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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Karey, for agreeing to be part of this Project, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?

Karey Thorne: You mean a little bit about me?

Toni: Absolutely.

Karey: Okay.  Well, let’s see.  I have a background in counseling, so everything kind of stems from that, and then I taught for a  number of years in high schools, a class called Peace Jam or Peace Studies, which was very much looking at how do you do life, and cause and effect, and that sort of thing.  And what I’m doing presently is – I did a lot of service learning when I did that also, so a lot of service projects that would be integrated into curriculum and things like that.

But what I do at the moment is I have a nonprofit called Heart to Hands, and it’s basically a leadership class for ages 16 to about 30.  And I go to 30 because I’ve had so many students from the past who are like “I want to take that class, I want to take that class.”  So they’ve just kind of … I have a whole group of students who’ve kind of continued with me from their high school years, and so that’s why I go up into that age group.

And so anyway, so we meet quite regularly, and then we do service projects, and those service projects can be internationally or they can be locally, and it sort of ties into what we do in leadership is look at everything that disturbs you externally is a reflection of unresolved things inside of you internally.  So how do you learn tools to begin to resolve these things inside of yourself?  And then we use the service projects to go out and try it on, like “How does this work?  Where are you challenged with this?  How do you work with it?”

Toni: Oh, that’s fantastic, and it’s a great lead-in to the first question, which is, when you think about inspiration, who do you inspire, and how does it happen?

Karey: Well, I would say I inspire … I inspire a lot of people, but I particularly seem to be able to inspire this age group.  I work pretty well with high school … well, with young adults I would say is kind of my … that’s where I focus, I think probably because it’s most interesting to me.

And how I inspire them … I think … I think it’s really through seeing their potential and respecting them, you know, listening deeply to them and really being like “Wow, I see who you are.”  You know, it’s like deeply seeing them, and then in that reflection, they start to see themselves and start to see themselves in a deeper capacity.

There’s a whole lifting that starts to happen with that, and I think at the base of it, it’s seeing the beauty and the potential inside of humanity, inside of them, and them seeing that that seeing kind of wakes it up inside of them.

And so it’s kind of … it’s kind of a … I think it’s a …  I don’t quite know how it works, except for that it does, and I know that it comes out of loving and respecting and hearing them, and then probably growing the conversation, you know, like lifting the conversation, like “Oh yeah, this” and “Oh yeah, this” and then the conversation continues to lift.  And in that, everybody walks away inspired, including me.

Toni: So how do you think then that this helps them to explore their potential?

Karey: I think it starts to awaken them to themselves.  I think somebody seeing them and valuing them and hearing them starts to cause them to say “Well, what is going on inside of me?” and “Oh, I didn’t realize that this would be taken seriously” or “I didn’t realize that I had something to offer.”

One of the things I found in working with children over the years is – or young adults – is that really the greatest thing that we have is what we can give.  We always look at needing to give something … you know, the people that are having the difficult time, they need something, and so we should give them something.

I found that actually the deeper truth is if you can find a place where they can give something to somebody else, then they start to come alive.  They start to find their value.  They intrinsically know that they have value to another, and I think that’s just so core to being a human being that I think I seem to … that seems to be what starts to happen is they realize that they have a gift that they can give to others.  And the more truthful and authentic they become inside of themselves, the more real their life starts becoming and the more they start affecting others, and so then they become inspired.

So it’s like … it’s like waking up the gifts that are inside of them, you know?  And there are different things for every single human being, but I think at the base of it it’s this … it’s this seeing of another, you know, and recognizing and honoring that.  I think that’s probably the core of it.

Toni: It’s interesting, because there are certain words that come out for me when I’m doing these interviews with people, and I wrote down the word experience, and the experience is almost … it’s happening in almost a 360 kind of way.  That’s what I’m hearing you describe.  It’s your experience that you’re using to help awaken the experience of the kids or the young adults – they’re having an experience, and they’re paying that forward in the service.

Karey: Exactly.

Toni: And so that’s pretty cool, the way that’s happening.

Karey: Yeah, yeah, yeah … no, that’s a nice way of putting that.  It’s like … it’s like waking people up.  It’s waking them up to themselves and getting them excited about themselves, because they see that somebody else sees them.

Toni: So what inspires you?

Karey: Oh, goodness.  Beauty really inspires me.  Nature; you know, a sunset, clouds, that kind of thing.  Truth.  Truth is really big for me, because it like moves me deeply when I do that.  The resiliency of the human spirit, just the depth that’s actually in us.  And when I watch somebody in a difficult situation and how they come forward with a new understanding, that’s just so exciting.

Or I guess the other thing would be is when things connect.  You know, like when you’re in a classroom and you’re going … it’s like when you see two minds come together and connect or two beings come together and connect, and there’s like an “ah-ha” moment, you know, and everybody goes “Whoa!” and then you’re off to the next one.  Those connection places are really inspiring for me.  I love to … it’s like a crescendo.  It’s like “Ooh, we hit it!”  Then we just keep going.  We just kind of keep lifting.  So for me, those are the really inspiring times.

Toni: When you reach a day that you may seek for inspiration more than the previous day — or it could be an hour, you know, of the day, but you’re looking for inspiration — are there go-to resources, tools, that you tend to reach for on a consistent basis?

Karey: Yeah.  For me, it’s really when I’m in my loving.  That’s the key for me.  When I’m connected and I’m in my loving, everything’s exquisite, and it’s like probably inspiration happens all around me all the time.

So for me, the things that I do to get there are I’ve got a whole set of books that I read that I, you know … kind of just like every night I’ll read something, you know, about that that just inspires me and lifts me, that reminds me of truth.

I’ll go for a walk.  I’ll meditate.  I meditate every day.  That’s a really consistent practice, and that’s just like my gift to myself.  And I’ll pray, too.  I really will.  I’ll walk and I’ll pray and I’m like … just get in this great state of loving, and it’s pretty magnificent.  So for me it’s getting connected to the loving.

Toni: Can you define that?  Before … I love the way you said here’s how I get to it, but for those of us who may have a different definition of that, what’s your definition of “I’ve got to get to the loving”?

