The Power of Gratitude: Why Slowing Down Creates Real Connection with Chris Schembra
What if slowing down was the secret to speeding up?
In this bold and vulnerable conversation, Chris Schembra opens up about his struggles with imposter syndrome, listening, and curiosity, and how those very challenges have become tools for connection and transformation.
Chris shares how gratitude isn’t a magic fix but a practice of perspective that reshapes how we show up in life, work, and relationships. From corporate boardrooms to the dinner table, he reveals the frameworks and stories that remind us no one wants perfection they want realness.
You’ll walk away with practical tools, a renewed perspective, and an invitation to Chris’ challenge: host a dinner, ask one powerful gratitude question, and watch connection transform your world.
Must-Hear Insights and Key Moments
Why slowing down creates space for creativity, clarity, and stronger connections.
The paradox of imposter syndrome—and how to turn it into content and confidence.
The practice of gratitude as a tool for shifting perspective, not a cure-all.
How curiosity fuels leadership and why great leaders don’t need the right answers anymore.
The power of vulnerability in building authentic relationships and trust.
Chris’s “P.A.S.T.A.” framework for living with clarity and boldness.
Why hosting a simple dinner can be life-changing for you and your community.
The future of leadership in the age of AI: asking better questions, not knowing all the answers.
Words of Wisdom: Standout Quotes from This Episode
“Gratitude doesn’t work on me but it gives me tools to keep going.” - Chris Schembra
“Nobody wants to buy from a perfect person. They want to buy from someone who’s in the trenches with them.” - Chris Schembra
“Leaders today don’t need the right answers, they need the best questions.” - Chris Schembra
“If you’re not curious, you’re being left behind.” - Chris Schembra
“You can’t hate someone you just passed the bread to.” - Chris Schembra
“So many of us fight imposter syndrome daily, even the leaders we look up to.” - Courtney Turich
“Curiosity really is the key to life and Chris, you embody that beautifully.” - Courtney Turich
“No one can escape challenges, but we all have the choice to rise with resilience.” - Courtney Turich
“In a world moving a thousand miles an hour, slowing down might be the boldest move of all.” - Courtney Turich
“Be bold, be confident, and be you because your story is your strength.” - Courtney Turich
About Chris
Chris Schembra is a bestselling author, keynote speaker, and founder of the 7:47 Gratitude Experience™, an evidence-based framework that has helped thousands of leaders and teams build stronger human connection at work and beyond. Dubbed “The Gratitude Guru” by USA Today, his mission is simple: to help people rediscover the power of gratitude, belonging, and authentic relationships in an era of disconnection.
Follow Chris Schembra
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A Team Dklutr Production
BLOG TRANSCRIPT
Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies
Courtney Turich: Hey, it's your friend and host, Courtney Turich, and welcome to Bold Moves, confident Choices, the podcast where we own our path, make fearless decisions, and get real about what it takes to turn bold ideas into reality. Today's guest, I have the honor of meeting well at a fabulous nonprofit event in New York City called Rio Desal.
I walked away from this experience where our guest was the keynote speaker and was deeply impacted. This individual is a champion for human connection and an era of disconnection. His name is Chris Schembra. He is the founder of the 7 47 Gratitude Experience. A Wall Street Journal, bestselling author and what USA today calls their gratitude guru from Microsoft and Google to the US Navy.
He's helped thousands of leaders in teams build workplaces. And lives that are more joyful, resilient, and human. So get ready because Chris is here to show us why gratitude isn't just a feeling, it's the strategy for success. So without further ado, I wanna welcome you all to my friend Chris Schembra.
Chris Schembra: Oh, Courtney, thank you for that.
And shout out to Chason and Peter and Scott McGregor. And Melissa Cohen. Lisa Joyce for welcoming us to that nonprofit event down in soho, New York City, uh, where I had the opportunity to meet you and your husband was there, I believe. And yes, such a wonderful group of people that are doing God's great work supporting a mission, uh, that's so important in our world, entrepreneurship in Latin America.
So it was a, it was a great joy to participate.
Losing His Voice, Finding New Impact
Courtney Turich: It was truly incredible, Chris. And for everyone out there, what was really just amazing about Chris's keynote, he had lost his voice. So Chris, you put together this amazing keynote all through using AI as your voice to share with us your mission.
Unbelievable.
