Announcer (00:10):
This is the Story Power Marketing Show with Tom Ruwitch. Make yourself comfortable and fasten your seatbelt. Tom and his guest are about to share powerful stories, trade, business, building insights, and have a few laughs. Tom created this podcast to help you captivate prospects and inspire them to act so you can get more clients quickly and easily. That's what powerful storytelling is all about. That's what this podcast is all about. So let's get this party started. Here's your host, Tom Ruic.
Tom Ruwitch (00:54):
Hello and welcome to the Story Power Marketing Show. I'm Tom Ruwitch, and today's episode is called The Pursuit of Profitable Happiness. My guest today, Dr. Peleè, is an educator, musician, best-selling author, the founder of Profitable Happiness. He's also the author of a great new book called Profitable Happiness, the five Key Habits of a High Performance Organization. I should note it also that he is a friend, an influencer, uh, somebody who I inspires me, and I love it. Every time I talk to Dr. Pai, he seeks to change the world through books, software, training, and music by helping organizations build cultures of high employee engagement, experience and performance. Dr, you're back on the Story Power Marketing Show. Welcome, my friend.
Dr. Pelè (01:58):
Thank you so much, Tom for that. Just wonderful, uh, opening. I really appreciate being here with you again.
Tom Ruwitch (02:04):
Well, I appreciate you. I'm glad you're here. And I want to lead in by quoting something from this book, which I highly recommend, and I just think there's so many nuggets. I, I was saying to you before we turn the record button on and began this episode that usually I do not come to these episodes with a pile of notes and specific I'm gonna ask about this and this and this. I let the conversation flow where it will, but there were so many nuggets in this book that I highlighted and that I wanted to bring into this conversation that I'm gonna start by pulling one of those nuggets and quoting it, and then let you go from there. So you write early in this book, our world is full of far too many people who go to work every day, yet they hate what they do. This unhappiness results in a global lack of engagement work, low morale, poor wellbeing, high stress, and low business performance. I decided I being, you decided to focus on how companies can leverage the wellbeing of their greatest asset people to create the business success they seek, leverage the wellbeing of their greatest asset people. What do you mean by that?
Dr. Pelè (03:26):
Wow. Well, first of all, thank you for quoting that because that really is the heart of the problem. Yeah. Um, a lot of leaders, a lot of marketers, a lot of companies, uh, are used to saying things like, people are our greatest asset, <laugh>.
(03:40):
Right? And this is well known. It's, it's repeated, it's almost a cliche at this point, but the truth is, if you go into many of those companies, those people don't feel like they are great assets. In fact, many of them are unhappy. In fact, research shows that 70%, a whopping 70% of all employees are disengaged at work, and a percentage of those, um, are actually actively working against the intentions of the organization trying to pull the organization down because they're so unhappy. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and then companies are spending, what, 300 billion annually on employee stress, that number. And by the way, by the way, these research statistics haven't changed in decades. I know almost every year we show up when we hear, yep. 70% disengaged. Nobody's happy. People don't want to be here. The employee experience is terrible. I mean, it's like, when are we gonna have a solution here?
(04:35):
So many people have tried to address this, when will there be a solution? And so I made it my mission and I made it my life's work. At this point, my, my life has sort of led me here to focus on a very obvious, yet untapped resource. And that is the simple idea of happiness. Yeah. If you go into the scientific literature of happiness, in fact, today's MRIs can actually look into our brains and show us where the happiness stuff is happening or not happening. If you look into the research on happiness, it is clearly the parent emotion of things like employee engagement, employee experience, retention, questions of turnover, whether people wanna stay in companies or not. It all has to do with a very simple question, are you happy <laugh>? Because if you're not happy, you're outta here. And so, the tragedy, the tragedy that I've discovered is that so many of us misunderstand happiness. We think of happiness as something that happens after we've achieved certain things or that happens to us, or as an emotion. We feel we don't feel like we're in control of happiness, and that is a central problem that makes us vulnerable to being very unhappy. Also, we don't understand the definition of happiness. So my book had a mission to correct the definition of happiness for people and help them understand the context of happiness so that they can acquire it and use it to create the success they seek in their companies.
Tom Ruwitch (06:05):
Beautiful. And, and, and central to the book and to your business is the idea that business leaders, businesses can be proactive about helping their people feel happy and that happy, and that this will ultimately be a means to greater business success. But when you start talking about these things and start saying to business leaders, you should invest in these things. Happiness, uh, lifting your employees, making sure they're engaged, and all, all, all those ideas, they push back. Because I think the business culture of the 20 and early 21st senten 20th and early 21st century is rooted in this idea that that stuff's not necessary. That's a, you you're investing in this cost. And, and, and you point to this by noting something that Peter Drucker said, <laugh>. And, you know, uh, we were talking about this before the call, the ooh, it's hairy to go up after Peter Drucker. He's
Dr. Pelè (07:08):
Peter Drucker after all right?
