Nowadays, companies are filled with overachievers. We see ambitious, passionate, and well-meaning people who turn the work environment into a super productive space. This infectious atmosphere encourages people to push themselves, improve, and grow constantly. While this work ethic propels companies to achieve extraordinary levels of profit and productivity, some workers pay a high price in the form of exhaustion, frustration, depression, or even burnout.

In this episode, speaker, writer, facilitator, and coach, Connor Swenson, enlightens all of us by answering today’s question, how can you practice mindful productivity? Connor has a deep commitment to helping us rethink our definition of productivity to create happier and healthier organizations. In his 7 years of experience as a Googler, Connor taught internal programs on productivity, mindfulness, and emotional intelligence, including the highly regarded Search Inside Yourself course. Connor now shares that knowledge with businesses and entrepreneurs around the world.

We talked about mindful productivity and how it can help people in their workspace and personal lives. Connor shared some techniques we can add immediately to our routines to have outstanding results in both the short and long term. We also talked about a manager’s role in helping their employees to have healthy experiences at work.

To learn more, tune in to Episode 12 of The Right Questions!

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

• The prize we get and the price we pay when we say yes to everything that falls in our laps (6:58)
• The VUCA world we live in. Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (13:50)
• Starting with ourselves when looking for a change (21:32)
• Mindfulness, productivity, and how can we combine both concepts (25:57)
• Making time for what is really important, putting time aside to do it, and protect it (28:38)
• The rule of the thirds. Accepting and embracing every moment in our daily routine (41:39)

Resources:
Connor Swenson: https://www.connorswenson.com/
Connor’s newsletter – One Percent Wisdom: connorswenson.com/newsletter

Book: John Zeratsky, Jake Knapp – Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day: https://www.amazon.com/Make-Time-Focu…
Book: Alexi Pappas – Bravey: Chasing Dreams, Befriending Pain, and Other Big Ideas: https://www.amazon.com/Bravey-Chasing…

*This video of episode 11 is audio only. Check out all the rest of our episodes to see the Zoom recording as well.*

Change is not only a constant in our lives, it also tends to be charged with all kinds of emotions. Nearly all change can be unsettling at times. This mixed bag of emotions can be difficult to navigate and overcome. The challenge becomes even greater when we experience negative changes, or changes caused by an unexpected adverse event. What makes it so hard is the feeling of loss that comes with change and the fear of losing friends, access to places, moments, and the list goes on.

In today’s episode, we explore how to build change resilience. We propose looking at ourselves and evaluating what changes affected us recently and how we managed our response to these life shifts. We’ll also talk about Bill Bridges’ fantastic tool, The Transition Model, and how it can help us be resilient in change. Using this tool, we’ll identify which one of the three stages of change we are in, giving us more clarity on what we can do now and what to expect in the future.

To learn more, tune in to Episode 11 of The Right Questions! In This Episode, You Will Learn:

• How to react to a world that seems to be going back to normal (3:02)
• the value of taking time to look at the recent changes we have faced (4:24)
• Bill Bridges’ transition model (7:49)
• The sense of loss attached to change (10:53)
• The importance of getting some perspective by looking at ourselves and our issues from a certain distance (18:23)
• Our challenge to you (24:44)

Whether we’re stuck in the 9-5 grind or hustling in entrepreneurship, how often do we ask ourselves, “Why do I do what I do, and what would happen if I didn’t do it?”

Joining us today is Quan Gan, Founder and Owner of Gantom Lighting & Controls, as well as Creator and Chief Engineer of ZTAG. You would never guess that Quan started out as a haunted house actor! He got hooked, abandoned his corporate job and made a leap of faith. He leaned on his robotics background, his experience with haunted houses, and his wife’s design expertise to create Shanghai Nightmare, China’s first Halloween Haunted Attraction! This was Quan’s first step into the world of entrepreneurship.

Quan is a visionary entrepreneur who approaches his projects from a customer experience perspective, enhancing his ability to understand and solve problems. His current social-entrepreneurial venture, ZTAG, is a real-life game designed to take kids into the playground, away from their devices. He feels the need to nurture children’s physical, social, and mental health in a world that gets more digital every day.

In this episode, Quan will help us answer today’s question, why do I work myself to death? We talk about his life experience and what questions led him to decide to start his own business and deal with the cultural and family mandates against his decision. We also spoke about his experience in the corporate world, why he decided to quit, his identity crisis when he first moved to the US, and his commitment to working on his own personal growth.

To learn more, tune in to Episode 10 of The Right Questions!

