S2E14: The Great Revitalization with Alise Cortez

Alise Cortez and Associates is founded and led by Dr. Alise Cortez, Chief Purpose Officer. She is also an inspirational speaker, social scientist, author, and host of the Working on Purpose radio show. Having developed her expertise within the human capital / organizational excellence industry over the last 25 years, she is focused on enabling organizations to lead from purpose and create cultures of meaning that inspire impassioned performance, meaningful engagement and fulfillment, while encouraging a devoted stay within the organization. She has helped develop and transform thousands of managers and executives in their leadership along the way.

Alise's latest book "The Great Revitalization" can be found on Amazon here.

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The Great Revitalization 

• Alise wrote the book after talking to clients and authors over the past few years
• everyone was trying to explore and understand the changes in employees' thoughts on work

Why have people's opinions on work evolved?

• with COVID, people stopped and took stock of their lives
• the Great Resignation occurred because people realized their commutes, work environments, and lack of meaning in their work wasn't worth their one precious life
• lives revolved around work but they want work to fit into their lives

Meaning from work

• different people need different things from their work
• but overall they do want meaning and purpose in what they do

GUSTO NOW framework

PART 1: What?
G – gumption (what)
U – urgency (when and where)
S – sustainability (why)
T – therapy (how)
O – ownership (who)

PART 2: How?
N – nurture (IQ)
O – open (EQ)
W – wake (SQ)

Leadership Voyage
email: StartYourVoyage@gmail.com
youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadershipVoyage
linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonallenwick/, https://www.linkedin.com/company/leadership-voyage-podcast/
music: by Napoleon (napbak)
https://www.fiverr.com/napbak
voice: by Ayanna Gallant
www.ayannagallantVO.com
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Transcript

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Jason Wick: All right, everybody welcome back to another episode of leadership voyage. I have the pleasure to be with Alice Cortez. At least it's great to meet you today.

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Jason Wick: Thanks, Jason. You too great great to be on with you. Great to be on the other side of the mic. That's great, awesome, and we'll talk about that a little bit along the way, I'm sure. we're here to talk a little bit about your new book kind of new book, right? It's been a few months now, I suppose, the title. That book is the great revitalization. How activating meeting and purpose can radically enliven your business, and

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Jason Wick: I'm really excited to talk about this with you and hear your thoughts before we do that. I wanted to read one of the little endorsements that's at the front of your book.

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Jason Wick: And this is yeah. And this is Danny Barton, who's the chief of police. It says the great resignation taught us that the workforce is searching for meaning and purpose and everything they do. The great revitalization is a brilliant guide to creating business and organizational cultures around purpose and meaning.

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Jason Wick: This book is a valuable reminder of what organizations can be and what we want them to be. At least Cortez brings her gusto to our hearts, and then adds meeting to it.

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Jason Wick: The great revitalization is a framework to help us and others achieve our authentic purpose. I recommend this book to everyone, regardless of your status in any organization.

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Jason Wick: What do you think when you hear that?

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Alise Cortez: I think I love my friend Danny? He's such a good soul. really quick on that front. yeah, he's he's he's he's got it. He's bottom right. What's amazing about Danny Barton. He is the chief of police of one of the suburbs here in Dallas. I met him several years ago at a workshop. We are both getting certified and

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Alise Cortez: a luminous spark. It's an assessment. And I found out that this man's

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Alise Cortez: whole purpose is to inculcate compassion. emotional intelligence, and empathy in the police force.

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Jason Wick: That's wonderful thanks for adding all that context, especially some of what we've been going through. Well, I suppose, in the Us. Probably for decades, but specifically in the last few years. to some of the discussions we've been having around police and their role and things. That's a really cool thing to hear about. Thanks for mentioning that.

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Jason Wick:  the great revitalization.

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Jason Wick: what is the great revitalization?

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Alise Cortez: Well, I hope it's a a, a a wing and a prayer right? I hope that it really is that lifting mechanism that in

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Alise Cortez: we re reignite refugees vitally your organization. And and that's my my. So I gotta get my publisher credit. I it's my name, but the idea of adding a a slicy bit of orange

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Alise Cortez: on the front cover was her idea. and it, you know, so many businesses have just been like, oh, my gosh! What the heck happened after this last few years! Here in my head, this thing I don't know which. What

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Alise Cortez: is going on with the workforce. And so I'm meaning the great revolization to be something like, you know, an energy and fusion and a a rocket ship to the top to be able to really enable them to come to the top of their game. So that's what I hope it is for for people.

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Jason Wick: No, that's that's great. And and and seeing people and their kind of what's happened to this last few years is that what inspired the book, or is it? Is it? More than that.