Karey: Well, it’s like, I think ultimately that’s what we are is love, ultimately, and so it’s like, when I can wake up this state of loving inside of me, it’s like I’m just loving and blessing everything.  It’s like “Whoa, that rose!” or “Wow, that cloud!” or “Oh, this face in front of me!” or “Oh, that student!”  It’s like I see the beauty in everything when I have love awakened inside of me.

It’s kind of a mysterious thing.  It’s like … it’s something that I have to remind myself of.  It’s something that I know lives in the heart, you know?  I know that’s where it generates from, basically, but it’s this state of just seeing everything in beauty.  It’s like everything is just, wow … it’s like a state of being and it’s like I love everything.  I love everything when I’m in that state, and there isn’t anything that comes in front of me that I can’t love when I’m in that state.

Now of course, I’m not always in that state, so for me, it’s if I can live in that state, then, oh, there’s just … it’s exquisite.  But it’s kind of hard to describe, now that you ask me.  It’s kind of like, well, how would you talk about that?

Toni: Well, it’s so important.  It’s a key component of where you draw inspiration from.

Karey: Yeah.

Toni: There have been many, many ways of describing the state that you’ve described and you’ve labeled it as a state of loving, and it’s just … it’s fascinating to hear the different definitions of that, and I’m wondering if it’s hard work to stay in it?

Karey: Actually, it’s really easy when you’re in it.  You know, another word for it would be like living love.  It’s just alive inside of you.  It’s just alive inside of you, and the more you’re in it, the more it generates more of it, you know?  It’s like it’s a self-generating state in a way.  What did you ask me?

Toni: Are we out of it now?  Is it hard to stay in it?  That’s what it was.

Karey: Right.  When I’m in it, it’s really easy to stay in it, and I find that the trigger points where I get taken out of it is like if I go into judgment about something, if I become critical of something, if I think something shouldn’t be a certain way.  Those are the places where I know I exit it.  Of course, I don’t realize that I’ve exited it, you know, initially, but it’s almost like being in a state of acceptance, I find, that then I can be in a state of loving.

In other words, if I just accept reality the way it is, I’m in great shape.  It’s only when I start to, you know, have a little argument about that, like, “Well, it shouldn’t be that way” that I then step out it.

Toni: So what are you doing now to explore your own potential so that you can live the life that you want to live and do the work that you want to do?  What do you do to explore that potential?

Karey: Boy … you know for me … this is going to sound really strange, but it’s like I continue to surrender.  It’s like surrendering, it’s like letting go of my ideas about how it should be, and like letting kind of like a bigger sense of what it is kind of overcome me.  And that surrender can be really scary at times, you know, because it’s like how you know yourself.  And so, it’s like … it’s like, who are we if we give up those definitions, you know?  Who are we if we really start to give up those points of how we’ve known ourselves?

Toni: Is that what you believe has to happen in order to explore your potential?  You have to surrender that?

Karey: In a funny way, I think yes, because I think there’s … see, I look that there’s a … like there’s a … there’s something, there’s a mystery yet that I still don’t understand that I’m walking into.  If I try and control it with my mind, I’m trying to manipulate it and make it a certain way, because you know, I think the outcome should be this way, then I’m kind of out of that state.  Whereas if I surrender, and it’s like I just let the next reality open up in front of me, then I’m in an unknown space.

So for me, it’s been a funny thing.  It’s like almost giving up control.  Like, I really don’t know.  And so, more and more … oddly enough, more and more of myself shows up as I surrender, so it sounds really strange.

Toni: No, no, it doesn’t.  I just want to clarify.  So it’s really not surrendering your destiny; it’s surrendering the control that you have over it.

Karey: Right; that I have any idea what that is.

Toni: Right,  okay.  And so, do you seek any type of resources?  Do you educate yourself in areas?  What do you do so that … it’s almost like, I’m thinking, if it were me, which I love this, but if it were me, I’d be going “Okay, well maybe I need to learn a lot about a little, or a little about a lot, so that I’m ready when it comes.  I mean, I want to be ready just in case.”

Karey: You know, it’s funny.  I’ve almost had to give up not knowing to pursue this.  It’s like, I don’t know, you know?  And I think maybe that’s what’s exciting about the work that I do and the world that I live in, is that I don’t walk in with a lot of ideas about where something’s going to go.  I let it kind of inform me.  And so every single class I’ve ever taught, every single group I’ve ever done, it’s completely different because of who’s there, and they kind of create … it’s all created together.  I don’t really understand what it’s going to be, you know?

So I don’t go in with like a prescribed idea.  You know, I may have a sense of “Well, it went this way last time and it went this way this time” but I mean, it’s like a new creation each time, and I kind of like that.  I kind of like that, because it’s very adventuresome.  It’s a little risky.  It’s a little scary, you know, but the beauty that comes out of that, I’ve really begun to trust, you know?  So it’s like, just step up and be 100% present there, and see what happens.

Toni: And what a wonderful gift then that you transfer to the students that you work with, because you’re experiencing the same thing you’re asking them to do.

Karey: Exactly, exactly.  So it’s really … if I were to look at it, my focus would be transformational learning or education.  It’s like, how do you do that?  How do you just trust that just as you’ve become deeper and deeper inside of yourself, that the perfect right thing comes out of your mouth, the perfect right situation arises, you know, that you can begin to … you can begin to live in that sort of state.  It’s pretty interesting.  It really inspires kids, because I’m not telling them what to do.  I’m like “Let it wake up inside of you, and then you live from that place.”

Toni: Well, Karey, your interview has been wonderful, and it’s been filled with a lot of insight and laughter and great value, and we thank you so very much for taking your time to be part of the Get Inspired! Project.  And we will have a link at the bottom of the transcript as far as how people can see what you do and learn a little bit more about you, but for showing up today, we cannot thank you enough.

Karey: Thank you for doing this project.  It’s very inspirational.

Toni: Well you are quite welcome.  Take care of yourself.  It’s been a pleasure.

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For more information about Karey Thorne:  www.hearttohands.org and www.mystery-school.com

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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Gary, for agreeing to be part of the Project today, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?

Gary Seibert: My name is Gary Seibert, the VP of Operations at Ozzy’s Family Fun Center in Leesport, Pennsylvania.

