BrandsTalk

Why Values-Based Leadership is critical to building a strong brand and reputational capital w/Maria Gamb

November 29, 2022 Brigitte Bojkowszky Season 9 Episode 91
BrandsTalk
Why Values-Based Leadership is critical to building a strong brand and reputational capital w/Maria Gamb
Show Notes Transcript

Tune in to my conversation with the unparalleled leadership expert Maria Gamb about the importance of values-based leadership to build a strong brand and reputational capital.

Maria dives deep into:

đź’ˇwhat values-based leadership exactly is

đź’ˇhow we can action our values in the workplace

đź’ˇwhat we can do to find purpose and meaning in work

đź’ˇhow we make sure what we say is what we do

đź’ˇhow we can best navigate the Great Reset & Cycle of Change today

đź’ˇwhy and for whom resiliency or gratitude journals are helpful

💡Maria also explains why the corporate world needs healing when she wrote her first Amazon best-selling book “Healing the Corporate World”.

đź’ˇMoreover, Maria provides helpful advice on how we can take action now to become values-based leaders and be at our best.

Maria Gamb is the Founder and CEO of the Coaching and Training company NMS Communications. 

She is dedicated to helping busy professionals align their life and leadership impact. Maria’s unique perspective on the inner game of leadership coupled with Values-Based Leadership skills makes her unique.

As a former Fortune 500 executive in Corporate America, she directed successful businesses valued at more than $110 million.  Her global experience led her to write the Amazon best-selling book “Healing the Corporate World”. Plus 3 more books; “Values-Based Leadership for Dummies™,” “Resiliency Journal,” and “Gratitude Journal.”

Watch us live: đź“ą https://youtu.be/O0GoWAHV6_c 

Get in touch with Maria Gamb:

- IG: @Maria_Gamb 

- LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariagamb/ 

- https://mariagamb.com 

 - get Maria's books on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Maria-Gamb/e/B09KL5Y34N?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1663258373&sr=8-1

Get in touch with Brigitte Bojkowszky:

* download your free brand-building guide & checklist: https://courses.bridgetbrands.com/f/brand-building-guide

* exclusive 1-on-1 personal branding coaching: https://courses.bridgetbrands.com/courses/exclusivecoaching 

* Website: www.bridgetbrands.com 

* Book your strategy call: https://calendly.com/bridgetbrands/branding_strategy_consult  

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bojkowszkyb/ 

* Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brigitte.bojkowszky 

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgetbrands  

* Twitter: https://twitter.com/BridgetBrands 

* Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/BridgetBrands 

* significant women book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0927YG1FH

* YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=BridgetBrands

Get in touch with Brigitte Bojkowszky:

👉 Download Your Entrepreneurial Branding Starter Checklist: https://courses.bridgetbrands.com/f/entrepreneurial-branding-starter-checklist

