Latest / Real STRength with Sarah Draper / Bringing Joy Back to Work with Sarah Draper and Michael Glatts | #25

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Bringing Joy Back to Work with Sarah Draper and Michael Glatts | #25 · Real STRength with Sarah Draper

• speaker-0: is a corporate survivor turned creative instigator. speaker-1: ride this out or do I take advantage of an opportunity to perhaps switch things up? If I'm staying around is it just for the money? The fund that comes from achieving something. The key is just to really focus on listening and paying attention to what's going on around you. speaker-0: Welcome to the Future Walk Podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Draper. Each week on the podcast, I explore tools to help you lead your best now and into the future, and I talk with top leaders to see how they stay focused when life gets cluttered. It's time to stop reacting to your life and start leading it. Welcome to Future Walk. Welcome to the Future Walk Podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Draper, and I'm so glad you're here. Today I'm joined by Michael Glatz. He is a corporate survivor turned creative instigator, and he's the founder of 901 Innovation. Michael spent decades at a large pharmaceutical company before he launched his second career, which is helping leaders and teams get more fulfillment out of their work. He blends deep corporate knowledge with decades of experience as an improv comedian to create highly engaging workshops that unlock innovation and bring joy back to work. So Michael, welcome to the podcast and thank you for being here. speaker-1: Sarah, thank you. It's ⁓ an honor to be here with you. Thank you. speaker-0: ⁓ I'm so glad you're here. All right. There's so many cool things I'm really excited to to lean into. But before we do that, would you just share a little about yourself with us? I mean a little about how you ended up doing what you're doing, ⁓ and and leading these the leading these workshops. speaker-1: ⁓ yeah the the Cliff Note story I guess is ⁓ a long ⁓ career in big pharma. ⁓ a good career, ⁓ a rewarding career. Got to learn a lot of things, ⁓ see a lot of the world, ⁓ take care of the family, raise the kids. ⁓ But you know, I I got into that age where you know you've accomplished a lot. You got the kids to their adulthood and ⁓ you know, you stop and pause and like, okay, do I ride this out or do I take advantage of an opportunity to perhaps switch things up? And I was able to, you know, achieve a milestone, walk off into the sunset with ⁓ some of the good perks that I had earned. But I you know, I wanted to have fun. Mm-hmm. And yeah, it was like If I'm staying around, is it just for the money? So I I did it. I pulled the plug and said, I'll have some fun. And ⁓ yeah, sorry, I started 901 Innovation and yeah, I brought a lot of the tools and tips, techniques that I used in corporate, ⁓ weaving in some of my personal passion, which is you said it's comedy improv. ⁓ and really just to help people have that fulfillment. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: Because I think fulfilling careers ⁓ make your life and career a lot speaker-0: ⁓ for sure, for sure. So what is nine ⁓ one? What's that number mean? speaker-1: That's a great question. You know, a lot of people don't ask that. 901 is the ⁓ house where I grew up. ⁓ I'm the youngest of six. Okay. Had our grandfather living with us. ⁓ our door was the door that was always open. So it was ⁓ kind of chaos and bedlam in a very fun, loving way. It was just it was great. So ⁓ I really believe that the core tenants of you know my my humor, ⁓ my outlook and really all of it, yeah, family values for sure, started right there at 901. So it captures and ⁓ reminds me of kind of the innovative approach that my parents and my family took. speaker-0: ⁓ wow, what a testament to living the life. Like you're you're creating helping others create that life for themselves, a joy, a fulfillment that was yours growing up and the home you'll be growing up. ⁓ that's really fantastic. All right, the door was always open. What I mean that there's so much to that too. What does that mean? The door was always open. speaker-1: The door always open. I it you know, when you have ⁓ that many kids, you know, I'm nine years from my oldest brother. So we all had our groups of friends. My mom was very social. ⁓ my parents would always just have events and like everybody was welcome. And you know, mom was a troop leader at times, she worked out of the home as a seamstress, so there's always people coming and going, but Ours was the house where everybody came. And I to this day I still meet people and they might be like, you know, six degrees of separation or so. And they I was at your house. At such and such event or party. Yeah. speaker-0: ⁓ that's really neat. So where did you grow up? speaker-1: ⁓ outside of Philadelphia. Okay. And ⁓ you get those kind of a northeast ⁓ yeah. speaker-0: Yeah, a little northeast. I I have one friend like that. She her