Toni: Fantastic.  And Gary, thanks again for being here.  Gary, when you think of inspiration, who do you inspire, and how does that happen?

Gary: Wow.  I guess the best way to answer that is I hope I inspire the people that I’m around.  In a business like ours, we employ about 70 young men and women; these are usually high school and college kids, and a handful of adults.  Every day as we work, every day as we meet the challenges, I hope that the things that I say and do, my attitude towards those challenges just allow the people around me to see that there’s a better way than just getting frustrated and quitting.

Toni: Can you give an example of the type of environment that you’re in that you get to do that and touch so many different people?

Gary: Well, we’re a family entertainment center, so we have people coming in here all the time, and not necessarily the same customer day in and day out, so you meet new people.  Some people are innately happy people, and some people are not, so one of the challenges is just dealing with the general public.  Somebody comes up in your face and, you know, there’s something that happened that wasn’t maybe a big deal in most people’s minds, but to this person it’s a big deal, and therefore you have to stay positive and try to defuse the anger of the situation and help regain their confidence in their attitude in our facility.

Now, that doesn’t happen a lot, but it does happen, and young kids today when they see it, they’re not really sure how to deal with it, so hopefully the way I and my staff, you know, handle the situations will be an impact on them later on in life.

Toni: Absolutely; and Gary, there are people listening to this Project all over the world, and when that type of transaction happens between you and the public or you and your staff, can you give an example of how you might inspire someone to handle that situation a little bit differently?

Gary: Well … give you an example … we had a sign up on our billboard — and this is a marquee up on a main highway — and it said “All day passes” which is how the people pay to come in here — you can get an all-day attraction pass – “Special $15.00.”  So this family group came in and there was mom and dad and like four or five kids and grandma and grandpa, and grandpa comes over to the counter and asks for the information and pays for everybody.

About three hours later, the mother of this group comes up, and she said “This is a rip off.”  I go “Whoa!  What happened?”  She said “Well, it said on the sign all day for $15.00.”  I said “Yes, ma’am, that’s per person.”  She said “It doesn’t say per person on the sign.  It says all day $15.00.”

Sometimes we make assumptions that what we say or what people read, they understand what it means.  In this particular case, it didn’t.  Of course, our front desk was there, and she was making a scene in front of a lot of other people, and you know, all this nasty stuff, and we just smiled and said “Ma’am, I’ll tell you what, can we just go over to the side and let’s talk this through.  My job here is to make you happy, and if we’ve done something that you didn’t understand, then we want to make it right.”

So I went over to the side and we talked to her, and I asked her, I said “What would make you happy?”  She said “I want all of my money back except for one person.”  I said “Okay, do you understand that that’s probably not going to be realistic, but what else would make you happy?”  She looked at me and she said “You make that call, and I’ll see if it makes me happy.”  I said “Okay, I’ll give you half your money back.”  She said “Okay.”  And we did that, and they went on the rest of the day, and everything was happy.

Now, you know, it was one of those things that you have to make a call every once in a while, do you really bow down, but the kind of scene that she was making, it wasn’t worth the $30 or $40, and that’s what I was trying to get my kids to understand is that sometimes, you know, you can stick to your guns to the point … you know, you can win the battle but lose the war, and I was trying to help them understand that sometimes it’s just you can’t please everybody every time.  So choose your battle, and do the best to make it as good as you can.

Toni: How do you think examples like that, Gary, especially working with young staff, will help them to explore their potential?

Gary: Well, you know, all we can do is set examples for them.  Actually, when we interview our kids when they come in, we know that they’re 17, 18, 19 years old and in many cases we’re their first job.  We tell them “This is going to be a learning experience for you.  We’re hoping that some of the things that you learn here, the attitudes, the responsibilities, just things like if you’re sick call in and let us know that you’re not going to be here, just don’t show up, that we pay you to work not to stand around and lean.”

You know, those kinds of things at the moment they may not understand or agree with them, but I think later on, as they go to other employment, maybe get out of college and they get their first real job, they will look back.  We’ve had many kids come back and say “You know what, the things that we learned when we were working there with you … man, it paid off so much once we got into our real job.”

So that’s all we can do, is that we’re planting a seed, and with some kids it works.  With some, they have to go out and experience it and do it their way.

Toni: Well absolutely, and what’s happening here is not only the awareness that you’re giving your young staff — that this is the way that they’re supposed to behave — but what I’m finding really interesting is that you have the awareness that this is their first job, that this is their first leader that they’re looking at, and what impression that you’re leaving.  And a lot of employers don’t do that, so that’s pretty cool.

Gary: You know, Toni, the thing that we’re really finding here is that kids today have absolutely no work ethics.  They are brought up in a home where mom and dad have sheltered them.  They’ve given them everything.  These kids have their cell phones when they’re 12 years old, they’ve got computers in their room, they’ve got widescreen TVs, DVD players, and they turn 16 and daddy buys them a car, and they’ve grown up thinking that, you know, money grows on trees and all you’ve got to do is ask daddy and he’ll take care of it.

Well, now all of a sudden one day mom and dad say “Hey, you’ve got to go out and get a job.”  And they go “Why?  Why?  I’m really happy with everything the way it is right now!”  And so we’re trying to teach them that that experience that they had, that’s not real life.  That’s fairytale land.  Real life is you’ve got to go out and you’ve got to put your nose to the grindstone and you’ve got to work.

Toni: So who inspires you?

Gary: God.

Toni: Okay.

Gary: My faith, because I can tell you, there’s probably 40 or 45 years of my life that I thought that I was in control, that I was God, because I was blessed with sort of a Midas touch, I was blessed with sports and athletic abilities, I was blessed with people skills, and I didn’t know that.  I didn’t know I was blessed.  I just thought I was in charge of everything, and I was good, and all that kind of stuff.

It took a very big experience in my life at age probably 48-49 when my whole world came crumbling down around me that I understood that I wasn’t in control of everything.  And when I relinquished that and really dove into who was in charge, my life changed.  I mean, everything about my life changed.  My personality, my way of doing things, my way of thinking, my way of dealing with other people … just everything.  That was cool.