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Alise Cortez: it's a little bit more than that. So you know, as the pandemic started to unfold, and we all were just like, you know when this thing is done, you know, when March 2,020, came around and you know what's missing cycles to run a couple of weeks, we'll be doing this in this, and then it's going on right. It kept going on. Well, I kept like you, Jason, having all of these amazing conversations on my radio. So working on purpose. And we were all reaching for solution and trying to understand and get our head around things. And

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Alise Cortez: so I was having these amazing conversations with leaders and thought leaders from around the world. And it was just amazing. It just kept going. And so what happens in the way that I host my show is because I generally bring on authors. I read their book cover to cover in preparation for the show, and then I prepare the questions, and we converse over those questions

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Alise Cortez: over the course of the last few years. I just kept accumulating more and more research and ideas, and I. Just then I was having conversations with my clients and perspective clients, and they were all doing that same weird head scratch thing where they were like. I don't know what's going on here with people. Nobody seems to want to come to work. They don't want it. They don't want to perform. They don't want to stick around. I don't know what to do what I I was. I was on, you know, the top list of best places to work a couple of years ago. What is this, you know?

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Alise Cortez: And so, as I kept hearing that he funny of of voices and such, I kept the bubbling kept going. And and I, I started to see that I really had a perspective on what? On the workplace and what was happening here, what leaders needed, because of all these conversations, and in relation to the consulting that I was doing to help organizations develop their cultures.

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Alise Cortez: And so I felt like, Gosh! I really think I have something to say here. This is the first book of the 4 that I've written that I really stood on. I really have something specific. I'm trying to convey to you. This is important. Please read this. That's great.

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Jason Wick: Yeah. And thanks for that full explanation. I mean, that is a unique working on purpose, as you said, your radio show really, unique opportunity to be able to talk to all of these folks and and accumulate all that information as you, you pointed out. Yeah. So

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Jason Wick: the the rate of change right in these last few years has been

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Jason Wick: been pretty pretty rapid. Right?

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Jason Wick: Do you think kind of the way that people's

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Jason Wick: perspectives on their work has changed in the last few years is something that is a sudden rapid development. If the the with covid a catalyst for it like, what's your take kinda on that whole situation?

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Alise Cortez: What a yummy question, Jason. Okay, that's definitely chapter 2, urgency in the book. and what it? And the answer to all that is yes, yes, and yes, I. What I come to to believe, Jason that happened is

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Alise Cortez: Covid really was our, our, our common world heart attack. And and it really really opened people's eyes to a lot of things when the world literally stopped moving. For that period of time people had a chance to kind of get off the hamster wheel

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Alise Cortez: sometimes for sometimes not. And and I say in the book, and I really believe this to my heart. Is that what happened was, people took a lot of stock of their lives. Not only did where people get in the world didn't make sense anymore. They were getting sick people they loved died.

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Alise Cortez: And it all kinds of things happen, and that that causes people to really take stock of their life. And those kinds of really huge changes happening like people start to go. Huh? Wait a minute here.

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Alise Cortez: So I I think that not only did a lot of people first part of what was happening with the great resignation people were largely in part quitting because

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Alise Cortez: they started to recognize that what they were doing wasn't worth their one precious life or their time. The commute, the screaming boss, the toxic work, environment, the lack of meaning in the work they're like. Hmm, not so much

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Alise Cortez: so, I think, really, partly what happened here, which is why I wanted to write. This book, too, is people that couldn't make sense of just how much the world has changed in these last few years. And it's the big reason I wrote the book is, I'm like, let me help you understand what happened.

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Alise Cortez: And so what I believe happened and transformed, and why this is so confusing for people, especially employers, is that pre covid the world existed around work. Everybody's whole life revolved around their work, their commute when they ate dinner, when or if they exercised when or if they connected meaningfully with their family?

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Alise Cortez: when and if they saw their children's performances at school, all dictated by work.

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Alise Cortez: Now, what's happened is people have said, wait just picking moment. Right there. let's change. Let's change that.

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Alise Cortez: And now what what's happened is the workforce has spoken, and what they want is they want work to revolve around their lives, to be a part of their an integral part of their lives. So what they want is like this harmonious sort of low between all the components of their life, with their life being at the center. Now not work.

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Alise Cortez: that is, I think, the major confusion that leaders are having. They don't want that. They want to go back to this time when they could dictate. You know how work got done, where it got done when it got done, and the workforce is saying, Hmm, not so much.

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Jason Wick: Yeah. It's a pretty interesting description that you're providing. I you've you've probably spoken to a lot more leaders than I have, but you know I don't know if it's uniquely American or Western or not quite that at all. But you know this idea of work to live or live to work. And

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Jason Wick: and I'm with you. I think you're right. A lot of the things around commuting fitting in around your meeting schedule, being having your button, your seat for 8 plus hours. All those requirements that aren't. Necessarily. I I guess the way I would say it is.

