Gratitude emerges as the pivotal theme in this episode of Gnaw on This...Business Bytes, as we, Ben and Syya, delve into its profound impact on the realm of business. The discourse is anchored in the notion that genuine gratitude transcends mere platitudes; it is an authentic expression that can enhance relationships and foster a nurturing environment within professional settings. We explore the dichotomy between superficial acknowledgment and heartfelt appreciation, emphasizing the necessity for intentionality in our expressions of gratitude.

The conversation further highlights how the complexities of human interactions can either fortify or undermine our business endeavors, depending on our capacity to embody gratitude in our daily lives. Ultimately, we endeavor to illuminate the transformative power of gratitude as a catalyst for growth, learning, and improved business dynamics. The discourse surrounding gratitude as a pivotal element in business dynamics unfolds with an exploration of its profound implications.

The conversation reveals that true appreciation fosters a nurturing environment wherein individuals feel valued and empowered, ultimately enhancing the collective efficacy of a team. Syya and Ben share insights into our personal experiences, reflecting on how genuine gratitude has transformed our professional interactions and cultivated a sense of community. The dialogue further navigates the complexities of sustaining a grateful disposition amidst the inevitable adversities encountered in the business landscape. I recount instances where the absence of gratitude led to discontent, while Syya emphasizes the importance of being intentional in recognizing and articulating appreciation.

As they approach the conclusion, they assert that embracing gratitude, in all its forms, can lead to significant personal and professional growth. By acknowledging the lessons learned from both triumphs and tribulations, we cultivate a richer understanding of our experiences and foster more meaningful connections. This episode serves as a compelling reminder that gratitude is not merely an act but a transformative mindset that can enhance our relationships and, by extension, our success in business.

Takeaways:

• The essence of business and life hinges on the unpredictable nature of people, who serve as the X factor in our interactions.
• True gratitude transcends mere platitudes; authentic appreciation is discernible and profoundly impacts relationships in a business context.
• Living with gratitude requires intentionality and mindfulness; it is a discipline that fosters better personal and professional relationships.
• Experiences, both positive and negative, serve as invaluable lessons that ultimately contribute to our growth and evolution as individuals.
• Gratitude and graciousness are intertwined; recognizing the importance of both enriches our interactions and enhances our business endeavors.
• The ability to reflect on past experiences, learning from them, and applying those lessons is crucial for personal development and future success in business.

Links referenced in this episode:

• IamBenBaker.com
• Brilliant Beam Media

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• I Am Ben Baker
• Brilliant Beam Media

If there's one thing we've learned about business and life is that people are the X factor.

They constantly surprise us, both in amazing ways and not so much.

We're Ben and Sia, and welcome to the Gnaw Business Bites podcast.

This show is all about real life, things we all deal with every day, how they relate to business, and how to make some sense out of our daily chaos.

Welcome to the show.

Foreign.

Welcome back to another episode of Non this Business Bites.

I'm Ben and this is Sia.

And today we want to talk about gratitude and its effect on business.

You know what?

Everybody sits there and says, well, I'm.

I'm thankful for this.

I'm thankful for that.

But are you really, like, are you really thankful or are you just using platitudes and people can tell the difference.

People can absolutely tell the difference.

Whether you're expecting something, whether you think that you're right, you know, whether.

Whether you, you know, you're trying to be nice just to be politically correct, or whether you're actually have grace and gratitude.

And I am a big believer of when we're gracious, when we have gratitude, when we care about the people that we do business with and the people on our teams, for that matter.

Business gets better.

Business gets better because when you care about people and genuinely care about people, they tend to care about you and your business and your success.

So, Sia, let's gnaw this.

Well, my friend, look, I'm.

Let me pull my mic in a little bit closer here.

I think we are inherently.

If we want to.

Again, I always say we're inherently selfish people.

And I do.

I will set that premise as well.

But I do believe that in our souls, we all would like to fancy ourselves good people, right?

And as such, you think that you are trying to strive to some degree to be a good person, to genuinely live in gratitude, to be grateful for things that are done for you.

But the truth of the matter is, truth, truth, truth.

Let's just be very brutally honest, everyone and whoever's listening, you, you tell me if I'm off my rocker.

But we get so wrapped up in our inner worlds of life that we are selfish in that way, right?

That we.

We may not recognize it right away.

We might be grateful after the fact of, like, you know, one of there's a tense situation, maybe someone helps you calm down, and you're not in that, you know, moment with them.

So my answer to this about are reliving gravity, gratitude.

Do we know it?

Do we find it yes, you can, if you're intentional.

And it has to be top of mind, forefront, living with gratitude.

And this is where I, I'm going to give credit to my journal friends because they get up in the morning at some ungodly hour and they journal about gratitude and stuff, you know, talk about things that they're grateful for.

Because of that simple act and exercise, it does remain top of mind and forefront.

So I do think that if you believe that that is something that you want to live by, that's your creed, then you have to always be very mindful of it.