Toni: Thank you very much for sharing that, and I’m sure there’s a lot of people that can relate to that as well.  It’s very powerful.  When you think of other things that inspire you as well, what comes to mind, Gary?  What do you find yourself, in addition to your faith, reaching for on a consistent basis when you are maybe needing to be inspired or looking for inspiration?  What do you go for?

Gary: Well, I don’t want to sound like a crazy person, but quite honestly if I’m feeling one of those down moments, or the challenge is really bad, I honestly, one of the things I do is I read the Bible.  I get a lot of inspiration from that.

I also have a network of friends that I know if I need lifting up, I can call them up and we’ll laugh and chuckle and talk about silly things, and you know, that inspires me.  I think people that you surround yourself with … if you surround yourself with people who are miserable, you’re going to be miserable.  If you surround yourself with people that are happy and upbeat, you’re going to be happy and upbeat.  So I choose to do that.  I choose to be with the happy, upbeat people.

I also, I’m inspired by reading, you know, things that other people have done, you know, the challenges that they’ve met, the new things, the visions that they’ve grown into something, because always when you see that other people can do it, you think “Well, if they can do it, I can do it.”  I love stories of people that have, you know, come from the worst of the worst and all of a sudden they’re back going great again, which … there’s an old saying, I once knew a man who complained because he had no shoes, until he met the man who had no feet.

There’s always someone who’s got it worse than you, so, you know, just get out of your misery or get out of your hole you’re in and just go forth, make a change, and that’s a decision in life.  It’s a decision.  It’s a choice, and I think that inspiration is part of a choice that … I choose to be happy.  I choose to be positive.  I choose to take challenges.  I mean, I’ve always been a challenge-taker, a risk-taker, so I think that’s probably a lot of it with me.

Toni: So Gary, how do you continue to explore your own potential so you can continue to stand by this choice of being happy and be happy and help others and work in the environment that you do?  What do you do to continue to explore that potential within yourself?

Gary: June 2 I turned 65 and I said “Wow, I can’t believe I’m 65 because I don’t feel it, I don’t think it.”  I find myself constantly looking for other things — new challenges, new opportunities.  I’ve gotten involved in some other organizations where just by being on the Board of Directors and being involved that the challenges of those outside organizations that become mine.

I find myself waking up each morning, different today than maybe I did 20 years ago, knowing that there’s going to be something that will take place during the day that will be an opportunity to be positive, because we are surrounded many times by situations and people and events.  I mean,  just think about all the poor people down in the Gulf region right now.   A year ago, they had no idea that they would be in this position, but out of this catastrophe and this disaster, there will be people who … their lives will change in a very positive way.

I try to, again, look at myself – where will I be two years, five years, ten year from now?  What will I be doing?  What will motivate me?  Do I still want to work?  Don’t I want to work?  Well, I want to work, I want to be with people, I want to do things.  So I’m inspired just by being alive.  Really, I mean that’s part of it.  I enjoy every day for what it is, and if it rains, it rains.  If it’s sunshine, it’s sunshine.  I can’t change it.

I think too often we think that … you know, we get down because we want things to be different than they are.  It’s just the way they are.

Toni: What a great message to leave the interview on, and Gary there are certain interviews, those that are following the Get Inspired! Project, that there’s words that come out for me, one word that to me represents the interview with this person, and I wrote down the word for you, aware.  It’s taking the time to be aware of the kids you’re working with, to have them learn from, you know, the good and the bad, rather than ignore, and also the awareness you went through for your own inspiration as far as your faith and God that changed your life.  So that’s what I heard is to be aware and to take advantage of that awareness, is key, and we can’t thank you enough for being part of the Get Inspired! Project.

Gary: I can’t thank you enough for inviting me to be on here.  It was a pleasure.

Toni: You’re welcome, and I will talk to you soon.  Thanks, Gary.

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For more information about Gary Seibert:  www.ozzysffc.com

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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Scott, for agreeing to be part of the Project today, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?

Scott Asai: Sure, my name is Scott Asai.  I own a company called Growing Forward, and I do leadership coaching and leadership development, and I’ve been doing this since about 2007.

Toni: Okay, well thank you.  Scott, when you think of the word inspiration, who do you think you inspire and how might you go about that?

Scott: I guess the first people I think of is family, friends, and clients which is basically anyone who’s in front of me.  I think I try to do a couple of things.  One is I try to point out their successes in life, things that they’ve already done that they can kind of look back on.

Also, I think it’s really neat to see how people are unique, to make sure that you can point out how they are different than other people and what makes them stand out.

I think the last thing is I look to the future.  I look at where they can be versus where they are, and I really believe that in life growing and learning really has no finish line, so I really look at people as unfinished products in terms of there’s always room to improve.

Toni: Okay.  That’s interesting.  So when you’re working with someone or you’re talking or you’re in front of them that way, how do you think that that helps them to explore their potential, or are there other things that you do to help explore the potential in others?

Scott: I think a person that comes in my mind … I’m very visual, so the thing I think of is the image of a building and actually not a building that’s built up but actually one that’s kind of crashed down.  The reason why I get that image is because I always think of people as, like I said, something I can improve upon.  I can make them better.  Sometimes I tell my clients a lot that my job is to build a better you.

I try to start from the foundation and figure out the things that, like I said, they are strong at or are their strengths or natural talents, and then from there I really try to build them up.  I try to build their confidence up.  I try to see things that they’ve done in the past that may have patterns in the future.  That image of a building was really strong to me when I’m speaking to someone in front of me.

Toni: And so by working with them and having that visual, to you it’s almost building them, the brick and mortar and building that foundation within them; is that what I’m hearing?

Scott: Yeah, pretty much.  It’s just kind of forgetting about what has happened a lot in the past.  Maybe there are some limitations or doubts that they’ve had before.  I don’t try to dig too deep into that.  As a coach, we’re all about results and moving forward.  I don’t ask a lot of why questions.  I ask a lot of how questions.

Toni: Okay.  Can you give me an example?

Scott: Sure.  I think a lot of times when someone comes to me and we’ll be talking about some type of goal or obstacle that’s in their way, I try to have them explain the situation.  But I don’t let them go too in depth about it because I really feel that if they are trying to overcome something or trying to accomplish something, all I need to know is where they want to go, and I can help them get there.

