Podcast appearances and mentions of jason seiden

  Join us in this engaging episode of driveThruHR, where we dive into some of our personal EPIC HR conference highlights with Jason Seiden of Comfort Communications and Pete Schramm of Lattitude. Jason shares his personal story of learning how to deal with grief and some thoughts on how employers can help their people during these challenging life moments.  Pete shares insights on his company, Lattitude, his book Pathfinders: Navigating Your Career Map With A Personal Board of Advisors, and the value of creating a personal advisory board. Tune in to glean actionable insights from this must-listen episode for HR professionals seeking to elevate their practices and inspire their teams.

FUTURE OF WORK: TALENT ACQUISITION...NOT INVITED?   Talent Acquisition has long fought a battle for a 'seat at the table' when the big decisions are made about the future of an organisation but we really need to come to that table with unique perspective, value and confidence.   With the era of Generative AI already upon us, let's do a sense check on where Talent Acquisition is when conversations about the future shape of an organisation takes place.   - Do we know what the CEO vision of an AI-enabled company looks like? - Do we know what the CFO vision is? - Do we understand how these visions impact the future of TA? - How do we position so that we lead the change to AI-enablement rather than become victim to it? - What steps do we need to take today to get this moving?   All this and more as we dive in to real talk with industry experts Jason Seiden, VP Growth & Innovation (Cielo Talent), Paul Maxin, Founder (MaxinTalent), Madeline Laurano, Founder (Aptitude Research), Jane Curran, Global Head of Talent Acquisition (JLL) and Lavanya VNV, on Friday 15th March, 2.00pm GMT. Follow the channel here (recommended) and register by clicking on Save My Spot       Ep249 is sponsored by our buddies Checkr     Checkr builds people infrastructure for the future of work. And we believe everyone should have a fair chance to work. That's why we've designed a faster—and fairer—way to screen job seekers. Trusted by companies such as Uber, Warby Parker and monday.com.   For more information on our mission and products, visit http://checkr.com.

Are you ready to reimagine the art of interviewing? This episode of Greenhouse: Inside Interviewing will shed light on the significance of asking meaningful questions, punctuated by Jason's engaging tale of an unusual candidate. Brace yourself as we unravel this journey, guided by the charismatic Jason Seiden, VP of Growth at Cielo Talent, and the astute Charles Bedard, Mergers Acquisitions Corporate Development Advisor at Venero Capital Advisors. If you've ever questioned the workplace's evolving dynamics, tune in as we dissect the globalization's impact on self-managed schedules, challenging the traditional work culture. Venturing into the darker side of the recruiting and staffing world, we scrutinize the phenomena of ghosting and fraud. Jason and Charles provide a refreshing perspective on how candidate scarcity has led to the normalization of ghosting. Gear up for an episode that will challenge your perspectives and leave you wanting more!Listen & Subscribe on your favorite platformApple | Spotify | Google | AmazonVisit us at RecruitingDaily for all of your recruiting, sourcing, and HR content.Follow on Twitter @RecruitingDaily Attend one of our #HRTX Events

All human beings, like you, are guided by a set of values.But when you stop and think about it, do you really know where those values came from?What's more, will they hold up when the Universe calls your bluff?Jason Seiden's career journey started on third base, right at the height of the dot-com boom. His first job was as an executive producer at RollingStone.com. Through an early career that saw a dizzying rise in his professional profile and a tall stack of achievements, he was fortunate enough to have bosses and colleagues who gave him the space and grace to grow at his own pace.Among his discoveries was the challenge in defining the concept of work-life balance. In 2009 he trademarked a word - "profersonal" - to frame this challenge.He had a great career combined with a wonderful family; everything seemed "fine".But fine is a 4-letter word.In 2016, he got divorced, one of his daughters became chronically ill, and he had to put his beloved dog down. His consulting career came to a halt and he took a W-2 job. He was fearful of letting his new employer know his life had become messy – which was a challenge and contradiction to his values around how work and life cannot be separated. Then, on July 22, 2018, his 15-year-old daughter, no longer able to stand the pain from her chronic illness, took her own life. He was forced to re-evaluate his values in literally one day, as if the Universe was challenging him: "Oh yeah, you're going to talk about this? You're going to make this your... Let's see you live your values now, Seiden."In a moment, when you meet Jason, you'll learn about his journey to rediscovering joy following his daughter's passing. How it showed him the true, deeper source of his values and how you, too, can pass them on to family, friends, colleagues, and everybody you encounter. It involves creating a new relationship with your intuition and learning radical self-acceptance when you find yourself falling short of living up to your values on any particular day.Overall, Jason had to break free from the emotional shitshow brought on when everything fell apart, so that he could go on to be a positive force for change.Jason's hype song is "Welcome to the Jungle", by Guns 'n' Roses. Resources:Jason Seiden's website: https://jasonseiden.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seiden/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seidenInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/seidenInvitation from Lori:Like Jason, if it hasn't happened already, you may find yourself making a values choice - do you want to live a life of purpose with passion and leave an incredible legacy, or do you just want to be able to get out of bed every morning?Wherever this finds you right now, a better version of you is waiting.If what you're doing, if how you're living today, isn't bringing you joy, it's time to change.That's why I created the F*ck Being Fine Experience.It's a life-changing program that gives you the strategies, tools, and encouragement to create new habits that will help you feel more alive, confident, and purposeful. Discover how it works at https://zenrabbit.com/f-being-fine-program/ Don't waste ONE. MORE. MINUTE feeling...

Jason Seiden is the Chief Strategy Officer of Wedge, a video interviewing platform focused on delivering efficiency through authenticity, especially in high volume environments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jason is back after processing our first conversation on the new approach, and let me tell you, you are not going to believe the shift he has made in his life! Connection is love and separation is fear. It is all about connection. To everyone and everything in your reality. You are the creator of your reality and not the victim. Once you shift your perspective to understanding that everything is happening for you and not to you, then everything in your reality changes. Your perception of your reality IS your reality. See how his adopting of these concepts have impacted his relationships to himself and others. Go with us on this fast paced, entertaining, loving, and fun exploration. We are so happy to have you back Jason!

This podcast was published on November 12th 2021, the birthday of Elle Taylor Seiden, for whom this conversation is dedicated. Yet another indication that there are no coincidences and nothing is random. Every moment is connected to every other moment in your life. Jason swings by the Evolution Podclub and the conversation is like no other. It is sweet, emotional, intense, jarring, funny, inspiring and beyond. You'll just have to hear for yourself. Enjoy!

It's OFFICIALLY the 2nd half of 2021. Does your company still operate like it's 2019? A pandemic, unique labor market, and sweeping social movements all have the power to permanently alter human psyche. They can impact and forever change how we see people and work. Plain and simple, your organization shouldn't look the same as it did a year ago. How do you take steps to change things for GOOD? Tune in to this great episode where our Jess Von Bank welcomes Jason Seiden of BRNDSTRM to talk brand marketing, employee storytelling and tech adoption in the NowofWork. You don't want to miss this!

From the losses that come with entrepreneuralism to losses much more personal, Jason Seiden (@Seiden) of BRNDSTRM knows a thing or two about Grief. He'll be joining us Tuesday 6/22, Wednesday 6/23, and Thursday 6/24 for a special DriveThruHR series on grief and its place in Seiden's (and our) "profersonal" world. On Tuesday, we started with working through an operational definition of grief with Jason:  what does it look like and what is the grieving person's reality and responsibility to themselves and others. Wednesday, Jason and Crystal moved into how we can make it safe for the grieving who are walking wounded, a particularly timely topic considering the losses we've experienced over the course of the pandemic. In this episode, we'll look at grief, and how collaboration tools and social media can impact the well-being of the grieving when working through loss, as well as team dynamics. Join us!     This is part of our summer growth series, when we look at topics that are tangential and related to the world of work and HR, particularly around well-being, belonging and workplace dignity. We hope you can join us. 

From the losses that come with entrepreneuralism to losses much more personal, Jason Seiden (@Seiden) of BRNDSTRM knows a thing or two about Grief. He'll be joining us Tuesday 6/22, Wednesday 6/23, and Thursday 6/24 for a special DriveThruHR series on grief and its place in Seiden's (and our) "profersonal" world. On Tuesday, we started with working through an operational definition of grief with Jason:  what does it look like and what is the grieving person's reality and responsibility to themselves and others? In this episode, we'll move into how we can make it safe for the grieving who are walking wounded, a particularly timely topic considering the losses we've experienced over the course of the pandemic. Then Thursday, we'll look at grief, and how collaboration tools and social media can impact the well-being when working through grief.     This is part of our summer growth series, when we look at topics that are tangential and related to the world of work and HR, particularly around well-being, belonging and workplace dignity. We hope you can join us. 

From the losses that come with entrepreneuralism to losses much more personal, Jason Seiden (@Seiden) of BRNDSTRM knows a thing or two about Grief. He'll be joining us Tuesday 6/22, Wednesday 6/23, and Thursday 6/24 for a special DriveThruHR series on grief and its place in Seiden's (and our) "profersonal" world. In this episode, we're going to start with working through an operational definition of grief with Jason:  what does it look like and what is the grieving person's reality and responsibility to themselves and others? On Wednesday, we'll move into how we can make it safe for the grieving who are walking wounded, a particularly timely topic considering the losses we've experienced over the course of the pandemic. Then Thursday, we'll look at grief, and how collaboration tools and social media can impact the well-being when working through grief.   This is part of our summer growth series, when we look at topics that are tangential and related to the world of work and HR, particularly around well-being, belonging and workplace dignity. We hope you can join us. 

Is your company struggling with getting a consistent message across to your employees, prospects, and investors? Having everyone on the same page can really change the game for your brand. In this Feature Friday episode of the ROI Online Podcast, Steve talks with Jason Seiden, consultant and chief of BRNSTRM about helping businesses find the right story for right now, brand audits, messaging, and positioning strategy.Jason has 20 years of experience working across industries, he is a leadership & executive communications consultant and chief of BRNDSTRM–a straightforward, effective methodology that gets everyone in an organization  delivering a clear, consistent answer to the question, “So, what does the company do?”Sometimes as entrepreneurs we have an idea of what the company is and means but we have a hard time figuring out what we're trying to say and do while putting it into a clear message that everyone understands. Luckily we don't have to do it all by ourselves.Among other things, Jason and Steve discussed:Jasons' backstoryAll about Jason's company BRNDSTRMWhat a brand audit isThe meaning of brand messaging Brand positioning and how to craft a brand positioning statement and write a brand positioning strategyYou can learn more about Jason here:Follow Jason on LinkedInLearn more about BRNDSTRM here:https://www.brndstrm.com/Read the books mentioned in this podcast:The Golden Toilet by Steve BrownThinking of starting your own podcast? Buzzsprout's secure and reliable posting allows you to publish podcasts online. Buzzsprout also includes full iTunes support, HTML5 players, show statistics, and WordPress plugins. Get started using this link to receive a $20 Amazon gift card and to help support our show!Support the show (https://cash.app/$stevemfbrown)

HR Happy Hour 449  - Getting Work Done with Collaborative Technology Hosts: Steve Boese, Trish McFarlane Guests: Mike Psenka, Jason Seiden, Moovila This episode of Happy Hour is made possible by Workhuman®, now introducing Moodtracker™, a FREE modern Voice of the Employee tool built by data scientists, making it fast, easy, and actionable to get to the heart of organizational issues. Learn more at workhuman.com/moodtracker This episode of the HR Happy Hour is sponsored by Paychex, one of the leading providers of HR, payroll, retirement, and insurance solutions for businesses of all sizes. The fourth annual 2020 Paychex Pulse of HR Survey provides an in-depth look at how HR professionals are contributing to the success of the companies they serve, go to paychex.com/pulse2020 today to download your copy of the 2020 Paychex Pulse of HR Survey report. This week on the HR Happy Hour Show, we were joined by Mike Psenka and Jason Seiden from Moovila, a work and project management software provider that helps organizations keep projects on track, and people accountable to each other, and the organization. On the show Mike and Jason gave us an update from Moovila, how a new approach to workplace collaboration, managing projects, using data to assess project and task status, and how people support each other to get things done at work.  We also talked about our favorite inventions of all time.  This was a really interesting show, thanks to Mike and Jason for joining us! Learn more at moovila.com  Remember to subscribe to the HR Happy Hour wherever you get your podcasts

During this episode, Jason and I talk about how practitioners make the business case or the use case for purchasing Moovila. Jason is easy to talk with and his passion for the execution through great project management applications comes through during the podcast. Give the show a listen and please let me know what you think.

