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Published on:

14th Jul 2025

Unlocking Human Connection in the Digital Age: Insights from Robin Nathaniel

Russell welcomes social media strategist and TEDx speaker Robin Nathaniel.

See the full interview at https://youtu.be/edHZvzIGu3o

Robin shares his journey from hip-hop artist to public speaker, emphasizing the power of forging intentional human connections online. He elaborates on his experiences as a father, husband, and author, highlighting the importance of sharing one’s personal story to create impactful connections. Robin also discusses his guiding principles—Connect, Create, Contribute—and how these can be applied to lead a fulfilling life. Additionally, he offers practical advice on becoming a TEDx speaker and recommends essential reading material to help find purpose and drive meaningful human interactions.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome

00:15 Robin's Background and Career

00:56 The Impact of Social Media

01:35 Journey as a TEDx Speaker

04:21 Moving from New York to Atlanta

06:03 The Power of Sharing Personal Stories

07:11 Book Insights and Frameworks

08:39 Personal Philosophy: Connect, Create, Contribute

13:17 Spiritual Journey and Family

16:09 Recommended Reading and Daily Habits

19:34 Closing Thoughts and Practical Advice


  #RobinNathaniel #Socialmediastrategy #Personalgrowth #Musicindustry #Authenticconnection #TEDxspeaker #Creatingconnections #Digitalcommunication #Resilience #SocialMediaSYNC #Publicspeaking #Inspiration #Careertransition #Storytelling #Intentionalcommunication #ConnectCreateContribute #Humanconnection #Socialmediaexpert #Author #Mindfulcommunication #Socialmediatips #Thoughtleadership #Professionaldevelopment #Entrepreneurship #thescienceofself


Transcript
Russell Newton:

Hello listeners and welcome back to The Science of Self, where

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you improve your life from the inside out.

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We have another guest with us today.

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I'm excited to introduce

to you, Robin, Nathaniel.

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Tell us about you.

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Introduce yourself and let

our listeners get to know you.

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Robin Nathaniel: Russell,

thank you so much.

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Really excited to be on the show.

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Really I start off by

saying I'm a two time dad.

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Like, that's my, like, my crowning

achievement is being a two time dad.

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One of the most rewarding exper

experiences in my life is being a dad.

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I have a 15-year-old and a 6-year-old

at the time of recording this, and

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also, uh, uh, a loyal and dedicated

husband I am a social media strategist.

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I have a specific focus around human

connection online, and sometimes those

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two concepts kind of clash when you think

about social media and human connection,

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but that's a large part of my work.

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That's what my book is about, and

giving folks the tools and frameworks

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to really build those authentic and

intentional human connections online.

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So I started my career back in

the early two thousands when

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social media was brand new.

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and now to see where we are today.

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We're, right now we have 5.3

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billion active users on social media.

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So essentially a huge percentage

of the world's population

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is active on social media.

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So where many companies, brands,

coaches, strategists, might look

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at it as just an opportunity to

get some kind of financial return.

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I look at it as an opportunity to

build intentional human connections,

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So I really am focused in on this

work because I see so much value

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in it, and a lot of it has to do

with my journey as a TEDx speaker.

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Having to kind of unpack some of my

dirty laundry, if you will, and sharing

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it publicly with the world kind of

gave me a new perspective on how we

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can leverage the power of social media.

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Russell Newton: when you call yourself

a TEDx speaker, what does that mean?

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Other than you've done a presentation,

um, you've made a speech, but

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what is actually a TEDx speaker?

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What is the organization,

um, what does it take?

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To call yourself a TEDx speaker.

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Robin Nathaniel: So TEDx is

the local chapters of ted.

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So TED is a organization that is about

sharing ideas, you know, worldwide.

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when they started, more people

wanted to organize TED events.

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So they created this division

of ted, essentially called TEDx.

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And honestly, in, in, you know,

in the world today, TEDx is

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just as influential as ted.

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They are aligned, it's a part of the, the

company, but they're operated by local

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managers license managers, if you will.