Tom Ruwitch (07:10):
But, but you do it. You do it. And in my notes, I wrote down in big letters the Drucker fallacy. Cause because you, you, you knock it out of the park on this one. You know, Peter Drucker said, uh, this, let me, let me pull this from my notes. Um, uh, the purpose of a business is to create a customer. And the business enterprise has two and only two basic functions. Marketing and innovation, marketing and innovation produced results. All the rest are costs. So the business leaders who buy into this idea are thinking, don't tell me about investing in this other stuff and measuring employee happiness. I, I need to invest in marketing. I need to invest in innovation. The rest will happen. And when we achieve business success, everybody will be happy. And I've done my job. Well, <laugh>, as you write in the book, where is the business function that supports the happiness of those marketers and innovators? Absolutely. Widely adopted statement reflects this is you writing in the book Drucker's statement reflects the lack of focus we see in organizations on what you believe to be the most critical engine of a business. It's people. Yeah. The primary purpose of business Yeah. Should be to create happy employees who will in turn create satisfied customers. Happiness drives success. Yep. Talk about that a bit. Will you?
Dr. Pelè (08:48):
Well, you know, uh, Tom, let, let me, let me just go back to, just to let your viewers know that I, I know you very well and you are without a doubt, in my view, one of the best storytellers on the planet. You and I share a, a passion, we share a passion for storytelling. So I'm gonna answer that question with a story. It's a very simple Yeah. It's a very simple story. It's the story of the golden goose and the golden eggs. You know, if you remember asaps, asaps, uh, fables, um, it, it's a very simple story where you had this farmer, he had a golden goose, and it was producing golden eggs. And these golden eggs were beautiful, and he wanted more of these golden eggs. So he said, Hey, gimme more eggs. Well, the poor goose wasn't producing faster. So he went into the goose.
(09:33):
He went to the goose, and he said, you know what, I'm just gonna cut this thing open and get these eggs out. So he kills the goose and reaches in for more eggs. And there were none. Okay? This is the problem organizations have. They care more about what the outcome will be in terms of business. Then who is creating the outcomes? The golden eggs are the outcomes. That's sales, that's marketing results, that's product sales, all of that stuff. But the poor goose, that's the employees. If all you focus on is the outcomes, and you don't focus on those employees with the same level of passion and focus and energy, you will ultimately destroy the goose and destroy the eggs. Right? Yeah. So, you know what, when I looked at this situation, I was like, how can I just very simply help people understand that the same amount of research and the graphs they look at for sales and results and the energy, if they could just put even half of that into helping that goose be happy, <laugh> and well fed and, and capable, they would get all the, they would get all the results they want and more.
(10:46):
And that, I think is the fundamental challenge, is that people need to start seeing the, the, the people function of an organization. Not, not hr, because HR I think, is misunderstood to be the people function. The people function is everywhere in an organization. All leaders are people leaders. And so when, when that emphasis, when those people all are empowered to create happy employees, organizations will thrive.
Tom Ruwitch (11:12):
Beautiful. Beautiful. And let's assume that the listeners and viewers are, are convinced. They understand why this is important. They understand that they need to do this. Now the question is, is how, and in the book and in your work, you emphasize the importance of habit formation, developing systems and habit formation. It's not a one-time thing. Or, you know, it's not about having a weekly pizza, lunch or <laugh>, uh, putting a ping pong table in the break room or, or saying at attaboy when somebody does a nice job. You know, it's more than that. It's about developing habits at the corporate, at the business levels. Could you, could you explain what you mean by that habit formation to, to create that happiness that's so important?
Dr. Pelè (12:00):
Yeah, no, absolutely. It's actually a very scientifically, uh, well-known, researched three-step process that creates habits for human beings. It's well-known all the way from Pavlov down to you and I talking right now, the strategy for building behavioral habits in organizational, uh, behavioral, you know, analysis is very clear, but let's get into that by first starting with something you, you just pointed out, which is a better definition for happiness. Because when leaders understand that we're not talking about the happiness they think we're talking about, it really makes things clearer. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, there are CO2 kinds of happiness based on scientific evidence and research. Right? The first one is called hedonic happiness. Now, this is the kind of happiness, which is the pizza lunches, the, the ping pong table in the foyer, you know, people feeling, yeah, I like it here, I'm just happy today. Okay. That's not the kind of happiness that produces high performance in organizations might be fun for, for, for a lunch party.
(13:00):
But that's not the happiness we're talking about. We're actually talking about a kind of happiness called you demonic happiness, which goes all the way back to Aristotle who brought up this concept that the happiness that produces engagement, that produces focus on the right things, uh, happiness, that that is all about, you know, flow. Okay. Uh, and employee experience, all of those things. The meaning that we get from what we do that is called Nic happiness. And it's well-known, well-researched, and can be tapped into as the engine of business productivity. In fact, there's a lot of research that shows that dy happiness produces, uh, I believe an Oxford study said it was 13% more productivity. Uh, uh, several other studies have shown us this is not anything new. Okay. It's well known. Now. He, here's the thing. First of all, I didn't want to call my book Dymo Happiness <laugh>.
(13:54):
Yeah. I don't do, I don't, I don't really like that <laugh> tic happiness. So, you know, profitable happiness, which is the same thing really, is really a process of taking those emotions which involve more than just happiness. There's engagement, there's pride in your work. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, there's a sense of appreciation that you're getting from your organization. There's recognition for the good things you do. There is several, you know, there's employee experience. You know, there are several aspects to profitable happiness. But now the question is, as with anything else with human beings, how do you actually create results from something mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Well, again, we tap into another science, now we've got happiness. The second science area is habits. We have a, a virtual, a literal, actually, uh, habit making machine in our brains. And habits are the magic of life, period. They are the reason why someone can be so talented at something and you're thinking, wow, this is, you know, God-given or something.
