Positivity Successor - Episode 475 - Positivity Successor (Sam Imperati)

Episode Date: October 13, 2026

Mental Health Awareness! ❤️🙏Physical Health Awareness! ❤️🙏Spiritual Health Awareness! ❤️🙏Emotional Health Awareness! ❤️🙏SAM IMPERATI!!!!! Pitbull Trial Attorney, Representing Labor Unions and Nike.Truly believed he was righting wrongs, leaping tall buildings with a single bound. Seeing other side’s point of view. Overtime reality became impossible to ignore.Questions: •What it was like being a Pitbull Trial Attorney first time?•How it’s like Representing Labor Unions and Nike?•Reaction when people are helped from impasse to Resolution through ICMresolutions?•3 things Sam Imperati Grateful For?

Hey, positive people. Welcome to positivity successor. I'm a guy with heart and soul, positive to share with everyone around the world. Scalves from Monday through Sunday and quitting holidays, every season, every year, queen leap year. Thanks to tune to the light training podcast. God bless. Amen. Have a positive day. Welcome to Positiveity Successor, episode 475. Today, got a special guest. He is a pit, Pitpo Child Attorney representing labor unions in Nike, truly believed he was right and wrong, sleeping tall buildings with a single bound, experience clouded, cloud his certainty, seeing other side's point of view. Other overtime, reality became impossible to ignore. Here is Sam impurity. Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

Thank you. If you can tell everyone who you are and what you do. No problem. So I started practicing law in 1990. Excuse me, I lied. I started practicing law in 1979, a long time ago. I went to an active status last month at having the privilege of representing folks for 47 years.

In 1992, I became a full-time mediator. My job is to help people resolve their disputes without going to court. I hope to save them time, money, and emotion and get a result that is a sustainable lasting resolution to their fusses. As you mentioned, in the introduction, when I was a baby lawyer, I represented labor unions and their members. And then I went to work for Nike, and I was Nike's in-house trial attorney and represented them in litigation. And as my hair grayed, I thought I'd look in the black robe with a white shirt and a red tie. So I sat on the bench for five years as a part-time judge, and that's where I had my epiphany, that there had to be a better way to resolve conflict than the adversarial system.

A third of the time, I thought I was making the difference, which I enjoyed. A third of the time I was bored at the tedium and monotony of the process. And a third of the time, a kid, that I was homicidal at the assholian behavior of my colleagues trying to blow smoke up my robe and that of the jury. I just realized there had to be a better way to resolve conflict. And that's getting people in the room and sitting down with them and exploring the options, the advantages and disadvantages that are continuing to live. litigation versus the advantages and disadvantages of getting a resolution.

And that's what I've been doing full time since 1992, as I mentioned. I love every minute of it, buddy. Thank you. I got some questions lined up. First question is, what was it like being a Pippo trial attorney for the first time? Well, you know, I think I enjoyed it. My father's first language was Italian. He didn't finish the eighth grade. He was a union member working in Detroit in the auto industry and the industries that support the auto industry. And I saw how he was treated. And I never forgot my roots. More of a working class background were hard work and family and integrity are. darn important. And I wanted to represent people like him and make their lives ever so better than the way they had traditionally been treated. So I had a lot of passion for that particular

kind of work. So I really had this image that I was, you know, on my white horse riding in to do good and avoid evil and help those folks along. So I got a lot of joy out of that particular particular process. That's great. What was it like representing labor unions and Nike? It was rewarding and

challenging all at the same time. You know, the older I got, the more and more I realized that folks are pretty darn good at heart. Trying to make their way through their day and supporting their family

and living a fulfilling life. And they do things differently and they have different values and needs and they can collide because in our culture it's a culture of warfare in many ways. It's a combat by ordeal. We don't really have a culture that supports sitting down and working it out and sitting down and seeing if we can resolve it before bringing in the big guns and spending all that time, money, and emotion. And I realized that the process itself of going through the litigation system really was hard on people, both financially, emotionally, and sometimes physically,

in the stress of having that process in front of them. And as I sat on the bench as a judge, I realized that, you know, my job was only to call balls and strikes, be an umpire, if you will. but that I could see a way for both of them to get a deal that they could support. And I was somewhat precluded from doing that because my job was simply to rule on the evidence and instruct the jury as to the law and preside over a process designed consistent with the statutes to make sure the process was legal. I didn't have the opportunity to really use my creativity. creativity and my sense of really listening for understanding versus listening for disagreement.

