Podcasts about say it with gratitude

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In this podcast, I'm interviewing Scott Colby - a motivational speaker and health coach. We're going to be talking all about gratitude this week, as it's the week of Thanksgiving! After an eye-opening experience in Guatemala, during which Scott witnessed firsthand the power of gratitude even in poor living conditions, he launched Say It With Gratitude, which helps companies grow their business by having gratitude as a core value. In addition to delivering his message of gratitude around the world, Scott promotes the power of thank you notes, leads gratitude adventures in the wilderness, and developed The Grateful Deck, a card game consisting of questions that spark meaningful conversations. One of his main focuses right now is helping hospitals, nursing facilities, and other healthcare institutions create a happy workplace by leading with gratitude. It truly was such an honor to chat with him about how we can infuse a little more gratitude into our daily lives. I hope you take a lot from this episode and apply any nuggets of wisdom in your own life as we move into this holiday season. :) CONNECT WITH SCOTT COLBY: Website: www.sayitwithgratitude.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/sayitwithgratitude?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottcolby CONNECT WITH NURSE COACH SHAWNE: Follow me on social media, visit my website, learn about my programs, and schedule a free Discovery Session with me! - www.alignwellco.com/links NURSE COACHES CORNER: Nurse Coach Tech Mastery Membership - www.alignwellco.com/membership Free Nurse Coach Tech Support Group - www.facebook.com/groups/nursecoachtechsupport Become a Transformative Nurse Coach! - https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=12341112&calendarID=7041974

In 2014 Scott Colby took a trip to Guatemala to help build schools with Hug It Forward that would change his life forever. The people had very little, yet they had a joyous and grateful attitude. Learning about the positive benefits gratitude can have on people, such as more happiness and optimism, Scott decided he wanted to create a gratitude movement called Say It With Gratitude. He created thank you notes with artwork from the children of Guatemala. He went on to write a book called the Grateful Entrepreneur, emphasizing the need for more gratitude in the workplace. We talk about how gratitude can bolster your business and bring more joy to your life.