family was from Boston and I went home with her one weekend from college and nonstop, like everyone came in her house in Boston, and it was her aunt was there and she was offering everyone a beer with that little strong accent. Every time someone walked in is the door was open. There was so much fun to it. I can't help but wonder, like, is that where you started to hone this this craft of improv? speaker-1: ⁓ totally. People ask me when did you start doing improv? I said at birth. When the youngest is six. I always kid my brother, he had like 700 more birthdays than I did because he was the firstborn. By the time he came along, you know, so if we counted actual birthday celebrations, I'm 17 years old and he's about 130. And it was just it was, you know. speaker-0: Happy life, aren't we? speaker-1: Hey, I'm here too, and the best way to do that is just to be funny. speaker-0: Right, to be fun and and to yeah, create that joy where you are. And then you found your way into pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical company. speaker-1: ⁓ it started, you know, with an advertisement in the Philadelphia Inquirer when people would get jobs by looking at the classified ads. ⁓ I had ⁓ two small children, ⁓ basically an infant and a toddler and ⁓ a career that was just stuck in the mud and tell ⁓ my wife, Donna's like, Donna, ⁓ my gosh, I have to do something here. I need you know, if if I'm gonna work this hard. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: If I do it with a big company, at least I'll get the benefits. And my intuition from that aspect was was spot on. And I I I got in with Pfizer, started in customer service, worked my way up into sales and then into operations and management. And it was ⁓ again, it was is driven by need, which is quite common when you're in your twenties and continued on, you know, through your thirties. ⁓ and then it kind of just led to here. speaker-0: And so you call yourself a corporate survivor. Right? That's a really clever phrasing there. ⁓ what I have I have an image of it. What does it mean to you? speaker-1: You know, corporate America corporate is it's a long hard journey, especially today. For years and and decades there were pensions and and other perks and other things that really kept people kind of committed to an organization. And that's gone by the wayside and there's immense pressure on corporations to hit the bottom line, to drive the stock, and I get it. ⁓ but with that comes you know, a lot of stress, a lot of angst, ⁓ a lot of openness. For you know, people that may not have the same value structures. And you know, you you can easily get caught into the negative stuff. You know, your whole podcast is speaking like the positive realm of life and achievement and and the things you can accomplish. But there's also the opposite of all that which corporate feeds into, which is the pressures and the negativity and the jostling and the maneuvering. And there there are times and you're like, wow, this isn't fun. This is this is painful. And you kind of muddle through it and then you step back and you're like, wow, I I I've been doing this for 25 years. I survived. And then in big corporate today, especially with the advent of AI, it's not uncommon to pick up ⁓ an article social media and see massive cuts coming. And it breaks my heart, but I I still talk to so many people in the corporate world that we don't talk about what they do. We talk about ⁓ I might be on the next wave. And ⁓ yeah. So a a lot of that just totally feeds my my values, my philosophy. speaker-0: Yeah, I ⁓ well you don't come to a place of seeking and helping others find joy and fulfillment and positivity and doing good until you've maybe some people are always there. Like you start there, you stay there, you end there. But I think a lot of us we go through something opposite and and seek that out, seek out a better way to get on the when we get on that back end. speaker-1: I'm a cynical optimist. ⁓ you know, it it in corporate you have to have a level of cynicism. You're not always sure if everything's coming on the up and up. And even within the organization, you're competing against other organizations for market share, for ⁓ you know, attention of people you're trying to delight. It's yeah, I want to trade it for anything in terms of speaker-0: Yeah. ⁓ speaker-1: the growth and the opportunity and cascading innovation forward, but there they're there's hard things that come with it. Mm-hmm. So I believe that even in spite of that, you can still have fun. And people say, ⁓ fun. I'm not talking about going to the amusement park jumping on a roller coaster. That's fun. Yeah, I'm talking about the fun that comes from achieving something, from the the fulfillment you receive when you're like, I did that, or I'm with a team of people. We did that. Despite all these obstacles, I mean look at your background, you're loaded with speaker-0: Whatever the obstacles. Finding the good in that. Well, how important I mean, that's like such a critical point. Is I'm just thinking, I can only imagine. ⁓ it's t there's a tendency to jump right over those things and move on to the next target and move on to the next target. Like we're we're constantly seeking things and accomplishments to help us feel happiness and satisfaction. Where the science shows the opposite's true, right? When you when you seek that happiness, that joy, that satisfaction. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: Or that that fulfillment, whatever that is, like you're going to accomplish those things and more. But I think ⁓ we've got it backwards, often, and there's also this other piece, and I would love to hear your your thoughts on this is when you do have those accomplishments, you say those are fun, those are the joyful giving things. It's so important to stop, recognize, savor, enjoy that. How often do we do that? speaker-1: Yeah, never. Like, okay, that was great. Now what do you have for me? speaker-0: Right, right. What would be a fun way to do that? Your you you've got your other phrases, quietly rebellious leaders. Like what would be a a good way to really savor an accomplishment to help people find those positive emotions that come with it? speaker-1: Yeah, I think in in a way, ⁓ if your team, you know, it's it's okay to put a a ru reward in place as part of whatever you're working on and then take time and celebrate and enjoy that reward. For years I ran an awards team that and ⁓ you know it was amazing. ⁓ we had speaker-0: Okay. speaker-1: seriously the the best trained reps in the world. ⁓ but they were they were basically out on their own running kind of their own business. And you know, when I would go and run an awards trip, I would just marvel at these these individuals who were sharing the outcome of all their hard work, the sacrifices that them and their families had made. I remember speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: In particular, is the beach in Naples, Florida. It's my very first trip that I went to as kind of an on-site manager with the group. And I had everybody at the end of the night out on a beach and music and great food. And I remember seeing one of our managers kind of walking off with their spouse. And it was just so profound. It was all about like Hey, thank you, Ani, for putting up with everything. This is our chance to celebrate and acknowledge ⁓ that it paid off. speaker-0: ⁓ that's awesome. Creating creating those moments. Find finding, but often we have to create them and do that. So all right. ⁓ you talked beach. I know you live on a beach now. We what is what or near a beach, right? On a beach, on a boardwalk now. What is your life like now that you're you've you've survived that corporate career now? You're you're living your your dream life. What is your life like now? speaker-1: More purposeful. Yeah. ⁓ certainly more rewarding and more fulfilling. ⁓ it's no longer a a Monday to Friday life. It's a ⁓ day to day, moment by moment life. And speaker-0: ⁓ yeah. speaker-1: i i the freedom is just wonderful. I mean, instead of being locked in like, ⁓ I've got to accomplish this by five o'clock, you know, if if ideas are rolling along and it's seven o'clock, eight o'clock and you just go on, you go with it. If if family comes in because ⁓ you know, one of the kids had some stress and they decided to take a day off and come down, all right, let's hang. speaker-0: Well. speaker-1: It's a chance to reprioritize. speaker-0: ⁓ that's that's pretty great. So your door is always open, all right? And you've gotten to you've gotten to this point where you've you can create that same environment of safety, of community, of connection for others at your home too. At least with your family. I'm not inviting people to your house. Although speaker-1: Yeah, I have buddies here this past weekend. We speaker-0: ⁓ that's pretty fantastic. And so now you say your life is more purposeful and more rewarding and more fulfilling. Able to live this day to day, I'm gonna guess not all of that is just because it's on your terms. That's part of it, but also because you're doing something that, like you said, is purposeful in service of others. speaker-1: Hands down. Yeah. It get to the core of it, it's right there. speaker-0: Yeah. What do you speaker-1: Yeah. There was i in corporate one of the unfortunate things in corporate is oftentimes you're so far removed from the real purpose. ⁓ I felt for years you know at times I was working at a financial institution. I mean I was not connected to patients or the people we were ultimately helping at all. ⁓ we take steps to try and make that connection, but it wasn't there. speaker-0: Okay. Yeah. But it's something people can do. When well like if someone's listening right now and they are in exactly that place you just described, they're so far removed from the human being that the product service is designed to help is there for. Yeah, they're so far removed they don't see that. How can they create some of that purpose in their own space? speaker-1: The the two paths are you try are you trying