Kristina M. Holle is the author of "The Authentic You: Unleash Your Leadership Potential". She is a business leader that has had a career in Human Resources for over 20 years. She has worked in numerous companies and industries focusing her time on strategic and operational HR activities, centering on employee engagement, talent branding, and driving a culture of wellbeing. Nowadays, she's been very focused on helping people to discover their authentic selves. In this episode, we discuss what are the components of authenticity, how to be more authentic, and the shifts in culture that need to occur in organizations. Highlights & Takeaways Authenticity starts with connecting yourself and doing the inner work of examining your past. Can you release the shame of your past stories and own a new narrative where you’re the hero of the story? Strategies to do inner work, such as meditation and journaling. Kristina shared an exercise of putting a timer for 5 minutes and just writing about how you’re feeling, without thinking about it or taking your pen off the paper. “Authenticity for me is being in a place of truth, love, and joy. So when we're standing in a place of authenticity, that means that you are living in your own personal truth.” “E-motion. Energy in motion. Your emotions are energy. If you block your emotions, they get stuck.” Kristina says that if you want to make a real impact: “Stop looking externally for all the answers. Take the time to reconnect with yourself. Take the time to know who you are. Accept all of it. Get to the point where you can accept all the parts, the parts that we perceive as broken, the parts that we don't think that are serving as well. I promise you, they are.” Resources Mentioned Contact Kristina: Instagram | Twitter | Website The Authentic You ______ Enjoyed this episode? Share it with a friend and make sure to follow Excuses to Connect on Facebook and Instagram. Music by Meghan Rennie - Instagram / Soundcloud Website: excusestoconnect.com Watch my TEDx Talk: “How to Find Excuses to Connect” Email: [email protected] Leave a Voice Message: https://www.speakpipe.com/excusestoconnect Support Me: Buy Me A Coffee

Jesse Stanton is from Alaska, and he is a motivational speaker, podcaster, business coach, real estate investor & creative finance ninja. He is the host of the Birth to Net Worth podcast, where he details how he is approaching parenting and teaching his kids to live a life of freedom from the constraints of scarcity, both in terms of mindset and financially. He is the first guest I’ve had where we’ve talked extensively about the connection between parents and children. He shares many great stories of how his kids have absorbed lessons through books and seeing how their father interacts with others. We also chat about the importance of surrounding ourselves with people who push us to grow, rather than drag you down. Highlights & Takeaways How Jesse’s kids have gotten to see the work that their dad is doing in real estate investing and making an impact on others, which has sparked their curiosity to learn more “What's been really neat is to teach these to my kids at such a young age where they're just like sponges, right? Because I'm not having to change 20, 30, 40, 50 years of somebody thinking a certain way.” Living in Alaska is extreme, where there’s long periods of darkness, harsh weather, and high suicide rates. At the same time, everybody is really generous and caring for each other. “When it came to my mindset in terms of what I'm capable of, surrounding yourself with those people and having the right conversations is going to be one of the biggest things that aid in your success.” The “crabs-in-a-bucket” mentality where other people are trying to drag you down once you start trying to make a better life for yourself and climb out of the bucket “You hang around five competent people. Guess what? You become the sixth. You hang around five millionaires, you become the sixth. It's a universal truth.” Resources Mentioned Contact Jesse: Instagram | Facebook The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens ______ Enjoyed this episode? Share it with a friend and make sure to follow Excuses to Connect on Facebook and Instagram. Music by Meghan Rennie - Instagram / Soundcloud Website: excusestoconnect.com Watch my TEDx Talk: “How to Find Excuses to Connect” Email: [email protected] Leave a Voice Message: https://www.speakpipe.com/excusestoconnect Support Me: Buy Me A Coffee

