What if the smallest changes in your life could lead to the most significant transformations? Our special guest, Lori Saitz, shares her inspiring journey from being a shy child to becoming a pioneering leader in internal corporate podcasts. Uncover the power of small steps and the courage to break free from perfectionism as Lori recounts her pivotal college experience that set her on a path of self-assuredness and leadership. Lori’s insights on gratitude as a tool for fostering positivity and development are particularly poignant, illustrating how cultivating a positive mindset can transform challenges into opportunities for growth.

Explore the innovative world of internal corporate podcasts as Lori discusses their potential to revolutionize workplace communication. With strategic content approaches and the backing of leadership, these modern tools can enhance transparency and community within companies.

This episode offers a compelling narrative on embracing personal growth, transformation, and the joy that accompanies the journey.

Lori’s Bio
Lori Saitz, is a trailblazer in producing private, internal podcasts for fast-growing companies, helping strengthen community, connection, and culture. Through an innovative approach, Lori helps organizations share insights, highlight employee stories, and maintain a passionate corporate culture. She’s also the host of Fine is a 4-Letter Word podcast, where she explores personal growth through challenging times. With a background in wellness and leadership, Lori delivers workshops on Zen Leadership and finding peace amidst chaos. After living a nomadic life, she now resides in Charlotte, NC, where she enjoys the gym, Thai food, and classic rock.

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Email us at: thebolt@toddbertsch.com

Todd Bertsch: 0:10

Welcome back to the Bolt Podcast. I’m Todd Bertsch and I’m thrilled to be your guide on this inspiring journey of personal growth and leadership. Together with my guests, we’ll dive into transformational stories, uncovering how small, intentional changes can create massive positive results in your life From overcoming challenges and setting impactful goals to building lasting habits and living with confidence, health and positivity. We’ll explore it all and, if you’re ready, to embrace a growth mindset, and unlock the best version of yourself, then let’s spark that transformation today.

Todd Bertsch: 0:46

Today’s guest is Lori Saitz, a trailblazer in producing private internal podcasts for fast-growing companies, helping strengthen community connection and culture. Through an innovative approach, lori helps organizations share insights, highlight employee stories and maintain a passionate corporate culture. She’s also the host of Fine is a Four-Letter Word podcast where she explores personal growth through challenging times. With a background in wellness and leadership, lori delivers workshops on Zen leadership and finding peace amid chaos. After living a nomadic life, she now resides in Charlotte, north Carolina, where she enjoys the gym, thai food and classic rock. Listeners, get ready as we dive into Lori’s inspiring story. Lori, welcome to the Bolt Podcast, my friend.

Lori Saitz: 1:37

Thanks for having me, Todd.

Todd Bertsch: 1:39

Oh my gosh, I’m so happy to have this conversation on a Friday with you. Yes, we got to meet, I don’t know a month, two months ago, I don’t know what time.

Lori Saitz: 1:48

It was probably more than that even Was it, I don’t know, time just flies by, but it was recently, it was.

Todd Bertsch: 1:53

Yeah, it wasn’t that long ago and we had a great conversation. I feel like we have a lot in common. I love what you leadership space and personal growth space. That’s really what our podcast show is all about, so I’m ready just to dive in and I’ll start talking and let you share some insights with our audience.

Lori Saitz: 2:17

Absolutely One of my mantras for this year is LFG. You can figure out what it means. I’ll keep it clean Gotcha.

Todd Bertsch: 2:25

Okay, well, it ties in with fine as a four-letter word.

Lori Saitz: 2:28

That’s right.

Todd Bertsch: 2:30

Yeah, you love those catchy names right From a branding marketing perspective.

Lori Saitz: 2:34

Yeah, I mean I have more than 25 years of marketing background, so I’m always like. How do I make this memorable?

Todd Bertsch: 2:40

I know right.

Lori Saitz: 2:42

And coming back to the whole premise of your show is like how do you make life memorable?

Todd Bertsch: 2:46

Right, absolutely. So we’re going to talk about that, because you’ve been through some inflection points a few times and I believe now we’re at another one. Yeah, so that’s what we’re going to get into. Okay, let’s go so. Classic rock what song were you jamming to this morning as you were getting?

Lori Saitz: 3:03

ready, you know what In the mornings? I haven’t gotten into the habit of listening in the morning. I usually like more meditation music. I’ll do a meditation in the morning when I wake up, and then I’ll put on some kind of inspiring meditation kind of music when I take a shower and get ready in the morning. So, I don’t usually have the classic rock cranked up in the morning. That’s more like an afternoon thing, okay.

Todd Bertsch: 3:29

Same here. Same here. Yeah, Morning I take my daughter to school so I allow her to listen to the latest hits. So whatever that is, but yeah, when I’m in a gym it’s 80s rock. He’s classic. Give me some Journey, white snake and yeah some van halen yeah, some halen for sure, and you know rocky’s gonna be on there, as as we talked about before all right, I had a tiger baby yep, yep, yep, awesome, yeah.

Lori Saitz: 3:57

So let’s, yeah, let’s talk a little bit about your journey, let’s go way back okay, I don’t have to go into the weeds Back to the days when classic rock was just rock.

Todd Bertsch: 4:07

Absolutely, Absolutely. So you’re doing all these things now. You’ve been a speaker, You’ve led leadership trainings, serial entrepreneur. As a child you mentioned that you were really shy and soft-spoken and kind of that kid that was in the back corner that was afraid to raise her hand. How did you make that change? Here we are now. You are so ambitious and energetic and the face of several different companies that you’ve created and speaking to many groups of people I mean that’s a big shift, right.

Lori Saitz: 4:46

It is, I don’t know that I would have said that I was not ambitious and talkative because my uncle used to. If I knew people, they couldn’t shut me up. It was around people that I didn’t know that I was really quiet. But yeah, I was very shy because I think it comes back to I didn’t want to say the wrong thing, even if I thought I knew the answer. But what if I was wrong? I didn’t want to feel embarrassed or I didn’t want to stand out and be wrong. That was a thing for a long time with me is like what if I don’t know enough? I don’t want to be wrong, or I don’t want anybody to know that I was wrong.

Lori Saitz: 5:25

Right, right so that you know perfectionist thing that runs my gosh.

