The Daily Gratitude Minute

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. My name is Scott Colby. From Say It With Gratitude, it is just a few days before Christmas. I know a lot of times this time of year we're getting together with family and sometimes we don't get along with family members. Maybe we haven't spoken to them, uh, in a little while, and it may be difficult to kind of face them in person. And sometimes you have to be the one. Kind of starts the conversation. So what I would just kind of encourage you to think about is that you never know when. is when will be the last time you have the opportunity to speak to that person. Um, and I know a lot of times looking back, we have regrets about things. Maybe we didn't get to say something that we would like to say to the person or tell them how much we love them. So again, I know it's difficult to sometimes resolve conflicts and start that conversation. Oftentimes we want them. Start the conversation. Uh, and so this has been one of the most difficult things for me too. So how do you, how do you start the conversation with somebody when you think you're in the right and they're in the wrong? And that's our ego talking. Um, so I'm still working on this personally. I know it's not easy, but I would just encourage you to think like, Hey, this may be the last time. You get to speak to that person. You never know. Um, if you're not ready to face them and have a conversation. Uh, and this doesn't have to be during the holiday season. I'm just bringing that up because we are close to Christmas, but this can happen anytime of the year. I would encourage you to try this step instead, if this resonates with you more, uh, write down three things that you like about the person. So even if you're having a conflict, even if you've had arguments and you don't see eye to. , there are some things that you love and appreciate about the other person, especially if they're family members. So write down three three's just kind of arbitrary. Maybe there's more, maybe there's less. But think about what you love, what you appreciate about that person. Write that down. And remember the good in the other person that could help you kinda maybe get the ball rolling to resolve a conflict that you and the other person has had. So anyway, this a little bit deeper of a daily gratitude minute, but I know during holiday season it's challenging for a lot of us. I just wanted to bring this topic up. Hope this helps you. If you have any questions, you can always email me, Scott Scott Colby dot. I'm Scott Colby with the Daily Gratitude Minute, and I hope you have an amazing day.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. My name is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. My tip for you today and my encouragement is to show appreciation to local businesses. You know, running a small business is not easy, especially in this day and age. There's lots of businesses popping up both online and brick and mortar, but I want you to consider showing some appreciation for a local business that you do. Business with, you know, so one that comes to my mind is my veterinarian. I take my cat Mia in to see her, uh, any ti anywhere between once a month and once every three months. So here are a few ways you can show appreciation to your local business. So perfect examples. Just writing a handwritten thank you note. That's an easy one to do, but not. Businesses receive notes from their patients or their clients or their customers. I know I recently wrote my vet a handwritten note. She thanked me for it the next time I went in there, uh, for an appointment for my cat. So they really appreciate it if they're acknowledged, if a local business is acknowledged for their hard work that makes their day. Another thing that you could do is just post about them on social media and tag them. So I'll often take a picture with my cat being treated by the vet and I'll post it on Facebook and I'll give them a lot of love that shows that you care about them as well, and it gives that business some exposure. And then finally, another thing that you could do is to write a five star review. Businesses thrive on reviews because let's face it, when we, as the customer or their patient are looking for, Uh, a new service, like a new mechanic, a new coffee shop, a new restaurant, a new veterinarian. We read reviews and a lot of times we make our buying decisions based on reviews. So show your local businesses love. Leave a five star review. It'll make their day. So there you have it. Just a few ways to show appreciation to your local business. Go out and take my advice. Hope you, uh, actually do that. Uh, if you want some other tips on how to live in gratitude and how to actually run a business by using gratitude to build relationships. I've got a really cool toolkit, uh, gratitude toolkit.com, lots of different tips and strategies that you could do to better your life and to better your professional career. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. My name is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. I wanted to share with you one of my other interests besides gratitude, and that's hiking. You may not know it, but I'm a hiking guide. I'm also a fitness professional, fitness coach. I help people get in shape. Now, if you think about it, hiking has very similar benefits to gratitude. They both can help your mental wellbeing, and so I love helping people get out in nature and going for a hike. I think it can do a lot for you, not only physically but mentally. Just like I mentioned, I take groups out on hikes. One of my goals in the next year is to help more people get out in nature and hike. I've got a couple things. Uh, on the horizon. Some have already gotten started that I just wanted to share with you. I've got a YouTube channel called the grateful hiker.com, the grateful hiker.com. It's got a few different things, some videos on how to get in shape for hiking. I'll be doing a lot more of those in the upcoming years. It's got some hiking tips and some even, uh, just kind of like vlog style videos of me going on a hike here in the Smoky Mountains, which is near where I live. . And then the other thing that I have going on for next year is helping people get in shape to hike. So if you go to the website, SOFA to summit, S O F A T O S U M M I T, sofa, two summit.com, I've got some free leg exercises and leg workout. that you can download. Uh, and once you download those, you'll be on my email list to get more emails on getting in shape to, to climb mountains and to go for hikes. So I wanted to just offer that to you if you want to, if you're interested in, in getting in shape. And you, your summit doesn't have to be the top of a mountain. uh, it certainly is not everybody's cup of tea. Maybe your summit is you want to be able to walk to, to the end of the driveway, walk around the block, or be able to play with your kids or grandkids. That could be your summit. These exercises and workout will get you in shape for whatever your summit is. I'm designing. In my head to get people in shape to hike a mountain. But again, everybody's mountain is different. So go to sofa to summit.com and download those. And one of my goals coming up in the next couple of weeks is to put together a free 30 day sofa to Summit challenge, a free 30 day sofa to summit challenge, which will be a daily. kind of work out for you to do over the next 30 days. There's gonna be some rest and kind of recovery days, so don't worry you're not gonna do 30 days of intense working out. But if you desire to get in shape, uh, for either a real mountain or just, uh, whatever your summit is. Um, again, go to sofa to summit.com, download the free workouts that I have available now, and then you're gonna be put on the list to get notified when that 30 day challenge will begin. So hope that helps you. Um, if you have any questions, of course, you can email me, Scott Scott colby.com. . I am Scott Colby with Say It With the Gratitude, and this has been your daily gratitude minute. Thank you so much for listening. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. My name is Scott Colby. From Say It With Gratitude. You know, as we wind down the year, it is, uh, almost the end of 2022, as I record this and a lot of people are spending the holidays with friends and family members, I thought about like, how can we approach the end of the year with positivity in our heads instead of. Remembering maybe the bad that came your way this year. So I took five questions from the Grateful Deck and. I want to tell you what these questions are in hopes that you maybe use one or all of these questions during your family dinners, uh, during the holidays. I think these are great questions to wrap up the year as a way to reflect the good in our lives. In this year before we turn the calendar into, into the next year. So, uh, first question, and again, this is, I'm recording this at the end of 2022. So what was your favorite memory of 2022 or just what was your favorite memory this year? Second question. What are you grateful for today that you didn't have until this year? Number three, tell me about a challenge you had this year and a positive that you took away. . Number four, what is the kindest thing somebody did for you this year? And number five, what excites you about life right now? So imagine reflecting on the good that came your way this year instead of focusing on the bad. Hope this helps. Now again, this comes from the Grateful Deck, which is my card game of 120 questions just like you. that stimulate meaningful conversations. You can buy the actual physical copy of the deck over at my website. Say it with gratitude.com. Say it with gratitude.com. If you just want the downloadable version, it is free. You can download it over@gratitudetoolkit.com. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. We are less than a week from Christmas. It's a time of year that is very joyful for many people. But I also wanna remind you that it is a challenging time of year for a lot of us, and so it's. Reminder that we all experience this time of year differently. For some people, it's a time of joy getting together with friends and family. For other people, it's a stressful time. Uh, it's a time that we may be grieving, maybe suffering loss, maybe depressed, sad, anxious, whatever the case may be. Not everybody experiences the holidays the same, so just wanted to remind you to be. Uh, I guess extra kind this holiday season. Give people grace, uh, acknowledge them, make people feel good. Um, it's a great time of year to. So appreciation to people in your life that are meaningful to you. Make people smile, uh, because again, for many of us, we, uh, are looking for reasons to smile during the holidays, and we don't have that. So if you can go out every your way. And make somebody feel good this holiday season, why not do that? I'm Scott Colby from Saint With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby from Saint With Gratitude. It is middle of December. Just wanted to express appreciation for this time of year. I know this time of year is challenging for some people. Um, and I, I love this time of year as a chance to reflect on my life, but also, , see what direction I want ahead in the, in the coming year. So I usually take a couple weeks starting now to just see where I want my business and my personal life to go in the coming year. Not do too much work, actually do a lot of journaling, a lot of reflecting, a lot of brainstorming and thinking and getting together. With other people that are meaningful in my life. And, uh, it's just a chance to, Hey, how can we start fresh for the next year and really design our life the way we want? So I just want to express appreciation for this time of year. I love it. What do you like about December as you head into the new year? Would love to hear from you. Feel free to email me@scottscottcolby.com. Otherwise, thank you so much for listening. I'll see you next time.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude today. December 17th is a special day. It's my best friend, Lori's birthday. Happy birthday Lori. Hope you have a wonderful day. Just want to say a few, kind words about Lori. You know, we've been friends for, a better part of 10 years, a little bit over 10 years now. And she's. Probably the most loyal friend I've ever had. She's an amazing woman. She just cares about all of humanity. She's somebody who's dependable, somebody who is courageous, somebody that you can count on. She's somebody that speaks up for what she believes in and believes in in. and, just you couldn't ask for a better friend. So I am just really grateful to have her in my life. She's helped me tremendously professionally, but even better, she's helped me personally be a better human. And for that, I thank you, Lori. Again, happy birthday. Hope it's a wonderful. And cheers to many more years of friendship together. I'm Scott Colby with Say With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. Yesterday I delivered a virtual gratitude workshop to a company and we were talking about connection in the workplace. One statistic says that 61% of employees are lonely and underperforming. And I think it's important to note that loneliness is not the absence of people. It's the absence of connection. So if you think about it, you know, you could be married, you could have children, and you could be lonely if there's not meaningful connection between you and your family members. You could work for a company where you work closely with a group of people. It could be up, you know, over a hundred people, and you can still feel lonely if there's an absence of meaningful connect. So whether we're talking about the workplace or we're talking about your home, loneliness has become a problem. I think it's gotten worse during the pandemic, and it doesn't matter if you are surrounded by people, if there's no connection there. So I really want you to take this message to heart. How do you create meaningful connections? One way, which I've talked about a lot, is to ask meaningful questions. , and that's one of the reasons I created the Grateful Deck so that we could start having deeper conversations and we need to create that space and invite. People to share what they are feeling. A lot of times at work, we don't share our feelings. We check our emotions at the door when we get to work, right? And we can have all these feelings of depression, overwhelm, stress, and anxiety, and our coworkers may never even know that if that's the case, that person that has all those emotions is gonna feel lonely. They're not gonna do a very good job. They're not gonna feel good. and that's gonna cost the company money. So think about how you can create a deeper connection at work. If you go to gratitude toolkit.com, gratitude toolkit.com, you can download all 120 questions from the Grateful Deck and start using it at work or even at home, and create these closer bonds. Team members so that they feel like they belong and that they're heard and that you acknowledge them. So hope that helps. Go to gratitude toolkit.com, download the questions. If I can help in any way, send me an email, Scott Scott colby.com. This has been the Daily Gratitude Minute. Thank you so much for listening. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. My name is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. . Yesterday I was in a virtual meeting and we were playing a few rounds of the Grateful Deck, which is my card deck with 120 questions to start meaningful conversations. We each took a turn to answer a question, and the question I got was, Tell me about one of your happiest moments. So, I love this question because it reminds us of the good in our lives, and, and we can recall a memory that we had that perhaps put a smile on my face. So my answer to this question was back in 2003, it was the day after the 4th of July. , that's when I adopted my cat's, Nomar and Mia. Now, Nomar is no longer with us. He passed away at the, uh, in, um, August of 2019, right before I moved to Tennessee. But back in 2003, I was living in Dallas at the time. I had never owned a pet before, but I knew, um, from my, uh, had a relationship with a girl. got a cat and I loved that cat, so I figured, hey, one day I'll get a cat. And so my sister was visiting me in Dallas and we went to the mall to do some clothes shopping and the S P C A was there, and you know, when. There's S P C A A rescue. I love to just look, you know, I'll look at the cats and the kittens and the dogs and the puppies. Well, sure enough, I picked up one of the cats. I forget which kitten I picked up first. Uh, and I was talking it over with my sister and. Before you knew it, I had decided to adopt a kitten. And Jill, my sister, had suggested that I think about getting two. She had had a cat at the time, uh, just one cat and she always kind of wished she had had two cats because whenever she left town, her cat was alone and she felt bad and would have liked for her cat to have the company of another. So I actually ended up going clothes shopping at the mall as my intention. And I came home that day with two kittens, uh, Nomar and Mia and uh, Mia, who is still around. She will be 20 in April. Uh, both of those cats have put a lot of smiles on my faces, brings a lot of joy to my heart, and I just really have. Memories of the day. I adopted both of them. They were really young, so they weren't from the same litter, but they were from, from the same rescue about two weeks apart. So we kind of pegged Mia's birthday as April 10th, 20 or 2003, and Nomar as April 27th, which is also my birthday, 2003. So he was just slightly younger and uh, just got, I've gotten to experience the. Of being a pet owner for the last 19 and a half years. Those of you who have a dog or a cat or uh, any pet, you know what I'm talking about, they. Bring a lot of happiness and joy to our lives. One quick thing before I sign off, so this was a question from the Grateful Deck. I encourage you perhaps to take that question and get a group of people. Maybe it's your family on Christmas morning. Maybe you have a group of friends or even at work to start a meeting. You can. Learn a lot about some, somebody that you may not know by just answering that specific question. If you want to download all 120 questions, I've got a, of course you could buy the physical version, but if you want this for free, I've got the downloadable version. You can go to gratitude toolkit.com. Gratitude toolkit.com. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this has been your daily gratitude minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. I had a conversation with my friend Terry yesterday. Now Terry just moved from Colorado to England. He runs running camps, uh, at least he did in Colorado. And we had partnered, uh, doing some adventure trips where we would lead groups of people doing. Various adventure activities, including hiking. He was asking me how my hiking business and speaking business was going, and I said one of my goals is to lead companies, you know, teams in organizations to come together and get outta their comfort zone and climb a mountain together. And I told Terry, you know, imagine some people sit in the same uh, office and maybe next to each. For 3, 4, 5 years, and they don't really know the people that they work with on a personal level. And I hypothesized to Terry that I bet after bringing a team together and climbing a mountain, let's say it takes five to eight hours, that that team would know each other better, more intimately than potentially. working together, sitting next to each other over the last three to five years. Now this is hypothetical. Some organizations do a really good job, uh, integrating their teams and getting to know each other on a deeper level. But for many companies, you go into work, you put your head down, you do your job, you don't really. Personal or meaningful conversations with your coworkers. You're just all about business. And the research shows that that isn't the most effective way to build a team. So when you get outside of your comfort zone and get out and do something like climb a mountain, you can foster better communication, improved creative thinking, improved critical thinking. the ability to resolve conflicts better and our overall stronger team oriented foundation. So that's one of my goals in 2023 is to put together hiking programs like these for organizations. If this is something that you. And your company may be interested in at least exploring, we could chat about it. Just send me an email@scottscottcolby.com. Would love to have a conversation on what this might look like for you. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this is Ben, the daily gratitude minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. Okay. Today's gratitude tip. This is for businesses, especially if you have an actual store location or it can set up outta market, and that's to offer free goodies. Um, so what I mean by this, I'll just give you a couple examples. Trader Joe's, uh, which is a grocery store chain, they always have complimentary coffee in the front of the store. This freebie lets the store showcase different types of coffee that they carry, and meanwhile, shoppers get a chance to try before they buy and have a warming cup of Joe while browsing the aisles. Or it's just a way to show gratitude towards. Customers offer something for free like coffee. I know in uh, Denver, when I lived in Denver, there was a cookie company called Marsha's. Cookies and they were always at farmer's markets and they would set up, uh, their table and have free samples of cookies. I would try the samples and then I would buy the cookies. So not only was it goodwill given away free samples of cookies, but at actually increased, I would imagine an increased sales as well, at least for me. Uh, and then this past weekend I was at a holiday market in Johnson City, up in northeast t. , same thing. There was a, a booth that sold some pretty good quality chocolate, uh, like different types of chocolate bark. I actually sampled their dark chocolate peppermint bark and I was hooked and bought a package of that. So when you can give away samples, um, you can increase sales or increase, uh, the time that. Customers are in your store shopping and it just creates a goodwill, good conversation starter as well. One last thing. So this was tip number nine in my book, the Grateful Entrepreneur. If you want a free downloadable copy of the Grateful Entrepreneur, you can go to this website, gratitude toolkit.com. Gratitude toolkit.com. I will send you a free sample of the book, excuse me, a free download of the book, not a sample. The entire book as well as some other gratitude goodies. So just go to gratitude toolkit.com and you can download it. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. My name is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude The other day I mentioned that a friend and colleague of mine interviewed me to express appreciation. About another friend and colleague of ours in the fitness industry, just how awesome a person she is. So I said some really nice words about her and my friend who did the interview. He's interviewing a bunch of people, he's editing it and putting together a nice video montage to gift our mutual friend. I want to point out, there's actually a service that can do this as well. So if you're interested in doing something like this in your business to express appreciation to somebody, could be a client, could be a coworker, it could be anything. There's a service called tribute and you can find it over@tribute.co. And it makes it simple to create a group video gift that you can give on any important occasion. . Once you start a video project with Tribute, they'll give you a link that you can send to the people that you want to have in the video. They can record just some nice words, and then tribute, the software will put together the montage. It's a really awesome service. I've used it, uh, when my sister, she used to work for me and my business, uh, when she left, and this was when I was doing my video, uh, my fitness coaching program. when she left and, and was no longer working for me anymore, I put together a video montage using tribute. Had a lot of my fit for photos members, say some nice words about my sister Jill. And it was just a cool way to express appreciation to her for the work that she had done, uh, while working, uh, with my company. So again, tribute.co. If you want to put together a video montage. For somebody expressing some nice words about them, I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. My name is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. I was talking to a friend of mine on the phone the other day and he needed some advice on sending handwritten notes and buying gifts for. Some of his clients and customers now, he had read my book, the Grateful Entrepreneur, which has some tips talking about this, but he couldn't remember what I had said, so I gave him a few pieces of advice that I wanted to share with you. Number one, when it comes to writing handwritten notes, he was curious, is it okay to put business cards in there? And I. You don't do that. Um, that signals that you're writing a handwritten note, almost like you're trying to get more business. When you put in your business card in there, make it a completely personal, um, relationship and appreciation. So leave the business card out. I wouldn't put it in there. Make it like you're writing a handwritten note to a friend if you're writing. A handwritten note to a friend or even a family member, you would not put a business card in there, so don't do that for your clients and customers as well. Okay, so when it comes to gifts, what makes a good gift and what PO possibly could make a bad gift? Well, despite that, this being a very popular gift, food items and wine. That sometimes, uh, could be a red flag. And here's why. Let's say you get a bottle of wine as a gift to one of your clients, and I certainly have, so I'm not, uh, saying that I've never done this. But what if they are a recovering alcoholic and you don't know that? Tour. What if you give them a gift of like cookies and they're gluten free because they have a gluten allergy? So I got this tip, actually I didn't make this up from, uh, John Roland who wrote the book, Giftology. So highly recommend you read that book. And he suggests don't get gifts that are consumables where you're drinking wine or uh, excuse me, where you're gifting wine or possibly a food item because you just don't know. What the person's situation is in terms of allergies or, or being, um, uh, off of alcohol. number two, and again, this, I got this from John Roland. Uh, he suggests you don't put your business logo on the gift. And I know a lot of people do this, and this, again, is really a promotional item if you do that. And that's not really a personal heartfelt gift. He gave kind of an extreme but funny example, like if you were giving a gift of. Towels, uh, to a bride and groom at a wedding, you would not put your logo on the towels, right? You would put, uh, possibly have their names inscribed on the towels. So when you are doing a gift for a client and customers don't put your logo on it and maybe even go as far as. If, depending on what the gift is, scripting their name on the gift, that shows a really nice personal touch. Um, also make it more heartfelt by learning more about your customer and clients and what their, their likes are, what their hobbies are, uh, and also even if you know something about their family members and then gifting them something around that. So, um, imagine. If your client has a cat like I do, and you got them a gift of their cat's face on a pair of socks, somebody gave me, uh, that gift and it was very meaningful. So something like that is gonna have a lot more meaning than just like a Starbucks gift card. So see if you can learn about what their likes are, if they have any pets, if they have any kids, if they have, uh, a spouse, if they're. and possibly get a gift that the whole family can even enjoy in you. So imagine if you have a, a client that's important to you and you got a gift that their spouse and kids love, that's gonna go a long way, uh, in cultivating that relationship with a client. So hope this helps. Uh, again, you can. Find out more about strategies like this in my book, the Grateful Entrepreneur. I sell it on Amazon, but if you want a free copy of the downloadable version, you can go to gratitude toolkit.com. Gratitude toolkit.com, and download it for free. And then the other book that I reference, Giftology by John Ruland. I highly recommend that's a great book in learning how to gift to your clients. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. My name is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. A couple days ago I was asked to participate in a pretty unique project. A friend and colleague of mine, Eric, uh, he asked to interview me just for a few minutes about another friend of mine and a colleague. In the fitness industry, Alicia, and the interview was all about appreciating Alicia, you know, what I, I appreciate about her, how she's helped me over the years, whether in my business or or personal life, and just really reflecting, um, about what the type of person Alicia is and. How she just cares for all of humanity, whether it's humans or animals. And so it allowed me to reflect and say some really nice words about Alicia. So what Eric is doing is he's interviewing a lot of Alicia's colleagues and friends, and even family members. Uh, to express appreciation to her, and he's putting together one big appreciation video that he's going to gift her. So this is a present for Alicia. I thought it's a really cool thing to do, basically, uh, a video montage of everything that we love about Alicia and who she is as a person. So really unique way to express appreciation to somebody to get a bunch of people together and collaborate on this, uh, montage video. Something that you could do to somebody important in your life, whether personally or somebody professionally. What a great way to show a tribute to somebody that you care for. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. I often have people that I'm speaking to, like in at a conference or for an organization, I'll often have the audience members write a thank you card, which is definitely good practice. Right? It's kind of a lost. But the cool thing about writing thank you notes is not only does the recipient benefit, because obviously they're receiving words of praise and and appreciation, but the person that writes the card feels more grateful to, they benefit as well. In fact, science backs it up. When you write a handwritten note, you become happier. There's actually a cool video on YouTube, um, and you can look it up. It's called an Experiment in Gratitude, the Science of Happiness and the study, um, had participants write a thank you note and then call the person that they wrote the note to and read the note to them. And the conclusions from the, um, from the study showed that. when you actually read your note to the recipient, you became even more happier than when you just wrote the note. Uh, so there's actually a deep emotional bond that can connect two people, not only when you write a note to that other person, but when you actually read them, most likely it'll lead to tears. And the study on YouTube, uh, in this video also showed that the person that came into the study. The least happy actually had the biggest jump in happiness. So if you're feeling down or anxious or just stressed writing that thank you note and then reading it to the recipient is gonna do wonders for your mood. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute cheer.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. You know, when I give my keynote to companies and at conferences on creating a happy workplace by increasing human connection and leading with gratitude, I recount my time in Guatemala, specifically when I first arrived in Guatemala and when I had to say my. And the bottom line is when I arrived in Guatemala, they made me feel completely welcome. They, uh, loved us with open arms. By us, I mean, the volunteers and I, they made us feel welcome and like we were a part of their family or part of the community immediately. And then by the end, when it was time to say our goodbyes us volunteers, we didn't want. We had felt, um, so ingrained in their community, we had a lot of fun. We got our work done, and I talked to companies about making your team feel the exact same way. When somebody is new to your company, you can welcome them with open arms and then you want to create a team that doesn't wanna leave. Right? Turnover is the biggest, um, one of the biggest costs that companies. There are lots of turnover, people leaving. You have to train new employees. It's hard to find good, good help sometimes, especially in this day and age. So how can we create an environment that welcomes our team as they come in and makes them not want to say goodbye? That's the ultimate goal. That will save your company a lot of money in the long run. And you could do that several different ways, but two best ways I know of is to increase that human connect. feel, make people feel like they, uh, you know, belong to something. Uh, and also to appreciate your team in a meaningful way. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude. On yesterday's episode, I talked about an online event that I went to Sunday evening called Thank You Live and all about appreciating people in our lives in 2022 and, uh, appreciating the things that we accomplished in 2022 looking. Before we look forward to 2023. Another cool thing that we did, two things. One, we wrote a card or a note to somebody in our lives that made a difference in 2022. And one thing that Blake, the leader of the program, Suggested that we do is that we start our card with a prompt without you. So imagine you're writing an appreciation note to somebody else and you lead off by saying without you. Now, this is something that I teach, uh, companies to do when they're writing handwritten notes to their customers or their team members, or really anybody in their lives. A secret here. I actually stole it from Blake. I learned it last year, and I love that prompt. So without you think about leading off your appreciation notes or your gratitude thank you notes with those words. Without you, what would your life look like without that person? But the other cool thing that we did on Sunday evening, we wrote, Ourselves a thank you note. That's right. We wrote a note to ourselves, appreciating us, thanking us for things that we did in 2022, or maybe ways that we persevered, things that we overcome. So I had never written a handwritten note to myself, and it's great because we often think about the things that we didn't do, but think about writing your. A note in 2022, thanking yourself for certain things that you did or experiences that you went to, or obstacles that you overcome. Hope this helps you, uh, enjoy and have a great end to your 2022 as we look forward into 2023. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute cheer.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. Last night I participated in an online event called Thank You Live, hosted by Blake Fly. His mission is to do this event every year for 55 years. So this was number seven, I believe he does it every December. and there's several things I like about it, but I'm gonna focus on one thing. It's one of the first things we did. Uh, we, he had us reflect on our year, you know, when December comes and it's almost time to turn the calendar into the new year. I know for me personally, I know for many people we focus on what we want to accomplish the following. That is great, but we don't tend to reflect on the things that we're proud of, that we accomplished during the past year. So what Blake had us do was write down every month of the year, of course, January through December, and he had us write down something that we accomplished, something that we are we're proud of for each month, and it could be multiple. So you might be wondering like, Hey, how I can't remember what I did in February. I can't even remember what I had for lunch yesterday. That is true. So Blake gives some hints on how to remember, uh, things. And the thing that worked for me, uh, the best was looking at my pictures. So I just went to my online photo album and Google, and I looked at all my pictures for January. and that reminded me of something that I accomplished. Did the same thing for February, March, April, all the way throughout the year. So that helped me remember all that I had done, and that's not the only way you could do it. He suggested you could also look at your calendar. Um, sometimes that reminds you of what you did, uh, during the year, maybe even social media photos. And look, search for those by month. Um, anyway, so I encourage you to go through this. Reflect on what you did this past year. Celebrate your accomplishments, see what you're proud of, and that'll help you feel good and and focus on what you want your next year to look like. Uh, one last thing before I sign off. I've got some really cool tools to help you live in more gratitude, both, uh, personally and professionally. Uh, you can go to gratitude toolkit.com and download some goodies there. They're all free. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. Recently, I've been working on my mindset and more specifically the language that I use just so I can be more positive day to day. You know, I think our minds tend to be more negative as humans. That's only natural, so it can take some work to think positive thoughts and. That's one way gratitude comes into play that can help you be more positive naturally, but also just watching your language. So I've been looking at my language specifically around money and having a more of a positive mindset. I tend to, you know, when things are expensive in the grocery store or the gas prices rise, then I'll say something like, Hey, this is, this is expensive, or this is crazy. Why is this cost So, and that doesn't do any good, right. That that's a negative money mindset. So in terms of what you can do to have more positive mindset, not specifically towards money, cuz that's something I'm working on personally. It may not be something that you're interested in, but, so just in general, uh, I got this from a book that I've read called Life is Good. So The Life is Good Book, life is Good, is a, is a world renowned brand, but they have a book out and I remember. Chapter on gratitude. They said, replace the words I have to with, I get to. And so I was just thinking about that yesterday, replacing the words like, I have to pay my bills with, I get to pay my bills. Not everybody gets to pay a heating bill, right? If we're homeless or, you know, other circumstances we might not have that, that, uh, going for in our lives. Perhaps we can't afford, uh, a gas bill and we don't have the means to do so. I have the means to do so. So when I think about it, and maybe this is something a takeaway for you, replace the words, have to with, get to and watch, just how that changes your perspective on what's going on in your life. I get to go to my job. I get to pay my bills, I get to buy grocer. That's awesome to be able to, to be able to afford those things and have those means in your life. Just remember, not everybody is as fortunate as us. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. You know, as I recently have been updating my keynote presentation about leading with gratitude to, in order to create a happier workplace, I came across a word that I never heard before. I'm sure it's a made up word, but I liked it and it's, the word is phubber. And so I ask people on my keynote, are you a, are you a Phubber? And it's the combination of the word phone and snubber. It's somebody who ignores a person they're with and gives attention to their cell phone. So we've all probably done it before. We've all probably had it done to us before. It doesn't feel very good. I know I've done it. plenty of times. It's not something I'm proud of. I want to do it less, but just kind of just picture two people at a restaurant sitting down to a meal or having coffee together and one person's talking and the other person is on their phone. That person that's on their phone is a phubber. They're paying more attention to their cell phone and, and giving the impress. that whatever's going on on their cell phone is more important than the person, the human being across from them. And the problem with that, the person that's being phubbed, that's being ignored, feels rejected. They feel excluded, and they feel not important. So I wanna encourage you to practice not being a phubber to put that phone away, or don't even bring it with you when. Having a conversation with another person. When you're connecting with somebody, when you're listening, be present, show them that you care and create that connection. The relationship will deepen and that's a, a sign that you appreciate that person when you listen to what they have to say. So that's my tip for today. Hope that helps. If you want more tips on how to use gratitude in your business, in your personal life, I've got a whole gratitude toolkit. You can go to gratitude. toolkit.com and download all my freebies. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. I'm still in Spokane, Washington as I record this, but headed back, uh, to Tennessee. Uh, this afternoon I, I'll get in about midnight, but I was at a coffee shop here in Spokane that I've been to several times, and a gentleman walked in, um, and he was using a cane, uh, having trouble walking a little. But he said hello to the baristas and they wished him a happy birthday. So he was obviously a regular there. They knew today was his birthday and I just, something little like that saying happy birthday to somebody can make their day. I'm sure it made him feel special. I actually struck up a conversation with him a little bit, uh, for about five minutes. Um, just told him I was, you know, outta town. I wished him a happy birthday since I had over. That today was his special day and he was telling me, um, how he had suffered a stroke but having, having a little bit of trouble speaking and walking, but wished him a wonderful day and weekend. And, uh, I'm hoping he gets hundreds of messages today on his birthday. But something simple that a company can do is wish their customers a happy birthday. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute cheer.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. I recently finished a book called the Mr Thank You Project by John Israel. I've mentioned this book a couple times before and it details John's journey of writing five thank you cards a day for an entire year, and I'm blown away that he was so consistent and completed his mission. And as you could imagine, it sometimes became difficult to think about who he should write the cards to. You know, that's a lot of cards, over a thousand cards to write. So he ended up starting to write some cards to some people he didn't know. And I want to share with you a great example. So John went to. Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, and I'm actually in Spokane right now. I just gave a keynote presentation this morning, so this reminded me of his story. John's a big Gonzaga basketball fan, and in 2017 they lost in the NCAA tournament in the finals. And as you can imagine, John and all Gonzaga fans were completely sad and depressed about the final result. So he said the game ended at about 9:00 PM and he still had his five cards to write for that day. But the last thing he wanted to do, especially because he was feeling so low in the moment, was to write these cards. Well, as John was trying to figure out who to write the cards. , he suddenly had an idea. You see, he thought about the Gonzaga basketball team that year, and yes, they did lose the championship game, but they also went further in the tournament than any other previous time. This was the furthest they had gone in the tournament. . And so in reality, it was a time for celebration, so John flipped his attitude and said, what if we celebrate the year that they had, forget about being depressed, that they lost a championship game? Let's celebrate and give thanks. To going further than any other Gonzaga team had in history. So he, he ended up writing a thank you note to every single player on the team. He looked up their statistics, what were their best games, and he recalled those best games in his card. He wrote to the coaches and he said, Flipping that attitude changed his mood 180 degrees from one of being sad and depressed and down because of that heartbreaking defeat to now one of joy and celebration on what an incredible season the Gonzaga basketball players had given John and all the other fans. So, great message on how you can take something negative and just by changing your. Looking for the good. Turn it, turning it in into something positive. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude as I record this audio, I am in Spokane, Washington here to deliver a keynote talk on gratitude in the workplace at a conference. And I flew in, uh, to Spokane today, and there was a snowy day. And there were some delays not getting into the airport, but actually once we landed, we had to sit on the plane for an hour and 15 minutes because they weren't able to plow yet. And there was another plane at our gate and they couldn't get out. They had to de-ice that plane. So we were delayed getting to the gate. Uh, and it was a little bit frustrating. I mean, I didn't make a big deal out. It, but Delta, the airline I was on sent an email a couple of hours later, which I loved. I was gonna read it to you. It says, hello Scott. We know spending additional time on board your flight after arriving wasn't what you planned today. We encountered a delay getting the aircraft into the gate after landing. This wasn't the experience you wanted to have. We wanted you to have with us, and I'm truly sorry for any inconvenience this may have. I've deposited 5,000 bonus miles into your account. We appreciate your business and this is not intended to put a value on your experience, but as part of our apology for the inconvenience, so I actually love that it was Delta owning up to something they couldn't control cuz it was weather related, but they were just doing something. Treating us passengers as rural human beings and not transactional. So something I talk about a lot and it was really cool for Delta to put that into action. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. My name is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. You know, one of the things I talk about in my keynote is how human connection has gone down quite a bit over the last 10, 20 years. And an example I'll give is the way we used to get music back in like the eighties and the nineties versus the way we get our music now. So let me give an example. When I was growing up again in the eighties and nineties, there was a record store called Tower Records. It was all over the country. They sold CDs, DVDs, videos, and my mom would drop my brother and off there, my brother and I off at the record store for a couple of hours. I would get the latest classic rock CDs that I wanted. My brother would take a few hours to go through every classical music. CD that there was looking for a rare recording of something and it got me thinking. How we used to get music back then is radically different from how we get music now, and we used to have to interact with human beings back then when we were looking for music. So listen to this example, we might ask a friend for an album recommendation. That's human connection point number one. Then we would drive to the record store, like Tower Records where our mom would drive us there. We would ask a store employee if they have it. So that's human connection. Point number two, we would grab the album stand in the checkout line. We might talk to another customer next to us in line about their music taste. That's human connection point number. We'd purchased the album from the store clerk, human connection point number four, and we'd head to a friend's house to enjoy the album. Human connection, point number five. That rarely happens anymore nowadays. How do we get our music? We get our music digitally. We don't have to leave our home. We don't even have to leave our sofa. In fact, we can just say, you know, Alexa, play this song, and our AI device will play whatever song we want them to. Or we go to a Spotify, Pandora, whatever that looks like for you. So in this day and age, human connection has really decreased. Um, and we really have to be conscious about that and be proactive in finding ways, touchpoints, where we can connect to other human beings because that's only going to help us. Cuz as we connect to more humans and have these deep, meaningful relationships, our happiness increase. Hope this helps you. If you have any comments, please don't hesitate to email me@scottscottcolby.com. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. When I work with organizations on gratitude in the workplace and developing more meaningful connections, one activity I have. The groups do is to break up in pairs. So you're with a partner and you're thinking about the one word that describes how you're feeling about life right now, and you're sharing that word with your partner. Then to take it a little bit further, you're thinking about why you chose that. and share that with your partner. So imagine you're in a group of two. You're telling your partner, what word describes how you feel about life right now? It could be anything. It could be a negative word, a positive word. Be truthful and honest and open. So it could be overwhelming or stressed or joyful or anxious or cheerful, whatever word that is. And then open up and explain to your partner why you chose that word. Then your partner does the same. , we do this unplug. So we leave our phones behind or we turn them off so we can give our partner our undivided attention. Imagine what type of connection this brings to you and one of your coworker. You're giving them full attention, so you're very present in the moment. That is a sign of gratitude. Listening shows your partner that you care about them. It deepens a relationship. It shows you that you value what they have to. Many times at work, and this is why we do this activity many times at work, we leave our emotions at the door. We check our emotions at the door. When we step into our office, whether it's a virtual office or a physical building, The problem with that is many times we have things going on in our lives, right? And our coworkers never know how we're feeling, and this can affect our work. If we're dealing with things at home, it can affect our work, but even more so, With our coworkers not even knowing how we're feeling, because we don't bring it into the workplace. We have a sense of loneliness. When we're lonely at work, we're underperforming. We're not in as engaged and think of loneliness as a, a lack of connection. So how do you create more meaningful, deeper connections at work? You do activities like this, you partner. And you share. How are you feeling about life right now, and why do you feel that way? That goes much further than just asking a coworker, how are you today? Fine. How are you? Fine. That doesn't get you anywhere. So start asking these meaningful questions to create deeper connections at work. You'll create. Deeper bonds, a sense of belonging, and you'll actually create some friendships at work. This will lead to a happier, more productive workplace that's going to contain people, employees that want to stick around a lot longer. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. Today I was practicing my keynote talk, which is, uh, creating a happy workplace by developing meaningful connections and leading with gratitude. Um, and I was just kind of reminded about how important it is to. have a happy workplace. And one of the big benefits besides creating a team or having a team that wants to stick around longer, so you know, they're not, uh, looking at switching jobs, which forces a company to. Hire new peoples. Turnover is a huge cost to companies. But the other cool thing about having a happy workplace by having a team that feels connected and appreciated is they will recruit people to join your company, your organization. So if you do have any job openings, which sometimes, especially in this day and age, these positions are tough to fill. Imagine having a team. Ready and willing to recruit for you because they're so happy. You know, if you have happy employees, they're going to want to have their friends and people that they know work for the company as well, so they will actively recruit for your team. So that's just another benefit of having a happy workplace. So not only a, a group of employees that stick around longer. But also they will actively recruit for you should you have openings in your organization. So just another reason to have a happy workplace, and you do that again by appreciating your team and having meaningful connections amongst employees. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. I often talk about starting your day with a morning routine, which may include expressing gratitude, but what about gratitude? In the evening, I think it might be a good idea. You know, a lot of us go to bed and we have anxious thoughts. We're worried about the future. We're thinking about things that happened to us in the past and that, uh, can affect our sleep. Many of us don't have an evening routine, or at nighttime we're doing things like scrolling social media. And watching the news, this can put negative thoughts into her head right before bed, and that can't help. you have a good night's sleep. So what if you instead planted some seeds of gratitude in your head right before bed? It could be anything. Things that we've talked about before, keeping a gratitude journal before bed where you're writing down, uh, maybe good things that happened to you during the day or just things that you're grateful for in life. Maybe write a handwritten note before bed each evening. Um, that could be another thing that you could do or, or just think about the things that you have in your life, um, that are good. Uh, and you don't even have to write. Things down. You could just have these as thoughts in your mind. There's even gratitude themed meditations that you could do. So you can look those up online on YouTube or any of the various meditation apps that are out there. So my, um, hope for you is that maybe if you are. Already doing something in the evening, like watching the news that maybe you have a change of heart and you look at planting some seeds of gratitude in your mind right before bed. See what difference that makes in the quality of your sleep. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude and this has been the Daily Gratitude minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. I just got back today from my Thanksgiving holiday where I spent it in Virginia with my family and I wanted to give special gratitude today to my pet sitter. My cat sitter Bailey. She watched Mia while I was. and I'm just so appreciative of her. You know, Mia is 19 and a half years old. She has health challenges, she's got arthritis, she has kidney disease, so it's really hard for me to leave her. Um, but I feel confident with Bailey. Bailey comes in. She sends me pictures every time she's here. Bailey is actually a vet student at the University of Tennessee, so I love that she has veterinary experience and with M as health challenges, I feel really comfortable having Bailey come over and watch Mia Bailey also comes over three days a week, even when I'm in town. To give Mia fluids for her kidney disease. So, uh, Bailey just give me a lot of peace of mind. Um, and because of her, I was able to enjoy my Thanksgiving break at my parents' house without worry. So, Bailey, I really appreciate you. Thank you so much for being so, um, uh, just really good with Mia and taking great care of her. So what about you? Do you have anybody that you are grateful for specifically today? Let me know, or better yet, let that person know. Maybe even think about writing them a handwritten note. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.