And that motivated me to become a mediator. I had the luxury then and the privilege of sitting down with folks separately and together and finding out what they really needed versus what they felt they had to say because they were in that adversarial environment. That's cool. what was the reaction when people are helped from and passed to resolution through

ICM resolutions? So, you know, I think when you, you know, the old saying, the old saw is that when you go to judge school, you learn that a quote, good settlement, unquote, is when quote, everyone walks away equally unhappy, unquote.

Well, when you go to mediator school, you learn that sometimes cases, that's all they need is a settlement. They're not going to see each other again. There isn't going to be that an ongoing relationship. But oftentimes, especially when there's an ongoing relationship, you need something richer and more durable and satisfying. And us mediators call that a, quote, resolution, unquote. A resolution is when both sides walk away with their underlying personal and business needs reasonably satisfied. The process is one of an exploration versus a debate. The result is more likely to be durable because both parties agree that they were heard,

that their needs were met, and that the resolution was fair, which means it's more likely to be complied with than a judgment that's imposed upon them by a judge or jury. So the status action rate and the compliance rate is better. And that was very appealing to me, just as a matter of efficiency, and a fact that was a fact in a matter of fundamental fairness. And we have too much conflict in the world already. You can sit down and get people to explore their situations and agree that there's got to be a better way to resolve it than what we're doing

and get a result. That's great. Another question I have. I saw a picture of the comic. What was it like making the comic for the first time? So I have this technique called the umbrella question. It's a technique that I use as a mediator. It's also a technique that people can use by themselves

because I created this app that's free that people can go to. And it basically asked people to look at what they need, what the other side needs, and what they have in common. Focus on what they have in common in those underlying interests. And, you know, as I'm now approaching my 75th birthday in December, I decided I better figure out what this artificial intelligence is all about. And I started playing with chat GPT and put my explanation of what an umbrella question is into chat and get some parameters and asked it to create a cartoon. frankly just for fun and entertainment. And lo and behold, after a couple rounds of editing and suggestions, it put together that

cartoon which I sent out to my LinkedIn followers and my Facebook page. And it was just an enjoyable modern day frolic into doing something fun and hoping people will respond with a little bit of human. that's embedded in the cartoon. So I think people make better decisions when they're smiling than when they're frowning. That's awesome. The last question I have is, what are three things that you are grateful for? I'm grateful for my parents.

My, as I talked about my dad and my mom was the valedictorian of her high school class that had some mental health problems. and they modeled this incredible loving relationship. And as it's often said, they were eighth-grade sweethearts. And when she passed, he passed, I think of a broken heart literally and figuratively one year later. And modeling what unconditional love was about was a real gift to me. I'm also very grateful for the opportunities that they gave me. that society has given me to get a good education and the ability to help people,

which I think is the best reason for a living. And the third is that I'm blessed with two wonderful children, 41, 38 years old, and each of them have two daughters with their spouses, so I have four wonderful granddaughters, 7,4, 3, and almost two, and they are an absolute joy and I feel so privileged to be part of their lives and watch them grow up to hopefully be kind and loving and productive children.

Thank you so much. I want to say thank you so much for going on the podcast today, positive successor. Is there anything else to like to add? Well, the other thing I will say, if you want more information on resolving conflict, I've got a fair amount of free resources on my website, and that website is www.I-C-M-As-Mary.orghum, dotresolutions, plural, dot com. I-C-M-resolutions.com.

Get a bunch of free resources there because I'm at the stage in my career where I'm trying to give back, and I hope some of these resources can help. your listeners solve the problems that are currently problematic for them. And I want to thank you for doing good work on this podcast and getting the word out and educating people. Congratulations. Thank you. And I hope the messages and the stuff gets to people and helps them as well. Thanks everyone for tuned to episode positive success.

Remember to look back at the reflections to ourselves in the mirror. It's all the beautiful and handsome people out there. Because your work in progress will get to where you want to like believe that. Thanks to tune to our episode of Positiveated Successor. God bless, Amen. Tune tomorrow for the next episode, a positive successor. God bless, amen. Have a positive day.