Todd Bertsch: 5:30

Yeah, don’t get me started on that.

Lori Saitz: 5:32

Yeah, yeah and so just being I was shy around people I didn’t know. You know the report cards? I think it’s in my about section on my website, the report cards. Lori is very bright, but she needs to speak up in class.

Lori Saitz: 5:44

Right right, and it wasn’t until my parents I remember my parents dropped me off at college, loaded me into my dorm room and all that, and at the end of the day they drove away and I went straight to the TV station. Because I started at college as a broadcast major straight to the TV station to figure out what’s going on here. Worked four years at the college radio station, but that moment was like all right, now I don’t have anybody to speak for me. It was that one moment changed things Right.

Todd Bertsch: 6:15

That’s interesting. That’s all it takes sometimes.

Lori Saitz: 6:18

Yeah, I think that’s part of what it was, and then just feeling more as I’ve gotten older, feeling more confident in who I am and being able to present myself because I have a strong sense of who I am internally.

Todd Bertsch: 6:34

Yeah, Good for you. And that takes time and that takes some work, right? I think we’re all struggling with that. I’m on the struggle bus for sure, Always struggling with am I good enough? Imposter syndrome.

Lori Saitz: 6:50

Some people never get past it. But it takes that personal growth, that personal development. It takes work and a lot of people are not willing to do the work because sometimes it can be painful or sometimes it can be difficult. It’s always worth it, it’s just not everybody’s willing to invest.

Todd Bertsch: 7:08

Yeah, and that’s a good point, and that’s something that I’ve been very interested in lately is choice and why some people make the choice and others don’t. In your coaching experience and working with many leaders, what has your experience been like the people that have come to you? Are they ready and willing or do you feel like you need to coach them into? Hey, you need to do this, you can do this the ones who will work with me are ready.

Lori Saitz: 7:41

You know, I’ve had plenty of conversations with people who are not ready and I’m not here to force anybody to do something that they’re not ready to do, and that’s okay. Maybe they’ll never be ready, I don’t know but when they are ready, I feel like the way that.

Todd Bertsch: 8:00

I present things.

Lori Saitz: 8:00

It makes it very simple. So you’re still going to do the work and it might not be easy, but it’s simple and I can break it down into bite-sized pieces. So you know, I think a lot of times people give you know when they’re coaching they’ll give you like a whole big thing, it’s like overall big picture, and here’s that, and it just looks overwhelming. And then people are like, oh, I can’t do that overwhelming. And then people are like, oh, I can’t do that. So I know that I’ve heard from a lot of people that I tend to break things down and be like okay, so here’s what you’re going to do this week, and then next week, when we come back, we’ll do X, y and Z, and so it’s very you see the path, and that makes it easier to walk.

Todd Bertsch: 8:40

Right, yeah, we talk a lot about small shifts and you have to. You have to start. That’s that’s how it works. You have to start small. If it’s this big, hairy, audacious goal, it’s just going to feel too too big to overcome. Right, so just taking it in small chunks. But how do we get people to take that first small shift? That’s what I’m most, and I know we’re not going to get to that today, but it’s just been on my mind lately. I’d love to see more people get into positive mindset. Personal growth.

Lori Saitz: 9:17

Yeah, well, it comes back to. You know, there’s a girl, Dweck, who wrote a book called Mindset and it talks about growth mindset versus fixed mindset.

Lori Saitz: 9:27

And so when you have a growth mindset, you believe that you can change Fixed mindset. This is how I am. I suck at math. I’m always going to suck at math. I’m never going to get better. So people with a fixed mindset will never change because they don’t believe they can. But if you have a growth mindset now, you can do something with that, and so I think it comes down to believing that you can change, even when those changes they’re always small and incremental. You look back and you see how far you came, but typically they’re not monumental, Right?

Todd Bertsch: 10:05

Yep, no, I totally monumental, right. Yep, no, I totally agree. We got to get out of the fixed closed mindset. But again, how do you get someone to go from that to an open? They have to want to. That’s the puzzle. So they have to want to. Absolutely no. This is great. I’m really interested in the Zen rabbit, so we talked a little bit about that before you. So you had this baking company for like 11 years, right Called Zen rabbits, and you had this really cool concept which I absolutely love. So you know I was going to bring it up and I know you’re not all about it anymore but the gratitude cookie, like right now, it’d be so cool if you brought that back. So just tell our audience a little bit about your experience with your baking company and why it closed down, the name behind Zen Rabbit and then also this awesome concept of a gratitude cookie.

Lori Saitz: 11:01

The gratitude cookie started as a family recipe and I used to make them. We used to make them for the holidays and as an adult, when I was looking for something to my first entrepreneurial venture, and I would make these cookies and people would say, oh my gosh, these are so good, you should sell them. It’s like every food entrepreneur’s story. Somebody says that to them and they’re like oh yeah, maybe I’ll start a business. And so I did. But with my marketing background, my goal was not to be the next Mrs Fields. I packaged it as a way for businesses to say thank you to their clients and referral sources and so I did customized packaging with the gratitude cookies and I did run it for 11 years. I ran it into the ground.

Lori Saitz: 11:40

No, I could never get it to be profitable. And in hindsight again like, oh, what if I had done some things differently? But I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Yeah, I ran that business for 11 years and ended up shutting it down because, yeah, I couldn’t but the concept of saying thank you. And when I ran that business, I was doing a lot of speaking and talking about gratitude in business and the importance of gratitude in business, not just giving somebody a box of cookies, but how important it is to say thank you, to show gratitude for employees on a regular basis. Just because they have a contract and you pay them is not enough. And that’s really where I started digging into the whole concept of gratitude and the importance of it and the energetic vibration of it, like everything about gratitude, and that still just lights me up to talk about.

Todd Bertsch: 12:39

Absolutely. Yeah, that’s one of my favorite words. I just spoke about it. Tuesday, I was at an event and gratitude was one of my main slides, talking about the power of positivity and how to cultivate a positive mindset, and gratitude is right up there. It’s easy, it’s cheap, anybody can do it. You just need to-. Yeah, it doesn’t cost anything. You get into a habit. 21 days.

