The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Catherine R Bell, Founder of Awakened Company, On How To Awaken Your Companies Employees

Episode Date: November 27, 2022

The Chris Voss Show Podcast - Catherine R Bell, Founder of Awakened Company, On How To Awaken Your Companies Employees Awakenedcompany.com Catherinerbell.com Awakenly.app There is another way of doing business. The Awakened Company comes at a time of crisis in the business world, as evidenced by current world-wide financial instability, which was a cry for help from a bipolar boom-bust business model that’s failing. From a mentality of profits first and growth at all cost, those in the know in the business world are coming to the realization this approach is no longer sustainable. The book’s premise is that work isn’t separate from life, and the metrics for success in business need to change at a fundamental level if the world is to transcend its present crises, which increasingly threaten us all. There is another way of doing business, and a shift in our behavior could in very short order fuel innovation, open up undreamed of markets, and by so doing bring prosperity to the entire planet. The Awakened Company adopts the premise that the world’s greatest challenges will be solved by people working together in new ways. It is different from other business books in the sense that it blends proven business practices with insight from the wisdom traditions and leaders in business thought in a way that hasn’t been done before. An awakened approach calls for a fundamental reset to today’s economy, a shift to where businesses will be measured by their state of awareness, not profitability alone. ”In a world of economic uncertainty, The Awakened Company gives a roadmap to a new way of doing business — a way that is humane, fosters innovation, and meets the needs of All stakeholders, including Mother Earth.” - Tony Robbins, New York Times #1 Best-Selling Author, Entrepreneur, Philanthopist “This is a must-read for those of us in the organization world”— David Daniels, M.D., Professor Emeritus, Stanford University

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times, because you're about to go on a monster education rollercoaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. This is Voss here from the chrisvossshow.com, the chrisvossshow.com. Welcome to the big show show. Oh my gosh! We have an amazing show for you today. I know I say

that every show, and you're like, he always says they're amazing, and they always are amazing, but one of these days he's going to have a show that's not amazing. Well, today is not that day, folks. No, no, no, no, no. This one's even going to be more amazingly amazing

than the other amazing shows we've done. That's how much committed we are to this show. So you're going to have to see it the whole way through to find out what it's about. But you know what also is good? See it through with your family, friends, and relatives. It's the holiday season. I'm just going to put it that way. And you know, the best thing to do when you're sitting around those holiday season tables feasting on those things is to pull out your phone and say, Hey, everyone here at the table, you subscribe to the Chris Voss Show? The Chris Voss Show.

Anyway, you know what it's called. Go to YouTube.com. Go to iTunes.com. Forge says Chris Voss on YouTube. Go to Goodreads and all those crazy places and funniest stuff that you can find on the uh interwebs also go to our big linkedin stuff uh thanks to whoever gave us a recent shout out uh what was it chris is a great host who gets the best out of his guests with his lightheartedness and humor he's a professional and it shows uh he clearly lied on the professional part um but thanks for the

five-star review over there on itunes go over there and um but thanks for the five-star review over there on itunes go over there and itunes give us a five-star review we certainly love it we have the amazing new author uh of the book the awakened company and it's coming out on paperback it's getting a fresh update on paperback november 29th 2022 so you can pre-order it while you still can the original hardcover came out in 2015 so those those of you on YouTube, don't yell at me and write hateful comments because I didn't figure that out. And you can also get it on Kindle as well, but you'll be able to find out more about her amazing book. We have Catherine R. Bell on the show with us today. She's going to be talking about her book and all the good stuff that went into it.

And it's going to be pretty fun to talk to her about it. And we're going to be talking to her about the Awakened Organization. So that should be fun. Welcome to the show, Catherine. How are you? I am wonderful. Thank you so much for having me, Chris. It's such a joy to be with such a boisterous host. Your energy is contagious. Most people refer to me with some sort of verbiage that starts with a B, but it's not as long as boisterous. It's more like cool. Anyway, so you're a successful entrepreneur, a business leader, and best-selling business author. You founded Blue Era, a profit 500 executive search and team transformation company,

and is a top 200 growing company in Canada, our old Canuck friends up north there, and top 10 in Alberta and best workplace. Blue Arrow is a shining example of the waking company system in action. And then you sold it, and you focus on awakening the fire within the organization. This is the founder of the AwakendCompany. So give us the.com. Where can people find you on the interwebs and stalk you?

They can stalk me at AwakendCompany.com and CatherineArbel.com. Those are our two website domains. And, oh, yes, I have launched an app. And so go to Awakenly.app as well. There you go go to awakenly.app as well. There you go. Awakenly.app as well. So, Catherine, it's wonderful to have you on the show. All the way from Canada, man.

You must have traveled quite far to get here across the interwebs there. Very, very, very far. Very far, as you know. As you can see, it looks like, you know, it's Thanksgiving. So I just want to give a shout out and say happy thanksgiving to everybody south of the border yeah i'll tell a funny joke to people i uh she scheduled this and uh i'm you know i i'm an entrepreneur i work i work 24 7 but i didn't know it was a holiday i didn't know thanksgiving was this week till tuesday somebody said it's it's thanksgiving this. You want to do something? I'm like, well, I thought it was next week. Isn't that the 25th?

They're like, no, that's Christmas. And, uh, so yeah. And so I, I, I wrote, uh, Catherine's, uh, people and I said, uh, Hey, are you sure she wants to be on the show? Cause you know, sometimes people book something and they'll figure out it's a holiday and cancel. That happens a lot actually. And, uh, on holidays. And, uh, and so, and they're like out it's a holiday and cancel. That happens a lot actually on holidays.

And they're like, no, she lives in Canada. She hates, Canada hates Thanksgiving. So I was like, wow, man. Canada hates Thanksgiving. What do we do to Canada, man? Show me on the doll what Christopher Columbus hurt you.

We love Thanksgiving. It's just in October. The one thing about Canadians, you guys are a nicer half. You guys are a nicer continental half. We were talking before the show. I always tell the joke that America and Canada, America is like

the drunken brother to the nice Canada. The Canada people are all nice. They're always saying, sorry, sorry. And here in America, we're just like, let's start a war. We got guns and shit. And people in Canada are like, oh, man, we're going to get nuked. We're going to get all the fall from these idiots.

You know, you guys just sit up there half the time and watch us on the telly and just go like, serious, we need to put up a wall, huh? Well, as I said to you, Chris, I don't think we could be as gentle a nation and as peacekeeping as we are without our amazing brothers and sisters down

south. Yeah, so we do the dirty work and you guys play the nice guys. It's good cop, bad cop in the world. Is that what's going on? I think I just figured out what the whole angle of Canada is. It's subversive. It's not a bunch of nice people being like,

sorry, I'm really nice and shit. They're just like, you guys are sitting there evil plots going, let these guys fucking clean up the mess and we'll just sit here with our donuts or our two-fours and have a good time. Crullers or what are you guys called? Donuts up there?

Donuts? No. There's like Tim Hortons. Is that what you think of? Yeah, there's Tim Hortons and you got two four beers. I watched a lot of Doug and... Doug and Bob McKenzie. They're the best.

I've seen that movie like 100 times. Are they not so funny? Canadians are really funny. I don't fall into that category. Just so you know, I'm not very funny. I'm more serious. But a lot of Canadians are funny. We've got a lot of artists.

But Bob and Doug are classic. Yeah, they're classic. I mean, some of the greatest comedians that I've always looked up to came from Second City up there. And, you know, but you do need to take Nickelback back. And who's the chick with the big nose, Celine Dion? She needs to get sent back. And then that kid, Justin Bieber. I think John Candy was right.