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Jason Wick: Did we? Do we even know why those requirements existed in the first place? And the question I'd love to get more from you on, and maybe it's a hard one to answer. But

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Jason Wick: you said in some ways the

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Jason Wick: I hate to characterize it as a power, imbalance, or a power thing. But

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Jason Wick: managers and bosses have the power, I suppose, in a lot of these cases. And and you said something like.

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Jason Wick: why can't we just get things back to the way they were right? Because one thing that I think we forget a lot is that managers and leaders are people, too.

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And so I would love to ask you to pick your brain.

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Jason Wick: Why do you think we want we leaders, business leaders, etc.? Why do we want things to go back to the way they were as opposed to evolve with these kind of new epiphanies.

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Alise Cortez: Love your questions, Jason.

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Alise Cortez: Yeah. Well, first, you're right. Leaders and managers are absolutely people, too, and I'm out to help those people. So why do they want to go back? Because it was much more convenient for them the way it was before everything was at their beck and call.

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Alise Cortez: And and and the big reason, I think, that we were so wed to the notion of, you know. Work it's done when we staple a dairy air into the seat on Monday, at 8 30, and they we let them go at Friday at 5 30. It's because we were. We are driven by the notion of presentism. I only believe you're working. If I can see you

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Alise Cortez: and what I, what what now, as we move to. And this is where I think the opportunity is. It's also the big confusion pile.

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Alise Cortez: Now, we really move to a place where what we need to focus on instead is product productivity, not presenteeism. But what is the person actually producing?

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Alise Cortez: Never mind that you can't see them necessarily all the time, and you don't know exactly when they're working. But what are they producing that needs to be the focus. We need to change our evaluation systems from being able to see these people to being able to see what they produce, and that then requires a whole different set of

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Alise Cortez: working, supporting, managing, leading, evaluating, rewarding, etc. That's the new realm we're stepping into. And that's why it's so confusing. So what I'm out to do, Jason is. I'm out to support managers and leaders. Let's create that together for you. It's not going to look like it did before.

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Alise Cortez: and I know you. I know it's scary because you're stepping into the unknown. So let's let's do this together. Let me help you with that, because what I've come to is that it requires a whole other let of level of skills as managers and leaders to be able to steward this new world. It requires they? Everybody's been kicked upstairs.

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Alise Cortez: The individuals are contributors, the managers, the leaders. Everybody has been kicked upstairs. So that means now that those managers and leaders need even more support and help. And they did before, because it's a whole new frontier.

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Jason Wick: Yeah, okay? Oh, that's great stuff. And

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Jason Wick: and I think this is going to dovetail nicely into, and kind of the some of the stuff that people can do, and and the framework that you've created. And before we kind of move into that a little bit.

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Jason Wick: You touched on it briefly around people what they would like. you know what they would like to see in their lives, be able to do, live their life and have their work fit into that. I am kind of curious, either practically or philosophically. You know. What do you think the ideal relationship between people and their work? What does that look like?

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Alise Cortez: You may not know this or not, Jason, but one of the things I've done in my life is a fair amount of meeting and work and identity research.

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Alise Cortez: So I conducted a large post stock research where I interviewed 115 men and women, 20 ages at 18 and 80, across 20 different professions. And I found when I was looking at what's what kind of what? What kind of meaning do they do? They experience in their work, and how does it relate to their sense of identity? When I

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Alise Cortez: juxtapose those 2 realms. I found 15 modes of engagement.

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Alise Cortez: So what I've discovered is, people want different things from their work. It's not a one. Size fits all. Some people need to be cognitively challenged. Some people need to continually learn. Some people need really strong and logging really strong relationships at work. Some people are really interested in.

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Alise Cortez: You know, I have a really really full life. My grandmother needs me. My mother needs me. I really just. I want to be able to do work. That's that. I'm good at that. I can be paid for. But I I really don't need to put my whole person into that. I need to be able to divide and conquer, if you will, a little bit on my time and my energy. So the opportunity for people, leaders, and managers is to learn

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Alise Cortez: what is the ideal way people do want to experience it work. Some people want to just like me. For me. Work is a fantastic playground. I want to go all in, and I do go all in

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Alise Cortez: But some people really they are looking for a different way to relate, and some people don't know. you know, quite where they are in this until they really can be exposed to the notion of what work could look like.

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Alise Cortez: So finding what people really want is important, and but, generally speaking, what I can say pretty pretty

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Alise Cortez: vividly and clearly, as

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Alise Cortez: people do want meaning and purpose. For sure they they don't want to go through the motions in their day, and feeling like all they're doing, is pushing a bag of sand from one end of the the warehouse to the other, only to push it back the next week. They they want. They want to be able to know that

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Alise Cortez: what they're doing during the course of their days actually means something. It matters to someone, and the more the organization can help them understand that through the way they communicate the way they they reward with the encourage connection in the in the organization, and how their individual role relates to and helps them realize the company purpose the more they're going to get that.

