Well, good morning everybody, and welcome back to another episode of Adult Child of Dysfunction.
Speaker AToday we have with us Tom Lenoble.
Speaker AHe's an executive leader, an international speaker, a resilience coach, a philanthropist, a best selling author.
Speaker AHe is also CEO of the Academy for Coaching Excellence and a leadership coach with the Miller center at Santa Clara University.
Speaker AHis best selling memoir, My Life in Business Suits, Hospital Gowns and High Heels, is now published and we're going to let him tell you about that one.
Speaker AHe's also the creator and host of the Opening Pathways podcast, a former executive at Facebook, Walmart.com, palm and MCI, and now he mentors founders and leaders worldwide.
Speaker ABut more importantly, what I think is your philanthropy, like, I feel like in listening to the podcast episodes that you've been on, everything you do or every experience you have, somehow you're like, okay, how can I help everybody, somebody else not experience this?
Speaker AAnd I love that about you.
Speaker ABut welcome, Tom.
Speaker BThank you, Tammy.
Speaker BIt's great to be with you and I love what you just said because it's why I do what I do.
Speaker BAnd it's great to be with you and your viewers today.
Speaker AWell, thank you.
Speaker AAnd also the fact that I know we're going to go into your whole, you know, your story and what happened and obviously how you wrote your book, how that came about, but just the source, the resilience.
Speaker AAnd talk to me, because you've had some experiences where resilience is such a must.
Speaker BWell, first I want to share with you what I how I define resilience.
Speaker BI define resilience as not only getting up after you fall down or whatever, however you want to describe it, but it's really about how we grow from it.
Speaker BI see resilience and muscle.
Speaker BJust like you exercise your bicep or tricep to make sure you have those guns in your arms.
Speaker BResilience is the same thing.
Speaker BThe more you use it, the better it serves you.
Speaker BAnd the great news about resilience, I love to say resilience is your greatest currency because the stock market, your title, your job, a disaster can take your house, God forbid, but no one can take your resilience.
Speaker AAnd that's really your, you're, I'm a victor or I'm a victim.
Speaker AYou know, if you don't have that resilience, you're going to fall right into that victimhood and you're just going to be like, oh, woe is me.
Speaker AThis is just the way it is.
Speaker ABut if you have that resilience to be like, okay, that sucked.
Speaker ABut what can I learn from this?
Speaker AOr what?
Speaker AHow can I grow from this?
Speaker ALike you said, I love the comment that you made about what do you call them?
Speaker BTerrible gifts?
Speaker ATerrible gifts.
Speaker AI was trying to think.
Speaker BYes, yes, you just, you just touched on that.
Speaker BYou know, I want to share with you and your viewers about terrible gifts because I find it to be so true, if we're open to it.
Speaker BYou know, things happen to us in life, things happen to people we love, we lose somebody we love, a relationship ends, our pet dies, we lose a job, or we get sick.
Speaker BTerrible things happen in our lives, things that we would never want to happen or wish on anyone.
Speaker BBut here's what's true from them.
Speaker BWhether it's a month, a year, or five years, there's often a gift from that experience, which is why I call them terrible gifts.
Speaker BYou know, my favorite story about this Tammy is this woman that I know, and she was a super athlete, like Olympiad level.
Speaker BShe went in for a minor surgery, got mrsa, had to have her leg cut off.
Speaker BSo there she sits, wheelchair, cane, walking stick.
Speaker BYou know, you can go to some dark places with that.
Speaker BWell, she got frustrated because she didn't like the way the cane in the walking sits look.
Speaker BSo she created in her own oven in the kitchen, an acrylic cane, fashioned the handle around a wine bottle.
Speaker BAnd today, this woman has a global business making these unbelievably beautiful canes and walking sticks for people.
Speaker BSo people that are in that situation can be proud of what they've got.
Speaker BAnd people focus on that versus perhaps how they're perceived in their.
Speaker BWhatever they're trying to either recover from or deal with in life.
Speaker BAnyway, these are terrible gifts.
Speaker BThere are gifts from it.
Speaker BI know I have had many.
Speaker ASo I'll give you just an example of mine.
Speaker AAnd for the listeners out there, click.
Speaker AClose your eyes and just picture, say picture a time in your life where you can say, this wouldn't have happened if blank had never happened.
