Gratitude "Podcast" Interview: Roger Starkweather

Well, hi, everybody. It's David George Brook, that gratitude guy with another special guest on my gratitude podcast interview, the pandemic. And today I'm with Roger Starkweather, a young man I met here. Oh, gosh, less than a year ago. And so I love this guy's energy. And I think, and he's just, he's been very involved in the Columbia Tower Club where I'm a member. And so please welcome. Roger, welcome to the podcast

Thank you, David. Thank you. Happy to be here. you bet so the whole concept behind these videos is about maybe giving some ideas and thoughts and

things that might help other people because we're going through such an unprecedented time so

let me start off with what has been your best coping mechanism to deal with all this madness as

we're into this about almost seven close to eight weeks now yeah yeah no I appreciate that I you know

it's interesting my my world hasn't changed much I mean we were we've lived in the virtual world for

years and years given what I do in my day to day. And I think for me right now, we got to have

our kids come home from college. And so having family literally be part of everything that we all

get to go through together has been really empowering. We really embrace the time to just kind

of reconnect. And it's a good thing that we like each other. So we've been fortunate

That's good. Yeah, I think some people that are definitely more virtual or have been more part of

this prior to this happening, it was not as big a dramatic thing as somebody has to go to work

and so on and so forth. But if you think my whole thing is gratitude. And so I think about

being grateful and how that impacts us, do you notice, are you more grateful for different things

now since you've gone to this? Has it changed what you're grateful for now versus say seven or

eight weeks ago? Yeah, I think that's a really great question because we're all human and I think

that the, if you haven't thought about the fact that it's a leveling playing field and that we're all in this together

and if you don't take the small things, you know, and embrace them, like, you know, the fact that we get to still connect with our friends, we still have community and family

There are things that if you're healthy, you can still get out and do and help people. I think that those are the things that come to mind

I think before COVID we were all just kind of busy just doing our job And I think now we can come down And I think that by coming down you get to rise up

I like that. I like that. And knowing you, Roger, to the extent that I do, which is reasonably well, and you have a lot of stuff going on

And what sort of maybe thoughts, tips, ideas when you say to that person that's stuck in their house and maybe some things that they can do

again, you juggle a lot of balls and talking to you a number of times and things

but maybe to give them some ideas of things that they can do with this time, so-called downtime, if you will, back at their home of the condo

You know, I think it gets back to the way that we were raised. It's being grateful for the smallest things

I mean, if you have a chance to get up, breathe, make a cup of coffee, take a moment for yourself

and I think a lot of people haven't taken time for themselves. So we're a big believer in having me

Me time. Me time gives us the energy to give to others as well. And I think that if you find yourself

stuck or sad, look for those things that are just really simple. You know, what has made you

happy? What can you give to others in essence, I guess? Yeah, yeah, good point, good point

And I think, too, even though you mentioned earlier that it wasn't as big a transition for you

because of how your business goes and a lot of it on the computer, if you will, Zoom and FaceTime or

different types of things. Do you have anything that having had this time to think that when

this is over, it's going to be over at some point as we get back into the society again or back

into opening up the society, if you will, sort of this idea that there'll be a vaccine

Who knows what it'll be? At some point we're going to come out of this. Is there anything that you've thought about now that, boy, I'm going to hit the ground running when this is done because

it's given me an idea that I can't maybe do some things here, but boy, once this is done that I'm

going to really take hold of because you've had this time to think about it? I don't know if I've had a lot of time to think about that, but I think relating to that question

if people have found out that there's more time to reach out to others, I think you need to

embrace that. You need to not get so busy when we all get back to some level of normality

but also keep that connection Continue to reach out Just on the daily age is thinking about you And you know I been fortunate to have a large family that I don know for whatever reason it like Sunday is my day to reach out

Like, I just spend time reaching out to those just checking in there

How are you doing? Is there anything you need? I think that if we continue as a society to think about others on a regular basis, it just

helps you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, good point. And I was thinking too specifically to you, last week you did the digital marketing series on the Columbia Tower

What was kind of your biggest takeaways from that? What did you learn from that? We were just talking before this podcast about how we can get out there and do Zoom and do virtual things and so forth

What were some of the one or two biggest takeaways from that? I sounded. I liked it

I really enjoyed it and had some great information for me. What were some of your biggest one or two takeaways from that last week

Well, for us, really the inspiration behind people, putting that on was to connect people while they had downtime. Marketing and branding are

efforts that continue to be pushed on the backshelf. We'll just think, we'll get to that

tomorrow. We'll get to that tomorrow. And we just thought as a group, why not kind of take the

opportunity to raise consciousness to others about all of that? As far as takeaways goes, I think

connecting with small businesses that didn't really think about those elements of their business. And

And for us, it's that connection of journeys, you know, what's that user experience

We're always thinking about how does one thing relate to another. Again, getting back to always reaching out and connecting to people

So I think for us, the big takeaway was just to share information, really

We were just there to make sure that people understood what they could do, what was possible

and have some fun along the way. I'm fortunate to work with some really talented fun people

that helps me, you know, keep doing what I like to do. Yeah, that always makes it more enjoyable

I still hear those surveys that say 70 to 80% of people hate their jobs. And gosh, we spend so much time working

Why would you want to do something you hate? And it's just fascinating. But so great

Well, listen, last question is this. As sort of this Roger I love to talk about people in third person does Roger have sort of a quote or sane or sort of a philosophy that has kind of guided you through your life that obviously helps you through a challenging times like this

And I mean, some people have said, this two shall pass. Is there something that kind of guides you

or directs you that you kind of fall back on in a time like this? There are two. Way back in my

post-college days when you were getting out, when I was getting out and trying to figure out, you know, what to do

and all this other stuff. Dale Carnegie's Stop Waring and Start Living

was one of the biggest books I've ever impactfully made a change

on my life. And then beyond that, and today, I kind of follow

Mike Dooley tutt infinite possibilities and thoughts become things. So I truly do manifest and think about

thoughts become things. And put it into practice. I continually to and David yesterday on your

a podcast yesterday was writing. You know, I'm a big writer. I do write down every day into a book

Just write it down. And I think if you don't write it down, it doesn't become an action

And I was so pleased to hear you say that yesterday. Oh, thank you. Thank you

And that was that whole thing. And there's science behind it, which I touched on briefly

but this idea of writing it down and thinking that I've had

I remember my sister once said, well, I just say gratitude. I think gratitude thoughts start the day

And I go, well, Gina, that's fantastic, but if you say them, you think them that's okay. If you say them, that's better

but if you write them down, it's the best. And I have my whole to-do list for, I don't understand

how people operate that don't write things down, but it does, as I mentioned yesterday, does plan it

better in your brain. So, yeah, that's good. Because I think it's neat to have sort of a mantra or

sort of an overarching philosophy or something that kind of carries you, and especially at a time like

this. I know the first couple of days, I was upset because I lost a bunch of talks that were, you know

in-person talks. But it took me a day or two to kind of reorient myself and I realized how

fortunate I was because I can do so much like this and other things that I do and all these people

that are out of their jobs and things. So sometimes you have to reorient, but it makes sense

Well, listen, thank you so much. Those were great thoughts and ideas. I so appreciate you being

on the gratitude interview podcast. Well, and I thank you. I wish you well and keep up the good work

Sounds great. Thanks, Roger. Okay, bye