175: Fun 2 Grow: Creating a unique experience for you & your people with Laura & Barry McAlister

Speaker A: Welcome to the Live Life Rich podcast with Marissa Nielsen where we educate, empower and equip you with real life strategies to navigate the core four areas of your life. Emotional, relational, spiritual and financial. In this podcast, we don't just survive, we thrive. Now here's Marissa.

Speaker B: Hello, hello and welcome back to Live Life Rich.

Speaker C: I'm here to announce my amazing new guest, Laura and Barry McAllister. They are a husband and wife team whose career journey spans 30 plus years in corporate leadership, health care, law, insurance,

Speaker D: education, video production and performance.

Speaker C: They founded Fun to Grow on to provide a servant leadership mindset that creates collaboration and high performance teams. They add value to personal and professional lives through interactive coaching, training and mentoring activities, empowering others and their teams to laugh, listen, learn and grow together.

Speaker B: I'm excited to have them in the house.

Speaker C: Please help me welcome Laura and Barry.

Speaker D: Hello, hello and welcome back to Live Life Rich. I'm your host on today's podcast episode of Live Life Rich. I have the amazing. You have already heard their bio. You already know I love them. Oh my God. Welcome, welcome to the show. Barry and Laura, you are in the house. Gentlemen, you are in the house. Ladies, to hear and experience my amazing dear friends. You are out of Nashville. I know they already know that about you, but of course Nashville is a super fun town which apparently grows super fun people. So welcome to the show guys.

Speaker B: It's amazing to be here. Thanks Marissa.

Speaker E: Thank you, thank you. Great to be here.

Speaker D: Oh, gosh. Okay, now if you are listening to this, get your pen and paper ready because you are going to learn some things from these folks as uh, I got to listen to them. They had come to an event, uh, in June of this last year and uh, they created an experience, uh, for the event that, that we were both attending at the time that just blew me away and I, and from that time I started begging them, please come on my podcast. Please, please do this for me. And I have some events that I've got planned for 2024 that I'll be hiring them to come in and do some of the things that we're doing with uh, with our clients bases today. And I'm so excited for you to get to they do. Now Laura, I'm going to start with you because I have known you longer than Barry. Sorry, Barry, you are a husband and wife team. But Laura, I want to. This is fascinating for me how you went from, from really a mail room to where you're at today. Can you tell me where you started and tell me about this journey from where you are to what you're doing today, Marissa.

Speaker B: It's wonderful to be here. True story. My high school typing teacher tapped me on the back and said, I need you to come with me to the principal's office. I thought I was trouble, and the next thing I knew, I had a job stuffing envelopes in the principal's room. Which evolved over time into me working in the legal field. I've worked in insurance in several different areas. Claims, payment strategies, reimbursement, and contracting. And then I have spent, uh, 10, 12 years on the healthcare side, really, to regional vice president, leading teams of different kinds of project managers to implement technology strategies, solve problems. And then, um, I found that I couldn't be everywhere all at the same time. So I started focusing on leadership development and communications. And how do you solve problems and help people, really, to have fun and interact well at work. Could we have a good time and enjoy what we do?

Speaker D: It's really interesting to me because you're. I think all of the things that you've done up until now have led you to this perfect, like, pinnacle point of being able to provide solutions for the organizations that you work with. And I, uh, know I work with a lot of CEOs and presidents of companies and different organizations today that are saying, gosh, you know, I really want to see my people engage. I want to see them, you know, carry out our vision. But, you know, we're having problems, right? We're having these different types of problems today, and we're just not sure how to address all of those things. And now since, you know, 2000, you know, uh, the whole Covid deal and everybody went home just getting people back and getting them engaged. The marketplace has changed significantly from 30 years ago. When I. When I entered the marketplace, you know, I was just happy to have a job. Now people are like, hey, feed me, feed me, feed me, feed me. And if you don't make it Great, there's another 25 jobs out there waiting. And I know that this is one of the things that you focus on, is really creating experiences and opportunities for people to grow and learn. So tell me a little bit about that, because, Barry, you know, you bring this unique communication style. You. Now I have to tell a quick story on Gary here, okay? Because Gary and Laura did this duo dynamic. I call them the dynamic duo. I had no idea what to expect. Uh, so we get into this room and we have this whole group event for mastermind business leaders. And we're in this group, and we're moving furniture. I mean, we're doing and we're getting into groups and I'm like, what is he going to do? So tell me about your background and what you do that's different because I experienced this and I'm like, holy cow, I want to do that again. That was so awesome. And it was probably one of the most, for me anyway, and for many, many of the attendees to that event, it was the most memorable piece. And I think about that as a takeaway from the takeaways that you guys shared. So tell me a little bit about how you've molded this leadership development and training into, uh, a dynamic duo.