And I just don't see the majority of the population, myself included, you know, doing it as disciplined as it requires.

So that's my long winded answer of sure.

We all like to say yes, but the answer is we probably aren't.

I would say majority aren't.

Yeah.

And it's tough.

It's tough to be present and in the moment.

It is very tough at times where things are going wrong, where somebody's, you know, acted poorly against you, whether, you know, you've just been fired at work or whatever, you know, or, or you've lost a client or something, you know, something horrific.

It's very hard in the moment to see the silver lining.

And the trick is, the question is, do you just move on and become more and more bitter, or do you sit there and say, hey, wait a second here, what can I learn from that?

Let's face it, we're all not going to be our best selves in a crisis.

Whether those are big crisis, little crisis, whatever.

But when stuff hits the fan and you're in the moment of a situation, let's face it, it's hard to be your best.

Yeah.

You know, the people that can be all the time, the people that are, you know that, you know, there's people I know that are totally and absolutely unflappable, and they're just going, so what did you really mean by that?

And they're actually present and, you know, in the situation, whatever.

And the people that can do that, 100% of the time, kudos to them.

And you know that that's a, that's a, that's an amazing skill set.

I'm not one of those people.

Most of the time I can hold my cool, I can stay in a situation, I can do this.

But you know what?

There are times where I lose it.

And the question is, do I take the time to go back an hour later, a day later, a week later, to sit there and say, okay, what could I have done better.

Or, wait a second, let me give that person a call up and say, you know what?

I didn't really handle that situation in the best.

The best way possible.

I appreciate our relationship, and let's talk about how we can fix this.

And, you know, it's having the wherewithal in your system to say, you know what, Ben?

You were acting like a jackass.

You know, it may not be 100% your fault, but somebody has to step up and somebody has to make this right.

And it's how you do it and when you do it and why you do it that's the important thing.

I remember growing up, you know, especially with my son.

Every Friday night, we all got together for dinner.

Friday nights are sacrosanct in our house.

You're home for dinner on Friday nights.

That's it.

And we would go around the table every Friday night, whether it was just the three of us or we had people over.

Didn't matter if it was family or friends.

And we go around the table, and everybody had to say what they were thankful for that week and what they were grateful for that week.

And, you know, sometimes it was.

It was little benign and banal things, and sometimes it was actually something that was like, oh, oh, that's that.

You know, I hadn't thought about it that way, but taking that time to go back and reflect enabled me to become better.

It enabled me to sit there and say, wait a second here.

You've done mess.

In your words, you done messed up a rod.

Yep.

And, you know, how do I make things better and how do I make it better not only for myself, but for the people I was engaging with.

And I'm usually so grateful that I do because it makes me a better person in the long run.

You know, you just had me thinking of a situation where, you know, you don't know me as a person.

Person in real life, but I know you.

We know each other after all these years, chatting it up and what.

Right.

But so I'm the kind of person that is like, I will give you the shirt off my back, you know?

Sure.

Until I don't.

Right.

And then when I don't, you done messed up AA wrong.

Like, and I ain't getting it back.

And.

And it does.

It does strike me at times where it's like, you want to give in a way where you're not expecting it as well.

Like.

Okay.

Because I think, you know, when you.

You give gratitude to something or someone for them, for an action, whatever, there's a When you do good things for people, there's an assumption of are you doing it from your heart?

Is it earnest versus are you doing it with the assumption of getting something back in return?

And I think that's where there's always delicate dance.

Yes.

Right.

And so you know, it, there's, there's a graciousness.

Right.

And isn't gracious another form of gratitude?

Right, Absolutely.

Graciousness and gratitude go hand in hand.

Yeah.

And, and you know, just hearing you thinking and what, you know, my brain kind of drifted a little bit to this one thing is like, you know, sometimes when you do things, you don't necessarily want or demand it to be, you know, sung from the, you know, top towers and all that stuff, but you do at some degree want it to be acknowledged, Right?

Absolutely.

So, so I think, I think that's where my brain was just kind of drifting just slightly a little bit of like, you know what, when we were showing gratitude to someone and something and for someone, it, if you can, and it's an art to do it in a way where it doesn't feel like, you know, God bless you.

Thank you.

You know what I mean?

It's not like a, you know what I mean, where it's not where people mean it.

Yeah.

And I think that's a real skill and I really would love to hear from the audience because I feel like platitudes are often given and it so, it rings so hollow and so false.

You know, what do you guys do out there that you have shown your gratitude towards someone in a way that worked?

And I'm.

You know what, I would love to hear the stories where it didn't.

Right.

Someone's like f you back and you're like, whoa, what just happened here?

Like, I would love to, I would love to see that.

Yeah, no, I would absolutely love that.

Yeah.

I have two thoughts on this and it's interesting you say because you're right.

I mean when you do something for other people, you know, there's something inside you and you're right.

That's the, the, the, the selfish, self centered part of our body.

And we all have that over our right shoulder, maybe over our left shoulder that sits, there goes.