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So what does it take to let,

to, to become a TEDx speaker is

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pretty much getting selected.

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And then landing the talk.

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So I come from the a,

a musical background.

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For many years I did hip hop music and

I, I found that it wasn't necessarily

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about me getting on stage and like

performing as much as me getting on

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stages to share messages, to share ideas,

to help people, to influence people.

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And when I found public speaking,

I knew that I wanted to land.

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I.

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A TEDx talk and in the speaking

world, many would refer to TEDx as

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the Super Bowl of public speaking.

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So landing a TED TEDx talk helps

you to open doors in other areas

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and for me to impact more people.

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I went to my first ever concert,

which was a Wu-Tang Clan concert.

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I was 15 years old.

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You had to be 21 to get in the club.

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So somehow I had gotten my 15-year-old

self into this club to see Wu-Tang

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Clans first ever club tour.

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And I was Russell, I must have

been 10 feet from the stage.

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And it blew my mind.

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On the way back home, I set a couple

of rhymes in the car to my friends.

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They did the, the, the classic.

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Oh, he said, oh my gosh.

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Right?

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And it gave me the confidence.

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And from there I went all in on my career.

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Russell Newton: How do you

compare New York to Atlanta?

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That's a tough question.

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I know, but what was your, when you

moved down from New York, uh, to Atlanta,

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I'm just wondering if you had the same

mindset that I did coming from Chicago.

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Robin Nathaniel: I have two kids,

a wife, you know, we, we were

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pandemic transplants Russell.

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So we, we as we used the pandemic as

an escape hatch to get our kids outta

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New York City for a brighter future.

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So when I arrived down here, I had kind

of had that mentality of like, woo, we

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made it out of that, you know, that mess.

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And to give you a little more

context, when we were in New York

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City, we were in Forest Hills,

Queens, very close to Corona, Queens.

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This is the epicenter of the pandemic.

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So there were literally.

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Um, trailers, truck trailers, with bodies

in them, three blocks from my house.

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So we were in this space of

like, is it the end of the world?

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Like, like what do we, how

do we keep our kids safe?

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So I think when I got down

here, I just felt a, a sense

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of safety, a sense of peace.

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And even today, I joke with my friends.

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I have a friend who sent me a text

that he's coming down from New

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York to visit, and I'm like, well,

I won't be coming to visit you.

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So you, you could come down.

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I don't, I don't need a 24 hour bodega.

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I don't need, you know, I don't

need any of the lights, I don't

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need the Empire State Building.

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All I need is my backyard.

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We literally, Russell have like

rabbits and deers like walking

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through our backyard in these suburbs.

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It's like fricking Disneyland.

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Like, I'm like, I'm, I'm at

peace and I have no need to,

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to go back to, um, to New York.

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Russell Newton: expand a little bit on,

on why you contacted me, why you wanted

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to be on this podcast in particular, and,

and what that brings to our listeners.

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Robin Nathaniel: I, I mentioned

earlier, like sharing my dirty

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laundry on the TEDx stage, and

that's something that do before.

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Russell.

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I, I didn't share all of what I call

the muddle my boots because didn't

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wanna mess up anybody's carpet, right?

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I don't want to come into

your world and bring my mess.

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But what I realized in my journey

is that the more of my mess that I

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share, the more people that I impact.

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So for example my parents

were immigrants, right?

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So we grew I grew up in New York City,

clueless to my socioeconomic status.

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I was just a little kid living in.

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One of the roughest times in New

York City in the mid eighties.

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So when I share you know, my background

with folks and the things that I've

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been through, it always starts a

conversation that, or often I should

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say, starts a conversation that leads

to a season of their life that they

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can relate to my story, and that's why

I wanted to be a part of this podcast.

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Russell Newton: Do you wanna give

us a, a little more about your book?

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Robin Nathaniel: I'll quickly

break down the framework for you.

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So, so S is for simple.

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Often online people wanna show up, and

this is in the conference room too.