We should start a war over that with you guys. I think we're exactly where they're meant to be. No, no. We'll keep Mike Myers and everyone else. Mike Myers is awesome. Isn't he, though? He's American now. Those are so screwy people.

Anyway, the Awaken Company. Now, let me ask you this because this is a question that was top of the mind when I was doing the announcement. You've done some updating to the paperback. Is there going to be anything new you put into it that wasn't in the hardbook? So, no. The publisher decided to re-release it as it is, just make it soft copy. And very excited to report working on a playbook to go with The Awakening Company. So The Awakening Company book is like the why should we create awakening organizations?

And then the playbooks, the how do we actually create awakened organizations or awakening organizations? So it's not like a playbill where it's going to be on Broadway. It's a playbook. No, but you know what? I like the whole concept of a playbill because a playbook no but you know what let's play i like the whole concept of a playbill because it's more fun and i think we need to bring the sense of joy back into our organization so that work isn't like as much work like you and i like our conversation's been fun so far and it's so far i like playbill i really like playbill now you've got me going on playbill

i'm going to incorporate somehow the word playbill into the playbook, Chris. Put your book on Broadway. People do that. We've had one big Broadway talent on. He produced Breedy and the Beast, and he works with Ellen John and Kiss and stuff to do a bunch of other Broadway stuff. So we had him on. We'll put you in touch with him. You guys can map out a play and

it can be like Death of the Salesman only with a good ending. A positive impact. Positive impact. Just kind of a dark reference there. Where did that come from, Chris? That just kind of popped out of nowhere. I just don't know where.

You can do a prequel to that, The Birth of a Salesman. I don't know. Where are you taking me on this podcast? It's always a journey. Different roads, different roads than I've traveled before. You've got me now creating a playbill and a theater. And I've always loved theater. As a kid, I actually created plays with my sisters.

So now you've got my mind spinning because I can't help but to create. It's a great way to present it or spin it as a play because, you know, people love infotainment. They like, you know, we talked in the green room a little bit, people like Stephen Colbert or like a Johnny Carson, because he will talk to them about events of the day or news of the day or data or education or in our sense business and you know when you tell people you're going to talk about business sometimes they kind of go like oh great math and so you have to make a fun so that it's entertaining and people learn when your brain's having fun at least that's what mine says um so let's talk about the awakened company why did you name it

this i mean i know that most people sleep at work when their boss isn't around. Why did you name it this? I mean, I know that most people sleep at work when their boss isn't around, but why did you name the book The Awakened Company? What's the concept you have behind that? And I believe your business for consulting and stuff. So imagine that we're in a dimly lit cafe in New York City. And all of a sudden, Chris, this lightning bolt idea just came to me and said, you've got to write a book called the awakening company. So I turned my play to me right now. Cause it sounds like a screen, right?

But I'm into creating a play. It really does. Imagine that you're in a, I'm actually doing the screenplay movie in my head. Now you've got me thinking now I'm going to, I'm completely on Broadway at this point. You're on stage. So I, I turned to my colleague Carolyn and I'm like, Carolyn, I'm trying this book called The Awakened Company.

She looked at me and she said, yes, you are. And it began that way. It just kind of entered my idea stream. And then it came to life and it came to life over a series of a lot of fun and a lot of hard work. There you go. I started a book called The Sleeping Company, but it was for my mattress business. Oh, that's so bad. So you have this book that's coming out with a new release on paperback so people can get it on paperback, hardback or Kindle. And then your company is named The Awakened Company. Is that correct?

That's right. It's called The Awakened Company. And our vision is to ignite and sustain the fire within. And we focus on creating healthy corporate cultures to enable a kind of a full spectrum success for organizations. Our values are passion, purposefulness, and playfulness, which you embody so beautifully, which I think needs to come through in organizations more and more. Often you go in and it's like a thick, heavy swamp in organizations. Not so interested in that. Really, we love to help create organizations that are thriving like a healthy forest. There you go. The Awaken Company. And, you know, I think this is really important because

they do need to thrive. You know, people, like I said, they take on business like, oh, God, it's work. If it's fun, if you love it, if you can find the passion in your business, you know, I wrote about this in my book. If you can, the passion, having a passion for something is really important because a lot of my first companies, I was just an investor in the first 13 years. I was just an investor. And the only reason I really enjoyed him was I was CEO and I was the boss of everything. And I'm, I'm clearly a narcissist who likes lording people around. But on top of that, I'm like me and, uh, uh, but I wasn't passionate about anything i did and i reached a point in my business where i was oh god i gotta go into that place every day and you're

like but you own an idiot and i'm like i still want to go in there um because there's all those employees that i heard in there and i hate half of them um because half of them were sleeping they were at the sleeping company but But so, you know, it's important that people, employees feel passion, that they feel a caring and a connection to the business, that it means something other than just punching in from nine to five. Is that correct? Absolutely. I think our greatest challenges will be solved by organizations and organizations are here to solve problems. However,

it's without causing damage to other people or the planet and by inspiring us and inspiring the greatest in all of us and for us all to live in our, into our full potential and full blooming in everything that we do so that we don't kind of cut ourselves off at work. We don't go into that sleeping company. We don't, in fact, there's something I use called the awake asleep line, Chris, which is where we notice, are we coming from our more awaking place or are we coming from our more sleep place? So are we coming from the place for life is happening for us or life is happening to us? And like, how can we regain our sense of meaningfulness at work, our sense of connection

at work? So what are some techniques? I'm looking at your website right now and you guys are a global consulting firm focused on igniting passion, purpose, and engagement. So what are some ways to help, you know, awaken your employees? I mean, we just use the cattle prod on the, around the office whenever we caught you sleeping, but the lawsuits weren't good about that. And the judge says, I can't do that anymore. I'm still wearing the ankle bracelet for it. So what are some good ways to awaken your employees that don't involve cattle prodding? Well, you know, cattle prods can be used for the right reason. You might want to use it to somehow encourage.

Just get it out. Get out that stick. Just kidding. So when we think about awakening organizations, I want you to think of three pillars. And I want you to think of a drop in an ocean. So a drop in the ocean. So are we awakening ourselves as the first drop? Awakening our relationships as the next drop and awakening our organization as the next drop. So first we need to awaken ourselves. And the majority of people, when they come to work, they are not

engaged. They aren't engaged. And yet we know the highest performing leaders are those who are most self-aware. So number one is we need to work on our own engagement and our own self-awareness. And the way we do that is we use mindfulness. We use something called the Enneagram and presence practices. We talked about that before the show, the Enneagram. And I see that's a tab on your website, E-N-N-E-A-G-R-A-M. This is why I do the show, so I can learn new stuff every day. Let's talk about what that is. Awakening with the Enneagram is what's on your website. What are we doing there?

Is this like something we're sacrificing something to the Enneagram? What's going on there? We're not sacrificing anything, but we are opening a portal to our leadership presence. How do we be more present as leaders? How do we be better leaders? And Ennea means nine and gram means diagram. So there's nine different types of being. We tend to have a predisposition. We don't tend to have. We have a predisposition to one core type. And by knowing our type, we also know that there's eight other ways of being so that we can pull from the different styles of leadership depending on what is needed in the moment. So do you want to go through the wheel of the different Enneagram types to see which one you may be, Chris?

Do you want to play with this a little bit? Yeah, let's do it. Let's find out more about me because people will probably be listening going, hey, I want to know where I am on the wheel. Yeah. Okay, so we're going to start. So there's three types for our body, three types for our heart, and three types for our head.

We'll start with the eight, which is a body center type. And body has to do with anger. And the eight is called the challenger. And the challenger likes to challenge the status quo, likes to inspire people, likes to get things going, likes to get the energy moving. If there's a challenge, we'll walk into it if we're an eight. It might be me. That just might be you, Chris. It might be me.