Some Questions We Ask:

• Can you tell us just a little bit about what launched you into what you do today? (5:01)
• What was the question that made you take the massive risk of departing from what you had known and gave you the courage to change your life? (9:58)
• Are profound personal growth and transcending materialism to do something much bigger, deeper and spiritually aligned, important to you? (19:12)
• This idea of being a workaholic leads to a poor balance with the things that are important in our lives. What did this knowledge do to you? Did it release you? (21:39)
• What would you say to folks who feel compelled by what you’re sharing but maybe feel stuck? (25:45)

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

• Quan’s first wake up moment (6:21)
• Asking ourselves what makes us really happy (10:24)
• The importance of achieving internal goals (15:40)
• Focus on the present and stop thinking about the next goal (22:30)
• The how and what won’t let us think about the why (26:03)
• Why we must put hours into working on ourselves (30:59)

Resources:
Book: Don Richard Riso & Russ Hudson – The Wisdom of The Enneagram
ZTAG website: https://ztag.com/
Gantom Lighting & Controls website: https://www.gantom.com/

There must be as many theories about the secrets to lasting love as there are couples in the world. But we’re all different, what works for some might not work for others. Still, couples who’ve stood the test of time know there are some fundamental principles that increase the likelihood of a stable and enduring love story.

In this episode, we chat with Neal Thornhill, owner of Thornhill & Associates Inc. – a company that handles claims investigations for insurance companies – and who also happens to be Bridget’s spouse. We do our best to answer the perplexing question, What Makes Love Last? by exploring some of the behaviors and secrets that have helped Neal and Bridget’s 31+ year relationship thrive. We bring to light the importance of avoiding dependency, how working on ourselves enhances the relationship, some healthy rituals we have adopted, how we manage differences in parenting styles, and much more.

To learn more, tune in to Episode 9 of The Right Questions!

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

• Two versions of the same story – how Neal and Bridget met (2:31)
• Perseverance and hard work goes a long way (12:53)
• Asking ourselves if we did everything possible to make it work (14:30)
• Turning unrealistic expectations into fulfilling our own needs (17:31)
• Depend on each other without generating dependency (18:01)
• The full tank analogy (19:56)
• How having rituals as a couple can help (23:59)

At the moment, we’re all juggling between working at home and making sure our kids get the best out of distance learning – and it’s definitely not an easy job to do. We weren’t prepared for something like this, and some adjusted faster, but many of us are still trying to find that most-desired balance.

If you’re in the second category, give yourself some grace. Have patience. And change your deeply ingrained habits little by little.

In today’s episode, we talk with the show’s first guest, Jana Parker, about the new normality all of us are navigating, that forces us to combine our professional and personal lives. She is a Licensed Education Specialist who helps students transition from high school to college and from college to the adult world. We talked about how to be the parents we want to be, the best way to change what we don’t like about us, and the consequences of not making those changes.

To learn more, tune in to Episode 8 of The Right Questions!

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

• The effects distance learning has on our kids (7:05)
• What kind of parent do I want to be? (9:30)
• Self-control is easier when we can see the consequences at the other end (13:25)
• Changing little by little is the right way to reach our desired self (14:50)
• Picking the right thing to change about us (21:00)
• Embodying the traits of the person we want to be (26:40)

Where does confidence come from? Does it stem from being showered with praise and compliments? Or is it something that’s deeply rooted in each of us?

Well, good news, friends! Confidence doesn’t depend on external factors… it is developed and nurtured in the mind and comes from the beliefs you have about yourself! That means we can work on building it, like any muscle. And, if an eight-year-old can do it (yes, we have a very young surprise guest for you today), then you too can step out of your comfort zone, and into your courage arena.

Today, we answer important questions about confidence: where it comes from, how we can boost it, its connection to courage, and why accomplished people don’t always appear confident. We also talk about public speaking confidence and what we can find on the other side of facing our fears.

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

• Question of the Day – How can I be more confident? (1:56)
• Where does confidence come from? (3:31)
• Core values and confidence, how are they related? (6:12)
• The man [person] in the arena analogy (8:57)
• The step from the comfort zone into the courage zone (16:00)
• Why and how to retrain the primitive part of the brain (20:20)
• Unboxing our fears of public speaking (31:30)

In today’s episode, we will be breaking down our personal goals for the new year, and share why having clear, action-oriented visions are so beneficial for our personal and professional growth. We’ll also be discussing the concept of shared visions, particularly in business, and how it impacts those within an organization.

To learn more, tune in to Episode 6 of The Right Questions!