Chris Schembra: Yeah, I, I, um, I had just got back from, uh. A trip abroad where I contracted the flu and the flu turned into laryngitis, turned into a v vocal infection, turned into a lot of things. And by the time that that keynote came for that nonprofit event, um, I legit had no voice for about 21 days in a row.
And, um, impact, uh, 11 labs.io was the platform that I used to literally. I imported, uh, dozens of hours of my voice into 11 labs on podcasts and recordings, and so it created a Chris Shera voice option in 11 labs, and I got to write out my entire keynote in like 40 different chunks. And just keep pressing play throughout the course of the keynote to, you know, say what I wanted to say.
Um, and it was, uh, I, I'm, I'm, you know, I'm grateful for technology to allow us to be able to show up and have an impact on audiences. Even when we're going through health challenges. So it was a wonderful, you know, it was a stretch to do it, but it worked. And we did a couple other events in March. We, we had to cancel six out of nine events in March.
Um, but the three that we did do were, yeah, driven by ai.
Courtney Turich: That is just, it's unbelievable when you think of what tech technology can do today. And Chris, I still walked away with that experience and I, you, you really impacted my life and changing the way that I thought about gratitude and I'm so appreciative to that.
Chris Schembra: Wow, you, you, the way you show up in the world, uh, with your curiosity and your questions and your ability to maintain a commitment to a positive impact, regardless of the hard times you're going through, is an inspiration to so many people. And I'm so excited to see where you go with this podcast and your coaching and your sales and so many beautiful things you're bringing into the world.
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Courtney Turich: Thanks so much Chris. And this podcast is actually about you, not me. So we wanna know about you, Chris. Can you just share a little bit more about yourself before we jump into some fun questions?
Chris Schembra: Sure. Um, born and raised on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Uh, went off to college until I got kicked out, thrown in jail, shipped off to multiple stents in rehab.
Um. Lived on a glacier in Patagonia for a little bit. Uh, became a boat captain, a kayak tour guide, and a standup paddleboard instructor. And then I built a video production company and then moved to New York City. Found a mentor who was 74 years old. When I was 24 years old. I got my first job in New York City because this older fella, Tony Lo Bianco, saw how good I was at asking questions.
To a rock, and that led to a four and a half year mentorship partnership. I ended up running his production company and him and I traveled around the world producing theatrical productions, Broadway, off Broadway, and touring. And then long story short, I invented a pasta sauce recipe, and on July 15th, 2015, I decided to to feed this little pasta sauce.
To some people to see if it's even good or not. And I hosted a dinner party. And at that dinner, July 15th, 2015, we, we worked together to create the meal. We had a shared group experience. We had some pretty good wine, ate some pretty good food, but at 7:47 PM that very first night. I paused all dinner table conversation and I asked a very simple question.
If you could give creditor thanks to one person in your life that you don't give enough creditor thanks to or that you've never thought to thank, who would that be? Courtney? We. We asked that question, watched a lot of people take a deep breath, sat back in their chair, pondered, and then they leaned in.
We went around the table one by one popcorn style. We each took a few minutes to answer that gratitude question from the stories. Courtney, you've seen it. They were amazing.
Courtney Turich: Yes. Few
Chris Schembra: people cried. They loved the sauce. I've been hosting dinner parties ever since.
Courtney Turich: That's my story. Amazing. I mean, Chris, listening to your story.
And I've experienced your keynote. I've experienced you putting us through the exercise of gratitude. Just hearing you sh reshare your story brought chills to me and tears to my eyes again, because that moment that you had us reflect on that question was really powerful for me, and it caused me to go give gratitude to that person in my life.
And this funny thing, it was so hard to do in the weirdest way, Chris, but I am so glad I did it and it's all because of you.
Chris Schembra: Well, who did you think of and what was so hard about that? Uh.
Courtney Turich: Chris, here we go again. Now I think we're flipping the script because just even getting ready to tell you who it was and why brings tears to my eyes.
But it was my mom and it, you know, she's just, I'm where I, Matt today because of her and the belief she had a me and she always was there to support me in the highs and lows and so much more, uh, that I won't go in today, but. Making sure I told her that and had that moment with her. Yeah, that was special.
Chris Schembra: How did she receive it?
Courtney Turich: She was shocked. You know, she didn't anticipate me going into this in depth. Moments we, we experienced together, but from the moment I started talking to her, the tears just started pouring down my face. And it was hard to even get the words out. And we all think gratitude's easy.