Speaker ABecause, I mean, I know I was wanting to write a book and I was not slowing down enough to write a book.
Speaker AI'm like, I gotta write this book.
Speaker AAnd then I fell off a scooter going 15 miles an hour after a Yankee game one night with my son and four or five ligaments in my knees.
Speaker AAnd like, I was like.
Speaker AAnd.
Speaker AAnd the very day like that, well, the next night in the emergency room, I'm sitting there and I'm like, wow, I'm going to be able to write my book because I can't walk for three and a half months or six months, and there came my book.
Speaker AIn three months, I wrote two books.
Speaker BTwo things, two things.
Speaker BI just heard Tammy's resilience and yes, the terrible gift.
Speaker BBecause what happens so often, and we're all different, we all take our own time.
Speaker BSometimes these events happen in our life and we end up wallowing there.
Speaker BWe end up living there, as opposed to saying, here's where I am now.
Speaker BWhat do I do next?
Speaker BSo many of my clients, so many I find are living in the past.
Speaker BAnd it's almost comical at times because we act as if there's a do over in life.
Speaker BOr we're like those, you know how you watch videos on your phone now and there's that little button that says, back up 10 seconds.
Speaker BLife isn't like that.
Speaker ARight, Right.
Speaker BSo while you're hanging out and what happens, you're missing what's going on, right?
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AOr you're ruminating about what's going to happen in the future because of what happened in the past.
Speaker AAnd bottom line, stop.
Speaker ALike you said, stop.
Speaker ALook up at the blue beautiful sky and enjoy the moment you have right now because you'll never get that moment back.
Speaker ASo make that one the best.
Speaker BI love to say, you're going to miss the butterfly that just flew by.
Speaker AYou are, you are.
Speaker AAnd a lot of that too goes with that resilient attitude.
Speaker AAnd so much more goes into resilience.
Speaker AI remember when I used to explain resilience, I used to own a window company, which I lost, by the way, because of COVID And now I'm doing my dream job.
Speaker ASo terrible gift.
Speaker APerfect.
Speaker ATerrible gift.
Speaker ASo, you know, I used to say, we used to teach resilience and we used to picture, you know, the rocky, the, you know, get back down, get back up.
Speaker AIt's not how many times you fall down, it's how many times you get back up.
Speaker ABut I 100 agree with you.
Speaker AIt's not.
Speaker AIt's more than that.
Speaker AIt's how many times you get back up and go, I got an idea, or oh, I have an epiphany from that.
Speaker AOr that's going to move me and move the needle forward.
Speaker ABecause if you are not in your life exactly where you want to be, which you deserve to be, you got to do something to move the needle.
Speaker ASo, yeah, I love it.
Speaker ASo talk about your book.
Speaker BOh, this book.
Speaker BMy Life in Business Suits, Hospital Gowns, and High Heels.
Speaker BWell, you spoke to the viewers.
Speaker BI had this amazing career.
Speaker BI was an executive at some of the biggest companies and really powerhouse contributions and responsibility.
Speaker BAnd after that, I like to say I retired.
Speaker BBeing retired to be inspired.
Speaker BI fell in love, got married, traveled the world, kind of pulled back a little bit.
Speaker BI knew I had more to share and so that's why I'm doing what I'm doing today.
Speaker BAll because I'm a philanthropist.
Speaker BBut I had this great business, business suit experience.
Speaker BI'm still doing business today, but I don't wear the suit anymore.
Speaker BAnd then hospital gowns.
Speaker BI've had two life threatening illnesses.
Speaker BOne of them I was told was terminal.
Speaker BI've lived with metastatic cancer now for almost 14 years.
Speaker BAnd as you can see, I'm still here.
Speaker BI've been given six months to live three times.
Speaker BI have some experience with those hospital gowns, you know, that flimsy piece of fabric that never ties.
Speaker BWell in the back you can see your butt.
Speaker BAnd then the high heels.
Speaker BWell, I have to say you need to read the book to learn about the high heels.
Speaker BBut I'll just let you look at the COVID and what you can see is I'll just leave you with this.
Speaker BAll three of those are me on the COVID of that book.
Speaker BThe reason I wrote this book, which is a memoir that crosses over into self help.
Speaker BI've won two book awards.
Speaker BI'm going to be on a Times Square billboard at the end of the month with this book.
Speaker BI'm so excited.
