated circuits. Uh, 1965, computer touchscreen. So suddenly we could communicate with our computers by just touching the things we wanted. 1971, the microprocessor. '75, the personal computer. 1983, a cell phone. So think about all the changes that have happened rapidly in your lifetime. 2007, the iPhone came out and I stood in line and got it, got the first iPhones that were coming out. And today we have an AI-driven supercomputer in our pockets. And so this is sort of the rapid rate of change. And so we've gone from this sort of agrarian society to maybe an Industrial Revolution, and now we're in this Information Age, and, and there's just this rocket strapped to our backs. So it's this accelerating rate of change that is causing us to feel like the Earth is shaking. So the accelerating rate of change is something that, that maybe we didn't notice in the background, but it's happening. But what we can notice is that there are constant disruptions in our lives. You know, it used to be that change was episodic. In other words, something major would change and then we'd have a second to catch our breath and then we could go on. It was cyclical. But that's not true anymore. So economic volatility and inflation, I mean, You know, the price-to-earning ratio on the stock market is at record highs. Uh, we've got inflation. I don't know about you, but when I go to the grocery store, I might notice that a little bit. Um, I, I got a single bag of groceries the other day and I paid $150 for it. And yeah, I had a lot of coffee in there because I drink a lot of coffee, but it was really expensive. And then there's labor shortages and talent retention are problems that I'm hearing from executives. It's like there's a leak in the leadership pipeline. They have these high-potential people they're trying to develop, but they burn out before they break through. We're navigating technology and AI integration. You know, there's a factory in China that produces 300,000 automobiles a year. Without any employees. Think about this for a second— 300,000 automobiles a year without any employees. It's automated, it's AI-driven, but also somebody has to maintain those machines. Well, even those people aren't employees of the company, they're contractors that come in and maintain it, and they pay for a service. So this is a company that is producing 300,000 cars a year without employees in that factory. So that's, that's mind-blowing, isn't it? And we have regulatory and policy uncertainty, so we don't know what's going to happen with our government. We have lots of fighting in our government. We have lots of uncertainty about what's going on. And then we, and then we have, are the tariffs on, are the tariffs off? So we have supply chain disruptions. So this constant disruption, this is what I'm hearing from, from business leaders. And so this is where it kind of goes from the outside, constant disruption. It starts to feel right now on the inside. We start getting that feeling like the world is unstable, like it's shaky. We're standing on shaky ground, like I was when those rocks were tumbling out from underneath me as I ran back towards safety. So leaders in these organizations, they begin to wear down. Fatigue sets in. I almost think about this like metal fatigue. Like if you have a, you know, 10-ton truck that drives over a bridge, it wears the metal down, but it doesn't break. And then it drives again, and more and more and more big trucks drive over, and eventually that, that metal becomes fatigued. And fatigue sets in. You have to inspect these bridges to make sure they're safe. And then fatigue becomes exhaustion in people. And then finally, leaders burn out. And that's where we see this sort of leak in the pipeline. So this is sort of the State of the Union. This is how things are happening right now. And it's why things feel unstable. It feels like we're standing on shaky ground. What we need is something to break the cycle. What I'm proposing is what we need is we need endurance. Let me just explain why endurance is important to me. As Sally said, I'm a former Fortune 500 executive. I worked with companies like John Deere and Medtronic and Buffalo Wild Wings and other major organizations you've heard of. I helped SC Johnson and spin off a company called Diversea, and we sold that to another company. So there's, you know, I've worked with some very major brands. And so I've always seen this sort of like we need leaders who can last in organizations. Also, as she mentioned, I'm an endurance athlete. Robin mentioned VO2 max, it's how well your body can use oxygen. Last spring, I had my VO2 max measured, and I'm like in the top 95th percentile of people for my age group. I'm an endurance athlete. I've been invited— in May, I'm going to Cape Town, South Africa for the age group world championships. And one more thing about endurance and why it's important to me right now is I'm also a cancer patient. So in September, I had 25% of my lungs removed in cancer surgery. And I am a lifetime nonsmoker, but I got cancer in my left lung. And so I lost 25% of my lungs. And now what I am doing is I am on a journey to discover what it takes to get 100% from the 75% of my lungs that I have left. And, and so I am into endurance. And so I'm digging into the research. What does research say about endurance? And I'm not doing this alone, I'm doing it with a partner. So, uh, Jen, Jen Wiseman, Jennifer F. Wiseman, she has more letters after her name than I have in my name. You know, she's a, she's a psychotherapist, uh, she's a clinical social worker, she's a published author. What Jen brings because of that background is academic rigor, clinical insights, applied research. She's helping us to say, what does the research say about what does it take to endure? I'd say that also she makes sure that the science behind endurance leadership is not only evidence-based, but it's deeply human-centered. Right, so our company is called Culture Shift Advisors. Jen Wiseman is a principal, and she's also our chief research officer. And so this is our definition of endurance. What is endurance? And I think this is important. Let's take a second here. Endurance is being unshakable in a world that feels unstable. Endurance is being unshakable in a world that feels unstable. And that is where we are at right now. The world feels unstable, doesn't it? So, because I am an endurance athlete, I think about, we have these 5 pillars. So, instead of calling them pillars, I call them aid stations. So, let me explain what that means. If you're in a 100-mile race, you come to these aid stations and they have food and supplies, and they have tape to tape up your foot that has a big blister on it, that you— maybe you've dropped some fresh shoes there that you can change into. You refill your hydration pack. You get lots of good, uh, you know, whether it's, uh, candies, or in this case there's pizza. I've never really seen another aid station that had pizza at it before, but you can find big buckets of bacon for people who are, who are keto. So it is crazy, these aid stations, but you go there and you get refreshed for the rest of your journey. So in Endurance Leadership, we have 5 aid stations that we talk about. And so here they are, Endurance Leadership, the 5 aid stations. So the The first is calm, and I want you to remember that these are all verbs. So when I say calm, I don't mean a state of calm. I mean, how do you calm yourself? And I don't know about you, but there's a lot of upsetting things in the world, right? There's things coming in, in news or things coming in on social media. So how do we calm? So calm is how leaders Regulate stress, model composure, and create stability under pressure. We also have Clarify. Clarify. How do we clarify our values? Right. How leaders align meaning and value to guide decisions and sustain motivation. When we get clear on why, we can sustain any how. Change is about how are we flexible How do we pivot? How do we move when things change? How leaders adapt thinking and behavior to navigate complexity and uncertainty. We also have Connect, how leaders build trust and foster relationships that sustain collective resilience. How do we as leaders connect with other leaders, connect with peers, connect up in the organization, down in the organization, and how do we as individuals connect with one another. And then finally, it's continue. How do the leaders sustain performance through habits, renewal, and ensuring long-term endurance? So let me give you, let me give you an example of this. And it's Des Linden, who, as you know, spoiler alert, you can see her crossing the finish line here. She won the 2018 Boston Marathon. So let me just tell you the story about this. So That day was miserable, as you can see in the picture there. So here are the conditions: 25 mph winds with hard rain and even some hail during the race. And the— it was 45 degrees at the start, which is the coldest Boston Marathon start in 30 years. And so here's another thing you need to know about the Boston Marathon. You start in Boston, you get on a bus, and then you ride the bus out to Hopkinton and you wait at the start line. And so when Des and her fellow elite runners were on the bus, the rain is beating against the bus as they're riding out there. The bus is tilting to one side with the wind blowing against it. And rain hitting the windows as they were going out. And so a lot of the elites were like, what am I doing here? What is going on? So Des came up with a different strategy. Now, Des had been injured during that winter, and it's a spring marathon, so she really had a hard time getting her training runs in. And so with the miserable weather and everything being really awful, what Des did was she decided to help other runners. And in particular, it had been 33 years since an American won the Boston Marathon, and Des says it's about time for us to, to come back and to win the Boston Marathon. And so she began to work and collaborate. She set purpose to collaborate with other women runners as they were running. And so as she's out running, Shalane Flanagan decides that she's not feeling well. They're in the lead pack and Shalane says, I can't keep going, I have to stop for the porta potty. And so Des said, okay, here's what you do. I'm gonna keep my eye on the lead pack. I'm gonna let them get away from me a a little bit. When you come out of the porta potty, you don't have to catch the lead pack, just catch me and we'll work together to get back up to the lead pack. And so they fall off behind and the lead pack gets away a little bit, and then there's a chase pack that's behind them, and, and then Des and, uh, Shalane are sort of back here. And so Shalane came out of the porta potty, she joined Des They went running, uh, towards that chase pack. They caught the chase pack, and then they were moving up towards the lead pack of women. And along the way, they found Molly Huddle. And Molly had like fallen off of the lead pack a little bit, and she was really struggling. And so Des put her body between Molly and the wind and said, just go with us. Just go with us. And Molly got back in her rhythm as she began to run, and these three women began one by one by one to pick off the other runners as they were working together. So here's the big payoff. At mile 22, Des passed Mamitu Daska, who's from Ethiopia, and she never looked back. Now, around mile 20 to 22 are the— are the hills, the Newton Hills. And so So Des got past her right after the Newton Hills, and she took off. And right there you see the picture of her. She is the first American woman to win the Boston Marathon in 33 years. Now here's one more piece of information about what Des did. The whole time she was working out there, she had a mantra that she was saying to herself, and that mantra is Calm, calm, calm, relax, relax, relax. Calm, calm, calm, relax, relax, relax. Now here's the thing you need to know, is that calm is not passive. Calm is the strength that lets you last. And so Des kept herself calm, she kept her composure while everybody else falling apart in the rain, and she was able to win the race. She had clarity. She clarified her purpose and turned disruption into direction. That's what Des did that day. She decided, we're going to work together, we're going to see what we can do. And then change. So she was not, not planning on 25-mile-per-hour winds that morning. She was not planning on, uh, a driving rain that morning. She hadn't even looked at the weather forecast. She thinks, "Eh, we are all in the same weather. Why even look?" So, she shows up and sees this. So, change is the pivot that keeps progress alive. Then, she connected with others. Here is a secret. Endurance is a team sport. We think even that running is an individual sport. You can see from this that there is a lot of strategy There's a lot of collaboration that happens out there. And then continue is the rhythm of practice and renewal that makes endurance possible. You know, when I show up at the start line of a marathon, I have run at least 1,000 miles before I got there. So I do long runs on the weekends, I do lots of easy runs, I do some short sprints and workouts that, that help me to get that explosive kind of power that Robin was talking about. And I have rest days. So first, there's a rhythm to my training, and there's renewal, recovery that's built into the training. So, so that's what we're talking about— calm, clarify, change, connect. And continue. Now, we've put together some micropractices in a document that you can, you can get. It has micropractices for, for individuals. It has some little micropractices for, for organization, for business leaders, and also for organizations. So, sorry, micropractices for individuals, Micro Practices for Leaders and Micro Practices for Organizations. If you would like a copy of those micro practices, I can send it to you. The only trick is you have to spell my last name right, because my last name only has one L. So if you send an email to tony@tonylloyd.com, tony@tonylloyd.com, that's T-O-N-Y-L-O-Y-D, there's only one L. And Tony Lloyd. Um, I will send you, uh, these, and, and just put practices in the, in the subject line, and I'll know what you're talking about. So send me an email and I will send it to you. So, so let me just, let me just close with this. I mean, there's really 3 things I want you to think about. One, if it feels like the world is unstable, you're not crazy. And two, you're not alone. We're all feeling this, but you don't have to always be in survival mode. What we're talking about is endurance, is being unshakable when the world feels unstable. So Sally, back over to you.

