Karen Salmansohn: Bestselling Author & Behavioural Change Expert on Creativity, Purpose, and Living a “To-Die-For” Life

Discover the remarkable journey of Karen Salmansohn, Bestselling Author & Behavioural Change Expert, in this episode of The Brand Called You’s Leaders Who Care series, hosted by Mark Sadovnick. Karen shares her early love of psychology and humor, the creative influences that shaped her upbringing, and her evolution from advertising professional to bestselling author and entrepreneur. Hear about the pivotal moments that transformed her career, the viral success of her unique self-help approach, and the personal loss that inspired her latest book, Your To Die For Life. Tune in for insights on creativity, personal growth, resilience, purpose, and the importance of living a meaningful life—even in an age of rapid technological change. How formative childhood experiences shaped her creativity Her leap from a successful advertising career to becoming a bestselling author The power of viral, authentic, feel-good content Why self-help can be accessible, engaging, and even “cool” How personal loss inspired her to live a truly “to-die-for” life Strategies for turning someday dreams into actions today Her thoughts on AI, technology, and the future of humanit

• 0:08Speaker 00

  All right, folks, this is gonna be fun and this is gonna be exciting. We have a trio of guests here because we have the main star, Karen is here, but her two pups also will possibly be coming on and giving their opinion throughout the podcast. And they're more than welcome to join. So Karen, welcome to the Leaders Who Care series.

• 0:29Speaker 01

  I'm so glad to be here.

• 0:31Speaker 00

  We're gonna show everybody clearly why you deserve to be on a series that's called Leaders Who Care. Best way I always say to start is, and you know, I always have to do this, I say a big asterisk when I talk to men, because when I say, can you briefly tell me about yourself? They immediately go to their title and their position and what they do in their job, which is not what I asked. But if you can share where you're from originally, where you are now, anything you want to talk about, your family, maybe something you've never told anybody that you want to reveal to the world now, that's always fascinating. Every so often, someone comes up with a zinger of something. But share a little bit about Karen.

• 1:10Speaker 01

  Okay, um, well, I'll go way back, but I'll try to speed it up a little bit, because you know, if I go.

• 1:19Speaker 00

  It's not a feature film. That's right. It's not a feature.

• 1:21Speaker 01

  Yes, it's not a documentary on me. So I'll just try to think of like what I think is pertinent. So, well, when I was a kid, I used to love to read and I used to love, my mom would go to pick up my dad from the train station and there was a little magazine shop across the street and I would run in and I would get Psychology Today and Mad Magazine. Those are my two favorites.

• 1:48Speaker 00

  Good combo.

• 1:50Speaker 01

  And I loved like learning psychology and I loved humor. And in a way, when I think about what I do now, if you took Psychology Today Magazine, Mad Magazine, put them in a blender and pressed frappe, you'd get kind of what I do. I like to take, like to learn about psychology and philosophy, I also love philosophy, and then kind of sprinkle in some humor. So that's a little bit about how I got there. And then the other thing that might be pertinent is that I grew up with a mom who was an actress and she was an active actress. And yeah, and so I watched her doing something that was creative, that was her passion,

• 2:34Speaker 01

  and excelling in it. And I think it gave me a sense of possibility. She was on a very popular children's program when I was growing up that played on CBS regionally, like in Philadelphia where I'm from, Delaware, New Jersey. And it was a kids program called The Jean London Show and she played all these character parts like Shady Sadie, the jailbreak lady, Madame Natasha, Wiggly, Mrs. Winifred Throckmorton III, all these crazy characters, a lot of wicked witches. People in our neighborhood knew, they'd be like, that's where the house where the wicked witch lives. And during Halloween, she'd get on, the kids would ring the doorbell to, you know, get their chocolate.

• 3:16Speaker 01

  My mom would get on and do her wicked witch voice and wicked witch laugh. And then all the kids would run away and we'd have extra chocolate because nobody was brave enough to stick around to get the chocolate from the house where the wicked witch lived.

• 3:29Speaker 00

  Even on Halloween?

• 3:30Speaker 01

  Even on Halloween. So we always had extra chocolate.

• 3:35Speaker 00

  But not a bad thing.

• 3:37Speaker 01

  Not a bad thing, not a bad thing. So that's, I think, I can thank her for helping me to believe in like the possibility of doing something creative for a living and.

• 3:49Speaker 00

  That's pretty, that's pretty awesome because that is super creative and back then also especially, you know, doing what she did. And so when you said Jean London, no relation to Joan London?