Speaker BBut I wrote this book because who we are today is the sum part of everything we've been in our life.
Speaker BAnd there are parts of many of our lives that we either feel shame, we feel it was outrageous, we want to keep it probably private, or we just think somebody's not going to understand.
Speaker BAnd I want to remind you that without all those parts, you would not be who you are today.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker ABut on the flip side, and I'm going to throw this out to the viewers as well, I mean, that is so true.
Speaker AI used to say my life designed me, but it didn't define me.
Speaker ASo I am the some part of the alcoholic parents, the drug addicted mother, the pimping out the drug dealers.
Speaker ALike I am that some part.
Speaker AThat's who I, I was for a while.
Speaker AThat's what the pieces all put together and said here it is.
Speaker ABut now I'm like, okay, that's not who I am in the, in the, in the heart of the heart of the heart.
Speaker AAnd that's where I took all of those lessons I learned from all of that stuff and all of those things that define Me.
Speaker AAnd what am I going to do with this, like, I.
Speaker ATerrible gift.
Speaker AMy parents, more terrible gifts, were both alcoholics.
Speaker AI had a horrible, horrible upbringing.
Speaker ABut now I am doing what I want to do, which is helping people that grew up in dysfunction learn that they can still have pure joy, which I never had.
Speaker ASo, yes, It's.
Speaker AIt's so true.
Speaker BSo true, so true.
Speaker BYou're going to read in the book, and I hope your viewers will read it.
Speaker BIt's.
Speaker BI keep getting comments like, I can't put this book down.
Speaker BA guy called me and said his wife told him to leave the house because he was 100 pages in and he wouldn't do any work around the house.
Speaker BOne Saturday, she said, just take your book and leave.
Speaker BAnd then people tell me, I laughed, I cried.
Speaker BI did both at once.
Speaker BYou're going to learn that.
Speaker BI grew up in a shack.
Speaker BWe actually called it the Shack, fondly.
Speaker BAnd we had no hot water.
Speaker BWe had no refrigerator.
Speaker BMy dad brought home a block of ice every day to put in the ice box.
Speaker BAnd from that to boardrooms and the stories in between, you're not going to believe.
Speaker BBut I think what you just spoke to for yourself, Tammy, is, yes, one of those terrible gifts.
Speaker BBut how we have an opportunity in life to continue and to continue to define who we're going to be, just as you said, versus letting life define us.
Speaker BAnd it's so important to do this.
Speaker BI mean, look, today I get to be a philanthropist.
Speaker BI get to support things that mean so much to me.
Speaker BUnderserved communities, youth in the arts, first gen students, current women's issues, a host of things that I get to support.
Speaker BAnd I could have had a very different life.
Speaker BEverything I told you about, business suits and hospital gowns and high heels.
Speaker BI was sick.
Speaker BThose illnesses, the first one.
Speaker BI'm in my 37th year with the cancer.
Speaker B14 years.
Speaker BThese things could have easily derailed me from moving forward.
Speaker BAnd I don't want to take away that.
Speaker BIllness is really difficult, and not everybody can do what I'm saying.
Speaker BAll I want to do is try to inspire you to see possibility.
Speaker AWell, you're right.
Speaker AAnd you have to be able to see possibility to survive those.
Speaker AThose illnesses.
Speaker AI've seen so many people beat cancer.
Speaker ABe, you know, be.
Speaker AI've seen people that had, you know, debilitating ms, that with the power of the mind and just.
Speaker AJust getting up and moving and exercising, even though Dr. Said, you've got a limit, you've got a limit.
Speaker AAnd they're like, I know my limit.
Speaker AGoing to still continue to take peptides and supplement and, and do this.
Speaker AAnd now they're walking fine.
Speaker AI mean, you know how many people beat cancer?
Speaker AA lot of people.
Speaker AAnd a lot of it.
Speaker AIt's that resilient mindset and it's that belief and it's that faith which is just believing in something.
Speaker ABelieving in being able to visualize something that you can't see yet, and being able to see it and be there yet.
Speaker BPeople ask me often, you know, Tom, you've been given six months to live, three times, you've had these illnesses.
Speaker BAnd some of the stories when you read them, I want to.
Speaker BDon't want to tell you some of it was tough, but they'll ask me, why do you think you're still here?
Speaker BYou say, I'm still here.
Speaker BWhy are you here?