I want to be acknowledged, you know, but the thought process in my mind and as I get older, I can't control how other people react.

All I can do is control how I act.

I can put the gratitude and the graciousness and the outstretched hand into the world.

If people bite it off, that's on them.

I know there's good people in the world.

I know there's people in the world are not so good.

And I'm willing to admit that.

I'm willing to give everybody the grace to provide gratitude and to enable the best.

See the best angels of people.

When they prove to me that they're not worthy of it, I'm the same way.

They, they somehow fall off my radar one way, shape or form that they fall off my radar.

And you know, it's gotten to a point where it's.

It's not even a scream or a, or a dignified response anymore.

Sometimes it's just like, you know what, Thanks a lot and I move on.

And you know, in the meantime, you sit there and say, okay, the gratitude is.

What did I learn from that?

What did I learn from that situation?

What, what will.

What being involved in that situation where somebody did take advantage of me and I've had people take advantage of me of upwards of $50,000.

What did I learn from.

From interacting with those people?

And how do I make sure that not only do I protect myself, but I don't put myself in a position where I'm not willing to trust anyone because somebody did, you know, take 50 grand out of my back pocket.

So, you know, I can't paint every single person with a new.

With the same brush.

But on the other hand, I need to make sure that I don't get fooled twice.

Because if I get fooled twice, hey, listen, that's on me.

It just means that I have to have my spidey sense out a little more and I got to put policies and procedures and systems in place to be able to go, check, check, check, check, check.

Trust and verify.

Trust and verify.

Trust and verify.

But my gratitude around that is that somebody taught me a lesson that didn't bankrupt me, that didn't, you know, make me sell my house, that didn't, you know, make me, you know, close down my business to learn that lesson.

Okay, yeah, it cost me money, okay?

Money I can get back.

Money I can always get back.

But I still had my pride, I still had my dignity, I still had my reputation and I can move forward.

And I think that that, that took time.

Trust me, that didn't come in the moment.

That took time and it took weeks and months before I was over being angry and over being vengeful and deciding what was I going, was I going to take this person to court?

Was I going to.

What was I going to do?

Was I.

How was I going to deal with this?

And I eventually Realized that saying it's not worth it.

It's not worth expending more bad energy.

Yep.

It was better to sit there and say, okay, what's next?

And how do I make sure that doesn't happen again?

And for that, I was.

I was grateful that I finally came to that conclusion.

Ah, yeah.

You totally remind me of another situation of it was a painful learning lesson.

You know, I won't.

I won't go to too much detail, but I will say this much.

Basically, a client never paid for work, and I was paying out of my own pocket for the team that was working and all that stuff.

And it just struck me is.

And.

And the sad part of it is I'm no longer speaking to those said people.

Right.

So.

And you know, it was.

It's just unfortunate, right, because to me, it's like, dude, I gave you guys, like, gigs that were pretty freaking sweet, like, try not to badmouth me.

Right?

Type of thing.

But here's a. I don't.

I don't want to focus on that.

But what I will say this.

I am grateful for the experience of.

That.

It was a painful.

Could have bought a freaking nice car with that painful lesson.

But.

But I would say it has taught me very quickly as a business owner some of the things that you need to take care of before you do you lift your finger up for any work.

Right.

And I'm really grateful for the fact that it also helped me really see people when.

When.

When you don't have anything to offer them anymore, how they treat you.

And I'm really grateful for that experience.

And so that is something where it's painful, But I think those.

I think it's those moments of.

Of learning from something that you can't help but even through the midst of you having to rise up like a phoenix out of those ashes.

If we didn't have those experiences, imagine how foolish we would have been.

Or naive.

Not foolish, but naive.

We might be going through life because we haven't had to rebuild ourselves and come back up again.

So.

So in a way, I think with this conversation where I'm kind of just going with this is how.

How great it can be to learn from a life lesson.

It could be a pleasant lesson, too.

It just happens to be you and me, Ben.

We feel things real badly and goodly, you know, But I think in the end result of it all is I'm grateful for having to have experienced it, period.

So, yeah.

And I think, you know, as we land this plane, because it's time to land we need to realize that the good, the bad and the ugly can all teach us things.

And we need to be great.

We need to be gracious and, you know, have some gratitude towards that.

Gratitude for the experiences that we've had, for the people that we've met, the.

The relationships that we've formed, you know, whether they're good or they're bad, they're all going to teach us something.

They're all going to make us a little bit better, and they're going to make us the person that we're becoming and, you know, and allow us to grow and change and evolve.

And I think that if we use that philosophy moving forward, we have the ability to be more gracious and more and have better gratitude.

And when we do that, people are going to see that and it's going to reflect positively not only on us, but on our relationships, our businesses and our lives.

So should we leave it there?

I think.

I think we should leave that there.

That was good.

I think it's.

I hope, hopefully we gave everyone an opportunity and all on this.

I love it.

I'm Ben.

I see ya and we'll see you soon.

Hey.

Hey.

Hey.

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