My guest today is Maria Gamb. Maria is the founder and CEO of the coaching and training company NMS communications. As a former fortune 500 executive in corporate America, she directed successful businesses valued at more than 110 million us dollars. Her global experience led her to write the Amazon best selling book"healing the corporate world". Plus three more books, "values-based leadership for dummies" resiliency journal and gratitude journal. She is dedicated to helping busy professionals align their life and leadership impact. Maria's unique perspective on the inner game of leadership, coupled with values-based leadership skills makes her unique. Maria has coached executives from the Oppenheimer funds, capital one, Cronos incorporated in Jack Australia and the Jamaican government cabinet. She has been a speaker at Astra Zeneca, mid Atlantic Permanent, MHA women in leadership and business and women's MBA international. Her credits include Inc magazine time magazine, wall street, radio network, and the women's media outlet and the at Forbes women. I warmly welcome Maria Gamb. Welcome to BrandsTalk. thank you, Brigitte. I'm so happy to be. Thank you, Maria. I'm so excited to have you as my guest, there is so much to talk about when it comes to values and when it comes to yeah women empowerment, I would say mm-hmm mm-hmm so Maria, before we start digging very, very deep into that topic. Could you please share your personal story? How did you get there where you are at the moment? Well, I spent more than 20 years in corporate America, and I worked in the fashion industry, which was amazing, which I loved. I really did. I loved my career and I started at the bottom and rose through the ranks to run several, very large brands within large corporations. So I, all of a sudden, one day I realized. I, I wanna do this better. I want this to mean something I want, I want to have a bigger impact, but I didn't really know how to do any of that. And I always had great mentors. That was never a problem. But what I realized back then, and this is a, a little bit more than 10 years ago. What I realized back then is that we really weren't structured. in the corporate world to be able to support people who wanted to do leadership or personal development work. And so finally, I thought, what am I waiting for? I'm just gonna go do this. Because the thing that I felt that everybody was searching for not only was, were these skills, but was just clarity, like clarity about what they were doing, why they were doing it, how they can do it better. All of those things that you, at the end of the day, when you're in your commute, you're, you're thinking you. Is is this it? I, I think there's more, but I don't know how to make it more than what it is. Yeah. Oh, wow. Interesting. You made a decision, you wanted to start your own business. So how did you get from corporate America to becoming a four times bestselling author, coach consultant, and trainer. How did you, so I, so I did, I just jumped out and I, I always say, when I tell this story, I do not recommend just jumping blindly, but I did. This is how I did it. So I just jumped blindly out and set up my own my own business. And it became really clear within the first year that the value based. Concept was really my wheelhouse. And with encouragement, I was, I was encouraged to write that first book healing, the corporate world. And it was very I'm gonna be honest. The first book you ever write is makes you incredibly vulnerable because all of a sudden you're gonna write something that if you put it on Amazon, there's a chance everyone in the world can see. So it's a very personal and intimate that first book. And it was hard for me to write it. And but I did, and it became an Amazon bestseller, which I'm very, very proud of for my first book out of the box. And then the other books came pretty quickly. Thereafter value-based leadership was not a big concept 10 years ago. Now it's everywhere, everywhere. It wasn't back then. And I always in my heart wish I could write that book again, just from a place of, of knowing a bit more and having more experience with clients and having to construct all of this. And so John Wiley and son, which is a big publishing house here in in the United States, asked me to write the four dummies book. And that was fantastic, cuz it, it really breaks the concept down. The other books came and it was so funny because they came. From from Barnes and noble requesting that I write these books through my agent. And when the projects came up, I thought, yeah, I can write about resilience. It's a big part of, being, building a brand and building your value based leadership presence and living an authentic life. And then gratitude came up, during COVID, it was just crazy how it all happened. That was a very fast timeline, but. Part of the message here is, is when you have the opportunity, you walk through the door. Yeah. And you'll figure it out. You'll figure it out. You will. Yeah. You have to grab it. And even if you think you're not ready, you just start and you gonna be ready. Exactly. We often think, oh my God, I can't do that. I'm not ready for that. Just go do it. And the path is yeah. Coming you'll figure by itself, you're gonna figure it out. And you're going to make mistakes. There's no two ways about it. You're going to make mistakes. You're going to have regrets and it's okay. Because it's just part of the process. yeah, it's learning and it becomes part of your journey and it becomes part of what's important to you going forward. Mm-hmm mm-hmm yeah. All right. So let's start with the topic or the content of your first book. It's about the corporate world. Why would we need to heal the corporate world? Could you sure explain to ask what's wrong with it? What do we need to heal? I think there's a certain amount of dysfunction that happens in the workplace. We are more aware of it today in 2022 than ever before. Absolutely. There's more awareness about diversity and inclusion and all of