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

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

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

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

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

In this episode, Founder of Say It With Gratitude, Scott Colby, talks about creating a happier workplace through gratitude. Today, Scott talks about the 5 languages of appreciation in the workplace, staying connected with handwritten notes, and how gratitude affects the bottom line. How can you infuse gratitude in the workplace? Hear about gratitude journaling, the gratitude toolkit, and get Scott's advice to his younger self, all on today's episode of The Healthy, Wealthy & Smart Podcast.   Key Takeaways “It starts with you first.” “Find out how each teammate likes to be appreciated at work, and then appreciate them in that language on a consistent basis.” “Write down one thing that you're grateful for each day.” “Almost 50% of workers choose Words of Affirmation as their first way that they like to receive appreciation at work.” “61% of all US employees are lonely.” “Start now. Do something. Compliment somebody. Flash somebody a smile. Do something different.” “Do some of this unplugged.” “Don't take things personally.”   More about Scott Colby After an eye-opening experience in Guatemala, during which Scott witnessed firsthand the power of gratitude, even in poor living conditions, he launched Say It With Gratitude, which helps companies create happy workplaces by having gratitude as a core value. In addition to delivering his message of gratitude around the world, Scott promotes the power of thank you notes, leads gratitude adventures in the wilderness, authored a book called The Grateful Entrepreneur, and developed The Grateful Deck, a card game consisting of questions that spark meaningful conversations.   Suggested Keywords Healthy, Wealthy, Smart, Gratitude, Appreciation, Connections, Affirmation, Quality Time, Service, Gifts, Touch,   Recommended Reading: The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace.   FREE Gift: Gratitude Toolkit.   To learn more, follow Scott at: Email:              scott@scottcolby.com. Website:          sayitwithgratitude.com. Facebook:       Scott Colby. Instagram:       @scottcolby.     Subscribe to Healthy, Wealthy & Smart: Website: https://podcast.healthywealthysmart.com Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/healthy-wealthy-smart/id532717264 Spotify:                       https://open.spotify.com/show/6ELmKwE4mSZXBB8TiQvp73 SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/healthywealthysmart Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/healthy-wealthy-smart iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-healthy-wealthy-smart-27628927   Read the Full Transcript Here:  00:05 Welcome to the healthy, wealthy and smart podcast where healthcare meets business with your host me, Dr. Karen Litzy. And just as a reminder, the information in this podcast is for entertainment purposes only, and is not to be used as personalized medical advice. Enjoy the show. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the podcast. I am your host, Karen Litzy. And today's episode is all about gratitude. So often we talk about gratitude in the context of our personal life, which is great, there's nothing wrong with that. But today, in this episode, we challenge you to start practicing gratitude in the workplace. So to talk us through is Scott Colby. After an eye opening experience in Guatemala, during which Scott witnessed firsthand the power of gratitude even in poor living conditions. He launched say it with gratitude, which helps companies create happy workplaces by having gratitude as a core value. In addition to delivering his message of gratitude around the world. Scott promotes the power of thank you notes, leads gratitude adventures in the wilderness, authored a book called The Grateful entrepreneur and develop the grateful deck a card game consisting of questions that spark meaningful conversations. So into the in today's episode, we talk about the five languages of appreciation in the workplace. So if you are a manager, or a CEO, or you own your own practice, you're gonna want to know what those five languages are. Because that's how you're going to want to speak to your employees, how to stay connected with handwritten notes, and how gratitude gratitude affects the bottom line. So I want to give a big thank you to Scott for coming on and talking about gratitude in the workplace. And so I'm very grateful for him. Everyone enjoyed today's episode. Hey, Scott, welcome to the podcast. I'm happy to have you on today.   02:01 Hey, Karen, thank you for having me. Looking forward to a great conversation.   02:06 Yeah, it's my pleasure. And today we're going to be talking about happiness and how to create a happier workplace through gratitude. So before we get into the meat and potatoes of our conversation, can you let the listeners know a little bit more about why you came across this topic? Why this is like your expertise. So go ahead and give the listeners a little bit more backstory, if   02:31 you will? Yeah, certainly. So back in 2014, I took a trip to Guatemala, I was there to build schools with an nonprofit called hug it forward. And we were building schools out of plastic bottles. And one of my first memories of that volunteer experience, it was about a week long experience was I was riding a bus with 25 other volunteers. And we pulled up to the site. In a community called Chinook stay in Guatemala, we pulled up to the site where we were going to be volunteering, and I didn't know really what to expect. And I looked out the window of the bus. And it looked like the entire community had come out to greet us. And there was people of all ages, kids and parents and grandparents. And as I stepped off the bus with the other volunteers, the community had formed two lines. And we walked in between the two lines of people. And we felt like rock stars, or at least I did, walking down the red carpet, there were people waving the American flag, there was music blaring over the loudspeaker, just they were hugging us and just had smiles all over their faces. And I really learned that they were just being grateful for the volunteers that we had taken time out of our schedule to take that trek to Guatemala. And the other thing that I learned over my week long experience there in genetics day, was that the community had very little, very little clean water. They don't have the smartphones and the internet that we take for granted very little food, cramped living conditions. But they had community they had each other. And again, they had gratitude and appreciation for just other human beings. And as I thought to myself, when I got back, I was living in Denver at the time, when I thought to myself, after I return home, like cash, like how am I living my life, I'm living a life filled with complaining, thinking about all the things that I don't have. And in stark contrast to just what I experienced, and also looking at my life and other people around me, are always on our phones and we're always have our head buried in screens, and we're anxious and we're overwhelmed and we're not making deep connect actions anymore. It seemed like so that was kind of the first start that I had in my head, that, hey, I wanted to do something different in my life to make, to really live in gratitude, and to live with an attitude that I learned from the community and nginx de Guatemala. And then also, I think, and we'll probably get to this a little bit later in the conversation, just my experience in the corporate world of, yeah, you know, I've had jobs where I don't feel appreciated in the workplace and how much of an impact that made to my to my happiness, we spend a lot of time at work. And if you're not happy with your job, and a lot of that is not feeling valued or not feeling listened to that can really impact your your mood and your attitude. And really, whether you want to stay with a company or not. So kind of putting all that together that led me to start a brand called, say with gratitude. And it started with thank you cards, and now it's morphed into where I speak on the topic of workplace gratitude.   06:05 And you alluded to this, but I want to dive right in. So how does this translate into the workplace? How does that action of gratitude, that feeling of being appreciated? How do you translate that into a corporate setting, or, in my case, I'm a physical therapist, so maybe into a healthcare setting where people right now are really stressed out and burnt out. And, you know, and carrying a lot of student debt, and empathetic loads, and everything else? So how do you infuse gratitude? What are your recommendations? Yeah, and   06:46 that's a lot. And I, I'm glad you brought that up, I actually just came back from Wisconsin, where I was speaking at a healthcare conference on this very topic. I'm a big believer that it starts with you first. So start with the person before we can maybe bring it into the workplace, because we need that. We need to have that right attitude. It's hard to it's hard to spread gratitude around the workplace, if you're feeling, let's say, depressed and overwhelmed and stressed. So what can you do to start your own personal gratitude practice? I also have a health and fitness background. So I love that you're in, in physical therapy. And yeah, so I, I always talked about the analogy of, you know, when you're on an airplane, and they're given the safety instructions, if the oxygen mask comes down, please put it on yourself first, before helping others. And I talked about that, because if you're passed out, how are you going to help other people, but we can maybe not literally get passed out. But we can have the feeling of like, Hey, I just can't do it anymore. So I think we have to take care of ourselves first with self care. And there's a lot of different ways you could practice self care, but for this conversation, what how can you practice gratitude, and help you feel better gratitudes got that kind of magical powers that it can help you be more optimistic, feel less stress, more energy and things like that. So where do we begin here? There's various ways to practice gratitude. Probably the one that people maybe, you know, they think of when they think of the term gratitude, just keeping a gratitude journal and writing down what you're grateful for. I've got a tip there, though. I know a lot of people that do do that just kind of go through the motions. And then you don't really feel that difference. Like if you're just saying like, Hey, I'm grateful for my cat Oliver, which we now know as parents cat's name. I'm grateful for all of her my health and my job. And then you turn the page and you fill out the gratitude the next day. What does that actually mean? It probably is not going to get you into a frame of mind where you're living in gratitude. So we're, I suggest people take it further is if you're writing down, you're grateful for somebody or some something in your life. Follow that up. By writing down why you're grateful for those things, or that person, what is it about that person that you appreciate that you love? And then I take it even deeper and I teach people think about what your life would look like without that person? Or