Speaker E: Well, it's like you said a few minutes ago, I mean, everything you do, you know, is a combination. What you do is a combination of everything you've learned and things you've brought together. I mean, I started out years ago as an actor and, uh, you know, got into improv comedy and, you know, found that, you know, jumping up on stage and, uh, entertaining people was great. It made them happy, made them laugh. Then I started doing workshops, you know, using the improv skills to do different things. And that started growing. But I also, then I was Nashville's horror show host for a while, you know, doing horror movies on TV and had a live of, uh, family and kids show on stage. And we made some videos with puppets and things and did a lot of voice acting and some acting in front of the camera with commercials and educational things. But started seeing that this improv stuff was, was just. Was something and saw that the skills that you learn with improv are the skills that communicators need that people in front of audiences, with teams or with families. You know, it's the idea of making the team better, serving others, listening, being in the moment, uh, not being in your head all the time, you know, all those things. Uh, and actually it's a worldwide movement, uh, applied improvisation. So I started doing little workshops and the, uh, Tennessee Titans NFL team we have here in Nashville has been my client for 12 years. And I work with their sales team and you know, they're on their phone a lot, but they're in their head thinking, you know, my next thing I'm going to do, the next thing I'm going to do. So getting them to think and be in the moment and listen and not be ready to jump at the next thing. And we started working together and we saw that it was a, ah, big thing. You know, it was not only enjoyable, but it's something we can do together and play off each other and do things where people will remember the items. And it's an applied, it's an interactive experience that just works wonderfully.

Speaker D: It's amazing. The fun to grow on. You're fun to grow on team. I want to just really quickly say something about that and then I'll let you jump right in there, Ms. Laura. But here's what I saw, uh, and what I experienced myself and this is why I'm hiring you. The corporations are very challenging to find things that are different, that are something that people will remember today. And there's this, there's this piece to what you guys did that day and you took a room full of like really successful women owned businesses. And uh, typically we don't want to get up and look stupid and we definitely don't want to look uh, like we like, we don't know what we're doing. It's, you know that it makes you nervous, uh, getting on, getting on stage or doing, you know, performing before a crowd, doing that. But you had such a way between the two of you. And then you took it back into leadership, conflict resolution, how to talk to your boss in a way that made sense, how to like, how to get your point across the communication. So you molded this experience, which Barry got us up and got us moving and then gave us certain tasks to do in small groups. And then Laura, you took this piece and you said, okay, now this is how you apply what you just physically did. And I went by God, I've never seen any, I literally have never seen anything like it. Never seen anything like it in the marketplace. And I was like, I love this. So, so, so, so much. So yeah, uh, so Laura, I'll let you jump in there. But that dynamic duo of taking it back to a physical activity and then putting it into a communication, a leadership point, an opportunity for conflict resolution, I mean it's unbelievable.

