Intro To 7:47 Conversations Podcast

The data are in – and impressive! Plant therapy is incredibly healing, a documented anxiety reducer that can even ease depression. What is it about the power of putting our hands in the soil? Host Chris Schembra’s guest on this episode of Gratitude Through Hard Times illuminates the magic ingredient: The gratitude we cultivate when we stay in the present moment, which is the core mission of Founder Donna Letier’s experiential gardening company, Gardenuity. A hit especially with corporate leaders interested in promoting empathy and reflection among team members across the enterprise, Gardenuity offers a platform not only to focus and quiet our attention but also to access the joy to be found in the simple act of getting dirty. You’ll learn on this podcast about the complementary app Donna has developed specifically to help us stay in the now, where misting our plants and tending our gardens is a first step towards opening our hearts and bonding with others. “When you actually see and witness plants’ growth, it

SUMMARYIs your wounded inner child still in charge of your emotional playlist? Maybe it’s time to update the soundtrack of your life! Host Chris Schembra’s amazing guest on this episode of Gratitude Through Hard Times has developed a powerful program based on an interesting trifecta of tools for growth. As Susan Drumm explains in her new book, "The Leader's Playlist: Unleash the Power of Music and Neuroscience to Transform Your Leadership Style and Your Life," when paired with our most authentic selves, neuroscience and music can shift ingrained habits of thought with transformational results. Her concrete case studies illustrate how our brains can be highjacked – or healed – by the “anchor songs” we play in our heads. As CEO of Meritage Leadership Development, Susan’s mission is nothing less than ushering in a new era of enlightened leadership. How? By shifting often outdated ideas and associations embedded within our deeply grooved neural pathways, we can reimagine the background music that sets the tone fo

SUMMARYIf you’ve ever struggled with the idea of meditation, try this out: How about no beads, no sitting cross-legged, no chants or ashram journeys? The transcendental practice developed by Host Chris Schembra’s guest on this episode of the Gratitude Through Hard Time podcast speaks to all of us who want to embody our deepest visions but find our busy minds get in the way. Vishen Lakhiani’s practice, "The Six Phase Guided Meditation," skips the things that make mindfulness a challenge – especially for frenetic, creative entrepreneurs. As he lays out in his new book, coming out this week, his program’s goals are transformational not because of a series of disciplines or rituals but because they bring alignment in the most direct, simplest of ways.Vishen’s journey to wholeness began 20 years ago, when he abandoned a burnout job in Silicon Valley. That decision to look for a deeper connection with himself and others has culminated in the fundamentals he spells out in his compelling new book, "The Six Phase Guid

SUMMARYCuriosity. Care. Compassion. Connection. As we learn on this episode of Gratitude Through Hard Times with Host Chris Schembra, these words define Kapil Sharma’s highly successful career as a leader known for bringing out the best in his teams. As Chief Transformation Officer at Microsoft India, he has brought home tools and lessons learned over 12 years living abroad in order to pay forward to others – particularly those who are fearful or marginalized. Throughout his career Kapil has seized opportunities and pushed himself hard, always with a sense of gratitude and commitment to giving back the gifts he has received. And for that deep well of both humanity and tenacity? Kapil gives a big tip of the hat to his mother, who lavished care and support on him from an early age. It was this foundation that enabled Kapil to take off, broaden his horizons and return to inspire others through his work transforming workplace cultures, tech stacks and customer relationships in Bengaluru (also known as Bangalore)

The stars align on this episode of the Gratitude Through Hard Times podcast when two Italian empaths get together for a conversation about mentorship, leadership and personal growth that happens to coincide with the 7:47 Club’s seven anniversary. Host Chris Schembra welcomes Matt Tedesco, VP & General Manager for  Americas East at the iconic furniture design company MillerKnoll, for a lively give-and-take about his passion for coaching and unique approach to group engagement and retention. It all starts with embracing the journey! They reflect on the pitfalls of results-oriented management, strategies for getting out from under social constructs that do not serve and the compounding power of positivity. Matt highlights a pivotal spiritual moment that has shaped his value system and explains how vulnerability has empowered him  — as a coach, an artist, a musician, a father, friend and colleague. Self-awareness is foundational to all the other elements that connect us with each other, says Matt, helping us