We don’t focus too much on the counseling or therapy aspect of figuring out why, but I try to figure out “Okay, what is the goal that you’re looking for, and how can I help you get there?  So let’s talk about and brainstorm steps that we can take.”

Toni: And you spoke earlier about pointing out someone’s uniqueness.  Do you find it easy to do that with people?  Do you find it easy for people to do that about themselves?

Scott: You know, actually I do.  I’m a big firm believer in this assessment called The Strength Finder, and that’s actually something that I use with all my clients.  And what it does is it’s an assessment that points out someone’s top five talents or strengths.  Actually, ironically one of my strengths is called individualization, and that’s the ability to see unqiue talents in others.  For me it comes pretty easy after just kind of asking a lot of questions and observing and getting a feel for the context of what they’re working in.  And then from there, I just try to build on that.

Toni: I see.  Okay.  Now, what do you need to be inspired?

Scott: I think a couple things.  One of the things is just concepts or ideas, and those come really easily.  I think they come through books.  They come on the internet.  They come through hearing people’s stories.

For example, once a month I actually go to Barnes and Noble and just kind of sit there for a couple hours and pick out a bunch of books that kind of stand out to me, and I just kind of read them, take some notes, and from there usually I get a lot of ideas of things to try.  That’s one way.

The other way I’d say is a clear vision.  I really believe in the statement “without vision, people perish.”  And so when I think of a great leader — which I try to be when I’m coaching people — I really think of giving them hope or direction and getting their trust.  Those two things, I think, really stand out to me about being inspired.

Toni: When you are working or even in your personal life and you know you’ve reached that point where you’re running a little low on the inspiration yourself — because you need to stay strong and stay inspired to help others — what other things do you reach for?  What other things do you find yourself going to to help you stay inspired?

Scott: I think a lot of it is … As a business owner and entrepreneur, a lot of times I think we find ourselves in isolation in terms of we’re always doing work by ourselves.  And unless we seek out other people through the phone or through a social network or meeting them in person, I think a lot of times I really believe that there’s not a lot of original ideas out there.  I think a lot of the times it’s just an improvement on an idea that’s already existing.

For myself, I notice when I kind of go dry in terms of inspiration, I kind of have to reach out and see what other people are doing, hear other stories, and from there I think it kind of gets my juices flowing again.

Toni: How do you continue to explore your own potential?

Scott: This one I really feel like it’s opportunities and experiences.  Opportunities, because I think it’s the chance to be able to test your abilities and experience because I think, for myself, I would consider myself a kinesthetic learner, also visual too, but I learn through trial and error.  In order to improve, I really have to explore first.  Really through opportunities and experience would be the main two things I think I need to explore my own potential.

Toni: And are you doing that purposefully in order to continuously explore your potential?  Are you looking for those opportunities?  Do you find yourself testing your abilities often?

Scott: Yeah, I think so.  I think a good story to kind of sum things up is I really feel like everyone since they were a child has certain dreams, and they had dreams about what they want to be when they grow up.  I think the only difference is that some people decide along the way that they’re going to pursue it, and some people along the way decide that they’re going to set it aside and not maybe visit it for a while.  Usually what happens is that time passes, and we never get to really even try to see if we were able to make those dreams a reality.

So for myself, I like to coin the term “failure” a lot, even though it can be a negative word.  In my mind, failure is when you don’t try.  I can’t live with not trying something.  I can live with something not working out, but I always push myself to try new things, and I’m not concerned about whether it’s going to succeed or fail.  I actually think that a lot of success is based on how you fail forward or how you’re able to handle certain obstacles that are in your way.

Toni: Is that the same mentality and spirit that you approach your personal life with and interactions as well as professionally?

Scott: Yeah, I think so.  I think part of being a coach is being authentic, whether you’re in a working situation or a personal situation.  I really feel like when I coach I don’t do it because I feel like it’s my job, I do it because I love it, and I really feel like that’s who I am.  So when I feel like I have a client in front of me and I’m talking to them, or even if it’s a friend and it’s completely not in a work environment, I just try to be myself.  And hopefully my experiences and/or things that I’ve learned in the past can help that person grow, and that’s always my goal to make people around me better.

Toni: Well thank you for that, Scott, and thank you for being part of the Get Inspired! Project today.  We appreciate you being yourself and showing up to the Project in a way that’s very authentic and helpful.  Thank you very much for that.

Scott: Sure, no problem.

Toni: It was nice to talk to you and hopefully we will connect soon.

Scott: Thanks again.

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For more information about Scott Asai:  www.growingforward.net

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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Lee, for agreeing to be part of our Project, and before we begin with the questions, can you please introduce yourself?

Lee Cockerell: I’m Lee Cockerell.  I’m the former Executive Vice President of Walt Disney World Resort.  I’m now retired and doing public speaking seminars and writing books.

Toni: Well thank you, and thank you again for being here.  The first question is, when you think about the word inspiration, who do you inspire and how do you do that?

Lee: Well, I didn’t always know how to do that, and I kind of underestimated my ability to do that until about halfway through my career where I learned that I really needed to get a whole lot better at inspiring people and having people trust me.

So, I’m available for people; that’s one thing I do.  Just about anybody who wants to see me can see me.  I’m available when they need help whether it’s their personal life or their business life, to help give them direction and try to give them a new way to think about the issue they’re dealing with.

I think I’m a good listener.  I listen well.  I try to get in a position next to them and sit next to them and really try to give them some solid feedback that will help them make up the kind of decisions that will help them get ahead in their life and get over whatever difficulty they’re dealing with. And I try to do that with everybody I come in contact with.  I’ve become more sensitive to it.

I think I care more now today.  Of course, I’ve been married for 41 years.  I’ve got three grandchildren.  I see the impact of my own personal behavior on people, and I’ve learned that.  I think it’s the kind of thing I try to teach to other people is don’t underestimate your own behavior and what an impact it has on others.  You really do have influence.

Toni: I think that absolutely leads into the next question, which is, what do you do to help explore the potential in others — because you speak beautifully about how you inspire — but then how does that translate into helping them explore their potential?