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Jason Wick: So we want to help as leaders and managers. We want to help our employees understand the meaning in their work. You want to connect those threads to the purpose of the whole organization as well as you said.

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Jason Wick: and you've got a framework in your book where You want to help people find the gusto in their business and to activate it now. And the acronym is gusto. Now.

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Jason Wick: why don't we just start big here and see where we go. But tell us a little bit about gusto now.

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Alise Cortez: Okay.

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Alise Cortez: So the first thing you have to understand about me is I had the great opportunity in my mid 20 s. To live in Spain and Brazil, and I was very informed by living in those cultures I got, I learned, and still speak Spanish and Portuguese. Well.

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Alise Cortez: I ended up wearing a Costa Rica. Now I got the name, Cortes. We are not together now, but I do consider myself a latino cortex that you know, converted Latina. And so I really love the way that the word gusto means something in all of those 3 languages Spanish, Portuguese, and English. When I'm out in the audience speaking. And I ask people which is not. It's not a common word. That's just not a common word. We say gusto. It's Spanish and Portuguese.

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Alise Cortez: I want to ask audiences, what does this word mean to you?

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Alise Cortez: I get an an array of responses, and they include things like, Hmm. Energy motivation. Somebody growled once when I asked that that's great. And I'm like, Yeah, that's what it is right there. But they all there's like a visceral sort of thing about gusto. So it's like this, all encompassing sort of thing. When people get their arms and heads and hurts around it. So I wanted that to be the essence of the book, of course.

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Alise Cortez: So you know, when I I'll lay out just kind of

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Alise Cortez: that. You know what what the whole the gust or the acronym actually means in just a second. But What I wanted to do this time. It's the first time that I've done this, and you need the books is to actually use an acronym to be able to organize my thinking. And I did that because authors that I really admire and respect, like Dr. Raj to Sodia does that quite a bit. And I thought, let me try that.

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Alise Cortez: So that's where the idea came from. Now, before I go into, you know the first part of it. Any questions things you want me to talk to from before I launch into that.

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Alise Cortez: So what I get what it did is, you know, the as a researcher, I discovered I had all this stuff. I had all these ideas that were floating about my head. And I was like, How do I actually, you know, organize these things and make sense of it. So I knew that I wanted to write the first part of the book of let me help you understand, leaders and managers. Just what the heck happened in the world you find yourself in today. So that's the first part of the book, the gusto part of the book.

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Alise Cortez: And so, as I was looking at, what did I want to say? I realized that I could say, you know, for if gusto breaks down to gumption, urgency, sustainability, their beat through meaning. And

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Alise Cortez: Sorry got it! Said it. I just

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Alise Cortez: my! Oh, what's my? Oh, ownership ownership through purpose. And so I actually broke. All that down is this is the kind of what you need to know to be able to get a label. And today, so the the g for gumption. Jason really speaks to this notion of. I wanted leaders to understand that in order for you to be effective, one, you got to fall in love with your business again on a whole other level. You got to put your own option to mask on yourself before you can help anybody else, just like they do on the airlines

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Alise Cortez: and 2, you gotta go looking for just like you do in your your relationships in life. What's good and right about your partner again. You have to fall in love again with your partner again, and the way to do that for this lens is to go looking for ways that you can be of higher service to all your stakeholders once you do that. Now, if I tell you back in your own veins now you've got something to work with. That's why it's chapter one. Gumption.

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Alise Cortez: Yeah. So 2 is is the urgency chapter. And that's really where we're speaking to. Let me help. You understand just what the heck happened in the last couple of years, and that we can't put the genie back in the bottle. You know people do want to be able to separate

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Alise Cortez: they want. They want a fluid life, and they want to be able to have some idea of when and where they're going to do their work, and they would like you not to assign that to them. So there's this whole notion of the fluidity of that, and that, you know this is happen. It's not going to be returned. So that's really what the You chapters about an urgency.

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Alise Cortez: As for seeing that sustainability really speaks to.

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Alise Cortez: We have come to be in a world where this notion of what's happening on the planet is something that many people care about. Wherever you are on the sustainability sort of scale. Whatever your position is on it, it has become

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Alise Cortez: it very, very, very chief concern in the world. It's become a business imperative. And so you have to take a stand on sustainability with and through your actions and your words as an organization, your employees will opt into or out of that. And so your customers. But thing is, you just can't not have a stand.