 Welcome back to the daily gratitude minute. This is Scott Colby from say it with gratitude. You know, I started the daily gratitude minute, three years ago. It was Thanksgiving day, November 28th, 2019. And the idea was to record a daily audio. That was about a minute long. Sometimes it goes two or three minutes. Now I have not been successful at doing this daily, but here we are three years later, this is episode three 90. So it's been inconsistent, but it's pretty darn good, right? To still be doing this three years later. So today I want to share a message that I shared with you three years ago. Today's the day after Thanksgiving here in the U S so it is Friday and it's known as black Friday. Black Friday has been regarded as the beginning of America's Christmas shopping season. And it's a day where many stores offer highly promoted sales and open very early, such as, as midnight, or may even start their sales at sometimes on Thanksgiving day. This day has also been known for customers waiting in long lines for stores to open. I'm not sure if they do that any more, but traditionally this went on for years. Customers, we're hoping to get the best deals and even a time where there's a lot of pushing and shoving. If you can believe it or not. Imagine just kind of elbowing out people next to you. Trying to get a good deal. Especially a lot of times there's a limited number of a sale item. Flat screen TV is one that comes to mind. It's definitely not a day where people seem grateful for what they already have. And in fact, a pretty funny, but true quote I've seen going around says black Friday, because only in America, people trample others for sales. Exactly one day after being thankful for what they already have. It's funny, but it's sad because it's true. Now I love one of the big retailers here in the U S that has taken a stand against black Friday. And that's R E I. Five or about eight years ago. I think it is now. REI is chief customer officer Ben steel, joined colleagues at a table, brainstorming black Friday campaign ideas. When a novel idea came to his head. What if they just closed up shop altogether. So that's what they did. REI is not open on black Friday the day after Thanksgiving. One of the biggest shopping days of the year. And as Ben steel put it, people thought we were crazy. Retailers were saying, why the heck would you give up one of the busiest shopping days of the year?  And to be really transparent steel didn't know if it would actually work, but he wanted to focus on his employees. Ultimately the risk paid off in the REI team found that much to their surprise. The mass of anti shopping effort in campaign seemed to resonate for both customers and retail workers who had grown weary of black Friday. Imagine working these long hours the day after Thanksgiving, and sometimes on Thanksgiving day. So what had initially been intended as a galvanizing moment for REI employees? Has evolved to, into a larger cultural movement. REI uses this hashtag called opt outside, encouraging people to forego long lines. And big box department stores on black Friday and had outdoors instead. You know, I love that because I love the outdoors. So I want to encourage you to do the same head outside today. Get out into nature, use it as a time to get some peace and quiet time to spend. With people that you love and a time to really reflect and think about all you have and all that you're grateful for. I'm Scott Colby with say it with gratitude. And this has been your daily gratitude minute. Cheers.