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." This proverb is old but will always ring true. In this episode of Gratitude Through Hard Times, Chris welcomes David Goldstein, the Founder and Creator of Opportunities at TeamBonding, the leading creator and provider of virtual, hybrid, and in-person team building events. Listen in as Chris and David discuss the power of play, team building, creating opportunities, and developing a mindset of gratitude to propel your life forward.“We need to get to places and have experiences that allow people to have fun together, to play together, to meet each other, to trust each other. This is what life is about. It’s not about going to work, it’s about the things that work opens up for you.” – David GoldsteinDavid shares his origination story, from landing on the front page of the Wall Street Journal as a 26-year-old to running a team building company that hosts thousands of events for the world’s biggest companies every year. He highlights the importance of sharing your cre

Sarah Fern is Chief People Officer of Velocity Global, a global Employer of Record organization with over nine hundred employees scattered around the globe.   Fresh off the heels of a $400 million Series B, they are one of the world's leading firms as an employer of record.  Employer record organizations help with global expansion. They help with global hiring, timely and accurate payroll processing ongoing compliance with local labor laws, additional HR related tasks, in layman's terms that you're watching this. If you have a company and you want to expand into a global market, They are the team to help you do it. As Chief People Officer, Sarah is responsible for overseeing the people side of this fast growing company. In today's episode, we go deep.  We chat about how Sarah's parents instinctively put trust in her at a young age.  How she used books as an early escape.  She learned early on that life is about giving gratitude to the hard times we've been through, especially in the face of adversity.In this

The Colorado Business Hall of Fame says this of the 2008 inductee: “Harry Frampton has made developing some of the world’s premier ski resort towns an art form. Combining keen business sense with a respect for culture and sport, Frampton works to provide visitors and residents of these bustling towns with a well-rounded experience.” The founding partner of East West Partners is also a principal of Slifer Smith & Frampton Real Estate, putting him in the center of virtually every significant development and real estate transaction in the Vail Valley. From 1982 to 1986, Harry was president of Vail Associates, Inc., and he is also chairman of the board of the Vail Valley Foundation and former President Gerald R. Ford’s World Forum. In those roles, he has been instrumental in bringing more cultural and world-class sporting venues and events to the valley, raising its international profile and enhancing the experience for guests and residents alike.Mr. Frampton has been named to the International Ski Hall of Fa

Shannon is the Chief Executive Officer of Beacon Pointe Advisors, the largest female-led Registered Investment Advisory (RIA) firm in the country serving private clients, foundations, and retirement plans. Prior to launching Beacon Pointe, Shannon served as Senior Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Roxbury Capital Management and oversaw the socially responsible investment (SRI) platform for several years. Shannon is a member of the CNBC Financial Advisor Council and is regularly featured in The Wall Street Journal, InvestmentNews, Barron’s, Forbes, Financial Planning Magazine, among other publications. In 2018 she was presented with the UC Irvine Lauds & Laurels Award and in 2017 the Orange County Business Journal Women in Business Award. Through Shannon’s passion for financial education, she is a founding member of the Beacon Pointe Women’s Advisory Institute and co-authored Your Dollars, Our Sense: A Fun and Simple Guide to Money Matters, an international best-selling book that has ranked #1 in

Teams and businesses all over the world are growing. And having a growing team means that the culture changes every time somebody new is added, hopefully for the better. New additions mean the dynamic within team change, creating either positive or negative friction. As a leader, you have to absorb these things and drive the business forward. You have to have a passion for the people and want to do genuinely good for them.Gareth Giles Knopp has a passion for people.Gareth is a British skeptic, hard-nosed man, raised in post-World War II United Kingdom, who now sits as Chief Customer Officer and General Manager of North America Board International. Board is a wonderful technology company that empowers businesses to operate on a flexible all-in-one decision-making platform.Gareth has been with the organization for many years, starting when the valuation was about $75 million, and now Board is valued at over $1.5 billion.In this episode, Gareth shares his passions for people inside and outside the corporate worl