Maybe. There might be a tendency to swear a little bit to get the energy out just might be you, Chris. Might be me. Maybe. There might be a tendency to swear a little bit to get the energy out. I'm antisocial. I mean, I don't follow social norms either. I'm 54 and single, and I'm just off the whole map of society. Well, there you go. Yeah. There you go.

I couldn't afford all the kids so I sent them off to a military school I think they come back when they're 18 or something they call me and I just ignore their calls but I have two dogs and so that works but yeah everyone sits around and goes where's those kids that are around and why do you have all this money and you're so happy all the time and I'm like I'm single

so that might be me it might be an 8 okay so just listen to the rest so then there's the nine which is the another body center type so it's the opposite of the it's actually canada as a country peacemakers so what do we need to do to make things just tranquil around here how do we keep the peace? And yet highly creative, can kind of pull the poles. So this is a

different type of energy. More of a peacekeeper, though? More of a peacekeeper. So my colleague Bliss, he's a peacekeeper. And his name's perfect for him, Bliss. I mean, what kind of guy is called Bliss? Nine is called Bliss. And he's just so good at kind of holding space. He's probably really

blessed too. You know that old line? Blessed are the pieces of people. Anyway, whatever. He's really good at holding space. So all like ram forward with the energy and bliss will hold space. So that's the nine. So the next is the one which is the reformer. And the reformer

is about getting things right. These tend to be the red penners like they see a document like they'll see an agreement and they'll know exactly what's wrong are they the grammar nazis too no grass no the grammar nazis you know they see you on facebook and you misspell the your without the e or whatever and they get all angry at you they could be maybe highly likely they because they usually redline everything they have they're like they'll like leave comments in my facebook and they're like you misspelled like five of the words you know yes they have a pre just this type is a

predisposition to getting things right that's probably them the grammar nazis okay so that's the 891 those are the. Body types have a lot to do with anger. Then we're going to move now into the heart. So it's totally different form of leadership, Chris. So the first one's the helper and the helper is like, Oh, what do you need? How can I help you? One of my business partners, former business partners had a lot of two, and she was always the one doing the dishes, even though she owned owned the business like it was just her natural mo to kind of help and serve other people so it's a very different energy it's a very high service type of energy so that's the two then next is the the three and again heart and heart has to do with our image um our image so three is the

success oriented type they're called the achievers. It's like, what do I need to do to get to the next goal? What do we need to do? What do we need to do? But sometimes forget about bringing their actual humanity to the workplace because it's all about the goal. What is this humanity you speak of? I know. Yeah, clearly the three. You know, like not really care about people. They just want to get the work done. I care about people. I like them. Most, some of them, but the really care about people. They just want to get the work done. I care about people. I like them most, some of them,

but the more I know people, the more I like dogs. I love dogs. There you go. And I love people. I love both. I like, I love people.

I just wish that some of them would be better, but that's what slapping is for. What's with the slapping? There's a lot of violence going on it's pretty you've you've already diagnosed you said it's part of the body anger in your in your uh in your uh your gram there thing going on in the enneagram in the eight in the eight so then there's the the three which we've talked about which is like okay what do we need to do to be successful? What are our strategic priorities? What are we going to do the next month?

You know what that's like. We need that, and we also need to do it with heart so that we actually care about why we have goals. You mean I can't just tell people to do things and get slapped? No, that's a hard no. That's a hard no. Note to self, quit hitting employees. Note to self, do not do.

Now we're going to move into a type which you might find very interesting. It's the people, the four, the individualist. And these are like the Johnny Depp, Alanis Morissette's of the world. And they just want to go deep into your feelings. Oh, feelings people. And they can talk to you for hours about their feelings and what they're feeling. Oh, God.

Sounds like every girlfriend I've ever had. Oh, no! Well, just watch it then because it's kind of like the, oh, woe is me. I'm very highly emotional. And this is great for relationships too, Chris. And everything is in for relationships too, Chris.

And everything is in relationship. Everything. Our business, everything. It's all in relationship. Yeah. It's relationship with your employees. Because all employees are different too. You've got to play to them as well.

Well, and that's part of having the intelligence in relationships, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. So then there's that. We've done the four. Now we're going to move to the head center, which has to do with anxiety and mental processing. And the,

so the five, which is called the investigator who one of my partners that I do a lot of stuff with is the thought leader of the world and the Enneagram. And he is a five and he just investigates. You like, he's so smart. You give him a problem and it's like he chisels it out like a diamond and looks at it from all the different perspectives and then figures it out so it's like the albert einsteins of the world it might be me i take things apart

and look at from the outside that way okay so eight and five have a line to each other but we don't have time to talk about that um okay. And then we've got the six, which is the loyalist, which is, you know, these are the people that incredible communicators, community builders, incredible communicators, they tend to be self-deprecating, quite funny. And they also worry. They're the people in our organizations who like to create a lot of off-ramps because so many different things can go wrong. I'm going to give you a funny example.

Tell me about those first two there. On that head thing. The five and six. Just wait until we get to the seven. You might have some seven. But here's an example. Personal example of a six story. Which is a funny story. Don't know if I've ever told it

on a podcast, but I'm telling it for you. So it's here. Ladies and gentlemen. Well, personal story. So I was going for a nature walk with the boys and my mom and dad always said, don't walk behind the cottage because the septic tank is there.

Okay. So I said, me being very bold, I said, forget it. My dad's passed away. My mom's in the cottage. I'm taking the boys for a walk and we wanted to scatter up this big,

this big rock. So I took the boys and lo and behold, the septic tank lid was a jar. Yes. Who went, you know, have you seen slumdog Millionaire? Somebody went into the thing? Me.

This Broadway show has turned into a horror Broadway show. Okay, so I went in. I don't like the screenplay at all. Okay, so Chris, I went in and it was awful. So I was screaming for my mom. I dove into the lake and by the time I get back,

she said, you know, Catherine Ruth, I just knew somebody was going to do this at some point and I've already got everything you need done. All laid out and she had been in touch

with infectious disease. Yeah. So this is the six. The six kind of prepares for all the negative what if scenarios. That's not me. Okay. I didn't think it didn't.

You don't kind of resonate with that to me. So then the next is the seven. I don't prepare at all. The seven is like, we're going to have so much fun and here's what we're going to do. Here's what we're going to do. Here's what we're going to create. Here's what we're going to build. And here's what we're going to do. However, the seven leader is like the pied piper and they need to ground so they need to actually say okay here are the projects i'm actually going to complete so which one i'm an eight with a wing of seven i'm i have a lot of seven so i'm kind of between those two what are you what do you think i'm i'm kind of lost all the way around, but I think I started in eight, right? Yeah. And then those last two that you gave me, I'm not those.

I'm probably a hybrid between the two before the last two. I'm probably a hybrid. You know, here's the thing most people know about this show after 13 years. I probably have a personality for each one of those. So it's just whichever psycho personality is taking over today or is talking on the mic. That's probably who I am. I'm like Sybil. I've got like eight different personalities.

At least as a psychiatrist tells one of them, I don't know. And then the one tells me that the psychiatrist said that. So that's the only reason I know what's going on. Okay. So Chris, I would say investigate it and choose one. We have to choose one. I have to choose one?

No, no, no, but it can take people years to figure out. So it's like more about the journey of it. And there's so many more details than what I just went into. Wasn't it an eight and a three or something? I think it was an eight and a three. I don't know. Eight's a challenger, three is the achiever. No, I think it was an eight and a three and something else.

And the five? I don't remember what the five was. I don't know. I said it on the show. We can go back and watch it and figure it out. I was like, I think that's me. Whatever I said on the show. Whatever you said.