Lori Saitz: 13:00

Right. But one of the questions I’ve often gotten is how do I feel gratitude Like? What does gratitude feel like If you’re not used to feeling gratitude? What does it feel like? And energetically, on the energetic scale, it is the highest level of vibration you can reach. So what I tell people is gratitude feels like joy. Do you remember the last time you felt joy, when you were involved in an activity or watching? You may be watching children, watching dogs play in the dog park. They’re just so free and happy. There’s so much joy there. If you can wrap yourself around that feeling of joy, that’s gratitude also. Gratitude also like. That’s what gratitude feels like. Is it just feels just light and wow, I’m so lucky to be here?

Lori Saitz: 13:54

or to be experiencing this or to have this in my life.

Todd Bertsch: 13:58

Right? Yeah, that’s interesting, I would. I would never have guessed that you would get that question a lot. I don’t know. To me it’s just I’ve always had a certain level of gratitude. I never really had a gratitude practice until the last I don’t know four years and I’ve slowly built on that. I started with just a little gratitude journal. Now I’ve integrated that into my meditation, into prayer, within my meditation. I love it. I tell people there is nothing better than starting your day with a gratitude practice, because when you can focus on what you have, you’re not focusing on what you don’t have, and that’s a beautiful place to be and that will help keep you from imposter syndrome and keeping up with the Joneses and wanting the next big thing, right.

Lori Saitz: 14:47

Yeah Well. And also when you feel like you don’t have something that you want, that is kind of a false sense because this gets into a whole other box. But when you can feel gratitude for the things that you maybe don’t have materially in front of you, they energetically are more attracted to you faster. So if you can feel gratitude for that new car that you would like to bring into your life, can you feel the gratitude for having it right now, as if you already have it and and it energetically attracts it to you faster. If that makes sense.

Todd Bertsch: 15:27

Yeah, you’re talking about the law of attraction.

Lori Saitz: 15:29

Yeah, I mean, I really don’t want to get all the way into the law of attraction, but just being grateful for things that you have and want, it’s almost the same thing. How can I feel gratitude? It goes back to the if you’re not grateful for what you have, how will you be happy with more? And so can you welcome feeling gratitude for everything. There’s an exercise I do in my workshops about people. Again, how do I feel gratitude? There’s this exercise called, but I’m grateful for, and so, as humans, we tend to focus on things that are going wrong or that we don’t like.

Lori Saitz: 16:09

We complain and criticize it’s part of being human.

Todd Bertsch: 16:12

We’re negative biased.

Lori Saitz: 16:13

Yeah, so when you catch yourself doing that, you’re stuck in traffic and you’re angry because you’re going to be late to your meeting. But I’m grateful.

Todd Bertsch: 16:25

That’s me.

Lori Saitz: 16:26

Todd is raising his hand if you’re just listening to the audio. But I’m grateful for what? But I’m grateful I had a hot cup of coffee this morning, but I’m grateful the sky is blue and it’s not raining. Whatever it is, bring yourself back to the but I’m grateful for. And the more you do that, the more naturally grateful you become.

Todd Bertsch: 16:47

I absolutely love that. Can you send that to me, send you what? Do you have that in a handout, or?

Lori Saitz: 16:53

No, I just said it. Really, listen to what we just said.

Todd Bertsch: 16:57

Gotcha. Okay, I thought it was part of your training materials.

Lori Saitz: 17:00

Well, I present it in my workshop but, it’s just called the, but I’m Grateful For exercise.

Todd Bertsch: 17:05

Okay, definitely going to include that Every time you catch yourself complaining or criticizing. Okay, definitely going to include that. And we talked a little bit about positive intelligence, because Shirzad is all about finding the gift and opportunity right, shifting from a negative to a positive, and that’s what really. What we’re talking about is a reframe, it’s a shift.

Lori Saitz: 17:39

And this is not toxic positivity, like everything just went to crap and now I’m supposed to find something good in this? It’s not shoving down emotions of sadness or anger or frustration. It’s simply saying okay, I feel those things, that’s okay, and I can also find gratitude somewhere.

Todd Bertsch: 18:03

Right, right, I love it. Yeah, we don’t want to push them, we need them. We need to feel all emotions Absolutely, because it allows us to appreciate more what we do have, or at least we should. Right, it can do that for you. It definitely does that for you. About it to a group, it’s like you know, it’s not about the things, necessarily the car, the house, the job, the promotion but the things we take for granted that we’re alive. Each breath is a gift, like the most simple thing, like everyone’s, like I don’t know what I’m grateful for. Well, there’s two right there. Write them down.

Lori Saitz: 18:46

Yeah, yeah, I mean, everybody’s going to find different things that they can be grateful for, right, a hot cup of tea, a bed to sleep in.

Todd Bertsch: 18:55

Right.

Lori Saitz: 18:55

Whatever it is.

Todd Bertsch: 18:57

Right.

Lori Saitz: 18:58

That you have eyes to see and you can hear with your ears, if that is something that you have.

Todd Bertsch: 19:03

Right, absolutely Find the gift Cool. Well, man, we went down a little rabbit hole.

Lori Saitz: 19:09

Yes, I know.

Todd Bertsch: 19:12

I was going to go there at some point, so Zen Rabbit.

Lori Saitz: 19:15

But you were looking for that opportunity. I was.

Todd Bertsch: 19:18

I was Zen Rabbit. All right, tell us the story because it’s a cool one. All right, the story behind that name.

Lori Saitz: 19:25

Yeah. So again, marketing background, what’s going to be something that is going to be memorable. When I had the cookies, when people would eat them, they would say, oh my gosh, this reminds me of something my grandma used to make, and then it brings them back to this zen blissful place of baking in the kitchen with grandma, and so that was part of where the name came from. But also, when I was a baby, my mom bought a stuffed rabbit and put it in the crib you know, in a plush rabbit and quickly found out that she could take out all the other animals, but if the rabbit wasn’t in the crib, I wasn’t sleeping. So rabbit was always in the crib and as I got older I would rub her ears for comfort.