Well done, well done, well done! Yay, Tony! Thank you, thank you for your time and your energy and your insights. And, uh, I appreciate that you gave a shout out to Jen and her research that she brings with you. And I just want to underline that for a moment because, you know, I I work with all kinds of people, and they're in all different phases of the development of their message and idea. And you and I had a coaching session yesterday, and I was saying that you're fast-forwarding the ownership of this idea by going so deep into the research, and, uh, and not just like thinking about this idea, but really grappling with it and understanding it and pulling it apart and talking to other people about it and just taking it on as your idea that you want to bring out into the world. Like really seeing it as not just a message, but you're building a movement and that it's inspiring to be a part of. It is exciting. Because it feels like this, this is how it happens. Not just feels like, like if you want people to adopt this and take it on as seriously as you do, then you have to take it seriously. Yeah. And embody it fully. So would you just talk for a moment before we hand off to our next speaker, would you, would you talk for a moment about what that process has been like for you? Because it was like cool idea, and now all of a sudden it's like life's mission.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You and I met for a one-on-one, I'm gonna call it July, maybe August, something like that. And I was like, I have this idea and it's sort of like this, I'm not really sure. And I think I had like 3 things and it was like grit, grace, and some other G word or something, you know, like something like that, right? But, but that's not really— once we got into the research, that wasn't what it bore out, right? I had some concepts, but the concepts didn't necessarily align with what the science says. So Jen and I have been digging into this research. We've been going deep in it. You know, like this morning we were on a walk together and, and I just go, I know we have this thing called prosocial behavior. What What's a pro-social behavior? I don't even understand. And then like, like that, she just, you know, oh, pro-social behavior. You know, if you go over and you, uh, you shovel your neighbor's, uh, sidewalk without being invited and you're not getting anything out of it and you're just, you're just doing something kind, that's a way to build resilience and, and endurance in your own body because you're doing this kindness out. But, but that, like, there's this sort of hormonal reflex that happens and all these other things, like you're getting a reward even though nobody may see you, even though your neighbor may not send you a thank you card. You're doing something for someone else outside of your body. So pro-social behavior, that's the kind of level of research understanding that Jen has, that I could just ask that question and then she could not only tell me what the science said and who the researchers were that the— were the fathers of that research, and who the— you know, what the research says from the clinic. But she could also then say, and this is how it shows up in your daily life. Here's a micro behavior: when you do something for somebody else, it builds endurance within yourself. And so, you know, that's cray cray to me that, you know, like, she's got this level of, um, of just in her body she knows these things. And when I ask her questions, they just come out.