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Alise Cortez: And then T, for therapy is is therapy through meeting. So I'm a logo therapist. I don't know if you know that or not, but I'm schooled. One of my degrees is in log of therapy, so it's Victor Frankel's existential psychology stuff around therapy. And it really puts forth that the notion that we, as humans, our chief concern, is meaning, that's what we really care the most about. And it's our chief source of energy and motivation.

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Alise Cortez: So chapter 4 is really about

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Alise Cortez: helping organizations to understand that the more that you can create a a culture and leadership anchored in meaning, where you help people understand what they're doing on a daily basis is meaningful to them.

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Alise Cortez: and that what that, what they're up to with the the organization is meaningful. Then you've got something to work with. And then the last chapter ownership through purpose really speaks to

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Alise Cortez: creating an organization. That one first is you, just you, you detect, discover and articulate the company's purpose together. That's a team activity. So everyone understands. What is this? Why does this organization exist and watch anyone here? What's my own connection to that? And if you take it one step further.

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Alise Cortez: and you really take, and you get all of your stakeholders aligned to that purpose. The employees, your suppliers, your investors, people in the community. Well, now you have a an ecosystem that everybody's rowing in the same direction. You need them to go. That's powerful. So that's the first part of the book. That's the what the lay of the land of really what it, what it looks like to really thrive in today's business world.

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Jason Wick: Thanks for the thanks for the master class. Yeah, that's good, that's great. No, that's great great stuff. You. One of the questions I had had prepared here was, you know, what is humankind's main concern in life, and I think you outlined it here, based on Victor Frankel, the

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Jason Wick: the meaning right?

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Jason Wick:  Can you go a little bit more deeply into what that's all about. You know I don't. I shouldn't assume that anyone listening does or doesn't know much about about what you're referring to with Victor Frankel's work or how you interpret it. But

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Jason Wick: when you talk about humankind's main concern in life is finding meaning in it, you know. Can you just give us a little more depth in that, so we can kind of really try to understand, maybe, how work can fit into that.

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Alise Cortez: Oh, oh, shoot you! Cut out for a second. Darn it, I can. And I'd love to. So okay, let me a little contact. So for those of you who don't know Dr. Victor Frankel. He He was a neuroscientist. He was a medical doctor.

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Alise Cortez: he In his earlier years he spent his his life in and us Austria working with suicidal patients trying to help them with their suicidal ideation. And he learned a lot about about life and what people needed to wanted from life because of those experiences.

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Alise Cortez: Now, just a few years later, he finds himself

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Alise Cortez: in 3 or 4 actually for holocaust concentration camps during World War Ii.

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Alise Cortez: and that was That was he spent 3 years there. So he went into that experience with a full manuscript which really became, I think it was man search for meaning one of his. Like many of almost 40 books, I think he's written.

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Alise Cortez: and they took the manuscript away from him during the course of the time that he was there he suffered a horrible, that of of experience. In that time that he was there. He went in with his wife and his parents, and he merged solo so What he found. What he discovered was that the the the fellow inmates, who had something to look forward to after they got out, that somebody waiting for them something to do, a work to accomplish.

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Alise Cortez: We're the ones that generally had a better chance of survival, the ones that gave up the meeting, and hope often literally fell over and died and perished. So he was even more convicted of his work, and rebuilt the manuscript while he was in the concentration camps, and then, of course.

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Alise Cortez: went on to an incredible career to really evangelize this notion of global therapy. So first, you have to understand that if you, if you recognize the idea, or if you accept the idea that humankind's chief concern is finding meaning.

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Alise Cortez: then we say, Okay, well, what's the meaning? Because it gets conflated with purpose, and they're not the same thing.

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Alise Cortez: So meaning is registered on on along your values. So what you find meaningful. Jason, might be given from what I find meaningful, because our values differ

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Alise Cortez: so part of the reason it's meaningful for me to have a book out is because I value intelligence. I value learning, I value growth, I value, I value empowerment. Therefore, creating a vehicle that I created is meaningful for me to do that. So it's put in the working and purpose radio show.

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Alise Cortez: So first, you, you have to recognize that you know our our meaning is register along that which we value. Then, if you look at according to logo therapy, there are 3 sources of meeting that are available to any of us at any one time

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Alise Cortez: before I get into that, the whole notion of of the local therapy is really what it gets to. It's a it's an optimistic approach or philosophy to life, and it really teaches that there are no negative or tragic situations or events that happen in life that can't be transmuted into a positive accomplishment. But for the way we relate to them, which is totally our choice

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Alise Cortez: between stimulus and response, there's a choice, and we can choose to be response, able to these things that happen in life. And that's what I love about. That is, there's agency, there's empowerment. There's possibility in that. All the things I stand for. So of course.