In This Episode You Will Learn:

• Question of the Day — What is a vision and why do I need one? (0:49)
• Our definition of what a vision consists of (3:17)
• Company mission statements we’ve resonated with (6:29)
• Why having a clear and succinct vision is so beneficial (10:10)
• The professional impact that having a shared vision creates (16:01)
• Our personal aspirations for the future (21:45)

We know you’re bombarded with messages reminding you to ‘be in the moment.’ We also know that it’s a lot easier said than done! In our hyper-connected and fast-paced world, many of us are operating on auto-pilot and running on fumes… feeling the need to constantly do, do, do, and then ‘do’ more, with no time left to just… ‘be.’ You know, to just ‘be’ with your partner, your kids, your pets, your food, your hike, your work, your hobbies, even… yourself! This exhausting rhythm isn’t sustainable in the long run, and you know it!

Today’s episode invites you to intentionally carve out the time and space necessary for you to unplug, recharge, and gain some perspective on what’s most important. In other words, making time to reconnect with ‘being!’ Join Todd and Bridget as they talk about their own struggles with doing vs. being and the lessons they’ve learned over the years about how to find balance in this tension. They also offer some helpful, concrete tips on how you can integrate mindful practices into your daily routine.

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”

And so does every success in life! No matter how big or small our goals are, the only way to accomplish them is by advancing one step at a time, while creating the proper habits for ourselves that can ensure we don’t stop walking!

After reading Stephen Guise’s bestseller, Mini Habits, we were inspired to explore the concept further and hopefully pique your interest in how you can start to build a mini habit of your own! In this episode, we give our perspectives on how we’ve approached habit-building both as parents and in our personal lives, as well as share our advice on how to commit to a routine once you’ve set out to create it.

If you’re interested in learning more, then have a listen to Episode 4 of The Right Questions!

In This Episode You Will Learn:

• Question of the Day: What mini habit can I implement today to get me big results? (2:25)
• Why reading Mini Habits brought Todd back to a memorable childhood lesson (4:56)
• Our experience with neuroplasticity, goal setting, and habit building (8:37)
• How we’ve implemented healthy routines in our children over the years (14:33)
• What to do after committing to your mini habit (19:19)
• Todd’s advice on breaking down your habits into smaller steps (23:45)
• The current mini habit Bridget is working on (26:59)

We’re all about asking the right questions here, which requires self-reflection and ongoing re-evaluation of our own rules: rules for others and rules for ourselves. In this episode, Todd interviews Bridget on tips for managing expectations and the concept of ‘the manual.’ As a business leader and graduate of Brooke Castillo’s Life Coach School Certification Program, Bridget has harnessed these teachings in her own relationships and as a coach.

It may be a challenging road for some, but with the right mindset and attitude, we can shift our perspective and maintain control of our emotional wellbeing. Bridget shares personal stories about her own manuals, the value of letting them go, and how to adjust expectations to a reasonable level.

If you’re interested in hearing more, tune in to Episode 3 of The Right Questions!

• Questions asked: What could someone’s ‘manual’ potentially look or sound like? (5:45)
• Do you think we need to let go of our expectations of other people? (7:41)
• What does having expectations of others mean for you as a parent and leader? (14:27)
• How can I stop ‘shoulding’ on the people in my life? (20:36)

In This Episode You Will Learn: Question of the Day

• How can I stop ‘shoulding’ on others and on myself? (1:58)
• The concept of ‘the manual’ (2:35)
• Why reframing a situation teaches us to set reasonable expectations and control our emotional responses (8:51)
• How to free ourselves from the rigidity of our manuals & Why we need to control our expectations of others (17:09)

This year’s US election has been an important one, to say the least.

The last four years have been wrought with such overwhelming division, it almost feels impossible to think we will collectively reach a sense of common ground. In this episode, we will be sharing some of the ways we will be aiming to achieve unity after such a rigorous and stressful election period, why it’s important for us to understand one another in this current political climate, and how we can best manage our own emotions when engaging in passionate conversations.

Creating balanced, healthy, and respectful discourse is so crucial right now. It won’t be easy to achieve by any means, but with the right approach and an open-minded attitude, we’ll be able to make the first steps to unifying our communities.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• How we’re feeling about this year’s US election (1:10)
• Question of the day – How can I be a force for unity, post-election? (3:28)
• How Bridget is going to strive to understand those who hold vehemently different opinions than her (4:55)
• Why managing our own emotions and opinions is sometimes necessary (9:08)
• Todd’s perspective on creating a dialogue between those with differing points of view (13:02)
• How Todd is aiming to be a force for unity (18:08)
• Our thoughts on Kathryn Schulz’s TED Talk & Why Bridget believes in the hope and possibility of understanding (22:34)

The most powerful questions generate the most positive results. Supercharge your growth & success in relationships, career, health, & so much more. Join transformational coaches Todd & Bridget for a thought-provoking weekly dose of real talk, compelling stories, chats with thought leaders, & strategies for taking inspired action.