So it provides real insight. And then once we know what our Enneagram types are on teams, you can really learn to behave differently, learn a lot about ourselves and also learn a lot about our teammates. So often we'll do team maps with organizations. They understand what they have a lot of or what they have a little of. So, for example, there was one organization that we were working with and they didn't have a lot of assertive types. So they worked on bringing that more out in their corporate culture. But I have something I kind of want to turn to now, which is the second pillar, which is awakening our relationships. Are you good? Let's do it. Let's do it. We need to awaken our relationships. One last point I want to make before we close that out, because it's really

important, is I like this idea as being a leader of companies for what 35 years or some stupid thing I've been doing uh but and I'm 22 which is hard to figure out how that math works but um that's really important especially I can see how important that is in a company because you know one of the things that you have to learn as a leader at least if you learn something as a leader you're not a complete narcissistic authoritarian, is that all your people are different. And so you almost have to become a psychologist where you have to figure people out and go, okay, you know, what appeals this person? Like you said, you have that person who's the people pleaser, you have the person who likes to be funny and you have all these different personalities around you. Not everybody's a mirror

of you and God knows there can never be anybody in in my company was like me cause I'd fire him. Um, the, I don't like competition. That's a side role. Uh, but you have to be able to understand these people, adapt to them. You have to understand who's good for management roles, who's good for, you know, normal roles. You know, there's people that are like, I want to be a management person. Like, no, you're not going to be in management. You're not a management person. Like, no, you're not going to be in management. You're not a management person. And so you have to be able to understand these and being able to play to them and also be able to, I like the team idea of that.

So I just want to confirm that because you've given me some thought process I might think about here in the long term. Because literally, you have to be a psychiatrist. Like, I do marriage counseling for people. Like, they would come to me and be like, of course, I can't work. I can't sell anymore. And I'm like, why? They go, oh, my wife and I are having problems.

You know, you're like, why is this my problem? Go get a counselor, man. But you have to fix their problem. You have to try and get them motivated, you know. And that slapping thing, the judge says I can't do anymore. So there's that. So let's move to your next item on relationships. Oh, well, what you're saying is so true, actually. And it really affects engagement. So the majority of people aren't engaged at work, as you know, like less than 15% of people worldwide are engaged. Like to me, that's a travesty and one of the things we can

do as leaders is actually care so by you taking on that role and understand understanding other people's perspectives and what lenses they may be using it's really helpful and then to positively mirror somebody is huge so just simple little hack is to notice the good things that people are doing. What some of the business research shows, Chris, is that the worst time in people's day is their time with their bosses, their boss holes. And that needs to change both for the leader and also for those who are being led. And also, it's crazy because people, can you believe it? People rate taking out the kitty litter as better than spending time with their bosses. You know what?

I was laughing because you just gave me an idea. The next time I have a big company with a big old desk and employees that don't work from home, I'm going to get me a plaque that says boss hole on it. And put it on the front of it. You know, you know, that plaque says your name. It says like CEO and president crap on there. I'm going to be one. Chris boss, boss hole. And I'm going to be like, I'm going to, there you go. You can make people laugh with that though however this is serious like yeah it's causing

it's causing disengagement so the most engaged group of people are those who are positively noticed even those who are negatively noticed are more engaged than those who aren't noticed at all i'll tell a funny joke at the end of the show i'm going to save it for the end so whoever's listening right now you're not going to hear it until somewhere near the end. It won't be at the end. So don't be one of those guys that skips the end. But I'm going to tell it at the end, so stay tuned for that. But I want to make sure we suss this out first.

So anything more we need to know about the relationship building? And we have to be nice to these people for some reason, I guess. What do you think? Do you think now is the time? The poem kind of fits in there. Do you think I should read the poem now? Let's go ahead. Shoot me a piece of the poem fits in there. Do you think I should read the poem? Let's go ahead.

Shoot me a piece of the poem. What does the poem give us? Set up the poem for me, if you would. What is it about? Or, you know, what does it apply to? So I've been really thinking about organizations and how important they are because people spend so much time at work. And what are kind of the key messages? So I wrote this poem and chris gave

me permission to read it because it's not too long he did it short and he he kind of liked it okay i cried a little bit oh you're so sweet okay so here it is and i'd love to hear what people think because the world is in a bit of a mess right now. We must not declare it an era of why. It is an era of who. Who do we have to be to solve the great mysteries? And in the who, we will unlock all of the world's greatest unknowns. These will help us solve the riddles of our time. The world is burning. We don't have a moment to lose. So what I'm getting at with this poem is we need to kind of tether our inner and outer worlds together more. Oh, Chris, I love it. Oh, look, he's tearing up.

It really does. We need to. The world is burning. Last time I checked. But, you know, I'm sure the turkey will put its, the fried turkey will put itself out. That's the day we're doing today, Thanksgiving. So, yeah, I mean, it's an aspiring poem. Is that in your book, by the way? That is the start of the playbook.

So that is literally on the first page of the playbook. So that is literally on the first page of the playbook. And it was actually during COVID that I really started to write more poetry that I was getting. And so I have a poetry book. Oopsies. I have a poetry book in the works as well. There you go. There you go. And did you get Tony Robbins to give you a quote for your book? Yes, Tony Robbins

supported The Awakened Company. And that's kudos to Namaste my publisher who really helped to get that and Namaste I don't know are you familiar with Eckhart Tolle I love Eckhart Tolle Tolle however you pronounce his name yeah so Eckhart Tolle

was kind of I really wanted to work with Namaste Publishing because I loved Eckhart Tolle and she didn't want to work with me at first, Chris. She's like, no, I'm not going to do this. Because just think about it. To change the consciousness of business is probably one of the most challenging things we could possibly do. Because it's not only awakening ourselves, our relationships, but it's awakening as a collective.

So it requires so much. However, I convinced her to publish it and now she's re-releasing it. So I'm really thrilled. She and, well, the Namaste team, which is just, I'm very appreciative for them doing that. Eckhart Tolle is an amazing author. He really saved my life one time when I was really struggling after my dog's death. And being present and getting out of the time when i was really struggling after my dog's death and being present and uh getting out of the emotion of it was really important and i was having a real hard problem with with being present i didn't even understand what being present was and and someone came on my show and uh who was from canada actually and uh i think over in brit Columbia, Victoria, that beautiful, it lives on one of those islands with all the

water and beautiful stuff. Just epic, epic countryside there. And yeah, he introduced me to Eckhart Tolle. So that's pretty awesome. Tony Robbins said of your book, In a World of Economic Uncertainty. That sounds like a movie thing. In a world of economic uncertainty, that sounds like a movie thing in a world of economic uncertainty, the awakened company gives a roadmap to a new way of doing business, a way that is humane, fosters innovation, and it meets the needs of all stakeholders, including mother earth.

What a great quote, man, for your book. That is awesome. Catherine, you should have led that off the show. Like Tony Robbins said, buy my book, damn it. So everyone do that. Well, and the book is really presence-based, right, Chris? There you go. It's how we be more present. And how do we as organizations bring presence back into our companies so that we can be strategically more emergent rather than, for example, there was a company that we were just working with and they kind of stuck to their plan

and they just worked that process plan and worked that process plan, but they weren't paying at all attention to what was needed in the market. And so they completely missed the boat because they weren't present for what is happening in the external environment. So the Awaken Company says, you know, we need to be present to our internal atmospheres and also our external atmosphere so that something more powerful can come through what we're creating together.

That's really important. I mean, the other thing is too, I had to get this joke in there. It's a little hard to be present if you're asleep at the wheel, um, to be awake for that part. You know, you talk about on your website, how so many different people are asleep at the job. They're not paying attention to what's going on around them. Um, you know, we, we, you know, I have people that would, they sometimes they just be the show up people who would punch in and punch out. And you'd ask them, like, why do you do what you do?