(14:55):
Yeah. The fact is, some of it may have been, you know, innate, but most of it was because they created habits. You know, I like to talk about Pele, the soccer player who I was named after. You know, you, you've probably seen that picture where he's looking like this and he's got his one foot, probably can't see my foot in the video way up like this. And he kicks a ball backward, it's called a bicycle kick. And scores the winning soccer, uh, match game, uh, for the, the, the, the world cup in the 1960s. That iconic picture, when we look at it, we go, wow, he's a great soccer player. Yeah. But let me tell you what he really is. He's a great habit making machine. Yeah. That's it. That young man at that time, he played those things over and over. And I know this cuz I'm a musician.
(15:42):
I know what it takes to not know a chord today and then played 500 million times and then all of a sudden, you know it, or like teaching my daughter how to ride a bicycle at the age of six years old, she couldn't ride a bicycle. We tried over and over until one day like magic. He's riding the bicycle. What happened? The habit got saved in something actually called neither habit on my wall there, the basil ganglia. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, the basil ganglia is a, is a thing in our minds that actually allows us to take information from the conscious mind into the subconscious mind. And that's where the magic happens. So why am I talking about habits? Because they're so powerful. They actually allow us to do things automatically. And because of that, you take certain behaviors that you want your employees to have, you turn them into habits. And when many of them have those same habits, that's what you call a culture.
(16:35):
Yep. Now you have a culture of shared habits, shared behaviors, and if that culture has high engagement, high productivity, high experience, uh, high pride, high recognition and and appreciation, you leader <laugh> have just created a profitable happiness culture that will lead to high performance because that's what those things together take us to. So I think, I think where a lot of people stop when it comes to happiness is first of all, ah, it's just an emotion. Ah, whatever. They don't realize it's a habit we can form. Yeah. And when you form the habit of happiness, then you have a, a thing that you can really build organizational success on. And that's the key. Happiness first then habits, then high performance in your organization. Three Hs <laugh>.
Tom Ruwitch (17:24):
Yeah. I love it. And, and inherent in that. And you, and you said this, I'm just gonna put it slightly different way. So many people operate under the assumption that things happen and we feel happy as a result. Yep. Things happen and we feel happy as a result, we achieve business success that makes us happy. Yeah. It's the other way around. Yes. We can choose to do things that make us happy. Yeah. We're in control of Absolutely. Of happiness. We choose to do things that make us happy. We do them habitually.
Dr. Pelè (18:03):
Yes.
Tom Ruwitch (18:04):
And good things follow
Dr. Pelè (18:06):
E Exactly. Make us success. And, and guess what, if any of your viewers or listeners are willing to try and experiment right now mm-hmm. <affirmative>, just smile mm-hmm. <affirmative> and keep the smile and really keep it. Make sure your face is smiling and just keep that smile and keep that you cannot help but feel something. Yeah. And what you're feeling is some endorphins and some happiness coming into you. What is that? That means we created an action first that drove a feeling. It's kind of like if you, if you yawn, I'm probably gonna start yawning because we human beings, we are beings of resonance. Yeah. When we do something, it resonates and creates feelings that allow us to do. It's, it's equivalent. So we have to know, first of all, that you can create happiness. You do happiness, you don't feel it, you do it first and then you feel it.
(18:58):
Right. And so there, there's a scientific process called the a, b, C process mm-hmm. <affirmative> for analyzing, uh, uh, behaviors of any kind and for either improving behaviors or, or, you know, reducing behaviors and habits. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's called A, B, C, and it stands for antecedent behaviors and consequence. Now, first of all, antecedent is very simple. It's what happens before the behavior. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> A behavior is obviously what the behavior that you're looking for, in this case, happiness or appreciation or recognition or whatever it is you're trying to make into a habit. Right. Behavior. And then the C stands for consequence, which is what happens right after the behavior. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So everybody from Pavlovian, you know, dog handling and chimpanzee experiments to human psychologists today, they use this a, b, C approach mm-hmm. <affirmative> to mold and shape and create habits and behavior mm-hmm.
(19:50):
<affirmative>. But of course, again, just like you demonic happiness, I I I have to change it from you, you demonic to profitable happiness. I changed the a b ABC to the things that actually make them work. So the antecedent, the thing that comes before a behavior has to get your attention. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, if, if, if you set an alarm that you can't hear, so that you can wake up every morning at 7:00 AM it's not gonna work. Right. Right. So that alarm has to really get your attention. So what you do is you design something in your life that creates an attention getter for you so that you can jump into the behavior, then you jump into the behavior that you're gonna do. Yep. And here's the problem. Most behaviors, you, you and I won't do them if you don't believe that they're gonna create something for us, if there's no what's in it for me.