that that thing without that job without your teammate? What would life look like then? And then when you do that, you say what, why and what would your life look like without then it creates a more emotional response. So I'll have people do this in my breakout sessions. And that's usually the hears, people have tears because they start to think, oh my gosh, my life without this person, I couldn't even imagine it. So I think that is one way to start a personal gratitude practice. So you're actually like, Okay, you're, you're reminding yourself of the good in your life. And then what does that mean for work and work, we could talk about two different things. One is like, leading with gratitude, which, in a sense, I take that to mean creating a culture of gratitude and kindness. So in healthcare, trading, treating your patients, like real people, and that have a heart and not just transactional. So I like to, you know, give examples, so people can really think about what this might look like in the real world. So I my favorite coffee shop in Denver, when I lived, there was a coffee shop called fluid. They, they got to know me by asking questions. I went there on a regular basis. So it wasn't just like, hey, here's your coffee, give us money. It was people that took the time to get to know me a perfect example. There was one day when one of my other cats we had talked about cats before we hit record. My other cat, Nomar who who's not with us anymore. He was having two teeth pulled. And so I was a little bit anxious and the barista the manager there, she asked me like, hey, you know what's wrong? I told her, her cat was having a tooth pulled that day as well, just coincidentally, and she just said here, your coffee is on the house today. And it was just just a little thing. But something like that can go a long way. Chewy. Speaking of animals, they're a company that sells pet food and pet accessories to pet owners. I know a lot of pet owners will get their food from chewy on an auto order subscription basis, they automatically send the food every month, and they take money out of your credit card. So there's a lot of stories, but it goes like this. A lot of times when a pet owners, dog dies, let's say or a cat dies, and they'll call you and say hey, please stop my shipment, my dog has passed away. Chewy, of course will express sympathy. And then they'll say, okay, all those unopened bags that you may still have, we will refund your money for all of that. Don't send the food back, we will, we would love for you to donate that food to a local shelter. And then a lot of times in a few days, sympathy flowers and a sympathy card will show up on the doorstep in just as a as an expression of condolences. So chewy is a company that leads with gratitude. So they're not saying like, we need your money back or we need the food back or we can't send these flowers because it costs too much. They're treating their customers like human beings that have a heart.   13:06 And then we've got appreciation in the workplace in the sense of all right, we need to appreciate our teammates, right? There's an interesting statistic. This is kind of a old statistic, Karen, but it's still relevant and maybe worse today. 79% of people in a research study a few years ago said that they left their job, in part because they didn't feel appreciated at work. So it wasn't like, hey, we need more money. Or we need to be you know, get promoted. It was really just not feeling valued, not feeling heard or listened to and not feeling like they mattered. So that's why I like to talk about Okay, starting with yourself first and then spreading it to other people like your customers or patients but also your team. And a great book is the five languages of appreciation at work. It's kind of a follow up book to the five love languages, which is was a popular book that talked about relationships, personal relationships, and we all have a preferred way that we like to receive love. We also have a preferred way that we like to receive appreciation at work. And the languages are the same five languages as the original five love languages book. So think of things like words of affirmation, quality, time, acts of service, tangible gifts and physical touch. We all have a way that we like to be shown appreciation at work usually follows one of those five. And so basically the idea here is find out how your each teammate likes to be appreciated at work, and then appreciate them in that language on a consistent basis. So somebody likes words of affirmation. So you want to appreciate that person, by affirming them with words that can be written, it can be verbal, the idea is to do it consistently. Be very specific. Don't always make it tied to performance. Maybe make it you know, give them a shout out on why you like them, kind of like we talked about earlier, when we write down like, Why do you like somebody's work? Somebody that is loves words of affirmation will love hearing good things about them? So yeah, so that's just kind of a basic rundown. I know, that was a long answer. But I think it's important to, to get all three of those in personal gratitude, leading with gratitude, and then spreading appreciation to your team. Yeah,   15:46 that's three, kind of an easy framework for people to follow. And circling back to that gratitude list or gratitude journal. I used to keep one and then I did it. And then I did and now you know, it kind of goes in cycles. Do you have any advice for people on how to be consistent. And as a follow up, I think it's important for people to know that it doesn't always have to be really big things. I remember when I started, the coach that I was working with was saying, Well, you know, it doesn't always have to be big, grand things. It could be like, I'm grateful that I have an umbrella because it was raining today, or I'm grateful I have a warm jacket, because it's 30 degrees today. So it doesn't have to always be a person or an animal or a relationship.   16:39 Yeah, yeah. Great point. You want to keep it simple, right. So don't get overwhelmed. So I love your point there. So my first thought to your question was, you know, you've mentioned that you weren't super consistent with your gratitude journaling. I know, I'm not I'm actually not either. You know, I'm seen as gratitude guy. But gratitude journaling never has been something that I've been consistent at. So what I do want to I'll give a tip on how to be consistent. But before I do that, I do want to encourage the listeners to find something gratitude related that you do enjoy doing. So maybe your thing isn't keeping a gratitude journal, but maybe like complimenting somebody. So that is a sign of gratitude. Or a way to show somebody gratitude. Gratitude could be just sending a quick video to somebody. So maybe like, I'm not really much with written but I'll send them a video or an audio. And that could be your thing, or writing handwritten notes, could be your thing. But in terms of if you did want to start with gratitude journaling, and trying to figure out a way to be consistent with that right off the bat, you could do some things that can help you form a new habit, much like forming a new habit to exercise or something like that. setting yourself up for success. So breaking down the habit into the smallest thing possible. So maybe you just write down one word each day instead of trying to form an entire sentence. So that could be a way to break it down in a small, small miniscule habit. But also think about something that you're already doing, and stacking this habit on that and creating a trigger point. So suppose you make coffee every single day. And that's kind of a routine you're already in. So maybe you leave your gratitude journal by your coffee pot or your coffee maker, and just have that next to it as a reminder that oh, yeah, because a lot of times not keeping a habit is just we forget about doing it. So create a way that you will remember to do the habit by having something that you already do be that trigger that reminder, right.   19:02 So your habit, habit stacking.   19:05 Exactly, yeah, habit stacking. Yep. So you've heard of that. If you're doing something like if you're doing something like writing a handwritten note, I've tried to do like, writing handwritten notes every day, which I've been successful at for a while. That is a little bit more involved. But what I could do is think about the night before who I want to write the note to find the address, get the envelope out, get the card out, get the pen out, get the stamp out and put it all out. So I'm actually see it and everything's not like hidden away in a drawer. So make things visible. So I think yeah, those are my best advice to find something that you like doing so it might not be a gratitude journal. Once you find it breaking down in the smallest component possible. So it's one word versus a list of 10 things and then finally have it stack you know, do Do it while you're doing something that you already do every single day anyway.   20:05 Got it? Yeah, much easier makes it much more digestible than like, well, I don't know if I can write the journal and then write the why. And gosh, take me 30 minutes. And do I have time for this? And yeah, so that makes a lot of sense. And I can also, I should also say, like, you can do it on your phone, too, like the notes section of your phone? Yeah. Yeah. You know. So that's, that's a possibility as well. So if you have like, a commute after work, where you're not driving, you can, you can like make that a habit at the end of your day to just throw something into your phone or something like that.   20:42 Yeah, I got one more. Yeah, it's similar to a gratitude journal to gratitude jar, which is huge. It's just take any jar. And you can just cut out slips of paper and just write down one thing that you're grateful for. Each day in the paper, maybe you have a family, and you get the whole family involved. And I like this idea. Because the jar can be visible. And it's fun. It's almost fun to watch the stacks of the slips of paper grow in the jar tilde, Giorgio stuffed, filled with gratitude, then you could pick a day, Thanksgiving Day, New Year's Day, maybe go and bring your family together, you sit in a room, on the sofa in the living room, and you go through like hay who said they were grateful for you know, chocolate, and then somebody raises their hand. That was me. And then you said, then you can go into more of the Hey, why did you pick chocolate? What is it about it? And then you can have these amazing conversations as a family. Or you could even do something like this at work as well.   21:50 Yeah, I was just thinking that if you have, you know, maybe a smaller to medium size, like a small company, or I know a lot of physical therapy offices. They don't have hundreds and hundreds of people in the same office. So this is something that's actually like, doable. You know, because I think if you had like, if you're in an office with like, 300, people, like it might be a little overwhelming. But most, I think healthcare offices, you know, if you have 20 people, I think that would be like quite a bit. So if you're in a smaller office, it's a great way to stay connected with your co workers. And another way of staying connected is and you'd mentioned this here, and there are handwritten notes. So how do you incorporate handwritten notes