And I don't know, some idiot told me to do it. It's Chris Foskey. And they would just, they would just do their job. It didn't mean much to them. And those are the people you usually don't want to have work at your company or, in your case, what you're teaching here, trying to find a way to engage those people, to get them activated, get them awakened so that they work and roll. There was a figure you had on your website that said about 85% of your people are disengaged at work. Is that because they're watching YouTube and OnlyFans?

Because often they don't know what the meaning and purpose is behind their work. So when we think about our awakening organizations, that third ring, which the majority of businesses don't survive past nine years, which I'm sure you know that statistic. It's not there. I felt that one. We need to do things really, really, really differently. So first is kind of what do we need to energize?

And I'll often meet with CEOs and I'll go, oh, what's your vision? Or I'll ask somebody walking around the organization oh what's your vision or i'll ask somebody in the walking around the organization what's your vision and they don't know we don't know so first is like okay vision five to seven words clearly where are you aiming because if we don't bring here's something really important chris intention attention action give that to me one more time so we have that really clear for everybody intention

so what is our intention where are we placing our attention and then how are we going to act or not act there we go very very very important so if we don't as a collective

have a collective intention, collective vision in terms of where we're going, why are you giggling? What's going on? It reminded me of a LinkedIn thing that we posted recently where this gal made a video on TikTok. TikTok's the big thing down here. I don't know how it is in Canada, but it's like an infection. It's like COVID. So she posted a video on TikTok explaining how to become successful in the corporate world, at least here in America. And she did a joke bit about how instead of making a decision on something you need to make a decision on as an executive, what you do is you hold a meeting with about 20 other people that you take three months to get

everyone scheduled together so you can have the meeting to talk about that other people that you take three months to get everyone scheduled together so you can have the meeting to talk about that idea. But you don't come to a decision on that meeting. You have that meeting and then you have another meeting with those same people to finally make that decision. So the first meeting is to suss it out and the second meeting is to do that. And then you scrap it and then you schedule a meeting with 20 different other people. Or no, hold on. No, you second, what is it? You get a backup opinion with the second group and

then you do that whole thing again. And then you scrap it and just say, we're going to start over with this idea. And then eventually they just give you executive assistance so you can waste their time 24-7. Just wasting time is basically two things in cooperation. So it's making me think of that joke. And we wonder why people are disengaged. A lot of people don't have intention. They don't have intention. They're just wandering around going, I don't know, what's this meeting for?

Exactly. So having intention. And what's interesting is the business research says we need to put two thirds focus on corporate culture and one third on financial results. So a lot of executives think what finances, finances, finances. No, that's the wrong mantra to actually create healthy organizations. We need to be focused on bringing up our culture, creating healthy spaces for people to work, having a vision, making sure that there's joy in our organization, also making sure that there's clear strategic priorities. So we really need to create a kind of a clear landscape for people to operate from. One thing that I've done, did as a mistake, a big mistake is one time I dictated a vision.

Don't do that. If you're a leader, don't dictate a vision because, you know, someone came in to consult to our company and said, you know, what's a vision? And nobody raised their hand. And nobody raised their hand because I was busy dictating the vision. No, people support what they would create. So we spent the day and created a vision together. Is it important to make a vision together with your people so they feel like they're a part of it? Incredibly important. And that's one of Margaret Wheatley's principles is people support what they create. So get people involved in the vision and don't let it meander like that example you gave.

No. You need a vision for why people are coming to work and then to make it joyful and to celebrate the good things yeah i think i like a million likes on freaking linkedin like it was the funniest video about how to waste time and get successful in business well because there's some truth to it always there is there's this there's these seedlings of truth. Yeah. There's people who send, who do meetings. It could be emails and, you know, and whatever. So we touched on the intent. What are the other two things we want to touch on those as well?

So kind of the three pillars that I want people to remember, always as leaders, we always should think about our intention, our intention, our attention, our action or inaction. However, organizationally, I would like us to think about what do we need to energize, sustain, and regenerate. So energize is our vision, having clarity of vision, bringing a sense of joy and celebration to our companies. Celebrate everything. When you see something positive, celebrate it. Like positively notice each other. And then the third in terms of energize

is to have very clear strategic priorities or missions for the next year, the next 90 days, and three years have some general sense of what those are. And then review them and review them and review them. Because the other thing is people don't remember things having heard them just once. So these things need to be repeated time and time again.

That's why I get a bullhorn to walk around the office. Well, you'd be fun to work for because you'd have the boss hole. You'd have the bullhorn. You'd be like, let's make stuff happen. And then you've got this Eckhart Tolle side, which is quite interesting. And you've have the boss hole you'd have the bullhorn you'd be like let's make stuff happen and then you've got this eckhart tolle side which is quite interesting and you've got the dog side which is the multiple personalities no no i'm getting a different different vibe chris different as long as i don't the judge says they just can't use the one that says kill kill kill anymore i can't use that one i've got to stick no. And so once we've energized our organizations, then we need to sustain them. And how do we

sustain them? Having clear values. So like, how are we going to actually work together? What's our corporate structure? What are our roles? What are our responsibilities? How are we connected? How are we involved in the community? How are we taking responsibility in the community? But here's what's often missing, the third pillar, which is regeneration. Taking time. I mean, it's your Thanksgiving and you're working. So I have a little bit of a red flag, Chris.

Are you taking care of yourself? Does that mean lots of vodka, smoking, and stuff like that? No. Are you getting enough sleep? Are you drinking enough water? Do you have time with your friends? Friends?

Do I look like the sort of guy? Do I seem like the sort of guy's friend? Chris, come on. I get it. I'm just doing the jokes. I try and take care of myself. I have a couple of vodkas before the show

oh my word i don't actually i don't drink anymore i think my audience knows that yeah so it's how do we kind of take care of ourselves so we're more awakened if we're more healthy and we we take care of ourselves and treat ourselves well totally totally and we're more innovative like take a walk in a forest. There you go. You know, you're in Utah. Where do you find your most innovative times? When are you most innovative, Chris?

Answer me this question. I don't know. When I usually have a gun to my head. Chris, I'm Canadian. No gun talk. No gun talk. Not like a real gun to my head, but, you know, you have a business deadline or you've got something that has to get done, you know, because I'll mess around and I'll be like, yeah, I'll get to that next week. But then, you know, like we have CS show coming up here in January.

And so, like, I've been kind of messing around for a little while and I was like, eh, I should probably get going on booking all that stuff up. And, you know, I did about half of it and then I'm like, oh, I'll finish the other half later. But, yeah, usually pressure makes me innovate. Usually with my companies, whenever I would innovate, it wasn't like, hey, let's create a really cool widget. It's like, hey, Chris, the company's going to go bankrupt if you don't plug the giant bleeding hole on the side of the ship.

It's going to sink. So you better innovate something and patch the hole or else, or else, or else. That's the kind of gun to the head I'm referring to. And where are you when you get these ideas? For me, for example, it's typically I'll go for a walk and an idea will pop in. It used to be that the best way for me was to get outside of the box as I put my book.

And so I would go on, I would take weekend vacations. I don't take normal vacations like most people because everyone's going on those vacations and I just end up stuck in traffic or in an airplane or, you know, the transport, whatever. I don't know what's going on. Those places where the airplanes take off from airports, that's what they're called. Clearly, my dumb personality is on today. So what I do is I usually travel with a notepad. And so I usually go to like a bed and breakfast.