(20:37):
So that sense of belief in what you're doing has to be ingrained. And this is where leaders and managers come in to help their employees believe that they can actually create outcomes by being happy and so on. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So belief instead of just behavior, it's belief of that behavior is power. Right. And then see consequence, which is what happens after the behavior. I added celebration. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Why? Because when we find a way to celebrate, give ourselves some of that, you know, dopamine, endorphin, whatever mm-hmm. <affirmative>, when we find a way to celebrate right after we've done the thing we're trying to become better at, that makes us want to do it all over again.
Tom Ruwitch (21:13):
Brings it full circle.
Dr. Pelè (21:15):
Yes. And that's how you, you, that's how you create habits by having the a, b, C process happen over and over again. Now, when you do that in an organization, boom, you're changing your culture over time.
Tom Ruwitch (21:26):
Yep. And one of the key things about habit development, especially when you're trying to do it across multiple people in a, in a large organization, is that you need tools. You need to keep track, you need to keep score, you need to know where is it working, where is it not, where, where are the holes that we need to fill? And how, how can an organization do that? How do you help organizations do that?
Dr. Pelè (21:55):
Well, you know, Tom, you know, I don't know what I'm gonna do with you, my friend, because you're just hitting me on all the points here. I love it. Lemme show you something. You see this, this is the book. Clearly we're talking about the book Profitable Happiness. But you know what's interesting? I actually have created software called Profitable Happiness. And the software is really what makes this all happen. The book is where you get the concepts and you learn and you understand the science behind profitable happiness. But the truth is, what I'm really sharing with the world, and I hope to be my legacy, is the software. Now I have a software tool called Profitable Happiness that is all focused on using people, data, data about your people, about profitable happiness, of course, the elements to help you implement a new culture. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> software is the most powerful way that you can, as you've said, Tom, take large numbers of people and slowly, but sure surely help them get new habits.
(22:55):
Now, you want, someone might ask, well, how can software help me get, get new habits? Well, first of all, one thing about a habit is that it is only formed based on what we focus on. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, right? So for example, you may have heard whatever you focus on, or sorry, whatever you feed is what will grow. If I keep thinking positive thoughts all the time, I will someday become more positive. If I keep thinking negative thoughts, I will remain there. <laugh>, I will be negative. So what software can help us do is it helps us to focus all employees on specific things. So if I wanna focus you on something, Tom, I can just ask you a question. That's it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So Tom, how do you feel today focusing him on his feelings? Tom, how do you feel today focusing him on, on his feelings third day?
(23:43):
Tom, how do you feel? Again, I'm focusing you on your feelings. If I do that enough times, someday you'll independently come to me and say, Hey, hey, Dr. Play, here's how I'm feeling today. <laugh>, don't ask me again. I get it. I'm supposed to focus on my feelings. But that's how organizations can slowly but surely help all employees Yep. Focus on things like employee engagement. These, a lot of these things come from choices we make. Yep. You know, look, some might say, well, employee engagement is not a choice. Well, yeah. It is because HR and leaders can help employees tap into their greatest strengths and reassign them to jobs or duties that take better advantage of their strengths and therefore improve their employee, uh, their engagement. Yep. So, so these are things that are actually under our control. And, uh, the, the ways to do all of these things have to do with getting people focused on specific things. And you do that through software that asks you questions every week.
Tom Ruwitch (24:43):
I love it. I love it. And, and I know from my own experience that this sort of thing works. So I, like everybody who's watching it or listening have been through the experience of, of trying to establish a positive habit mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and you get going New Year's resolution or, or whatever it might be, you get going, you build momentum, it wanes, you forget about it, then you feel bad about it later and, and the whole thing. Yeah. And one of the things I've done is implemented tools for myself where I'm recording the goal. I'm just, it's literally about checking the box each day. Yeah. And after you check the box each day for 10 or 15 or 20 or 30 days, boom. All of a sudden it's like riding your daughter, riding the bike. All of a sudden it's no longer this thing where I'm concentrating and it focusing on every, oh, I have to remember to do this or do that or whatever. I promised myself. It just happens. It's now habit, it's reflex, it's, it's just built into me. And I think, uh, um, what you're talking about with your software is, is not necessarily so simple as check boxes, but it it's based on the same principle. I know.
Dr. Pelè (25:58):
Yeah. I mean, companies like Zoom, right? Uh, which we're using right now, uh, are well celebrated for having a happiness first employee first approach mm-hmm. <affirmative>, even before, uh, customer happiness for them is employee happiness because they know they're, you know, just as we talked about the goose and the golden eggs, that goose is the most important element there. That's right. And so, uh, zoom communications, um, they actually have a 100 person happiness crew, people who, their job in the organization is to create meetings, events, and different tools and capabilities that help people feel happy inside the company. Yeah. So this, this is not just a, a, uh, a theoretical thing. This is something that real companies that have created real success in the world are doing proactively to help employees become, uh, more successful through happiness.
Tom Ruwitch (26:56):
Yep. Now, some people who are listening, some people in my audience may not be a leader in a large company, and maybe me thinking, well, all right, whatever. That's good for the corporate world, but yeah. You know, I, I run a small business, I have a few employees. Does it apply to them?
Dr. Pelè (27:12):
Oh, absolutely. It applies to anyone who has the, uh, title of person <laugh>.