in the workplace? And are you only doing this if you're the boss?   22:44 Yes, I so handwritten notes I love it's how I started my company, say with gratitude, I, I had kids draw pictures. And I turned them into thank you cards that I sold to individuals and companies. But I love handwritten notes because it provides a connection point between you and the recipient of the note. So it's a way to not only appreciate somebody but actually connect to them on a deeper level. So whereas you know, writing in a gratitude journal, you might be the only one that sees that a handwritten note to people can see it or maybe even more in the workplace. You can use it a couple of different ways. One could be if you start to learn, who in your company likes words of affirmation, right, we talked about the five languages of appreciation. If you find out who likes words of affirmation, then you can make it a point to write a handwritten note to those people and know it doesn't need to only be the boss. I think if you're creating a culture of gratitude, I think everybody should be involved. If you're trying to figure out like, hey, I want to start this gratitude at work thing, not sure where to start, handwritten notes, I think can be a great place to start before you kind of fine tune your your appreciation, tools that you want to use. The kind of latest research shows from the authors of the five languages of appreciation and workplace that almost 50% of workers choose words of affirmation as their first way that they like to receive appreciation at work. So it's a great place to start. Of course also, you can easily write handwritten notes to your, your your patients to appreciate them. We talked about appreciating your customers patients, more is more than just a transaction, like make them feel good. And there's a company that I interviewed the HR had a few years ago, I love what they do every week, like once a week, they would, as a team, they would get together at lunchtime for about an hour. And they would write handwritten notes to their customers. And I liked it two reasons. One, they were expressing gratitude to their team, or excuse me, to their customers, but to they were bonding over the act of writing gratitude notes as a company. So just imagine there's a few people in a room, they're grabbing lunch, they're writing notes, they were being creative, they were putting stickers on the notes. And they were able to kind of chat with their the co workers on a level that they don't normally do, because they're normally just focused on work. So they got to know their team, on a deeper level, just having these conversations as they were writing note to their customers. So it could be a great way to, to bring your team together to just bonding over the act of writing handwritten notes.   26:02 And here's the question that I think a lot of business owners are going to want to know. And you may, you may have an idea of what I'm going to ask here. But what does this do for the bottom line of a company? So you're spending this time you're bringing in people from your company? How does does this improve the bottom line? Will this help the company make more money?   26:28 Yep. So that one statistic that I mentioned that 79% of people left a job because they didn't feel appreciated at work? Turnover finding new workers as a high cost of business for a company. So anyway, the Yeah, the the research is showing that. Doing things like infusing gratitude at work, appreciating your team, connecting with them on a more deeper level. So a lot of people feel disconnected at work, because they've got a lot of emotional stuff, you know, in their lives are overwhelmed or stressed. But when they get to work, they don't chat about any of that. So there's a lot of research now that shows workplace loneliness is high. Six, up to 61% of all US employees are lonely. So lonely workers and workers that don't feel appreciated, they're disengaged, they're not as productive. They're calling in sick, they're stress. They're thinking about leaving their job, or they're actually leaving their job. And connecting with a team and showing appreciation to your team can change all of I don't know that there's actually hard numbers that are out there yet, but just know that there are studies have shown there's productivity increases, turnover decreases, sick days decreased. So all of this leads to companies that can actually save more money.   28:10 Yeah, no, I understand that. Yeah, that makes sense. But I had to ask that question, you know, because people are going to be like, Well, this sounds great. But what's it gonna do? Yeah, it's   28:20 the biggest probably, you know, obstacle in doing something like this, because a lot of businesses are like, well, you know, I know if I spend, you know, $100 on Facebook ads, I'm gonna get this exactly. Yeah. Right, and $1 for dollar return. And for something that's more of a soft skill like this, you might not exactly have that data, but just know that there's a lot of money being lost due to low productivity and high turnover. Yeah. And with appreciation and connecting can really solve a lot of this. Yeah,   28:56 no, that makes perfect sense. And now, before we wrap things up, I want you to one more time. Yes. Do you mind repeating the five languages of appreciation in the workplace?   29:06 Yeah, the five languages of appreciation are words of affirmation. Quality time. So that's the second, the one that second most popular quality time. So two people basically, spending time together like you and I are acts of service. So that could be like helping somebody with a time sensitive project. Tangible gifts. So that could be somebody that actually likes to receive a gift. And that's how they like to be appreciated. The thing is, they're the best you can make the gift. It doesn't have to be expensive, but the more personal, you can make it the better. So a gift of a pair of socks with my cat's face on them is better than handing me a Starbucks gift card because somebody that knows I'd like my cats has done their homework and that would be a really meaningful gift to me. And then physical touches the last one That's not seen very much in the workplace that's like, you know, high five pat on the shoulder for obvious reasons. Yeah, yep. Yeah, that one is usually not somebody's primary way they like to receive appreciation. So the first four are the ones that most things, you need to focus on those four languages. Right,   30:19 right. And speaking of gifts, you actually have a free gift for our listeners. So it's gratitude. toolkit.com. Can you talk a little bit more about that?   30:28 Yeah, that's really a toolkit with a bunch of goodies. So what'd you get there? I wrote a book called The Grateful entrepreneur, which I know you mentioned in the intro, that you get a digital copy of that book, that's all about creating meaningful relationships at work. I've got something else that I created called the grateful deck, which is 120 questions to start meaningful conversations, great to use to start meetings at work to just get to know your team a little bit better. And then I've also got 47 ways to practice personal gratitude, and 29 ways to use gratitude to grow your business. So that's all in this all digital downloads in the gratitude toolkit.   31:15 Perfect. And that's awesome. So if you want to go a little bit deeper into what we've spoken about today, then you're going to want to check out that gratitude toolkit. And again, it's www dot gratitude toolkit. All one word.com. All right. So is there anything that we didn't touch upon that you want to hit on? Or is there something that you want the listeners to their big takeaway here?   31:43 Yeah, big takeaway, I think, is just to start now, do something, compliment somebody flash somebody a smile, do something different. If you want to go a little bit deeper than that, write a handwritten note. And do those three, do the three things that I talked about in the journal, do it for your note? Who do you appreciate? Why do you appreciate them? What would your life look like if they weren't in your life and read that note to them, it's even more powerful than just handed it to them is to read it to them, the connection will be amazing. And the one thing one thing that we didn't hit on, that's kind of near and dear to my heart. Do some of this unplugged. So don't you know if somebody is talking to you Don't be on your phones, pay attention to them. That's a form of gratitude, a form of connecting is just listening. So I if you want to start a gratitude practice, think about doing this, like write your note without like, put your phone in a different room, you'll be more engaged. And you're going to think more clearly. So yeah, that's a I think a good good takeaway for that for the audience. Yeah,   32:55 that's great. I love it. And now, I have one more question. It's a question I asked everyone. Okay. That's knowing where you are now in your life. And in your career? What advice would you give to your younger self?   33:07 Oh, that's a great question. Lots of advice. I could give my younger self. So I was thinking about this, I would say, and this is I was trying to think of what am I still working on? Because and there's a lot but I was I'm gonna go with don't take things personally. So good. Something I still work out. I don't think I'll ever be like completely perfect with that. But yeah, if I could give my younger self that advice. Because I do take things personally, I'm sensitive. If somebody you know, I could have 100 compliments, and one naysayer, and I'm focused on that naysayer, I think it's human nature. And I take it personally, but but I think like, we don't know, like, at least for me, personally, I know I'm doing good in the world. And I'm changing lives. And I need to not be sensitive and not read social media sometimes and take that own advice of unplugged right and just hanging out with the people that I love. And I know that love me and, and, and really, I think just continue to connect with other human beings in a meaningful way. Get rid of the technology. Don't let negative comments bring you down. Because then it can affect your day, your week thing that affects your performance at work that affects how you relate to your loved ones. And so yeah, so don't take things personally. Advice that I would give my younger self but I would also continue to take that in my older self.   34:54 Yeah, I love it. That's so good. And now where can people find you? Where can they connect with you,   34:59 too? your main website is saved with gratitude.com you can always email me Scott at Scott colby.com. And then even on Facebook, my most probably active social media platform at Scott Colby.   35:13 Perfect. And we'll have links to all of this over at the podcast at podcast at healthy, wealthy smart.com. So you can always hit up the podcast website, and one click will take you to all of Scott's info. So Scott, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and sharing with us how to have gratitude and how to infuse that into our workplace in our jobs. So thanks so much. Thank you, Karen. My pleasure. Anytime and everyone. Thanks so much for listening. Have a great couple of days and stay healthy, wealthy and smart. Thanks for listening. And don't forget to leave us your questions and comments at podcast dot healthy, wealthy smart.com