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Wherever people are doing business or

or operating, even in the church, right?

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It may be even in your community, people

complicate messages that sound smart.

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So it's like, you know,

whatever they need to do.

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It could be a simple dish, but they'll

break it down very complicated to

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show that they have more information.

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My challenge to that is that you simplify

your message and make it easier for

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people to receive the message, then

they're more likely to hold the message

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and hopefully put it into action.

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So s is for simple.

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Why might be my favorite one.

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Why is yield to your intentions?

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Right?

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Oftentimes on social media, folks

are what they hear from the gurus,

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they're going according to what advice

they're getting online as opposed

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to creating their own experience.

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So I would challenge folks where if people

are saying, you gotta make videos, you

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gotta make videos, but you're really

good at writing, it's okay to just

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write, you know, just, you know, go on

a platform that appreciates writing.

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For example, LinkedIn is great

for writing x Twitter, blue sky.

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These are great platforms for writing

or even create your own personal

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blog on a, a platform like substack.

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Russell Newton: Robin, part of

your material said you live by the

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motto, it talks about living by the

motto, connect, create, contribute.

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Can you break that down into a personal

application, what that means, um,

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how it can apply to our listeners?

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Robin Nathaniel: So that came to mind

for me while I was making a sandwich.

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So I'm in my kitchen making a sandwich,

and at the time I was processing

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the, the loss of my older brother,

Kevin, Nathaniel Gar rest his soul.

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He passed away in 2021 Russell,

and when he passed away.

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Russell Newton: My condolences.

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Robin Nathaniel: sir.

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It hit me like a ton of bricks, you

know, and I've, I, I lost another

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brother in the early two thousands, and

I also lost my mom in the mid nineties.

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Nothing hit like this.

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It was, when I describe it to people.

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It felt like my organs had been removed

from my body, and I was literally

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just walking around hollow at the

time I was working in a school.

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And I remember walking through the

hallways of the school and I could

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almost hear the voices of the kids

being turned down a couple of notches

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and all I could just hear and feel

was my body moving it was empty.

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So I'm, I'm at making

a sandwich during this

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And then it just hit me and I, and I

told myself, I'm not making a sandwich.

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I'm creating, I'm not having a cup

of coffee with my wife after this.

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I'm connecting.

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I'm not going to work

when I leave the house.

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contributing.

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And those three Cs, when I re revisited

this idea of doing an audit of my

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time, I changed it from being just

an a time audit to a joy audit.

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How much, how many hours of my life

are committed to these three things?

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And if they're parts of my life that

I can't somehow connect to these three

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concepts, then something gotta go.

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So if I'm not creating, if I'm

not connecting, and if I'm not

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contributing, I can't do it.

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And that's like my non-negotiable.

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Now,

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So whatever I'm doing, if I

want to, I can just have a

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conversation with a higher power.

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And that could be connection as well.

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It could also be giving gratitude

out loud to the universe or

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to, you know, whoever it is.

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So that's connecting.

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Like, you know what, I'm just so thankful

for this opportunity to be here with

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Russell having this conversation.

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I could be running that in my

head if we had a sound issue

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and you needed to get offline.

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So there are ways to

get creative around it.

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I think going back to intention, if

we're intentional about it, then we can.

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it all connect.

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But if we're just living life haplessly,

just kind of like going through the

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motions, then you know, I think we're

missing out in a huge opportunity

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in the time that we have here.

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Russell Newton: correct me if I'm

wrong, if you don't know your inner.

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Purpose, your why If I dunno my deeper

purpose, then I don't know what to create.

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I might not know how to connect or

what the point of contributing is.

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Tie those together for

us on a day-to-day basis.

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On a personal level, if you can.

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Robin Nathaniel: I'll start by saying,

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Russell Newton: I,

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Robin Nathaniel: that those concepts in

my interviews and when I go around on,

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on this podcast tour, they rarely get

brought together in the same segment.

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So I'm excited about that

because, you know, the,

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Russell Newton: okay, great.