 Welcome back to the daily gratitude minute. This is Scott Colby from say it with gratitude. Today is Thanksgiving day in the United States. I don't want to wish everybody who is celebrating a very happy Thanksgiving. I am fortunate and grateful to be spending Thanksgiving with some family members. My parents. I'm at my parents' home in Smith mountain lake in Virginia. And you know, for about 20 years, I didn't spend Thanksgiving with my family. I lived for 11 years in Dallas for nine years in Denver. And I always chose to spend Christmas time with my family and. It's expensive to fly home twice within a month. So I usually just stay put for Thanksgiving. Uh, but now I'm blessed to live in Knoxville, Tennessee. And it's only about a four and a half hour drive to my parents' house. So I'll be celebrating Thanksgiving with my mom and dad, Jim and Gloria. And then also my sister, Jill. Her husband, Dennis, their dog biscuit. He can't leave out. And then my nephew, who I'm really excited to see. His name is Benjamin. He is a freshman at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. Uh, so my, his parents, my brother and his wife, they live out in Northern California. So, uh, Benjamin decided instead of flying all the way out to California from Pittsburgh, kind of a, an expensive flight. He decided to make the Trek to my parents' house in Virginia. So I haven't seen him in five years. Uh, the last time I saw him was in 2017, when we all got together to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. Interesting fact. So Benjamin goes to Carnegie Mellon. I was actually accepted there for college. I didn't go there, but his dad, my brother, Chris went and got his, uh, PhD at Carnegie Mellon. So pretty cool that Benjamin's going to the same. College that my, that his dad. Got his PhD. And then we also wanted to just express gratitude towards my family. You know, there, I'm very lucky to have them in my life. Uh, have supportive siblings and parents, very loving. Um, You know, whenever I'm in need. Uh, if I'm struggling in some area of my life, relationships or loss of a pet. Uh, financially business wise, I've got a supportive family that I can turn to. Anytime I want for emotional support or other types of support, visit them could stay with them. Um, and it's been that way for a long time. Uh, just growing up. Uh, had a very good, um, upbringing and that's carried on into adulthood. So I'm definitely grateful for my family. You know, not everybody has a supportive family. Um, but whoever you're spending the day with whether you're celebrating Thanksgiving or you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, cause you're in a different country, whoever you're spending the day with on Thursday here. Let's. Give them some extra gratitude. Show some love, give a hug, flash a smile, write a thank you note. We could all use more of that in our world right now. And, uh, I just hope that you can spend. This day with some loved  ones. I'm Scott Colby with say it with gratitude. And this has been the daily gratitude minute. Cheers.