Lori Saitz: 20:03

There’s a picture on my website under the abouts page of me at two and a half or two two, two and a half holding this rabbit and I’m in this Zen blissful place. You can see that I am off somewhere, and that’s what she used to do for me was put me in this Zen bliss. I didn’t call her my Zen rabbit at the time, but that’s what she was, and the cookies kind of brought people back to that same kind of place, and so the name Zen Rabbit. And again, from a marketing standpoint, nobody ever forgets the name Zen Rabbit. They don’t remember Lori, but they remember Zen Rabbit, which is why, as Zen Rabbit has gone through my, as my entrepreneurial journey has gone through all these different stages, it just keeps becoming Zen Rabbit 2.0, zen Rabbit 3.0. I don’t know, we’re probably on Zen Rabbit 4.0 at this point.

Todd Bertsch: 20:49

Right, but that’s great. I mean, it’s became part of you and your brand, but there’s something personal that’s tied into it, and everybody loves a personal story, yep.

Lori Saitz: 20:59

Everybody loves stories.

Todd Bertsch: 21:00

Yeah, so 11 years and you were done with that, and then you’re moving on. What were some of the experiences Anything that you would. What were some of the major takeaways from that?

Lori Saitz: 21:09

Closing that business.

Todd Bertsch: 21:10

That was your first business, right.

Lori Saitz: 21:12

Yeah, closing that business was so, so difficult. I mean, when you looked at the numbers, it shouldn’t have been difficult to close the business. But it was my identity For 11 years. That’s who I was. I would go to networking things and that’s who I was. That was my complete identity. So now I’m shutting it down. So now, who am I? What value do I have? And it took a while to move beyond that and to realize like, okay, well, that’s a business, it’s a separate entity, and I think that’s a challenge for a lot of people who are in business. And I think that’s a challenge for a lot of people who are in business that the business becomes everything to them.

Lori Saitz: 21:54

I mean to the detriment of my marriage. It didn’t completely fold down at that point, but that was a major contributing factor to the eventual end of it, Because I put everything into that business and not a lot of attention on other things.

Todd Bertsch: 22:10

Right. I mean, yeah, I’m sure listeners are thinking, wow, I’m there or I’ve been there. I can relate. I’m an entrepreneur and yeah, those first few years and I had my second child during that time as well and yeah, my wife, she called me out and said you need to be more present. I’m like I’m trying here, I’m trying to put food, but thank you for letting me know, because you can get really caught up quickly and not intentionally. I wanted to be there, I wanted to. Those are the most important years, but you need somebody to kind of be that accountability partner for you and I think that’s for me, I think that’s a key point, but it can. Somebody to kind of be that accountability partner for you, and I think that’s for me. I think that’s a key point, but it can be tough when you’re a solopreneur.

Lori Saitz: 22:55

Right, right. And now I know that that was not healthy, for it wasn’t healthy for me, but it also wasn’t healthy for the business. The business would have been more successful if I had given myself time to step back and relax and do other things outside of it.

Lori Saitz: 23:11

We learn at a very early age and I talk to a lot of people on my podcast and one of the questions I ask is what are the values and beliefs you were raised with? Almost every single person has said hard work. Hard work is important and I’m not saying we should be slackers, but we are ingrained with this idea that hard work leads to success and it doesn’t. You do need to be intentional, but nose to the grindstone at the sacrifice of everything else does not lead to success.

Todd Bertsch: 23:43

Amen, we can just stop right there. I’m with you on that. That took a long time to learn that and to understand that. I think you have to go through some failures first. Honestly, I don’t know. You can read about it. People can listen to this show and I still feel like they probably need to learn on their own. But hopefully somebody listening will say you’re right. Maybe I do need to reflect a bit and take a look at my balance or work-life integration and really reflect and say what’s most important to me, because if you do that, nine out of 10 times it’s going to be your family and if you’re spending 12 hours a day working, you’re not spending enough time with your family.

Lori Saitz: 24:27

Yeah, your family, your health. Not spending enough time with your family, yeah, your family, your health, your own well-being all of those things. Your business benefits when those things are in order and you can bring a more joyful energy into the business. Instead of it feels like a grind. I got to get through this. If I could just get through this. When I just get the first 10 clients, when I get to $100,000, whatever it is, you’re putting so much pressure on yourself and on the business. If I can just get through this, when I just get the first 10 clients, when I get to $100,000, whatever it is, you’re putting so much pressure on yourself and on the business. And right, when you can come into it with more balance, the business will be more successful when you give it a little more breathing room.

Todd Bertsch: 25:04

Yeah, yeah, I totally agree Work smarter, not harder. But I grew up the same way. I grew up with a blue. I grew up, you know, a blue collar family and two jobs. Both my parents had two jobs and that’s what I saw. That’s what they needed to do. And, yeah, I’ll work harder than anybody else. But I’ve learned that personal growth is key, and when I can make time for myself on my personal growth journey whether that be, you know, my mind or my body, oh my gosh, I’m more clear, I’m more happy, more positive, more energetic, which allows me to accomplish more. So it’s interesting if people would just try it and see it, because on the outside and I know I was the same way I’m like ah, this is BS, I don’t believe it, right the naysayers.

Todd Bertsch: 25:57

I was there, I was one of them until I finally just said, and unfortunately, a lot of times it takes a traumatic event before people say, well, shit, maybe I need to take a look.

Lori Saitz: 26:06

Yeah yeah. The closing of Zen Rabbit Baking Company coincided with the passing of my mom, and that wasn’t well. It wasn’t intentional on my side, I didn’t close it because, but it just happened at the same time and that was one of the key factors. She was only 73 years old and I thought do I want to live the next 20 years the same way I lived the last 20? And again, the last 20 weren’t terrible, they were fine.

Todd Bertsch: 26:37

But, as we know, fine is a four-letter word, right.

Lori Saitz: 26:41

Yeah, but it gave me that inflection point of reevaluating Okay, what am I doing with my life, what do I want to do? And yeah, like what you’re talking about, that point that comes to kind of force you to evaluate, right.

Todd Bertsch: 26:57

But good for you and you’ve continued to do this reflection and reinvent yourself right and a lot of people don’t do that Were you into personal growth at that time.

Lori Saitz: 27:10

I’ve always been into personal growth Okay.

Todd Bertsch: 27:14

So was that and I will say yeah.

Lori Saitz: 27:15

So when I was 10 years old, my mom took my brother and me to a meditation course. What?

Todd Bertsch: 27:20

Yeah, that’s awesome.