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Alise Cortez: Okay, now, if we stand on that as a platform, what logo therapy is, and then, if we look at it. It it puts forth, we have all of us 3 sources of meeting available to us at any one time. One of them is our our creative contributions. What we give of our self to the world

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Alise Cortez: I call that passion. The second source of meaning is the experiences, encounters that we have in the world that we find meaningful. Again, it's always good to register along our value system. I call that inspiration.

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Alise Cortez: The third source of meeting is the attitude no sense that we take whenever life throws at us, whatever it does. And I call that mindset. So if those are our 3 sources of meeting available to us all the time. The opportunity, then, is to find more constant, continuous ways to experience those sources of meeting.

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Alise Cortez: Thus, when we do things, when we give of ourself something that's that matters to us that's meaningful to us. This is meaningful. This is a meaningful encounter for me. So this would be a source of meeting for me in terms of an encounter or an experience having more of these would be a way to fill my tank back on the passion front, the more that I can do work or give of myself in unique ways that express me, that makes that is, that is a meaningful contribution. It provides that rich.

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Alise Cortez: vital source of energy that we're looking for. and that attitude no stances.

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Alise Cortez: And whatever it is that you know, whatever whatever the boss throws at me. I know I've got this, or if they just gave me a promotion, this is amazing. I'm gonna I'm gonna pour myself into this. I'm gonna throw myself into that.

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Alise Cortez: All of these are energizing things. And what happens is when you get people talking about these things, you will see how their energy vibration increases right front of your eyes.

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Alise Cortez: Right? So the opportunity is for leaders and managers to help people plug into those things during the course of their day so that they get that vitalizing source of energy. It will come out in engagement performance, retention.

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Alise Cortez: creativity, innovation.

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Jason Wick: So

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Jason Wick: wow, that's great stuff. And actually, I'm gonna pause for 2 s because my dog's parking.

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Jason Wick: It's all right. Who is it?

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Jason Wick: It's our neighbor girl.

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Jason Wick: okay, so that's a really powerful explanation. At least that's that's outstanding. So I mean

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Jason Wick: passion, inspiration. What was the third one? Did you say experience

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Jason Wick: when we kind of try to take the whole gusto. Now, framework, where? How do we activate?

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Jason Wick: You know, how do we activate it? How do we?

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Jason Wick: How do we get the gusto going?

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Alise Cortez: Right? Great question. So we'll help others. Maybe. Sorry. Sorry. Go ahead. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, that's one thing. I didn't want to just write an academic book like here, here's what's going on? Good luck, Yup, we know it goes. The second part of the book is, you know how the principles of how do I actually address this stuff. How do I actually operate my business to be able to address what the workforce wants today?

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Alise Cortez: And so what I did there. And it was again. The whole book was more fun than I was supposed to have, but what I did there was. I put forward about 21 best practices in those 3 chapters, and I organize them along what has really become the the trajectory, or the evolution of intelligence.

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Alise Cortez: So the the first chapter which is now, or the end chapter, which is nurturing through mindfulness is really anchored in the principles that are really IQ. Based. So in in intellectual quotient base. So this is logic, rational kind of stuff.

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Alise Cortez: And so in that chapter I was really putting for things like, you know, you need as an organization to do a human capital process audit, and see just what what are you doing? What are all your processes doing to touch your people? And I can guarantee you? Some of them are extracting your people's soul what it takes to apply, what it takes to interview what it takes to be your performance reviews. Some of these things. You're actually are working competitive, competitively, incredibly, against you.

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Alise Cortez: So some of those things are things like, you know, looking at how to how do you recognize how to your reward. I say in that chapter I'm fully am I against just a a high, high performance or high potential sort of programs, because I want you to invest in all your people, not just the few that you think are high potential. You need your whole organization rolling, not not a subset of them. So they're everything in that chapter is really but around something that you could qualify as rational or logical. Yeah.

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Alise Cortez: So then, the next chapter then builds on the next kind of intelligence that came after IQ. And that's, of course, emotional intelligence. You cannot pick up a business book today, or at least book today without hearing about the importance of call to getting emotional intelligence critical. So in that chapter, of course, I talk about becoming a carry leading leader, looking for? What does your person want in their overall life? How does work fit with that? How can you help create that with them?

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Alise Cortez: How can you. How can you

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Alise Cortez: inject? How can you encourage them to find passion in the workplace, even if it's a passion project that is even related to your product or service, just getting them turned on to passion is actually good for you.

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Alise Cortez: This notion of being, you know, being able to meaningfully connect your people through diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. And what this speaks to Jason is really everybody in the organization, all the leaders reaching across the aisle to everybody.

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Alise Cortez: welcoming, wanting them, cherishing those individuals looking for what's

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Alise Cortez: special, different, magical about? Where'd you come from, what you learn? What is your culture? Teach you? How can I learn from you. That's all part of creating a really beautiful, sticky, connected place that people want to be in. So that's what the Emotional Intelligence chapter is about, and of course I feature one of my heroes, Bob Chapman, who's the CEO of Gary Vayner. He is one of my testimonials as well.