Yeah, and I'm so glad that you have her in your back pocket. And the point that I really want to make here is that we all have access to that information. And if we want to embody this message fully and not just like talk about it and not just get hired, but to build something real with it, then we have ourselves dig in deeply. We've got to kind of obsess over it, dig into it, yeah, and, and play with it and wrestle and talk about it and disagree with it and find your pathway through it. And you are doing that with such intensity, you are speeding up your development. So I just want to say kudos to you, and what a benefit, a needed benefit you are going to bring to organizations and leaders here this next year. I'm so excited for you in 2026. It's going to be awesome. Thank you, Sally. Yeah, thank you for being here. Well done. Round of applause for Tony. Let's see if we can, uh, get our music going while we say goodbye to Tony. Yay! Oh, there's a lot of buttons to press, and, uh, as, as if you've ever, if you've ever live streamed, I don't know, if you've ever live streamed, you know, there's a lot of buttons. We're doing this and we're doing this and we're doing that. And one more speaker left and I finally got the music right. Ah, there we go. It's Friday. It's Friday. And we are celebrating the success and development of some of our speakers here in the Movers Collective. And we I am so delighted to— we've got 2 more speakers for you before we wrap up today. And our next speaker is an amazing woman who is also in the process of taking an idea and grappling with it because she has lived it. It has been in her from moment really so early on. I said moment 1 might be a stretch, Nancy, but really from so early on, this has been a part of her journey. Uh, Nancy Chapin, she is a storyteller, a thought leader, a nationally recognized real estate broker, and someone who believes that the hokey pokey might actually be what it's all about. I love that. Uh, Nancy's core message is that authenticity is a frequency, and midlife is a time of our lives that really amplifies the contrast between who we've become and who we truly are. She's a singer-songwriter, a photographer, a real estate broker, as I mentioned, sometimes all of those things in the same week. And now she is here to talk about what she calls The whisper, that feeling of midlife disillusionment that so many of us experience, but we don't know how to name and we don't know what to do about it. But Nancy is here to help us through that as she blends humor, honesty, and heart to help people navigate that whisper, that little voice to help us reconnect with our inner unchanging self and reclaim the energy and clarity that makes life feel meaningful again. So please help me welcome to the stage Nancy Chapin.