Lori Saitz: 27:22

That is now known as the Silva Method. It’s under Vishen Lakhiani’s Mindvalley Company.

Todd Bertsch: 27:29

I read about that. I just bought the book actually a few months ago.

Lori Saitz: 27:33

Oh wow, so you’re in for a treat.

Todd Bertsch: 27:35

Yeah yeah, I’ve watched a few videos. I’m like, all right, this is way too interesting and kind of crazy but, I want to learn about it.

Lori Saitz: 27:41

Yeah, so I had that as a foundation, but of course, then, as I became a teenager, I’m not doing this. A teenager, you know, I’m not doing this. And I didn’t use it for many years, and some of the a bit of irony is that when I came back to doing meditation on a regular basis was after my mom passed, so somebody else pointed out to me. Oh, so it’s kind of like she gave you this gift to use after she wasn’t here.

Todd Bertsch: 28:07

Yeah, I’m sorry.

Lori Saitz: 28:09

Yeah, no, I mean, it’s been over more than 10 years now. That was, I think, the foundation for the personal growth, and then I’ve always just been interested in it. I think you know I’m an old soul, so I want to know all this stuff. How do we? How do we? You know what? What is? What is this world? What is this universe? What is this about? And entrepreneurship is the biggest personal growth journey you can go on. It forces it.

Todd Bertsch: 28:44

It absolutely does, absolutely yeah.

Lori Saitz: 28:47

So yeah, so I’ve always been into it. I’ve always been into reading, studying, taking classes on all kinds of personal development and growth, and I think I’m just also. Naturally, I like learning yeah.

Todd Bertsch: 29:00

Because you have an open mindset, I guess yeah.

Lori Saitz: 29:03

A growth mindset.

Todd Bertsch: 29:04

Yeah, a growth mindset, although.

Lori Saitz: 29:06

I don’t know. I’m still wrapping my head around how I’m going to be good at math. You know, it’s a good thing we have computers and calculators and all oh my gosh.

Todd Bertsch: 29:14

I’m a graph designer, trust me, when I started my business, I’m like QuickBooks, okay, excel, what the hell is this? And honestly, I’ve come to like both those programs. I understand them now, I feel more comfortable and I see the value in what they bring and understanding. I wouldn’t say I’m a guru or expert, but I know enough to run a business and the numbers that I need to run and the formulas and knowing that that was a fault of mine my entire life I almost didn’t graduate college because I couldn’t pass math. I had to go and ask and get special privilege to take a math for art students class. I’m not even kidding you. I was crying, I was like pleading, like, please, math for art students.

Lori Saitz: 30:07

I love it.

Todd Bertsch: 30:08

Yes, and I finally did so. But yeah, I hear you on that. So what a journey you’ve been on.

Lori Saitz: 30:16

Yeah, I mean, I had two other businesses in between then and now.

Todd Bertsch: 30:21

Right, and now you’re pivoting again Again. So what’s yeah? What happened?

Lori Saitz: 30:28

I’m just always Well, entrepreneurs, shiny object syndrome, the through line is connection and building connection with other humans. That is the through line of my entire life. I have friends that I have been friends with since we were babies in the crib and maintain those friendships. College roommates everybody babies in the crib and maintain those friendships. College roommates, everybody. I feel like my whole purpose in being here is to help connect people, to help people feel like they have value and that they can be part of a community. So just that, maintaining whether it’s a personal connection or a professional, just the word connection, maintaining whether it’s a personal connection or a professional, like just the word connection. And I think that is, you know, we have a loneliness epidemic.

Todd Bertsch: 31:17

I don’t think it’s just in our country, I think it’s worldwide.

Lori Saitz: 31:19

That has become even bigger with the advent of everything being virtual, because we are, as humans, still wired to connect interpersonally.

Lori Saitz: 31:30

We have not evolved past that need, and so a lot of that I have a lot of opinions about. The problems that are caused by not feeling connected are greater than just I feel lonely, but we won’t go into that right now. Somebody can reach out and we can have a separate conversation about that if you want to talk about that. But we need to be connected, and so that is the through line through every business the gratitude, sharing, gratitude with people, whether it’s business employees or people that you live with. Sharing your gratitude with them helps that connection, human connection, and so that is the through line. And so now, when you talk about what am I doing now, which is hosting and producing internal private podcasts for companies, it’s about helping employees feel connected to each other, helping employees feel connected to the C-suite, helping the C-suite helping employees feel connected to the C-suite, helping the C-suite get their message to communicate to the people that need to understand what’s going on in the company. It’s all about connection and community, connection and community.

Todd Bertsch: 32:42

I love it. The concept is very interesting to me. I’m not familiar with it, so I’d love to, in a couple of minutes, take us through. How does this work? So if somebody like myself I own a company and I want to create an internal podcast to help promote the culture or grow the culture, how would I go about this process?

Lori Saitz: 33:05

Yeah, so a lot of companies, especially fast-growing companies. When you were starting out as the founder and the CEO, you knew everybody. You think of the classic startup everybody’s sitting around, it’s midnight and they’ve got a pizza and everybody’s working on whatever they’re working on. But everybody knows everybody. Everybody knows what the problems are, Everybody knows what the clients need. As you’re growing, you can’t maintain that one-to-one connection with everybody. New hires are coming on and you don’t know everybody. So how do you still maintain some sense of personal connection to everybody? And an internal podcast. When I say internal, private podcasts, I’m talking about podcasts that are not necessarily. You can’t find them on Apple podcasts or Spotify. They are internal, for employees only, and so you’re building a community and having a conversation one-to-one, but you’re not but you are Right.

Todd Bertsch: 34:06

So almost like an intranet-ish but you are Right.

Lori Saitz: 34:13

So almost like an intranet-ish. Well, it’s like the old school newsletters that companies used to have when they were printed. And back in the day I remember one of my very first jobs after college. I was in charge of the newsletter oh yeah, I’ve done.

Todd Bertsch: 34:27

I’ve designed many newsletters, writingletters the bane of my existence.

Lori Saitz: 34:32

Yeah, and I love that too, but nobody reads anymore. There’s a study that I saw that 71% of employees don’t read their own emails from their own company. So how do you get people’s attention? And people are listening to podcasts. Do you get people’s attention and people are listening to podcasts? So if they’re already conditioned or they already like listening, then do this in a format that people are already conditioned to pay attention to and so yeah, so I say it’s like the modern version of the old school company newsletter.