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Alise Cortez: He is the walking talking billboard for the caring leader. So that's chapter. That's the the the second one, which is the oh, that's opening the heart.

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Alise Cortez: And then the last chapter. this is where I get to step out in front of the herd a little bit.

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Alise Cortez: Absolutely, yes, and introduce that. The the idea of spiritual intelligence which believe it or not, is actually being banted about in in certain business realms, spiritual intelligence is in some places being measured, and let me now situate what I mean by spiritual intelligence. It's not related to necessarily a religious dogma. Really, what it speaks to are what

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Alise Cortez: Abraham Massel might call those those higher B values. So that's compassion, that's peace, love, joy.

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Alise Cortez: all those kinds of things that are really elevated sort of ways of being in the world. They're more evolved.

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Alise Cortez: and they and they really speak to being being aware of your connection to something larger, whatever that is, whether it's the greater world, the universe, whatever it is.

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Alise Cortez: So that's what the that last chapter focuses on. So of course, that's about

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Alise Cortez: articulating your company's purpose and making sure everyone's finally connected to that. Understand it, it's heartbeat. Take it the next step, and help your employees discover their own individual purpose.

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Alise Cortez: and then, if they are able to find a way to align that with the other organizations. That's just a double win.

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Alise Cortez: And it also it speaks to being able to really, really add that layer of beauty inside your organization where you're looking for ways extended novel ways to be able to better serve or add value to your stakeholders, all your stakeholders, and then the last little bit. There, Jason, I really kind of went out as an author. This is where your words

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Alise Cortez: pick you up and carry you along and continue the writing without you. That's what that's what the Last Segment did. It's really on reaching for centric centropy, which is really really reaching as an organization for the recognition, the connection that you, as an organization or a vital ecosystem living organization. And you're part of this living breeding whole. And so how can you act in accordance with that? To make your decision to it's about, you know.

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Alise Cortez: Let me be clear. I totally believe in capitalism. It's not about Socialism. How in the world can we actually serve more for more boats rise? And we just we, we can just do more through business today. People have more faith in business than they do politics and government. And they do politics and governments. And the church.

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Alise Cortez: Well, that's a big responsibility.

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Jason Wick: Yeah. And I mean, it's really interesting, too, because you you're referring to the gusto acronym to set this up talking about sustainability.

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Jason Wick: Yeah, if more people believe in business than they do in Religion

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Jason Wick: and government. yeah, there are some responsibilities that come along with with us having our businesses. It's not just about making a bunch of money, isn't it?

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Alise Cortez: Making? You know we can. We can do a lot with the resources that come from making money.

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Alise Cortez: And that's it's wonderful, right? So business has so much resources available to me because of their powerful way of of making profit of making money. And so there's something we can do with that. And so when you think about, what do you want to do with your one precious life? Well, an organization has a tremendous capacity to lift lives to help address Major Ales in the world because of its resources and all of those mobilized hearts and souls that are inside of them.

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Jason Wick: Yeah, that's such a beautiful

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Jason Wick: context to put around it all. At least, I think that alone, I mean helps me right there, just to even think about the work that I do in certain situations. I think that's really a wonderful way. And back to your points about agency and others, you know and and how you handle certain situations and a lot of it in your control. You're right. How we look at our own work has to be something that our attitude is a lot in our own control.

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Jason Wick: I I want to jump back to the 3 the 3 parts of the now acronym for a second just to make sure we we can

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Jason Wick: kind of recapture it and make sure people heard it. So the N. Ow. Under under. Now the end was nurture. And we're referring more to IQ things such as a process, audit understanding how the activities and procedures we have are affecting our people right

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Alise Cortez: correct in the oh, it was open. What was the rest of it? I'm sorry I forgot open opening the heart. Thank you, opening the heart. And that's the emotional intelligence piece here. And that's really understanding our people understanding what what they want out of their situations and and connection between other people, right?

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Jason Wick: And then, W. Was, wake.

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Alise Cortez: make the soul make the soul. Yeah, this is where stuff got heavy. Yeah, no. So you so spirit.

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Jason Wick: so spiritual intelligence. The connection is something larger than ourselves, and I think we all want to be a part of something larger than ourselves. Right?

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Jason Wick:  What a beautiful concept, Elise.

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Jason Wick: what a great book I really enjoyed reading through it. Thank you so much for writing it. I encourage all the listeners out there. Go out and find the great revitalization of how activating meaning and purpose can radically enliven your business.

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Jason Wick: thank you for writing it. Really appreciate that.