 Welcome back to the daily gratitude minute. This is Scott Colby from say it with gratitude. I often talk about gratitude in the workplace. And when I do, I like to emphasize that gratitude in the workplace starts with you. I think it's important to have a personal gratitude practice first. Before you can spread it to others. And the reason I say that, so think about the benefits of gratitude, right. And having a gratitude practice. The research shows. There's a multitude of benefits. A couple of them being be more positive. You have less anxiety, less stress, more. Optimism. So think about if you're living in an attitude of. Uh, not being grateful and complaining and being down and being anxious and overwhelmed and stressed. So you're not your best. How can you be expected to lift other people up with gratitude? If you're feeling so low yourself. So I don't think you can effectively have a gratitude practice at work where you're appreciating other people. If you were feeling bad yourself. So that's why I think it's important that gratitude starts with you and that you have your own gratitude practice. First self gratitude, right? And thinking about all the things that you appreciate in your life so that you can live a more optimistic, positive. And uplifting. Day by day life. So what are ways you can live a more gratitude? I'm not going to go into too much detail here in this episode, but find a way to express gratitude on a consistent basis that resonates with you. Maybe it's journaling. Maybe it's writing handwritten notes. Could be keeping a gratitude jar, could be making gratitude videos for other people or gratitude phone calls. Could be doing an act of kindness or volunteering in your community. Whatever that looks like for you doing on a consistent basis. Watch to see how your attitude and mood change. And when you're uplifted by yourself, gratitude practice, you can begin to uplift others in the workplace with gratitude as well. Hope this helps. If you want some more ideas on implementing gratitude at work, go to my free toolkit@gratitudetoolkit.com. Got a lot of goodies for you to download I'm Scott Colby with say it with gratitude. And this has been the daily gratitude minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the daily gratitude minute. This is Scott Colby with say it with gratitude. Last week. I'm one of the episodes. I talked about a book that I was reading. I just started it. It's called the Mr. Thank you project. And it's about John Israel who had a goal to write five. Thank you cards a day for one year, 365 straight days, which is incredible. What a mission. And one of the first groups of people that he wrote to, he was on an airplane and decided to write to the pilots. And he got to thinking like, Hey, what, what should I say in the card? What am I grateful for? And. He thought a little harder. And then he thought about like how these pilots. When they're flying across the country, like most weeks out of the year, they're away from their family. But what they're doing is they're oftentimes helping the passengers. See their families. And when John thought about this, gosh, gosh, it's helping so many people, you know, spend holidays with their families or other events with their families. While they're away from their families. What a noble thing to do in this world? What a noble profession. As well. You know, when flights are delayed or canceled, sometimes the pilots. They face the brunt of a passenger's frustration. So that's other things to be grateful for. So when you really think about what pilots go through and the, uh, dedication to their work. We have a lot to be grateful to pilot. So John wrote a, I think on this particular flight. You know, there's pilot and copilot, and he had a second leg of his flight. So he wrote to four pilots on one day. And I think he asked like one of the pilots who had been. A pilot for, I think 22 years. If he had ever gotten a thank you card before and in 22 years of being a pilot that pilot never had. So an incredible mission. Uh, that pilots do John express gratitude towards them. And, uh, yeah, I can't wait to finish his book. I'll bring you more episodes. Of the daily gratitude minute that cover other lessons learned from the book. Mr. Thank you.  I'm Scott Colby with say it with gratitude. And this has been the daily gratitude minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the daily gratitude minute. This is Scott Colby from say it with gratitude. You know, one of my favorite things to say is find what makes you happy and do more of it. We often get caught up in our to-do list. Right. I know. I certainly do. I usually focus on work more than having fun. Or we sometimes spend our days reacting and responding to things such as emails, social media posts, and text messages. I do that as well. This goes on day after day, week after weekend month after month. But when was the last time you stopped and took some time to notice how you feel. Now more than ever. It's important to stop and take some time for our mental health. So this week, I want you to do this. Take out a journal or a piece of paper and write down all the things that make you feel happier. Then create some space in your schedule to actually enjoy these things. Guilt free. It can be anything I can nature connecting with a friend. Being around animals. Having a cup of coffee, just relaxing or volunteering with kids. Now the key is to not just be aware of what makes you happy, but actually taking action and finding time to do them. You deserve to feel good. So make quality time for yourself. I'm Scott Colby would say it with gratitude. And this has been the daily gratitude.  Cheers.

Welcome back to the daily gratitude minute. This is Scott Colby with say it with gratitude. I've got a gratitude tip from my book, the grateful entrepreneur, how you can show your customers. Uh, just that you care about them as human beings and not just as a transaction. And that's to offer sympathy. You know, how many businesses send out sympathy cards when a family member of a customer or employee passes away? Practically none. Your business should do so. Send a heartfelt handwritten sympathy card. When your customers lose loved ones. Sometimes it's not easy to know what to say in a card. Right? So I've got a couple suggestions of the wording suggested by a woman named Florence. Isaacs could be really simple. Here's a couple of examples. Dear Janet. I'm so sorry to hear about your mother's passing. You are in my thoughts and prayers at this time of sadness. I send my deepest condolences. Follow that with your signature. Here's one more option, dear Janet. I just heard about your mother's death. I'm so sorry for your loss. Please accept my heartfelt sympathy. Again, simply sign your name. Such brief notes are both powerful and appropriate.  I personally also send sympathy cards when a customer loses a pet because our furry friends or families too, and clients will truly appreciate that gesture. I'm Scott Colby with Say It with gratitude, and this has been the daily gratitude. Cheers.