Like I tell people thank you all the time, but how much do you really put that, that impact behind it, that that feeling?
That you need to share with the people in your life who you love and you have gratitude for.
Chris Schembra: What's your mom's name?
Courtney Turich: Pam.
Chris Schembra: Cheers to you. Pam.
Courtney Turich: Yes. Cheers to you Pam. She's an incredible woman, and I hope she realizes how special she is.
Chris Schembra: What's one thing about Pam that you carry forward? And how you lead, live, sell, coach, question, love, parent, whatever,
Courtney Turich: kindness.
She is the most kind human in this world. She's never met a stranger. She hasn't said hello to. She gives no matter who the person is, all walks of life, that same amount of kindness. And that's what makes her just this gift to so many people. She can light up a room. Yeah.
Chris Schembra: Pretty cool.
Courtney Turich: Yeah, it's really cool.
The One Conversation That Changed Everything
It's really cool Chris. So again, thank you, but now on to you some more. You know, we're here to talk about bold moves and confident choices, and you had a vast life. Like you've experienced a ton just listening to you share with us your background. I didn't know some of that and I'm blown away 'cause you're not that old.
So you've lived multiple lives. So what would you tell this audience? That, what was your big, bold, pivotal moment in life that took things for you, Chris, to the next level? Personally or professionally, or both?
Chris Schembra: Uh, I mean, God, there's again, there's been so many, um, you know, I'll, I'll probably. I'll probably go back to May of 2011, um, which is a story I really don't share. I probably never publicly shared. Um, I usually share other answers of like, oh, my buddy took on Sunday, January 24th, 2016. My buddy taught me the focus equals growth.
Or like I bought a box on wheels so I could start traveling with my pasta sauce. Like those, y'all can literally listen to those stories elsewhere. Um, but for some reason, I'll go back to May, 2011. Um, I, I'm an only child, but I have like two kind of people who are like little sisters to me. Um, Rachel and Kathleen.
Rachel was graduating college and Kathleen was graduating high school and they were doing a joint kind of, you know, graduation party at, uh, at their childhood home on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. And I was sitting in their backyard, um, and I was talking to their grandmother. And a couple other people, but I was talking to their grandmother and um, at one point in the conversation she said, Chris, I think you need to move to New York City.
I was like, what? Okay. I thought I'd live on Hilton, had the rest of my life at that point. I kind of built my entire soul and identity around. I grew up here. Yeah. I went off to college in rehab and jail and the glacier, and then came back here and I started businesses here and I was giving tours here and I was gonna, maybe going to the family business here, and, and, and here, here, here, it's my whole soul and identity.
And Mary Jean said, yeah, I think you've outgrown the island. She moved to New York City. Wow. And Courtney, I'll never forget, uh, there wasn't an ounce of hesitation in me saying, okay, sounds good. Now I would then go and like, sell my boat and hustle for cash and like work overtime and. You know, still living with my parents.
And so I saved up some money and then I moved to New York City on my 24th birthday, August 31st, 2011 with no job, no college degree, one suitcase living on my buddy couch in Brooklyn. Right? So that's where it went. But the moment itself was so unique because Mary Jean had never really kind of been vocal, ever of like what I should or should not do.
There are some very vocal men in that family and in my family who always were the ones to give the advice or opinion. And so the fact that she in that moment, for the first time ever said something, I listened.
Courtney Turich: Yeah.
Chris Schembra: And for some reason, without a shadow of a doubt. From that moment on, I went all in to her advice for me and never questioned it once.
So yeah, I always, I think that that was a, I think, I think the bold decision was to listen to the advice of others, uh, knowing that they have my best interest at heart and not second guess or question it. And I'm great at second guessing and questioning others.
Courtney Turich: And many of us are good at second guessing and question ourselves.
And that is a really bold comment. Also to say from your little sister?
Chris Schembra: No, uh, that was from her grandma.
Courtney Turich: Oh, it was? Oh, it was from her grandma.
Okay. So when you heard that, what was the feeling inside that surface for you?
Chris Schembra: Um. Um, I, I felt cared for. Uh, you know, I think, uh,
Mary, Mary Jean, uh, and her mom, Grammy, Alice, um, and then Maria, um, Mary Jean was always cooking and I was, you know, I always sat in her kitchen as a kid watching her cook, and all the feasts were always at their house. And yeah, she never really gave advice or opinion from, you know, that kitchen or, or doing her thing in her zone of genius.
