“Empathy, I define it as showing people that you understand them and care how they feel. I think if we’re going to solve any of these problems, whether it’s racial injustice, whether it’s a coronavirus pandemic, whether it’s climate change, it’s going to start by being able to take some perspective and step into other people’s shoes. And it’s going to take some listening and being able to not just listening cognitively, but actually feeling what people feel.”

— Alain Hunkins

“When you do something for yourself, you allow yourself permission to not get it done. But when you know somebody else is relying on you, then you want to be their hero. When your team is counting on you, now you can say, ‘I have to get it done for my team members who are depending on me,’ versus ‘I’m doing it for myself,’ and end up not getting done because it’s just for me.”

— Jeff Beale

“Because even when life gets hard, or life hits the fan, every one of us can do five things to advance towards our bigger goal every day. And that simple principle has made a huge difference for me going from obscurity to becoming the Bye-Bye Boring Bio Expert who’s world recognized for this expertise. It happened five steps a day, every single day. And then I think another guiding principle for me is to fall down seven, get up eight and keep on swinging.”

— Nancy Juetten

“So many people think that they don’t have the ability to teach their children. They either think they don’t know enough, don’t have the time, or don’t have the ability. We try to tell them that they’ve been doing it all along. So many people ask me, “How do I teach something I don’t know?” If your child can use the bathroom on their own, can dress themselves, and can feed themselves that means you already know how to teach them because they didn’t just pick those up on their own.”

— Brandy Champeau

“We all have things that we can be grateful for. When I was in the hospital, I had a choice to make. I could wallow in my pity and be a downtrodden and depressed about how my life has turned so dramatically or  I can look at all the positive things in my life and be thankful for them. That’s what I chose. I chose the attitude of gratitude. By doing that, I have not only set myself up for future success, I have also  motivated and inspired others to do the same.”

—Chris DT Gordon

“I live in this place of impossibility and I make things possible. ‘Life is not fair,’ that has never been okay with me. That’s why I do the work around diversity, equity, inclusion in workplaces with managers, and equipping them to be more effective because it’s not okay to accept that life is not fair. If it’s not fair, what can we do to make it more equitable?”

“My mission is to enable independently-own businesses to survive and thrive. I believe that independently-owned businesses are the corner-stone of our communities.”

— Patti Mara

“I started practicing yoga 31 years ago. I wanted to change my destiny by practicing and understanding that Yoga is a very complex system. I really was hooked into it and I still am because it transformed my life completely for the better. I wanted to pay it forward.“

—Georgiana Danet

“There are very common things people struggle with, tying dry flies, tying small flies. I even wear glasses because tying a little tiny insect is not as easy as it used to be. I always think that my struggle is with my customer. I’m not the hero here, the hero is my customer, I’m basically, Yoda.”

— Dave Stewart

“All my interactions are done from the perspective of “Be-Do-Have”. Be the change you want to see in the world. Be honest with integrity. Tell people the information they need to have in order to make a good decision for them. Trust the world to be reciprocal. Trust that the world will come back to you with the right clients and the right employees who want to be a part of that same world that you’re building around yourself.”

— Lucas Root