What do astronauts, Olympic champions, and Nobel laureates do differently that allows them to achieve at such a high level?High achievers share the same four attributes: intrinsic motivation, perseverance, strong foundation, constantly learning through informal means. The key to their success is that they do all four of these things simultaneously.Ruth Gotian’s latest book, The Success Factor, outlines the approach that individuals aspiring to improve their performance can adopt.Dr. Ruth Gotian is the Chief Learning Officer and Assistant Professor of Education in Anesthesiology and former Assistant Dean of Mentoring and Executive Director of the Mentoring Academy at Weill Cornell Medicine. She has been hailed by the journal Nature and Columbia University as an expert in mentorship and leadership development. In 2021, she was selected as one of 30 people worldwide to be named to the Thinkers50 Radar List, dubbed the Oscars of management thinking, and recently won the Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement “Radar

Planning for the end of your life is like pre-gratitude. Pre-gratitude in the sense that it's going to happen, it's going to hurt; how do you make something beautiful out of it?Sandy Gibson has the solution for making death into something beautiful by creating a better place than the traditional cemetery.Sandy Gibson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Better Place Forests, a sustainable alternative to cemeteries for families who choose cremation.When Sandy was a young boy, he lost his father to a stroke and his mother to cancer. After years of visiting their graves in a dreary Toronto cemetery, Sandy began to imagine what a better place to remember his parents might look like. In 2015, he founded Better Place Forests with his two best friends to give every family the chance to visit and remember the people they love in nature.Based in San Francisco, Better Place launched America’s first conservation memorial forests in 2017 and has raised more than $55M in venture capital. Better Place has been featured in the New

Leaders of today have had to reevaluate where and how they do their business. How they used to lead may not be as effective in our ever-changing virtual world.Heather Hansen O’Neill knows that the ‘office’ resides within you and that you can lead from wherever you are. With the right tools and strategies, your leadership can evolve with the times.Heather is an international keynote speaker, behavioral expert, author of Find Your Fire and Teams on Fire! and co-author of Where’s the Office?Moving Today’s Leaders from What IS to What CAN BE. Heather is also a 2x TEDx speaker and host of the popular podcast From Fear to Fire. She stimulates vibrant energy, focus, and action for those who want to collaborate effectively, lead change, and achieve massive results.Heather’s mission is to open leaders’ minds and hearts to the possibility within them.In this episode, Heather shares critical lessons in her new book, Where’s the Office?.Listen to this episode and learn about:Heather giving credit and thanks to her mom, C

It can be hard to slow down enough to consider long-term goals in our fast-paced world. Especially when social media constantly shows us the successes and accolades of everyone we know.But to create a meaningful life, we need to slow down enough to reflect on the past and prepare for our future.Dorie Clark teaches us to play the long game to reorient ourselves to see the big picture.Dorie has been named one of the Top 50 business thinkers in the world by Thinkers50, and was recognized as the #1 Communication Coach in the world by the Marshall Goldsmith Leading Global Coaches Awards. Clark, a consultant and keynote speaker, teaches executive education at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and Columbia Business School, and she is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Long Game, Entrepreneurial You, *Reinventing You* and Stand Out, which was named the #1 Leadership Book of the Year by Inc. magazine. A former presidential campaign spokeswoman, Clark has been described by the New York Times as

The world is riddled with uncertainty and challenges. We can let the uncertainty crush us or let the uncertainty propel us.One way to use uncertainty to propel us is to lead with humanity by giving grace, empathy, and understanding to the people around us.Monica Pool Knox knows how critical leading with humanity is.Monica Pool Knox oversees LivePerson's global human resources strategy — including leadership development, organizational effectiveness, talent management, total rewards, talent acquisition, people operations, and DEI — and focuses on continuing to align compassionate and ethical AI as a foundation of LivePerson's culture. She has extensive experience leading HR organizations and strategies to attract, develop, and retain world-class talent within high-performance companies.Prior to joining LivePerson, Pool Knox led human resources for a global workforce of over 8,000 focused on cloud and AI at Microsoft. She has held executive HR positions at Twitter, Sony, CBS Interactive, PepsiCo, The Walt Disne