to find the purpose within the organization or ⁓ do you have just ⁓ definitely pursuing the purpose of your own life. And I think no matter what, that's gotta be in play. ⁓ you need you know, ⁓ a purpose-driven life is ⁓ such a difference maker. And generally that is going to transcend any career. speaker-0: Yeah, I always speaker-1: 'cause that's going to be with you always and that's going to weave in family and people that you love. Y so I would say, you know, if if you haven't stopped it take some time to really just speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: appreciate what you have and acknowledge and kind of bring it back to why, what's your purpose, do that. speaker-0: Yeah. What are your practices for doing that? For your purpose is built into your your day-to-day right? It sounds like you're living that purpose driven life, transcending that career and and now creating this. But what are those what are those ways that you connect to that appreciation, connect to those moments right now? speaker-1: ⁓ wow. I I mindfulness is what's coming first and foremost. ⁓ just really taking a beat and I'm preaching to the choir when I say things like this. speaker-0: Please no share your practice. There's so many ways to do this. How do you do it? speaker-1: I mean well, just simple meditation. when I walked the boardwalk, I really I I remember if I were back in the height of my corporate growth, I could have walked that walk back. And if you ask me which way I turned when I got to the boardwalk, I probably couldn't answer you. Just so lost. But now I just wanna even ⁓ even as walking, just pause and appreciate everything that's going on around you. ⁓ the more chaotic, the more fun an exercise like that is. I work for years in New York. I go up to New York all the time and you know ride the subway. I'm talking about a great place just to be present. It's chaos. It's a blast. But most people aren't. Right. And just great people watch it. So think mindfulness and just ⁓ speaker-0: ⁓ great, yeah, too. speaker-1: how to get back to your purpose is taking that beat. If you're hitting that fork where you're like, this is really wearing me down, that's a great moment to stop and say, Why am I doing this? Yes. Yeah, there's ⁓ there's a good reason. speaker-0: Yeah, yeah. I I love that. Yeah, mindfulness is a big part of my life. ⁓ both that practice of being in the moment as well as like practices like a mindfulness meditation that help train my brain to do what it it I it needs to do in any given time. recognizing that both of those have kind of developed within me this ability to recognize when it's not, right? Like you're talking about that walk on the boardwalk. Last night my husband and I were out walking. It's been, I live in Idaho, Southern Idaho, and it's been crazy hot. And we still do a walk every night we're here. And even if we're apart, we'll often walk and just chat on the phone after dinner. And often we don't even talk very much at all. But we're walking the same route we we do a lot in the evenings this time of year because it's got the most shade and Along a river, but it's normally been so so hot that I did not even realize it until last night. We are literally going through the motions of walking, so that's good. But what I'd been missing, and last night it hit me, it was probably 20 degrees cooler than it had been. It was pleasant, and all of a sudden I stopped and I looked around and I'm like, wow, how'd we get here? I'm like, I was just so immersed in the walk because it's been so hot, I've been ignoring the actual. Walk. I've we got to get through this, we got to work the car through this last night because it cooled down, and I was actually just found myself so immersed in the walk. I'm like, where? ⁓ when and when did we get here? It was the craziest experience. It was a good reminder for me of that exact need to pay attention to the things that are happening around us ⁓ and not rush through them, right? To really just enjoy, and sometimes it's nice to let your mind go, but it's just enjoy that journey. I love it. So walking is a part of your life as well. You said you walk the boardwalk every day? speaker-1: Yeah, pretty much. Or ⁓ bikes. But yeah. ⁓ biking walk but ⁓ it in the winter down here, that's a cold walk. Air coming off the ⁓ the ocean. But yeah, no, it's just in this weather, ⁓ early morning, a lot of people out. It's wonderful. speaker-0: Or bikes. Yes, I call it. Yeah. That's really amazing. And it's like you said, it's fertile ground for a lot of cool things to draw your attention and just be awestruck by a bad. speaker-1: I was today and I I'm sorry my nephew, my ⁓ great nephew, six year old is not with me because ⁓ down about a half mile is a high rise of condominiums and they're replacing the HVAC system on the roof. And I was channeling my inner six year old because they had the massive crane out. I mean and they had three incredible trucks that were all cleaned and polished that had lugged all the equipment in. And I seriously I was like