Say Happy Birthday! Send out birthday cards to every team member and customer on their birthday! If you're connected to your customers on Facebook, the platform lets you know when it's their birthday. It's a cinch to post “Happy Birthday” on their timeline. But hundreds of other people are doing the same thing. Too bad your message won't stand out. Recently, I read about a CEO named Sheldon Yellen who handwrites 8,000 birthday cards a year for all his employees—with personalized comments relevant to each person! In addition, when he hears about random acts of kindness in the workplace, he sends a thank you note to the individual letting them know their efforts didn't go unnoticed. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude and this has been your Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. And today I want to give you a tip from my book, the Grateful Entrepreneur, and this tip is going to help you build relationships and grow your business. But this is a tip you can do in your personal life as well. It's an easy one, but not many people are doing it. Pick up the phone and make gratitude phone calls. Remember when our phones were made for calling people. You know, nowadays it seems like they're used for everything, but calling people. So you're going to stand out by making these calls. And ever growing number of social media platforms make the internet a very crowded place. Sometimes it's difficult to make your voice heard above the crowd. That's why it's good to go old school sometimes with a phone call to your clients and customers. Now, not every phone call with your clients and customers need to be about business either. Remember your business is about building relationships and treating your customers like people, not dollar signs. That's right. Pick up the phone and call your customers just to check up on them, see how things are going in their life. Ask if there's anything you could do to help them. This one simple gesture of a personal phone call will go a long way to cultivating relationships in your business. And in your personal life. I remember my first mentor, Ryan Lee, he would call me out of the blue. This was in the days before Facebook and Instagram. And I remember being so excited and surprised when his name showed up on my cell phone. This little gesture is one of the things that has kept me loyal to learning from Ryan for over 20 years. Hope this helps. I'm Scott Colby with the daily gratitude minute and say it with gratitude. I'll see you tomorrow