I'll just get away. Sometimes I go for a drive up in the canyon. I've got some nice places up in the canyon, up in Park City that I like to go eat at. They're expensive and you have to go. I have to learn something out of this experience because I just spent a lot of money. And just kind of getting away and just letting the mind wander a little bit. There's something about going on a long drive, especially up here where I'm at in Utah or like in Vegas where I technically live. You know, anytime you go for a drive that is in the city, it's pretty, there's not a lot to look at.

I mean, there's trees and mountains and stuff, but your mind can kind of wander and kind of zone out a little bit. And if you're thinking about some things like, well, why do we do this this way? Why do we do this one process this way? And you get outside of your box too that way. And probably for you, a walk in, going out, a walk in nature does that. It gets you out of your box. Because when you're sitting in your office surrounded by your whole element in your box, you're kind of stuck in it and all the notifications are there and you're like, oh, look at Facebook for a second. And then five hours later. So

yeah, that's what I used to do. So great example. It's a long answer, isn't it? Well, we all need to disconnect to innovate. I think we need to get out of our, the majority of people's great ideas come when they're outside of the office. So to create organizations where it's healthy and normal to say, hey, I need to go create. I need to go pause.

And also that our organizations are creative spaces so that they're pretty to walk into. They're not just dull, lifeless places. So that people that we work with have pictures of their family or whatever, whatever breeds creativity in them is very, very important. And we also need time to just take a break. So one of the things we did at in one of the organizations, I'm a serial entrepreneur like you, like I can't help but to build organizations and companies is that we had mindfulness breaks. So anybody could call a mindfulness break and we'd meet in the boardroom

and we'd do a practice. And this was over, I've been doing this for over a decade, these stillness breaks for how do we return back to presence. And I think that's why the organizations that I've been involved with have done so well because we do things radically differently, unlimited vacation, presence practices. We do yoga together work out together take trips together so the invitation for all of us is how do we actually bring that creativity back into our organization so think about the things that i just described strategically. What do we need to energize?

What do we need to sustain? And what do we need to regenerate? And it'd be very deliberate. Intention, attention, action, or inaction around those pillars. And the more we can get people involved in what we're creating, the more powerful it is. There you go. There you go. Core pillars to abide by.

Well, people need to read your book and get into this data and understand it more and contact you guys and work with you. I see a lot of different, I think, some coursework and stuff on your website or some workshops. So we do a lot of corporate consulting. So working with organizations specifically to help build what we call strategies with soul. So it's bringing the cultural elements back into their organizations. We also hold a number of webinars. Right now, our courses are full

with the exception of our re-release date. We've got an open invitation for people to come and celebrate with us on the 29th of November. And we're just, Russ, the thought leader in the Enneagram, and Kelsey, who's a technology leader, we're going to, the thought leader in the Enneagram and Kelsey, who's a technology leader.

We're going to be celebrating the re-release of the book, but check out our upcoming, the upcoming events tab, because we will be constantly refreshing it. We're going to be doing, I'm really excited about this next fall session on how to create awakened partnerships and relationships with the, with the, really the core focus.

And I'm doing that with Dr. Deborah Egerton. And the core focus of that is going to be on how do we be, bring our whole selves? How do we create a sense of belonging in our relationships and our partnerships? So what if we don't want them to belong? That's the problem. That's the problem. Well them to belong? Well, that's a problem.

That's a problem. Well, you know what? But there's a way to kind of... Depends on what type of people they are. Sometimes you don't want them to belong, but that's another story. That's so true, though. It's true when we get the dating coaches on.

We'll talk about that. That's a joke, people. Don't be like that. But no, people do need to be more awake in life. They do need more, be more present. I, I found I was sleepwalking through my life.

I wasn't present. Like, you know, we mentioned Eckhart Tolle, uh, earlier, um, totally told you make it,

you do what you want. Um, the, uh, uh, it's your story, man. Um,

the, the, um, you know, we do need more and more present because people, you know, I see this all the time. You know, people, I go into places, people look at their phones the whole time. I'll see a whole family sitting down at dinner and everyone's looking at their phone. And you're just like, why are you out to dinner? Like, you'd just be home in your rooms looking at your phones, eating takeout food. Like, why bother going to places and sitting down? the whole reason go someplace to sit down i haven't been to a good uh thanksgiving dinner in a long time because we our family is as big as it used to be sadly

uh i that was dark um i need to add that at the end it's just a fact of life you live long enough and you know the the big things and then everyone hates everyone eventually. So, you know, no one gets together. But we don't do the big dinners. But I imagine I should just go to somebody's big Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas dinner. But I never get invited, clearly

because I have I'm not social. I do not work well with others. But I imagine everyone's at the Thanksgiving table looking at their phone just going, pass the turkey and the yams. We never had that at our big Thanksgiving thing. So people need to be more present. They need to be aware of what's going on because, man, you can sleepwalk through this life and you'll lose so much time and so much quality relationships with people. There was so much time and so much quality relationships with you

have with people. Um, there was so much of my dogs in my life that, uh, my prior dogs that I had that I really wish I would spend more time paying attention to them, but I was always busy working to buy them all sorts of treats and food. And they were always just like, dad, just play with this in the yard. And I'm like, just let me finish this project and I will. And yeah. So being present and being awake is really important because a lot of people sleep, sleep, sleep, walk through life. So, Chris, do you want to do a quick presence practice right now that you can anyone? Oh, sure. Let's jam one in there.

Okay. So first of all, most people are breathing just from the top part of their lungs. So I invite you to breathe fully into your belly. So belly breathe. I need to let it out then. Okay, so that's one thing that people can do at any time is to just belly breathe. Now I want you to bring your awareness to your right arm, Chris. Awareness to your right arm. I think, I don't know.

I'm 54. I can't feel my legs, so I don't know. Well, okay. Now I want you to bring your awareness to your right leg. Now bring your awareness to your left leg. There you go. Awareness to your left arm. Awareness to your left leg. There you go. Awareness to your left arm. Awareness

to your eyes. Oh my God. Awareness to your ears. Yeah. Awareness to your nose. Awareness to your mouth. Yeah, that's one big thing there

going on. Yeah, our mouth is really important. So the moment we can bring our awareness. There you go, you're drinking which is perfect. The moment you bring our awareness into our bodies, we can be more present with who

and what we're with. And as leaders, we really need to do this so that we can make better decisions. Cause remember the highest performing leaders are those that are self-aware and to be self-aware means to know how we actually are and not distracted with our phones, et cetera, as you mentioned.

So really feet on the floor and keeping our intention, attention and action or inaction, being aware of that. No, to my executive secretary, Catherine Bell says to, uh, be self aware.

Can you have her write that down on some paper for me and to be present and, uh, pass that out to everybody and put, ever put a copy somewhere in my inbox. Well, it's like, I just want your, your comment about your dogs really touched me.

Cause I had a dog that I lost. Do you want the handkerchief? Yes, I need the handkerchief. And it's true. We don't have moments to lose. Cause like we miss those things. And it's like,

it's like, Oh, like my regrets, my life around not like we miss those things. And it's like, it's like, Oh, like my regrets, my life around not being present for certain things. So if I have regrets about being present for certain things, actually. Okay. Like what?