Speaker BAnd here's my answer.
Speaker BI've had the best medical care.
Speaker BI've had the best access to treatment.
Speaker BI'm privileged.
Speaker BBut most important, underneath it all, I believed I could.
Speaker AYep.
Speaker AWhat's that old saying?
Speaker AWhether you.
Speaker AYou believe you can or you believe you can't, you're right.
Speaker ABelief is a power, powerful.
Speaker AThe mind is a powerful thing.
Speaker AI'm very into.
Speaker AI don't know what you think of this.
Speaker AThis might be too woo for you.
Speaker AI don't know.
Speaker AI'm very into energy.
Speaker AVery into frequencies.
Speaker AAbsolutely, yeah.
Speaker AI'm very into, you know, this is your energy field.
Speaker AAnd, and every morning you wake up, you can fill that energy field with positivity or you can fill it with negativity.
Speaker AAnd that is what everybody around you is going to absorb and feel.
Speaker AAnd the ripple effect of that is astronomical.
Speaker BAbsolutely.
Speaker BAnd I encourage people to remember all of the benefits, the extraordinary benefits of gratitude.
Speaker BGratitude brings so many things.
Speaker BOne of the biggest ones is peace.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker BBe grateful.
Speaker BEven the things that feel like there's no way to be grateful for, I promise you look around, someone's got it worse.
Speaker BLook around, it could be a lot harder.
Speaker BBe grateful we woke up this morning.
Speaker BSome people, some people didn't.
Speaker AYeah, I mean, I've had clients.
Speaker AWhen I say, wake up in the morning and just find three things real simple before you get out of bed.
Speaker AThank you.
Speaker AWhatever your creator is.
Speaker AI don't, I don't know if you believe in God, but whatever I say, thank you, God, for giving me another day.
Speaker AThat is the first thing out of my mind.
Speaker BFirst thing out of my mouth when I wake up is, thank you, God, I opened my eyes for another day.
Speaker BAt the same time, I've made peace with the fact if that doesn't happen because I have had to face to face death.
Speaker BIn fact, I have a keynote that I'm doing that is called living fully while dying.
Speaker BAnd it's three phases for me.
Speaker BThe first phase, I was living fully, as you'll read in this book, without regard to dying.
Speaker BThen I was living fully while being told I was going to die.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker BFaith now is living fully while dying, realizing I was dying all the time.
Speaker BWhen you're born, there are only one guarantee you're going to die.
Speaker BJust like people think about aging, it doesn't happen to them.
Speaker BThe moment you were born, you start aging.
Speaker BIt's just when we get a little older, that proverbial light starts to get a little brighter and a little closer.
Speaker AYeah, exactly.
Speaker ABut you're right, it's.
Speaker AWe're all going to die someday.
Speaker BAbsolutely.
Speaker AAnd you don't know when that day is.
Speaker AYou can sit home and I know this is for the health conscious people out there.
Speaker ADon't, don't yell at me.
Speaker AYou can sit home and you can watch every calorie and you can watch everything you put in your body and you can watch everything.
Speaker ABut where do most people die?
Speaker ALike with less than three miles from their home?
Speaker ASometimes in a car, sometimes getting hit by a scaffolding, whatever it is.
Speaker ALike, you just never know when that day is.
Speaker ASo instead of, I used to always say to my kids and they would get so mad at me, I have this 21 day cruise on my bucket list and it's like Turkey and Greece and all these places, Istanbul, all these places I would never go, like get in a plane and just fly there.
Speaker AWell, Greece I would for sure, but.
Speaker AAnd I keep saying as soon as they say I'm terminal, I'm going.
Speaker AAnd my kids, like, would you stop?
Speaker AStop.
Speaker ALike, why don't you just go?
Speaker BGo?
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker AAnd I'm like, you know, you're right.
Speaker ABecause if I just go, it'll probably the peace and solitude of that trip by myself, I don't care if anybody goes with me.
Speaker AWill probably add five years to my life.
Speaker BYes, there's more than that.
Speaker BI happen to believe we can get woo woo a little bit here.
Speaker BBut I happen to believe there's something waiting for you in one of those places that you don't know yet that's waiting for you to get there.
Speaker BYou know, in the book when you open it, there's a quote from Maya Angelou that says every storm runs out of rain.