In this week's episode, I am joined by Scott Colby, owner of Say It with Gratitude. Scott has embarked on a path as an entrepreneur and speaker after leaving a career at a hospital, during which he never felt appreciated, and never knew his worth. After an eye-opening experience in Guatemala, during which Scott witnessed firsthand the power of gratitude even in poor living conditions, he launched Say It With Gratitude, which helps companies increase happiness in the workplace by having gratitude as a core value.  In addition to delivering his message of gratitude around the world, Scott promotes the power of thank you notes, leads gratitude adventures in the wilderness, and developed The Grateful Deck, a card game consisting of questions that spark meaningful conversations. In this episode, Scott and I discuss his eye-opening experience 8 years ago, which led him down the path of gratitude; how almost 80% of people leaving organizations are doing so because they feel underappreciated; the unique language of appreciation, and much more.    Tune in to this week's episode to learn: How you can begin implementing gratitude into your everyday life The relationship between gratitude and mental illness or burnout Where organizations can begin to start changing their culture with gratitude  The differences between gratitude, appreciation & recognition, and the roles they play Why there are so many workplace staffing challenges in healthcare right now   Grab your drink of choice and join the conversation!   Resources Hug It Forward: https://hugitforward.org/  Flip the Gratitude Switch: https://www.amazon.ca/FLIP-Gratitude-Switch-Formula-Trajectory/dp/1537208241  The Grateful Entrepreneur: https://www.amazon.ca/Grateful-Entrepreneur-Gratitude-Strategies-Relationships/dp/1723870315    Connect with Scott: Say It With Gratitude: sayitwithgratitude.com Gratitude Hikes:  gratitudehikes.com Facebook: @scottcolby Instagram: @scottcolby      Connect with Jennifer George: @bestobsessed_with_jenn | Instagram Jennifer George | Website @jenngeorge08) | Twitter Jennifer George | Facebook Click here to check out my book about connecting and communicating with patients to empower their experiences! Stay up to date on everything happening with the Healthcare Provider Happy Hour by subscribing to my weekly newsletter at www.jennifergeorge.co 