Belonging is often described as a feeling of security, support, acceptance, and inclusion. In addition, it's directly linked to decreased turnover, reduced sick days, and increased performance.People who feel like they belong want to show up because of each other. It's not the work that inspires people; it's the commitment to a shared purpose and community.Esther Raphael knows how powerful an inspired community can be.Esther is the Chief Marketing Officer for Intersection, responsible for leading all aspects of marketing, including B2B and B2C efforts, creative services, and content development. During her tenure, Esther has launched Intersection's first brand campaign, established a full-service in-house creative agency, and has overseen the go-to-market strategy for 10+ new markets and partnerships. Esther is also the Executive Sponsor of WIN, Women at Intersection, where she champions the growth and development of our female leaders.Previously at Condé Nast and Hearst, she spearheaded world-class solutions

You can heal your trauma.Whether your trauma is unprocessed or you're using it to fuel you, you can heal and live in a place of contentment, joy, and peace, where you create healthy relationships and success in business.Faith Jones not only healed her trauma but overcame it to go from surviving to thriving.Faith Jones is a lawyer, activist, entrepreneur, and business advisor. She began her career as an attorney with Skadden Arps representing clients in a wide variety of cross-border corporate transactions and has worked with businesses and government leaders in the Pacific Rim. Faith has been a featured TEDx speaker, has traveled the world, and has done humanitarian aid work in Kazakhstan, Japan, and Taiwan. Her memoir, Sex Cult Nun, is out on November 30th from William Morrow.In this episode, Faith shares her story and how she overcame it all.Listen to this episode and learn about:Faith giving credit and thanks to God (6:20)How to remain committed through adverse times (10:30)Trauma and its ties to wisdom (1

Do you think that you are living in a dress rehearsal?This is a one-act play called your life. What kind of role do you want to play? Because you don't get to do this again.The genesis of living a meaningful life is knowing what success means to you and stripping away the obligations that are no longer in service of that meaning. Of course, success is about more, but it's not about the more we think. Success is more of what matters.Karen Mangia knows the true meaning of success and how you can have success from anywhere.Karen is one of the most sought-after keynote speakers in the world, sharing her thought leadership with over 10,000 organizations during the course of her career. As Vice President of Customer and Market Insights at Salesforce, she helps individuals and organizations define, design, and deliver the future. She serves on multiple boards, including the Racial Equality & Justice Taskforce. She is the author of four books: the newly released Success From Anywhere, Listen Up!, Working from Hom

Life is all about trial and error. Therefore, it's vital to try as many new things as possible in order to discover what you really want to do in life.By chasing fulfillment over pleasure, you'll create a rich life while pleasure will bring you an empty life.Tyler Wagner knows the value of chasing fulfillment and traveling down the path that's right for him.Tyler is the founder of Authors Unite and a #1 Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author.In this episode, Tyler shares the wisdom he's learned while chasing a fulfilling life.Listen to this episode and learn about:Tyler giving credit and thanks to his dad (4:51)The fear of free time (11:03)Tyler's message to his dad (12:44)Harmful affects of avoiding conflict and the solution (14:30)How to start saying no (19:19)Chasing fulfillment over pleasure (22:40)What success looks like (26:18)Growth is good but so is the present (30:31)Balance is key (32:19)Gratitude as the cure for stagnation (36:43)Closing advice from Tyler (41:16)LinksConnect with Tyler on LinkedIn

Every single person deals with down moments in life. Yet, it's in those hard times where our legacy is forged.So don't look at those challenging times as problems; instead, become a problem solver. Welcome difficulty into your life and navigate through those storms. You are in total control, do not blow with the wind.Lt Col Dan Rooney knows that flying into the wind is how he creates an impactful legacy.Lt. Colonel Dan "Noonan" Rooney is a fighter pilot with three combat tours in Iraq, a PGA Professional, and the founder of the Folds of Honor Foundation, which has raised more than $135 million and awarded more than twenty-eight thousand scholarships to the family members of fallen or disabled soldiers. Rooney is a two-time recipient of the Top Gun award and has received many decorations, including the Distinguished Service Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal, Air Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and Air Expeditionary Medal. For his service and patriotism, Rooney was presented the White House's Vo