(27:18):
The, the, the, the, in fact, in fact, my software is, uh, targeting, um, the small to medium sized businesses at this point because, you know, anywhere from, you know, 20, 30, 50 employees up to 500 or more, but definitely under a thousand employees that range, oh my goodness. They're hurting because for most of them, they don't wanna be spending the thousands and thousands of dollars on the larger solutions out there. And there are solutions, HR solutions, although I personally think they're too complicated and hard to use, but that's a different conversation, Uhhuh. But they don't wanna, you know, invest in those massive it, you know, implementations. Yeah. So my tool is just a very simple software, uh, tool that is very easy to use, that addresses that very small to, to medium size enterprise. Um, so yes, absolutely.
Tom Ruwitch (28:10):
Beautiful. Beautiful. And where does someone go if they wanna learn more about you? Get the book, learn more about the software?
Dr. Pelè (28:18):
So there are basically three places. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I'll say four because I'll add Amazon <laugh>. So on Amazon, of course, you can go get the book, and I, I'm sure you'll have a link to, to that. Um, but I'm active on LinkedIn mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but that's where I am. So again, I'm sure you'll have that. Um, but the, the other two places are my two websites, dr p.com. D r p e l e.com is basically my speaking and more personal website where I have everything I do personally. And that's a good place to learn about all these things. But the software itself is on the fourth, uh, area, uh, area, which is profitable happiness.com, and that is based on the software. Of course, the book is there as well. But these are the ways that anyone can reach me. And since you asked Tom, I have to share with everyone that right now I am seeking, uh, private beta companies. So if you're a company with, you know, 30, 40, 50 employees or up to 500 and you'd like to join my pri private beta, which means you get to use the software for free to create results in this particular phase of our development, um, just, uh, let us know. Let me know, let Tom know, and, uh, I will absolutely have a conversation with you, and we will get you this software so you can build a high performance culture.
Tom Ruwitch (29:34):
Yep. Beautiful. Beautiful. And, and one thing we haven't talked about, which I want to get into just a little bit as we close, is the fact that you are a musician. That a lot of your philosophy about happiness and a lot of your approach to life is rooted in the joy that you get from composing and performing music and the joy that you spread when you compose and perform music. And one of the things I love about the book is that every chapter includes a, uh, well, the, the, the book has a soundtrack and every chapter includes a, uh, a song from the soundtrack, which is Yeah. Is just awesome. And, and how do you actually get access to the songs themselves? I, when I read the book, you make reference to the song, and where do I go to find the songs?
Dr. Pelè (30:33):
Yeah. Well, I'll, I'll actually make that a little bit clearer at some point, because the songs right now are everywhere that you can get songs such as, yeah. Spotify or Apple Music and so on. So that's, you're right. There's got, I gotta be a little clearer about that. But, but I, I do wanna just talk a little bit about this music thing you've talked about. You know, I've had several people, uh, tell me that, um, nobody's buying music <laugh> at these companies that you're going to. Why are you even talking about your music? And I go, thank you very much. I am what you call a purple cow. You can even see the color purple behind me. Okay. Yeah. I plan to use every gift that God has given me, and music is definitely right up there to help people understand this stuff. And it just turns out that music is more than just a fun thing I I do for marketing. It's actually something that drives the book. So, for example, we talked about the software. The software is called a Profitable Happiness Jam. Now, what is it? Yeah, I love
Tom Ruwitch (31:30):
It. Jam. Yeah.
Dr. Pelè (31:31):
Yeah. Well, what is a jam? A jam is when musicians get together and they decide on, you know, you know, you say, okay, here's the key of the song. Here's the temple, let's go, you know, a jazz jam. The funny thing is that when you use the concept of an event like a jam, as a way of listening to your employees, giving them feedback, getting feedback from them, it is a powerful way to build habits of listening and, you know, culture and happiness building in an organization. So it's a powerful, so my software is actually using the concept of a musical jam, um, as part of its, uh, way of explaining what it does. So I'm involved in Music from the Heart all the way up. It, it is, it is something that I believe in. And our b business breakfast that we have here in Austin, it's a jam. It's people just come and they learn about profitable happiness. They learn about high performance in their organizations, and they enjoy some awesome music as
Tom Ruwitch (32:26):
Well. Beautiful. Beautiful. And, and I had forgotten about this until we started talking about it. We've known each other now for a few years and bonded over music. Yeah. And, uh, some months after First Connected, we put together a playlist that Yes is available on Spotify and Apple that includes some of our favorite songs that are all about inspiration and, and, and happiness. And, and, um, you know, when we're down, we listen to these songs and Yep. I'm gonna make sure that we share that playlist in Absolutely. Uh, in the show notes. The other thing I want to note, this is gonna be a little cliffhanger for those of you who are, are, uh, listening or watching the opening of this book, profitable Happiness is a story that Dr. Polli tells about his his immigrant journey. Um, and, and it's a remarkable story about his mother and him and escaping chaos and war and making his way ultimately over here to America where he got his PhD and became a great business leader. Uh, and, and it's about music and it's if, if for no other reason than reading that story, go get the book, read the story, and then the second story is the story of how and why your father chose to name you after Pele, the great soccer player. Both those stories are just awesome. You'll keep reading after you read those two stories, but get the book if for no other reason than to read those two stories. So, Dr. Play any parting thoughts for us before we call it a day?