these very important issues. But a baseline is, is that we need to treat people like human beings. We need to treat people with dignity and respect. We need to honor opinions. We need to be able to enhance creativity and productivity. And a lot of that will not happen unless you have a healthy E. Mm within your organization, that's your company culture. And it stems from the leader. And I always tell people, and they come to me, coaching clients and they're like, but my company doesn't care. I'm like, that's okay that your company doesn't care. Oftentimes like when I first started this, the companies did not care, but the leaders cared. The people who were leading the teams of 10, 20, 30, a hundred hundred 50, you can make that change and you can set that standard within your own. It does not have to come from the top. Ideally, it would be wonderful if it came from the top, but it doesn't always happen that way. It doesn't mean that you can't lead a values based life. And that's really what it comes down to. Cuz the values that you have in your workplace are the values that you hold near and dear to you in your personal life as well. And how you conduct yourself. Mm yeah, you are so right. Behind all these big organizations, corporations, institutions there are these human beings. And in order to make an organization, an organizational brand strong, we have to really appreciate every single individual, which in itself are personal brands. The stronger they are, the mm-hmm, better they are united and going the same direction the more an organization can shine as a brand. Sure. And your brand can be, and I, I think anybody can relate to this. You can be in a company that's tough, but fair. or tough, but brutal. Mm-hmm exactly right. You can be in a company that is, has a high level of excellence and has kindness and collaboration as part of their values. Or you can be one that has a performance expectation of excellence and it's a cutthroat culture. So it's a, it's a choice of how you want it to be. Mm-hmm . I, I have to tell you, I, in, in my lifetime, in my career, I've turned down jobs because I didn't wanna work for people who were so brutal and competitive and cutthroat, and that is their brand. It is their brand. And they're actually proud of it still today. I can think of a financial firm that works this way. Big one. And people don't wanna work for that firm anymore. It's finally resonating post COVID that. The value of balance, the value of cooperation and collaboration, the value of teamwork, the value of joy and humor and whatever it is that you choose to create is more important because then you will do the hard work when the work is hard. And at the end of the day, it's much more sustainable. In the long run it's always the companies that appreciate their workforce. And yeah, exactly. Saying, I also worked with companies that were more on the brutal side and I decided for myself, this is not how I wanna live, and this is not where I wanna create value. Exactly company. Exactly. Always our choice. Sometimes it's hard, but you have to stay by your values. And that brings me to the next to the next book that you wrote. It's all about values-based leadership for Dummies. Yes. I wanna dig deeper into that. You consider yourself as an expert in value based leadership, mm-hmm and that has become a very, very, very important topic nowadays in the mm-hmm routine. So can you explain to us what values- based leadership is exactly? How is it different? Yes. Current leadership. So what is. So I it's an evolution out of servant leadership and really what it comes down to is creating the north star for how you're going to lead your team and your life. It is the foundational principles that are your, your guiding light on what you will and will not tolerate what you will and will not do how you will or will not engage people so often. You will have a brand that says, our brand is about kindness, but they're not necessarily kind to their employees. The leaders are not kind to their employees and it's not baked into their performance reviews. It's not any of that stuff. Kindness is one thing that is a little tough to put into a performance review, but empathy and compassion and dealing with people. Is a way of qualifying those things. So when we say, oh, my highest value, like for me, my, one of my highest values is fairness. I can't stand to. People be treated unfairly. I get, it really upsets me actually. And I'm the daughter of a uh, an ex New York city police officer. So I think a lot of that has come from my upbringing that I needed to be fair. And when I'm leading people in my, in my corporate career, I always wanted to be fair about it. And. treat one person better than the other, not show favoritism to another person, but also when you talk about it in, in leading in a corporation, are you fair to vendors? mm-hmm mm-hmm so do you give everyone the opportunity to give their presentation? Do you give everyone an opportunity to do an RFP or obviously you have to narrow it down, but fairness has to be qualified and that's the important part of value-based leadership that is often missed. It's yes, I wanna be fair. I'm gonna be fair, but you don't qualify what that means. So then you can't really teach your team. how you want them to engage and interact with each other. So the one thing that, one thing about fairness and being fair to the vendors, That was something I always instilled in my team, no matter what, you are always polite to them until they become really obnoxious. You, then you have to push back a little harder. I understand that, but you always give people the opportunity. You narrow down, you communicate with them why they are no longer an option so that they understand what your need is that they're not able to fill. This is all about fairness. So you qualify. Hmm. So you can pick, I always tell people, pick three of the of the type of values that you really wanna stand for. It's not that simple Brigida. It's not that simple. I've run