Have you ever had that little whisper in your ear? The one that says, is this it? Is this all there is? It shows up sort of at inconvenient times in our life because we are busy living our lives. By the time you get to maybe, let's call midlife, and we're gonna, we're gonna talk a little bit about how broad a timeframe I am thinking of when I'm talking about midlife. I'll be honest, my dad told me once when he was 65, he's like, Nance, I'm going through a midlife crisis. And I thought, dear God, Dad, how old do you think you're gonna live? I think your midlife crisis was in your 40s when you got divorced and did all those other things. And I thought he was crazy. And I have to say, at 64, I have a whole new appreciation that there are developmental phases that continue from 45 to 65. We're gonna talk a little bit about that, but there's that time when you are, if you have kids, you're juggling kids and you have a career. And if you are partnered, you have a partner or spouse, maybe your parents are getting older. And this little voice is just saying to you, is this really what I thought adulting was going to be all about? Like, I love my job. I've been doing it for decades. I'm good at it. I'm competent. It pays the bills. Eh, do I really wanna do it for another couple of decades? Probably not, but I don't wanna start all over again. And maybe you look at your spouse and you say, I like you okay, good enough. I don't wanna start all over again. Or you look at your body and you say, cuz you haven't been listening to Robin's talk and you say, Wow, this is not what I thought 30 or 40 or 50 or 60 was gonna look like. But am I really gonna take on what it's gonna take to have the body that I thought I was gonna have at this point in my life? Eh, maybe not. And you go on in your life, sort of, it's like a gnat that you're just, or a mosquito that you're just swatting away, trying to ignore because you are in it. No, but you don't have the time or energy for an existential crisis of, oh my God, who am I and who do I want to be? And then time goes on, that whisper gets a little louder, and then I think you shift into the phase where you start blaming. You go, if I just had a different job, everything would be great. Damn it, if I had a different spouse, everything would be great. It's all their fault. If I had a different body, if I lost 20 pounds, everything would be great. If I could go on vacation, everything would be great. And you keep going on because you are at that fork in the road where you have a choice to either stay in automatic pilot where you're like Yep, I'm good. I'm just gonna keep plugging along at the job that I don't really love, with a spouse that doesn't really— the relationship doesn't really light me up the way it used to, in a body that feels kind of eh. But automatic pilot. Yep, we are. We do not have the energy or desire to have those hard conversations. Because the other choice is you do. You lean into, there's got to be something more than this. I want to, I want to feel like myself again. And as the decades go on, it gets louder. And I'll be honest, at 60, what happened for me was it was It was like a bomb went off one day, literally, like on my 60th birthday. Surprisingly, I realized I had more years behind me than I had ahead of me. I don't know why that was a surprise, and I kind of freaked out. And then within about 6 or 8 months, I had 2 dear friends die. And I remembered my beloved mom's— one of her things she would say to me, which was, "Nancy, shitter get off the pot, sister." And I had this sense of urgency of like, tick-tock, not like the TikTok today, but like a watch. Time is a ticking. And if you don't have as much time ahead of you as you have behind, and you are just trying to find your way back to who you kind of think you are, You better do something now, or you are gonna be one of those people who stays in automatic pilot till their deathbed and then wonders, why do I have some of the regrets that I have? So we ignore that whisper, and that midlife time sort of amplifies that contrast between who we become based on decades of roles of spouse, daughter, employee, employer, parent, friend, sister. Those roles just get calcified. But then there's who we truly are. So today I want to talk about the whisper, the truth, and the frequency that's waiting for you on the other side of a life It's kind of a lot to take in around midlife, but here we go. So Caroline McHugh, uh, who did a great TED Talk a number of years ago, talked about the 4 you, 4 versions of you. And the first one is who other people think you are. The second is who you want other people to think you are. The third is who do you want to be? Who do you think you are? And then the fourth one, which is my favorite, which we're going to talk about a lot today, which is the unchanging you. What— when I say that, does that kind of resonate with you? Like, do you have— do you know, like, oh yeah, like, when I'm in that space, when I'm doing that thing, when I'm with those people, yeah, I know what that feels like. It may feel a distant memory. Uh, I have certain photos that have been taken of me over the years, and I look at those and go, ah, that's who was there for that moment. Sorry about that. So the unchanging you is who gets buried and silenced and quieted through all those decades of building on one expectation after another. And the question is, what do we do with that? What do we do at that point? And when that whisper becomes a nudge, and sometimes it becomes a scream of like, hello, wake up, there's gotta be more. And if you lean into that and are willing to say, yes, that's true. I do believe there is more. I want more. There's a recalibration that can happen. So part of it is that unchanging you actually is your authentic self. And interestingly, authenticity is an electromagnetic field. And I know you may not have thought of it that way, but you have felt it before because you know those feeling, that feeling you get when you meet somebody and you're like, there's just something about them. I like them. You meet them at a party or workplace, whatever, there's just— you can feel it. You know what that is? That is the frequency of authenticity coming out, emanating from that person, and it changes how you feel. You feel good around those people. And you know what? You have moments where you are lined up with your authentic self, and and you are the one giving off that frequency, that energy that changes how other people feel. It changes the connection between you and that person. It changes the room. It changes the boardroom. It changes the team at work. It changes the family, changes the world. And that authenticity, that alignment, and typically what happens is you lean into the yes moment of this, of saying all of these old identities that so don't feel like my unchanging me, that's like the pain of inauthenticity. That is the being out of tune, that out of frequency, that ah. And I am confident you can think of times when that you have felt that way. I know that sometimes it happens when I have not been as present in a conversation with somebody. Sometimes it's little things. It can be, uh, you're multitasking when you're on the phone and you know, you're not really giving this other person your full attention. And they can feel it and they know it. And maybe they don't call you on it and maybe, and you just keep going and it just feels off. Sometimes it's big things. Good God, it was decades in my life before I realized that I was gay. And, uh, but that revelation and coming out was a huge alignment for me of finding my unchanging self. Sometimes it's in big places like work or relationships where you realize, oh, this is not where I'm supposed to be. Other times it's you walk out of a meeting and you think, I should have said something and I didn't. And you just feel a little, little attitude, a little out of whack. It just doesn't feel good. You don't feel like you showed up. So that energy makes a difference for people. And it is not some woo-woo woo-woo, just the positive energy. It's actually good science. It is quantum physics. It is sound wave. It is electromagnetic field. And it actually is best reflected with a tuning fork metaphor. I do say it just happened to have them here. Who doesn't carry tuning forks around with them? When you get in alignment with your unchanging you, you know what happens? This other tuning fork starts vibrating the same frequency. So you being your more authentic self actually has an impact. People feel that, and they feel like they have permission to be more of that themselves. It taps into their unchanging them, that unchanging self. Isn't that wild? Like the fact that us saying yes and getting clear about who we are can have that kind of impact. I'm also struck by like the different ways that we go in and out of alignment. Like it's not a one and done. Like people, there's so much talking about authenticity these days. If you Google it, go try and find a book, a podcast, there are a lot of people talking about it. But what I'm struck, and a lot of people are talking about it is as far as their brand process for their business. Don't get me started on that, that's another conversation. But it is a tuning in and out. It's like, I was a singer-songwriter earlier in my life and I remember very vividly a concert I was giving in college. I mostly played the guitar at the time and I was singing a song and I got about halfway through the song and I realized, oh my God, the guitar is really out of tune. So I just kept going because what else am I gonna do? So I got to the end and I was like, okay, I gotta tune the guitar. So, um, as some of you may know, you have to tune it to the other strings. And I'm— I have a good enough ear that I know when I'm out of tune, but I have to say I do I did not have a good enough ear to be able to get back in tune. I think it's why later in life I started playing the piano more than the guitar, 'cause it just stays in tune. So there I am on stage with a packed house, a little freaked out. I'm pretty sure I am sweating through my clothes as I'm trying to turn the peg on the guitar and it's going a little high. Ooh, that's not right. Turn a little the other direction. And it's a little off, it's a little flat, it's a little low, and it is this painful process of trying to find that frequency that will put the string back in tune so I can keep going. I must have done something or I handed it to somebody else. I don't really actually remember what happened. I probably blanked it out of my life for being super dramatic, but I do think it is a great metaphor also for what our journey is with our authentic selves and what, how that happens in midlife. Because it is, I think part of why people don't want to lean into this sometimes is from fear. Fear that if I really say I want something more, I want to feel like myself again, I'm going to blow up my life. Like, what if my family doesn't like me? The me I really am and not who I've been showing up to be, this devolving sense of self over the last however many decades. My job doesn't like this version of me. So we don't do it because it's scary. But I'm here to tell you, you don't have to blow up your life doing this. It is small things that will help bring you back into alignment, back into tuning. Maybe it is that you go back to playing the piano. Maybe you take piano lessons. Maybe you take up something that you loved as a kid that filled your heart. One of the things for me that I have picked up in the last few years is photography. I did a ton of it, uh, from junior high on. Actually, I have a wild array of photos from when I would be back in the darkroom, which I loved doing back in the pre-digital age because you would be in the darkroom with a photo and you would, you know, put the paper on the— expose it to light and then you'd put it in the developer. And as it is in that horrifically toxic chemical, uh, and you're watching it this image is surfacing, it's coming into view, and at first it's just the big things, and then as you go along, the details are starting to come out. You're not just seeing a face and a head, but you're seeing the smile or the eyes. You're seeing the expressiveness of one's hands, if the hands are in the picture. And I think again that that is a great metaphor of as we are leaning into trying to find our way back into this more authentic frequency of who we are, that more details come out at different chapters, different seasons of our life. So one of the things that I find so powerful powerful about the tuning fork metaphor, the frequency part of talking about the whisper and then the truth when we lean into, yes, I want more. And then there's the contagious phase of frequency because on an interpersonal level between you and I, I feel that, as I said, when you are in that authentic space and you feel it when I am there too. But as I got older, as I turned 60 and all of a sudden I felt this urgency of, oh my God, what do I need to do still in my life so that I don't have those deathbed regrets? What I realized was the contagiousness of this This vibration, the vibe of authenticity doesn't just change relationships, it changes the world. And given the world that we live in right now, I think when I, when I think about the ripple effect of my living a more authentic life, it's not that I'm leaning into my unchanging me or that I'm just trying to live a more authentic life because it feels good to me. And that is not a bad reason, just to be clear. Like to be able to say, I feel more at home in myself. I feel like I'm more me. I feel like I recognize myself in how I move through the world. That's great. And aside from that, there are amazing, well-researched, health benefits, mental health benefits. I mean, the list goes on. Pharmaceuticals would love all the things that living from a place of authenticity does for your life if they had some drug to give you to be able to do that. But it's not self-indulgent. It is not just about you. That may be the reason, that may be the thing that makes you Wake up, take that different fork in the road from autopilot to, no, I, I need— I got to do something different in my life. But at some point, as you get a little bit more comfortable in finding your way to that place of alignment, to that frequency of authenticity, the mission gets bigger, the quest is bigger, because what you realize is that it has the potential for a level of social impact. Maybe you wanna call it resistance. Maybe you wanna call it even, um, civil disobedience, but your energy matters. And when you get past some of those other places where all those other roles are identifying for are, are defining you. Sorry. Um, you want to be able to feel like, yes, this is the legacy that I want to leave behind. And so you realize that being in alignment isn't just personal, it's actually being of service. So midlife, I don't think, is a crisis. And it bothers me that people talk about it as being a crisis. I think it is an opportunity. I think it is an awakening. It is a chance for us to come back to ourselves. I don't think it's a reinvention. I don't think it's necessarily that you have to go find yourself. You might find new things about yourself in the middle of that. But I think more so it is coming back to something that feels familiar. I think oftentimes our angst in life comes from a homesickness for ourselves, and I think there's such possibility to use this chapter of midlife to find our way back home and in the meantime have such an an amazing impact on others. So you are not here by accident, and if you are hearing this whisper in you, you are not alone. You are already in that arc of disillusionment and the whisper that comes with that. And the truth-telling of the recalibration and the frequency part of having this impact so huge. So it isn't about blowing up your life, it's about turning back to those parts of you that never left, actually, because when you reclaim the alignment your frequency changes, and so does the world around you. People feel you differently, you feel yourself differently, and eventually the question becomes, what do I want my— what do I want to do with my energy while I'm still here? And if you're feeling that tug, that contrast, that truth, I made something for you. Uh, it's called the Midlife Recalibration Starter Kit, and it's designed to help you take the very first steps quietly, privately, on your own terms. You can grab it by scanning this code, and I invite you to lean into gradual awakening and circling back to yourself. I really thank you for being here, and I look forward to having you and I both being tuning forks out in the world together. Thank you so much.