And she was a brilliant, you know, 11 card gin player as well. Um, and so I, I kind of realized in that moment, um, that she had been watching me from up close my entire life. But kind of kept silent about her opinions on things and she kind of, you know, she used at the time, 23 years of context and history about me into that one single moment.
It was kinda like the, you know, FDR quote about, or Teddy Roosevelt quote, like, walk tall. You know, walk small, but carry a big stick. Or I don't know what, yeah, it's all about like, you know, don't be loud. So that when you actually talk, like your voice is heard or something, and so that moment I knew that there was 23 years of context that went into that one single opinion.
And I felt that it was customized and it was impactful and it was important. And so I felt cared for in the moment. Um. Yeah.
Courtney Turich: Cared for what I'm hearing is cared for and also seen
Chris Schembra: Of course. Yeah. Very seen. I mean, she, it's like she had been watching me, she had been watching me be, you know, super hyperactive.
Um, get in trouble, bounce around, not stay, still, get fired from restaurants, fired from. Painting jobs, trying to figure out all, you know, bankruptcies of companies, you know, all these kind of things that I've been into. Um, she was like, yeah, there's, there's, there's too much energy going on for this little place you need to go and like, actually, or you'll probably regret it the rest of your life.
If you don't. You need to go, like, spread your wings and at least fail if you're gonna fail, fail on a bigger stage, but at least say you try it. I don't know. I feel like she's kind of telling me all that.
Slow Food, Fast Cars, and Finding Home
Courtney Turich: And why New York City? Chris?
Chris Schembra: Uh, I mean, a my dad's from New Jersey originally, so, you know, he's, he's always had, um, kind of really strong roots up here.
He. Has been involved in a charity event up here in New York City for the last 50 years in honor of the late Great Thurman Munson. Um, he used to sit on the board of, you know, the Jesse Owens Awards dinner that was held at the Waldorf every year. You know, he, that always maintained his roots in New York City through the world of sports and philanthropy.
Um, and, and then, you know, Mary Mary Jean's, uh, Mary Jean's son. Rachel and Kathleen's Uncle Mary Jean's son, um, had played for the New York Rangers my entire childhood. And so we would go up, you know, six times a year, you know, to watch 'em play and, you know, be there for all those important events and retirement ceremonies and, you know, all these kind of great things.
And so New York had always been just a plane ride away. It wasn't this like. Foreign object and uh, I think Mary Jean knew that if her sons and daughters could make it in New York, maybe I could make it in New York.
Courtney Turich: Yeah. I also heard you say that she referenced you having all this energy.
Chris Schembra: Yes.
Courtney Turich: And I think we all know there is an absolute electric energy in New York City.
Mm-hmm. And when, I mean, Chris, I, I actually am shocked because I thought you were from New York City. You come across as a true New York Yorker to me, in every sense. So now that you've been in New York, it, does this feel like home?
Chris Schembra: Of course. Do you, do you Well, I, I, there's a, there's a, there's a region.
Italy. To answer your question, there's a region in Italy called Amelia Romania, and it stretches from the sea down at Rimini and it moves to Bologna and Morna and Parma and Gio, Amelia, and it kind of. Ins just, just southeast of Milan, and this whole region is known as the land of slow food and fast cars.
It is the region where Parmigiano Reno is from, which is aged up to 56 months. It's the region where balsamic vinegar is from, which is aged up up to 75 years. But it's also the region where Ferrari is from. Deto, Maso, Ducati, Mati, all these really fast things,
Courtney Turich: right? The lane
Chris Schembra: of slow food and fast cars, and that kind of dichotomy, that dialectic is the idea that two opposing truths can be held at once.
It can be a land of slowness and the land of fastness. It's an and not an or. And to me, that's the beauty and intricacy of life. Yeah. New York and Hilton Head are both my homes. Okay. Yeah. The slowness of the South Carolina low country, the passing of the tides, the predictability of the moon cycles, gravity, water.
Slow growth of an oak and the fastness of New York City both. It's an and both are needed for me.
Courtney Turich: Uh, thank you for sharing that analogy that both can co coexist.
Chris Schembra: Yeah, it's, uh, I, I mean I, um, I've tried a lot of different therapies and rehabs through my years. And um, one of them is called dialect behavioral therapy, DBT and DBT is the study of dialectics, dialectal behavioral therapy, which is the idea that two opposing truths can be held at once.