• 4:03Speaker 01

  No relation to Joan London. But Jean London had a second career after that. He had in New York City, a very famous vintage clothing store where people went for movies. Like if they needed clothing for a movie, they would get it from him or wedding dresses, all this kind of. He wanted to be coming, having a whole second career.

• 4:27Speaker 00

  We have a, we have a store here in LA called It's a Wrap and they sell clothing that they've used in movies. And it says, who wore it? And then they buy it and then sometimes they only wore it for half an hour just for the scene and stuff like that, but it's interesting. So you're from Philly though originally?

• 4:45Speaker 01

  Yes, yeah, the suburbs of Philly, like the street with the cul-de-sac and we all played kickball and had like large trees and stuff like that.

• 4:53Speaker 00

  Fun times, those were actually, playing on the street and stuff like that. And so do you have siblings?

• 5:02Speaker 01

  I do. I have an older brother whose name is Eric, who I renamed Irk and Earache.

• 5:12Speaker 00

  Okay, I'm sure he appreciated that.

• 5:16Speaker 01

  Now a financial advisor at Morgan Stanley.

• 5:19Speaker 00

  Cool. Does he use those names just?

• 5:25Speaker 01

  I haven't called him that in a while, but that was kind of our relationship.

• 5:31Speaker 00

  Well, you know, you call him Irk, it's gonna irk sometimes.

• 5:36Speaker 00

  And any other relatives we should know about with nicknames?

• 5:40Speaker 01

  Um, no, no, I mean, that's it. It was just me and my brother, my mom and my dad. And yeah.

• 5:49Speaker 00

  Did you, you know, I remember when I was a kid, we had summer jobs and all sorts of different things we did. We obviously were outside more than the kids are today. We were always outside doing stuff. And what were you like as a kid and a teenager? Did it, was it, was it the, was it the acting stuff from your mom? Was it videos? Was it movies? What were you into?

• 6:13Speaker 01

  Um, I always loved writing and drawing. I, a lot of times like the family would be downstairs watching TV and I'd be up in my room writing and drawing and really loved that. But my mom's career as an actress kind of intrigued me. So for a while I did some acting and I was like in a Hershey Park amusement park commercial and a McDonald's commercial. I was the girl behind the counter. And it was a BJ Thomas commercial, like he was this, he came in. Do you remember who BJ Thomas was?

• 6:53Speaker 00

  I don't.

• 6:54Speaker 01

  Oh, he sang Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.

• 6:57Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah. Oh, sure, sure.

• 7:00Speaker 01

  Yeah. So in the commercial, I was the girl behind the counter and he came up to the counter and my words were, I still remember from years ago. He comes up and I go, Sadie, you aren't BJ Thomas, are you? I think I hopefully said a little bit better. I'm sort of exaggerating it. But, and then he said, I am, I'm here to tell everybody about my new record promotion.

• 7:25Speaker 01

  Anyway, and then at the end, the copywriter had written, here BJ, sign my hat, sign my french fries. And I joked with the copywriter, if we could say, here BJ, sign my buns.

• 7:39Speaker 01

  And they were like, okay.

• 7:43Speaker 01

  And then fun fact, I later went on to be a copywriter in advertising. So that was my first attempt at copywriting that got it completely like, go away kid, you know.

• 7:56Speaker 00

  I think that was a brilliant move, come on. I guess it was a family commercial, huh?

• 8:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. Well, everything was more family like back then.

• 8:06Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 8:07Speaker 01

  And there was a really absolutely terrible horror movie, like literally terrible. I'm not just like so bad that it swung around and it's kind of campy and has like a campy following because it was that bad. It was called Malatesta's Carnival of Blood and it had Hervey Villages in it, the little midget from Fantasy Island.

• 8:27Speaker 00

  The plane.

• 8:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, we were the same height at the time. And anyway, I was in that movie and I was bad. The movie was bad. I have nothing, I only look at it just to go, you know what? It's good that I went into being a writer and not an actress. Because I was like, I don't know, maybe it was the director's fault. I don't know. But I was kind of a little over the top, you know, so.