weekend workshops on this and people come in thinking one day, it's going to be these three. And then by the time they leave, it's completely different. And people have very emotional reactions to this. Actually I've had people cry. They're asked to give up something as opposed, and to prioritize. And it's hard to do, but when you give color around, when you decide what your value is, and you decide how you wanna animate it, what that actually looks like, how you want your team to action it, and you communicate it, it changes everything. There's clarity, then mm-hmm , there's no guesswork. Hmm. And that's the important thing. So servant leadership is about being of service and understanding that as a leader, you are there to serve your. and that doesn't change in value based leadership. Your job is to take obstacles out of the way your job is to invest in those people in order to make them the next level of leaders, hopefully with a value based foundation that will move through the organization and, and move it to a, a more light sided rather than dark sided organization or just plain leadership. But but. I, I always say that it starts in servant leadership and understanding that you were there to serve your people and the organization, not the other way around obviously it's really about the clarity and communication when it comes to values-based leadership, and how that is linked to building our brand our reputational capital, exactly. Stick with our headline or with our heading of today's show. So could you explain a little bit more why this is so crucial in building our brand. It's absolutely critical. Our reputation. Capital our reputational capital precedes us before we even show up. I don't know anybody who hasn't sat around the table and said, we need to hire somebody who do you know? And they're like, well, I know this person, you know why? Because he or she is so professional and so organized and, really listens to outside input. This is a person who's gonna be a team player. There is your brand. There is your reputational capital. Everybody has something that they carry with that people then convey it's word of mouth. It's the oldest, it's the oldest brand building in the world is just the reputation that people converse from mouth to mouth, to mouth that builds it. Whether it's, whether it's a hundred percent accurate or not, it all depends. But if you are a professional and you are leading people, what do you wanna be known? Like, how do you want people to view you? Some people do wanna be viewed as the hammer and maybe that's their brand, but I'm not so sure that that's really what's gonna work in the corporate world anymore. So like I said, when we started 10 years ago, we had a lot of dysfunction, a lot with the me too movement with everything that's happened. Diversity inclusion, a lot of things are moving. To the better side of things, and making things more fair and equitable across the board. But what do you, as a leader in this time want to be known for? Mm. Do you wanna be somebody who is a team builder? Do you wanna be somebody who is has a, who is empathetic, but. But demanding to a certain degree of excellence. So it's all about a balancing act and deciding what you want and how you wanna animate it. Yeah. And let's stick with that. How does someone action his or her values in the workplace when it's a leader or when it's assistant? How do we best communicate that? How do we stand by stand for our values? Yeah. So I take people through a process where they create their own Starlight. So the leader creates their Starlight, whether they're at the top of the organization. Or if they're just leading their own team, I ask them to create their own Starlight. And it is, it's a process that asks them to identify what the value is. Let's just say it's fun. We'll use a, we'll use an easy one fun that fun. And joy and laughter, whatever it is, is a big value to them because they want the workplace to be pleasant. Then they have to choose the actions that come along with it. Does that mean that every Friday they do something together? Does it mean that, there are certain activities that they do during the day or during the week or the month or the year that are about building fun as part of their brand, whatever it is. When you hear, when you hear somebody say. I loved working for that person. She was so fun. And then they qualify with why she was so fun because laughter was allowed. It was encouraged without being mean-spirited, those types of things. So I ask that people do that and really dig deep in terms of what they want. Like I said, fairness for me has always been a really big one. And I'm very clear about, how I want fairness to be in the workplace with vendors, with each other, how you treat each other. on your own team and outside of the team. So you do all of that. Then the second level of this is as a leader is to have this conversation with your team. Like we can be better. We can do things better. We can be more efficient when we're all on the same page. And so these are the values that I stand for and you tell them, these are how I want it to be animated and they can follow suit. But oftentimes your team will say, well, what about X? What about why? What about other values? And you give them the opportunity to shape the team values, to add edit, delete, doesn't mean you have to change your. But it's important to see what's important to them and what they want to embody beyond what you are saying. Mm-hmm and this way, when you have an issue where there isn't something, again, I'm gonna use fairness where it isn't fair. You can actually say to them, but we have agreed that fairness is to give the opportunity to these vendors. In these ways, did you give these, these vendors fairness to submit their proposal, to have it reviewed, to give the presentation? And if you knock them out, did you tell them why? And if they didn't do that, then they're held accountable for it. Easy. Easy. Exactly. It sounds easy when you say it, there