Fantastic, Nancy! Thank you for, uh, showing up and sharing. This was a— this week Nancy was like, I, I don't know, I can't, I don't have time. And then was like, okay, fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, I'll do it. I was like, yes! Professional nudging at work. And here you are.

You're good at that yourself.

Can't help it, just can't help it, got a nudge. And thank you, thank you for your willingness to share something that is, right, this new exciting mess. It's new only externally, it's not new to you because as I was saying, I really think you, this has been a theme.

It's a culmination of the last 20 years. Um, in fact, I have journal entries that absolutely show this progression through this arc.

Yeah, beautiful. So the amazing Erica Biddix, uh, just asked a question. She said, Nancy, what's one thing that we can do today to check our alignment and get get more into alignment? Oh, Erica, great question.

I would— so many things come to mind. You know, one of my favorite things is, and this feels so small and so huge all at the same time, I have an app on my phone that helps remind me to do this, but I will take like 2 minutes, put my hand on my chest, like turn off the ringer on my phone so I'm not going to get interrupted, and I'll just do 3 deep breaths, and I will see if I can feel my toes.

Mm-hmm. We're just gonna take a minute and do that right now because there's a lot of body between your head and your toes.

And most of us can't really feel the body that we're in.

Yeah, I say this sometimes, we live in this neck up world and it's just like from here up to like— and we can feel it in our voices, even the push around our voice, and it's just about what we say or what we think think, and then we, we cut ourselves off from the, the knowledge of the body, the insight and the wisdom of the body. So just appreciate that the— it's right here, it's waiting for us. We just have to take a moment to access it. Thank you for that.

One of the other things, if I could just add this for Erica and for other people, is I think, uh, one of the things when we're in a conversation, it's not quite going the way we want it to with whoever in our lives. Oftentimes we will not say something that we think might be kind of hard, that feels like it's uncomfortable to say, because— and sometimes it's because we just don't want to be uncomfortable, or we think, you know, this is just the— who, you know, it's a relationship with somebody that doesn't matter that much to me. It's not my spouse, it's not my kids, it's not my best friends, like whatever. But I think noticing when we are feeling some of that resistance and asking yourself, is— do I want to say whatever I want to say, not because that has anything to do with the other person, but because this is who I want to be in this moment? Beautiful. So it's— you're not changing them. It's not anything about sort of this long-term relationship with anybody else other than that relationship with yourself.

Yeah. So, so good. So important.

Most of us have, you know, half a dozen or more of those conversations a day. So plenty of opportunity to sort of check in. Yeah. Practice that.

Well, and, and really holding your own integrity. Yeah. As the most important thing in that moment. And I think women in particular were very good at making space for everybody else's ideas, their, their voice and presence. It's like holding space for your own self.

And your own women do have a very unique blessed extra layer to this whole midlife arc, which is for them. I mean, the fork in the road of, okay, I'm just going to stay shut down. But what happens for most women is your body through menopause does not let you sleepwalk through midlife. Like, there's no way you're— you are not going to know, you know, The earth is shaking.

Yes, sometimes there's a whole other layer of hormonal stuff. Yeah, you know, the menopausal rage. I'm like, well, you know what, I've been thinking this, but it's coming out, it's coming out because my hormonal rage is activated. And yeah, honestly, there's freedom in that as well. So yeah, right. What a— the consensus and the overlapping ideas here around frequency of self and authenticity and midlife and alignment and how— what happens for women in particular in midlife is really an important giant Venn diagram that we get to hear more from, from you in 2023. 26th, and we're so excited. So lots is coming. Yeah, it's coming. So we will have in the description below this video, once this is completed, we'll add the description and we'll add links here. We'll add the link to your Midlife Recalibration Starter Kit. We'll also just throw it up there. There it is. And we will just make it as easy as possible for everybody. If you want to follow up with any of these speakers, including Nancy, you can do that.

Wonderful.

Okay, giant round of applause.

Thank you so much, Sally Koering Zimney Zimney, for hosting this opportunity and just for being the amazing coach that just helps us say yes to, you know, that authentic self in all of us. So clearly all of the people that find you and work with you are leaning into trying to find that more authentic frequency.

It's pretty awesome. Well, it's my pleasure to do this. I can't do it without you and your courage. So kudos to you. Round of applause, Nancy Chapin. We've got one more speaker as we wrap up our Movers Showcase. We have one more speaker with us today. His name is Todd Hanson, and I mean, Todd and I go way back. We go way back to days when we were standing up in front of young people talking about big ideas. And so I've had the privilege of working alongside of Todd, not just in that respect but as a producer. Uh, and Todd, the whole way along, has had a pretty active film, television, theater career, even throughout his day job life. And this conversation that we are about to have is about something that affects everybody who works in the film, television, theater industry. But the truth is that this idea applies to anybody in any workplace. So if you are not somebody who works in the television or, uh, creative industry of theater or film, that's okay. Because this is really about culture and the value of a quality culture on the work that we do and how it can unleash the work with that we do or hinder it. Todd has an MFA from USC and he spent several years working in all kinds of roles for stage, television, and film in Los Angeles and here in Minneapolis. He has been the cultural director of experiences. What a cool job for two small businesses. And he has really consulted for companies like ISG, Gardner Builders, and Five Below, which is where I'm going to go to get all of my children's stocking stuffers in the next few days. P.S. So Todd really understands culture from every angle, the creative side, the business side, the leadership side. And I cannot wait to dig in with him about this because I really think that the challenges that are ahead of us, the business challenges, the creative challenges, the leadership challenges, ultimately I think they're culture challenges. So let's please give Todd a warm round of applause and have him join me on stage. Stage, Todd Hanson.

Thank you, Sally Koering Zimney Zimney. I think I'm gonna make that my walk-up music from now on. Isn't it great? That's pretty great.

Yeah, it's just like, feels magical and sparkly. We're coming down.

I get that a lot, actually. So yeah, magical and sparkly.

Yes, Todd Hanson, magical magical and sparkly. Well, you are wrapping us up, so thank you for swooping in. You're managing a lot of different things. You just had a reading the other night, a show reading. I did.

I just have completed my second play with a partner of mine, and we did a Zoom reading. People from LA and New York and Minnesota all coming together, and that was super exciting.

So yeah, how did it go? How did it feel?

It was, it was well received, you know. It the first time that it lived beyond our heads, uh, so it was, uh, educational. Um, but, uh, you know, there's new— now we have a new direction to go in some areas, but it's still alive and people are still passionate about it. And it was well received by the talented and smart people that we had in the room.