Welcome back to the daily gratitude minute. This is Scott Colby from say it with gratitude. So this afternoon, I ran a virtual workshop for some employees, uh, from a small company based out of Northern Virginia. And I tried an activity that I only tried once before I learned this one from Chad little field who owns a business called we and me. He facilitates connection. Activities and events as well. And he calls this activity breakout blackout. So the group I was with was virtual. So we were all on zoom. And so if you're not familiar, a breakout is when you're on a virtual meeting using a platform like zoom and you break out in the smaller groups in a separate room. Well in the breakout blackout, you're in a virtual room by yourself. Yep. That's right. You're in your own virtual breakout room. So, what do you do in there? Well, it depends on the purpose of the meeting, et cetera, but of course I facilitate gratitude and connection workshops. So, what I did was I had the participant search for an interesting or surprising fact about gratitude. They each had three minutes to find a unique fact about gratitude and then share it with the rest of the group. So everybody got into their own breakout room yet they were by themselves, which is perfect for the introvert among us. They found an interesting fact about gratitude and when they returned to the main room, Uh, everybody typed what they found and the chat, and some people shared verbally. It was awesome. And I learned a couple things about gratitude that I didn't know. Such as people are less likely to express gratitude at work than anywhere else. And gratitude is good for your cholesterol. Just want to pass this along in case it's useful for your next virtual meeting. I am Scott Colby with say it with gratitude. And this has been the daily gratitude minute. Cheers.  

 Welcome back to the daily gratitude minute. This is Scott Colby from say it with gratitude. In my book, the grateful entrepreneur, I gave a tip for businesses. If they wanted to stand out from their competition and that's to send out cards on weird holidays. Now it's. Not that common for businesses to send out cards as it is, you know, many businesses don't send out. Thank you cards. But I think if there's one time, a business does a pretty good job. Sending out cards it's during the Christmas holidays. Well, if you could imagine the average, person's getting lots and lots of cards during the Christmas And those don't really stand out. So, what I recommend is that you send cards on other types of holidays, such as Groundhog's day St. Patrick's day, 4th of July. Thanksgiving is a good one too, which is coming up. Uh, since it's a holiday specifically to express gratitude. Now when I was doing research for my book. I found an example of a company that was doing this well and was getting a great return on their investment. Joe, John Bachmann, who owns Bachman's auto care in Illinois for eight years, at least at the time of the article that I read. He had spent an average of $1,858 per year on thank you cards for his entire customer base. So almost $2,000 he was spending on. Writing and mailing. Thank you cards. Now that seems like a lot, right? Well, John has consistently seen between a 35,040 5,000 return on his yearly. Thanksgiving and Christmas and July card. So those are the two times during the year he sent out Thanksgiving and Christmas in July and his customers weren't getting cards from anybody else during that time. So he was able to stand out from his competition. He initially tried sending out cards during Christmas and was not getting a good. ROI return on his investment. So he changed his plan. Started to send out cards twice a year during the weird, not very common times to do that and his results skyrocketed. So. Really cool idea. It's not too late to get your cards out for Thanksgiving, get those cards out. And if you don't get Out for Thanksgiving this year. Think of the next time. That there's a weird holiday, so not Christmas, but maybe Groundhog's day that you start to send out cards to your customers and your clients. One last thing. If you want to download a digital copy of my book, the grateful entrepreneur for free. Go to gratitude, toolkit.com.  And you can enter in your email and i'll send you a digital copy of the entire book i'm scott colby with say it with gratitude and this has been the daily gratitude minute cheers

Welcome back to the daily gratitude minute. This is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. I want to give you a quick connection tip that you can. Use at work now I didn't make this up. There's a book I recently read called connectable all about creating connections and belonging. And the workplace and the authors have come out with a connection deck, which are 30 challenges that you can do to. Build connection in the workplace. And so one of the challenges in the connection deck is asked for advice. So they say, if you want to earn someone's trust and empathy, which is important at work, right. Ask them for advice. So they say share a small decision or minor problem with somebody at work to get their advice, pulling someone into your day prompts, connection, and allows others to demonstrate empathy. As an example. I'm trying to make a decision about X, Y, N, Z. If you were me, what would you do? So, if you want to strengthen your connections at work. Build somebody's trust and empathy, then ask them for their advice.  I'm scott colby with say it with gratitude and this has been the daily gratitude minute cheers

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. My name is Scott Colby from Say with Gratitude. I just started reading a book called Mr. Thank You, by John Israel. I've known John for a few years. Mainly online, I guess only online. We've chatted, we've done a Zoom call together. Uh, but he wrote this book a few years ago and I'm surprised that I'm just now reading it. But it tells of his journey and lessons learned from. Writing five handwritten notes. So he wrote five thank you cards every day for a year. Now, that's incredible to me because I sometimes give myself a challenge of writing one thank you card a day for 30 days, and I struggle. So I'm interested in knowing how he did it and how he kept himself accountable and going. I know one of the things he did, cuz I'm still at the beginning of the book, but he outlined some rules up front that he must follow and I wanted to share four rules with you. Number one, all notes about must be handwritten so he can't copy and paste an email and send it out to a bunch of people. These need to be handwritten notes. Number two, every day, five cards must be written and every morning starts at zero. So in other words, he can't save. For the entire week, let's say on Sunday and write 35 cards, he needs to write five notes every single day. Rule three, a maximum of three cards count per individual. So in other words, he can't write 365 cards to his wife. He could only write to his wife or any one individual three times throughout the year. So he has to come up with a lot of different people to write notes to. And number four, this is really interest. if he writes less than five thank you cards in a day, he needs to donate $1,000 to charity. So imagine such a big kind of penalty, kind of, I mean, you're donating to charity, but it is a penalty in that it's a thousand bucks out of your pocket any day he forgets to write or doesn't write five handwritten notes that's gonna keep him accountable. When he first put together rule four, he was going to donate a hundred dollars to. If he wrote less than five notes in a day, and his business coach at the time said, I don't think that's a big enough penalty. And he asked him, Would you have donated a hundred, 200 or 200 bucks to charity anyway this year? And John said, Yes. He said, We need to make that rule even more strict. And they came up with donating a thousand dollars to charity for any day that. misses his five thank you notes. Incredibly powerful tool to keep yourself accountable. So I'm just at the beginning stages of this book. I can't wait to dig into it. It's again, it's Mr. Thank You by John Israel. I'll do another gratitude minute, um, once I finish the book and share with you my big takeaways. If you've read it, would love to hear from you. You can always send me a DM on Instagram over at Scott Colby dot. I'm Scott Colby with Sat With Gratitude and this has been your daily gratitude minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude. I often talk about listening as a form of gratitude, but only if you're present. So what do I mean by that? Well, oftentimes when somebody is talking to us, we're doing other things. We're checking our phones, we're thinking about our emails, we're thinking about what we need to do during the. notifications come up and we look at those instead of paying attention to the person who's talking to us. This sometimes happens in meetings, just one-on-one conversations, even at meals or just having a cup of coffee with a friend. So the issue with this is if you're checking your phone when somebody's talking to you, how do you think that person. They don't feel cared for. They don't feel listened to, They don't probably feel understood, they don't feel valued. But if you can do away with all the external noise and be in the moment with the person that's having the conversation with you, and even don't even get out your phone, even put that phone. So the study's been shown that even if your phone's on the table and you're not using it, the level and the quality of conversation goes down just by the mere presence of having your cell phone on the table. So don't even bring it out. Leave it in your bag, leave it at home, leave it in your car. Be fully present with somebody that's having the conversation with you. That way you can be a better listener. They're gonna feel cared for, valued, and. And that is a form of gratitude. That's a great gift that you can give somebody else. The act and art of listening seems to be harder to do these days, but practice it without your phone than being fully present. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude. Yesterday I mentioned a nonprofit here in Knoxville, Tennessee called Send Senior Citizens Love their mission. Is to keep the connections alive for senior citizens at risk, for isolation and loneliness by collecting handwritten notes and delivering them to seniors all across the country. Seniors who are at risk of being lonely, they're in hospitals, they're in nursing homes, and I wanted to give a suggestion on how your organization could do. While helping your team bond and build deeper connections with one another, it's simply this once a week or once a month, or even just one time, your team can pledge to come together. Let's say at a, at a lunchtime, you come together and your right handwritten notes that go to seniors who are in hospitals battling loneliness. So just think about. It's a Thursday, it's noon. It's when you usually have lunch. You come together as a team. Everybody's got their lunch, their food. You're writing handwritten notes for a good cause. You're bonding over the act of writing handwritten notes, but you're also getting to know each other on your team personally. You're getting to ask your team members questions. You're learning their hobbies, learning about their families, what they like, what they don't like, what they're struggling with, some successes or good things happening in their life, all while bonding over the act of writing handwritten notes for a good cause for senior citizens who are lonely. So doing this can bring your team together. Number one, you're bonding over the act of writing handwritten. But specifically these handwritten notes are going for a good cause. So you're also bonding and coming closer together by doing something for good. What a powerful way to build connection amongst your team. When you have connection like this, your team will be more engaged. They'll be more productive. They're gonna wanna stick around a lot. So give this a try and let me note Nephew specifically want to write cards for my friend's nonprofit. Send Senior Citizens Love. You can go on their website, send senior citizens love.org and contact them or get ahold of me@scottscottcolby.com and I'll put you in touch with Ashley, who's the founder of the nonprofit. I'm Scott Colby with Sat With Gratitude and this has been The Daily Gratitude Minute cheer.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby. With Sat With Gratitude. I want to briefly talk about, uh, a woman's nonprofit here in Knoxville, Tennessee. Now, I met her online through a kind of a local Facebook group here in Knoxville, and I was intrigued when I learned what she was doing. She has a non-profit, well, first of all, her name is Ashley Lynch. Ashley has a nonprofit called Send Senior Citizens Love Send, Senior Citizens Love, uh, and her mission is to end isolation and loneliness among seniors. Of course, I love that mission. Her inspiration was kind of fairly recently. Both of her grandparents passed away. And she had noticed they were a little bit isolated and lonely, um, I think in the hospital. And she realized there's other seniors that are lonely in hospitals and nursing centers. So she wanted to do something to make them feel less lonely. So what she does is she actually collects handwritten notes from people all around the world that she delivers to senior citizens in hospitals and rehab. So, you know, I've talked about the way that handwritten notes can connect people together and help you feel cared about and less lonely. And that's her mission. And she does this for certain population, senior citizens, and I just love it. You can actually write notes and send it to Ashley's nonprofit organization and she'll get it to a senior citizen. In a hospital or a rehab center, so it's really cool what she's doing. You can check out more information about her nonprofit at Send senior citizens love.org. Send senior citizens love.org if you, um, want to connect with her. Kind of personally, just let me know. You can shoot me an email to scott@scottcolby.com and I'll connect you with her, or you can just contact her through her website. Again, I love her mission of ending isolation and loneliness among seniors. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.

welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. When I talk about gratitude in the workplace, one of the things I like to mention and encourage is for you to be specific with your gratitude, especially when you are expressing appreciation for somebody at work. So what I mean by that is instead of just saying, Thank you or good job. Be specific about what you appreciate about that person, and I would encourage you not to even tie it to performance. So a great example of this recently actually happened to me. One of the things that I do besides talk about gratitude, I'm a health and fitness coach for a company called Metabolic Living, and there were six coaches and one of them recently, uh, decided to leave her position with the. And before she left, she took a moment to express appreciation to all of the other coaches. So for me, she said a few nice words. And then she ended by saying, Three of my most favorite things about you are your calm presence, your heart for all of humanity, your creativity and spirit of exploration. So she was expressing what she loved about. And that meant so much more than just saying, Hey, you know, great job as a coach of these last three years that we've been working together. So when you are expressing gratitude to a team member, be very specific and tell that team member what you love about them. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby. I want to talk a little bit about. Workplace wellness. Now, a Surgeon General's report that just came out declared that toxic workplaces can be harmful to a person's mental health due to factors like long hours, chronic stress, and being underpaid. Now, that's pretty obvious. The report highlights that 76% of workers in the US have at least one symptom of a mental health condition. While up to 84% of people said their workplaces contributed to mental health issues, these numbers are incredibly high. The surgeon general outlined five essentials that would help workplaces support well. These include protection from harm, connection, and community opportunity for growth matter at work and work life harmony. Now, all these are important. My eyes are drawn to connection and community because it's something that I talk about in my keynotes when I'm speaking at conferences and in into organizations. So how can you have more connection and community in the workplace? Well, lots of ways you could do that, but something I talk about is just asking meaningful question to spark meaningful conversations. Really to help you get to know your coworkers on a more intimate level so that you can have a deeper relationship, possibly even friendship. Friendships at work have been shown to. Correlated with happiness in the workplace. So how do you ask questions or know what questions to ask? Well, I designed the Grateful Deck, which is 120 questions to spark meaningful conversations. You could do use these questions in the workplace. I just drew one at random so you can get an idea of what one of the questions is like. Um, the question says if you could spend a day off work doing one thing that you would. What would it be and why? So if you ask a coworker this question, you can get to know a little bit about one of their hobbies and why they started, um, to, to like that hobby. And that can give you some insight about this person. So, uh, if you want to download all 120 questions digitally, you can go to gratitude toolkit.com, put in your email address, and I'll send you all 120 questions in the Grateful Deck. These questions are great for. Perhaps starting a meeting, or maybe you can pull a coworker from work and go through a few of the questions and just go back and forth and create a bond between you and one of your coworkers. And if you want to purchase the physical deck that I'll mail to you, I've got 'em over at my website. Sat with gratitude.com. I'm Scott Colby from Say It with Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby. Thank you so much for joining me as I record this. It is November 9th, 2022, and I've set a goal to write one. Appreciation card, uh, in the month of November and in the month of December. So I'm gonna be writing a card every single day for two months. And if you set a goal like this, you might wonder like, how do I know who to send a card to? I don't have that many people to appreciate, but in reality, you probably have more than enough people to appreciate if you really sit down and think about it. So, It can be a struggle to figure out who to write a car to, but let me just share with you a few people that I've written a car to. In the past week I wrote a card to my veterinarian who always takes really good care of my cat Mia, and uh, I really appreciate her kindness and. Looking after Mia's best interest and making her feel as comfortable as possible. I sent a card to my friend John and Lauren, who let me stay at their place, uh, overnight in Wisconsin, in Milwaukee, while I was traveling on my way back from a speaking gig in Wisconsin. I sent a card to my friend Geoff, who, uh, I'd met online. He's a fellow speaker. He lives in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and when I spoke in Spokane in September, he made the 40 minute drive to see me speak, and then he invited me to see him speak and also gave me some pointers on how I could engage with the. Uh, so I really appreciate that. Um, and then lastly, I recently wrote a card to a woman named Lauren who saw me deliver a breakout session in my, um, conference I went to in Wisconsin. And she just sent me an email saying how much she enjoyed, uh, my session. So being a guy who is appreciation language is words of affirmation, I really appreciated her kind words. And I wanted to let her know that. So those are just a few examples of who I've written cards to. Uh, in reality, you can write cards to people for any reason. It doesn't have to be somebody that's done something for you. You could just appreciate a friend and tell them how much you love about them. Or it could be somebody that is not a friend, but just you've seen or had an engagement with them in passing such as. Your barista at your local coffee shop. Maybe they asked you how your day was. Maybe they smiled at you, and just let them know how much you appreciated that. So plenty of people to write cards too. I'm enjoying the process of writing these daily cards. Maybe it's a habit you wanna pick up. If you do, would love to know about it. You can always send me an email@scottscottcolby.com or uh, DM on Instagram, Scott Col. Hope this helps you get those cards out in the mail. I'm Scott Colby with Sat With Gratitude and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.

What you plant in your mind will be returned to you. If you think about positive things and have a grateful attitude, that's what you'll get in life. If you complain and think about all negative things, that will be returned to you.

Most days are filled with lots of noise, challenges and stress. But it's reassuring to know that we can feel better anytime we want to. Even on the most chaotic days, there is always an opportunity to pause and feel good. Today I want you take a few minutes to make space for yourself and catch your breath. Go ahead and turn off your phone and shut your computer for 5 minutes. Put on some holiday music if you'd like or just sit in silence. Focus on your breath - 3 counts in through your nose, and 3 counts out through your mouth. Be in the moment and start thinking about the things that you're grateful for in your life. Or just keep focusing on your breath and the count. This little indulgence is not selfish. It's self-care, and it's important.

A lot of people think self-care is selfish. But you wont be able to be your best, if you don't feel your best. You need to put your oxygen mask on first, before helping others.

When expressing gratitude to someone, replace high tech with high touch.

A great activity you can do if you facilitate virtual or in person meetings that will help you get to know someone else quickly.

Have you ever written a love letter to your significant other or spouse? If not, it's a great thing to do to deepen that connection between the two of you, and I share some tips of what to say in the letter.

In today's episode, I talk about what it means for a company to lead with gratitude, which means everything should be relational, and not just about the transaction. I share a story about how my favorite coffee shop in Denver, Fluid, used gratitude when my cat Nomar was having a couple of teeth pulled.