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Robin Nathaniel: turn, I, I, I really

look at my work as like a big whiteboard

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with just a bunch of diagrams overlapping.

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It's quite mad scientist the

way I think about it, but I'm

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super passionate about it.

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So I'll start by saying that it's

hard for most folks to really

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identify what their purpose is.

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You know, I've been trying to

figure that out for years, and

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I still am a work in progress.

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I, I, I believe that.

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My North Star is making sure that my

children and my wife and the people

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that I love see me pursue something that

I'm passionate about that will serve

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people, benefit people, and that I'm

maniacally obsessed with it working.

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So I could impact people

in a positive way.

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Russell Newton: If I can infer

something from a 45 minute conversation.

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So far, I think the religion plays

a, a large part in your life.

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Were you brought up in church?

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Do you, you, I assume you're

still active in a church.

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Can you share some of that

or are we off bound here?

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Robin Nathaniel: started off in the

Catholic church when I was probably

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in the first grade because my parents

wanted to get me and my brother

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into a private school, my brother

Kevin, that I spoke about earlier.

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So we went to a, uh, a private

Catholic school for a couple of years.

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Then my mother and father split up

and fast forward, my father remarried,

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uh, my stepmom, who I affectionately

referred to as mommy, my mother, uh,

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who raised me from the time I was in

the sixth grade right up until today.

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She just turned 90 years

old a couple of days ago.

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So love her.

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Grateful for her.

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She took me to church early and

she had me singing in the choir.

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She had me going to Sunday school.

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She had me going to revival.

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If folks don't know what revival like.

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Russell Newton: No, not anymore.

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Robin Nathaniel: It's like,

it's like night Church.

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And I'll share a quick story.

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This is a a church where people will

catch the Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit.

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And we were at revival in

line one time waiting to get

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touched by this visiting pastor.

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And when the visiting pastor touched

her head, Russell, you would fall on the

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floor and essentially have a seizure.

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And I was like in line

with my dad and my cousin.

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They were behind me.

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Before I know it, I look around,

my cousin went to sit down.

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So I'm getting closer in the line.

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I'm probably about four

or five people away.

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I turn around.

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My dad went to go sit down and now I'm

like two, two, maybe one more person up.

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And I had to take the longest

walk of shame that I was afraid to

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allow this pastor to touch my head.

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So that's my early

experiences with church.

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As I grew older, I.

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I realized that many, especially

in the Christian faith, there were

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a lot of barriers in terms of an

inclusive environment at church.

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And that always kind of

made me a little icky.

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Like I, I love church.

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I, I love God.

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I, I believe in Jesus, all of the

things, but I didn't like that part

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that we would hit people with the

whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute,

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you're not us, you're going to hell.

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And I was like, I don't wanna, I

don't wanna be a part of that, right?

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So I kind of disconnected from

the Christian faith for many years

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and just focus on my spirituality.

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And then as I got older and had a

family, I wanted my kids to have

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a good experience with church.

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So I researched churches that had good

youth programs and we found the church

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that we love and, and my wife who.

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disconnected from her

faith for many years.

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Came back to her faith.

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She's actually volunteering at the church.

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My son is going on a retreat to Daytona

with a, with a like a thousand high school

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church fanatics, you know, and my daughter

also at six loves her church experience.

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Russell Newton: If you could give our

listeners, a handful of books that they,

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that it would be your top recommended

reading books are there, do you have

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three or four on the top of your head that

you would strongly recommend that most

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anybody should read and be familiar with?

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Robin Nathaniel: I would say Rick Warren's

book, A Purpose-Driven Life was huge for

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me because at the stage and season of life

that I was in, I was reaching for purpose.

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And my wife, she has this amazing quote,

it's this again, simplicity, right?

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S is for simple.

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It's the, it's super simple, but

it like, it kind of like my, my

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journey to like, identify my purpose.

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And she said.

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B she said, I'm sorry.

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She said, do what you are, what you are.

