In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Thad Cummings, author of Running from Fear and Blessed Are the Poor, and founder of the nonprofit Changing Company. Cummings shares the pivotal story of losing his health, finances, and businesses at a young age, describing it as the best thing that happened to him because it forced a reassessment of purpose. He argues that most people lack genuine happiness and instead need to focus on cultivating joy, both personally and within corporate environments. Cummings emphasizes that caring for employees is a strategic business advantage, noting that employee well‑being drives sustainable growth. He offers personal advice to his younger self—"breathe" and surrender control—highlighting patience as a transformative virtue. When asked about the key to happiness, he distinguishes fleeting happiness from lasting joy, suggesting that finding joy in all circumstances, even in difficult fields like pediatric hospice, is essential. He cites The Book of Joy by Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama as a profound influence on his understanding of forgiveness, and shares a favorite Gandhi quote: "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." The episode concludes with information on how listeners can connect with Changing Company via its website and Facebook page.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite makes the process of becoming a published bestselling author as simple as sipping your morning cup of coffee. You can learn more about Authors Unite at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Thad Cummings with us. He is the author of Running from Fear: Weathering the Corporate Storm, Blessed Are the Poor, the founder of Changing Company, as a pathological optimist hoping to help us all find more joy in our lives. So welcome to the show, man.
Thank you.
Of course. Grateful to have you here, Thad. We'll jump into the first one. The first question I have for you is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Honestly, I would say, quite simply put, losing everything is the best story that ever happened to me. A little bit contrary to what people would expect. It's not this moment of euphoria or static joy. It was actually the reality of being successful at a young age, having my health, finances, multiple companies, things like that, and having that all stripped away from me in a very short amount of time was quite the wake-up call to the way that I was living, what I was longing for, and what my purpose really was here on this life.
And, what is the— I'm going to say free answer on this one. What's the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
So I've consulted for just about every industry you can think of through my businesses. And, and what I've, what I've actually found was, among the many things I found, that the most common thing that I would say is actually people are not genuinely that happy. They're, they're lacking, uh, a sense of joy is how I would actually put it more, more, more appropriately. And And my job has actually not been to write these books that are these cheesy gimme, here's all the answers, here's the process you follow, but actually to engage people on a more deeper level of what is keeping you from finding that joy in your life? What is your driving forces? Whether that's stress, anxiety, fear, fear of not being enough, control is often a big one. And so, I do that with a lot of people one-on-one, but actually, the reality is some of my workshops, programs, and speaking engagements just naturally coming from the business world are how do you have that conversation on a corporate or organizational level when we spend a third of our life working? Why is it that we count the minutes till Friday and then pray that Monday is a lifetime away? And how do we actually reengage our lives, our families, our relationships, our workplace so that we were actually enjoying them more when joy becomes the focus of the conversation, not success.
And what's your best piece of overall business advice, so not necessarily industry-specific?
Honestly, take care of your employees. What I have found is, even if you only care about making more money, and that's your only driving factor, if you do good not only by, by your businesses and by your clients, but actually if you do good by your employees, that means taking care of everybody that's in that triad, um, your business will actually only naturally grow because of it. So that notion of caring and nonprofits and doing, you know, give your employees' benefits and all these sorts of things is, you know, oh, well, that's going to hurt my bottom dollar. Actually, you trying to take away from that is going to hurt your bottom dollar statistically more in the long run.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Breathe. It's when you're setting off from my childhood when I thought that I was going to save the world. I needed everything to happen and happen on my time. And the actual ability to surrender all control when you realize that you don't have control in this life, it ends up being a gift. And therefore, the whole cheesy sayings of like, patience is a virtue, actually really is something that we need to learn because it's not something innately we're born with. But it changes the quality of life we have if we can engage it from a better perspective.
And based off what you said earlier, I'm really excited for your answer on this one. So in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Hmm. So my work is actually to get us to avoid that question. I see happiness as fleeting. Happiness is our attachment to bigger houses and bigger bank accounts and nicer outfits. Joy is actually what I would say should be our focal point. And it's actually not in having the perfect life when you get that job and whatever it is that you think you will be "happy when blank." One of the best pieces of advice I got is that actually, I hope you find all your dreams so you realize that they don't bring you happiness. So, that way, the quicker you can get that, the quicker you can shift your perspective to actually find that joy. And what I would say is the key to joy is actually not in finding joy in all things— or, sorry, excuse me, not in finding joy for all things, but finding joy in all things. And I've been lucky enough to work in a lot of difficult fields like like pediatric hospice. And if you can root yourself in a level to where you can find it, you know, where you can find joy amongst the worst despair of your life, that is where your transition will begin.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
I'm actually gonna go with the, Book of Joy from Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama. That was their— the art of forgiveness that they take you through to the extent of what forgiveness looks like in the middle of mass genocide and apartheid really reels you in a perspective of maybe I can actually, you know, forgive my neighbor for parking in front of my house type scenario. It's a beautiful challenge to what it actually really means to be human. And when you think that you're at a place where you can't forgive somebody because they've done something too terrible, that book will drastically change how you define the word terrible.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
Gosh, that's a hard one. I, I've got many of them, but I think my favorite would be coming, coming from the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. And that was from Gandhi.
Got it. I love that quote. Thank you so much for coming on, man. The last one I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find and/or connect with you online?
ChangingCompany.org, or we're on Facebook/ChangingCompany.
Perfect, man. Thanks again for jumping on.
Yes, thank you.
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