There’s so much division and polarization in the world right now. BUT at the same time, I think there’s a pendulum swing that’s happening too. There seem to be more and more people who are saying, “Enough!” Let’s find some common ground and let’s work from there to find real solutions. They’re looking for a place to start! Because that’s what we do… when we are at our very best. We find a way to find a way. We find a way to band together to help. We find a way. That’s where the “We Agree to Pray” project comes in. We don’t have to agree on everything, but what if a small group of people could come together to say, “We AGREE to pray.” What might happen? Well… let’s talk about that!     RESOURCES: To sign up for WE AGREE TO PRAY, go here: WeAgreeToPray.com. Episode 282: “Empathy - A Secret Weapon for Thriving in a Divided World.”  Click here: mitchmatthews.com/282 Mitch’s “6 Miracle Story.”  Click here.   We AGREE TO PRAY PROJECT EPISODE MINUTE-BY-MINUTE: 0:02 What to expect today 2:00 Are you sick of the polarization? 3:15 Why Mitch Learned from a Derecho 8:09 The human spirit 10:56 The phrase that sparked the idea 13:47 The power of prayer and what to do when you feel “the nudge” 27:11 What’s coming up in September 32:21 Will you join us? 34:43 How to join   MORE ABOUT THE EPISODE: Recently, on an early morning drive… I was reminded of how we… as human beings… find a way.  That’s right.  When we are at our best, we find a way to help each other, encourage each other, push each other and come alongside each other. That idea planted a seed. What could we do… if we gave ourselves permission to find some common ground?   As I was praying about this question, I got hit with a phrase. “We Agree to Pray.” Well… I’ll be honest.  At first, I pushed back on the idea.  I thought, “People can't seem to agree on ANYTHING right now.  They can’t agree on big stuff like politics, COVID… or the little stuff like who makes the best French Fry or how to eat an Oreo. But… WHAT IF? What if a ragtag group of us was willing to put aside our differences for a month? What if we… a group of very different people… took a month to pray for healing, hope, grace, unity, solutions and breakthroughs?   What might happen? Now… here’s the deal.  Prayer may not be your thing.  If that’s the case… TOTALLY cool.  No harm no foul.  We’re good.  And hey… if you want to drop out of this episode… that’s totally fine.  We can TOTALLY still be friends AND you are still TOTALLY part of the DREAM THINK DO family.  Because we are TOTALLY willing to recognize and honor our differences and our similarities here! At the same time… if prayer IS your thing… or you’ve always been curious about it… cool.  Let’s keep talking. See… prayer hasn’t always been big for me.  But over the years… prayer has brought me a lot of peace, hope, strength, grace, AND love.  PLUS… it’s also become a part of our core business strategy and something I depend on as we navigate the wild waters of life (especially in 2020!!!). Now, I don’t do it perfectly.  When I pray… it’s messy.  It ain’t poetic.  It’s not beautiful.  #IloveJesusbutIcussalittlebit  But it has become powerful… and amazing.   In the episode, I share some examples, plus I mention our “6 Miracle Day.”  (Click here to read that story: mitchmatthews.com/our-6-miracle-story/ Most importantly, we’ve seen the power of prayer help people to experience a sense of peace, hope, and strength.  And we’ve seen incredible things happen when a group of people comes together to pray. So… for the month of September, we’re wanting to do something we’re calling the WE AGREE TO PRAY project. It’s where people from all walks of life agree to pray… together. We’ll send out a daily email to: Offer some encouragement Provide a shared prayer focus for the day Share some stories and breakthroughs

EMPATHY: The Secret Weapon for Thriving in a Divided World!  In this episode, we talk about a surprising conversation that opened my eyes to the importance of EMPATHY… especially right now!  (That’s right… 2020!)  In this episode, you and I take a deep dive into the power of empathy.  But more importantly, we give you some tools, some strategies and some science!  Plus, we introduce you to the idea of “JOY SHARING.”  That’s right!  It’s a concept that can help you to experience more joy and share it with others too!  I think you’re going to dig it… so let’s get to it!   RESOURCES MENTIONED IN EPISODE: EPISODES MENTIONED: My interview with BEN STEIN:mitchmatthews.com/history-doesnt-repeat-it-rhymes-with-ben-stein My interview with LINDSAY PALMER: mitchmatthews.com/lindsay-palmer-create-your-opportunities\  MINUTE BY MINUTE: 0:02 What to expect today 1:15 Storytime 4:48 The power of empathy 7:34 Healing division 11:57 Empathy’s connection to happiness 14:24 One of Mitch’s favorite quotes 18:56 Share more joy feel more joy 21:19 Connect with Mitch MORE ON THE EPISODE:  Over the 4th of July… our family got together with one of our favorite people… Ben Stein.  He’s a history teacher our boys had.  He has a true passion for history, government, politics and the human condition.  We got together… socially distanced and safely of course.  We got caught up and then we did what we do… we started to talk HISTORY and current events.  We had an AWESOME conversation. We didn’t agree on everything… but we brought up issues of the day… as well as linked stories to our history.  Some of the stuff… we totally agreed on and some of the stuff… we didn’t.   But we were able to have this deep… enlightening… fun… awesome conversation.  Family was there.  We were pigging out on all sorts of unhealthy food too.  Which I’m sure helped. But at one point… I asked a question.  