After an eye-opening experience in Guatemala, during which Scott witnessed firsthand the power of gratitude even in poor living conditions, he launched “Say It With Gratitude”, which helps companies grow their business by having gratitude as a core value. In addition to delivering his message of gratitude around the world, Scott promotes the power of thank you notes, he leads gratitude adventures in the wilderness, and developed “The Grateful Deck”, a card game consisting of questions that spark meaningful conversations. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottcolby/ Website: https://sayitwithgratitude.com/

Scott is the Owner of Say It With Gratitude, the author of The Grateful Entrepreneur, a keynote speaker, and creator of the Grateful Workplace. Connect with Scott at https://sayitwithgratitude.com/ Connect with Host and Gratitude Conductor Chris Palmore at https://www.gratitudespace.com and Check out his new book, "Dear Gratitude: An Anthology." https://www.amazon.com/Dear-Gratitude-Anthology-Chris-Palmore/dp/173613020X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/gratitudespace/message

Hi! My name is Scott. I am the Owner of Say It With Gratitude, author of The Grateful Entrepreneur, a keynote speaker, and creator of the Grateful Workplace. Many businesses have switched to a remote-working or a hybrid model. A big challenge for companies now is trying to answer this question: How can I keep my team engaged, happy, and feeling appreciated when we only see each other over Zoom? Say It With Gratitude has the solution. We help companies use gratitude to deepen the relationships with their team, making them feel more connected and valued, which provides you a more profitable business. Connect with Scott at https://sayitwithgratitude.com/ and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/scottcolby. Also, his book "The Grateful Entrepreneur: 40 Gratitude Strategies To Build Relationships, Grow Your Business And Make More Money," on Amazon. Watch this Live Podcast on our Youtube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD8Sn4w_EAc&t=476s Connect with Co-Host and Gratitude Conductor Chris Palmore at https://www.gratitudespace.com/ and Check out his new book, "Dear Gratitude: An Anthology." https://www.amazon.com/Dear-Gratitude-Anthology-Chris-Palmore/dp/173613020X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/gratitudespace/message

There's a company out of Denver where I used to live called Be A Good Person, and they shared a message on Instagram that really resonated with what we what we believe in here at Say It With Gratitude. They shared: It's a funny thing about life, once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack. Trust the wait. Embrace the uncertainty. Enjoy the beauty of becoming. With a little courage, anything within you is possible. This is so true. Gratitude has a way of doing that to you. When you really appreciate what you do have, and focus on that, you tend to forget what you don't have. So this evening, before you go to bed, take out a journal or a piece of paper, and write down at least 10 things you are grateful for. Then I want you to sit with it, and imagine that you didn't. have those 10 things, and think about what your life would look like without them. This allows you to truly feel the gratitude.

What's up and welcome to the Fitness Business Foundations Podcast! Join me every episode where I bring on actual facility owners and specialty experts to share their story and insights to help you move your own journey forward.Today I am bringing you a conversation with an expert speaker that is making waves in the entrepreneurial space, all through the power of gratitude. I am honored to bring you a powerful conversation with Scott Colby all around how to use gratitude to grow your business, what it means to lead with gratitude, and how to have a gratitude mindset even when things are not going well.After an eye-opening experience in Guatemala, during which Scott witnessed first-hand the power of gratitude even in poor living conditions, he decided to shift his life to the pursuit of appreciation. Now in addition to carrying the message of gratitude around the world, Scott promotes the power of thank you notes and leads gratitude adventures in the wilderness.Learn more about today's guest Scott Colby:In 2014, Scott Colby took a volunteer trip to Guatemala to help build schools. During histime in Guatemala, he became close with both the students and their parents and wasshocked by their overall positive demeanor.Each family came from a place of struggle, having little access to clean water, not muchfood, and living in small run-down single room homes. However, their attitude towardslife seemed to emphasize gratitude and graciousness and lacked the commonnegativity or "grass is always greener" mindset that we see here in America. They didn'tseem to care about material possessions (no iPhones or TV!); they were content withwhat they had and thrilled with their new school!That trip to Guatemala left Scott feeling conflicted. He couldn't understand why the kidsand parents in Guatemala seemed so happy, despite having so little, and yet a largepercentage of people here in America struggle to feel even slightly content on a dailybasis.After learning about the positive benefits gratitude can have on people, such as morejoy, happiness and optimism, Scott decided he wanted to create a gratitude movementcalled Say It With Gratitude. Always a big believer in handwritten thank you notes, Scottdecided to start there.Wanting to get kids and charities involved in his new adventure, Scott decided to havekids draw the artwork for the cards! Say It With Gratitude’s first set of cards we drawnby kids from Guatemala, and a portion of sales were donated to Pencils of Promise,which builds school in Guatemala and other developing countries.Scott has continued to spread the message of gratitude and has authored a book aboutbuilding business through gratitude, The Grateful Entrepreneur. He also providestraining on gratitude in the workplace and organizes live gratitude adventure retreats.Where to connect with Scott:Website: https://sayitwithgratitude.com/Don't miss out on the Fitness Business Foundations Virtual Summit Series! Our first full day kicks off on June 6th! I am bringing you top level speakers and content to help you truly build a solid business that can withstand any economic situation.Want to get notified first? Join our action takers list! As a special bonus for taking action will will get access to a bonus day coaching session with a few of our expert speakers!Put Me On The Action Takers List!

OK, I'm really impressed with Mary Kay Ash, who founded Mary Kay Cosmetics. She was known for saying, “Customer focus is truly the key. It's the real test of service, and service is the real heart of our business.” She also was known for writing 3 thank you cards each evening before bed, which helped grow her business to what it is now... She hit the nail on the head. As a small business or entrepreneur, if you treat your customers like a genuine relationship, they'll want to do business with you again. If you treat them like a transaction, that doesn't feel good to your customer. The likelihood of them coming back is diminished. When I lived in Denver, my favorite coffee shop was Fluid Coffee Bar. Yes they make the best cafe au lait with almond milk, but the real reason I come back day after day are their baristas. They're friendly. They're engaging. They know my name. They smile and talk to me. They know I run Say It With Gratitude and love Virginia basketball and that I've traveled to Guatemala. They give me a simple hello and ask me how I'm doing. They treat me like a human. Imagine that! Conversely, when I lived in another part of Denver, there was a coffee shop I went to probably at least 20 times. Even though I loved the atmosphere and location, not once did any of the baristas ask me how I was, got to know my name, or said, “have a good day.” I started to resent going to that place. It felt like a transaction. You want to have a relational business, not a transactional one. Make your customers feel acknowledged, like they belong and give them a sense of connection. Do this, and you'll have a successful business for a long time.