Speaker BYou know, the sun is shining behind the horrible storms that it can be hailing.
Speaker BAnd behind all that, the sun's still shining.
Speaker BJust like the storms in our life.
Speaker BThe sun is still shining behind them.
Speaker BYou know, storms bring a lot of rain.
Speaker BThey make the ground fertile.
Speaker BThe same thing can happen to the storms in your life.
Speaker BMy question is, just like, in that fertile, wet ground, that you can plant something after the storms of your life, what are you going to plant?
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AThat's a.
Speaker AThat's a great quote and a great segue into what you just said.
Speaker AThat's awesome.
Speaker AYeah, it's kind of like.
Speaker AAnd even the bad things, you know, why this isn't happening to me?
Speaker AThis is happening for me for some reason.
Speaker ABut you're probably right about my Greece trip, because it's literally been.
Speaker AI had a screenshot of it from the first time I saw the itinerary.
Speaker AIt's been on my phone, and I've had six phones since then.
Speaker AAnd that screenshot still stays there.
Speaker AI'm like, there's got to be something.
Speaker ASo maybe I'll just have to book the trip.
Speaker AI don't know what I'm waiting for.
Speaker BI'm in that camp, Tammy.
Speaker BI'm all for that.
Speaker BI say book that trip and go see what magic happens for you as a result.
Speaker BYou know, I love what we're talking about here because, you know, people sit and, as you said, and are.
Speaker BAnd are waiting for things to happen or counting calories or, you know, I talk to people all the.
Speaker BThe time, and they.
Speaker BThey talk about their life, and some people tell me, oh, everything's fine.
Speaker BYou know, when I hear people talk about life, like, is just like this.
Speaker BYou know what it reminds me of?
Speaker BIt's like a flat line on that monitor you see on those TV shows where it's, you know, supposed to be doing it, jumping around.
Speaker BThat's not life.
Speaker BLife is a series.
Speaker BLife is a series.
Speaker BWe can call them ups, downs, risks, opportunities, whatever you want.
Speaker BI happen to have learned and believe these.
Speaker BWhat we perceive as down times are where we have the opportunities to learn and grow.
Speaker BThe up times, if we want to call it that, is when we get to apply those things that we learned and grew from.
Speaker BAnd if we're smart, we know because life is like that we're going to get another opportunity soon.
Speaker AYep.
Speaker AIt's funny, I was talking to someone one day, I said, it's kind of like a mutual fund.
Speaker AEverybody goes, oh, no, it's down.
Speaker AIt's down.
Speaker ALike, run.
Speaker AAnd I'm like, no, it's down.
Speaker ABuy More, because when it goes back up, it's worth more.
Speaker AI said, you know, it's just kind of funny.
Speaker ABut no, you're right.
Speaker AYou're absolutely right.
Speaker AAnd into, but you know, living, anticipating those downs, that you don't want to do that either.
Speaker ABut when you, then they come, you want to embrace them because it's also not this smooth like this.
Speaker AIt could go, it could go high for a really long time and then dip.
Speaker BRight?
Speaker BThat's right.
Speaker BAnd how many people, how many of us sit around thinking about the worst that can happen?
Speaker BWe live from that space.
Speaker BWe're not here in the present.
Speaker BWe're in the future of how bad now?
Speaker BIf you look back, yes, some terrible things happen, but if you look back the, and that kind of thinking, it rarely happens.
Speaker BAnd if nothing else, what a waste of time right now while it's not happening.
Speaker ARight?
Speaker AI, you know, I was working with a client the other day and I literally said to her, she was waiting, she got a bill from somebody and it was like way more per month than she ever thought it was going to be.
Speaker AAnd she was just so, so anxious and so stressed out.
Speaker AAnd it broke my heart.
Speaker AAnd I said, she goes, I know it's going to this and I know it's going to that.
Speaker AAnd I know you are literally speaking that into existence.
Speaker AI said, close your eyes and imagine four best case scenarios.
Speaker AOne, maybe being that you have to pay it for two months and then they realize it was a clerical area and they give it back.
Speaker A2 Meaning, maybe they're like, oops, sorry, we messed up.
Speaker A3, but picture the good.
Speaker APut yourself in the feeling of the good outcome coming.
Speaker ABecause if you put yourself, it's like, you know, that's where your energy is going.
Speaker APut yourself in that energy.