It was partly hypothetical… and partly because I legitimately was open to his answer. I said, “Okay… we’ve talked about a ton of different issues… some of which we’ve agreed on and some not so much, but it’s been amazing. You’ve opened my eyes to some things, and I think I may have pointed you to a few things too.   What’s at the heart of that? He responded with one word.  “Empathy.” We were willing to have empathy for each other. It was sooooo true!  Now… I’m fascinated by psychology, communication and interpersonal dynamics.  I get lost in leadership theory.  So, of course, I knew the word.  But in that moment… it just hit me.  It was a truth I needed to be reminded of! Empathy. In the moment… I totally agreed… and then we moved on to more topics.  But the concept of empathy stuck with me.  So I kept digging into it.  And some of the things I’ve found led me to believe that it is truly the Secret Weapon for Thriving in a Divided World! Seriously… I don’t want to over hype it… but the growing science and understanding behind EMPATHY is incredible.  I dug in and I wanted to share a little bit of you… so you could understand this Secret Weapon better… and use it more. Because when you understand empathy… you tend to connect with people at deeper levels, you create more trust AND… some new research is pointing to how empathy can actually make you a happier person too!  So let’s dive in.  EMPATHY DEFINED: One Definition for empathy is: "The ability to understand the feelings of another.” It does NOT mean you need to agree... but simply the willingness and ability to understand and honor the feelings of another person.  Another definition is: “The ability to sense other people's emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling.” A third says, “Empathy is simply listening, holding space, withholding judgement, and emotionally connecting with another human being.” And right now... this is sooooo needed and sooooo healing!

Jake Thompson is an entrepreneur, performance coach, podcaster, speaker, and author.  He’s also the CEO of Compete Every Day… a training and performance apparel company with kick-butt clothing to help you stay healthy, motivated, ambitious, and hungry!  His podcast is called “Compete Every Day,” and he interviews competitors from all walks of life and they talk about the specific things they do to win and succeed.  And lastly, Jake’s brand new book was just released and it’s killing it.  The book is called… surprise… surprise… “Compete Every Day.”   In it Jake shares the seven key choices leaders and globe changers can make to enhance their focus, increase their success, and win at work and life… EVEN during a pandemic!  We’re going to talk about what it means to COMPETE EVERY DAY… and how we can make some KEY choices to help us succeed more… and live more of the life we were meant to live!  I’m so looking forward to this so let’s get to it!   RESOURCES MENTIONED IN EPISODE: WEBSITE: www.competeeveryday.com PODCAST: podcast.competeeveryday.com BOOK: www.competeeveryday.com   MORE ON THE Jake Thompson EPISODE: Welcome to episode 281 of DREAM THINK DO.  I’m so stoked to get you this interview… because in it, we’re going to get you some specific ways to beat “Pandemic Fatigue.” I mean seriously… beat it back with a stick!  We’re going to dig into some strategies to help you not only survive… but thrive… RIGHT NOW. Honestly… that wasn’t what I was originally planning to focus on in this interview… because we’re talking with an expert on competition and resilience.  This is a guy who helps athletes… as well as people from all walks of life… perform at their best. But when we started to dig into some of the specific things top athletes do to perform at world-class levels… we started to bring the conversation to applying them to help you to navigate some of the rough stuff that’s hitting us right now. Whether you want to call it “Pandemic fatigue” or “COVID fatigue” it’s rampant.  It involves the feelings of being drained, overwhelmed, frustrated… especially because we’re not sure when all of this stuff is going to get better.  And if we let it… pandemic fatigue can totally drain our energy… our creativity… our performance.  And heck… even our ability to experience joy and peace. Well… if you can relate to this… and… deep down… you’ve been looking for some solutions… I can’t wait to get you this episode.  I can tell you that when I got done with recording the episode… I started to apply some of the things we talked about IMMEDIATELY.  And I can say that it’s already started to help.  And that’s what I want for you. I’m hoping you listen and then set an intention to do something new.  Something small but significant to not only survive but thrive… EVEN now!  So let’s do this! MINUTE BY MINUTE: 0:02 What is going down today 2:46 Get to know Jake Thompson 4:00 Conversation starts 4:42 The difference between competition and comparison 7:32 When Jake found that personal competition is key 15:57 Perseverance and grit 20:28 How Jake has coached his team during the pandemic 20:23 Staying focused on your priorities and goals 29:30 Final thoughts 30:46 Mitch's biggest takeaways   I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! What do you think?  What stood out to you from this convo with Jake? I loved each of his suggestions… but one specific thing I started to do IMMEDIATELY was to put some specific stuff on my calendar to look forward to.  Things for work.  Things for family and friends.  Quick adventures.  They don’t have to be BIG things (although I did schedule some ACTUAL travel - don’t worry… I’ll do it safely!).  They can be small but intentional things.  But I can already feel a difference.  Those milestones are SO important… especially right now!  What did you dig?  What did it stir up? I want to hear from YOU! 