• 8:49Speaker 00

  I like to go as the director's fault. You were a kid and whatnot. And you know, it's funny how experiences as a kid, and certainly you know this for sure, stay with us. Kind of like trauma can stay in your elbow, these experiences stay in. And I know in interviewing a lot of people, not just for the podcast, but in just in what I do, especially men, they always tell me about the time their coach put them in on a critical time in the game when they were nine and they remember it like totally. And how it sticks as the foundation of their whole confidence forever. It's impactful. So for example, how they handled your buns thing, some way or somehow affected you.

• 9:34Speaker 00

  And it does, I think it just, it just does. And it's part of the adventure of life, if you will, that all these experiences.

• 9:42Speaker 01

  You know, in some ways, I mean, even then they said no, they laughed with me. I didn't take it as a, like a real, I'm just telling the story that way more. But I did think, oh, that was fun. And then seeing commercials from that end made me think, oh, this could be a fun career, writing for commercials, especially since I loved psychology and I loved writing. I really thought at the time, like, oh, advertising could be a way to do all of this.

• 10:10Speaker 00

  Yeah, I know. It's big time. Yeah, there's, there's so much creativity and so much thought goes into it. And so you went into advertising at Boston U, right? If I'm not mistaken.

• 10:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:22Speaker 00

  And then you switched to Emerson and it was film and philosophy. So what you're talking about is kind of happening right there. The film, the philosophy, the advertising, what were you envisioning at the time?

• 10:35Speaker 01

  Oh, I really did want to go into film. Uh, and then I wound up, I had an internship at a film place and I was just basically in charge of catering and stuff. And then I thought, maybe I'll try advertising anyway. And I created a portfolio, came into New York and interviewed at a couple of places and was lucky enough to get a gig at J. Walter Thompson. And

• 10:59Speaker 00

  Small firm.

• 11:00Speaker 01

  Yeah. So I stayed in that for a while. I got like a Clio my first year in the business. And I was like, oh, okay.

• 11:08Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 11:09Speaker 01

  You know, it was, it was working out like on paper, like I was doing well, but I wasn't happy inside myself because there's a lot of politics and, you know.

• 11:19Speaker 00

  Mad men.

• 11:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. So I kept threatening to quit advertising and my parents kept talking me out of it. I wanted to write a novel. I didn't want to write like commercials to get people to switch toothpaste. I wanted to write something that would get people to think in new ways and like a book, you know, and, um, or even a screenplay. I was still interested in that too. But I had one novel in me and, um, my parents said, no, don't quit. And so after them saying that lots of times, I quit and didn't tell them for like a month or so.

• 11:59Speaker 01

  And, uh,

• 12:01Speaker 00

  I think we all do that in some aspect sometime. Um.

• 12:05Speaker 01

  And then I wrote the novel and then it worked out because I sold it to St. Martin's Press and then to Miramax to be a movie starring Marisa Tomei.

• 12:13Speaker 00

  I love Marisa Tomei, kind of like, I think George and Seinfeld loves her too. Uh, because they always talk about that. You know, with that, can you share, share some work experiences on, you know, it's always a journey that we all have and there's inflection points that like stand out. Like I mentioned, the guy saying about the coach doing that with him and whatnot. Were there any, there's got to be some other experiences and inflection points that stand out and the impact they had on you, kind of to become who you are. We'll talk a little bit about, about that. But were there any that really stand out?

• 12:47Speaker 01

  Um, well, well, the, the moments that I decided to quit maybe, or the moments I decided to move forward. Uh, I always, I, you know what I did when I quit? I was so determined. I was like extra determined because my parents were like, oh no. So I had like that in my head, like I'm going to make this, I'm going to show them this was the right choice, you know? So, um, I would go to, um, the bookstore and envision my book on the bookshelf. And my last name is Salmansohn. And I went and I looked and I saw Salinger. And I thought, oh, I'll be next to Salinger. So, and that made me happy.

• 13:31Speaker 00

  It could have been next to Salmon Rushdie too.

• 13:35Speaker 00

  Remember him?

• 13:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, but.

• 13:41Speaker 00

  Well, that was Salmon is close enough. So anyway.