Lee: Well, I try to tell stories when I speak to people and to give them … I had a pretty tough life myself, and I learned that there is potential in people.  Sometimes it’s because they just have to be introverted or maybe they don’t speak the language very well, and they have a good education from someplace else, or they just don’t fully believe in themselves.  So I try to get to know people as well as I can, and each time I come in contact with them try to get to know more about them, about their family, about what their aspirations are, about what they’re trying to achieve in their life and how I can assist them in that.

People really relate to that, because like they always say, you only know what you know and I hopefully with all my experience at Hilton, Marriott, and Disney, and being a father and a grandfather … I tell everybody I have more wisdom today because I’m a grandfather.  You might not listen to your parents and you might not listen to your teachers, but everybody listens to the grandfather.

I’ve learned … I know a lot now after 40 years of working and being married and going through all those tough times together.  I now understand that everybody has a problem you don’t know about, and you need to work with them to help them get through that.

Toni: So really, what I’m hearing that you do is you use your experience and your wisdom, everything that you’ve been through, but you also provide a space for somebody to come to the table, talk to you about their issues, and it sounds as though you almost mentor them based on your own experience and help them to move forward.

Lee: I try to do that, and I get a ton of feedback about it.  That’s kind of what turns me on is when I hear from somebody and they say “Lee, 10  years ago you sat down with me and had a tough conversation.  I want to tell you, that led to where I am today.  I am very successful, and I appreciate you telling me the truth.”

Toni: Let me ask you about you.  What do you need to be inspired?

Lee: I think the biggest payoff I get is being appreciated, frankly, and people telling me that I was able to make a difference.  I didn’t always know that.  I didn’t believe in myself when I was younger.  I didn’t know I had any talent to help people.

Obviously, at some point in my life, I probably didn’t know very much.  But as I learned over the years, I now just love to get feedback from people saying “Lee, you helped me a lot”, or “You took me through a time management course, and I use that today and I’m very successful in my own business”, or “You did this for me and you did that for me, and you really opened my eyes.”  That’s all I need!  I enjoy it.

Somebody said, “Lee, why do you give so many speeches?”  I said, “I love the applause!”

I think we all want to be appreciated, recognized, and encouraged; and I do, too.

Toni: Did you always come to the table that way, Lee?  Were you always the type of leader or man that was very encouraging, supportive, mentoring?  Is that the way you always were?

Lee: I think I was better at it at home with my son than I was in business.  We get confused when we get into business with big organizations sometimes and forget it’s all the same.  So I was pretty quiet at the table the first 10 years of my career.  I didn’t believe in myself.  I didn’t know I had anything to say.

Eventually it came to me over the years as I got smarter and had more experience and went through some difficult times myself, I learned that I did have a voice and it would help people.  I wasn’t always there, and I tell people all the time, if you went back and told my high school teachers what I was doing today, they would not believe you.  They would say “This must be some identity theft.  That can’t be the Lee Cockerell that was in our high school.”  I learned, I grew, and I have a good understanding of myself, too, so I understood when it was happening.

Toni: It’s interesting because a lot of people … the feedback that we get from people who are listening and reading the Project pages, there are a lot of people that are struggling with limiting beliefs and self-esteem and so forth, and so that’s why it’s really important to hear from someone like you who is saying “You know what?  I am this way now, but I wasn’t this way.”  It’s helpful for people to say “How did you get there?  How did you make that shift?  What happened to you that that self-belief became stronger?”

Lee: Well, that’s what I tell people.  I said “If you read my book, you’re going to feel real sorry for my wife.  I drug her all over the country.  We had our ups and downs.”

My wife actually almost died about a year ago, and we went through a long time together.  I had to take care of her.  We had a $700,000 hospital bill, but it got paid by insurance, thank God.  She was in the hospital 63 days.  I ended up with depression and anxiety, had to see a psychiatrist for 5 months.   It was a horrible time for us, and everybody’s fine now.  We’ve all recovered.  She’s in great shape.

Let me tell you what, she told me … there was a program on the other day and it was about “Is your husband the man you married?”  And she said “No, my husband’s better!”  Because I saved her life.  I literally saved her life.  I got her up every morning.  I made her eat the right foods.  We were at the emergency room every Friday.  We really grew together.  I told her “Hey, darling, I used to love you – now I’m madly in love with you.”  She said “Well, Lee, I almost killed you, but I gave you more material for your speeches.”

Toni: So it was a win-win for everybody.

Lee: It was a rough time, and it really has made me even a better man.

Toni: Wow.  Thank you for sharing that.

Lee: It’s just one of those shocks when you think you’re going to lose someone.  It’s just horrible.  Depression is a horrible thing.

Toni: I can’t imagine.  I’m really happy to hear that she came out of that okay, as well as you.

Lee: We are all back to normal.

Toni: As normal as can be, right?

Lee: We’re aware that your life can be going perfect, and it can drop off the edge suddenly.  Our life was perfect for 40 years and then, bam, one morning it wasn’t.  We got it done.

Toni: When you think about, as you said, the things that inspire you, and I would imagine what you went through last year must have been incredibly difficult but also inspiring that you’re standing on the other side of it.  And that story alone, I would imagine, would be very inspiring for other people to hear how you did that.  However, when you’re looking at exploring your own potential even today, what do you do?  What do need to keep moving forward and keep that exploration going of your own potential so that you can keep inspiring others?

Lee: I think it’s like a snowball.  Once you do something that you’re insecure about and it works out … what I’ve seen in my life, I am a fairly high risk taker today.  I will try different things because I have a pretty big belief in myself.

I’m very organized.  I taught time management for 30 years around a management system, about organizing yourself, putting priorities in your work, thinking about what you ought to be doing that won’t pay off for 30 or 40 years from now, taking risks, trying things — calculated risks.

I pretty much try anything.  Just since I retired, I wrote this book and published it in 10 languages around the world.  I didn’t know I could write a book, but I thought I could, so I did it.  I got a publisher, I got an agent.  I’m starting a national seminar business in May.  The first roll out will be in Chicago on leadership and time management.  I’m going to have an online store opening in a few weeks with merchandise.  The brand name will be Creating Magic.  Just one thing after the other.