Daniel Scrivner… he’s a true DREAM THINK DOer.  He’s a self-taught designer who got his start freelancing and eventually joined DDB - an advertising firm in Venice Beach.  Then… he moved to San Francisco and joined Apple's Marketing Communications team… where he got to work on several landmark product launches and projects.  In 2011, Daniel left Apple and joined the small team at Square.  He went on to become Square's Director of Design… where he grew his team from 5 to 40… and his team touched almost every aspect of Square's design.  During that same time, Square went public… and was valued at over $3.6 billion.  In 2016, Daniel left Square and founded Blackletter Ventures… and has become an investor in more than 30 companies.  Daniel has also become a trusted advisor to brands like Nike, Disney… and he speaks on design and entrepreneurship around the world.  Which brings us to what he’s up to now.    RESOURCES: Daniel’s website: www.danielscrivner.com Investments: www.blackletter.com  Daniels new Podcast: Outliers: www.outliers.fm/ Daniel references the book, “HOW WILL YOU MEASURE YOUR LIFE” by Clayton Christensen.  Here’s an article in the HBR about the story behind it.  FLOW: Daniel wants to give DREAM THINK DOers would like to give 25% off their first year with Flow. You can sign up for free at www.getflow.com and use promo code "DREAMTHINKDO" when you subscribe. BONUS INTERVIEW: Daniel and I extended our conversation to talk about leadership and life!  Check out this bonus interview for some pure gold insights on stretching yourself, continuing to innovate and living life to the fullest!  ADDITIONAL INFO ABOUT Daniel Scrivner EPISODE: Characterized by his refined aesthetic and ability to work at the highest level across mediums, Daniel is recognized as a leader in his field.  Get this… his client roster includes organizations like Apple, Square, Nike, Disney, and Target, and his accolades include a D&AD Black Pencil for Apple.com, a nomination to Kleiner Perkin's Design Council under John Maeda, and several "Best Of" awards in both Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store. As you’ll hear in our interview, Daniel is a self-taught designer, who’s worked his way up to now being CEO of Flow.   Daniel has been invited to speak at some of the world's most innovative organizations, including Andreessen Horowitz, General Assembly, Designer Fund, and 500 Startups.  A California native, Daniel now lives on five acres up in the foothills of Boulder, Colorado with his bride, Bre, and their dog, Sunny.  With clients and investments across the US, he spends most of the time in Colorado, with many trips to California and New York when it’s safe to do so! MINUTE BY MINUTE SHOW NOTES: 0:02 What to expect today 1:25 Get to know Daniel 4:09 Conversation starts 4:56 How David got into design 12:28 The correct way to think about self education 15:08 Daniel’s journey from designer to CEO 18:02 Give yourself permission to go all-in 20:05 Put in the work to create better opportunities 21:17 The one thing Mitch wants to know 26:06 Know yourself 27:26 Recognize your weakness in a healthy way 31:09 Mitch’s biggest takeaways 31:11 How to see bonus footage   I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! What do you think?  What stood out to you from this convo with Daniel? I have to say I love his devotion to continually learning.  That core belief has allowed him to push through and have some AMAZING experiences.  Apple. Square.  Now… FLOW.  Pretty dang cool!  Plus, that devotion keeps him stretching and achieving at new levels.  Love that.   What did you dig?  What did it stir up? I want to hear from YOU!  Comment here or you can connect up with me on Facebook or Instagram and let me know.   I can’t wait to hear YOUR thoughts! #letsdothis #bestyearyet For more podcasts click here