• 13:43Speaker 01

  It's close, it's close. Um, and then, and then how I got my agent is sort of a weird story. Um, I, I kind of credit, well, I actually think that it was my exuberance and my excitement that I, I was just really excited about writing a novel. I got myself really excited about it. And, um, I was working freelancing at MTV at the time. And I got into an elevator with this guy, Mark Pellington, who was a director. I was writing interstitials, the stuff in between the videos that got people to hang around on MTV. They'd have like

• 14:24Speaker 01

  these cute little, it's like little movies, actually, little 30 second things. And, um, and I got into the elevator with this guy that I sort of knew, but not that well. And he said, we got on the 24th floor, MTV was on the 24th floor. And he said, hi Karen, how are you? What's new? Like, not like, like a big conversation, but I was like, oh my gosh, I just finished my novel. I'm so excited. And I think he felt my exuberance, but I had nothing, like I was just making conversation. And he said, oh really? You have an agent yet? And I'm like, no, I, I just finished it, you know? He said, would you like an agent? I'm like, yeah, sure. And by the time we landed in the lobby, he

• 15:07Speaker 01

  gave me an agent's name and phone number just randomly, like a true elevator pitch, like really, like I was like, oh, it's about this or whatever I was saying at the time. And I joke, and that became my agent. And I joked that if MTV were located on the third floor, not the 24th floor, I'd never be published. But, yeah, but I also like to think back on it. I wasn't there networking in the elevator. I wasn't there, hey, you got an agent? Like, it was just a natural excitement and exuberance. And I think people can feel that. And I think that's, that was part of it.

• 15:42Speaker 00

  I think there's a, a big lesson there for today where, um, we're talking about working remote or not. And I always tell younger people especially, spend some time in the office. It's not all about remote because you might bump into somebody in the elevator. That's, that, and, and the other thing is, um, one of my favorite authors or, or quotes is Maya Angelou, who, you know, says, um, most of them, people will always remember how you made them feel. They might not remember what you said or how you did, but always remember how you made them feel. And, um, and obviously, even though he was maybe stoic or whatever the word is in the elevator, he heard you and felt that you were excited about it. And, and it happened. And, um, that goes a long way. I think sometimes

• 16:23Speaker 00

  that's underestimated. Even a smile can make that happen and, and turns into something good. So, you know, why not, why not be that way? Um, how did you end up being the, um, you know, the designer of like a beyond jewelry, uh, beyond jewelry type, type, type of scenario? I mean, you, you, you've done a lot of creative things. And I noticed also, you know, you certainly impact people on, on having a life of financial, physical, mental wellbeing, but you also promised your son to live to more than a hundred, I believe. I saw that also. Um, how did you think about all this? How did these, did these things just come to you? Or how?

• 17:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, I, I do feel like I come up with a lot of ideas, but I don't know if that's necessarily great. My mind is always thinking, I want to do this, I want to do this. I sometimes think of like, I make fun of myself that it, the Spider-Man, they used to say, his gift with his, was his curse, his curse was his gift. So I think sometimes thinking of too many ideas is a gift and a curse. Like I need somebody to follow me around and say like, put that idea down. Stop wasting time on that idea, you know? Like I have like too much sometimes and I need to focus on just like one huge project. And that's what a book becomes, like when you work on a book. But I fall in love with, oh, I want to do

• 17:48Speaker 01

  jewelry. Oh, I want to do kids books. So I want to.

• 17:51Speaker 00

  But you, it wasn't just jewelry. That was way beyond jewelry.

• 17:56Speaker 01

  That, well, that happened because I had a Facebook page that went viral back in, what year was it? I actually, I know my son is going to be 15 and it was around the time my son was born. So it was about 15 years ago and nobody was doing those quote image posters back then. Pinterest did not exist. Um, I don't think Instagram existed at that point. And so, but because I came from advertising, I started to create these quote image posters and nobody was really doing them. And I put them up and they started to go viral. And then my page, like they got shared like a million times for one poster

• 18:40Speaker 01

  or half a million, like it, it just went crazy viral. And I had like 1.3 million followers or something. And, and then, and then somebody from, uh, Home Shopping Network approached me for a jewelry line with, uh, little likes quotes of mine, inspirational quotes on them. So that happened from building the Facebook page. But I love jewelry. So it was.

• 19:07Speaker 00

  Well, I don't think those things happen by accident. I think again, it's the energy that you put out, um, turned into, it turned into something, you know? It's, uh, it's not, I don't think it's rocket science and it's authentic energy. So people feel it even, even more so. Um, you know, how do you feel now about your promise to your son about living beyond a hundred?

• 19:28Speaker 01

  Um, well, he, he helps me very much because he's, they say that you become like the weight of the people or the money or anything like the people that you hang out with. And he, and I can see how, just even logically, he is so health conscious. That I, this house has, you like, everything healthy in it. So he's like, almost like somehow he rigged the system. So I might just actually live to a hundred.