Todd Bertsch: 35:10

That’s awesome. I love it. So, from a technical standpoint, where would these be hosted? If I’m an employee, how would I listen? Would I listen through Spotify, but it’s just a private show.

Lori Saitz: 35:26

It depends on how the company wants to set it up. There are a lot of different ways that you can do it and that is one of the ways. There can be a private RSS feed that you can that people can listen to through iTunes or Apple podcasts or Spotify. But there are also other ways to host it that you may need a company email to access, for example, or it could be hosted on some internal internet kind of thing. But it just depends on what the company, how they want to set it up and I help them do that. It’s not like, hey, you’re on your own figure it out, Right, right, but it comes from a strategy conversation before we get started who are you typically working with?

Todd Bertsch: 36:10

Is this HR or C-level I?

Lori Saitz: 36:13

prefer to go straight to the CEO, the founder CEO, because if they’re not on board, it’s not going to work. And I’m looking at companies right now that have 250 to 2,500. So we’re not talking about Fortune 100 companies, although I see opportunities there too. Yeah, I would prefer to go straight to the top, because they’re the ones that are. They need, I need their buy-in for it, Right?

Todd Bertsch: 36:42

Or actually.

Lori Saitz: 36:43

I don’t need anything. They need their own buy-in. Right, right, right.

Todd Bertsch: 36:46

That’s yeah, it’s a really cool concept. And then you’re going to interview employees and talk and I’m sure that’s strategic too from management down to the people doing the work and highlighting different roles, different specialties.

Lori Saitz: 36:59

Absolutely. Yeah, I have a whole outline in the way I present it and then obviously companies can, in the way I present it, and then obviously companies can personalize it, customize it however they want. But 15 minute segments short because people have short attention spans Nobody has that much. You know you can listen while you’re driving to work or you’re doing the dishes or you’re doing a workout. Well, you know we want to listen to our classic rock music, but you know it doesn’t take a lot of time and effort to listen. So, interviews with C-suite executives what’s the initiative for this month? What’s happening that I need to know about? Maybe there’s a challenge the whole company is facing and if CEOs, c-suite, can be open and transparent, people feel like, okay, I get it. You know, rumors start, gossip starts, drama starts when people don’t feel like they know what’s going on.

Todd Bertsch: 37:53

Communication number one.

Lori Saitz: 37:55

Yep Interviews with employees. So Bob in accounting can get to know Jane in sales, because they don’t really have a lot of connection points. Otherwise, when you understand who you’re on a human level, who your colleagues are, it’s more interesting and you’re on a human level, who your colleagues are, it’s more interesting and you’re more engaged. And then interviewing clients to find out how is what you’re doing affecting the end user. So again you feel more engaged because now you understand what your role is or how what you do contributes to the success. And when you talk about who do you choose as employees to interview. It’s a great way to recognize and show gratitude for the employees.

Todd Bertsch: 38:41

Yeah, shout out.

Lori Saitz: 38:42

People. Yeah, exactly, recognizing, giving recognition and showing people that they have value.

Todd Bertsch: 38:47

I mean, it just sounds like a win-win all the way around. Yeah, very cool, it’s way around. Yeah, very cool, it’s freaking fun.

Lori Saitz: 38:54

Life is not meant to be a slog. It’s meant to be fun. Right, absolutely. So, let’s have fun with this, so that’s yeah companies that are stick in the mud companies are not going to be a good fit for this Right.

Todd Bertsch: 39:05

Right, and I think the companies that you’re targeting, the fast growing right, the startups they’re the ones that are probably going to be more open to that. So that’s cool. Anyone else doing this? Because I again, I haven’t. Oh, they are Okay.

Lori Saitz: 39:18

They are. I just wrote an article for my LinkedIn newsletter that published last week, and I did a whole bunch of interviews. I spent the past two months interviewing companies that either have them already or people who are involved in them, and there are some big Fortune 100 companies doing them and then smaller companies as well. It’s not a new thing. There are actually articles out there written about it back in 2017.

Todd Bertsch: 39:47

Okay.

Lori Saitz: 39:48

Am I just? But no, you’re not.

Todd Bertsch: 39:51

Okay.

Lori Saitz: 39:51

You’re not alone. When I started asking questions of my LinkedIn network who do you know who has an internal podcast? 80% of the people came back and said I don’t know anybody, but it sounds like a cool idea. They hadn’t heard of it before. So it is a pioneering. Still the pioneering days of it.

Todd Bertsch: 40:07

Right.

Lori Saitz: 40:09

But it’s not brand new. Right yeah, now’s the time, get in and do it, but it’s not brand new. Now’s the time, get in and do it.

Todd Bertsch: 40:14

Awesome, great, no, that’s awesome. So what spurred this? There had to have been something where you were like did you feel like your tank just wasn’t as full as it used to be? Are you still doing speaking? Are you still doing one-to-one coaching or corporate trainings, or are you purely pivoting.

Lori Saitz: 40:37

I am not doing a whole lot of coaching anymore. I am doing still speaking.

Todd Bertsch: 40:39

We’ll always be speaking.

Lori Saitz: 40:40

I love that. Give me a microphone. I love that. Whether it’s on a stage or in a studio, it doesn’t matter to me. Yeah, always still speaking and doing workshops. But a lot of people what I was finding was they don’t have the time Getting people together in a room and doing a 90-minute, two-hour workshop. We don’t have time for that. We need what you’re teaching, but we don’t have time for it. And so the podcast idea. And because of the feedback I’ve gotten from hosting my own podcast putting those two things together and still being able to connect people just in this different way I went wait, why am I not doing this this? I mentioned back when we started talking here that I started college as a broadcast major. I wanted to sit in Katie Couric’s chair.

Lori Saitz: 41:30

I wanted to interview people and get their stories. This is another way to be able to do that, and I think it’s not just fulfilling for me as an interviewer and I don’t take that as this is about me. It’s not about me at all. It’s about holding space, a safe space for people to tell their stories, because everyone has one and it’s important for them to be able to share it Again human connection. So being able to hold that space for people to tell their stories and use it as a way for then for people within a company to connect with each other and to maintain that same type of corporate culture that they had back in the beginning, when everybody did know everybody. This is how you can do it, and that’s just I. Just you can hear in my voice. I’m so excited about this, oh, yeah, I can see it.