Dr. Pelè (34:21):
I just wanna say when a storyteller like you tells people that a story I wrote is worth reading, that means something to me. <laugh>. Ah, thank you so much, Tom. It's been just, uh, an honor to be part of your podcast
Tom Ruwitch (34:33):
Today. Thank you. I always enjoy getting together with you. I really encourage people, even if you don't have a company with 20 employees, even if it's just you and three employees, there's so much that you can get for yourself. And then for your small organization from this, this book, go check out profitable happiness.com, dr p.com, find him on LinkedIn, and you will benefit from the relationship as I have. Thanks so much.
Dr. Pelè (35:00):
Thank you so much, Tom.
Announcer (35:12):
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This is the Story Power Marketing Show with Tom Ruwitch. Make yourself comfortable and fasten your seatbelt. Tom and his guest are about to share powerful stories, trade, business, building insights, and have a few laughs. Tom created this podcast to help you captivate prospects and inspire them to act so you can get more clients quickly and easily. That's what powerful storytelling is all about. That's what this podcast is all about. So let's get this party started. Here's your host, Tom Ruic.
Tom Ruwitch (00:54):
Hello and welcome to the Story Power Marketing Show. I'm Tom Ruwitch, and today's episode is called The Pursuit of Profitable Happiness. My guest today, Dr. Peleè, is an educator, musician, best-selling author, the founder of Profitable Happiness. He's also the author of a great new book called Profitable Happiness, the five Key Habits of a High Performance Organization. I should note it also that he is a friend, an influencer, uh, somebody who I inspires me, and I love it. Every time I talk to Dr. Pai, he seeks to change the world through books, software, training, and music by helping organizations build cultures of high employee engagement, experience and performance. Dr, you're back on the Story Power Marketing Show. Welcome, my friend.
Dr. Pelè (01:58):
Thank you so much, Tom for that. Just wonderful, uh, opening. I really appreciate being here with you again.
Tom Ruwitch (02:04):
Well, I appreciate you. I'm glad you're here. And I want to lead in by quoting something from this book, which I highly recommend, and I just think there's so many nuggets. I, I was saying to you before we turn the record button on and began this episode that usually I do not come to these episodes with a pile of notes and specific I'm gonna ask about this and this and this. I let the conversation flow where it will, but there were so many nuggets in this book that I highlighted and that I wanted to bring into this conversation that I'm gonna start by pulling one of those nuggets and quoting it, and then let you go from there. So you write early in this book, our world is full of far too many people who go to work every day, yet they hate what they do. This unhappiness results in a global lack of engagement work, low morale, poor wellbeing, high stress, and low business performance. I decided I being, you decided to focus on how companies can leverage the wellbeing of their greatest asset people to create the business success they seek, leverage the wellbeing of their greatest asset people. What do you mean by that?
Dr. Pelè (03:26):
Wow. Well, first of all, thank you for quoting that because that really is the heart of the problem. Yeah. Um, a lot of leaders, a lot of marketers, a lot of companies, uh, are used to saying things like, people are our greatest asset, <laugh>.
(03:40):
Right? And this is well known. It's, it's repeated, it's almost a cliche at this point, but the truth is, if you go into many of those companies, those people don't feel like they are great assets. In fact, many of them are unhappy. In fact, research shows that 70%, a whopping 70% of all employees are disengaged at work, and a percentage of those, um, are actually actively working against the intentions of the organization trying to pull the organization down because they're so unhappy. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and then companies are spending, what, 300 billion annually on employee stress, that number. And by the way, by the way, these research statistics haven't changed in decades. I know almost every year we show up when we hear, yep. 70% disengaged. Nobody's happy. People don't want to be here. The employee experience is terrible. I mean, it's like, when are we gonna have a solution here?
(04:35):
So many people have tried to address this, when will there be a solution? And so I made it my mission and I made it my life's work. At this point, my, my life has sort of led me here to focus on a very obvious, yet untapped resource. And that is the simple idea of happiness. Yeah. If you go into the scientific literature of happiness, in fact, today's MRIs can actually look into our brains and show us where the happiness stuff is happening or not happening. If you look into the research on happiness, it is clearly the parent emotion of things like employee engagement, employee experience, retention, questions of turnover, whether people wanna stay in companies or not. It all has to do with a very simple question, are you happy <laugh>? Because if you're not happy, you're outta here. And so, the tragedy, the tragedy that I've discovered is that so many of us misunderstand happiness. We think of happiness as something that happens after we've achieved certain things or that happens to us, or as an emotion. We feel we don't feel like we're in control of happiness, and that is a central problem that makes us vulnerable to being very unhappy. Also, we don't understand the definition of happiness. So my book had a mission to correct the definition of happiness for people and help them understand the context of happiness so that they can acquire it and use it to create the success they seek in their companies.