Wade Brown While there are plenty of opportunities to be angry, we don't want to be angry. We don't. Joshua was a beautiful, beautiful young man. And Joshua is not suicide. Joshua is a 14-year-old who did an adult thing in a moment of weakness and we'll never know why. He's a kid that did an adult thing. He's not suicide. And so, you know, it's important for us to demonstrate to our kids. And I try to do it at work as well. We choose love and grace. We do.   INTRO   This is the second Handle with Care episode where a father talks about the death of his teen by suicide.  If you didn’t get a chance to listen the first conversation, I would encourage you, after listening to this episode, to also listen to our last episode where Jason Seiden talks about his daughter Elle.   My guest today is Wade Brown.  His full name is Edmund Wade Brown the 4th.  His parents were convinced that he was going to be a girl and went to the hospital expecting a Jennifer.  When a little boy arrived, they waited two days before naming him after his father.    Wade is the Vice President of Field Operations for GE, covering the Central United States.    Wade Brown So diagnostic imaging, patient care you've covered has put ventilators and anesthesia machines on the front page. Well. And so, so all of the products that G.E. Healthcare makes and sells into our health care customers, my team supports.   Wade manages a large team and they have been especially busy and vital in the fight against COVID-19.    Wade Brown I've always compared it to my big family. I've led large teams for the better part of 20 years now and there's so many similarities to that.   - Liesel Mertes I could I can only read them. I only have four children, which is more than many, but less than you. And it is like it's like field marshalling. Sometimes it's just the logistics. I totalizing, let alone everybody's like emotional moment and the particular care that they need. And so, I hear you. But I'm sure that I only hear part of what you're lived experience has been like.   - Wade Brown It's I always liken it to controlled chaos. You know, there's somebody ready to break loose at any given moment, and I've got it.   You heard the reference above to a large family.  Wade is the father of nine children.    - Wade Brown So, I have book-end girls. I have.   - Wade Brown Jordan is is 30 and Josephine is nine. And so, seven boys in the middle. And so, we had Jordan and then and then Jacob. They came very quickly in our marriage. And and then Jonathan, our third child. So, we were boom, boom, boom. You know, still, you know, young, married, three kids and the J. Alliteration kicked in. So, we were Jordan and Jonathan. And then. And then, when Cynthia became pregnant for the fourth time, Jared was an eight.   - Wade Brown So we. So we stayed on the J's. And so my kids are infamously known as the J kids.   And Wade is joining us today to talk about his son, Joshua, who took his own life a year and a half ago at the age of 14.  Wade shares about the ripple effects of the loss, how his community came around him, and how he carries Joshua into his life in 2020.    - Wade Brown I've I've got on my board here at home from Ernest, Ernest Hemingway. Right. Hard clear about what hurts. And so listen to these discussions. And I've been on stage in front of hundreds of people multiple times. I've been on Zoom call, you know, Skype and Zoom calls with literally thousands of people. So. It's good to talk about it. It's a story that needs to be shared and talked about. It's just a mission that I'll have the rest of my life in this club area.   - Wade Brown Well, and, you know, kind of the heart of the centerpiece for our chat today is it's Joshua. And so, you know, we've got, you know, Joshua 1:9, you know, be strong and courageous as big as has been and will forever be, you know, an important passage for us and the people around us. And I've even got a I've got an adult kid now that's wearing it on his chest.   For those of you that are not familiar with Joshua 1:9, it is a verse from the Bible where God tells His people to be strong and courageous as they prepare to face a host of challenges and conflict moving into a new land.    Wade also loves the rainbow as a symbol of promise and a reminder to talk to kids about the impact of suicide.  So much so that his wife has banned him.    - Wade Brown I've been banned from Etsy, actually severe. I had to get permission before I can go on Etsy because I just I, I just couldn't get enough stained glass in. We've just got some beautiful stained glass pieces here. And one of them actually commissioned a lady in St. Louis. She's a retired mathematical engineer, just a brilliant, lovely person. And we connected through Etsy and then and they kind of became friends. And so she made a custom piece that I have here at my and my home office.   - Wade Brown And it's just magnificent. It's beautiful. I could I could send you a picture after work.   - Liesel Mertes I would love to see that work. I imagine or touched on this more in our conversation. But. You know, when you have a child die, there's such a profound absence, you know, that there's a there's a spiritual, emotional absence, but there's this very physical void. And to be able to have things in our physical realm that are are literally touchstones, whether that's, you know, something something to be able to look at or touch.   - Liesel Mertes It's is it's I find it to me.   - Liesel Mertes And for many, that physical grounding in the reality of life, they haven't just vanished and become this ethereal, like nothingness like this. There's a person who had weight and space in our family. And so I I hear how that's important. And I'm sure I'm sure the artisans of Etsy are missing you. I have my own rabbit holes with stuff like that.   It is a tumultuous time to be a small business owner or entrepreneur.  The market is full of uncertainty and it feels like the rules of engagement are constantly changing.  One constant is the need for talented people.  And one of the best ways to attract and recruit talent is through an attractive benefits package.  FullStack PEO is here to help.  Let the talented crew at FullStack navigate the complex world of employee benefits so that you can focus on surviving and thriving during COVID-19.   The uncertainty of our current moment is also causing so much stress and overwhelm for your people.  Compassion fatigue is gnawing at the edges, there are health concerns and the stress of young children at home.  Handle with Care Consulting is here to equip your people to give and receive care when it matters most.  Our customized consulting packages empower your team with actionable strategies to bring put empathy to work.    MUSICAL TRANSITION   As Wade and I began our conversation, he reflected on how the loss and tragedy of Joshua has uniquely equipped him to lead his team during the COVID crisis.     - Wade Brown And this has been part of my journey the last year and a half of my life. Liesel is is there for for me personally and with my team that's been with me through the Joshua experience.   - Wade Brown It almost served as a bit of a preparatory experience because the connections that we have, the culture that that I've talked about it and written about it, the culture, family, the culture of caring is real in my space. And and so when COVID turned on and we had to go to, you know, to our daily stand up call first thing every morning, you know, with 100 people on the phone trying to take on the spot decisions because there were so many unknowns.   - Wade Brown I think we were better able to administer our way, especially through those early days where there was so much trepidation because of the connections across our team and my connection personally with the people that I get the privilege leading because of the Joshua experience. Now, would we have done well, having not had that? I'm sure we would have. But it was a it was unique for us there like that. We didn't have to. We have to warm up for it.   - Wade Brown We were already warm, like we were more ready to go. And there was a higher level of trust because of that, because it's not just what I found. The backside of the you know, the health care phenomenon isn't just that you have to go into those places. It's dead. You have to go home and be around your family. So that's actually where most of the fear and concern came from. And so, you know, for us to be able to have, you know, I believe I believe a higher level of trust and caring for each other helped helped us do better and be better and be quicker in our response.   - Wade Brown I believe that. And I've seen other teams perform through this. And so I would say that we we stack pretty well.   - Wade Brown And you know, just how we how we moved through an incredibly an incredibly volatile and it's still volatile still. But, you know, ninety hundred days ago, there were infinitely more questions than there were answers.   - Liesel Mertes Right. Well, and what would I hear in that? And I want to dig more in a bit into the specificity of it. But the sense that, you know, through your own disruptive life event you had you had led with the particular vulnerability of. Needing care and receiving care from your team and that that lived experience. I mean, there can still be in organizations are given teams or with particular managers.   - Liesel Mertes This sense of a very clear distinction like this is your work life. And this is your home life. And the two do not intersect like you. You just manage your stuff and then you show up and perform.   - Liesel Mertes And the realization for your team and for you of, you know, I'm a holistic person and I'm bringing this really hard thing to work. And I I need and appreciate your support. And I want to give that to you. If you're going through something hard, it seems like it. It set the stage for being able to receive the current context in like a healthier much more giving way.   - Wade Brown Yeah, for sure. There's no doubt about it. I had I listened into your last posted podcast with Fred Brown and.   As a sidenote, the interview with Fred Brown is tremendous.  Fred talks about the challenge of carrying grief and loss as a Black man and CEO.  If you haven’t had a chance to listen, make it the next in your queue.   - Wade Brown Yes. And I heard him mention about, you know, for years being being the caregiver, not the receiver of care and raising, of course, that that that's me for sure. I mean, I'm a I'm a I'm a dad of a big family love. That's my greatest achievement. And it always will be. I've led big teams for two decades and I've been a people leader for most of the 32 years I've been in my career. I'm I'm a coach.   - Wade Brown I'm a caregiver. I don't receive care. And you know it. There were a couple of things that happened through the grieving experience with Joshua that just had a 100 percent transference into into my workspace. And a couple of those things were profound. And one of them was my first opportunity. This was May of last year. So this was within four months of Joshua's death. I had the opportunity go on stage and address the extended services leadership team for each four GE health care here in the United States and Canada.   - Wade Brown So that's, that's my extended work family. So that was five hundred plus people. And and I did that early on in the two and half days we were there. So the two days that followed Liesel were just were transformative for me. And that what I discovered, what came back to me in the 48 hours that after I walked off stage until it was time to get everybody to leave and go home, I had four dozen, you know, up close, some between 40 and 50 people.   - Wade Brown I wasn't counting. I just know that it was four dozen ish. People pulled me aside and tell me their very personal stories. And it wasn't ready for it. Quite frankly, it overwhelming. I found myself back in my room crying a couple of times and calling calling Cynthia going, oh, my gosh, my God. I didn't realize what was what I was what was going to come back to me when I did this. Getting on stage was hard enough.   - Wade Brown But then the stories that came back to me were were deep. They were profound. They were heartbreaking. And. But what I learned from that and what I've talked about is everybody has their Joshua. And I think there were people want to talk and they want to share and they want to feel supported and they want to give support. Just just an incredible experience.   - Wade Brown And with respect to receiving care, it really wasn't until late last year. It was in the fall for sure, before November ish. My family had engaged with Riley Hope and Healing for counseling and support. Are you familiar with Riley?   - Liesel Mertes Yes.   - Wade Brown And so so Mike, Cynthia and the younger kids were in that, and it was with success. And I had just never been inclined to seek that kind of help or support. And so I did. And it was an and it was also with the encouragement of cup of a couple of people that are closest to me at work because they could see it, they could feel for me just the ups and downs.   - Wade Brown And because I had for the you know, for the seven, eight, nine months prior I had carried my family, I had carried my community, the homeschool kids that I had mentioned before, like, we have a tremendous a very large circle of friends and and support.   - Wade Brown And so I was doing all the talking and I was trying to provide that that comfort and their therapeutic support for everyone around me, but none for myself. No, it was incredible. Just that it was it it still to this day, I mean, I have a whiteboard and a notebook, you know, just full of notes and thoughts and and and so where I'm going with that ultimately is what I've tried to do then, especially through COVID. But it started late last year and it's and then I continued it into the new year. And then, of course, COVID gave it a whole kind of change.   - Wade Brown The color of the mosaic is weave. I and my team host mental health, stress, anxiety. We do awareness calls. We bring guest speakers on. And the first thing we did when COVID four started was about managing stress and anxiety at home. It wasn't about were. It was about your personal space. And we had a wonderful doctor come on in. And what happened on the other side of that, Liesel, was was amazing because the distribution list on the Skype broadcast, it went out to, I think, about six hundred people. Then we expanded up to about 850 people. And then when we got the count afterwards, we had like twenty five hundred people on it now.   - Wade Brown But there is a multiplier that comes of that, because I got numerous notes from people that were on that listen to the broadcast and participated in the Q&A that they didn't do it just themselves because everybody's working from home.   - Wade Brown They had brought their high school kids, their college kids, their their partners or spouses. There were families listening to this. So you know that now you're like four to five thousand people. And so but that's it's important for us to put it out there and and have those expressions.   - Wade Brown Everybody has their Joshua. And I think that that's not the case. I think is I don't think it's genuine. I think it's naive. And I actually think it's a bit dangerous for the health of the organization because you're just ignoring your comment before we're all holistic people.   - Wade Brown You can't you can't cleanly segregate work from your home life. You can't. And so and so why would you why would you try and I think in you know, early in my career, I wouldn't have been so open to that.   - Wade Brown But certainly the last 15 years and now with with what's happened with Joshua, I'm all in. I just don't want a complete belief system that has matured and expanded because of this.   - Liesel Mertes Well, and man, absolutely. I resonate with that deeply as it relates to my work of building the capacity for support within teams. And just the like you said, there's there's a cost to ignoring it.   - Liesel Mertes There is is not a zero sum game. There's a cost to the stability of your people. You know, there's only there's only so long that you can hold it all together before it starts coming out in your ability to play well with others or complete tasks or in your physical health. You know that the ties to, you know, unreconciled stress and how it can come out in the winds, the body keeps the score.   - Wade Brown  Yeah, really true.   - Liesel Mertes I, I want to I want to back up just a little bit because, you know, even the statement everyone has their Joshua, tell me a little bit about Joshua. Where does he fall in your birth order? And we'll go from there.   - Wade Brown Yeah, sure. Well, he was just a beautiful young man. So he's number seven. He's my my sixth son. My seventh. My seventh child. And just a beautiful, beautiful young man. If you saw his image on unlink and it just, you know, platinum blond hair, blue eyes, six foot two at 14 years old. So a couple of my kids have been early bloomers. Joshua certainly was more than those, you know, six to at 14 and just absolutely strong as a horse.   - Wade Brown And any head that his hair, when he teased it up, was six five maybe.   - Wade Brown That boy loved his hair.   - Wade Brown But he just just a fantastic kid. We saw I mean, he was in two different youth groups, played on two different basketball teams. Was just, you know, we never know. No trouble at all.   - Wade Brown And, you know, with a family my size and having been a dad for 30 years, I've had a lot of, you know, a lot of conversations with teenagers and in college age kids. And, gosh, even after college, it's still got stuff to talk about. And Joshua just was we just not it wasn't it wasn't like that with him.   - Wade Brown He was just just so good and pure. A great friend. And because of because of his his size at a young age was always girls following him because he was just, you know, bigger, stronger than the other kids that were in his class.   - Wade Brown And so just a beautiful, beautiful young man and. Yeah. Yeah.   - Liesel Mertes I love that. Right. Tell me a little bit about the events that led to his death.   - Wade Brown Yeah. So we were so so with respect to, you know, him taking his life, committing suicide, were there were there was nothing. We had no indicators. It done his homework and clean the kitchen. Cynthia was at a book club meeting with some of her other friends. And so he was here with my two younger kids. He had done his homework, cleaned the kitchen, made sure the kids were safe, and then came down into my office and wrote us a note on my whiteboard.   - Wade Brown And then and then he he took his life.   - Wade Brown So I was in Chicago on one business, on the perfect I'm a road warrior. I've traveled most of my 32 years. My family's very accustomed to that. And so I was we were finished with our meeting. We'd gotten back to the hotel after dinner and there were three or four of us sitting, having a glass of wine and and just just talking. And we were just hanging out a bit before before going back to our rooms.   - Wade Brown And I got the 911 text message from from Cynthia. And so I called. She told me the news. I had gone into a back hallway to talk to her. And I came back out and told my colleagues that I had to go. And, of course, they could tell that something was wrong. So I share with them what had happened. And, of course, we all embraced. Cried a bit, and then, of course, they wanted to drive me back to Indianapolis like, no.   - Wade Brown I got this. And so I drove back to Indy, got home in the middle of the night. You know, of course, all my mom was here and all of the, you know, the the emergency response, the first responders, all of that was was done. Joshua wasn't here any longer. And so it was, you know, just sitting here with my, you know, my family just trying to understand, you know, what had happened.   - Wade Brown And and, you know, so it's it's really it's difficult to explain, you know, really. But what I would you know what I've I've tried to the word that just I think. Describes best. What that felt like, it was just the suddenness. It was it just in a in an instant. In an instant. You know, you go from a book, you go to a before and after, like there's a whole line, a line that strong there and it's still in it.   - Wade Brown It's still there. And it's never going to go away. And so it's not moving on from it. It's it's moving on with it, as has has been infamously said. And I I believe that.   - Wade Brown And so, you know, the the if so, then there's and it's kind of the multiple frontiers that you have to manage. It's of course I have a job, I have a team. I support account of me. What's going to happen there?   - Wade Brown I've got a family that I've got. I've got to get through this. What's going to happen there? We've got a community. You know, Josh was was was very well known and and and very much loved by a lot of people. And so, you know, how do you kind of how do you patch that together and and push through? So, you know, it was it's. The suddenness and grief is a nasty announced, a nasty monster.   - Wade Brown You know, it doesn't. It doesn't no place. It certainly has a purpose.   - Liesel Mertes You talk about the unpredictability of grief. Which absolutely I am. I find that so so you're wearing multiple different hats. Your your hat as a spouse, as, you know, a manager, also as a parent. I'm struck that there's something pretty profound about walking with your children through their own grief and their different responses. What was that asking of you? Even even in how it set you up for in November, realizing, oh, I also need counselling?   - Wade Brown Well, it's I think, you know, one of the things that we tried to recognize Cynthia and I get when you're just you're. In the immediacy of the moment is the grief is different for everyone. And and we we wanted to be very, very careful with our kids not to try to superimpose what we were feeling on them and and vice versa. And so especially in the you know, the I would say through much of last year. So it's not it's not the same today.   - Wade Brown Much more so, you know, in that and in our first year, so to speak, because you have so many firsts. You know, Joe Joshua's birthday, you know, those those things you have you kind of kind of step through. We've tried we've tried to with our kids like it's it's OK, it's OK to talk. It's OK to express the Riley open healing counselling and and therapy, especially for my two younger kids, has been extraordinary.   - Wade Brown I will always be indebted to those folks. But really, it's that it's OK to talk about especially having so many boys in my family, not necessarily a boy versus girl thing, because my daughter, my oldest daughter is much like me. She's she tends to be, you know, keep, you know, keep those things inside a bit like I do. So what I tried to do for my family, demonstrably up to and including, you know, seeking some some help myself late last year was to was to put reflections out there and to be vulnerable and to talk about it and to cry.   - Wade Brown And so that they would feel that it was that it was OK. And I've done the same thing at work, too, with respect to grief. And so, you know, we talk about the interlaces between work and home have taken that same approach with the folks that are my immediate senior staff and the people that I'm closest to and that it's OK to talk about it. It's OK to cry. It's OK to recognize when it's there, when it's got you how to see it, and then kind of how to work your way through that grief.   - Wade Brown So there's a bit of a long answer, I hope. I hope that helps that we still we still ongoing with my kids, you know. I guess it's not with the same frequency through much of 2019, but, you know, daily reflections, daily reminders of hope and of grace and of love, so that we just felt that it was very important for my kids to see from me. And Cynthia would agree as well that while there are plenty of opportunities to be angry, we don't want to be angry.   - Wade Brown We don't. Joshua was a beautiful, beautiful young man. And Joshua is not suicide. Joshua is a 14 year old who did an adult thing in a moment of weakness and we'll never know why. He's a kid that did an adult thing. He's not suicide. And so, you know, it's important for us to demonstrate to our kids. And I try to do it at work as well. We choose love and grace. We do. And and to the greatest extent that we can model that and encourage others to see and feel the same thing.   - Wade Brown I think that's a that's a purpose and a mission that I'll have. For the rest of my life, I've got I've got another expression here on my whiteboard and I'm sure this one and messages through the COVID period at work just because of the high level of stress and anxiety. And it says if you're going through hell, keep going. When you're reduced to nothing but soul, you radiate an extraordinary power. And that power is called grace. So let it shine.   - Wade Brown And and I believe that. I believe that. So that was long answer to your question. So there you go. This is that you could talk about for a very long time because you're not a single way to express it.   - Wade Brown You know, it's it's because it it it's it changes over time. And the intensity is never the same. You know, grief is a grief is an incredible an incredible experience. I don't know how else to say.   - Liesel Mertes I am. I love that quote on the whiteboard. I can imagine some people as they think about their own journey with grief. I'm thinking, man, I. I feel completely reduced. And what was revealed was not Grace. It was some pretty ugly stuff. Did you feel. Have you felt those moments as well? I'm utterly reduced and I'm not finding myself as a graceful person right now?   - Wade Brown For sure. Hundred percent. Absolutely. Absolutely. And in my I mentioned Tina before, she's she's incredible. And she has been she's been a life partner for. For Cynthia and I. She she watches me like a hawk. And she can tell if I need a break. If I'm if I am. And distant as she's she's dialed in and she's tuned in to me for sure. And she'll tell Cynthia that those two probably talked to each other more than they talk to me.   - Wade Brown So and I'm lucky and fortunate and blessed to have that.   - Liesel Mertes Tell me tell me a little bit more about that, because it touches on these very important aspects, I think, of self-awareness and self care that in good times can be less on the forefront. What are some of the things that are signposts or signals to you of like, oh, oh, man, I'm struggling, I'm on the brink of being overwhelmed? What are some of the things that give either Tina or you pause?   - Wade Brown Well, you know, Liesel, I have I've said it before.   - Wade Brown I have that I just have the distinct privilege of leading women and men that do extraordinary things within within our health care industry. And my job. Is to make sure that they can do that safely, that they can do that to the best of their ability so that they are productive for themselves, for our company and for the customers that we support. And so I take very, very seriously the fact that the things that I do and say have a direct effect on others and their ability to be happy in their career and take and to provide for their families and actually meditate and pray on that.   - Wade Brown It would not be truthful to say every day. But darn near every day of my life. It's part of my my spiritual journey.   - Wade Brown And I take it very, very seriously.   - Wade Brown And so I do a lot of one on ones. I have a big team and a big kind of stakeholder network that I have to stay in touch with. So I like last week, for example, coming back from our vacation in Charleston. Now, I probably I I had three dozen one on one calls. And so when I on the phone with a director or a senior director or a supervisor or could be a customer, but it's usually, gee folks, I have to be my best.   - Wade Brown They're there. It's almost like an athlete on the field. You know, it's like you. They deserve my very best. And so what I've learned to recognize is that when it's not there, it's just not there. And and so what Tina and I talk about and what she helps me keep a pulse on is if I'm just down and I'm not going to be able to give that that next person my best, it's better to pause. It's better to just wait.   - Wade Brown And the folks around me know that. And they're comfortable with it. Know, no, there's not been any repercussions from that whatsoever. In fact, I think there's it's been the opposite.   - Wade Brown It's just that ability to say, you know what, I'm not OK today and I need to I need to do something different or I need to take a break or I need to get out of my home office, especially during this COVID stuff.   - Wade Brown So that's you know, that's probably the the best kind of example I can share is I can I've I've just I can recognize when those feelings are there. And through counselling have also come to understand that you can't just shove them aside because they don't go away. And they're not like fine wine that you get, they will get better.   - Liesel Mertes So they don't get better with age.   - Wade Brown They don't age well.   - Liesel Mertes Well, I'm struck that it's a choice towards brave vulnerability and being able to ask for that space. I'm struck that, especially for classically high performers, that that can be wrapped up in some feelings of self judgement or shame of like I shouldn't need to ask for this. I'm used to being able to perform easily and consistently. Did you encounter some of those initial feelings of shame or I should just be able to push through this? And if you did, how did you work through some of those feelings?   - Wade Brown We thought so, yes. And it still happens today. I mean, it's not something that you just turn off. It's just something that you kind of experientially you learn to recognize and work through. And and.   - Wade Brown Again, through, you know, the chats that I've had with Elizabeth, it that really hope and healing, it's important to, it's important to do that and and allow it to have its moments so that you can address it and not try to just stick it in your back pocket. But shame, I don't know that shame might be a bit of a strong way to to say it. But I as I said before, I take I take my job very, very seriously, as we all do.   - Wade Brown And that doesn't necessarily make me special or unique.   - Wade Brown But I know the things that I do and say have a direct effect on others. And so I and I want to give them my best. And if I can't do it in that moment, it's OK to wait for a moment when I can.   - Wade Brown So but I still it still comes up for sure. Like even, you know, you know, going through second quarter clothes and what is arguably the most difficult financial operational quarter I've ever had to lead a team through, you know, did trying to get to the finish line and, you know. You're like, OK. I have no choice. I have to push through because now people are depending on this financially. Right. And so you have to muscle your way through some of those things.   - Wade Brown It's not an absolute either or if they're right.   - Wade Brown Like they're still going to be those moments. You know what? Yeah. Just gotta go. Just get to bed. Just go. But that's not all the time by any means.   - Wade Brown And and I'm also a year and a half removed from Joshua's death. So it's not it's not like it's not like it was, you know, a year ago this time it's you know, it's it's changed. It's adapted. It's evolving. So and so by and so is my support network.   - Liesel Mertes You know, frankly, you've you've touched on some of the things that are at work, whether that was resonance with people that came up to you after speaking or the support that Tina and your mom provided over the phone. What were other things that were especially meaningful to you in the aftermath of Joshua's death that you said, well, this like this meant something deeply to me. I'm so glad that people moved towards me in this way.   - Wade Brown Yeah, that's so. This is an easy one. And it was Joshua's visitation and his funeral. And we had we estimated between nine hundred and a thousand people. Wow. Came for Joshua's visitation.   - Wade Brown And so we were at the church. And of course, there's lots of people there. And it's it's a significant emotional event. And I knew I was going to have some visitors from from GE and from Roche because Roche is local. And, of course, you know, I've got the folks that I work with actually as well. What I wasn't expecting or prepared for was that it would be like a hundred from all over. I mean, people flew in from all over the United States to be there with.   - Wade Brown With me and my family, and when I'm in this greeting line, you know, it's, again, this sudden it's like a week before that. None of this existed. And so now you're thrust into this and you're at the church and it's it's your choice and it's for your son. It's for your child.   The company headquarters are in Milwaukee and a group of his colleagues chartered a bus to come down to the funeral.  And they arrived wearing team fleeces that Wade had passed out earlier at the team retreat.  This visual display of solidarity was incredibly powerful.    - Wade Brown Oh they were filing in through the door in those blue pullovers and it was, it was surreal. I, I, I've never, I've never felt moved that way. Really in my life. And it was it was extraordinary. And then soon after I started recognizing Roche faces as well from my team that I led while I was at Roche Diagnostics. Obviously, some from here from Indianapolis, but also people that had traveled in from from all over the country.   - Wade Brown And it was incredible, really. It was incredible. And then the next day at his funeral. Not all, but many of those same faces were still there, especially from, you know, from my GE crew. And so just to see them when I was giving Joshua's eulogy served as an incredible source of strength. It didn't make me sad. It actually it actually was fortifying, if I could say it.   - Wade Brown And it helped me deliver a really, really difficult message. And which. And the promise for Joshua that pulled forward that we pulled forward from that eulogy. My team has helped. Kerry,   - Wade Brown The second one, there's a bit of a long answer to your question, the second one we so already touched on before and there's been lots of private moments. There's there's there there's too many. And there's been so many private moments. Just calls, text messages. I get I get pictures of rainbows every day of my life from all over the world, literally.   - Wade Brown And it's because of the promise for Joshua. But the when I spoke on stage last May. 2019. And what happened in the two days that followed. Liesel, as I shared before, I, I just never experienced anything like that in my life in it and it's in it. It had two clear sides to it. It was the one side just being oh my gosh, that was hard. And I wasn't, I wasn't ready. I wasn't mentally or emotionally prepared for what came to me in a couple of days, even beyond that, beyond just those two days.   - Wade Brown But certainly in those 48 hours, because you're held hostage at a meeting resort, you know, you're you're in a hostage situation.   - Liesel Mertes So you may see. But still a hostage situation.   - Wade Brown It you're right. So you're on a compound, you know, with with 500 plus people. So there's no place to hide. But the but the just this real at the other side of it was just this realization that and everybody's got it. And people want to talk about it. And to the extent that we can foster an environment where people can do that and feel comfortable. I think it's additive to, you know, to everything that we do.   - Wade Brown And we represent, you know, as a team and as a company and and as friends. Frankly, I work with people that I would do anything for. And I would have I would have held that belief before the Joshua experience. But certainly now I've just the personal and public, private and public support that I've received from people that I work with. And this has been has been extraordinary.   - Liesel Mertes I am. I always like to ask as well, because we learn both from people's positive experiences but also from the negative ones. Lots of times when people are people get uncomfortable as a default, sometimes with other people's pain, and they find themselves saying or doing things that kind of missed the mark. As you think back on a town like a lot of positive experiences, what are those that you would say, oh, man, like this? This was just bad. I would I would counsel people. Don't ever do this. This really missed the mark with me.   - Wade Brown I up I got some of those. I call it. I'm sorry. That used to be well but it's but it's just part of the journey.   - Wade Brown I mean, really. And and so it's not all rainbows and butterflies. There's there's also been some in, you know, some intensely inappropriate moments. And so I've I've definitely had a couple of those. I think. You know, soon after Joshua died, this was within. In fact, it was live. I did a I did it. I took my team into the woods again. So you'll see a trend here. Liesel, I like to I like to do meetings that are different.   - Wade Brown And so I love getting off the grid because then you can just be you can be yourself better. We had done that. My my boss, Rob, had actually encouraged me to cancel the meeting and just can just wait. I strongly disagreed. I needed to be with my people. And so Joshua died January 30th. And so this was in in late March. So this was just a couple months later. And and I needed to see my people.   - Wade Brown I needed to be able to tell them, one, that I was OK. And two, that I loved them for everything that they had done for Cynthia and myself and our kids. But that first night, there were a handful of us that were having an evening libation. And somebody looked at me and said, "Wow, was Joshua bipolar?" And I, I, I was it took my breath away. It just the timing. It was just it was it was it was.   - Wade Brown Wow. I can't believe you just asked me that question about my about my dead child. And that one sticks with me. And so I that, as you can tell, that when it came came out pretty quickly. Yeah. There's a there's a I call it fresh eyes.   - Wade Brown So when you get when you see them   - Liesel Mertes Just for a second, because I think it's I want to unpack that because I think it's a there's perhaps something profound that did that didn't feel particularly hurtful because it felt detached or because it felt judgmental or not hitting you? Like as you think about why that comment hit you the way it did. Like what? What is at the root of some of how I just felt so jarring?   - Wade Brown I think that the words you use judgmental is probably appropriate.   - Wade Brown It just it felt like we had we had and we still to this day, we do. That's not what we believe to be the case. Joshua, there were no no expressions or symptoms or manifestations of a mental the mental health issue or issues. And certainly had had we had never sought any counseling or help for any symptoms with Joshua because there weren't any. And so but it wasn't just that that I was asked that question. It was inter-group price.   - Wade Brown And it was just inappropriate. And I. And it it it lacked empathy. Yeah. It just it was completely void of any empathy. And just a lack of self-awareness. And it hurt.   - Liesel Mertes Yeah. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for unpacking that more. I hear a certain speculative nature to it. Just maybe somebody their own curiosity more than attention to you or certainly attention to the wider group setting as being particularly wounding.   - Wade Brown Yeah. Especially, you know, 60 ish days afterwards. And just just shouldn't have done it.   - Wade Brown There is there's an expression that Cynthia and I use and it's I deemed it fresh eyes. And what I mean by that is when you encounter somebody who doesn't know their eyes. And so there's a there's a a paradigm shift that happens once you share that that's, you know, that that that's happened in your life, that you've got a child. It's. That's especially teenager has committed suicide. 14 year old. There's a paradigm shift that happens in that moment. And you can see there the expression in their eyes change. And so I. I look for that. And when I see it, I try. What I've learned is because I don't think in. Nobody has poor intentions. They just don't know how to react because it's they're hit with that moment of suddenness as well. It's a sad story.   - Wade Brown It's shocking. And so I try to, you know, immediately provide some reassurance, you know, that it's OK. It's OK to talk about it. Just to to help. You know, help settle them down, because it can be very. It can be very unsettling. Right?   - Liesel Mertes Yeah, it will. And I. I hear in that it's it is a particular it is a particular burden. That can happen in its own way, because if you're a perceptive person, you know that it throws the listener. And then especially in those early days, it can be its own burden of having to shepherd their response, like, oh, now I've got to like, strangely kind of care for you and let you know that I am okay enough, then it's OK here. And it's it's particular nuanced. What can often happen in social dynamics.   - Wade Brown Well, it is. And it kind of goes back to your your question before about like so what's what's not being good or being uncomfortable. Well that's, that's, that's into this part of the equation because you beat it.   - Wade Brown So I of course, I always feel compelled to reassure them that, you know, it's OK to talk about what we're doing, OK? And if they if they give some offer of condolences or say they're sorry, then of course, acknowledge that and thank them. Thank them for that. What what can sometimes follow, though, is it it's not quite as as biting as you know, was Joshua bipolar. But then there's this assumption. That because we've experienced this, that now I have this definitive tie to mental health.   - Wade Brown I'm not sure that I do or I don't.   - Wade Brown And so because I've been asked to speak specifically about mental health in my research. And so my response is, well, I'm not sure you like what. And under what context and what what would you like me to talk about? Because I am not a therapist. I'm not a psychologist. I'm not here to diagnose anybody. I'm just a witness for something that happened in my life that I think provides just innumerable teachable moments.   - Wade Brown And I love my son in the best way that I can honor my son and carry him forward is to share the story in such a way that it helps others. It's not that it's not to get pity. It's not to get sympathy. It's because if you hear my story and then you have a conversation with a teenager that helped you avoid what I've gone through, then that's a victory.   - Liesel Mertes If you were speaking to a listener who is walking with someone who has recently had a child commit suicide, what particular words would you offer them as to how to come alongside that person?   - Wade Brown Well. That's a tough one we saw and I've actually. You know, fortunately, unfortunately, I've had those experiences, teenage suicide is is not a one off event.   - Wade Brown Yeah, it's. It's you said it's a it's a terrible travesty within within our world today and in in our culture and not unique to the U.S. But certainly that's what we feel here. And I I get to have these conversations. And so, you know, I, I try to. Hit and it's. I've had it with a couple of people that I work with, actually. And then, of course, you know, there's been some community touches there, but it's really it's it's.   - Wade Brown I wouldn't expect anybody to try to, you know, really fully understand or or try to heal me. It's really just to be supportive and to listen and and that it's OK to talk about and that, you know, there's nothing. There's there's a suicide, you know, just has this this, you know, this nasty kind of. Or about it that it's that it's not supposed to be talked about, that it's it's a private thing. I'm struggling for the right word.   - Wade Brown It's like a.. What would you call. It's like the. It's like it's taboo or anything. Yeah. Like you're not supposed to talk about it, it's like this secret thing and it it only happens in the most tragic of situations and. And how did you not know what happened? Oh, it was going to happen. Did you see signs? I mean, I ask myself that every single day of my life and I will the rest my life.   - Wade Brown But it doesn't have to be that way that it's OK to talk about it and it's OK to hold someone's hand and let them cry and to empathize with them and where they are and be there to support them.   - Wade Brown Yeah, I guess I want to answer more specifically for so I guess maybe I'm just struggling to come up.   - Liesel Mertes That's a good answer. I appreciate those insights.   - Wade Brown It's hard. I mean, it real, it's it's one of the it's I had a quote, a colleague that passed away last week from a long, long battle with pancreatic cancer. And I've known I knew Jeff for. Going back to my first time at GE., so more than 20 years and the guy guy's a warrior. But. In an ad in that not that this doesn't make it. I'm not trying to minimize it at all.   - Wade Brown But that's not what I'm doing. But it was. Gonna happen soon. Is it like that? It's that, right? It's just the suddenness of it. It's so different. It's even something I've talked about this like even if if you know someone who's lost a loved one in a car crash, it again, the suddenness. But it was an accident. It was a it's just it's just different. So I try to just. There's a.   - Wade Brown There's just a notion around suicide or or knowing someone that took their own life. I feel it's it's just it just need to be there. There's there was another notion that I wanted to share to. And if I can't, maybe. Now does it. Yeah.   - Wade Brown  It kind of goes back to the things that I've learned and what's kind of the on the good side of the ledger and the difficult side of the ledger. But what I've recognized is it's not really it's not really a difficulty.   - Wade Brown It's just a recognition that people are different. And their response and their approach to me is going to be different depending on who they are. And Liz, share this with me at Riley. And it's, there are sprinter's and there's marathoners. The sprinters are going to be there in moments and they're gonna love you and they're going to support you and they're going to embrace you and they will do anything for you. But then they move on. Right. But they'll come back.   - Wade Brown It's not that they're disingenuous. It's just their approach is, hey, I got you. I've got you right now. I'm talking to you right now. And I take care of you right now. But then the next day they're off. Then they're right. The marathoners like Tina, my my admin partner, she's a marathoner. She's with me every single day. Same level of intensity. And neither one is right or wrong. They're just different.   - Wade Brown And so I've offered that as well as I've had conversations where someone someone's at a loss in their family, especially with suicide, is that there's going to be people around you that are going to be there for you in the moment. But then they move on and then there's going to be people who are just going to be checking on you every single day. And neither one is right or wrong. They're just they're just different. So don't I would because what happened with me, the sprinter's, so to speak, to people who would check in, I like, wow, was that genuine or not?   - Wade Brown Right now they don't want to talk about it.   - Wade Brown They want to talk about work. They want to talk about you want to talk about football. I get what I've got confused by that. But at a more clear with experience that there is a distinct difference there. And neither one is is right or wrong. They're both they're both good, well intentioned. They're just different.   - Liesel Mertes Yeah. They definitely both hear that and have experienced that and can even think in my own experience as like the person on the giving end, like, oh, I was a sprinter there and I was a marathoner there.   And it's it's a it's a good lens to be able to look through. Yeah.   - Liesel Mertes You mentioned at the top of our conversation that the verse in Joshua one nine and Be Strong and Courageous was an anchoring sentiment for you.   - Liesel Mertes Tell me how you are, how that is continuing to influence you here in July of 2020?   - Wade Brown Well, as I've said and I've written grief Ben's time. It's like it doesn't no time. It doesn't no place. And so we're we're gonna forever be on a grief journey. And so in those moments where you need for me, if I just need a booster shot, it's a go-to. It's my son's name. It's yeah. It's it. It's an incredible verse in and of itself and the depth and the meaning and the context. And so it's a it's a go-to, Liesel.   - Wade Brown And it's that way for all of my family. I even have it in my phone a little. Auto type I put in JVB, Joshua Thomas Brown and Joshua, one nine with the Rainbow spits out, you know. So I use that. I use that. I use that frequently. And we have it, you know, obviously. Well, you wouldn't know. You haven't been here, but it's visible in our house in a in a multiple a multitude of ways.   - Wade Brown And yet it's a go to. It's a safe it's a safe place for my family.   - Wade Brown And in some of the people that I work with as well. Yeah.   - Liesel Mertes Thank you for sharing that. Is there anything that it feels important to add that I have not asked you that you would like to? Reflect on.   - Wade Brown Yeah. So I would I would love to. Just ask those that that listen and yourself to make that promise for Joshua. You know what I've. What I've learned and continue to learn. Is, you know, these. Teenage suicide is is real and and but I've also understand that it's difficult to talk about.   - Wade Brown And so but I also know that it's necessary. And so I would my ask is, you know, for for anyone that is listening in to make sure that you're talking to the kids in your life and it doesn't just have to be your own children. We're, we're parents, we're teachers. we're coaches, we're neighbors, we're parishioners, we're all of these things around kids. And I think in and in today's world with COVID and now with and all of the things that we're seeing, you know, through the news and social media around the country, kids, it's so easy for kids to end up feeling alone and isolated and trying to find happiness in a screen, whether it's their phone or or otherwise.   - Wade Brown And parents just yet, adults need to make sure that they're engaging with kids. And while it's difficult, it's necessary to talk about suicide and talk about hurting yourself. And so that that would be an ask. I would have. Liesel, is that is that folks make that promise do. And it's not a one and done. It's not. And if you see a rainbow no matter where. No. No matter how you use that as a reminder to have that had that conversation.   - Wade Brown Make that promise for Joshua. I have I have accumulated very specific examples of those conversations having taken place where interventions occur. And so I just been prevented. Now, it doesn't mean that it's prevented forever. But in that moment, a suicide was was prevented. And it's because of job, because of Joshua's promise and telling kids it's okay to say something. If it's a friend, if it's a neighbor, if it's a classmate and something's wrong. It just takes three words, you know.   - Wade Brown Dad. Something wrong, Mom? Something wrong? Yeah. Because I would rather lose a friend.   - Wade Brown In the short term, then to lose a friend forever, and so that would be at least I just   - Wade Brown I think it's you know, there's so much pressure on kids today. They've been taken out of schools and put at home. They, you know, for the longest time, couldn't even go see their friends, kids coming home from college campuses. It's not just teenagers. I mean, young adults as well, unemployment. And then, of course, all the things that we see in the news with the riots and in protest.   - Wade Brown It weighs on kids in an extraordinary way. And we just can't be dismissive of it. The fact that sometimes those thoughts come in there and they have to be talked about.   - Liesel Mertes Right. Thank you. That's a good and important word. I appreciate that.   - Wade Brown Yeah, for sure.   MUSICAL TRANSITION   Here are three take-aways from my conversation with Wade Showing up matters.Go to the funeral, send the text, make the call.  Even if you don’t fully know what to do or say, your support matters.  And this is a sort of point 1b guidance.  When you show up, especially in the aftermath of someone committing suicide, try to be aware of appropriate boundaries on how and what you ask about.  Wade spoke to the pain of having someone pry into whether or not Joshua is bipolar.  And here is a bit of guidance.  Before asking a question, take a moment to interrogate yourself.  Are you asking about of your own curiosity or because you are actually trying to support the other person?  You might have noticed in this episode that I did not ask about the details of how Joshua committed suicide.  This was purposeful.  If someone is not offering those details, I choose not to root around for specifics.  Knowing the details of death does not have a material impact on how I can come alongside someone.  More than anything, it serves my own curiosity and could feel prying and invasive to the person I am in conversation with.  Take a moment to pause and reflect on why you are asking the question you are asking as you relate to a parent who has lost a child.  And if you blunder your way into a mistake, go back and apologize.  When it comes to comfort, Wade offered a metaphor that was powerful and nuanced.He talked about how there are marathoners and sprinters in the world of the grieving:  there are people that will be able to come alongside you with great intensity and then seem to fade away and there are those that are there for the long-haul.  It is with great maturity that Wade talks about how one is not better than the other and that recognizing people’s different capacities allowed him to not just feel confused by those that seemed to be present than then fade away.  Cultures of support are essential to helping your team thrive.Wade noted several times that everyone has their Joshua:  everyone has a pain that they carry into their workplace.  Through his loss, Wade began to cultivate a purposeful openness and culture of support in his team at GE…and he attributes this openness to significantly contributing to his team’s ability to weather the challenges of COVID-19.    OUTRO Resources for talking with your teen about suicide: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psychoanalysis-unplugged/201807/speaking-your-teen-about-suicide   General information on teen suicide: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/tween-and-teen-health/in-depth/teen-suicide/art-20044308