Like what? I don't know. There's probably some jokes with some people I ate in there somewhere. I don't know. I don't want to recall them, but it sounded, it sounded like a good setup for a joke at the time. Now you had a joke you were going to share before the end or something funny you wanted to say. That's true. We're about wrapping the show

here. Cause, uh, once we go past an hour, people are starting to not be awakened. Um, it's just, it's just how they are. They start looking for other things to do. But as promised, thanks for Catherine for making me, making me, what's that word? Accountable. So I'll tell you my boss hole joke. So that's what triggered that. So let me make this, the story's funner on the long thing, but it's a long story. So I had this employee who was working for me and she was a really, not the greatest employee. And she didn't have a good home situation either. So I don this employee who was working for me, and she was really not the greatest employee. And she didn't have a good home situation either, so I don't want to be too mean to her, although she deserved it. But she had a husband at home who wouldn't do stuff with the baby,

and she was always having to leave work to go home and take care of it. And I was like, you've got to take care of this husband thing problem you have. Cause you know, you were either work, your home life is not my problem. And, uh, and I guess he wouldn't change the diapers cause he's busy gaming during the day,

you know, horrible husband. Right. So, uh, choose your husband as well, ladies. Um,

and, uh, he, uh, and, and the pro and that wasn't too much of a problem, but then she started, uh, not there, there's a part in our mortgage company where you have to get appraisal money and credit money up front. It's about 350 bucks at the time, but it's probably more now.

But, um, and you have to collect that money because normally we don't bill for it in the back end cause we always collect in the front. So all of my processors would be required to make sure that that check came in before they would order the appraisal. Because if you order the appraisal and you didn't get people to pay for it, they'd be like, yeah, thanks for the free thing. And then they'd leave. So she started forgetting to collect that money. Well, there's a certain, and so she would get rid of it, and she would come to my office, and I'd be like,

hey, we need to have a conversation. First warning, you need to collect the money, because there's a certain point where if you don't collect enough of this money, it's more than your salary, which creates a problem in people's mind. You know what I mean? If you're losing more money for the company than what we're paying you, I mean, number one, we don't need you. And number two, you know, I mean, you're, you're taking a hell of a salary there, doubling your losses. So, uh, first write up, second write up, third time I got really upset

and angry and, uh, and let her have it have it and gave her the riot act. And I probably should have just fired her at that point, but this is what I get for trying to be nice. So I think a couple days went by, and she came to my office, and with the door open in front of my whole office, she let me have it. And she F'd this, four-letter words, you know, the whole thing. Told me what a horrible person, I'm the worst boss that's ever happened. You know, my whole office, at least the sales floor, is hearing this whole thing.

And so she's sitting there just giving me the tirade from the door of my office. My office is really big. It was like a living room for most people. So as she's giving me this tirade, I turn around to the bar that was behind me. Uh, and, uh, I think I had some, uh, I don't know what it was, some whiskey or something. So I pour myself a whiskey glass and I put out another glass and pour a glass and I sit there and start drinking whiskey as she's giving me the tirade, just going off forever. And I'm sitting back in my chair, just going, okay. And when she's done, I go, great. I go, so you're done now? Yeah, I'm done. So are we done here? Are you going to go back and do your job? She's like, what do you mean?

And I go, you just told me what you thought of me. I'm in a four-letter of this, four-letter of that. Boss hole probably was one of them. You just told me all this stuff. And she goes, you're not going to fire me? And I go, sit down. You want a glass? And she wouldn't take one, but I had a glass out for her.

And I'm just sitting there just calmly sitting back in my chair, drinking my whiskey. And I go, let me explain something to you. I've had every boss I've ever had for the most part at one point or another, I thought they were an asshole. I thought they were a bad boss, but they were trying to get me to do my job so they could get me paid. And sometimes they were trying to motivate me to do my job right. And they had to make money for the company, and sometimes they had to be an asshole. So I had a lot of bosses that were assholes.

So as far as I'm concerned, you coming in here and telling me I'm an asshole means I've just fit my job description. So what I need to know from you is are you going to quit or are you going back to your thing? And she was stunned. Are you going to go back to your cubicle and work? She was stunned. She goes, you're not going to fire me.

And I go, no, I'm not. She goes, but I just called you all these names in front of your whole crew. And I go, you know what? I actually respect you more for coming in and telling me all this shit to my face because most people won't. So what you did is pretty damn brave. And you might be right on some things. So here's what I want to know.

Are you going to quit? Are you going to do another thing? She goes, I can't believe you're not going to fire me. I'm like, I'm not. You're going to have to quit or you're going to have to go do your job, but you're not losing money from me anymore. She quit, but she was,

she was stunned. It was like a movie scene. She just slumped into the chair going, he's not going to fire me. I got nothing out of, out of him as her eyes. He just sat there drinking whiskey going, what's your point?

I'm an asshole. So anyway, that's where the boss hole comes from. And I probably will get a finger. That wasn't really, you gave her the option. So that's not a real boss hole. I guess so. I mean, that was the whole point of it.

That's really powerful. It just felt like a lead balloon. And she went on, you know, she was a woman in her feelings at that point. She was very angry at me. And she, I mean, she was, I mean, she lists like every damn thing I'd ever done to her wrong as a boss. I didn't know there was that many things, but, you know, my office, I'm sure it was mostly a sales floor of guys. So they were sitting there going, you know, they were all on commission. So they were all sitting there going, he's getting the, he's getting the, he's getting the he's getting the he's getting the lady talking to him now setting him straight and uh i just was like i don't i'm an asshole like

what's your point and uh but no i actually did honestly to the truth it's not fronting to the truth i actually respect it or more because i know how my my people sometimes talk behind your back and you know i don't like him he's fact, I used to do this funny thing. Here's an expansion on that joke. People are going to love this bonus. Sorry if I'm going on too long. Just cut me off, Catherine, if this is just too long of information. But I used to go around my office and catch new employees.

We'd have this huge telemarketing firm, telemarketing arm of our company. It was a whole other wing. And so most of them didn't know who I was because they'd met the vice president and they just heard about some idiot who's the SEO CEO, who's a boss hole. And so I would walk around the wings of my office during breaks and we had like a hundred employees. So I'd, I'd walk around and, and I'd find some new victims, some new employee, and they'd be talking to like one of my older employees had been around for

a while. And, uh, and I'd be like, Hey, how's it going? Oh, I'm new employee.

You just started this week and stuff. And I'm like, yeah, man, well, I hope you like it. Well, it seems kind of nice here.

And I'd be like, yeah, it's really nice here, but I got to tell you, watch out for the CEO guy. He's a real fucking prick. He's a real jerk. The worst person in the world and like my employees

are standing around going i go and i'll set them up too i'll go you probably heard that huh and they'll and they always you know they're trying to fit in so they'll be like super like yeah yeah i don't you know i don't know yeah kind of some whatever and i'm like yeah if you really ask people he's a jerk total jerk so if you see him just stay away from him he's big fat guy he's very ugly and uh yeah just avoid him and he'd be like okay and then i walk off and then like like usually a day or two later, they come around to me and they're like, Oh my God,

I didn't know that was you. And I'm like, it's just what we do here. We're being funny. Don't worry about it. Well, and that's, we need more of that,

more joy. And we also need the whole kind of the different attributes of leadership. There are times to be a boss. There are times not to be a boss. Like understanding and navigating those tides. However, I love the way you brought joy in because people will remember that forever. I one time brought a whoopee cushion

into the office and that was the best. It was hilarious. And I had people talking about it for years. I brought a whoopee cushion into the office once, but it's because I'm lactose intolerant and I had a bunch of ice cream that's a different story

very darkly so Catherine it's been so much fun to have you on I don't know if you noticed but the note to self you know who that's from who that's an homage to famous Canadian who? I'm so disappointed in you

I'm so disappointed in you I'm so sorry I'll apologize profusely because I am rest in peace Norm Macdonald MSNL Saturday Night Live did not know that I'm so sorry I did not know that sorry no it's okay

I've really been into comedians comedians so yeah it's just I had to give that nod to him because he recently passed, and he was one of the greatest comedic writers ever, probably the greatest comedic writer ever. He wrote so much of SNL skits. I believe he starred in Second City up there in, what, Toronto? Toronto.