Tom Ruwitch (06:05):
Beautiful. And, and, and central to the book and to your business is the idea that business leaders, businesses can be proactive about helping their people feel happy and that happy, and that this will ultimately be a means to greater business success. But when you start talking about these things and start saying to business leaders, you should invest in these things. Happiness, uh, lifting your employees, making sure they're engaged, and all, all, all those ideas, they push back. Because I think the business culture of the 20 and early 21st senten 20th and early 21st century is rooted in this idea that that stuff's not necessary. That's a, you you're investing in this cost. And, and, and you point to this by noting something that Peter Drucker said, <laugh>. And, you know, uh, we were talking about this before the call, the ooh, it's hairy to go up after Peter Drucker. He's
Dr. Pelè (07:08):
Peter Drucker after all right?
Tom Ruwitch (07:10):
But, but you do it. You do it. And in my notes, I wrote down in big letters the Drucker fallacy. Cause because you, you, you knock it out of the park on this one. You know, Peter Drucker said, uh, this, let me, let me pull this from my notes. Um, uh, the purpose of a business is to create a customer. And the business enterprise has two and only two basic functions. Marketing and innovation, marketing and innovation produced results. All the rest are costs. So the business leaders who buy into this idea are thinking, don't tell me about investing in this other stuff and measuring employee happiness. I, I need to invest in marketing. I need to invest in innovation. The rest will happen. And when we achieve business success, everybody will be happy. And I've done my job. Well, <laugh>, as you write in the book, where is the business function that supports the happiness of those marketers and innovators? Absolutely. Widely adopted statement reflects this is you writing in the book Drucker's statement reflects the lack of focus we see in organizations on what you believe to be the most critical engine of a business. It's people. Yeah. The primary purpose of business Yeah. Should be to create happy employees who will in turn create satisfied customers. Happiness drives success. Yep. Talk about that a bit. Will you?
Dr. Pelè (08:48):
Well, you know, uh, Tom, let, let me, let me just go back to, just to let your viewers know that I, I know you very well and you are without a doubt, in my view, one of the best storytellers on the planet. You and I share a, a passion, we share a passion for storytelling. So I'm gonna answer that question with a story. It's a very simple Yeah. It's a very simple story. It's the story of the golden goose and the golden eggs. You know, if you remember asaps, asaps, uh, fables, um, it, it's a very simple story where you had this farmer, he had a golden goose, and it was producing golden eggs. And these golden eggs were beautiful, and he wanted more of these golden eggs. So he said, Hey, gimme more eggs. Well, the poor goose wasn't producing faster. So he went into the goose.
(09:33):
He went to the goose, and he said, you know what, I'm just gonna cut this thing open and get these eggs out. So he kills the goose and reaches in for more eggs. And there were none. Okay? This is the problem organizations have. They care more about what the outcome will be in terms of business. Then who is creating the outcomes? The golden eggs are the outcomes. That's sales, that's marketing results, that's product sales, all of that stuff. But the poor goose, that's the employees. If all you focus on is the outcomes, and you don't focus on those employees with the same level of passion and focus and energy, you will ultimately destroy the goose and destroy the eggs. Right? Yeah. So, you know what, when I looked at this situation, I was like, how can I just very simply help people understand that the same amount of research and the graphs they look at for sales and results and the energy, if they could just put even half of that into helping that goose be happy, <laugh> and well fed and, and capable, they would get all the, they would get all the results they want and more.
(10:46):
And that, I think is the fundamental challenge, is that people need to start seeing the, the, the people function of an organization. Not, not hr, because HR I think, is misunderstood to be the people function. The people function is everywhere in an organization. All leaders are people leaders. And so when, when that emphasis, when those people all are empowered to create happy employees, organizations will thrive.
Tom Ruwitch (11:12):
Beautiful. Beautiful. And let's assume that the listeners and viewers are, are convinced. They understand why this is important. They understand that they need to do this. Now the question is, is how, and in the book and in your work, you emphasize the importance of habit formation, developing systems and habit formation. It's not a one-time thing. Or, you know, it's not about having a weekly pizza, lunch or <laugh>, uh, putting a ping pong table in the break room or, or saying at attaboy when somebody does a nice job. You know, it's more than that. It's about developing habits at the corporate, at the business levels. Could you, could you explain what you mean by that habit formation to, to create that happiness that's so important?
Dr. Pelè (12:00):
Yeah, no, absolutely. It's actually a very scientifically, uh, well-known, researched three-step process that creates habits for human beings. It's well-known all the way from Pavlov down to you and I talking right now, the strategy for building behavioral habits in organizational, uh, behavioral, you know, analysis is very clear, but let's get into that by first starting with something you, you just pointed out, which is a better definition for happiness. Because when leaders understand that we're not talking about the happiness they think we're talking about, it really makes things clearer. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, there are CO2 kinds of happiness based on scientific evidence and research. Right? The first one is called hedonic happiness. Now, this is the kind of happiness, which is the pizza lunches, the, the ping pong table in the foyer, you know, people feeling, yeah, I like it here, I'm just happy today. Okay. That's not the kind of happiness that produces high performance in organizations might be fun for, for, for a lunch party.