Syrine Bellafi is the creator of a project called “Spreading Happiness, Love and Positive Vibes 24/7” where she provides doses of positivity through videos, quotes, and inspiring discussions. Living in Tunisia, she shares how she was able to connect with people from multiple countries through an app called WeWorld. She believes in choosing kindness, even towards others who may seem mean or not approachable. It can seem like the world is full of hate right now, but this episode will leave you feeling energized by optimism. Highlights & Takeaways Syrine grew up in a community where there's a lot of hate, criticism and hypocrisy, so she wants to spread happiness. This is so people don’t focus too much on the negative side, and instead try to live together with kindness and learn from one another. “If you have the choice between being right and being kind, choose being kind” The story of Syrine connecting with a girl from Turkey, and ended up meeting with her when she traveled there for a summer trip. “She was literally one of the best people I met. She was very nice, very warm and welcoming. And she was open to conversations to talk about everything.” How Syrine was able to befriend someone who was initially didn’t like her “We just listen because we want to answer and that was very profound. I mean that hit me because at some point I felt like I was like that as well.” Syrine really emphasizes the importance of listening carefully to others in order to connect with them Resources Mentioned Contact Syrine: Instagram | Facebook Spreading Happiness, Love and Positive Vibes 24/7 ______ Enjoyed this episode? Share it with a friend and make sure to follow Excuses to Connect on Facebook and Instagram. Music by Meghan Rennie - Instagram / Soundcloud Website: excusestoconnect.com Watch my TEDx Talk: “How to Find Excuses to Connect” Email: [email protected] Leave a Voice Message: https://www.speakpipe.com/excusestoconnect Support Me: Buy Me A Coffee

Godwin Chan is the host of the Digital Introverts podcast. This is a show where introverts share their success and failure stories and discuss how they thrive in the digital age. The show is for introverts from all walks of life who are ready to just start and scale their next venture, whether it's a creative hobby, side hustle, small business, or startup. In addition to being a podcast host, Godwin is a Doctor of Pharmacy Candidate at the University of Toronto, and is interested within healthcare venture capital - don’t know what that means? No worries, we cover that and a lot more in this episode, including how he went from being shy to having the wide network that he has today. Highlights & Takeaways How Godwin wanted to write a memoir, which transitioned to doing interviews for a book oriented towards introverts and the future, and finally landing on the idea of creating the Digital Introverts podcast How content creators are competing in the attention economy and very few ever make it to the top - but newer kinds of decentralized social platforms will allow people to directly control their monetization, so that there will be more full-time creators Godwin used to not talk at all as a kid and presenting in front of people was a nightmare, but over time, he got more comfortable interacting with others Godwin’s strategy using social media platforms to connect with people with similar interests, and that’s how he got into the world of venture capital Blending his interests of science and business, where his longer-term goal is to invest into the next great generation of healthcare companies. Resources Mentioned Contact Godwin: All Godwin’s Socials Digital Introverts: Spotify | Apple | Website ______ Enjoyed this episode? Share it with a friend and make sure to follow Excuses to Connect on Facebook and Instagram. Music by Meghan Rennie - Instagram / Soundcloud Website: excusestoconnect.com Watch my TEDx Talk: “How to Find Excuses to Connect” Email: [email protected] Leave a Voice Message: https://www.speakpipe.com/excusestoconnect Support Me: Buy Me A Coffee

Out of pandemic boredom, Josh Swain created a Facebook group chat with other people named Josh Swain and challenged them to meet in a year to compete for the right to use the name “Josh”. The screenshot of this group chat went viral on the Internet and led to this event being dubbed the “Josh” fight. Although he just intended it to be a joke, it became an actual event and fundraiser for the Children's Hospital & Medical Center Foundation in Omaha, along with a food drive for the Food Bank of Lincoln. This story was a perfect example of an excuse to connect and I knew I wanted to have Josh Swain on the show. Enjoy this shorter episode as he shares about the creation of this event and what he’s up to now! Highlights & Takeaways Josh has always tried to go for the username and social media handle “Josh Swain”, but it’s almost always been taken already, so he wanted to challenge people to see who really deserves this title. He thought only maybe 50 people would show up, but it ended up being almost a thousand people coming together to fight each other with pool noodles. Josh ended up raising over $15,000, thousands of pounds of food for the food bank, and even had the Josh Cellars company triple their donation. He’s hosting another Josh Fight on May 21, 2022 to remind people that even though we’re doing something ridiculous, we can still bring some good to the world. If there’s something you want to do, Josh advises: “Don't think about the billion things preventing you from doing it. My main mantra in life is: ‘If you don't do something, you will always wonder what would happen if you did.’” Resources Mentioned Contact Josh: Twitter | LinkedIn The Josh Fight: Website | Instagram ______ Enjoyed this episode? Share it with a friend and make sure to follow Excuses to Connect on Facebook and Instagram. Music by Meghan Rennie - Instagram / Soundcloud Website: excusestoconnect.com Watch my TEDx Talk: “How to Find Excuses to Connect” Email: [email protected] Leave a Voice Message: https://www.speakpipe.com/excusestoconnect Support Me: Buy Me A Coffee