I can practice radical acceptance, right. Not needing to change things. Mm-hmm. And I can seek change. So
Courtney Turich: on
Chris Schembra: one side of the coin is acceptance. On the other side of the coin is change. That's DBT in a nutshell. And it's this idea that it's not an or it's an and. Mm-hmm. Um, and, and, and that, that kind of leaves a lot of room for grayness and then ence and bouncing in between and doing all this.
But it's what works. And so, um. Geography or the, the feeling or sense of home? It's kind of both.
Courtney Turich: Yeah. So Chris, uh, thank you for sharing that bold move for you because you have so many, and I encourage everyone to take a deeper dive into your background to go listen to other podcasts because your stories are really incredible all around.
Um, reflecting back on younger Chris.
Be Unabashedly Curious Lessons to My 18-Year-Old Self
What would you tell your 18-year-old self?
Chris Schembra: Um,
something around the limits. Or fine. Um,
something around
man. I mean, the truth is I wouldn't change a single thing of what 18-year-old Chris was doing. Both the insecurities, imposter, whatever. Uh,
I mean eight 18-year-old Chris was truly limitless. I had unlimited energy and I had a bank of pent up curiosity. Um, like I was, to give you context, they put me on Adderall at the age of five. Uh, A DHD was this whole like, new revolution in the eighties and like late eighties. And so these doctors put me on, um, massively high dosages, obscenely high dosages at the age of five Wow.
Until the age of 20. 15 years on amphetamines, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 15 years. So I physically don't remember 98% of my childhood. It's just the memory's not there. It's just the brain doesn't, like I need to go to like psychedelic therapies. Yep. Clinics to like re-remember. Mm-hmm. Right. So that's like. And so 18-year-old Chris was kind of, you know, like super confused.
Um, just had a billion questions that I hadn't asked. Had this unlimited energy source and was going away to college for the first time. Trying to figure out how to like, invent myself for the first time ever. And so, you know, I definitely, yeah, got myself into a thousand different things, but what would I say to that guy?
Because I'm glad I did those things. I don't know, I, I, I just, I, yeah. Maybe follow your curiosity. Yeah. And like never be ashamed about your curiosity. I think a lot of people. I can only speak from my standpoint, I will have a curiosity about something and then wait years to have the courage to be curious about it.
And I think that is the root of a lot of anger or shame or, you know, built up interpersonal resentment. And that's my choice. Not other people's choices. That's my thing. So I, I think I'd say to that kid just like, yeah, go be unabashedly curious.
Courtney Turich: I mean, Chris, it, when you say be curious, and you said you asked great questions and that was brought to the surface for you.
I can attest to you asked some of the best questions for everyone out there before we even started recording this episode. Chris just kept being more and more curious about me and it you just had me even going deeper and deeper, and that is you have a gift, the gift of curiosity, and that is special.
Chris Schembra: There are positives and negatives to my inquisition. I'd say I'm a bad listener.
Courtney Turich: Mm.
Chris Schembra: Um, I ask in order to then provide a strategy instead of ask to help others feel seen. And, um, you know, that's definitely caused me friction in relationships before. Um, but in its. Limited use case. It's a superpower.
Courtney Turich: Yeah.
Do you feel that you've been able to really now listen more and help people be seen? Or is that something that's a daily struggle for you?
Chris Schembra: Daily struggle for sure. For sure. Oh yeah. Every day. I struggle with that. That's for sure.
Courtney Turich: I appreciate your honesty with that.
Imposter Syndrome and the Power of Both
Chris Schembra: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I'm, I'm, um, for anybody who's following this, that's like.
Thinking that I'm like some, you know, successful put together attitude of gratitude, built a company, kind of no way. I'm as broken as the day I started this thing. Gratitude does not work on me. I'm a horrible listener. I am a imposter and a half. I am nervous about, you know, charging the dollar amount. I'm worth every part of that.
I face, face every single day.
Courtney Turich: I would never know, Chris. I just
Chris Schembra: have a couple more tools in my toolbox to get me through it. When it does come up, I do not believe I will ever be cured of all my isms, but I just have a little bit more tools in my toolbox to say, this is actually probably gonna lead to something good if I harness it right, like this imposter syndrome that I feel.
Now address it. Drive conscious awareness to it, process it, turn it into a story. Use that to attract your next client.