That's right. There you go. There you go. And, you know, not that dirty Quebec place that's always trying to break away from Canada and go home to Florida. I love Quebec. Quebec is wonderful. What was that thing going on for all those years where, like, we're not part of Canada anymore. We're doing our own country, damn it.

We're voting. Quebec has more of a four temperament in the Enneagram than the rest of Canada. So they like to be more individualistic. And I live in Alberta, which is way more eight, seven, three. Like we're the hustlers.

We like to get things going where there's so much exciting things going on around here. I just always seem funny to me. Cause like Canada is like what? 43 million people. And like one part of it's like, we're doing our own country. And you're like, there's only 43 million of and like one part of it's like we're doing our own country and you're like there's only 43 million of you like five million here you're gonna go do your own country

yeah no and quebec's such a precious part of canada it is it's so beautiful it's a beautiful part i gotta go to canada one of these days and go to i'm a big rush fan so i gotta go to the rush sites rush is awesome you're like you're kind of canadian i am pretty much like our comedians you like our arts you like you're kind of canadian everything about canada except for the cold i'm not that's why i haven't come up there it's because it's damn ass cold in the winter well okay i've been to park city utah i love park city by the way i absolutely love utah uh and i've been to Park City a whole bunch of times. I went to that festival there. What's it called?

Sundance. Sundance. And I absolutely loved it. I ran into Mark Ruffalo, and he was so wonderful. Anyway, I love Utah. And Canada's not that cold. It isn't? Okay, well, I'll come back. Oh, no, it is. It really is. Just don't go to the prairie provinces

in the winter. But in the summers, it's gorgeous. Like where I am, Banff, by Banff, is absolutely breathtaking. Like breathtakingly beautiful. I'm just going to come up there and be an asshole and use a boot and a, and a sorry and all the other things just all the time. No, Chris. No, no, no, no no no no y'all maybe i'll come up there and i'll just do that i'll just do the whole america

american asshole thing no don't do that we love our american brothers and sisters have you seen us lately have you seen us lately you watch the telly uh it's not good i mean it's it's pretty good now for a few years years there, it was kind of weird. But it depends. We just had an election that looks like we decided fascism, authoritarianism is the way to go. So, you know, we're working on that program. But we might, you know, there's still time for us to go full fascist. We have a lot of authors on the show to talk about history and stuff. So there's that.

Well, we're at a very pivotal, pivotal time and we need the best in all of us to rise. We need that presence. When we're more present, we make better decisions and are better human beings. And that's why the Awakened Company and all the work we do with organizations is so complex because it's not simple. It's one thing to kind of work on our own presence. It's another thing to work on a collective presence in organizations. You know, you guys have had, I realize now what America's problem is

and why we aren't as nice as you folks. We always hire like these ugly old leaders. And you guys, two of your prime ministers that are related the one currently present are like male models like all the girls like um like even down here they're like for him even like uh the last uh president guy's wife was like giving the googly eyes there when they were in france or something one time and uh and uh i think that's our problem. We don't hire good-looking male models for leaders like you guys do.

Oh, we have a leadership problem, Chris. Typically, leaders are tall, pale, and male, and that needs to change. That whole thing needs to change. I mean, that's what the voting thing is. That whole thing, situation needs to change. Well, they got the voting. You got to do the voting thing. Time to get out of our box.

There's a voting thing. We've had one. I think it's one female prime minister in Canada. Oh, really? We've got to change things. The latest guy seems like he's been there like 50 years, but I don't know.

That's how time goes for me. But then I saw that his dad, was his dad used to be prime minister of Canada? Yes, he did. He used to be prime minister of Canada. I don't know. I mean, it's hard to get those ladies to vote for women when, you know, you've got that male model guy. I mean, the girls down here, man, you talk about him,

your Canadian leader there. I forget his name. That's why I'm being so. Justin Trudeau. Justin Trudeau. I mean, he's a good-looking man. Like, I can look at him, and I'm straight, and I can look at him. That's a good-looking man right there.

I'd kill to have his DMs on Tinder. Chris, here's the thing. How do we get more in touch with our inner being, like what people stand for, their intelligence, all that? That's the most important thing, and yet we are missing the mark in so many ways. Well, you know, it's that vote thing. I hear if you show up and vote. Do a lot of Canadians show up to vote here? Only half the people or a third of the people show up to vote. What's it like in Canada? Does a lot of people show up to vote in Canada? I don't know the latest data. I think it's something that we can improve upon, though. I don't think it's something where we're like 90%. I don't think it's that hard.

We need to improve in getting more people out there. We're like these drunken idiots who've had democracy for several hundred years. You guys have been getting the impression of the queen there for a while. The queen's nice. The queen is pretty amazing. She was nice. Think of what she's actually did. Like, it's kind of like remarkable. I would have loved to have just sat down

and got her drunk and had her tell me stories of what she really thought of all the leaders over the last 50 years. Wouldn't that be fun? And just like, just get her to just let loose.

Like, you know, George Bush was up and you're like, Holy crap. It's the queen. I would just love to have had that conversation. I probably never would have that conversation with her, but just see her let loose and tell you,

tell her stories about Churchill and big Churchill fan, so I'd have been like, what was Churchill like, man? Was he really cool? She'd probably be like, he was an asshole. Anyway, I don't know. But wonderful things here. Now we're into like a whole subject of voting in Canada and whatever the hell's going on up there.

But Canada's a lovely place. I mean, I feel like we should be getting an ad in here for the Canada Tourist Society or something. I have to hit them up to buy ads on the show. So anyway, thank you, Catherine, for being on the show. We really appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me, Chris. You've been a lot of fun to be with for the last while.

A lot of fun. And you're the only woman who ever says that to me in all my years of relationships. So thank you very much, too, as well. CatherineGussier.com, so people can find you on the interwebs. AwakenCompany.com, CatherineArbel.com, and Awakenly.app is the app, which we didn't really get to talk about today. Oh, well, let's give that a little plug. Is there.com? I think we pointed at the beginning of the show.

Yeah, it's Awakenly. it's a it's basically to help people awaken their inner muse so how to be present with daily reminders with morning mantras with centenary activities and we just started so it's kind of in beta so check us out it's like 2.99 a month and we would love your input feedback let us know what you think about it. Cause we're going to create a lot from there. There you go. I've got a plug too. If you want an awakening service, you can pay me to come over your house and slap you silly.

It's called the bitch. And yeah, most coaching services that way. Anyway, aren't they really? Anyway, we love working with businesses to bring back humanity, not with the slap. Maybe that should be my tagline.

I mean, a good human slap. Bring back humanity, not with the slap. Good slap across the face. I don't know. My judge says I can't do that anymore either. Yeah, not with the slap. Just with a lot of holding. We tested it in public at mallss and it didn't go over well.

She is the author of the amazing new paperback that's coming out November 29th, 2022, The Awakened Company. Catherine Arbel has been on the show with us. This has been a really fun show, so if you're catching this anywhere in the middle, and of course at this point you'll be catching it at the end, go watch the show.

We did a lot of jokes on the show. It was very funny and delightful and wonderful to have Catherine on. Thank you for coming on again, Catherine. Thank you so much, Chris. There you go. Thanks a lot for tuning in. Go to Goodreads.com, Fortuness, Chris Voss. See everything we're reading and reviewing over there. Go to YouTube.com, Fortuness, Chris Voss. Go see us

over there on that LinkedIn, man. There's a 103,000 group over there. There's a LinkedIn newsletter. There's LinkedIn The Chris Voss Show group you can join and listen to over there. It's like all sorts of LinkedIn stuff going on and we're trying to make the tick tock work. So check us out over there. Thanks for tuning in.

Be good to each other. Stay safe, especially your Canadian friends. Be good to each other and we'll see you guys next time. Thank you.