Jesper Algaard is the Founder and CEO of the Venn app. Venn is Norwegian for “friend” and it’s an app designed to help people make friends. This is done by matching people based on similar interests and personalities, as well creating activities to move the online conversations to in-person interactions. In this episode, Jesper shares his inspiration behind creating this app, curious facts about human connection, and stories about how connection comes about in different stages of our lives. Highlights & Takeaways When Jesper was in his 30s, he realized that his social life was changing quite a bit: friends who he used to regularly hang out with became less available because they got married. Venn came out of the idea of utilizing technology to help people be more social with the right people. Norway is a “very non-flirty population” as compared to people in Spain and Italy. Norwegians won’t sit next to each other if they don’t have to, and people prefer being at a distance. 50% of their users are people who are actually in a relationship - they may have a family, kids, and friends, but they still want more. How he had a surprising friendship with an 80-year-old man by connecting over world politics and economics. How he also had a several hour conversation with a Japanese TV celebrity without expecting it “If you have a friend who you haven’t talked to in a long time, I would say pick up the phone and have a chat because good friends are probably one of the most things we can have. Friends rock!” Resources Mentioned Contact Jesper: LinkedIn Venn: Website | App Store | Google Play ______ Enjoyed this episode? Share it with a friend and make sure to follow Excuses to Connect on Facebook and Instagram. Music by Meghan Rennie - Instagram / Soundcloud Website: excusestoconnect.com Watch my TEDx Talk: “How to Find Excuses to Connect” Email: [email protected] Leave a Voice Message: https://www.speakpipe.com/excusestoconnect Support Me: Buy Me A Coffee

J. Kelly Hoey is the author of Build Your Dream Network: Forging Powerful Relationships In A Hyper-Connected World. She’s currently working on her second book which focuses on the unique networks women need for career success. Kelly has been lauded by Forbes (“1 of 5 Women Changing the World of VC/Entrepreneurship”) and Business Insider (“1 of the 100 Most Influential Tech Women On Twitter”), has contributed to a variety of publications including The New York Times - these and other unexpected career opportunities she notes, are a direct result of building a network. Join us for an insightful conversation on the do’s and don’ts of networking, and how you can start building your dream network today. Highlights & Takeaways Don’t commit random acts of networking. Kelly advises you to think: “Is this activity somehow aligned with information I need, or a goal I’m pursuing, or to fill an identifiable gap I have in the network supporting my career?” As young people, you can still provide value to other people who are further along in their career or more successful. People mentor others because they get a helper’s high, and if you let someone know how their advice or connection helped them, then that is adding value to the relationship. Think about how digital spaces compare to physical spaces. LinkedIn is like the office or industry conferences. Facebook is where your friends and family gather. Twitter is the cocktail party. Instagram is like a yard sale, where you never know what’s going to happen. For people who are in their early 20s, your network is not likely to be more diverse than it is right now. The people you went to the same school with are going to have careers in all sorts of different directions over the next 5 to 10 years. By staying in touch, you’re going to have a very diverse network. Start building your dream network before you think you need it. Nurture the relationships you have today thinking about where you want to go in the next 5 to 10 years. Showing up regularly, intentionally and consistently is how you build trust. You confirm and affirm who you are so that other people will want to help you. Resources Mentioned Contact Kelly: Website Kelly’s Books: Build Your Dream Network | Networks Women Need Bird by Bird by Anne Lemott On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King ______ Enjoyed this episode? Share it with a friend and make sure to follow Excuses to Connect on Facebook and Instagram. Music by Meghan Rennie - Instagram / Soundcloud Website: excusestoconnect.com Watch my TEDx Talk: “How to Find Excuses to Connect” Email: [email protected] Leave a Voice Message: https://www.speakpipe.com/excusestoconnect Support Me: Buy Me A Coffee