is not only the values that we wanna lead by and we wanna live by, but it's also, there is also this higher purpose. All this so-called north star. Yes. Mentioned it already that we are striving for our big, why? Why are we doing that? Mm-hmm mm-hmm, there's a lot of people that's still not quite sure so what's my purpose in life. Maybe I know my values, but what is my higher purpose? And mm-hmm how can I give more purpose and especially meaning to my work. Mm-hmm I think it's there is a pattern that you can see if you really take the time to analyze everything that you have been through the first, the, the reason why you chose the education, you chose, how you feel about that education, how you feel about the job that you chose, and then what is actually being executed. We all. because we're so busy. What are we really doing? Are we really helping anyone? Mm-hmm so one of the things, in the fashion industry, people think, oh, it's so fluffy it's so it is a brutally tough business. No joke. Yeah. So one day I sat and I thought to myself, why am I doing this? What's the end result? And I actually brought the team, and this is, this is how this process actually came into being, was working with my own team. And we sat around and we're like, why are we doing this? Cuz this is really tough work. And sometimes it's just thankless the amount of detail and, and coordinating with so many different countries and vendors. It's, it's really complex business. And what we really came down to. We were creating clothing for people to go and celebrate with their, with their families or friends, or we're making the shirt that this man is going to wear on his very first date with the person who could possibly be his wife, or, vice versa, or we're going, they're gonna wear these clothing to go to a wedding and celebrate something. And for the team, it was important that it was all about celebration. So when we broke it down, okay. That's what the company does. This is what the work brings into the world, but what does it mean to each one of us? What it meant to us was to be able to create connection in the world with people. Through just events, just having them have the opportunity to go an event, go on a job interview and feel really good about it. And I know everybody always thinks your purpose is this lofty, like biblical situation where seizes part oceans and massive healings and all this, they create such expectation around this. When all we're asked to do in life on this planet is to be of service to one.. And if you think of your purpose as how are you being of service to one another, it makes it simple. And you can find the pattern. Like for me, it's fairness, it's clarity. That's what it is. It always is. It's being, it's being direct with people and helping them to see where they need. grow. Let's put it that way. And that is a big part of my purpose. Now I could do that in corporate America in what I was doing. I do it today in the work that I'm doing and I will continue to do it probably until I am in the grave. It is not some. Crazy biblical. Everybody's gotta be Oprah Winfrey. That is not what purpose is about. Purpose is about being of service to one another and the special tools and gifts that you have, and you choose how you wanna do it. You're doing it. Brigetta through brands. Mm-hmm, , you're teaching people how to be authentically themselves and to project into the world, a positive image and hopefully whatever they do helps another person. It helps another person. Whether it's a service or an item, it doesn't matter, but this is your unique way and your unique purpose of how you're bringing it in. And also if anybody hasn't watched Brigida enough, her joy is infectious, which is a big part of her purpose here is to spread joy. Yeah. It's not complicated and I'm, I'm, I'm really simplifying the process. But if you wanna know more about it, just reach out to me, but we can find your purpose very, very, very quickly. And then you choose how you wanna animate it. We have to remember that in life. It's always a choice, whether you're animating a value, you're choosing a value and then you animate it. It's your choice. How you do that. Your purpose is seeing the patterns and then you choose how you wanna animate it. Exactly. And you said, when we have this purpose and when we go for it, then when we serve people, we feel good about ourselves. Mm-hmm mm-hmm yeah. Triggering a change. That right. Is having a snowballing effect. It's it's, mm-hmm, trickling down. Mm-hmm , it's changing other people's lives and then mm-hmm you also not only feel good, but as you say, it's all about happiness and joy it's become. Yeah. I think when you are that when you are happy, then you are, I think also fully aligned with everything that you are, right. Yeah, I, when you're happy, when you have happiness, you have joy. You have laughter. You're willing to listen to things that are coming in from other parts. And that's your guidance. That's the important part of all of this is to be able to open yourself up, to see the possibility for what you can do and how you can use your gifts and tools in this world to better. Everyone's life. Yes. Make money. I'm a capitalist, make lots and lots of money. It do more things with that money. That's fine. But just realize it's simpler than you think stop overthinking it. And I think you are much more open to receive. To live out there. Yeah. To, yes read between the lines. It's your intuition. You are much more open to everything that is here to wants to yeah. Access you and wants to mm-hmm yeah. Embrace you in one way. Mm-hmm is that right? Okay. I agree. And I think that it's, that's an important skill to leave people with Brigitte, because if you can stay in that space, whether you call it joy, happiness, laughter gratitude. Gratitude has enormous healing powers, but these are all connected. You have. The you are basically saying I am open to, to receiving more. I am open to receiving new guidance. I'm open to receiving another