So that's great. Amazing. Well, you're really living out the thing that I, I started talking about, um, at the beginning of this, which is This is this whole experience, the Movers Showcase, and my philosophy and approach as a coach is we do it before we're ready. You show up anyway. You— the only way to really know what you have is to put it on your feet and put it in front of an audience, virtual or otherwise, and say, here, and be seen in that moment. It's vulnerable, but it is it's truly the pathway to better, especially if you want to, if you're serious about it, it's the only pathway to better.

And yeah, I mean, I learned that from you as you were alluding to in, in the beginning. I learned that from you way long time ago when you kicked me out in front of 300 9th graders with no idea what to do. But I also learned that, uh, you discover more about the focus of what you're trying to message and you find better ways of saying it by just continuing to get out there. So, um, yeah, your process and, uh, it's been super helpful all my life, and now here I am in another capacity.

So, and you have been in this creative realm in so many different ways. You know, we talked about you were in LA for a long time being a working actor, raising your daughter, um, and your family, and And came back to Minneapolis and Minnesota. And eventually though, you're heading back to LA. Yeah, that's the plan.

And that's where partly part where this idea, uh, you know what I, what I'm talking about, and I appreciate you opening up the conversation beyond just the entertainment and film business. I, I obviously I believe in culture in a lot of spaces, but I, I do feel a lot of people are speaking in that space. I think it's super valuable. That's where I've dedicated a lot of my life, but Yeah, that move back there is kind of about bringing these two parts of my life together and sort of synthesizing them. And I think about what Nancy says a lot, finding that authentic voice that I've developed over my life regarding, yeah, the need for this attention to culture and the value of it in a film and television production space, which I don't feel like it has gone to that space very much. You know, in the business world, there's a lot of conversation around it. I think it's a space we can always continue to work on and it's very important. But I really think what— yeah, what's unique about that move out there at the— and the sunset of my career, my last element is kind of bringing those two things together, the culture element and the awareness and the experiences in the film and television industry.

So, okay, well, let's dive get into that a little bit more. Yeah. Where did this idea come from? You know, obviously you have a lot of experience in the culture sector. You know, that, that realm has been your professional work for a long time. But like, what is, what is the problem that you see specifically in the entertainment industry that makes this feel like this is needed right Yeah, I think what I—

what I— the, the problem I see is that there hasn't been the awareness or the identification that, uh, a, a film or television production is, is basically a small business. I mean, there are hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars being spent in a very small period of time, and it should be treated more like, you know, it's being treated like a business as far as obviously budgets and all stuff, but But, you know, in the business world, as we were saying, there has been this focus around culture for quite a while now. It just has not gotten to that space. And it's just this awareness that like, hey folks, this is a small business. And even odder or more unusual is that the leaders are not trained to lead people necessarily. They're trained to create visual, you know, stories and they're masters at it. But they are not, you know, they don't go on, you know, training classes to learn how to create culture. And they don't. And these teams are thrown together for, you know, from all over the place, and they come together for an intense period of time. You've got to kind of, you got to speed it up and get people aligned and put a culture in there. And yeah, that's not, I don't think people have put enough energy there yet. So the benefits that we receive in business world around culture It's time for that to head into the process of creativity and film and television too.

Yeah, it seems— it is surprising when you think about how quickly, like on a set, an entertainment film set, television set, like you said, it's a small business and usually they're short-term projects, not always. So you have to quickly create a space where people can take creative risks and show up and do their very best work because there's so much on the line. So, it's surprising in some ways that culture has not been a more official approach or strategy because some people just naturally do it well and some people don't and everyone just kind of deals with it. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, yeah, you certainly hear the stories. That's, you know, if you're in the industry, and I think so even make them to the general public about, oh my gosh, I hear he's really great to work with, or she's really great to work with. David Lynch, I think of, is one of those people, you know, where people— and that's great that obviously that, that director has a, um, a way of creating a space that people want to work with, but that is not a guarantee, and that is not, um, something that, uh, you know, is on everybody's skill sets. Uh, and the other side of that, you know, uh, When it goes the other way, well, those are the stories you hear a lot about. And they're happening quite a bit. And they're, you know, to be honest, there's actually a little bit of a, you know, from, from the older generations, and I'm in that space, there's like, well, that's how you do it. You know, that's kind of, that's kind of part of it. You know, it's like, I don't believe that. I've spent too much of my time around seeing the difference that a positive culture makes. And I don't agree with that. So the Again, there's where the need is. There's sort of this, like you said, people are just like, well, that's kind of what it's like. It's like, no, it's not true.

So what happens in your perspective, your point of view, when culture is left to chance and it's like, well, good luck, good luck everybody. What does that look like on set?

Well, there's, yeah, I think there's two risks in particularly in, you know, again, particularly in the film and television business. I think there's a creative, uh, risk and there's a business risk. Uh, the creative risk you were alluding to is, um, you're asking people to be vulnerable, uh, to be authentic— again, referring back to Nancy— and share their ideas and, you know, and get the best, uh, out of them, whether it's a cinematographer, whether it's an actor, whether it's, uh, somebody gripping, which is the people with the lights and stuff. Like, you're asking them to do their best and all that stuff. And if it doesn't feel like a accepting, respectful environment for everyone, uh, there's— you're just not gonna get the best, um, and that, that's gonna show up on the screen. I mean, I truly believe that if you don't get that space where the actors and, and everyone on the set is allowed to flourish, you're— it's going to show up on the screen. The business argument for it is, is a bit more about the efficiencies of time and money, sort of classic. But, you know, you can You know, so we know a toxic environment won't create the best product, and also an inefficient environment, a siloed environment where there's not a shared set of values, where everyone feels valued, and we're all going the same direction. You know, you can get silos between departments, people aren't anticipating the needs of other people, you get behind on shot lists, which means you have to go overtime, you know, it turns into time and money and budgets go out the window. So, uh, that all plays into an understanding and a shared idea of what we're trying to do, how we're gonna do it, how we're gonna do it together. Yeah. And how we're gonna work together to get there.

So, yeah, that's, I think there, and I, I do think there's a, there's a lot that business can learn from set and like production approaches. Mm-hmm. And vice versa. Obviously, and you're bringing— you're kind of melding that combination of both of them. And as somebody who— we worked in a business that had a lot of artistry to it. We almost like made a set every day. We'd walk in and, you know, talk to 150 7th graders or 9th graders. We were creating a set culture in some ways. We could think about it that way. Yep. And so there's, there's one thing that I think of that has always benefited me that I learned as a theater person that I talk about with business people all the time that they struggle with, and that is feedback. That feedback, the culture of feedback is so ingrained in art, in the craft of becoming an actor You sit for notes afterwards. And I remember as an actor, I was just like, tell me, tell me, tell me, how can I get better? What should I do? What should I do differently? Like, okay, cool. Great idea. I'll try that tomorrow. You know, like I just was so hungry for those notes and I learned to be— no, I— personal feedback is like, it feels like a totally different realm and I have to tap back into me as actor. And wanting to grow, you know. And I think the— that approach that we learn in the theater world is actually really powerful to apply in the business world. And I'm curious, from a business world, from your perspective, what's something that you can take from that that the entertainment industry benefit from the other?

Well, okay. That's it. This country, because I think that's what I'm doing at the highest level is bringing intentional culture to it. So, you know, I think it's rationalism.