What happens is your own self-confidence grows when you try things and they’re successful.  I will tell you, the first 20 years of my career, I did not have that belief in myself, and I would not try risky things.  But I’m retired.  I retired at 62, and people said “Why did you retire?”  And I say “You know what?  I wanted to do something else.  I wanted to do more, and I wanted to do it on my own.”

I love what I’m doing now because I’m the boss.  I have full authority.  I don’t have to check with anybody on anything.  Let me tell you, authority is a wonderful thing.

That’s it, I think.  Being organized, believing in yourself, and going out and trying things.  Everything hasn’t worked just perfectly, but most things I’ve tried have been working real well so far.  I have a lot of good people who help me.  I must say, getting my online store, there’s a guy who is an expert in that.  He’s doing all the heavy work getting it up there.  The seminar business, I teamed up with a guy who’s in that business, so he’s helping me.  I’m just writing the material right now.

Getting experts around you, getting help.  People like to help.  I think if you helped others … I helped others my whole career, and they came out of the woodwork when I needed them.  And people are just helping me right and left getting speaking engagements, seminars, and that’s the kind of thing, you know … you have to help people, too, and not just start manipulating them two weeks before you need something.

Toni: Absolutely.  That’s a great point to make here.

I have to tell you, Lee, you have given so much information in such a short amount of time between how you inspire but also what you need and what you’ve been through personally.  To be retired and to do all of the things that you’re doing now and not having thought you would have done that 20 years ago, I think that is a great message.  And I can’t thank you enough for giving your time now to us.  This was unbelievable, and I am incredibly grateful.  Thank you so very much for helping us out.

Lee: You’re welcome, and I’ll look forward to talking to you again.

Toni: Thanks Lee, take care.

Lee: Good luck!

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For more information about Lee Cockerell:  www.leecockerell.com

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Toni Reece: Thank you so much for agreeing to be part of this project, Suzi, and before we begin with the questions, could you please take just a couple of minutes and introduce yourself?

Suzi Pomerantz: Yes, it is my pleasure, Toni.  Thank you for inviting me to do this.  The official introduction is my name is Suzi Pomerantz.  I am an executive coach and an author.  I have had my coaching business for 16 years, and I currently serve on a couple of international boards and as the faculty at the College of Executive Coaching and some other top coaching programs worldwide.  I am the founder of the Library of Professional Coaching as well as the Leading Coaches Center, and I am excited to be part of your project.

Toni: Well thank you very, very much.  Let’s start with the first question, Suzi.  Who do you inspire with everything that you do; who do you inspire and how do you do that?

Suzi: It’s a funny question, because before you asked that question, I don’t really think about who I inspire or how I inspire them.  I don’t even know that I seek to inspire specifically, but I’d say that who I work with the most are leaders, so the leaders I coach I would hope that I inspire them, leaders and executives, and then coaches, other coaches that I work with through the various engagements.  One of the things that I am really passionate about is stewardship of the profession.  So to that end, I am involved in a lot of stuff with coaches, so hopefully I inspire coaches a little bit, too.

To get to how, I think probably how is through just being curious, through my curiosity and listening and just listening from a place where I am seeking to add value all the time.  I’m listening for, you know, what to say to them that would help, and sometimes it doesn’t even come from me.  Sometimes that I feel that it just comes through me from elsewhere.  So to that end, if I do inspire, it is not necessarily that I’m trying to be inspiring; I think it just sort of flows through listening and seeking to add value and maybe, in the coaching context, through asking powerful questions that engage people not just in their minds, but you know,  in their heart and soul.  I don’t know, I get inspired all the time, so sharing things that inspire me or sharing wisdom from others, I think that’s probably how, if I try to think about how.

Toni: Well I would imagine with lots of contacts and people that you help on a daily basis in all of the sites that you have and the organizations that you belong to, the leaders and the executives, and this stewardship of the profession –I love that statement — so the how is as far as to be curious and to listen to bring value to that stewardship, I would think that that sounds to me the way that you go about inspiration.

Suzi: Yeah, and I think it’s interesting because I’m not actively seeking to inspire, and so now that makes me wonder what if I were?  Would that actually color it in a negative way or in a positive way?  So I don’t know if that’s a component; I’d be curious to know about your other interviews.  I don’t know if it’s a component of being inspiring is actually intending to inspire or not.

Toni: That is interesting, and as you read through the interviews, it has been interesting how people have answered that question.  When you work with other people, what do you do to help them explore their own potential?

Suzi: Well, again it goes back to the powerful questions, but really it’s about … I’m naturally in a place of wondering.  I’m naturally wondering what would help in the situation, or what are some other possibilities to explore?  What are some other ways to look at this, or what are some questions we haven’t considered yet, the asking of which would open up some new door for you.  So, it’s about my natural wonder and being present in those conversations and bringing forth that curiosity and that wonderment, and then some creativity, too, in coming up with possible things to consider, but I think that comes out of the wonder.

Toni: What would be the difference, from your perspective, between the wondering and the curiosity?  Is there a difference between the two?

Suzi: Yeah, because curiosity, to me, is more driven.  It’s a yin and a yang.  The curiosity is the more masculine, active, seeking, and the wonderment is more of a sitting back, the more feminine, just sort of “Hmmm, I wonder if we look at it this way what might we see,” whereas curiosity is well, “Tell me more about this and tell me more about that, and what do you see here, and what does that mean, and what does that look like to you?”  So the curiosity is more driven and wonderment is more of a reflective; it’s just the other side of the coin.

Toni: It almost sounds empathetic as well, that there is a lot of empathy that goes into wonderment.

Suzi: Yeah, yeah … and I think it just has to do with … I think it’s a broadening of curiosity if you look at it that way.  So curiosity is sort of at the surface level of what’s next, and wonderment is more about really what is possible in the whole realm of the universe of possibilities.

Toni: That’s awesome.  So when you look for inspiration for you, what do you look for?  What do you need to inspire yourself?