- Jason Seiden That meant that I would gladly, if I could be the last person ever lose a child. I would I would take that on, if I could, to say it like that's how horrible it is that I don't ever want anybody else to feel it. And so other folks actually telling me that they're happy and that they're like, I think they would feel like I would feel worse, like rubbing it in.   - Jason Seiden But actually, no, you know, that's it's the opposite. Like live your life. And tell me you've opened up your eyes and you're stepping into it and you're aware of the discomfort and you're aware about the hard choices you're making and you're doing it and you're celebrating those wins because they're so few and far between. Those were, the those were the best things.   INTRO   Jason Seiden is joining me today to talk about his daughter Elle.  Elle was passionate about social justice causes, possessed of a sardonic humor.  She was insightful and creative…and she is dead.  She committed suicide after suffering from debilitating pain due to CRPS (complex regional pain syndrome) diagnosis and committed suicide at fifteen years old.    What does it mean to honor her legacy, to remember her in all her fullness?  What does it mean as a father to live a life that encompasses such a profound loss but is not ultimately defined by that pain?  Jason is articulate, reflective, and honest in this powerful conversation.    Before we begin, I’d like to thank our sponsors.  First, we are sponsored by FullStack PEO.  Providing full-service solutions for entrepreneurs and small business, FullStack manages the details so you can get back to doing what you do best, running your business.  We are also sponsored by Handle with Care HR Solutions, with engaging, interactive training ans coaching sessions, we empower you to give meaningful support to your people as they go through disruptive life events.    Back to our conversation.  First, as a sidenote, Jason was sitting outside during the first part of our conversation due to water damage and clean up crews in his house…and you might hear the birds singing under some of his thoughts.   In the months after my daughter, Mercy, died, someone reflected that there wasn’t a word in the English language for a parent who has a child die.  If your spouse dies, you are a widow.  If your parent dies, you are an orphan.  It is almost like the death of a child feels so against the nature of things that language itself can’t encompass the loss.    Jason and I began our conversation talking about the difficulty of talking about the death of a child.  Jason has founded and sold businesses, he is a gifted teacher, trainer and communicator.  He recalled putting together a presentation on the fly.   So. Yeah. So I a 19 and a half minute clip. And I lost the teleprompter halfway through. And still in one take was done in less than 20 minutes.   - Jason Seiden And then my partner at the time spent three hours trying to record the same 20 minute clip. Yep. This is hard. They said this is this is you know, I'm speaking from a much different place and I'm surprised at how difficult it is.   - Liesel Mertes One person's journey is not anyone else's. But I remember specifically in that the aftermath of my daughter Mercy dying. It felt so in. I mean, there's so many things that make it feel de-centered. And but for me, like if there's anything that I traffic in and feel comfortable in the world, it's words like it's it's been able to communicate. Similarly, you know, I have my own stories of like know what? Like I feel adept in that realm.   - Liesel Mertes And to come to a place where it's like I. I feel. It just feels different. And it felt it felt like it it have done a skill set, that it was like I'm normally so comfortable doing this.   - Liesel Mertes How could even this feel altered? Well, you're aspects of that.   - Jason Seiden And I know you well, I want to talk about the journey since losing Elle. But I think this is this is actually a great opener because it's it's true. I've journaled my entire life. I've written my entire life. I've written books. I have novel length stories that you'll never see the light of day written. And when when I wrote after her passing, I went back to read some of those journals. And some of them are very clear, like, this is a man who's in pain and who's articulate about it.   - Jason Seiden And then there's other journal entries that are just noise. It's you read those you like. Oh, that's what it looks like. It's unintelligible. It's it's it's complete. It's just you. These are not sentences. These are not phrases. That makes sense. These are, this is raw stuff. And it's remarkable. And you kind of say to yourself, I'm good with words. I lived with a thesaurus, I'm specific with them. And if I'm struggling to find just even the basics, how is everybody else going to do?   - Jason Seiden Right. You know, we don't we don't step into things that are hard. We tend to avoid things that are hard. And this is this is the hardest. So I think most people avoid grief when possible. Certainly the kind of grief that we've had. And that just means, they're completely unprepared. I was entirely unprepared for what happened. And trust me, if I could have avoided it, I would have. It's a hell of a journey to be to find yourself in particular for the first time.   - Jason Seiden And then also you are surrounded by people who are equally as inarticulate to help.   - Liesel Mertes And that's you know, that gets to also the profoundly isolating nature of grief because to to communicate where you are, like it's hard enough to just know, like, you feel like you're throwing words against a wall. But to be able to be understood by another person and that can just feel so daunting. Like, I don't even know how I'm feeling. And now I've got to find some words to have, you know, what I'm feeling.   - Liesel Mertes And maybe it's just better to be alone. You know, it can be that retreat. And to just I don't even know.   - Jason Seiden Yeah, well, I think there's a, I think there's a lot of truth to that. If I go back, I still default. I bridge that problem with something that I started defaulting to the week Elle passed. So I lost my daughter a year and a half ago. Coming up on two years, actually. And she, she died of suicide. She had been very sick prior to that. And she was in intense pain. She had a condition called CRPS. complex regional pain syndrome.   - Jason Seiden And it's it's just it's nerve pain. And it's always on. It never stops. Nerve pain, like when the dentist hits the nerve in your tooth and you hit the ceiling. And she had it in both her legs treatments for years. Nothing was was helping. It was getting worse in certain circles. It's actually known as the suicide disease because it doesn't have the decency to kill you. But, yeah, it's it's close. You know, it's terminal.   - Jason Seiden Who can live with that pain or that amount of time? So there's others, too. It sounds awful, but there's this one benefit that I got, which was despite having lost her to suicide. I don't I don't wonder. Could I have done more? Was there you write like that. Mental health is invisible. And it's real, but it's invisible and it's it's difficult as a human to accept things you don't see without wondering, could I have had some sort of control over that?   - Jason Seiden And when it's physical and you can see it, it's a little bit easier to go. I couldn't control that. That was a thing. And it was a whole conversation we could have around mental health and how it needs to be in the same category. But for, for this, what I wanted to say was in those early days, the words that it was that were most easy for people to find were were those around how Elle died, what she died of, what her condition was prior.   - Jason Seiden And I very quickly found myself initially trapped by that. It put me in the past. It put me you know, I had, had this journey of trying to help her and in all kinds of stuff was going on. You can imagine the complexity of the dynamics of dealing with, by the way, not only a crippling disease, but the most misdiagnosed disease out there. Right. It just was so I didn't want to be in that space. And it kind of struck me one day to a lot of thinking and metaphors.   - Jason Seiden And I couldn't find the words myself, but I had this metaphor that sort of hit me. I'm talking about Elle in terms of CRPS would be like talking about MLK, Martin Luther King, in terms of gun rights, you know, or Anwar Sadat in terms of gun rights. It's like, yeah, these guys were assassinated. That's true. But they stood for something else. They lived for something else. What they lived for what they died of were totally different.   - Jason Seiden To make MLK the poster child of gun rights would be to lose his legacy as a civil rights leader. What a shame. You know, you kind of you know, you'd have to kind of look at him and go, OK, technically true, but we're not going to use him for that. Like, we're not gonna make him. And I don't mean to use him. Right. But we're not going to. That's just not going to be his legacy.   - Jason Seiden And with Elle, sorry, it was just it was the same thing. You know, she was a social warrior. She lived for stuff that she didn't die of. And so I found those words and I found it. Redirecting people really helped me control my narrative. And I still do that. I still use that today.   - Liesel Mertes And tell me a little bit more about her, about some of the things that made her distinctly her and those causes. And particularly if, you know, she's she's a she's a fully fledged person behind the memory I'd love to hear more.   - Jason Seiden Yeah, absolutely. And so very early on before she was born, I just had a feeling about Elle. And I've got I've got two daughters there and I've learned first on Elle. And it's just proven true with my other daughter as well, that as a parent, my job was just to get the stuff off the high shelf.   - Jason Seiden You know, these kids coming up, they're fully formed. They're they're, a bit like flowers. Right? Do they have to for all. They have to blossom. But the flowers in there.   - Jason Seiden Nothing I could do to change the raw material. And and, you know, so Elle was very special. She, she had a wicked sense of humor. Like, just even from a very, very like an impossibly young age. Understood sarcasm. I don't know if your grandparents on your side. I mean, she couldn't because she couldn't have been like more than a year old. And my grandparents would come and babysit her for more than once. She's understanding sarcasm. Yeah.   - Jason Seiden I changed the tone of my voice. And she doesn't laugh. I flip the words around. She looked like she only laughs when it's a deadpan opposite, you know? The description is deadpan and opposite of what's true. She is following sarcasm. And it just, it was why she was always very tapped in. She she just you know, she came to this world with knowledge that you look at her and. There's no way that that knowledge came from five years of existence on this planet.   - Jason Seiden It's just kind be living proof of something bigger.   - Jason Seiden  And she had a way of getting noticed. I'll tell you one story, which is just one of our segments. When the girls were maybe 7 years old, I took to sort of overnight count drops kids leave families rent cabins, and then have a dozen families in those camps all up in Sweetwater, skier No.12 things. They did a talent show and one girl after another is getting up and doing cartwheels and walkovers.   - Jason Seiden And they're up there for ten seconds. Let me run off the stage, get going.  Elle gets up there and start a cappella singing. Don't stop believing.   That's awesome.   - Jason Seiden And the camp director stops her, runs up to the stage. Wait, wait, wait, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. And I'll think something's. She turns on all the equipment plugs in her iPod, iPod, and let's Elle do the full five, five and a half minute song scene over Steve Perry. We're all downloading on our phones. The lighter apps are holding them up like a concert.   - Jason Seiden And that was Elle, you know, just just being able to put your finger on the gestalt start of the moment and own it. And it is remarkable. And so you're kind of one of the reasons why I don't like thinking of her when she was sick was all of that power. It's not just that it went away. It never went away. So, you know, somebody with that much kind of cosmic ability gets sick, real sick. It's just it's so wrong and so far away from what she works for, what she stood for.   - Jason Seiden She was always so zoned in. So you wanted this story. This is actually relevant to her legacy. So I do a lot of communications work at my house up with certain companies and also internal internal comms. Well, politics has a role in that. And there's an immediate negative connotation to politics that people have. And so to break it out, I would give people this moral dilemma. And, you know, I just let them sit with it where they realize, OK, I may not like politics, but they're real.   - Jason Seiden I can't escape this question. Damned if I do or damned if I don't. It's one of those kinds of things. And I posed it to Elle. She's 10 years old. And Liesel, I'm telling you. Maybe two adults out of hundreds. I posed this question to and Elle heard the question and she said, well, you know, the only way to win is to not play you both these actions. Horrible. It's just a you're just choosing which value you want to violate and which value you want to maintain.   - Jason Seiden That can't be true to yourself with either. You know, I think the outcomes once you're in that position. Like, oh, my God, she's 10. And she understood that. And here so, you know, so it's, it just it felt. It has always felt important to honor, you said, who she was. Things that made her unique.   - Liesel Mertes Yeah. Those are some remarkable memories of who she was and, yeah, what she brought the color and dynamics.   - Liesel Mertes I want to talk about, yeah, the journey after her death.   - Liesel Mertes I'm, I'm struck that even as you are carrying her legacy, you, you are also shaped by who you needed to become in the midst of watching her be sick.   - Liesel Mertes What were some of the things that you noted in yourself as a parent, at that time, that shaped you?   - Jason Seiden The things that I noted as a person and same things and as a person of. Life has to be lived and risks have to be taken. The only way to not make a mistake is to not play the game. And that's so you're just not safe as a as a parent. I'd always cited my job as kind of two parts, one part keeping my kids safe and two parts helping them unlock who they are and, you know, make the most of this world. And, you know, my daughter's gone. So a very, very fundamental way, I did not keep her safe.   - Jason Seiden We can have a very intellectual conversation, Did I control her getting ill. And, of course, like, you know what? No, of course not. But it's like you're never going to tell me. I will never be able to feel that as a parent because she's gone. I. So this the game, whatever, whatever that's I was making whatever balance I was trying to strike between keeping you safe in the world or the game with her. It was frozen.   - Jason Seiden Right. It's it's lockdown. There is no no more time on the clock. There's no hope. There's no tomorrow. There's nothing's going to change. And so they're validating that recognition that there is no safe there. There is no harm.   - Jason Seiden By the way, not only do you have to play the game and not only your mistakes be made, but there's consequences for those mistakes. People will be hurt when you make a mistake. I've had to I've had to come to grips with that both as a parent and as a human.   - Jason Seiden And it's, it's, you start to see the world a different way.   - Liesel Mertes What, what does, I'm struck by how profound and. Yeah. Awful. That feeling is because so much of what we get to do living in like a wealthy, affluent, you know, society is we don't have to feel unsafe in so many areas of life. And and to feel it at such a visceral level is horrible. When you say, you know, I've had to come to grips with that. What has that looked like for you?   - Jason Seiden I don't know. That's a powerful question. I'm not sure what it looks like, but I'll tell you, it feels like things. It feels like my life before was it's just been pulled to the extremes. And I'm not dealing with any emotions that were foreign to me. I'm just dealing with a lot more of them. So it's funny, I actually said, you know, here's this girl who introduced me to stretch my capacity for joy in one direction. And then the passion stretched my capacity for sorrowing another.   - Jason Seiden On some level, like how do you just not feel gratitude for somebody who gives you more life to live? And. It shows like that.   MUSICAL TRANSITION   - Jason Seiden You're constantly playing other people's emotions at life events and realities. You have to live your life. If you live boldly, you will. Other people will be hurt. And you have to be OK with that. I'm not saying you should be indiscriminate or not care. I'm just saying to be simultaneously OK, moving in the light, doing your best, try and take care of people and understanding you can't save everybody. In fact, the act of saving one person might cause somebody else to be hurt.   - Jason Seiden Yeah. And you feel it if it goes through an intellectual concept to something, you feel very deeply and constantly.   - Liesel Mertes Elle died. And you said it's been a year and a half.   - Jason Seiden Yeah. A little more coming up on two years.   - Liesel Mertes Okay. Still, when something horrible happens like that and even, you know, the. The journey of walking with an often misdiagnosed disease. All of those things. What were you finding that you, what were people offering you in the way of, like comfort or presence in that, you know, messy aftermath? That was really meaningful to you? Or even now, just things that you'd say, "Man like these people did it really well. They came alongside me and it mattered?"   - Jason Seiden It's for windchimes. So that's, that's Elle. They went off the top of our call and I just heard them.   - Jason Seiden Yeah. So. For so long, surprised at how much. I'm not somebody who asks for a lot of emotional support. Probably not dissimilar from a lot of men that way. But I was surprised at how much I actually needed it.  They were largely, I was really struck in the immediate aftermath at how supportive people were. It was absolutely incredible.   - Jason Seiden My professional colleagues are scattered all over the country, all over the world. And without my without my engagement, a few of them, Mark Stelzner, Lori Rudiment. Susan Strier.   - Jason Seiden I had friends who, you know, without without my help. I put up a page and tribute to Elle. She she died a couple of weeks before my birthday day. They promoted it for my birthday, a tribute to Elle and I just watched, I watched for  for twenty five thousand dollars get raised in a day in honor of my daughter for a small handful of charities. The Human Rights Campaign, chief amongst them. The United Colors Foundation, which helps LGBTQ homeless youth and Burning Land, which is a CRPS foundation. And it was it was absolutely incredible.   - Jason Seiden The next thing I know, the CRPS Foundation has a grant in its name that had been funded. HRC flew a flag in my daughter's honor, which I now have. It's it was astounding. So, in the immediate aftermath, how important, it was incredible,   - Jason Seiden As you can imagine. You know, as time goes on, everyone goes back to their lives. I've had a handful of people have continued to reach out. And it's so helpful. On the homefront. Everybody here has been incredibly helpful.   - Liesel Mertes What has that continuing to reach out looked like?   - Jason Seiden Literally just a check in and a thinking of you. That is all it takes.   - Liesel Mertes I think sometimes people fear that because they think out of the person doesn't want to talk. Or what if it brings up bad memories? Maybe I just won't do that. From your experience, how would you speak into like that, that cycle of second guessing that people can have as they should. I reach out and I'm out. What if they don't want to talk   - Jason Seiden I'd go back to what I was saying before? You have to live your life. You might make mistakes. Go make the damn mistake. Engage and you know. OK. So I'll tell you, the waffling shows up. And from my perspective, as the one going through this, It shows up and I can see it a mile away and I end up in a position then of having to take care of the people who are reaching out to me. Sure. I know it's fairly common. And, you know, and you do a great sweat.   - Jason Seiden I mean, like, this is such a horrible thing. I get it. We don't spend time with this if we don't have to. I'll assume it happens to you or something you're close to. You don't have to. Yes. So the, the, the fact that people are unprepared for it, I'm not surprised. The most helpful thing, we just when people reach out.   - Jason Seiden Actually, the most helpful thing is when people would reach out and say, I'm thinking of you. I just had a lovely time with my family. Oh, great day. And I was thinking of you and I was thinking about. And I gave my kids an extra hug and I made sure I didn't take it for granted. That made me happy.   - Jason Seiden And it's, it's so funny with these people would reach out and, I can't imagine what you're going through. And I always look at them and be like, why would you take one moment of your life and try to imagine what I'm going through? But yet we all know it's horrible. Don't waste your time. Just write like it's horrible. Check the box pass, you know. You know, it's a kids with, you know. This is gross. Taste it. No, no, no. Not to me.   - Jason Seiden Yeah. It's like that. Except with consequence, you know. No. Right.   - Jason Seiden I actually loved when people would tell me that, you know, they were thinking of me and they weren't taking the life for granted as a result because that meant that Elle counted.   - Jason Seiden That meant that I would gladly, if I could be the last person ever lose a child. I would I would take that on, if I could, to say it like that's how horrible it is that I don't ever want anybody else to feel it. And so other folks actually telling me that they're happy and that they're like, I think they would feel like I would feel worse, like rubbing it in.   - Jason Seiden But actually, no, you know, that's it's the opposite. Like live your life. And tell me you've opened up your eyes and you're stepping into it and you're aware of the discomfort and you're aware about the hard choices you're making and you're doing it and you're celebrating those wins because they're so few and far between. Those were, the those were the best things. Yeah.   - Jason Seiden I mean, I will say because it's relevant. I mean, we we. We tend to think of our personal life happening in one area, in our professional life happening in another. And they don't. A decade ago, I actually coined a term, "profersonal" for, you know, this notion of the bleed over. You know, we spend a lot of time working. And so what was really surprising was how difficult that transition was without the folks on the work front doing some of that, acknowledging as well.   - Jason Seiden Not just my friends. But, you know, this is where I'm spending my time. It really helps when, when professional colleagues check in as well. Otherwise, your your work starts to feel like just this void where it's like I have to go put on a, you know, put on a mask for the majority of my day.   - Jason Seiden You know, I I think this notion of. The notion of grief at work is not trivial. It's a huge part of people's days. And, you know, I'll say I worked at it at an organization when this went down. You know, the organization I was with great culture, phenomenal culture. But this was a this was a blindspot. And it showed, and it it had an impact, like the journey could have been different.   - Jason Seiden And. What I, what I could  have done quicker or more of, I think would have been. It would have been. I could've done more. Yeah, I couldn't move through some of this faster. And. And at the end of the day, I think there's a real. You know, I I'm getting through it. I will get through it. But I think the organization lost something. And when you kind of look at large organizations with hundreds or thousands of people, here we are in COVID, and the loss is real.  People are losing people.   - Jason Seiden And there there's complicated grief happening out because they're they're unable to be with the ones they love. Now is the time to actually step into this and to have that compassion. The benefits are are substantial. They're. And they're there at multiple levels. The economic benefit, the just, the benefit to us as humans. I think it's important that our organizations step into this breach and start recognizing grief is something that we all have a responsibility for helping people through.   MUSICAL TRANSITION   - Jason Seiden You know what it is? I'll preface this by saying I don't blame anybody. It's not an area. We haven't quite evolved to this yet. I think we're on the front edge. I think people such as yourself are on the cutting edge of bringing awareness to the business environment, of the importance of dealing with grief effectively. So, you know, we're we're getting out.   - Jason Seiden We're getting a handle on DNI. And I think in that same bucket. This is this is their belonging. When you start thinking about belonging as a as a goal for DNI. Well, belonging. If you're dealing with something that nobody else is dealing with, whatever that thing is, that's your your barrier to belonging. So hopefully as we kind of move in this area, the will all get better. But, you know, it's little things. It's.   - Jason Seiden First of all, texts and messages from people are super helpful. Doesn't take much. It's just like, hey, just checking in. How you doing? The gap is experienced when you don't get those more, when the only time you do get them is on the front end of a call where you're talking about other stuff. Because, you know, I would get that from my manager. Looking back, I think the only times there were check-ins were back at the top of a call.   - Jason Seiden I'd be like, hey, how you doing? OK, great. So here's like the five things that we've got to go through today, right?   - Liesel Mertes It feels like. Yeah. Just like, hey, are you are you ready? I'm with tasks because I certainly am.    - Jason Seiden And so in, you know, like, OK, great. And so it's it doesn't count, you know. And it creates this problem with the other person thinks, I'm checking in. And you're like, no, no. You're just making sure that I'm ready to go through your agenda. That's not a check-in.   - Jason Seiden That's like.   - Jason Seiden It's like, you know, is your you know. Can you can you mute the background noise? It's it's administrative at that point.   - Liesel Mertes Different than having, a specific time that is not encumbered by any other aspects of an agenda that would, you know, crowd it out. Yeah.   - Liesel Mertes Sometimes people say ill conceived, offensive, stupid things to people who are grieving.  What were some of the least helpful things that you heard? That you say, you'd say, you know, you can do all kinds of things, there's a margin of error, but don't do this. Let me do you a favor. Don't do this.   So I'll give you so I'll give you three answers. Number one, there's always some people who are close to you who are surprising in their lack of support And so I had two of those two people who just AWOL, like shockingly AWOL. Oh, my gosh. Right. So that's. The lack of saying something is saying something. There are, then there are people who make it about themselves.   - Jason Seiden So when I was getting married, I remember the people who were in the inner circle. Right. You're a close friend. We'll get married and you find that the venue was small and you'd call and be like, dude, totally get it wherever you need to see this, totally fine as long as I'm in the venue. You do what you gotta do because you're going to have some issues here with your seating chart so you can see it coming.   - Jason Seiden I mean, it was the bubble. People like the people who were barely they barely made the cut. They're the ones who would be pissed that they weren't in the bridal party, too. They're like, dude, this is so backwards. Same thing in reverse. You know, my best friend like that. You know, Lori and Mark and Susan putting that thing together. That is so incredible. The people who showed up and who were part of it.   - Jason Seiden Amazing. And then, you know, there are the like the one or two people who who are like I was just I was appreciative that they showed up. And then I find out later they were angry that I didn't include them in the planning. And I'm like, they are so far out. They had no idea; I had nothing to do with the planning. But this was all you have a group coming together for me, like this wasn't me orchestrating.   - Jason Seiden I wasn't using Elle to. This is happening in support of her.   - Jason Seiden Right. And so that that's been that's been disappointing. You know, again, there's nothing that gets said. You just hear about that stuff sort of second hand. Right.   - Jason Seiden Then then the third part is just people who don't know what to say and you know, and they try. And I actually appreciate these people. It's it's hard for everybody. I can't tell you how many people asked me, how are you feeling today? And I'm like, you know what?   - Jason Seiden Good. Right. OK. Awesome. Like you went digging. You found the Sheryl Sandberg Plan B. Quote. And Granny read the headline and you're giving that to me. When you start getting the same question over and over again, it's it's hard. You know, I like you. You wish people would kind of real deeper or maybe find another avenue or, you know, kind of go, OK. But everybody else is saying this. So can I find the next thing?   - Jason Seiden Can I can I have the conversation to the second sentence? And so I don't want to. I want to discourage people cause it's so important to get started. I think it's just also really important to be thoughtful and to not stop at the first perceived solution. So it's not that those people said anything bad, it's that the ones who go beyond stand out that much more.   - Liesel Mertes Yeah, I hear that I'm struck. So I am reading there has been a book that that has just been published. I think it's it's called Meaning, The Sixth Stage of Grief. I'm going to check that for sure. But it's, it's a researcher who had worked with the Elizabeth Kubler Ross Foundation and after the death of his son said, you know, I feel like although these five stages that were described, they're not linear. They were never meant to be that way.   - Liesel Mertes But that the fact that an important stage for a number of people is actually the meaning that they are able to make in the aftermath of loss. Not that we. And he says there's a diversity of ways that can be another. The death in and of itself is meaningful. But there are different ways of making meaning from this and how the people who live beyond that integrate a loss or grief into their lives   - Jason Seiden Kessler.   - Liesel Mertes Yes. Yes. Have you read his book?   - Jason Seiden I have not read it yet. It's on the list.   - Liesel Mertes Yeah, I've heard him on an interview.   - Liesel Mertes It's I've appreciated it so far. It strikes me that making meaning has been an important aspect for you. Tell me what making meaning has looked like for you.   - Jason Seiden Yeah, it's some. I hadn't really thought about it until I kind of heard the concept and realized, yes. This is true. Life is really random. Right. So here's, here's something that that death does. It brings a finality to a relationship that cannot be undone. And it leaves you, you know, it's like the other side of the game. A tug of war drops the rope and you're just and you're left in this you're flying backwards stage.   - Jason Seiden Except there's no there's no hard ground to land on. There is no other person to laugh that they let go of the rope like you are now potentially flying forever in the wrong direction. And finding meaning is really for me. It's been around, you know planting my feet under me and just bringing that momentum to a stop and recognizing I can't honor Elle if I'm crumpled in a ball on the floor. I can't honor Elle if I'm in the past, you know, grieving her illness or thinking of her sick.   - Jason Seiden I can't honor Elle if I'm in the future, if I'm anxious about will this happen again and like this happen to somebody else and what if and what if I hurt somebody? And what if I'm responsible?   - Jason Seiden What if I did? None of that helps. And so for me, finding meaning has been around what Elle stand for. How can I honor her? What should I do? What can I do today that she would be proud of? And really, that's about grounding myself in the present and finding a way to conduct myself. That starts just getting through my day. Right. It's like, OK, I can't honor her if I'm crumpled on the floor.   - Jason Seiden So what does that mean? It means I have to choose to be happy. I have to choose to live like I have to choose to get up. I have to have to choose to try. So that looks like putting my feet on the floor. Getting out of bed, making the bed, making coffee, certain, basic stuff. And as and as I kind of got that underway, then it was like, OK, well, what am I doing?   - Jason Seiden What should I go do today? Well, I should be healthy. I should go for a run. You know, the CRPS attacked your legs. I'm going to go run. And I'm I'm I'm go use that part of my body that she couldn't. Because if I were you know, it's like if I want people to tell me that they're happy and they're not taking their families for granted, I have to assume she'd want the same. And so I'm going to do that.   - Jason Seiden And, and right then it cascades up from kind of the basic stuff to what am I doing, like, on a higher level and my leaving the world a better place. Am I taking care of the people around me? But at the end of the day, finding meaning has been around grounding myself in the present so that I can honor her in a way that also allows me to move forward.   - Liesel Mertes I think that there are some people who would hear something like that, you know, they would this, Elle want me to live fully and be happy and I'm purposing to do that, that for some people that can morph into, I'm, I'm just not going to think about these unpleasant feelings anymore. When they come up, it could be its own form of avoidance and pushing those things away. How do you, how do you live into that meaning without just ignoring the painful feelings that can crop up unexpectedly?   - Liesel Mertes How do you still acknowledge and honor some of that sadness and emotion?   - Jason Seiden Easier said than done. I can't say that I do that perfectly. This is, this is not a topic that I speak easily about and I actually don't speak a lot about because it is hard to step into those feelings without kind of getting lost. But.   - Jason Seiden I think. For me. If I'm totally candid there are parts of it that could feel sacrilegious. There are times where moving forward actually feels like it's gonna be disrespectful like that, the respectful thing to do would be to sit and cry and grieve and be a mess and that the way to honor her would be show her how important she was by showing her how incapable I am of moving forward without her.   - Jason Seiden And at those moments, it's a hard choice and the hard choice is to remember, we are all individual people on this planet and me doing that, me, quote unquote, honoring her in that way would be to lose two lives. So that doesn't work.   - Jason Seiden And then you get. Right. So that's, that's sort of one path. And so I just I allowed the emotions and the thoughts to kind of carry me to get to that point. And I'm like, OK, I can't do this.   - Jason Seiden It doesn't work. So even though the other side, even though moving forward doesn't feel right, I just proved to myself that sitting here in a bar wallowing doesn't work. So I'm going to go make that choice. That doesn't feel right, not because I'm drawn to it, but because I am repelled by this other thing.   - Jason Seiden And then, and then there's another part too, which is there's a piece of it that's like, well, to honor her feels like picking up her torch. And carrying that and becoming the social worker, becoming her, doing the things that. And I run into the same problem. We're different people. He, you know, I can support her causes and I am. But I'm I'm taking my time because, this happened to me. It could very easily be the thing that defines me.   - Jason Seiden And I've spent my entire life to defining myself to be something else. I'm not ready to just let this become the thing. You know, there's the guy lost. That's not who I am. What I want to be is the guy who shows people how to continue to be themselves. Even when something like this happens.   - Liesel Mertes Yeah.   - Jason Seiden And so, you know, so there's a it's it's hard, you know. What does it look like and how does it feel? Sometimes it feels sacrilegious. Other times it feels like I get selfish.   - Liesel Mertes We are drawing near the close of our time. But I'm struck in that last thing you said, you know, you are you are not just a man who has had his daughter die.   - Liesel Mertes What are some interesting things that you like about yourself that make you you?   - Jason Seiden You know, it's a surprisingly hard question.   - Liesel Mertes Sometimes it can be. I have a friend who would do that to people on their birthdays. He would be like, you need to tell all of us three things you like about yourself. I felt kind of awkward.   - Jason Seiden I live out loud. I, I, I make my mistakes. My my dad used to say, my dad says, own your mistakes. They're the only things other than your name that other people won't try and take credit for.   - Liesel Mertes And it's a great line.   - Jason Seiden It is. And in this day and age of of digital piracy, your name's not even safe. So, like, literally, my mistakes are the only things I can. So I make them and I do my best to make new ones all the time. I try not to repeat. So I live my life. I learn. I still am learning. I am still open to learn. I don't.   - Jason Seiden I know what I know. And I. I've earned my gray hair once, I don't have to earn it twice like I know when I'm in a situation where I actually have an expertise, but I am well aware that it's a great big world. And, you know, I have like, this tiny speck of knowledge within it.   - Jason Seiden So, I appreciate the fact that at my age I can still look at the world with a certain amount of wonder and to sort of get lost in it and want to know how things work.   - Jason Seiden And. I. You know, I and I'm stronger than I realized. I have a certain amount of resiliency that I'm. This has not been an easy journey, but I'm I'm surrounded by people in this club that I don't want to be in.  But,  those of us who are able to persevere and make something positive of it. I, I see the people who aren't able to do that. And I can I can recognize that I'm I mean, about I have something to offer because the boat I mean, it's the boat of people who are able to move forward. And I'm proud of that.   MUSICAL TRANSITION   Here are three reflections from my conversation with Jason.   Even if you aren’t sure of what to do or say, move towards people in their grief.In his words, “Live your life, make the damn mistake,”.  You won’t be perfect and you don’t have to be but your support matters. If you are in a workplace setting with a parent that has lost a child, especially as a manager, make time to actually check-in with them, not just as an entrée to a meeting, ticking a box so you can get on with an agenda item.This might mean scheduling a call or a meeting that isn’t about a to-do list but only about hearing from them about their how they are doing.  Navigating life after the loss of a child is hard.Jason expresses the complex, internal challenge of moving forward, of not letting himself be singularly defined by Elle’s death.  Sometimes it can feel sacrilegious or selfish as he leans into life beyond his daughter, struggling to be and become himself even after tragedy.  If you are struggling in this journey, perhaps you find camaraderie in Jason’s reflections.  And if you know someone who has lost a child, perhaps this gives you additional insight.     OUTRO