Speaker AAnd she's like, wow, that actually really helped.
Speaker BYes.
Speaker BThoughts become things.
Speaker AThoughts become things.
Speaker AYou know, and you.
Speaker AAnd, and it is hard for the people listening, especially some of the people on this podcast, some of the listeners, because you've been wired because of your history to expect the worst.
Speaker ASo you need to start working with that.
Speaker AWe talk about that little inner critic or that self, you know, that little self talk person that goes, oh, I know this.
Speaker AYou don't know anything.
Speaker AIt's in the future.
Speaker ASo if you're going to make it up anyway, make it good.
Speaker AJust like people that have blackouts of entire years of their life because of trauma or abuse or whatever, you're, you're filling in blanks when you think about what happened.
Speaker AYou go to therapy, you're you're making up those stories in your mind, assuming what happened.
Speaker AIf you're going to make it up, make it good.
Speaker BAbsolutely.
Speaker AMake it good.
Speaker ASo talk about.
Speaker AI know you had a lot of experience.
Speaker AI was laughing, too, because you said you were one of the first, I think, 47th employee with Facebook.
Speaker BI think I. I was in the first 75.
Speaker BI think I was number 57, but who's counting?
Speaker BYou know, that's a great story.
Speaker BI'll tell you a little bit about it because it's in the book.
Speaker BI was sitting at my desk at Palm one day, and I was responsible for global service operations, traveling around the world.
Speaker BAnd my corporate staff had like three or four thousand people out around the world.
Speaker BAnd I was going to these wonderful places that I probably would have never gone to.
Speaker BAnd I got the phone rang, and it's a recruiter from this little company called Facebook.
Speaker BWell, Facebook was still in colleges.
Speaker BI had no idea what it was.
Speaker BI thanked them graciously, hung up the phone, and a buddy called me that I used to work with and said, I referred you to Facebook and you didn't even talk to them.
Speaker BI said, what's Facebook?
Speaker BSo I interviewed with Mark Zuckerberg when he was 19, and if you want to read a great story, read it in the book.
Speaker BBut I ultimately went to Facebook in the very, very early days and to set up all their customer operations.
Speaker BA bunch of other stuff there.
Speaker BBut the interesting thing was everybody working there was 20 or 21.
Speaker BThey were all fresh out of school.
Speaker BYale, Stanford, Harvard, all these top schools deferring.
Speaker BBusiness school, medical school, you name it, law school.
Speaker BBecause Facebook was in colleges and it was their dream job.
Speaker BWell, here I come.
Speaker BI was old enough to be everyone's father.
Speaker BIn fact, my next book, that's what it's about.
Speaker BI'm telling a story of my life at Facebook.
Speaker BThe adult in the room.
Speaker BBecause that's what they called me, the adult in the room.
Speaker BAnd I'm going to tell some fun stories about those crazy early days at Facebook through my eyes.
Speaker BBeing old enough to be everyone's father.
Speaker AThat's funny.
Speaker AI actually laughed because I was like, wow, it's funny how life just kind of throws things at you.
Speaker AYesterday I did an interview with a gentleman, Anthony Spark, who is second cousins to Mark.
Speaker BI know, I know.
Speaker AAnthony, do you in that funny?
Speaker ASo I was laughing.
Speaker AI was like, well, that's kind of weird.
Speaker ALike, it came up twice, that name, you know, and it's kind of a joke because I just, I'M not good with names.
Speaker ABut anyway, I always just called him Mark.
Speaker BI do, I do know, Anthony.
Speaker BI tell you a fun story too, for your viewers is when I left, I said to Mark, I want to see you in 10 years.
Speaker BAnd mark said, well, why do you want to see me?
Speaker BYou're leaving.
Speaker BAnd I said, I just want to see what happens to you and what goes on.
Speaker BSo I forgot all about it, Tammy.
Speaker BAnd I'm sitting at my desk 10 years later and a Facebook message pops up that says, still want to have lunch?
Speaker AOh, that's funny.
Speaker BI looked at that message from Mark Zuckerberg and thought to myself, do I want to have lunch with the fifth richest man in the world?
Speaker BBecause that's what he was at the time.
Speaker BAnd I said, heck yeah, I'm going to have lunch with the fifth richest man in the world.
Speaker BAnd, boy, was that an experience.
Speaker BIn fact, we're due for 20 years.