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Alise Cortez: Thank you. I really appreciate you reading it. It was you know, it is true that it's actually much more difficult to bring a book into the world than it is a baby.

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Jason Wick: Actually, I can't say about either, but that's good, that's good to know. Take my word for it. Okay, I will thank you. before we finish up here. and I've really appreciated this discussion. Thank you for taking the time, Elise. I ask all my guests the same question at the end. What is something that you've learned recently?

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Alise Cortez: Yeah, I I kind of reflect on that a little bit. I I want to share. You know I'm doing this 30 Free City Book tour for the 4 books that I have out. And I was in San Diego a few weeks ago for that tour.

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Alise Cortez: and it was a really interesting place. It's you know, it's so beautiful. And there's like this laughter of amazing restaurants and anything you could possibly want down there, is it there?

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Alise Cortez: And the temperature is great. Climb is great.

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Alise Cortez: And then they have this one major glaring huge problem. And that's homelessness. It's the the number of tense it everywhere. It's just it's it's just incredible. And I it's really taken by that. And I'm from specific Northwest. Originally, we also have a similar problem with there, too. I live in Dallas now that for 21 years.

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Alise Cortez: but what I got present to is as I was.

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Alise Cortez: He was there for about 10 days, and so I had. At 1 point my friend dropped me off in lames, and everything with me and my roller bag and my handbag and such, and I was dressed obviously, but I actually think at 1 point people mistook me for a a moving, homeless person.

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Alise Cortez: and I and I I I for a second I got present to what must that be like?

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Alise Cortez: So then the curiosity in me and the research for me what I want to go under cover and see what that would be like. Well, and and I still, I'm interested in in it. I guess it's such a pervasive problem also here in Dallas to, of course, any any major city.

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Alise Cortez: So then I'm on the I'm on a call 2 days later, with my inspiration in the Cloud people, that is, in an organization or a group led by Dr.

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Alise Cortez: And I was telling them about this, and we were they were saying, gosh! You know there was a documentary where somebody did go undercover like that, and they did assume it it the position of being homeless, and

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Alise Cortez: what was discovered about that one, the person when it was 0 money and was able to pan handle $200 in the course of a week but 2. Most importantly, everybody that was part of that person's world who were helping always assumed helplessness that these people could not do anything for themselves.

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Alise Cortez: So all we're doing is giving fish, giving fish, giving fish. We're not teaching how to fish. So, of course, where I got to was, gosh, you know what I want to do is I want to be able to find a way to someone, maybe build in a layer in my business that layer of beauty that I was talking about. Fold that in.

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Alise Cortez: What if I could somehow have some part of my program where I would go into the homelessness? And what in my city or anybody that that was part of my programs. And we found a way to go talk to people saying, What do you know how to do. Are you your carpenter? Oh, my gosh! That's great! You know how to nurse. You know how to minister. You know how to teach.

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Alise Cortez: Okay? Well, we need you.

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Alise Cortez: What if we found a way to be able to activate these people so that we could help them get off the streets from their own volition, they, by activating their own sense of agency, what they already know how to do. There must be a way to do that, and I bet there's some mutations that are doing that. But what I learned was one, the problem, and then 2. I got turned on to the possibilities of ways that I might be able to find a way to help and to be of service. And it's been rallying around in my brain. I know where it's going to go, Jason, but

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Alise Cortez: I want to do something to help some social ill out there with and through my business.

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Jason Wick: Wow! That's wonderful. Yeah. Thanks for sharing that that's a really great.

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Jason Wick: that's one of the best ones I've heard. Thank you so far. That's great. Maybe some time in the future, when it's rolling. We can come back and talk about that. That would be really, really cool. But yeah, finding this

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Jason Wick: this way to use our businesses, our work. However, we want to think about this. to to increase, to not increase, to.

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Jason Wick: I guess, make the world better is is a simple way to say that. But thank you for sharing that. At least that's wonderful awesome. So people who are interested in the book and your work or your radio show, whatever it is where all the places that that they can go

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Alise Cortez: first place to go just simply would be my my website. My first was@leastcortes.com. That's the easiest way to start, and you can always plug in with the conversation. There, there's all my it, my email and my phone number on there. The second place to go is the gusto, now, site. So that's gusto. Dash now.com. That will give you the tour schedule and some other things that I'm up to there now. Always find me on Linkedin Twitter.

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Alise Cortez: Facebook and Instagram, with just at least portes are pretty easy to find, and would in would certainly enjoy and welcome any outreach.

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Jason Wick: Excellent. So Elise cortez.com a l ise, c o r te z gusto dash, now.com and social media. Wonderful.

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Alise Cortez: Thank you again for writing the book, Elise, and thank you for taking some time today. It's been my pleasure, my honor, to talk to you, and and great to hear about how you're helping others make the world a better place as well. So thank you for that.