Zach Hose runs the ZAP! Podcast where he has conversations with people from diverse backgrounds and dive deep into what they’re passionate about. He is also an author, a singer/songwriter, and completing a Masters in HR Administration and Leadership. In this episode, we explore various perspectives on the topic of passion, as well as everyday leadership, communication differences in people with different genders, how to connect with people during job searching, and much more! Highlights & Takeaways “Don’t compare your Chapter 1 to someone else’s Chapter 20” - don’t be discouraged when you see other people who are living the dream of your life, because we’re all on our own path and it’s going to be a unique journey for us all. If people approach Zach and say they don’t what their passion is, he reverse engineers it and tells them that sometimes you have to find out what you’re not passionate about to find out what you are passionate about He’s an advocate of the multi-passionate approach where it’s totally okay to have passions in lots of different spheres because we’re not one-dimensional people Zach’s favourite quote is from Roberto Clemente: “Anytime you have an opportunity to make a different in this world and you don’t, then you’re wasting your time on Earth.” Anyone can be a leader - it doesn’t have to be a grandiose gesture or a big speech, but just recognizing how our everyday actions impact others. Correctly calling someone’s preferred name is important, not just using whatever name is easiest or most convenient. Resources Mentioned Contact Zach: Instagram | Twitter ZAP! (Zach Attack Your Passion) Podcast Zach’s Books: 365 Days: The Journey | The Things I Never Said | The 10 Laws of Effective Leadership ______ Enjoyed this episode? Share it with a friend and make sure to follow Excuses to Connect on Facebook and Instagram. Music by Meghan Rennie - Instagram / Soundcloud Website: excusestoconnect.com Watch my TEDx Talk: “How to Find Excuses to Connect” Email: [email protected] Leave a Voice Message: https://www.speakpipe.com/excusestoconnect Support Me: Buy Me A Coffee

Mohsen Youssef is also known as “The Ignited Flame.” That’s because he found his flame, which is his passion and love for life and people. He is currently running the 3000 Flames project, which is about meeting as many people as possible in a span of a year, and having these meaningful interactions whether it's in the elevator, grocery store, or across the world through virtual platforms. In this episode, he shares his story of being an ex-Amazon manager to reconnecting with himself and his emotions at a men’s retreat. Oh, and also how he once traded a bottle of baby lotion for a Booster Juice at an airport. I hope you enjoy this inspiring conversation. Highlights & Takeaways “Why wait ‘till I got all the money in the world, or I'm more established in a career or a job? Why not just go now? I have a car. I have friends who are down to go and I have my adventurous mindset that I will go anywhere.” Mohsen would remember a lot of days where he would through the hallway and he would be feeling sad or angry. But when someone said hi to him, he would always smile because he didn’t want people to see me sad. He was scared to show them that side. What if they don't like me? What if they don't want to connect anymore? Why Mohsen left his high-paying Amazon job to find inner peace His experience of staring another man in the eye, while putting a hand on his own heart and the other person’s heart. How he was able to trade a bottle of baby lotion for Booster Juice “Do things that allow for a more authentic, genuine, effortless expression of yourself. And as you step into that, witness more of life, passion, and the ignited flame that arises within you, like it did to me.” Resources Mentioned Contact Mohsen: Instagram | LinkedIn ______ Enjoyed this episode? Share it with a friend and make sure to follow Excuses to Connect on Facebook and Instagram. Music by Meghan Rennie - Instagram / Soundcloud Website: excusestoconnect.com Watch my TEDx Talk: “How to Find Excuses to Connect” Email: [email protected] Leave a Voice Message: https://www.speakpipe.com/excusestoconnect Support Me: Buy Me A Coffee

Alif Huq is actually a mutual friend of one of the previous podcast guests, Ahmad Jabbir from Episode 9. He is a Digital Marketing Automation Specialist, and he excels in this role because of his ability to connect and network. However, he was once painfully shy and awkward. In this episode, he shares many stories that are embarrassing, emotional, and about embracing himself fully as the person he is. Highlights & Takeaways The ultimate meaning of life is being “so you” that people feel inspired and want to be themselves. People who are more strategically inclined in social situations are people who know who can adjust their level of energy to the person they’re talking with. What makes you a social ninja is being adaptable. The story of Alif walking home from school and praying that the person in front him didn’t turn around, because that meant Alif had to chat and he didn’t know how to hold a conversation. How Alif’s attitude shifted from trying to be popular, to wanting to get to know others, and now focusing on how connecting with others helps get more meaning in his life. Hurt people hurt other people - Alif’s perspective on not blaming others, and trying to break the cycle of hurt. How in South Asian culture, people don’t normally discuss their emotions, but he witnessed an instance at a wedding where someone crossed that wall, and instead of being shamed, they were able to accept each other unconditionally. Resources Mentioned Contact Alif: Instagram | LinkedIn “The Way of the Superior Man” by David Deida ______ Enjoyed this episode? Share it with a friend and make sure to follow Excuses to Connect on Facebook and Instagram. Music by Meghan Rennie - Instagram / Soundcloud Website: excusestoconnect.com Watch my TEDx Talk: “How to Find Excuses to Connect” Email: [email protected] Leave a Voice Message: https://www.speakpipe.com/excusestoconnect Support Me: Buy Me A Coffee