a six year old. And I was just slowing down my tempo just to to watch this thing, watch the whole crew. It's great. speaker-0: That the joy of I mean that's that's not ordinary, but it could be considered ordinary, right? It wasn't it's a cool crane, but like the joy of the things in life that make life happen that we tend to either overlook or we don't even you know, we might not notice them or we notice them, but we're so busy in our heads that we we don't take that moment to just be awestruck by that is a huge crane. That is really cool. speaker-1: Yeah, I think of the people that even designed that. My goodness is insane. Yeah, it's great. speaker-0: Yeah, having like well that depth of ⁓ thinking through all those pieces, that's pretty amazing. Like the designers, like you said, how they got it there, the the skill of the the people who work it, and then what they're doing up top, and just all those components, so easy to just walk right on by. I don't know, for me, it really restores or affirms a great deep ⁓ respect for humanity and and this incredible ability. we have to create speaker-1: Sarah, you just reminded me of another walking story. This happened ⁓ last week. I was in New York and I was walking on Riverside Drive, which is ⁓ along the Hudson River, and it's a great park, real, real long. And I'm walking down and I'm on the path in between, and there was a hawk, a massive hawk, right on the fence at like speaker-0: It's like ⁓ yeah. speaker-1: Chest level. This hawk had a small bird clutched in his hands. And I noticed a police officer, she was standing off to the side, just kind of watching it. And I noticed two other people that were standing back just watching. Then I noticed other people walking by didn't even see this. Didn't even see this. This this is the middle of New York City. This speaker-0: Wow. Gosh. speaker-1: creature is massive and he's just sitting here like taking nothing on just letting the world go by. speaker-0: I'm sure there was lots of things going on in that person's head, but gosh, what a missed opportunity. And that like this is so key to to tune in to those things, whether they're really remarkable, like that big crane or that hawk that drew most everyone's attention, or even those small, truly mundane things like a leaf or something that you know, even when you get down to something really ordinary, you start looking at it and you're like, wow, this is really intricate this is some incredible design here and ⁓ there's just so much to be fascinated with speaker-1: It it it truly is. And ⁓ you know again, if you're not present you're missing that. But that helps you get through those stressful times. Sometimes yeah. speaker-0: Yeah. And speaking of design, you combine you bliss blend design thinking, right, with improv. What is what is that? How does that work? speaker-1: well design thinking, if you're not familiar with it or if anybody listening is not, it's a human centered approach to innovation. And it really it's a simple concept. I mean if you really immerse and embrace the people with whom you're trying to delight and you understand what's going on in their world. You can find unmet needs. And then once you have that need, you embark on ways to fulfill it and to light them. And all of a sudden, great new outcomes come along. And you know, one of the biggest proponents was Steve Jobs at Apple. He really embraced this, worked with a great company called IDO, and they're close with ⁓ Stanford University, which is huge into this. And it's it's that simple. And you think, you know, where was Apple when I was a kid? There was no such thing as a company called Apple. Now look at them. And it was that that obsession to just really pay attention to the things that people need. It wasn't that they needed an iPhone or even going back before that, they didn't need a home computer. What they needed was ⁓ Maybe different way to access all the information that's available in this world. And that's what jobs understood. So design thinking is that concept. And for me, I as I was learning about design thinking and training, ⁓ I was also noticing some of the similarities with improvisation that tied well into it. And you wanted the the first is just the whole concept of listening. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: If you think of improvisation, a lot of people think stand-up comedy, which it's not. Stand-up comedy is typically an individual with a set piece of material that they've refined and they deliver in a really funny way. Improvisation, you don't know what's going to come out. You don't know what will be said. And because of that, everybody thinks it's all about what you say, but really the key is just to really focus on listening and paying attention to what's going on around you. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: and whatever naturally comes out, if it fits, it it works and it's funny. So no no, so it's it's it's really that similarity, paying attention to what's going on around you. speaker-0: ⁓ sorry, go ahead. Are there thank you for that explanation? I did not realize that about improv. I did always think it was like the end effect was supposed to be something funny, unless it's like dead. That's the outcome. The movie that yeah, that outcome would be something funny as as people are working through that. I can't help but hear like connections with active listening. You're talking about listening, like the idea of connections with active listening. We're often too often thinking about what we're gonna say versus just truly hearing what the other. person is. So how do people learn that skill in an improvisation environment? Or does improvisation help them learn that skill? speaker-1: ⁓ more of the latter. Yeah. ⁓ you know, once you call it out and once you start really thinking about it. ⁓ and I I lead improv classes and we go through exercises. And you know, I've been doing improv with buddies of mine for ⁓ what, twenty-five plus years? Mm-hmm. And we still flub. You know, just a simple like you're you're doing a scene and a character gets introduced and the name gets introduced and then suddenly the other performer calls you by a different name. Just something that simple. The audience picks up on it and they're usually very forgiving, but yeah again you have to constantly be listening and paying attention. speaker-0: So With that, if you were to take ⁓ a tool or a a this isn't about like tools and strategies, so I can't think of a better word. So I'm gonna say it's tool or strategy for someone who's working on their own active listening, what is something? Is it a matter of just like listen to feel or pay attention to the last thing they said, and then that becomes your starting point? Like, how does that whole flow work? speaker-1: For me, the first step even precedes that. The first step is speaker-0: Okay. speaker-1: you kind of regulating this. Because we we think faster than we hear, obviously. ⁓ so if you can If you can stop and catch yourself there, stop yourself from trying to script, trying to listen ahead, and just let it come. ⁓ and then just like anything else, it's practice. Just you just have to keep practice practicing. But it I think it starts there and then ⁓ the mindful listening, you know, one technique that you'll hear from people is ⁓ speaker-0: Okay. Yeah. speaker-1: kind of repeat back what you've heard. So what you've told me is. And that is a very good practice indeed. speaker-0: Yeah. All right. So what you told me? What you told me is right, start with regulating this thing up here before. This life as a whole, how often do we skip over that piece and what even consider how comes out? How do you regulate this thing? Best of anything. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ yeah. Yeah, that's ⁓ man. That's the key. ⁓ I think a lot of what you talk about preach is ⁓ you're pausing taking a beat. Yep. Because if if you're thinking minutes, hours, days, weeks, months ahead, you you're not here. You know, and if if you're there and something going on here with friends, family, coworkers, whatever, and you're here, there's a disconnect. speaker-0: Yeah. And I see yeah. Yeah, and I see it also. And it's a choice you make. Your attention can only be one place. Really can't be multitasking as much as people hate the idea that we can't multitask. We we do it very poorly. And so you kind of fragment your attention. You also fragment your presence. So you every single interaction, anything you do, you're making a choice. Where am I gonna send my attention? And ⁓ I had to learn this through that was through my mindfulness meditation practice. Like my brain had to learn that one, I had to make a choice and two, how to make a choice and then how to apply that to other areas of my life. And it's truly been just like changing. But we can only really be in that one place. speaker-1: I saw a speaker once. I was at an innovation conference in Philadelphia. And Philly is home to the Franklin Institute, which is a great science museum. Okay. And they had a group there on an individual, and she spoke about a lot of these ⁓ beliefs we have about the brain. One of them was multitasking. And it was great how she dispelled it. She's like, Yeah, yeah, we can't. You can say it morning, noon, and night, but your brain does not multitask. You're bouncing back from maybe multiple things, but that's not the same. Yeah. Your brain is speaker-0: And that's why that guy walked right past that hawk. He wasn't even aware of his environment. He was just whatever he was immersed with. No no no no judgment on him, but he missed he didn't see it because something else had his full attention. Yeah. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: Yeah. ⁓ my gosh. Okay, good. Well I would thank you. I I would like to hear about a little bit about the in-house retreats that you do, what those are and as well as like any multi-day boot camps, whatever, anything that you do and what those are and who they're for. speaker-1: Well, I guess ⁓ most of my focus is helping leaders to to really rally the team. When you've got a high productive productive team that's having fun, it's amazing what they can accomplish. And when teams accomplish great things, that is fulfilling. Which leads again, right? This whole cyclical thing. So for me, it's about listen, if you want to have sustainable speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: fulfilling fun, a more rewarding career where you're going home and actually saying what you've done at work instead of going home and avoiding what you've done at work and carrying that with you to your home. ⁓ it it's all right there. And you know two of the the biggest things you hear out of corporate America is that we don't have time, we don't have money, which is really not true. They always have time and money. It's just they're very judicious with it as they should be. And Where I specialize is acknowledging that. So I'd like to do, especially with new clients, you know, just simple ninety minute, two hour sessions where it's kind of the concept of an in-house retreat. You want it you'd love to take the team away, you'd love to spoil them at a beautiful beach in Maui. ⁓ but the reality is you don't have you don't have the time or money for that. Right. So let's conceptually just take you on a quick retreat to get you away, step away from all the madness. And what I like to do is to bring them back to the things that they control and where everything breaks down. And it's right here at the very beginning. You know, as a young leader, I remember coming into meetings all jazzed up and energetic, ready to go, had all my slides together, had great fonts and visuals. I wasn't paying attention to the people walking into the room. And you know, maybe a couple of them. having a really bad morning for whatever reason. I'm not judging. I don't care. It's human. But by missing that, we weren't gonna have a great event. They they weren't there. And there are ways to acknowledge that, manage through it, deal with it. And I love to play there. Let's get you let's get that launch pad like so rock solid that you're ready to go. Fire up the engines, but you've got to have a good pad because if you don't you just speaker-0: Yep. speaker-1: Flying off right into the ocean. speaker-0: ⁓ so you work with that team. It sounds like you rally the team, get them focusing up here, and then get them maybe it's like with this joy that you're bringing, their minds expand a little bit with these positive emotions and they create some more insights, I'm guessing. Yeah. speaker-1: Yeah, you see it's that again that there's two mindsets. Yeah. The open, positive, fun, energetic mindset is growth, ideas, ⁓ positivity, you know, negativity, the stress, that's contraction and that's just bringing you down. You you're not going to be creative, you're not going to be innovative, you're not going to be productive. You you're in survival mode. And speaker-0: Well they speaker-1: you know, how do you get away from that and into this as easily as possible? And how can you recognize when it may be slipping? Because we're we're in a we're in a a world that has a lot of moving parts and it can easily devolve and slip into this. speaker-0: It's remarkable. ⁓ do you find most teams are able to do that or come up with their strategies to do that? Like or is it difficult for people? speaker-1: No, actually human nature it it comes shining through. What's always fantastic is you always get the comments like, I can't believe so and so was so good. They're always like this. it's even more pronounced when I I often do workshop with students. I love to do kind of pro both work with high school students. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: You always get that from the teacher at the end. I can't believe so and so jumped up. They're always the one in the back. So it it's an environment I do it in such a way that you know you're not out there to make anybody look like a fool. No. That is not the objective. No you're out there to show them that yeah, you can you can do this in a fun, comfortable way. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: Let ⁓ a bit of yourself out. Yeah, and it opens up avenues to trust, camaraderie, ⁓ support, all the positive things. speaker-0: ⁓ that's so good. Thank you. ⁓ my goodness. Okay, so you've had what I mean, what a journey from from being in the house with six children, the doors always open. You have a lot of activity in life in that house through your career, through the corporate side, now doing what you do and bringing some of that joy to other people in service of them as humans, right? Learning how to regulate this, but also in what they do and and opening up how do you keep yourself kind of how do you keep yourself well how do you keep yourself in line with your values you talked about a purpose driven life like what are your practices you use speaker-1: ⁓ you have to well for me I you know I try and focus on all the different aspects of my life and make sure I'm giving each of them appropriate attention and care. ⁓ you know, just personally our health and wellness. And paying paying attention to you know, diet and exercise. We say it all the time, but the reality is it's critical. Yeah. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: gotta be moving, you've gotta get out there, you you've gotta watch what you eat. ⁓ there's a lot of things I would love to eat a lot more that I can't and nor should I. ⁓ so it's it's the balance of all those important things. It's your friendships, it's clearly your relationships with ⁓ a partner spouse relationship with your family. ⁓ you know prioritizing those aspects. So I I always just have a running visual of all the things that matter to me in life, keeping them on track. speaker-0: Have you always been that way or was there a time when you got off track on some of those things that really matter? And and if so, how did you recognize that and then bring yourself back? speaker-1: ⁓ yeah, I think I've always been this way. And kind of a cerebral person at heart. ⁓ so it naturally flows easy. I I could drive in a car for hours, ⁓ even without music and just be so immersed in the drive, enjoying wherever I am. and then the second part of your question again, Scott. speaker-0: Well just I was if you've ever gotten off track how you recognize and brought yourself back. But it sounds like you've stayed aligned with what matters most for you. speaker-1: ⁓ no, I get off track. I'm human. ⁓ you do get off track. Yeah, you know, trust me, when y you get the call like something happened that was unexpected, that can quickly pull you off track and I think ⁓ information's gotta take a beat. I I I talk about this in improv. When I have new people performing improv in perhaps a class or a workshop and they're nervous about what are we gonna say? There's no urgency. Take a beat. Take a beat. Something will come. And sometimes you just have to take a beat. speaker-0: Yeah. ⁓ take a beat. I love it. There's always room for a beat. I call it a pause. I like that. Take a beat. Will come. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah it's it's exactly. speaker-0: probably gonna be a lot better than you what you shoehorned in if you didn't give yourself the time anyhow ⁓ thank you so much as this has just been really really fun Michael i'm I'm loving all of all of the the idea of bringing joy and creativity and fun into life and work and the fulfillment and the expansion that brings how do people find you like how if someone wants to learn more from you ⁓ where do they where do they find you speaker-1: ⁓ they can go to ⁓ 901innovation.com, ⁓ Michael Tel Michael Glatz dot com or ⁓ I'm also on LinkedIn. Everybody connect, ⁓ you can find me on YouTube and yeah out there in the world. And if they're an Atlantic City, ⁓ just come on by. There's usually a house full of people here. speaker-0: Okay. Perfect. It's not nine ⁓ one though. So I won't have you speaker-1: No, but nine ⁓ one is still in the family at ⁓ my And ⁓ yeah, we i she calls it nine ⁓ fun and we ⁓ we do. We have a lot of events there all the time. speaker-0: ⁓ my gosh. How good. How good. So ⁓ you said you have on YouTube. What is on YouTube? How do they find you there? Do are you like teaching there? You have a speaker-1: I feel like you'll see different clips of ⁓ some of my website. speaker-0: Okay, good. So we've got a lot of a lot of options for people to reach out to you. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: ⁓ thank you so much, Michael, for being here. And truly helping people discover or rediscover if they've found it but lost it. In either case, that that joy, that creativity, that fulfillment at work and in life, because they're all connected, is is so really important. And you've really been a good reminder that we don't have to choose between success and fun, or between the idea of innovation or humanity, because it really comes down to alignment with your purpose. and and living that purpose-driven life. So thank you for sharing all of this. For our listeners, if you are finding value, please follow so you can make sure you catch the future episodes. And I ask you to leave a comment about what really resonated with you about something Michael has shared with us today. Because as a community, that is how we learn from each other. And you probably caught something in listening to this that someone else missed because they were thinking or catching at something else. And so, so leave a comment there. It just helps everyone. And then this week, take a future walk and ask yourself, you know, what would it look like if I really became a little bit more of a quiet, rebellious innovator? If I if I stepped outside my comfort zone a little bit, found some joy, found some fun in my life, in my work, what might that look for me? And even just one small way, what's one small way I could shake things up and bring some more joy and creativity into my work. So think about that while you take your future walk this week. Thank you as always for listening as you build the life you're working for.