Speaker B: So Marissa, thank you for what you just said about you don't want to get up in front of a group and not uh, appear to be knowledgeable. True story. How fun to grow on was born. I was pushing on the glass ceiling in uh, working in healthcare leadership environment on a conference call. It's like, oh, we're going to have an off site meeting and we're going to have 45. We're going to fly everyone into a particular location. We need two and a half hours of training at that location. Barry had been doing all the things that he described. In a brave moment, I jumped out of my comfort zone and I volunteered and said, I got this. And we had had an idea that we had been discussing to build and put together the interactive components with all of the different training components. I personally don't like going into a workshop where I listen for 35 minutes or an hour and then I don't experience it and I walk out the door and I'm likely to forget all of those items. So what we've done is we were brave. I would encourage your listeners to jump out of their comfort zone if they have energy in an area to go try. And what we did was lay down the ideas of emotional intelligence and self management and how those skills show up in your leadership style, in your communications with your co workers. And then Barry actually gets you up to experience those things, teaching you about your body language, your tone of voice, your tools of a communicator, and then that all of those self management things help you build interactive teams. And the big idea was we did that one event, um, like nine years ago now.

Speaker D: Need to look that up.

Speaker B: But it was hugely successful and it worked. And so it's grown organically from there. And now it's what we do full time. And, uh, it's become a joy of our lives. And we see the extreme value that it adds to teams to communicate differently, to resolve those conflicts and understand different strengths and reference points of all the individuals on the team.

Speaker E: Yeah, it's like, who's doing that? I mean, it is usually boring. You may have some, somebody who's charismatic, you know, that'll speak, but it's what it's become for us is laugh, learn, grow. And if you get people laughing and enjoying each other, you know, having fun, then you start learning stuff. And sometimes you don't even realize you're learning, but you're, you're, you know, you're growing together. It's laughing, you're learning. And then the team grows. And if that grows and the company grows and laugh, learn, grow kind of says it all.

Speaker D: I love it so much from the family dynamics of it as well. I know you do this with corporations, but I was thinking about I speak and teach and train, uh, in of course the estate, uh, world and finance world, uh, in another area. Um, but I was thinking about, uh, an organization that I'll be working with in this next March. And it's all about the family dynamics of generational legacy planning. M. Right. Like how do you do those types of things? And uh, you know, answering and asking questions where you got grandpa and grandma, mom and dad and next gen. And I thought, man, you know, your emotional intelligence side, you Know, I work with farmers and ranchers, right. This is not exactly stuff they want to sit down and really talk about their feelings. They like to get out in the dirt and work. But this is the difference maker between you're making it fun and so people want to participate, especially in small groups where it's not just on stage. I loved that part where I got to uh, sit with two other participants and we did our own thing over here and somebody else was doing their own thing over there. That was brilliant. And the interactive side of it, I remember what I said, I remember what they said. And then I remember Laura coming back to the front of the room and saying, okay, now let's talk about what you just experienced so that the next time you're in a situation like this, this and this, you can apply what you just fid. Physically did. And I went, oh my Lord in heaven, how do I get stock in their company? You laugh like I'm kidding. It's totally what I was thinking. So, so I want to talk a little bit about this because you've got. And uh, uh, then I want to ask you some really practical tactical takeaways that for us that are business leaders, for those of us that are running teams today, we're in organizations. How we can apply this because there's some, there's some major things that you teach. But uh, can you describe some of the workshops? Uh, because I know that you do these workshops, workshops and you also, you love to customize those for organizations. So you, you have an intake process. I know this is something we've talked a lot about, uh, in, in my upcoming stuff for 2024, but you have an intake process to really understand what are you, what's the outcome you want to receive at the end of this. But you've got some specific areas that you specialize in and I love, love, love this. So can you talk a little bit about describing those workshops and what you do and some of the things that you do for the people?