Todd Bertsch: 42:20

Yeah, I can see you glow when you talk about it. I think it’s awesome that you’re doing this. I feel like this is going to be. This is going to take off, especially now, because work is so different since COVID and I feel like that connection that you’re talking about is gone or really diminished. And we see right. We just saw the Gallup polls on employee engagement. It’s lowest in what 10, 15 years? It just continues to decline. So maybe this is a tool that could help.

Lori Saitz: 42:54

It absolutely is a tool that can help. Yeah, like many others.

Todd Bertsch: 42:59

The old school yeah, that’s so funny. The old school corporate newsletter.

Lori Saitz: 43:05

Yeah, every company had one.

Todd Bertsch: 43:06

Yeah, no, I remember when they’re and I remember there’d be a little lost and found section. Or if you’re selling, you know before a Craigslist, hey, I remember when they’re and I remember there’d be a little lost and found section. Or if you’re selling, you know before Craigslist, hey, I’m selling, you know my, my old cabinets or office desk.

Lori Saitz: 43:19

Yeah, oh, my gosh. That’s so funny that you said the lost and found, because it just jogged a memory in my head. So when I was doing the newsletter for the company I was talking about it was a residential real estate company with I don’t know more than 100 offices their mascot was a fuzzy green bear, and so we had two fuzzy green bear costumes in the marketing department that people could check out and use for events. Somebody wears it and you go to an open house or whatever the kind of community events they were doing. But Lucky the Bear was missing. One of the Lucky Bears was missing, so we had to put it in the newsletter that Lucky the Bear is missing. If you’ve seen him, please return him.

Lori Saitz: 44:04

Bring him home and it turned out he was in somebody’s trunk.

Todd Bertsch: 44:09

You’re going to get, yeah, bring it back. And you’re going to get, yeah, bring it back. And you’re going to get written up for that, because we need Lucky.

Lori Saitz: 44:15

Help us find Lucky the bear.

Todd Bertsch: 44:16

What a great story. Awesome these. What I do want to ask I’m just curious, and maybe our listeners would be interested as well, because I know we have some very active LinkedIn folks that tune in. Folks that tune in. I’ve seen and I’ve read your newsletters on LinkedIn. So it’s a different means of posting on LinkedIn. Can you talk just a little bit about do you find that the juice is worth the squeeze, so to speak, or is it more of a passion play? I’m just curious. I don’t see a whole lot of them, but I see you have stuck to a regular cadence and they’re meaty, they’re good quality content. So I’m just curious.

Lori Saitz: 44:54

You won’t have to go into it too much, but no, that’s exactly the reason for having a LinkedIn newsletter is it allows you to write more in-depth content, because you are limited in the number of characters you can put in a post, but in newsletter you have a lot more space and so you can get more in-depth in your writing.

Todd Bertsch: 45:16

Okay.

Lori Saitz: 45:17

So, yeah, I’ve been doing it for I don’t know a while, yeah, and for me it’s an outlet to write, but also to showcase some content, some, you know. This is what I’m about. This is, you know, I’m not a big fan of the term thought leadership, but to share thoughts and ideas.

Todd Bertsch: 45:38

Right, interesting. Okay, now would you also publish this on your website, or this is one or the other you know, from an SEO standpoint.

Lori Saitz: 45:48

You’re more the expert on that than I am.

Todd Bertsch: 45:50

You have to be careful with duplicate content. But I guess I’m asking, is it just exclusive to LinkedIn?

Lori Saitz: 45:59

I may have started when I started the newsletter, I may have put it in both places, and then I got lazy.

Todd Bertsch: 46:06

That may be helpful Good idea.

Lori Saitz: 46:07

Maybe I should bring it back.

Todd Bertsch: 46:09

Cool, okay, well, yeah, interesting. I was just curious. I’ve seen them and they’re good stuff. So yeah, audience, take a look. Follow Lori. All of our socials will be in the show notes, for sure. You the best with that new venture. I love that you just continue to reinvent yourself. We don’t do it enough. I just went through a major change, as you know, when I was on your show, and we need to find work that is meaningful and brings us joy and happiness, and those that can find that will have a really fulfilling life bottom line. But you have to take the time to reflect. I think that’s key. We get too busy and we don’t have gratitude and we don’t appreciate, we take things for granted and next thing, you know, 10, 15 years go by and here we are.

Lori Saitz: 47:06

I think the reflection is important, only so that you can see what I enjoyed and what I didn’t enjoy. So what can I do? More of moving forward? It’s not a tool for beating yourself up. Right, right, it’s yeah, and I’ll leave your audience with this is I invite you to look at life as it’s an adventure and an experiment. It’s an adventure and an experiment.

Lori Saitz: 47:30

If it doesn’t, you choose to do something, you go down one path and it’s like oh no, that’s not what I was expecting. That’s not a failure, it’s just failure. You know, reevaluate that term. It’s just didn’t turn out the way you were expecting. So now you can take a different path, make a different choice. It’s a constant experiment.

Todd Bertsch: 47:50

I love it. I’ve been hearing that more and more just recently, ironically, and that really resonated with me. I’m like, oh my gosh, that is it. I can relate to that experimenting right, Because then it doesn’t feel like failure.

Lori Saitz: 48:06

No, it’s not heavy Most science, people working on cancer.

Todd Bertsch: 48:11

they may never succeed, so to speak, but they continue to do the work and try. So, yeah, very interesting. I have to ask, though, about this nomadic life style. Okay, please do fill me in.

Lori Saitz: 48:27

It sounds very interesting an adventure is. That’s where it came from. So I left my apartment. I gave up my apartment in Northern Virginia in October of 23 and found this website called Trusted House Sitters, where people post if they need somebody to sit for their animals. Most of the house sitting is animals cats and dogs, rabbits, whatever. So I signed up to do that because I knew I wanted to leave Northern Virginia. It will always be home for me, but I wanted to leave. But I didn’t know where I wanted to go and so I did the nomad life, mostly through the Southeast part of the US, because I was looking for where do I feel comfortable, where do I want to park myself, where is my next home? And I did that for 13 months.