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So at the time I was like having this

huge transition in my career and trying

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to identify purpose, and she helped me

with that, that quote, do what you are.

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Rick Warren's book would be one, and

I'm, I'm kind of a marketing geek,

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so most of the stuff that I read

is like nonfiction marketing books.

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Seth Golden, this is

marketing is one of my faves.

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It's something that I refer back to

Tribes by Seth Golden is another go-to,

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and most recently I've been reading.

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Day Trading Attention by Gary Vanerchuk.

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Those are the ones that I'm reading right

now, but I think Rick Warren's book for

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PO Folks who are seeking some Purpose,

or even if you've read it before and

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you wanna revisit it with maybe some of

the frameworks that I talked about in

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mind, I think it, it could be fun too.

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Russell Newton: What would you list

as some of the fundamental habits on a

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day-to-day basis that keep you centered?

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Robin Nathaniel: So the first

thing that came to mind on this

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one, Russell, is connect, right?

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So I wanna make sure I connect with.

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People who are important in my life.

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So one practice that I put into place

is making sure that I connect with the

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people that I love every day, whether

they live close or they live far away.

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Sometimes it's my son.

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Sometimes I'll just call my son who

might be at home playing video games.

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I'm like, Hey, just checking in on you.

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You know, want to see did you eat,

you know, but specifically, if you

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have elderly family members, grandma,

great grandma, elderly parents, check

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in on them daily because you have

no idea how far that goes for them.

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It's, it's a big deal for them

that you're calling consistently

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and also it will feed your soul.

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So that's the first thing.

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another thing I try to do daily is

like at least walk at the minimum.

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Make sure I have one of those smart

watches that I'm documenting my steps.

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Try to get to 10,000 steps a

day and make sure that I move.

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And then the last thing me that

I really try to be intentional

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about is making sure that I am.

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Mindful on how I'm using my time online.

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So this trick that I have is when I

open up my phone and I go to like,

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get into the internet or go into

social media, go in with intention

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saying I want to have one takeaway.

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And after I get that takeaway,

I'm shutting this puppy down.

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Russell Newton: I'm sure I missed a

question that you would like to have

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been asked or possibly a, a point of

information that I, that we didn't get to.

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So, however you wanna close out the

podcast episode for us, feel free

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to to venture as far as you'd like.

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Robin Nathaniel: Yeah.

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So I said, um, earlier that in the

sync method Y was probably my favorite.

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And the reason is, is because I find it to

be most practical of all of the pillars.

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So for example, if you go to Walmart

or Target, wherever you shop, if you

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shop at one of those stores and you go

through the checkout line, you, you're

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not going through the automatic one.

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You're going, you want to like let

a human take care of you, right?

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And.

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If you think about it, you have the

opportunity to be intentional to leave

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some kind of an impact on the cashier.

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It could be knowing she, she might seem

frustrated with the, the guest before you,

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or you could just see a blank stare where

she hasn't given anybody eye contact in

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the two people that were in front of you.

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You can intentionally say

something to leave her with some

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:

kind of positive impact or value.

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:

It could be as something as

simple as, Hey, thank you so much.

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:

I appreciate it.

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:

You have a blessed day.

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:

People don't get that, and I, and

I think that what I would leave

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:

your audience with, no matter who

the person is, no matter where,

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:

what arena of life you're in, your

professional arena, your personal arena.

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:

Look at every interaction as an

opportunity to leave the person that

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:

you connect with better off than

they were before your conversation.

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:

And that, I think, will help you,

you know, get the most out of life.

Show artwork for Voice over Work - An Audiobook Sampler

About the Podcast

Voice over Work - An Audiobook Sampler
Audiobook synopsises for the masses
You know that guy that reads all the time, and always has a book recommendation for you?

Well, I read and/or produce hundreds of audiobooks a year, and when I read one that has good material, I feature it here. This is my Recommended Listening list. These choices are not influenced by authors or sponsors, just books worthy of your consideration.

About your host

Profile picture for Russell Newton

Russell Newton