Is there like a specific practice that has been really powerful for culture building in the business world that you specifically want to bring over?

Yes, providing people points to connect on. So, you know, people, we're social animals, some more than others, but they want to connect. And it certainly helps to have, you know, ways to know how to connect with someone. So something that we do and at our companies I've been with that I'm sure other people do is we just do an onboarding sheet with a bunch of questions that have information about people, their pets, their kids, favorite warm drink, favorite cool drink, you know, favorite snack, all that, you know, favorite city to visit, all that sort of just points of connection. And so when you come on, you, you know, you can flip through, you're given, you're given this, you know, passport, this Crew Connection thing, and you go through and you're like, oh, they have a dog too, or, oh, they have a turtle or whatever, you know, and you have a point to connect to. So that's super valuable when someone's coming on to any business. But when you're coming out to something and you've got 6 weeks to work together, it helps a lot to have some points of contact to just go, okay, you know, it's an intentional choice to give people information about people so that they can find connectivity and sameness and synergy. So yeah. Yeah. Cool. That's something that we'll be doing.

Yeah. To be humans with each other. And to know each other beyond a role, beyond a job description. Yeah. Like, how do we get beyond that faster? Beautiful. Love that. Okay, so the vision for your company, for Set Culture— this is, you know, this has been an idea, it's coming to fruition. Just tell us about the vision for Set Culture and what you're building. What you're moving towards.

Well, yeah, I'm gonna say, uh, let me just pull back a little bit more, but part of like, I'm not looking to build something that is a huge scalable, we do it all sort of world. It's something I think is super valuable and I think other people do. I've had conversations that there's been some validation of my, my thinking here. Um, but, uh, I, I, I want to speak to it because I do think the— I love the industry, I love creative world, and I do think the industry needs to wake up. I think this is an idea whose time has come, you know. Um, after #MeToo, intimacy coaches became standard on film sets, uh, and rightfully so, particularly coming out of the environment we were coming out of, uh, as we learned. And this is, again, I think the idea whose time has come. It's like, okay, what is the next level? Like, what does the whole culture feel like in general? So the company set culture, um, you know, like most, uh, businesses looking to make different levels of offerings to filmmakers and producers and how they could engage. One could be just sort of thought, you know, a thought leader conversation, consulting, giving them some thoughts, some ideas, and sharing that with them, sharing with them the value and focusing them on some ideas on how to do it. The other, the next step up would be creating some of the tools that I've talked about, sharing them with them. Co-branding and giving them the tools and then letting them find someone in their production that they feel like could, could work that. I don't want to say that's— I think anything you do is good, but it's a very unique skill to be able to do this. And that is why I think I'm uniquely suited to do it in some ways, because the third level is to actually have myself present on the set to help, um, keep that culture that, you know, the intention that we created, uh, alive and rewarding those who are living it, you know, check, you know, checking those who are straying from it. And, um, you sort of become this, uh, sinew between all these muscles, you know, just moving around and becoming the fabric of the set that just helps everybody understand what this is and keep them going the same direction. Button. So, um, that's, that's the vision of what it looks like. And I think that is the most valuable. Again, I'm not, I'm not the only person in the world who can do it, but, um, it's better. No matter what, it's better that you're saying you're interested in it. I, I, I would say to any producer or director, if you even got to the point of like saying, here's our 10 tenets of how we want to run this small business for the next 6 weeks, and you put them up in the restrooms, you'd be further along than 90% of the productions because at least you said, you stated your desire and you've put it out there. Yeah. But that is the big, funny story I always tell is my current job is the director of experiences here. I met with his owner before he hired me and he's like, why don't I just bring you in as a consultant? I said, well, because someone has to actually do the work. And that was when the light bulb went off in his head and it was like, oh, right. You know, like, so, you know, I do think it's better if I tell someone and maybe give them tools, but eventually someone has to be— and that's the whole idea is it's protecting the director, you know, in his creative vision or her creative vision from all that, like, you know, and creating the best environment for them to do what they do so extraordinarily well. So that means someone on set and keeping it, keeping it happening.

So yeah, start building the idea of this as a role, a specific job, and giving it budget and time and space and capabilities. So that it's not just a nice idea, let's keep this in mind, but actually implement it.

Yeah, and that's the, you know, that's the harder sell maybe, but not when you talk to people who've been on sets They know, they understand. They're like, oh yeah, if you could have stopped that, that would have made things a lot better. Or if you could have been the eyes and ears that would have diffused that before it turned into this, you know, I think people get it and that the ROI on that type of investment comes back pretty quickly when you start thinking about extra hours of this huge small business having to figure things out in this little amount of time.

So, okay, we have a question coming in from Janet. And she says, how will you know that your message is being received by the industry? What are tangible outcomes that you hope to see? So like when you think about ROI, what are those results? What are, what are the results of that?

What was the first part of the question again? Say it again.

How will I— Yeah. How will you know that your message is being received by the entertainment industry? In other words, I'm interpreting this question as what are the tangible outcomes?

Yeah. Okay. Of this kind of work. Yes. I mean, so how will I know I'm being received? I mean, I plan to— I have relationships and plan to be talking to people in rooms. And I can tell, like most salespeople, when you're selling something, if they get it, they get it. If they don't, they don't. And it wouldn't work if they didn't get it and it will work if they do. So I, I, that's not a tangible result, but that's a pretty clear, like, if they value it and they understand the value of it, then that alone, um, will help it work better. What are the tangible outcomes? Um, you know, what I, again, what I've talked about, which, you know, is if it's the feeling of the people, uh, of the experience that they have working on that set, uh, for a production company and/or a director becomes part of your brand. I mean, if you— if people— not to mention recruiting the top talent in the world. I mean, again, small businesses know this. If you have a great culture, you then can grab the best talent in the world. If you have— if your production company continually puts on, you know, leads, shows, and productions and films that people go, "Ah, gosh, I've heard about them. I want to be a part of that." So tangible, meaning do I know right away? No. But retention of talent and/or attraction of talent, uh, and then, uh, again, closing, you know, keeping things moving, people working together, finding synergy. I think it's, it's two things. It's the experience of people on the staff, and that's the result of getting done on time, getting done, uh, most— more efficiently. And it's always bumpy. I mean, it's a bumpy path. It's a crazy thing to do. It's the most collaborative art form I can think of. I mean, there are so many people involved. And they all matter. And that's the other big thing about— yeah, the tangible results. Okay, so here's— I hope I'm answering this question, but it is a bit squishy. I get it. Like, there's not a hard, hard thing. But I just— I was down in Kansas City. I did this on a short film for 3 days in Kansas. And at one point, the director, who was a friend of mine and said, yeah, this is worthwhile, came up to me and she said, almost to the person, everyone has come up to me and say, who is this guy? And You know, it's amazing. Now, that's not it. I— what they're, what they're responding to is not me. They're responding to how I'm creating the vibe in, in, in this, in the culture, and how the, these younger people who, you know, we were in Kansas, a lot more local talent. I don't mean to disparage the town in Kansas, but, you know, they hadn't spent as much time on bigger sets and stuff like that. And then for them to feel like, okay, wait, I'm being respected, I'm being heard I'm being trained and I'm not being yelled at. I'm being coached, you know, you know, like those different things, right? Like, how do you make that so that they're developing as people, not getting admonished and, you know, and then teaching them, you know, hey, this is where you, you got to manage up here. You've got to, you know, don't just walk away if you don't know the answer. Get clear on what they want because you're going to get inefficient, you know. So there's coaching that happens on the side and stuff. So, Ash, it's a long-winded question. I feel like they're going to still say, what are the tangibles?