way to touch people's lives, whatever it is, you are more open. Nobody wants to hang out with a Debbie downer. Nobody wants to do that. Find your joy. I guess our listeners are really inspired by what you have explained to us now. And what are the things that you would suggest our listeners to begin with if they wanna transition into mm-hmm values based leadership of themselves to lead themselves or others. So mm-hmm how can we bring about such a shift? What are the first steps? The first thing is to have awareness and sometimes people may listen to this and be, be able to say, I know what they are. Now I have to think about how I wanna action them and how I wanna communicate it to the team, but let's face it. There's more to life than what we think and what we know. And when we're stuck and we're busy, we're stuck in one set of thoughts. Okay. So my. My best advice to everyone is to find a daily practice. This can be five minutes, 10 minutes or 15 minutes. And I actually have something free that I'll leave for them in the show notes called the daily set point. And it's to understand that how you come into your day. And how you are affects other people and that you get to choose what that's going to be and how you're going to affect other people that creates a state that state of openness, of joy, of gratitude of awareness. so that you can start to listen to yourself as to what you want to do int do you wanna do value based leadership? Do you think you have it? Do you just need more clarity? Just keep doing it. And my challenge is always to do it for 30 days and then see what happens. And if you want help doing your values and making it real for your team, just reach out to me all that information's in the show notes. Yes, they are. There is one more question I would really like to ask because you are also an expert of that. So we have been living in this time recently where more and more people push this reset button. Yeah. We talked about the great resignation and the great reset and how we best navigate the great reset. So is there any tips that you can give based on. Okay. Now I'm pushing this button. I really want to start out new. I wanna change my life. I wanna get out of this grinding that I have been doing for so long. You also stepped out of yes. Employment and started your own business. Yeah. And are also this cycles of change. How can we do something like that, the, the whole concept of the great reset or great resignation, I, I call it reset because not everybody wants to quit their job, yeah, exactly. They don't, they really don't. However, the COVID epidemic gave us the opportunity to really sit and think about what's important to us. And it's an evaluation period where we have to decide what's important and what's not so important. What's priority. What is really not a priority. What do we really value all of these really important questions. And I wanna say, and I wanna encourage everyone to think beyond just their job, because if you are. Partnership is not healthy. If your marriage is not healthy, if your your relationships with some friends are just toxic, it is a time to really clean house. I know it sounds tough, but it's time to really clean house. There's a cycle of change that we all go through. First, you have to have a reveal. Then you evaluate, then you create your core values, which is your course correction. And then you move into bossing again, just remember you can't keep using the same soil. You can't in a garden without fertilizing it without rotating it. Doing a lot of different things to make it fresh. So we also have I also have a report on the great reset, which you're happy to pick up also completely free. That gives you the four cycles and the course correction. And you'll see if you really think about the times in your life, when you were asked to make a change, what happened when you didn't. Everybody passes you by the world keeps moving, and this is not a FOMO thing. This is an evolution. This is a growth thing. It's a human, it's a human transformation that we go through in cycles throughout our entire life. Mm-hmm . I hope that helps. Absolutely. I would like to come back to two more books mm-hmm that you have published. There is the gratitude journal. Mention it already. And then this resiliency journal. Yes. So how they differ from each other? and why would someone rather go choose the resiliency journal instead of a gratitude or should we journal both of them well, they're, they are different in some pieces of it overlap. The resiliency journal is for people who are feeling like either they're sta. They're bored. They're frustrated. They have gone through, maybe they've gone through a major life, change, a passing, someone in their family is going through a critical illness, whatever it is that is a massive change. The resiliency journal is set really to help you understand that you have tools. everywhere around you to pull you through it. Mm-hmm is to help you find the good, rather than harping on only the past, anything that might be negative. And it is tools that are both spiritual and also very scientific that help you move through healing process and understand what you're feeling is actually normal. The reason why I wrote that one was for two reasons, one as a professional, we are all going through. We all have challenges, whether it's in the workplace and our personal life, whatever it is. And we need to always tap into that resilience, that inner strength to get us through because toughing it out. Doesn't work. That's just unhealthy and it's pretty much masochistic to do to yourself. It's it'll only back up on you later, if you don't deal with your stuff. Within that is some gratitude pieces of gratitude because it's part of the process is to see the beauty of things, to be grateful for every little thing, the gratitude journal, which is I, I, I love both of these books and they're so beautiful. They really are. They're beautiful little books, but the gratitude journal itself is really about