Speaker B: Sure, be happy to do that. We can use your group as an example, Marissa. If, if we were going to partner together to do some interactive workshops with say your team in North Dakota, I'd want to have a discovery conversation with you about all the things that your team is doing really well. Then I would want to learn about the opportunities and challenges that you might experience on a day to day basis with your team. And those conversations. My experience has been usually come up around areas of communication or conflict resolutions where teams may not be fully understanding each other. We Would talk about that in a confidential environment, learn more about that. There can also be some leadership challenges that come up in those scenarios, either with individuals not managing up or sideways, or leaders maybe not being as effective as they possibly could be. And then we would customize some training to help move those teams from where they are to where they would like to be. What that ends up looking like is an interactive workshop where we do some personality assessments, learning about the strengths of the different individuals on the team. I've been leading teams across three different industries for more than 25 years now. And I don't have to know everything about every single component of a project or an operations initiative, but I need to know who does which thing exceptionally well. And taking the time with those teams to understand their strengths and then having the team learn about each other I, um, find is really invaluable. And doing some assessments, having them learn about themselves and then having an interactive workshop where they learn about each other. And then we take some real life scenarios that you've given us in advance. We certainly strip the names out. We're sensitive, uh, to any components that might trigger some individuals. But then we actually walk through interactive exercises to communicate a little differently through a different individual's lens. And to give you an example, a real life scenario of a leader in a healthcare organization that I've done executive coaching and workshops with for a long period of time now came to me with a real challenge with a leader of where there was real conflict happening in front of people inside of rooms. Um, never a good idea to do that out loud. When we got into the details of that, it was really about asking thoughtful questions about what data was needed, not thinking about yourself, thinking about the other individual. And changing that focus has really completely. I got a text message a couple of weeks ago, um, really made my personal heart sing of where the anxiety in that situation has completely reduced by asking more thoughtful questions, changing the lens and the focus of how they were communicating with each other. And now they're really functioning in sync and moving forward to achieve great results for the team. And they're becoming good friends. That's just an example of how these workshops interact. And the learning sticks because Barry comes in and they get to practice it and we can make it fun.

Speaker D: Oh, I love it so much. This, you know, this is one of the questions I had for you guys because different personalities, you know, I've studied personalities for years and uh, uh, you name it, we, we've done it right. Like it is one of them kind of things. Like, the more, the more opportunities I can get to have our people learn about that, that the better that is because we are in a people to people business. And when you're in a people to people business, these personalities are such a, such a challenge so many times because I don't see it from the same way that they see it. Right. I don't process in the same way they process. So, you know, we have, uh, you know, we're. One of my companies today is in the financial services realm and I got two different types of financial services people. I, I got the people people and I got the task people and the task people. How do I say this nicely? They really love tasks. They really love checking the box. And I appreciate that because I need them. I need compliance. I, I need, I need those details. I need all of that. They tend to not love and they tend to be, you know, my. In, in this framework, they tend to be a little bit more, uh, reserved. Uh, they are not outgoing, they want to help the team. They don't always communicate the best. And they are definitely not up for interactive workshops. In fact, getting them to do any type of even like assessments, you know, I just did recently we just did something called working genius to see how we could run our meetings better. Right. And should be in what meeting for what? And it was really, really interesting because when I sent out the assessments from the, from the leader that came to start the training with us, they were like, we don't, we're not doing, we don't want to do this. Like, what, are we going to get fired for this thing? Or like if we don't say the right thing here, like how, like we want to know how does this. And they wanted like all the details before we even got started. And I was like, okay, guys, we're just doing this so we can figure out how we can run more effective meetings and who should be at the room at the right time with the right peoples, you know, at the right time. Right? And then I had one of the guys come back and he says, I, I just, you know, I feel like I need more information prior to participation. Like, okay, and ah, then you get, I call it the stick in the mud. Right, the stick in the mud. This is the arm cross guy. The arm cross guy sits in the, in the room when we're doing this kind of stuff. And they're like, convince me, convince me. And I'm like, okay. And then, you know, yeah, how long until, how long until this thing is over? Because I got work to do at my desk. And you're very annoying because you have now taken two hours of my day. So when you're investing as a company, I want outcomes. Right. I want, I want real opportunities for transformation. But I don't think it happens just in one day. There's this ongoing piece of how do they apply that? And that's where the experience that you gives them, gives them a memory, gives them a physical thing that they did. So, uh, yeah, talk to that. How do you, how do you, how do you get them on board even in the room? Because people get a little hesitant, you know, when you ask for a volunteer, hey, let's do this. As a volunteer, you can see how you add.