Suzi: Well, again, maybe I’m not sure if this is working in my favor or against me, but I don’t seek to be inspired.  I find inspiration all over the place, so I am continually inspired.  I don’t feel like I need to seek it out.  It’s not like I wake up in the morning and go “Okay, I’m gonna go find inspiration today.”  I guess what I need to be inspired is I need to breathe, that’s important.  I need to be around beauty, so nature, beauty; my children inspire me all the time.  I get moved by people.  People overcoming obstacles, people connecting at a deep level with who they really are and connecting with what’s meaningful to them in their lives, so that moves me and inspires me.  Spirituality, wisdom of the ages kind of thing inspires me, but then I also need sort of reflective time.  I need to, you know, get in the car and drive, or sometimes I get inspired just in the shower or when I’m falling asleep at night, or when I’m doing yoga.  It comes at different times; I don’t seek it.  But these are things that I need to have in place.

Toni: Right.  So it may not be a conscious seeking of inspiration; however, you do recognize it when it shows up.

Suzi: I do.  And I think that what I seek more than inspiration is balance, you know.  If I just do the things in life that support and balance my inner space with the outer space of the world, then inspiration can show up, and I’m aware of it and I’m open to it.

Toni: Do you receive signs in your own life when you know you’re out of balance and therefore you have to possibly go look for the reflective time, the yoga, the listening to people’s stories.  I mean, do you recognize when you’re out of balance?

Suzi: Yeah, and I think it happens in a moment.  It happens in a flash.  And so, as much as I’m continually conscious about putting in the things that add balance, it is very obvious when something is out of whack and I need to add something more, and it’s always surprising to me how much it takes to create balance.  When I say much, I don’t mean much in terms of effort or time, it’s just how many things.

Toni: Can you give me an example of that?

Suzi: Yeah.  So, I did this experiment one year where it was one of my New Year’s resolutions where I said, “Okay, my resolution this year is to figure out how many things I need to truly be supported.”  And I was shocked that it was like 10 things that I had to have in place at all times, and it was everything from yoga to time with friends, time with my children, time with my spiritual exploration and religious beliefs, time with a coach, time with a counselor, you know, there were all these things … exercise.  There were all these things that I had to have in place to feel truly supported, and I was shocked that there were so many things, because, you know, you tend to think in your busy life “Well if I do this one thing it’s good for me,” and it was really intriguing to find that no, I actually have to have all ten of these things going all the time, or balance goes out in a heartbeat.

Toni: That must have been a very interesting exercise.

Suzi: Yeah, because I kept adding things on!  You know, I got to six things, and I was like surely I’m not this high maintenance!  Surely I don’t need this many things to be in balance!  It was a very surprising experiment that I actually needed ten things, and I thought well, good grief, if it takes doing these ten things all the time to truly take care of myself, then that is a lot more than I had been doing and had thought I needed and, you know, once I got past all the judgments I had of myself about why I’m that needy, I was able to let it go and just do them.

Toni: Well that’s fantastic!  Now, a nice tie-in to the fourth question is what do you need, what do you do to explore your own potential, to continuously do that?  You inspired yourself by the realization of the ten things that you needed to be supportive of yourself and to support your life.  Where do you go to explore the potential for you?

Suzi: Oh, lots of places.  I constantly have a coach; actually, right now I have two coaches, so my own coaching is where I go, and I think I’m constantly exploring that potential in terms of pushing the edge of my comfort zone.  Exploring, for me, it’s around leadership.  Leadership is something that I’m really passionate and driven about.  Leadership shows up in so many arenas and domains of life, and in so many ways, and there are so many facets to it, and so I think I’m constantly seeking to push my edge and my comfort zone around leadership — around who I am as a leader, around what leadership is, around working with my clients who are leaders and executives, around their leadership growth and their comfort edge.

So, you know, I think there’s a lot of ways that I explore potential.  It’s through my own coaching, through my work with my clients, through classes and seminars that I take, through books that I read.  I think I’m just always looking.  That’s something I’m actively seeking all the time, so I’m not necessarily seeking the inspiration side of it, but I’m definitely seeking to explore my own potential and expand that; you know, what is it today?

Toni: Do you think that people need to be inspired to explore their potential?

Suzi: I don’t know.  That’s an interesting question.  I don’t think I have to be inspired to explore my own potential.  I think I’m driven to explore my potential.

Toni: So there’s a difference between being driven and inspired?

Suzi: Inspired sort of shows up like a light from beyond that sort of beckons you; you know, like a moth to a flame.  Driven is something that is an engine from within.  It is like a pull, a force of nature or a push really, rather.  I think it’s the push-pull distinction, thinking out loud.  So I think driven is a push and inspired is a pull.

Toni: And there’s that yin-yang again, isn’t there, which seems to be a wonderful theme through this interview, between when you think about how you may motivate, inspire others, and how you go about that is listening to them and being curious and that the exploration happens by you wondering and also being curious.  So there’s your yin and your yang, your push and your pull, and then for what inspires you, again, how you’re moved by other people and being reflective and looking for how many things that you need to be supported to also your exploration of working with coaches and pushing yourself to the comfort zone, and you know, looking at leadership in various forms.  So, the push-pull, I believe, of inspiration and exploration for you has been all through this interview.

Suzi: Yeah, I can see that now.  I wouldn’t have thought it ahead of time but you’re right, you’re absolutely right.  It‘s in all areas.

Toni: So, therefore, what I’ve heard from you is that there is a great deal that you do to inspire others, and how you go about that, as well as your techniques for exploring their potential and how that does correlate with your own inspiration and exploration of yourself.  There’s a direct correlation between how you are inspired, how you explore your own potential, and then how that translates into how you inspire others and explore their potential, by using that push and pull.

Suzi: Yeah, that’s cool.  I wonder if I can actually now, with this new awareness, go and somehow leverage that into some greater edge; you know, leverage that into some broader inspiration or exploration dynamic.

Toni: Suzi, it sounds like you’re already doing it.  You just put words to it.  Well, I thank you so very, very much for your willingness to take part in this project and to provide a snapshot of your approaches and needs to inspiration and exploration for others, to learn from and to benefit from, and I truly appreciate your time in doing this for us.

Suzi: Thank you, Toni, and I appreciate you for actually doing this project, because I now have new insights.  I have new inspirations from engaging in this conversation with you, so thank you!

Toni: Fantastic!  And thanks again, and we will talk soon.
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For more information about Suzi Pomerantz:  www.suzipomerantz.com, www.libraryofprofessionalcoaching.com, www.leadingcoachescenter.com

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