No, no, I don't think this this was a challenging question. I think it was really teeing up an opportunity to connect some of those dots and help paint the picture of what, what does this look like? What is the positive impact when this is happening? And I, I have seen you at work doing this when you talk about like your role as you're, you're the sinew of the muscle. You're coming in, you're, you're seeing what's happening here. Not many people have the gift of having done the craft and the strategy and the business of the craft. Like you've, you've been at all levels of it. And, and so that gives you a very certain perspective here that is so powerful. So I think we can make a logical case of this and you can make an emotional and creative case here. You can make a business case here. And I mean, you told me about this idea this fall. I was just like, oh my gosh, this is huge. This is awesome. This is going to be so, this is going to be so important because it is a portion of generationally, I think the expectations are changing.

Yes. I would love to speak into that space too. Yes. Because I mean, I, you know, a lot of the speaking in the you've been helping with will be, you know, at film schools, at film— because, because again, I, I want this to be a part of the future of this industry, and that's where I want to share the need for this. And I really think this younger generation— and this is one of the gifts they're bringing to the world— is their, um, acceptance and desire to, you know, have authentic people show up and, and be as much themselves as they can be, um, which is wonderful. And, and they're not going to You know, the world they're going to create isn't going to be this one of, you know, cigar smoking, yelling. Yeah, yeah, power and yelling around. I mean, you know, I'm sure there'll still be some people, but they'll, uh, you know, but they just need— they'll need the tools, they'll need the— and then it's just someone to do it. So they'll believe in it, they'll want the, the system, they just need it to be created. And, you know, I mean, it's sort of a train the trainer thing in the end because As it becomes more of an industry standard, more people are doing it and go, oh, okay, I get this. And then we start to turn it around and it feels a bit more, yeah. Like it's just part of how you do a film.

But yeah, yeah, you are, you are building culture from a like set-by-set approach, but you're, this is also about the culture of the industry as a whole.

Yes, yes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, my individual work, like I said, I have no desire to, you know, corner the market of this in any way. I, I would love to do this work, and I will do this work, uh, but I do— but the other side of this is, hey, you guys, this is real. And specific— specifically talking to producers, like, you know, there's production— there should be a culture in your production company, but each one of these productions is their own small business, and it's really time to, to get wise to that. And It will provide better product and better experiences and better brands and all sorts of stuff.

Yeah. Oh my gosh. So good. Okay, one more question for you.

Yeah, I hope it's about the incense. No? Incense? What? You asked me for 3 fun facts about myself, and one of them I gave you was that I buy a lot of incense and I occasionally light some of them. I know.

Oh my gosh. Where I have it written down somewhere. And I think I was just like, what? He collects incense sticks and occasionally burns.

I just, I'm always attracted and I'm like, oh, this smells so great. And then I have a ton of them. I'm getting better. This is my, this might be my, my New Year's pledge is to burn more incense. Anyway, I distract.

What was the question? No, that's okay. That's okay. I, I'm very glad to know that fun fact about you, friend. I've known you a long time and didn't know that one. I didn't know that one. It's very fun. No, my, my last question for you is really a setup question, and that is, if someone is watching this and they are in a leadership position, whether they're in the industry or not, what is one thing that they could do tomorrow to stop leaving their culture so much to chance and really setting culture?

Listen, make sure everybody feels seen and heard. Yeah, I mean, it's— yeah, it's kind of that simple. You just have to create systems where people are seen, heard, and then given a response back when they share their voice.

I mean, yeah, simple but not easy. No, not easy.

I mean, yeah, and it happens all sorts of little ways, you know, just, you know, doing, doing, you know, the classic one in the business world is do a walk around in the morning. Just walk around, check in with everyone, see them as people beyond, you know, machines that are working for you. And, uh, and check in with them and then go on with your day.

Real check-ins. Real check-ins.

Yeah, authentic. Again, I'm like, yeah, I'll go back to Nancy on this one.

Uh, or, you know, Carrie Campbell. One of our speakers, Carrie Campbell, talks about recognition and she's like, we're trying to get away from that. Great job. See ya. Thumbs up. Thumbs up. It doesn't feel real. So it takes time and attention.

I would maybe this, I'll sum it up even better. How about this? This is something we're doing currently at our company. Everyone on the leadership team is having one authentic gratitude conversation a week. That's, that's just, you know, find something about someone and go and talk to them and say, hey, I just want to take a moment here and say thank you for this. That's, that's huge. That's huge. Love it.

Awesome. All right, everybody, go write that down. Go do that. Add it to your list. But really, it is, it's on there. It, it, it becomes part of your being. And just the way what we do and who we are. And I think that's what you're talking about, is really transforming this from a thing that we're going to do to this is, this is who we are as an industry. Yeah.

I mean, you know, the way to sum it up is you're going to have a culture, but make it the one you want. You got to be intentional and it has to be cultivated. A quality culture needs cultivation.

Boom. Love it. There it is. Drop that. Done. Thank you, Todd. I so appreciate you and what you're doing. The really important, beautiful work of this, the creative endeavor, the business endeavor, um, the vision around it has been so inspiring to watch come to life. Truly, I know you're like doing this in between while you're doing other things. You've got a show, you're You're putting up a show, you're producing this, you're, you're doing some consulting and you have a full-time gig. So it's a lot, but it's so awesome to see, um, see this little dream of yours become more than just an idea, but it's got legs and it's happening. And I'm just proud of you.

I'm so excited.

Well, thank you. I know others have said it, but it has to be said again, cuz it's true because your role as a professional nudger is incredible. And it helps with all those other things that are happening. It helps things keep moving along. So again, thank you for this opportunity and the nudging.

Super helpful. You are so welcome. Round of applause for Todd. We will say goodbye. Well done. It's so awesome. I can still hear him giggling back on the— in the backstage. So fun. Todd, awesome to have you here. Well done. Okay, thank you to all of you for being here. We are 1 minute early. We are about to wrap up our Movers Showcase. Thank you to those of you who were able to join us live. We saw you. I I saw your comments come in, some great questions. We appreciate you. Time and life is full right now. Time is fleeting and life is full. So you are taking a moment to be here, to cheer each other on, to support each other, and to discover this incredible pool of talent that are here. And so here's what I would encourage you. If you, were lit up by something somebody said, I want to encourage you to reach out, reach out to one of these amazing speakers. Like I said, we're going to put all of their information in the description below. And, uh, they are always excited to hear from folks who resonated with what they had to say. If you need a speaker, these people are going to be awesome. And I know that because they work with me and I ensure that my people are gonna show up and wow, and they are gonna show up with full hearts and move your audience because they, uh, that is what we do. We are Movers and we are so, so glad that you were here with us today. Thanks again for being here and we will see you next quarter for our next Movers Showcase. See you soon.