• 19:59Speaker 00

  Oh, cool.

• 20:00Speaker 01

  Sometimes it's like different with kids. You're like, put that candy down. He's like with me. Put that candy down. He's like telling me.

• 20:07Speaker 00

  I can relate. Three sons and a, and a bonus daughter who's married to my middle son, who's an actor. And um, but um, and they, my two younger sons were very, very, very competitive, high level hockey players went up. But after all that, um, they became vegan and they're healthy and they showed me all sorts of different things to eat that are vegan, that are fantastic and, and so on. So, hey, you know, um, they can take care of us.

• 20:36Speaker 00

  You know, I wanted to, I want to talk a little bit about, um, well, let me back, our firm was actually founded on the premise that, um, that leaders and their organizations can always do better when they're doing good at the same time. So we're always talking about talent slash leadership and then an impact. And tech becomes a, a tool, including, including AI. Describe a little bit how you developed your, your different paths. Um, which was about making lives better, you know, and, and um, and I again go back to, how did you, or did you even look at the realm of making lives better was better for business and for, you know, social impact at the same time?

• 21:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, it was why I wanted to quit advertising. I felt like advertising was really shallow. And I was like this, like, I guess they even have words for it now, like highly sensitive kid or whatever. I was always in my room writing and thinking. I remember one time my friends and I, we found a lost dog. And we returned it to the owners and my friend said something like, oh, I, I wish they had given us money. And I was like, oh, but didn't that feel good to like, and they looked at me like I was, I know I've always like, was weirdly weird like that, like wanting to.

• 21:56Speaker 00

  Weirdly weird. That's pretty profound.

• 22:00Speaker 01

  I remember feeling really embarrassed that that thought even like, I just, oh, you know, and then so when I quit my job in advertising, I really did want to help people to think in new ways. And I was always reading books, self-help books. Um, back in like the eighties and the nineties, I remember I was reading a book when I was at college. And um, I told my mother about it and she's like, oh, I don't have time to read a self-help book, but she really just didn't want to read a self-help book. So I ripped it into, it was like two hundred pages. And I ripped like ten pages or five pages, I forgot what I did. And I bought like thirty greeting cards.

• 22:42Speaker 01

  And I mailed her like five, ten pages a day with a note, like you have time to read like five, ten pages. I, I loved reading books that helped me to live better and think and stretch my mind. And then at a certain point, I realized I kept wanting to recommend books to people. And I felt like I didn't want to insult them. And I thought there should be self-help for people that wouldn't be caught dead doing self-help or self-help that you could give to a friend as a gift. And it looks kind of cool. So they're not going to punch you, you know, because they're all like very serious. Like I myself would like want to rip the cover off them and read them in cafes, not letting people know what I was reading. I was a little embarrassed.

• 23:25Speaker 01

  Like that I was like liking self-help books. And so then the marketing person in me thought, ah, that I should create self-help for people that wouldn't be caught dead doing self-help. So I came up with uh, the first of this genre, a book idea called How to Be Happy, Damn It. And it had the word damn it. This is back in the nineties when I came up with this idea. And my agent thought I was nuts, like a self-help book with damn it. And then I pictured it with like images and like designy and everything. And she could not see it. And so I just paused and I just believed in it so much that I parted ways with her. And because I was in advertising,

• 24:10Speaker 01

  rose up pretty quickly. I was a senior VP Creative Director in my twenties. I knew how to creative direct things. Um, but back then I didn't know the tech for it. So I needed to get somebody that knew, knew InDesign or Photoshop. And then I worked with them and we creative directed How to Be Happy, Damn It, from beginning to end, the entire book. And then we, I got another agent with that who believed in it. And then we went out with it and we sold it. And I think it's because um, I showed them this is what it looks like. And it was such a strange idea. The whole idea of it, they couldn't imagine it. And businesses are a little bit fearful and a little bit lazy.

• 24:55Speaker 01

  And they're fearful, like, I don't know what this is. And lazy, like, I don't want to even think about what this is. So when I say, this is what it looks like, it took the fear and the laziness, they could envision it. And then it had a little bit of a bidding war and we chose one publishing house. And then it went on to be a huge bestseller. It sold like two hundred and fifty thousand copies was Urban Outfitters bestselling book for many uh, years in a row, because back then they didn't have, now they have a table with all those books, but this was like weird. In fact, a curse word, now everybody has curse words on book covers. But this was like very odd for that time.