Speaker BThat's coming up really soon here.
Speaker BAnd with all the changes that have gone on, who knows if I'll get that same Facebook message.
Speaker BAnd I even question if I go.
Speaker BBut I made a decision.
Speaker BIf I hear from Mark and wants to have another a 20 year lunch, I'm in.
Speaker AThere you go.
Speaker AAmen.
Speaker ANo, that's funny.
Speaker AAnd yes, funny that it just goes back to, I'm thinking business wise, I'm picturing him going, okay, 10 years picturing.
Speaker AI'm putting it on his little Google calendar like he did Tom Lenoble.
Speaker BHe did.
Speaker BI was, believe me, I was amazed.
Speaker BI was shocked.
Speaker BYou know, I went and I had to get through this unbelievable security.
Speaker BAnd they took me upstairs and there's these two glass conference rooms.
Speaker BOne was his, one was Sheryl Sandberg's, and I'm on a couch in between.
Speaker BSo of course I positioned myself so I could sit, see as much as I could.
Speaker BAnd I had opened a building there and we had graffiti art everywhere.
Speaker BAnd they had taken cutouts of the walls and framed them and had them hanging as part of the artwork.
Speaker BSo the history of the company came, was really beautiful.
Speaker BSo I'm absorbing it all.
Speaker BI'm watching Mark in a meeting.
Speaker BHe comes out of the room and we see each other.
Speaker BI think we might have even hugged.
Speaker BAnd all of a sudden there's a photographer takes this picture.
Speaker BWe're, you know, smiling and I'm thinking, oh, this is really cute.
Speaker BThey're going to put me in the, the newsletter, talk about me at the company meeting.
Speaker BAnd then I realized in that moment, no, you're talking to the fifth richest man in the world.
Speaker BThey want a picture of you in case something happens that you were here.
Speaker AOh, that's funny.
Speaker BWe went into, we had 30 minutes and we went into this conference room that had this beautiful spread of food.
Speaker BHe and I didn't even touch it.
Speaker BWe were there for, talked for 45 minutes.
Speaker BThere were people waiting outside for him.
Speaker BAnd it went by really quickly, but we had a really engaging conversation.
Speaker BConversation.
Speaker BAnd it was, it was remarkable.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker ASo that is amazing and an amazing story of just, you know, going from your.
Speaker AI'm picturing your shack, as you humbly called it.
Speaker AYou use another word, not humbly, but.
Speaker AAnd anybody can do anything.
Speaker AIt doesn't matter.
Speaker BLike it's so true.
Speaker BThat shack had.
Speaker BIt was a one bedroom shack that my grandfather built.
Speaker BMy brother and I shared the bedroom at one point with a grandmother.
Speaker BMy mother and father's bedroom was the living room.
Speaker BWe never saw it as a bedroom.
Speaker BMy father heated these huge vats, vats of water on a kerosene stove, which I can still smell.
Speaker BAnd that's how we bathe.
Speaker BThat's the hot water that went in the bathtub.
Speaker BAnd I didn't know any difference.
Speaker BI was a kid, right?
Speaker BYou don't know what's going on.
Speaker BAnd fortunately for me, there was a lot of love.
Speaker BI had two of the most incredible parents and.
Speaker BBut I remember I started school when I was five and I remember coming home one day from school and in my little five year old mind, not like I'm going to say it now, but I came home and I'm like, yeah, this isn't what this is supposed to look like.
Speaker BAnd in some way or fashion I knew the wheel started turning then that this isn't what this is going to be about again.
Speaker BI was a little five year old and.
Speaker BBut you know, it's an amazing story of shack to Fortune 500 boardrooms.
Speaker BShack through illnesses and difficult times, Shaq, through even high heels to what happened.
Speaker BAnd so anything is possible, just as nothing is certain.
Speaker AAbsolutely.
Speaker AThat's so true.
Speaker ASo for the people out there who have been sitting there their whole lives going, well, I'm just destined.
Speaker ABecause you're not destined to anything.
Speaker AYou determine your own destiny.
Speaker AYou make your destiny.
Speaker AAnd it starts up here.
Speaker AAnd there's so many tools out there now.
Speaker ALike people are like, oh, I've been depressed my whole life, I've been anti psychotics my whole life and blah, blah, blah.
Speaker AThen find the right tools, find the right people, the community, the people that will support you.