Lori Saitz: 49:18

I had the most amazing experiences. I mean, I look back when you talk about reflecting, looking back on the whole of 2024, and I don’t know that I could have packed any more stuff into it. It was just incredible. All of the experiences. And that’s not to say they were all joyful, because there was something my dad passed away in August, but all of the experiences. I got to be there for the last week and I was there for that whole time and when he took his last breath. And that’s special, all of these experiences, because I went.

Lori Saitz: 49:58

What kind of adventure can I go on? Or the fact that I even wanted an adventure. And during that time I found Charlotte and came back several times throughout the year and every time I came back I was like, yep, this is my energy. I like Richmond. Richmond is cool too. Richmond was the first runner up. But when I got back to Charlotte, I’m like, nope, it’s here, and so I am so thrilled to be in Charlotte now, but that’s the whole thing. That was an adventure. A year of adventure. It’s not over. I mean the nomad part for now, but living life as an adventure it’s not over. I mean the nomad part for now, but living life as an adventure.

Todd Bertsch: 50:36

That sounds so cool. The freedom, the flexibility, the adventure. I love it. Yeah, that’s very interesting. How long would you stay at each place In the beginning?

Lori Saitz: 50:49

before I learned it was a few days, but you’re moving in and out. So, after the first couple of house sits, that were like three, four days, I’m like, no, they need to be at least a week, gotcha, okay, and so they were a week, two weeks. I was in Bluffton, south Carolina, for a month at one point, and then I was in Richmond for six weeks at the end, and so, yeah, still one to two weeks was about average, and then it was moving on to the next thing, and if I didn’t have a house sit, I was either staying at an Airbnb or a hotel. If it was just a couple of nights, I’d stay at a hotel, but it was the biggest lesson in faith and trust, because I didn’t always know where I was going to be.

Lori Saitz: 51:32

Like, I don’t have a house this week. Where am I going to stay? Where should I go, what should I do and how do I work this out? Amazing, though, and I got the opportunity to meet a lot of people that I had only known online, virtually, and got to meet them in real life. That was another reason why I did it was I wanted to have the opportunity to meet people Other than I was in Louisville I met two other podcast hosts that I’ve been a guest on their show and it was so cool.

Todd Bertsch: 52:02

Oh, my gosh, that is so cool. I thought about doing that too, if I happen to be traveling somewhere and just kind of take a look at some of the people because, yeah, podcasting, traveling somewhere and just kind of take a look at some of the people because, yeah, podcasting. So one thing that I didn’t anticipate the amount of people that I would meet, the new and the connect, like the deep connections, and, I’ll be honest, I feel like some of these people I’m going to be friends with and we may collaborate. It’s just so cool and all over the place, yeah, that’s been really special, yeah.

Lori Saitz: 52:33

And then when you meet them in real life now, your relationship goes to a different level.

Todd Bertsch: 52:39

Yeah, absolutely so. Going back to connection, there you go.

Lori Saitz: 52:43

That’s the through line.

Todd Bertsch: 52:45

Right, that’s the through line and you and I connected and I’m so glad that we did. I’m so excited for you and this next journey that you’re about to take. Keep me updated, absolutely. And if you see any clients on my list on LinkedIn, I’d be more than happy to make an intro, because I believe that I’m a huge advocate of culture. It took a while. I learned a lot, I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but I’ve worked really hard to build a strong culture for my marketing business and I just believe that it is the backbone of a business and you need to put time and effort into it. It’s not just going to operate on its own, so just like anything else, right, but this has been great, lori. I appreciate you and your time. If you have one last nugget you want to drop, what do you?

Todd Bertsch: 53:33

want to leave our listeners with. You have so much wisdom up there.

Lori Saitz: 53:37

I’m going to come back to the importance of connection and staying in touch with people, even if it takes an effort to do it. Find your support system. If you’re in business, if you’re an entrepreneur, I think one of the most important things that you can have is a tribe that can support you in times of success and rally around you when things are challenging, because you’re going to have both ends of the spectrum and you need people your tribe to help you at both sides.

Todd Bertsch: 54:12

Absolutely, I agree. You got to have your thinking partners and you got to get off your island, especially as a solopreneur, a business owner.

Lori Saitz: 54:20

Yeah, that whole idea of being a self-made man. I don’t believe it. Everybody has somebody who’s supporting them in some way, right, I agree?

Todd Bertsch: 54:31

Absolutely Okay. Well, this has been awesome. Lori Listeners we’re going to have all of Lori’s links and the show notes, her websites, all of her social media. So if you want to connect with Lori, you’ll be able to find it there. Anything else that you wanted to mention, lori, in terms of connecting with you.

Lori Saitz: 54:48

The best place to connect with me is on LinkedIn.

Todd Bertsch: 54:50

LinkedIn, that’s your baby, me too, that’s where I spend most of my time. Me too.

Lori Saitz: 54:55

Thank you so much for having me Todd.

Todd Bertsch: 54:57

Yeah, absolutely, it’s been fun. Have a great day. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Bolt Podcast. You’re on an inspiring journey of growth, transformation and joy, and I’m honored to be a part of it. If you found this episode valuable, please like share it with your friends and consider leaving a review. It means the world to us For show notes, resources and to subscribe to the weekly Motivational Monday newsletter. Please visit toddbertsch.com and don’t forget to follow us on social media at the Bolt with Todd B for more inspiration. Remember, real change doesn’t happen overnight. Folks Start small, stay consistent and watch as your growth unfolds. See you next time.

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EPISODE SUMMARY

In this inspiring episode, Lori Saitz takes us through her journey from a shy child to a pioneering leader in internal corporate podcasts. She reveals how the smallest changes, such as breaking free from perfectionism, can lead to profound transformations. Lori shares a pivotal college experience that ignited her self-assurance and leadership. Her insights on gratitude as a tool for fostering positivity and growth are powerful, demonstrating how a positive mindset can turn challenges into opportunities. Lori also explores how internal corporate podcasts can revolutionize workplace communication, fostering transparency and building community. This episode is a compelling reminder of the power of personal growth, transformation, and the joy of embracing the journey.

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