creating that practice of gratitude and seeing how in every culture there is a specific type of a gratitude. right back to native Americans. I, I have a couple of native American prayers that are in there, but it's really fascinating to see how science backs up that gratitude changes your brain chemistry. It's amazing. And it's a way to understand that you harness your brain to focus on looking for more good than looking for bad, because it always is about what you focus on. Yeah. Yeah, there is one question I have. Yeah. regarding resiliency. And this is new to me. You said you wrote that for people who are and among others bored. So that is, yeah. If someone is bored yes. For a new purpose, or how does that relate to resiliency? Boredom is can sometimes be mm-hmm. They don't see their own gifts. Oh, they don't see their own value. They feel a little hopeless because maybe this is all there is, there's nothing else for me. Boredom is just another word for all of those things, boredom can be, I never had the opportunity. To go and do what I really wanted to do. And now I'm stuck with this and I'm really not happy about it, but there are basically eight different tools that gets covered in that book. And I teach this separately as well, but eight different tools that if you build up those tools again, it helps you pull through to see that you actually have a framework of. and a way to move through that border or that frustration, or just, stagnation that you feel. Yeah, really interesting. And I think that's going to help a lot of people because most of us would not make this connection between boredom and resiliency and that there is something we can actually. Yeah, absolutely. In other words, the gratitude let's gratitude exercise or something like that, right? Yeah. Yeah. All right. I, yeah. Is there anything else that you would like to mention or tell or give advice to all? I think more than anything, what I want people to know is that who you are is enough. Who you are is enough. And when you stop discounting, all of those gifts, the things like the values, the, the purpose, the meaning, all of it becomes so much clearer. All of this is an inside work. It's all inside work that we do. We are inherently good people who know that we are here to positively impact other people as leaders. And just as our everyday human beings. and don't make it so complicated and stop beating yourself up. Thank you so much. This is so beautiful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Brigitta. I appreciate it. Oh yeah. Thank you so much. But we are not done yet. I have a fun play now that we are going to do it's rabbit fire terms. I will throw out a term and you pick it up and say something to it. Are you ready? Okay. Okay. Good purpose. What do you think about it? What? Peace peacefulness. Just peacefulness and reassurance. Yeah. Success, joy. Joy and travel joy and travel, travel, travel. yeah. You are also a global person. You have traveled a lot in your life very quickly. Yes, I have. What were your destinations? Where did you live so far? I have lived in well I'm I lived in New York city. I am a native new Yorker, but now live in Virginia. I have lived and worked in Melbourne Australia. I have also did part of my education in London, but are you asking me for other places I've been. Yeah, where you have worked or maybe a, a favorite place somewhere. Oh, I can on this earth. Here we go. Here we go. Florence, Bali, Turkey, India, Taiwan, Korea Hong Kong, mainland China, New Zealand. Oh, wow. Just name it. Like I I've been to all of them and there's not one that I, well, there's only one that I won't say it is that I would never go back to, but everything. I absolutely loved. My global experience makes me who I am today and it makes me love people so much more and understand that it doesn't matter the color of anybody's skin or the flag that they fly behind them in their homes or in their businesses. We're all the same people with the same needs, the same wants the same desires, so I count that as probably one of the most important parts of my development as a, as a human. Yeah is travel for me too. Traveling was really important in order to really understand different cultures. And there is so much to learn from each individual culture and to also take out of this culture and yes. Yeah, internalize it. It's, it's, it's beautiful to see how people live and work and think around the world. And there is more things we have in common that we think. Exactly. Exactly. There's three more terms. Okay. That would be mindset. Mindset for me. It's brain it's brain chemistry. women empowerment. I think that women are going to show a much kinder, gentler, but strong leadership in this world. And I think the local politics are forcing that hand all over the, in, in many nations, not just here in the United States. Yeah. That's that's true. Yeah. And brands and brands. I love brands because I've always worked in a brand environment. Protect your brand, build your brand. Just know that that brand is who you are. So just be yourself. Be authentic. Yes. yeah. Good. Maria, where can listeners find you? I'm sure there is people out there who wanna get in touch with you. How can they reach you? They can find me they can find me on my website, which is mariagamb.com. Which I know you'll have all this in the show notes. And then on Instagram and LinkedIn are the two best places. Those are the two social media platforms that I use the most and just search me by my name. And you will find me just connect in with me. I offer. Tons of master classes and newsletters with lots of items. And usually I'm even giving handouts in my newsletter. So just join me in my community all right. Good, Maria. Thank you so much for being my guest, thank you. It was a real pleasure having you and talking about why the corporate world needs healing and why value based leadership is so critical in building a strong brand and reputational capital. Thank you so much. Mm-hmm . Thank you. Thank you.