Speaker E: I know that because. Yes. And you get in a room, like a whole room full of, you know, the people that are cross there and like they look away. Yeah, but what we, you know, even in, if you tell them they're have to perform, because they're not really performing. It's just an interactive thing with your co workers. So the ones who want to get up, when they get up first and then all of a sudden you encourage the others to come on up. At first they're reluctant, but once they get on their feet and they're just working with their teammates, that just kind of melts away, you know, and you find people's comfort zone. Nobody's made to do anything that's, uh, crazy. They didn't want to do or embarrassing. It was just. But once they get into it and their teammates are doing it too, they fall right in. We just, we've so far not had anybody finally said, no, I'm not going to do that. They just, they get into it and they see that they're not going to have to do anything that goes way beyond their comfort zone. But how else then?

Speaker D: Uh, well, so good. That's so good that you, you point that out because I think Comfort Zone is a really hard breakthrough piece and you do a, you do a, not just a good job, but a great job at breaking through Comfort Zone.

Speaker B: So yeah, Laura, the example that Barry just gave and Marissa, your comments. We just recently did an interactive workshop with a data science team exactly like you mentioned, really needing to know the details. Their challenge in that example was really dealing with leaders who had big personalities who are big picture thinkers that are not into those details and how do they real time interact in the moment and ask the right questions to move forward with the business. And those detailed individuals do need time to think and process. What we have found is learning about their personal style. And then Barry working with them to get comfortable, to be in the moment, be confident and trust their instincts and their knowledge. And creating a safe space to ask great questions moves the business forward. And we do start small with maybe more introverted clients and do some easier interactive things and, and then build up in the moment. The, the activity that we did with you, um, when we were with you in Florida. A good tip that Barry often provides. And you can probably explain this in just a moment, but what is your default response when you hear a new idea? Is it no, I don't think that can happen. Or is it yes, but I have this concern or it's yes and could we explore that a little bit further? Every human has a default style about how they answer a question. It's a critically important idea because we either advance and build bridges in our relationships, in our work, or we shut each other down. We don't think it's a safe space to share ideas and re retreat. And that collaborative style is something that I'd like to leave with our listeners today to think about how you're accepting and advancing ideas. And with, uh, Barry's literally training me, I'm able to take the business scenarios and role play and workshop out how that can change your communication style and really bring your team together.

Speaker D: Yeah. For almost a decade you guys have made this dynamic duo. And I think the really interesting part for me it's not just, you know, things like conflict, you know, conflict resolution and communication, but I also think there's a piece for leader development is really a big thing. You know, how do I, how do I take in a good space? This is something you've really opened my eyes to. How do I set them up for success, for a big old win before they enter the room. And this is something interesting because you shared this with me as, as part of what you were doing to develop like those mid level leaders, um, and those entry level leaders as they were kind growing into, you know, a younger generation. And it was funny because you've got several clients that call you Aunt Laura. Right. Like these are long time people that you've mentored and you've literally coached into C suite positions because you've been doing this for so long. Right. You understand, what does this take? Everything from sales, you know, to communication, which is basically just sales. Right. Whether you're selling a product or yourself, it's something that's huge. And then you also can do the same group positions. So you do individual big corporate events. You also do group Smaller group coaching and then you do one to one coaching. But tell me a little bit about the group coaching if we're wanting to raise up our next level leaders because you know we've got, there's a, there's a difference between a C suite position or a CEO position. And you know, where you're, where you're starting here. And I'm seeing a whole generational shift in this guys. You know, I've been doing this a long, long time as I know you have been in the market as well. After 30 years. Like again, I started out, I'm just happy I got a job. Right on. Like I said, thank you. Thanks for giving me a job. Now I interview someone who's 25 or 27 and they're like, yep, I need to start at 80,000 a year. I need a full benefits package. I need to know what career path you have planned for me and does that fit my ideal goals and expectations of the future I'm going to build for myself. Not hey, how can I serve you, you, but as a company, how can you serve me? And now I had to have a real switch in my head about this because at first, for all you moms and dads out here doing generational businesses, you know, I'd look at these kids and I'd be like, are you smoking crack? Like, do you not, do you, do you not realize you're actually going to cost my company money for like three to five years because you don't even know what you're doing and you're going to get into a room and you're going to screw up, you're going to cost me clients, actually good long term relationships. And you definitely aren't getting into those rooms because unless you're trained, you definitely aren't getting into those rooms because I don't trust you yet. And then you're asking for this, this and this as part of your benefits package, which I come from generation earned and then you get it as opposed to generation I want it up front and then I'll show you what I got.