A couple years ago, I had a call with the founder of Choose2Matter, and I love her message. Choose2Matter is a global movement that challenges us to make "mattering" a way of life. When people accept they matter and know their actions count - learning, lives and worlds change. I feel like Say It With Gratitude is on a similar mission; that is to make everyone feel appreciated. This reminds me of the interview I did with Orly Wahba, author of Kindness Boomerang, for the Happy Life Summit. When she was in high school, she and her family went through a really tough time, and Orly had to miss several weeks of school. In that time, no one from her school checked on her, and Orly felt like she didn't matter. From that point on, she made it her mission to make everyone she encountered feel seen. To feel like they matter. I think this is such an important thing to think about. How can we make others feel like they matter? We all want that feeling, right? To be valued, and validated and appreciated.

Have you ever heard of a Gratitude Jar? The concept is quite simple: You jot down things that you and your family are grateful for throughout the year on small slips of paper and put them in the jar. Anyone can grab a scrap of paper and add it to the jar. This is a great way to instill gratitude in your children and learn to appreciate the little things in life, that we might take for granted. TIP: Make your gratitude more powerful by adding a statement of WHY you're grateful for whatever you're writing down for your gratitude. Then, at the end of the year, you and your family can sit down together, pour out all the slips of paper and share all of the grateful memories. You can start your gratitude jar any time of the year, but many people like to start on January 1. I've heard of a gratitude jar before, but my sister recently sent me an email that Oprah just came out with her Favorite Things list this year, and included a Gratitude Jar! So what do you think? Have you ever used a Gratitude Jar? Do you think you'll start using one? Write me back and let me know! I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude and this has been your Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.

In October of 2000, I packed my 1992 Honda Accord as full as I could and took off to Phoenix, Arizona. 2 weeks prior, I had quit my well paying research job at a children's hospital in Dallas, Texas to start a new life in Arizona. I was pursuing my dream of working in the fitness industry and living wherever I wanted to. By Christmas my dreams had landed with a thud. I was fired from the fitness job I was working in, and didn't have anywhere to turn. I hadn't made many contacts in the 2 months I was there. I was out of a job and almost out of money. My nights were filled with tossing and turning in bed and lots of tears. What had I done? I had left a well paying, stable job in Dallas. I had turned my relationship with my girlfriend at the time to a long distance one, which wasn't easy. And just 2 months later, I had nothing to show for it. So in April on 2001, I packed up my bags and moved back to Dallas. I felt defeated, like a failure. Fast forward to 2005 and I was running a very successful women's only bootcamp that lasted 5 1/2 years. Fast forward 5 years after that and my entire business was online, allowing me the freedom to move to the beautiful state of Colorado, where I'm surrounded by mountains and all the outdoor fun you could ever want. More recently I took another risk, and launched Say It With Gratitude in 2016 So what did that experience in Arizona teach me? Taking a risk and "failing" taught me a lot. It taught me to stare fear in the face and confront it head on. It taught that the "worst case scenario" isn't as bad as I thought, and I was able to survive. It taught me the importance of my family and friends during one of the low points of my life. It taught me that to achieve my goals and dreams, that I have to get uncomfortable and step out of my comfort zone. But most of all, it taught me the joys of running my own small business where I get to help others on a daily basis. And even though running a small business has it's ups and downs, I wouldn't trade it for the world. :) We don't have long on this Earth, so go out and pursue your dreams. Don't wait! And be grateful for your "failures." :)

My favorite coffee shop is Fluid Coffee. Yes, they make the best café au lait with almond milk, but the real reason I come back day after day is their baristas. They're friendly. They're engaging. They know my name. They smile and talk to me. They know I run a business called Say It With Gratitude, that I love Virginia basketball, and that I've traveled to Guatemala. They give me a simple hello and ask me how I'm doing. They treat me like a human. Imagine that! Conversely, when I lived in another part of Denver, there was a closer coffee shop I went to probably at least a dozen times. Even though I loved the atmosphere and location, I felt no connection to it. Not once did any of the baristas ask me how I was, get to know my name, or say, “Have a good day.” I started to resent going to that place. It felt like a transaction. You want to have a relational business, not a transactional one.

Spend Time With Loved Ones: If you're struggling with feeling the gratitude in the moment, go spend time with your friends and family. Of course it will help you grow closer to them and strengthen your relationship, but it will also give you a chance to practice your acts of gratitude on people that you care about. If you're having trouble finding ways to support your friends and family, you can start small. For instance, why don't you make sure you're listening intently the next time someone shares a story with you instead of waiting for your own chance to speak? Or start a conversation with a difficult member of the family by complimenting their new shoes or hair-cut. Those small little gestures can make a big difference in someone's life and will help you feel closer to them. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude and this has been your Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.

I've talked about a lot of ways to use gratitude to grow your business, such as sending out handwritten thank you cards. Don't forget the importance of gratitude to help your personal growth. I recommend each morning listing or saying things or people you're grateful for, to get you in the right mindset. If we walk around all day thinking negative thoughts, and focusing on what we don't have in life or in our businesses, that will hurt your business growth. Flip those thoughts have focus on all that you do have and the direction you want your business to go in. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude and this has been your Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.