Courtney Turich: Right.
Chris Schembra: I mean, so well, I just series of that shit.
Courtney Turich: You're right. I So many of us, no one, no one can is, how do I say? We all can be impacted by imposter syndrome. I just went through it myself.
I just heard a bunch of leaders last week. Female leaders talk about how they fight it daily. And so here you say it,
Chris Schembra: I'm co, I'm coaching a female entrepreneur right now that makes millions per year in an online education company outside of being one of the top 10 people in her craft in the world at something.
Yeah. Right. Which I won't get into more context because then you could just Google it and find the crossovers. Um, but she's got a mindset issue. Right. She doesn't have a strategy issue. I'm not in the online education space, but she's got a mindset issue. And I looked at her on our, uh, on our last coaching call last week, or our most recent coaching call before Burning Man.
Um, I didn't go. She went, um, but I looked at her and I said, here, here's the great opportunity you have, friend. The stuff that attracted so much income and community in your past and the content that you got to create with your educational program and everything. Now that you've had these last maybe eight to 10 months, as she says of like imposter, slowness, reset.
Scarcity, fixed mindset. Mm-hmm. All this kind of stuff. Ingratitude, all this stuff. I said, great. That's the best place to write tomorrow's version of content from you being an imposter, insecure, imperfect, vulnerable thought leader tomorrow. As you go off into launching next year's program will actually inspire you to create better content than you created for the last four years when you were on top of the world with, you know.
Yes. So she's now gonna be able to like use that vulnerability, that I imposter syndrome, that fixed mindset, that scarcity. Mm-hmm. As like stories to attract in the sales process. Then actual stories in the content creation process as she's building out the modules that she's selling in the course. Yeah, and this is a good thing, folks.
Nobody wants to buy from a perfect person. No. They want to buy from someone who's in the trenches with them. It doesn't pretend like they're perfect admits, they're imperfect. That creates connection. But here's the solution.
Courtney Turich: Yeah, for sure, Chris. Yeah. And you know, I, reflecting on our conversation today, and I, there's so many takeaways and especially, you know, I'm in the medical device space.
It's a very intense environment and we are always going a thousand miles per hour. And so to hear you talk about that, you can live that, that in that energy, but you can also live in the energy where you bring yourself back down. Right? Yeah. That you can have those moments of recovery. It's important those two worlds can collide and I mean,
Chris Schembra: yeah, from From a medical device or from from a sales perspective or leadership perspective In general, if you're trying to sell something and you're running too fast, you're running faster than the pace.
Of the people you're trying to sell to.
Courtney Turich: Yes.
Chris Schembra: You need to slow down to meet them where they are. Step number one in sales. Meet your people where they are. Slow down and connect. Okay. Yes. Number two, if you're building something out there and you're running too fast, you don't let the creative thoughts catch up.
Mm-hmm. You need to actually slow down to actually let. Stuff you're trying to process. Catch up.
Courtney Turich: Yes. That a good
Chris Schembra: idea. Bill Gates used to do that for weeks on end, they were called Think weeks. Okay, yeah, let's learn from the richest guy on the planet. Anyway, so speed. People think the faster I go, the more successful I will be.
No, there's a great paradox, the opportunities to slow down, to pause, to connect. Let the good thoughts catch up to regain clarity and control and realize which path you're supposed to be on, then you can go fast then without burning people out. Um, and so that's our whole, you know, when, when we give, when we deliver keynotes, we like to teach people a five part framework to give them a set of tools.
Courtney Turich: To take
Chris Schembra: action tomorrow and what they learned today or we're inspired in our story today. And it's the, it's an acronym Pasta 'cause. Pasta is our whole shtick. P stands for pause, a, ask S saver, T take action. A appreciate, I won't go into it, but the P of pause, it's very important. Help people slow down in order to speed up.
That's it. Slow down and take your own. Personal time and slow down and create together time so that you can then speed up. But it's, um, look, we, we live in right, the age of ai and I, I'm now doing entire offsites retreats and, you know, workshops on this duality. Okay? Then in order to speed up through ai, first you have to slow down as a human.
Right, and so now we're selling me and some partners are selling these two day corporate offsites where the first day is slow down. The second day is speed up, right? Yeah. The first day is slow down to pause and ask the good questions and figure out what's working so that you can shift what's not and figure out what you're gonna take action on.