Speaker E: You have to put your time in. That's right. You get to learn well.

Speaker D: And it's hard because that's the environment. And not always, but I'm seeing more and more of that in the last few years of what, what have you done for me lately from an employee standpoint? And I own multiple companies so I see it across the board. So how, how are you addressing that in group coaching and, and putting us into a position as an organization with Our younger leaders and our. I shouldn't say even younger. Younger is not the right word, but less seasoned leaders. A, uh, less seasoned leader. Because there's been a lot of, you know, transition changes where people are going from one career level to another career level. So tell me a little bit about how you're working with that.

Speaker B: It's interesting that you mentioned Aunt Laura. I'll weave that into, into my answer. But I'm old enough and young enough that I've been thrown into leadership positions myself before I was ready and got a passion around learning. Leadership is about your character. Leadership is about influence. Leadership is about listening. So what I like to do in my group coaching workshops is actually take a group through some of the fundamentals about what leadership is and learning about servant leadership styles. I am Aunt Laura. I've got seven nieces and one nephew, and they're one of the joys of my life. But if you think about who your aunt is, your aunt is someone that you can trust. Your aunt is that person that will not tell your mother unless you're going to hurt yourself or if you're going to hurt someone else. Your aunt is someone that you can talk to about anything. They will give you great mentorship and advice to move you forward. Is that not the leader that you also want to have, that you're working with in your teams? So those coaching workshops really focus around learning those servant leadership skills, learning about what your purpose, your vision and your goals are, and you're not going to be fully ready to be CEO of a company. What are your strengths? But then how can we back into what your career goals are and then start equipping you and make a plan to help you advance those leadership skills?

Speaker E: And then one thing that goes back to that you mentioned before, the term actually is yes. And, you know, when somebody comes in with, with ideas, even if they're, they don't quite fit in or they, you know, maybe sometimes they're in left field. I mean, honestly, you know, there are people do have ideas that are out there, but the idea of helping everybody feel that they can come to leadership with those ideas, with those thoughts, and creating the safe environment where it's, uh, accepting of the ideas and then advancing it, where you let them know that, that you're accepting. You hear what they say. And one of Laura's favorite, um, terms that I always like is great. Yeah. Now help me understand, you know, how this fits in or how you see this working or how you see it working within the budget. You know, you don't say no. That's ridiculous.

Speaker D: You know, now that budget for that. Come on. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker E: It's like, okay, great. Yeah, all right. Yeah, I hear you. Help me understand how we make that fit in. You know, does it fit in maybe next year or, you know, you talk through in there, they can still come to you. Instead of like, no. Then it's like, oh, okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You know.