Speaker AThey're out there.
Speaker AThey're so out there.
Speaker BIt just use your resilience.
Speaker BTalk about risk.
Speaker BResilience and reinvention.
Speaker BSometimes we have to take risks.
Speaker BIt requires our resilience to be able to reinvent ourselves.
Speaker ABut I mean, we were saying it yesterday, you know, Henry Ford, if you've only always do what you've always done, you can always get what you've always gotten.
Speaker ASo shake it up a little bit.
Speaker AIf you're not right where you want to be right now, make a change.
Speaker ABut just make a change.
Speaker AJust start moving.
Speaker ASay, what do I need right now?
Speaker AAnd what's going to make me feel a little better right now?
Speaker AAnd then take one step towards that.
Speaker AThat's.
Speaker AThat's really what it's all about.
Speaker ABecause nobody.
Speaker AI mean, look at the people you hear it with, sports stars all the time making, you know, $300 million a year.
Speaker AThey grew up like you did.
Speaker AWhen you picture your story, I picture Willy Wonka in the chocolate factory, you know, that family.
Speaker AI picture you in that little setting.
Speaker AI don't know why, but.
Speaker ABut he did well too, because of it.
Speaker AHe was a good person.
Speaker ANot because he was handed something, because he was a good person and he made the right decision.
Speaker ASo.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker ABut anyway.
Speaker AOh, this has been so much fun.
Speaker ASo tell people where if they want to talk to you, they can reach you.
Speaker AIt will all be in the show notes, but the quickest, easiest place, the
Speaker Beasiest way is my website, www.tom lenoble.com.
Speaker Bi'm also on all the socials.
Speaker BMy email address is resilienceom lenoble.com I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker ASounds perfect.
Speaker AAnd I'm going to put the link to your book.
Speaker AI'm also going to throw your book in a series that I have called the Collective Wisdom Healing series, which is a bunch of courses and things and resources from all of the coaches, all of the doctors, everybody that I talk to.
Speaker AIf something sparks me is interesting, I throw it in there.
Speaker AIt's a free resource for people.
Speaker ASo thank you so much.
Speaker ABut before you go, what is your biggest, baddest, best message from Tom Lenoble?
Speaker BHere it is.
Speaker BI have a keynote and a message that I share a lot.
Speaker BIt's called the philanthropic mindset.
Speaker BPeople say to me when they learn that I'm a philanthropist, they say this, tom, when I have money, I want to be a philanthropist.
Speaker BHere's what I want you to know.
Speaker BYour smile or a hello is a philanthropic gesture.
Speaker BYou can change someone's day, even the trajectory of their life by simply a smile and a hello.
Speaker BRemember, you can give time.
Speaker BYou can use talents you have.
Speaker BAnd yes, you can give treasures.
Speaker BThat is not always defined as dollars, checks, galas, or your name on a building.
Speaker BI promise you this, by giving and sharing with others, you will get far more than you ever expected in return.
Speaker AThank you so much for that, Tom.
Speaker AAnd thank you for coming on.
Speaker BDelight.
Speaker AThank you, Delight.
Speaker BEnjoy being with you.
Speaker BI hope your viewers get something from our conversation today.
Speaker BI love what you're doing and please do me a favor.
Speaker BYes, I'm waiting to hear when you're booked for your.
Speaker AI will.
Speaker AOh, I will tell you when I'm booked for that cruise.
Speaker AI will let you know for sure.
Speaker AAnd for everybody else out there, you heard it.
Speaker AJust one small gesture, one smile.
Speaker ATell someone to have a blessed day.
Speaker AA lot of people are out there having really hard days right now.
Speaker AYou know, if you're 78 years old and you're working bagging groceries at the grocery store, you probably that is not your, your career of choice.
Speaker ALet's say some people are struggling.
Speaker AJust give them a smile, give them some love, and it will go a long way.
Speaker AAnd you never know.
Speaker AYou never know when you actually save a life.
Speaker BAnd remember, if you're expecting something in return, you're not truly giving from your heart.
Speaker BIt is not a philanthropic mindset gesture.
Speaker BWe give freely, without expectation.
Speaker BThat's where the success of it is.
Speaker AAbsolutely.
Speaker AAbsolutely.
Speaker ASo thank you everybody and we will see you back next week.
Speaker AHave a blessed day.