• 25:35Speaker 00

  Well, that's not even really a curse word even.

• 25:38Speaker 01

  Not in today's world, right?

• 25:41Speaker 00

  I know, but then, right?

• 25:43Speaker 01

  I was like very feisty for that, for, you know. And then actually Eminem, the, the musician saw it, I guess. And he put the book in one of his music videos where you see him reading, because it had a bright orange cover on it. And the camera pans in the music video and he's like reading the book. But I didn't send it to him. He just found it somehow. Must have thought the title and cover were.

• 26:08Speaker 00

  You paid for that?

• 26:09Speaker 01

  No, but I mean, I'd pay him. It was good advertising.

• 26:13Speaker 00

  My, my son uh, turned down a commercial they wanted. I um, I know a video. Um, Eminem was doing a video or a thing about Michael Jackson. He was singing different people's songs and Michael Jackson and my son was like eleven at the time and they wanted my son jumping on a bed behind him while he was singing a Michael Jackson song. And he turned it down because he didn't want to be in that scenario.

• 26:36Speaker 01

  Okay, all right. I get it.

• 26:38Speaker 00

  That was a little much for an eleven year old to uh, to be asked to do that. Unfortunately, unfortunately, because Eminem is great. But um, so that's a, it's, it's funny how things evolve. You know, one of my pet peeves always um, in the world is people that make declarations about what they think is right and what they think is wrong. Whether it's like against gays and then they have a gay son and their mind all of a sudden opens up and thinking, oh, well, maybe it's not so bad. But maybe you shouldn't have made that declaration. This is wrong so strongly. And maybe think about it, right? And same thing with your, your book or even with leaders who care. We had a lot of business people saying that's way too intimate for business, using the word care at the beginning.

• 27:19Speaker 00

  Um, and I think what your damn it thing did was saying, look, um, this is real. It's okay type, type of thing. And um, and we had to, we have to like open up a little bit and um, and even in business laugh and, and, and um, you know, we use an expression, clear is kind, the clearer you are, the kinder you are with, with people and, and stuff. So I like the damn it thing. And I, I also like, and, and I want to ask you about, about it, um, you know, with the, they say the um, the, the fourth industrial revolution, they say is clearly AI and technology, but the fifth they're talking about is humanity. And how we put this together.

• 27:59Speaker 00

  Um, and I want to, I want to kind of ask you like, what's ahead for you with, with AI going fast and furious right now? Um, and you continue to share these wisdoms and I love the fact where you convert some daydreams into today actions. That's a great, that's a great comment. And talk about with AI and technology and, and people's laziness or fear that you talked about. Um, how does that fit in with your new book, you know, you know, which is your To Die For Life? And having lived in Boca and in LA now, to die for is a common comment.

• 28:36Speaker 00

  While they hold their little dog at the same time. Um, how, what, what do you, what's ahead for you? And talk about a little bit about the book and how that relates.

• 28:44Speaker 01

  Well, the book was inspired when my, my dad died about, um, by now it's, it is wild. It's about twenty years ago. And, um, his, his death definitely woke me up in a lot of ways. And it's funny, like, we think, we know there's this thing called death. But we're kind of like, oh, life is short, you know, we just say it. But we don't really take it in. It sounds like something you see on a bumper sticker or, you know. But then when somebody you love dies, you're like, life is short. Like it's suddenly, you take it in on a whole.

• 29:24Speaker 00

  Especially since I didn't trump it so, even if you expect that it's so final.

• 29:29Speaker 01

  It's so final, it's so final. And I realized that, um, a lot of things that actually were sort of like the regrets of the dying. I realized it being the child of somebody who died, the regrets. I wish I wasn't working so hard. It's funny, I never even had that thought till now, that I experienced some of the regrets of the dying. My priorities got a wake up call. I'm working too hard. Um, I, then other ones are, I wish I, um, some of them match that kind of go together. Top regrets of the dying. I wish I had allowed myself to be more happy. I, that goes with working too hard. Some of them I was doing.

• 30:11Speaker 01

  But one of the ones that I realized was, um, you know, I kept thinking, oh, I'll have a family someday. You know, and a lot of some days, if you, if you're not really embracing mortality awareness. Or you're on autopilot. I call it, um, having a near life experience.