Speaker D: Yes. Get it. Forget it. Yeah, it's so good. Help me understand is such a, uh, a wonderful way to approach that. What a great skill builder for those of us that are listening. And I think that's not just for corporations, but I think that's in families. I think it's business, it's across the board. It's in marriages and relationships. Years ago, I was married, uh, to a hunter, right? Like, he, he loved hunting. He. He loved, he loved fishing. He loved kind of all things outdoors guy deal. And he had come home with this, uh, like 14 point buck, right? Now what that means is you draw all these little points on your, on your buck. And so he, he went and spent an ungodly amount of money getting this thing, like, mounted, right? Like, so much money at the time for us. I was like, like, you literally just blew our entire Christmas and birthday budget for the whole stinking year. What were you thinking, dude? Like, what were you thinking? And he was like, well, I was thinking we could put that in the living room over the fireplace on the mantel, right? And I'm like. And I'm thinking to myself, you're smoking crack. I am not putting a dead deer head with his little shiny eyes over my fireplace. Now, help me understand would have been a very, very helpful tool, um, about 30 years ago when I was married and before I got divorced. So this can not only help you in your work life balance, but also really, you know, just all, all of, all of our skills when we're working with people that are bringing ideas to us. And I don't want to shoot those down, right? I don't. I want to hear them because they're. If we flush that thing out, it might just be an ideation format right now, but if we flush it out, maybe there's some merit to something that can really help us grow our vision, our mission, and our purpose forward for our, our small businesses or our corporation today. I love that so much. I know. We are, man, it is. We are out of time already. It is incredible. I. I could literally talk to you guys for days. I know, uh, fun to grow on is an incredible team experience. I've experienced it myself. It's one of the reasons. Reasons I asked if you would come on the show and just share it with my audience. If you today are a listener and you work in a corporation and you're listening to this and you're saying, hey, we need something different. We need to. We need to do something to get people engaged, get them inspired, get them excited about who they are here as part of our company, how they serve together, how we communicate together, how we grow together as an organization and carry out our mission. This is a great team for you to think into. Uh, and just get some. Get some conversation wrapped behind to say, can we bring this? If you are a C suite executive today, I highly, highly recommend Laura and Barry as a team. Uh, I've experienced them and I know that what they do is absolutely unique to the industry. For me, I think when you walk away with something that you're still talking about six months or a year later and you're going, wow, remember the day we did this? That's what you will find in your organization. And that's the stuff that keeps people engaged because they can go back to that moment of an experience and you can tell them how to do it, you can even show them how to do it. But when they do it with you, it is a game changer, folks. So thank you guys so much for being with me today. Before I let you go today, I just, you know, I have to ask the question. It's my. It's my question. I ask all my guests. Guests, you know, how do you live life rich? If you look at the last 10 years and how your life has changed, how are you living life rich today?

Speaker B: Oh, my goodness. Pinching myself. We love each other. We get to work together. We had the opportunity through relationships to present and travel in New Zealand this past summer and deliver workshops in New Zealand. Personal goal. And pinching myself, I was able to encourage, um, a very large room at PMI Global last week in Atlanta. We're getting to travel and do those things together and impact and add value to others, right?

Speaker E: And I've got all these, you know, entertainment things that I do, but, you know, just staying on stage, making people laugh is great, but to bring it and make it be useful, you know, for somebody and make it memorable and to get to work with my best friend, I mean, it's, it's, you know, and travel, I mean, so, you know, what more can you ask for? It's incredible.

Speaker B: And influence the next generation and grow the next generation of leaders to come into their own way. It makes my heart sing. I'm very grateful.

Speaker E: And now that we've been on a podcast, we could say we are pod people.

Speaker D: I love it. I love it. You know, this is the best part. They were like, yeah, we don't really do podcasts. And I'm like, you do now, because I'm just gonna keep stalking you until you say yes. That's how that's gonna work. I'm just gonna keep stalking you. Please come on my podcast. People need to know about this. And you know what? I really, really love something, guys. You know, I bring it to the market, I bring it to the table, and I just say, listen, I don't get behind anything that I don't believe in. I just don't. Uh, for me, I'm doing this podcast to really serve people, help companies, help organizations, help people which make up those organizations, make up those companies, make up those family businesses and small businesses. Today. I really want to help people live life rich in all areas, emotionally, relationally, spiritually, physically, and financially. And thank you for what you do. Thank you for showing up and using your unique gifts and talents to do what you do and bring about real impact for organizations. I'm so blessed to know you. I'm so blessed to call you my friends and. And, uh, have gotten to know you so, so much better over the last year. I'm really grateful. Thank you, thank you.

Speaker E: Thank you, Marissa.

Speaker B: Oh, we're great.

Speaker D: All right, for all of you that are listening today, in the show link, in the blog post, you're going to see all of the information to get a hold of Laura and Barry. Fun to grow on. These are some of the programs that they do. Uh, some of the coaching, uh, organizational opportunity events that they do. You want to get that link, get connected with them, Find out where they'll be speaking, teaching, or training near you. Get participating in that. And for all of you who are looking for people for something different for your organization, this dynamic duo is right there waiting for you. So I'm excited to be with you today. Um, until we meet again, I hope you live life. Rich. Ra.