Jason Seiden talks about user adoptionSubscribe to this weekly podcast series today.For more information, visit http://useradoptionpodcast.com For a book about user adoption, check out http://useradoptionbook.com Interview conducted by Henrik de Gyor Amazon Alexa Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Radio.com RadioPublic Spotify Stitcher TuneIn Questions?

In this episode, we chat with Jason Seiden, Speaker / Facilitator / Consultant at Jason Seiden LLC about transformation in the workplace. Jason lays out the necessary ingredients for business transformation, why it all begins with a sense of humanity and how essential subcultures are in the process. Jason and Charlie also discuss how pizza fits into the whole equation (trust us, it won't be in the way you're thinking)! Download this episode to learn more.

To learn more about how employee generated stories and content can build employer brand equity, we have had a chat with Lisa Cervanka and Jason Seiden of Brand Amper. Expect this dynamic duo of HR Tech to not only finish each others sentences, but to also give great answers to the following questions: Tell us about Brand Amper your roles there? Why do companies need employee generated content? What's the power of bold transparency? What's Glassdoor all about? What are the risks of not having employee generated stories? What are some of the challenges with current methods of creating and sharing stories? What’s a step-by-step guide working with employees to create and share original and branded content? What are the benefits to the employees and their personal brands? What social and digital channels are most important and why? What’s the ROI and how do you measure it? Technology selection considerations for employee generated content? What brands inspire you on social/digital? What’s the next big thing in this space? What are your words of wisdom to our listeners? Read the article: http://linkhumans.com/podcast/employee-stories-brand-amper Show notes: http://linkhumans.com/podcast Subscribe on iTunes: http://bit.ly/smknowhow