• 30:31Speaker 01

  It's even the near death. Near life, you're like on your phone so much, you're not fully in your life. Or you're out to dinner with someone you love, but your mind is like worrying about something in the future or ruminating over something in the past. So again, you're not in your life or you're saying someday. And I realized, um, you know, I kept saying, oh, I'm gonna have a family someday. And his death kind of woke me up even more than my own biological clock. Because it made me really sad that he'd never get to see me as a mom, never meet any child I had. And I thought, okay, enough. And I became more aware of having balance, going from like beast mode to what I describe in my book as best mode.

• 31:15Speaker 01

  That there's a difference, there's like balance. And, um, and in fact, my son, my dad died on August twenty seventh. And then four years later, my son was born on August twenty seventh. Which is kind of a sweet little, like the universe winking, my dad winking.

• 31:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 31:33Speaker 01

  And, and I changed a lot about my life and I wrote his eulogy. And then I decided to write my own, you know, we have a mission statement, uh, for businesses, but we don't walk around with a mission statement for our life. And I think we should. And I looked at all the top regrets of the dying. I looked at what I wanted my life to be about. And then I reverse engineered everything. And I thought, who do I need to be now to get everything I want in my life? Who do I need to be now to avoid the top regrets of the dying? And that's sort of what my book is about.

• 32:08Speaker 00

  Yeah, I love it. And, um, I'm gonna start reading it this weekend. Thank you for sending it over. And, um, um, yeah, it's, it's so fantastic. And, um, you know, I got, I got, unfortunately, one more question on this. You know, in L A, we say, um, I say it a lot in L A, we say, leave him wanting more so we can have a sequel. So I, I think we, I'm gonna have to have you commit to sequels for sure on, on this thing to talk about different things. But one last question this time. You know, I had a client in twenty twenty one tell me about the year twenty twenty pandemic, COVID. He said, twenty twenty was the year that flew by slowly. And I thought, what a, what a great line. And, um, even now, people feel like COVID year was yesterday and years ago, all at the same time. Um, it's kind of weird, weird, weird feeling.

• 32:52Speaker 00

  Um, but with all that said, and we're already into the, almost the end of twenty twenty five amazingly. And there's always that joke, I think, about the difference between adults and kids is adults are saying, oh, my God, Christmas is almost here. And kids say, oh, my God, it's so far till Christmas. Um, you know, the same timeframe, um, how it looked upon. But can you share what you're most grateful for and what you're most hopeful for?

• 33:17Speaker 01

  Well, um, I'm grateful for, I think my, for me, from writing this book, I realized meaningful relationships are my everything for me, for having a meaningful life. So I'm grateful for the people in my life that I'm lucky enough to have been teamed up with, you know, that I've met. And obviously my son, who's like a miracle child, cause I had him when I was in my forties, late forties. So, um, you know, I'm grateful for that. Uh, and I'm grateful for, I, I mean, that's my main thing. But, you know, I wake up each day aware that I want to give back.

• 34:01Speaker 01

  I feel like that's the other thing. So to have the ability to share ideas that can, you know, wake people, wake up sleepy minds and hearts and, you know, that, that brings me a lot of, uh, satisfaction. So I kind of want to throw that in there. I don't know.

• 34:20Speaker 00

  No, that's great. What are you most hopeful for?

• 34:24Speaker 01

  I'm hopeful that we will get through this whole A I thing with, I hear all the, like, different people saying different things. And I'm hoping the people that are saying the positive things about A I are the ones that are right.

• 34:39Speaker 01

  That's what I want to stay hopeful about, cause I'm a little bit nervous about what A I is gonna do to our lives. So.

• 34:46Speaker 00

  It will do a lot, but you can be hopeful for, for it too. I have a, a client and a friend who has a company called Loving is A I. And they, they're training A I as you would train a new baby to think with values and positivity and caring and stuff. And to put that into all A I. So it's a, it's a, it's a great thing. Well, I'm, I'm, I'm grateful to have a really good new friend, creative new friend. And, um, and that you are a leader who cares. And I'm hopeful for the same thing, I think, is that, um, keep, um, keep creating, damn it, everything out there. And, um, and, and making a difference for people. And thanks for being on our, on our podcast.

• 35:22Speaker 01

  Oh, thank you so much. Thank you. This was fun. I'll happily come back.

• 35:27Speaker 00

  Cool. We haven't recorded.

• 35:32Speaker 02

  Thank you for listening to the brand called You videocast and podcast. A platform that brings you knowledge, experience and wisdom of hundreds of successful individuals from around the world.

• 35:45Speaker 02

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