That's bold and pathetic, collaborative and focused. Have a little bit of gratitude come into that so that on the second day you can focus on what are the actions we need to do that are filled with broader future narratives. Big, massive change, transformation that's filled with learning, agility and boldness, all this kind of stuff.
Boom. Right? So both are important. It's not an OR anymore.
Courtney Turich: No, I love it. Chris. I can feel it. I can sense it.
Chris Schembra: So it's the, it's the land of slow food and fast cars teach people how to slow down to develop the meta skills of curiosity and clarity, connection systems, thinking gratitude so that you can then use those skills the next day to apply to.
Very broad future thinking, massive senior level, transformational ideas. Yes. Using ai. Both are needed. Both.
Courtney Turich: Both are needed. We, we need to embrace both.
The Simple Power of Dinner
So Chris, the other thing again, is just leaning into that curiosity that you do so well. We all need to keep that at the forefront. Curiosity is key to life.
Of
Chris Schembra: course. Here's the, here's the truth, and Jane Frazier, the CEO of one of our clients, Citi, that we've done a lot of work with, Jane Frazier said it. Best leaders these days in the age of AI leaders don't have to have the right answers anymore. Leaders have to have the best questions.
Courtney Turich: Yes.
Chris Schembra: Okay.
Courtney Turich: I like that.
Chris Schembra: So, so imagine you're a leader watching this, whether you're in healthcare or you're a middle America mom, or you're just, whatever you're doing, here's the truth. You're not the smartest sentient being on the planet anymore. Chat, GPT-4, past the Turing test.
It's true. You were all raised. The knowledge economy. Right. A billion knowledge workers, $1.7 trillion in student debt was all built on the premise that we get paid to know something. Right.
That's collapsing. Yeah. It's already in the collapse.
Courtney Turich: Yeah.
Chris Schembra: Tomorrow. You won't get paid to know things. You'll get paid for your ability to be curious, ask good questions, build relationships, demonstrate empathy and emotional intelligence, and adequately resolve conflict and negotiate,
and that's what the future is. And so if you're not curious, you're being left behind. It's, it's that simple.
Courtney Turich: Yeah.
Chris Schembra: Literally that simple.
Courtney Turich: Chris, this has been such a amazing, impactful conversation. What would you like to leave everyone with today?
Chris Schembra: Y'all? The world's in a pretty volatile, uncertain, chaotic, and anxious place.
Loneliness is running rampant across our country, which is the equivalent of reduction of lifespan, of smoking, about 15 cigarettes a day, and it's impacting your local community. It's impacting the places you work. It's impacting your own family, whether you realize it or not. Mm-hmm. My invitation is Host the Dinner.
Yeah. Like my legit invitation is pick a date six weeks from today. Invite six to 10 people over for dinner. Halfway through that dinner, maybe at 7:47 PM Ask them our gratitude question. If you could give credit or thanks to one person in your life that you don't give enough credit or thanks to, or that you've never thought of, thank, who would that be?
And go around the table and just share stories and connect. This probably won't change the outcome of your life. It probably won't change the details of being fired from your job, losing the roof over your head or whatever you're going through. But it'll change your perspective. And when we change our perspective, we start to see the good rather than the bad.
We start to see the opportunity versus what's been taken away. We start to gain agency when we can get all these things. It gives us the hope and the positive mental attitude that tomorrow can be better than yesterday. It gives us a superpower, a great tool that we can all put in our back pocket, and that's gratitude.
And if you do that, I promise you will climb out of whatever hole you're in faster than the hole you were in or climbed out of. And that's my hope. And if you wanna find us online and say, Hey, I'm hosting a dinner six weeks from now, maybe I'll FaceTime in and say hi to your people. Give a few words of encouragement.
It's been an honor to serve. In that capacity this last decade, and I just think the dinner table can provide so much greatness in our world. We, we really need it. You, you can't hate someone that you just passed the bread to.
Courtney Turich: Yeah, Chris, that was beautiful and your challenge is accepted. I'm gonna take you up on that.
I'm gonna share with you my date and I, I cannot thank you enough for taking time to share your voice with my audience and to help inspire so many people to be a better version of themself.
Chris Schembra: Thank you for having me, Courtney. It's a true pleasure to know ya.
Courtney Turich: Oh, you too, Chris. And to everyone out there go be bold, be confident and be you.
Thanks.
Thank you, Chris.