In this episode Matt Alder talks to Jason Seiden from Brand AmperSome of the most popular podcast episodes so far have been the ones that cover employer branding. We discussed how to measure the impact of employer brands as well as innovative ways of communicating them. Up to this point though we’ve not looked at the work involved in building them and the way in which some the traditional methods of employer brand research are being challenged by new approaches.My guest for this episode is Jason Seiden who is challenging established thinking about employer brand development via his company Brand Amper.In the interview we discuss:    •    Why traditional employer brand research takes too long    •    Turning employees stories into employer brand equity    •    The power of Social Proof in recruiting    •    Thinking about employer brand the same way as product placement    •    Why companies who are afraid of giving their employers a voice will failJason also talks about the fundamental changes happening in the way people in organizations relate to each other and the importance of company culture in this context.Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes

Key Interval Research analysts John Sumser & William Tincup join Jason Seiden for a frank conversation on the current state of HR in this Resonate Podcast.

In this episode of Resonate, Jay discusses how to convert his marketing principles for recruiting with host Jason Seiden

HR Happy Hour 199 - Employer Branding from the Inside Out  Recorded Tuesday January 20, 2015 Hosts: Trish McFarlane, Steve Boese Guest: Jason Seiden, CEO Brand Amper In the latest HR Happy Hour Show, Trish and Steve welcomed back our friend Jason Seiden, CEO of Brand Amper, one of 2014's 'Awesome New Startup' technologies from the HR Technology Conference to get an update on what has been happening with Brand Amper, and to talk about engaging employees in the brand and mission of the organization. Often 'brand' initiatives are drawn up in corporate boardrooms or by expensive external consultants without much thought or acknowledgement of what the actual brand messengers and deliverers, the employees, think or feel or believe. Jason talks about the importance and power of leveraging actual employees and what they actually think and believe and aspire to in creating, communicating, and executing the brand promises and delighting customers. Additionally, Trish and Steve lamented the sorry state of Email in the workplace, (it is NEVER going to die), and Jason shared why he wears the same black H&M shirt everywhere he goes. Steve is 100% with Jason on this strategy, while Trish has some concerns about the mental well-being of both of the gents. Remember to subscribe to the show on ITunes, or for Android devices, using Stitcher Radio. Just search for 'HR Happy Hour' and subscribe to never miss a show. This was a really fun show, and we hope you enjoy listening!

Jason Seiden @Seiden at Lunch with @DriveThruHR with @bryanwempen (Emeritus), @williamtincup & @thehrbuddy DriveThruHR was designed to be a captivating and easy-to-digest lunch discourse that covers topics relevant to HR professionals.  Each 30-minute episode features a guest speaker who shares her or his knowledge and experience in human resources. Our hosts and special guest cover a wealth of topics, including HR Technology, Recruiting, Talent Management, Leadership, Organizational Culture and Strategic HR, every day at 12:00 pm Central Time.  The radio program is hosted by @bryanwempen (Emeritus), @williamtincup and @thehrbuddy The #1 HR show, with amazing HR conversations and follow us on the twitters at  @drivethruhr and #dthr. http://www.drivethruhr.com/ http://www.facebook.com/drivethruhr http://www.linkedin.com/company/1651206 http://twitter.com/drivethruhr http://instagram.com/drivethruhr

Jason Seiden at Lunch with DriveThruHR at Lunch with DriveThruHR via Summer Brand Camp #sbrandcamp  @bryanwempen @williamtincup & @thehrbuddy DriveThruHR was designed to be a captivating and easy-to-digest lunch discourse that covers topics relevant to HR professionals.  Each 30-minute episode features a guest speaker who shares her or his knowledge and experience in human resources. Our hosts and special guest cover a wealth of topics, including HR Technology, Recruiting, Talent Management, Leadership, Organizational Culture and Strategic HR, every day at 12:00 pm Central Time.  The radio program is hosted by @bryanwempen @williamtincup and @thehrbuddy The #1 HR show, with amazing HR conversations and follow us on the twitters at  @drivethruhr and #dthr. http://www.drivethruhr.com/ http://www.facebook.com/drivethruhr http://www.linkedin.com/company/1651206 http://twitter.com/drivethruhr

Chicago. It’s a city with beautiful summers, the best food in America, overrated winters, and an increasingly vibrant tech community. Today, join Tom Johnson, Assistant Treasurer in charge of Business Development, for a look at how this city is nurturing its social media community and even using social media to conduct its own business—including with an event coming up … Read more about this episode...

Carl Smith, founder and “Chief Keeper Upper” of nGen Works, bases his management philosophy on the behavior of the mindless, spineless Jellyfish. And guess what? Whether you think that sounds cool or crazy, it’s important that you understand Carl’s philosophy. Social media is making the hierarchy obsolete for certain types of organizations. (Hint: if you’re in a constant … Read more about this episode...

As COO of Chili’s Bar & Grill, Kelli Valade is focused on store operations and the path to sustainable profitability. And while many in her position may perceive social media to be a threat to productivity, Kelli has turned employee engagement into a competitive advantage. How? Through giving. Every September, Chili’s, its employees, and its guests raise money to … Read more about this episode...

Jonny Imerman and his organization, Imerman’s Angels, have helped thousands of people by fostering 1-on-1 relationships between cancer patients and survivors who mentor them. Jonny builds relationships that change lives, but although community and awareness are his core values, he doesn’t use social media much to spread his message. Find out how he has built his incredible network—headquartered in … Read more about this episode...

When Melissa Wardy went to buy her young daughter a t-shirt of a girl flying a plane, she couldn’t find one. What she found instead were girl clothing choices that ranged from stereotypical pink to hyper-sexualized pink… and nothing but a sea of pink in between. Fed up with a world in which women suffer from body image issues, and … Read more about this episode...

This week, host Jason Seiden welcomes Laura Calandrella to Beyond Social. Laura spent 10 years traveling the world working with communities, governments, and organizations on social issues, and now uses her experiences to shape the next generation of women leaders. Want to know the world that social media is making possible? This is it. Hear it here first. … Read more about this episode...

You may have seen Erik Wahl on a TED video. Or on a YouTube video in which he and a small band of dedicated helpers craft a Mona Lisa out of desert terrain. But what you’ve never seen is his artwork for sale. You want it? You have to find it! That’s one of the many small ways in which … Read more about this episode...

This week on Beyond Social, Jason Seiden interviews social media strategist Carisa Miklusak of tMedia about what it takes to turn social media into social business. … Read more about this episode...

It’s a favorite pastime of adults to predict how modern technology will shape the future. But have you ever wondered what today’s children think about today’s technology? Have you ever sat down with a kid growing up in Facebook’s world and asked, “What does this mean to you? What excites you? What are you worried about?” I did. The conversation … Read more about this episode...

Yes, you are! So says Kemy Joseph, founder of the not-for-profit organization U R Awesome and a guy who I’m a huge fan of because his attitude is just so infectious… I’m smiling now just thinking about him. Kemy is midway through his World Kindness Tour, making earth a better place with free hugs, high fives, and peaceful … Read more about this episode...

@Seiden .....Jason Seiden visits with Bryan Wempen and William Tincup about HR and whatever else keeps him up at night with Corproate America. DriveThruHR more than not talks about Human Resources with HR professionals every day at lunch time for 30 minutes. Give us a listen at (347) 996-5600 and share your thoughts on twitter using #dthr or @drivethruhr. We talk HR along with lots of clever bantor and thoughts every day at 12 Noon Central time at "DTHR".

What does it take to turn a simple Twitter hashtag into a 1 million person movement that has put more than 2,000 people back to work? That’s what Margo Rose, founder of #HireFriday, has done, and she shares the secrets of her success this week on Beyond Social! … Read more about this episode...

The only thing that matters is influence on social media; “real world” influence is dead. So claims this week’s guest, John Sumser, publisher of HR Examiner and the brains behind a two-and-a-half year old Influence Project. So, what has John learned tracking influence in the HR space that makes him say that? And how does one become influential online? These … Read more about this episode...

Craig Fisher rejoins Jason Seiden for a thought-provoking look at the future of corporate America: with so much information now available online, how will the employer/employee relationship change? Hint: it’s a much more profound shift than you think… but don’t worry, the solution is much simpler than you think, and it’s something you can start working on today. … Read more about this episode...

You’ve got your website… you’ve got your social media profiles… how come no one’s calling? There is a science to getting found on the web, and this week’s guest knows it backward and forward. Willy Franzen, founder of One Day, One Job, has been using the science of search to put job opportunities in the hands of graduating college seniors … Read more about this episode...

Personal Branding is a hot topic… but is it all that it’s cracked up to be? When you’ve successfully created a brand for yourself, and the people you meet come to you thinking they already know all about you, how does that impact your career? And what’s it take for someone who’s not an expert in self-promotion to build a … Read more about this episode...

If you’ve ever thought that there is a lot more to social media than technology, then you’re going to love this show. I/O Psychologist Ed Ruda has been assessing the interpersonal abilities of Fortune 500 executives—including CEOs—for 35 years. Today, Ed shares his thoughts on the risks and opportunities of social media as a communication platform… as well as his … Read more about this episode...

Does embracing social media mean opening up your workforce to competitors’ recruiters? Yes… but not anymore than they are already exposed to recruiters… in fact, done right, embracing social media may actually reduce a workforce’s incentive to entertain recruiters’ calls. Join social recruiting expert Craig Fisher for an inside look at how recruiters use social media, and what business owners … Read more about this episode...

What if you could be completely fearless about the photos and information that get posted about you online? What would that look like? Join us for a fascinating discussion with William Tincup, co-founder and former owner of the world’s leading marketing firm targeting HR. Hear what pure authenticity sounds like as Tincup brings together insights from marketing, corporate communications, … Read more about this episode...

Jason Seiden interviews Erik Rabasca from Rally McCann on today's episode of Beyond Social!

Jason Seiden interviews Erik Rabasca from Rally McCann on today's episode of Beyond Social!

Jason Seiden, Craig Fisher, and Ajax co-Founder Vincent Gatti talk about employee engagement.

Jason Seiden, Craig Fisher, and Ajax co-Founder Vincent Gatti talk about employee engagement.

AjaxSocialMedia.com—Ajax Sales VP Craig Fisher reports on the future of HR and recruiting from Las Vegas.

AjaxSocialMedia.com—Ajax Sales VP Craig Fisher reports on the future of HR and recruiting from Las Vegas.

HR Happy Hour - Episode 92 - 'HR, Communication, and Social Media' Thursday March 24, 2011 - 8PM ET Call in 646-378-1086 HR. Communication. Social media. Need I say more? The ever thought-provoking Jason Seiden takes over the mic at the HR Happy Hour show to chat with Curtis Midkiff, SHRM social media guy, and others (hey—why not you?), about the ever interesting HR and Social Media space. Jason and Curtis and whomever else joins the fun this week are sure to provide interesting, compelling, and maybe even some controversial takes on HR, Communications, and Social Media. Call in with your thoughts: 646.378.1086 on the how's and why's of making social media work from an HR perspective. Seiden back in house, it is a good thing!

HR Happy Hour - Episode 78 - 'Politics, Religion, and Work' Thursday December 9, 2010 When it comes to what drives alliances and differences in the workforce, generational lines have nothing on politics or religion. In a poll reported on by MSNBC just before the last election, over 70% of people admitted to not being able to control their passions when it comes to politics. Think about that... how many people get so worked up over their generation that they can't control their emotions? So on Thursday night, let's dive in. Here's what we already know: -The company policy exists. -It's bad business to discriminate for any reason, including religious or political beliefs. -It's also illegal. -It's socially dangerous to talk politics at work. -Religion and politics are both are facing major crises of confidence today. Bad business? Illegal? Social danger? Institutions in crisis? This is starting point... let's see where it goes. The great Jason Seiden, author of 'Super Staying Power' returns to the host's chair this week for what will be a lively and interesting show, I hope you can join in.

HR Happy Hour - Episode 60 - 'Seiden Says' Thursday, August 26, 2010 - 8PM EDT This week the great Jason Seiden takes the reigns, guest hosting a special episode of HR Happy Hour. Jason is the author of 'How to Self-Destruct: Making the Least of What's Left of Your Career'; and 'Super Staying Power: What You Need to Become Valuable and Resilient at Work', as well as a speaker, consultant, swami, guru, svengali - you get the idea. Jason will take your calls and offer his own unique perspective on career management, navigating the complex world of the modern organization, and how failure is not only an option, it is an essential part of the journey. Please join us for this special episode, where we hand the keys to the HR Happy Hour over to Jason Seiden, for 'Seiden Says'.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 - 8pm EST, 7pm CST. The HR Happy Hour goes back on the road with a special live show from the Fail Spectacularly event in Chicago, IL. Details on the event can be found at www.failspectacularly.com. Joining Shauna Moerke and I will be event hosts Laurie Ruettimann from PunkRock HR and Jason Seiden from Seiden Leadership. And since the event will be packed with superstars, I am sure there will be a few special guests as well. Since there will be so much awesome to pack into one show, we will be live for 2 hours, with tales of failure and fun. Make sure you catch this show, on the road, in Chicago from Joe's Bar, you never know just what will happen.

Episode 12 - October 1, 2009 8PM Eastern (7PM Central). The HR Happy Hour is on the road for the second week in a row, this time live from the HR Technology Conference in Chicago. Shauna Moerke and I will welcome some old show friends (and some new ones as well) to talk about the conference, what technologies are catching everyone's eye, and where to find the best parties. Scheduled to appear live are Mark Stelzner from Inflexion Advisors, Laurie Ruettimann from PunkRockHR, and Jason Seiden from JasonSeiden.com, and maybe even a surprise guest or two. Join us for what should be a fun show.