(13:00):
But that's not the happiness we're talking about. We're actually talking about a kind of happiness called you demonic happiness, which goes all the way back to Aristotle who brought up this concept that the happiness that produces engagement, that produces focus on the right things, uh, happiness, that that is all about, you know, flow. Okay. Uh, and employee experience, all of those things. The meaning that we get from what we do that is called Nic happiness. And it's well-known, well-researched, and can be tapped into as the engine of business productivity. In fact, there's a lot of research that shows that dy happiness produces, uh, I believe an Oxford study said it was 13% more productivity. Uh, uh, several other studies have shown us this is not anything new. Okay. It's well known. Now. He, here's the thing. First of all, I didn't want to call my book Dymo Happiness <laugh>.
(13:54):
Yeah. I don't do, I don't, I don't really like that <laugh> tic happiness. So, you know, profitable happiness, which is the same thing really, is really a process of taking those emotions which involve more than just happiness. There's engagement, there's pride in your work. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, there's a sense of appreciation that you're getting from your organization. There's recognition for the good things you do. There is several, you know, there's employee experience. You know, there are several aspects to profitable happiness. But now the question is, as with anything else with human beings, how do you actually create results from something mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Well, again, we tap into another science, now we've got happiness. The second science area is habits. We have a, a virtual, a literal, actually, uh, habit making machine in our brains. And habits are the magic of life, period. They are the reason why someone can be so talented at something and you're thinking, wow, this is, you know, God-given or something.
(14:55):
Yeah. The fact is, some of it may have been, you know, innate, but most of it was because they created habits. You know, I like to talk about Pele, the soccer player who I was named after. You know, you, you've probably seen that picture where he's looking like this and he's got his one foot, probably can't see my foot in the video way up like this. And he kicks a ball backward, it's called a bicycle kick. And scores the winning soccer, uh, match game, uh, for the, the, the, the world cup in the 1960s. That iconic picture, when we look at it, we go, wow, he's a great soccer player. Yeah. But let me tell you what he really is. He's a great habit making machine. Yeah. That's it. That young man at that time, he played those things over and over. And I know this cuz I'm a musician.
(15:42):
I know what it takes to not know a chord today and then played 500 million times and then all of a sudden, you know it, or like teaching my daughter how to ride a bicycle at the age of six years old, she couldn't ride a bicycle. We tried over and over until one day like magic. He's riding the bicycle. What happened? The habit got saved in something actually called neither habit on my wall there, the basil ganglia. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, the basil ganglia is a, is a thing in our minds that actually allows us to take information from the conscious mind into the subconscious mind. And that's where the magic happens. So why am I talking about habits? Because they're so powerful. They actually allow us to do things automatically. And because of that, you take certain behaviors that you want your employees to have, you turn them into habits. And when many of them have those same habits, that's what you call a culture.
(16:35):
Yep. Now you have a culture of shared habits, shared behaviors, and if that culture has high engagement, high productivity, high experience, uh, high pride, high recognition and and appreciation, you leader <laugh> have just created a profitable happiness culture that will lead to high performance because that's what those things together take us to. So I think, I think where a lot of people stop when it comes to happiness is first of all, ah, it's just an emotion. Ah, whatever. They don't realize it's a habit we can form. Yeah. And when you form the habit of happiness, then you have a, a thing that you can really build organizational success on. And that's the key. Happiness first then habits, then high performance in your organization. Three Hs <laugh>.
Tom Ruwitch (17:24):
Yeah. I love it. And, and inherent in that. And you, and you said this, I'm just gonna put it slightly different way. So many people operate under the assumption that things happen and we feel happy as a result. Yep. Things happen and we feel happy as a result, we achieve business success that makes us happy. Yeah. It's the other way around. Yes. We can choose to do things that make us happy. Yeah. We're in control of Absolutely. Of happiness. We choose to do things that make us happy. We do them habitually.
Dr. Pelè (18:03):
Yes.
Tom Ruwitch (18:04):
And good things follow
Dr. Pelè (18:06):
E Exactly. Make us success. And, and guess what, if any of your viewers or listeners are willing to try and experiment right now mm-hmm. <affirmative>, just smile mm-hmm. <affirmative> and keep the smile and really keep it. Make sure your face is smiling and just keep that smile and keep that you cannot help but feel something. Yeah. And what you're feeling is some endorphins and some happiness coming into you. What is that? That means we created an action first that drove a feeling. It's kind of like if you, if you yawn, I'm probably gonna start yawning because we human beings, we are beings of resonance. Yeah. When we do something, it resonates and creates feelings that allow us to do. It's, it's equivalent. So we have to know, first of all, that you can create happiness. You do happiness, you don't feel it, you do it first and then you feel it.
(18:58):
Right. And so there, there's a scientific process called the a, b, C process mm-hmm. <affirmative> for analyzing, uh, uh, behaviors of any kind and for either improving behaviors or, or, you know, reducing behaviors and habits. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's called A, B, C, and it stands for antecedent behaviors and consequence. Now, first of all, antecedent is very simple. It's what happens before the behavior. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> A behavior is obviously what the behavior that you're looking for, in this case, happiness or appreciation or recognition or whatever it is you're trying to make into a habit. Right. Behavior. And then the C stands for consequence, which is what happens right after the behavior. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So everybody from Pavlovian, you know, dog handling and chimpanzee experiments to human psychologists today, they use this a, b, C approach mm-hmm. <affirmative> to mold and shape and create habits and behavior mm-hmm.
(19:50):
<affirmative>. But of course, again, just like you demonic happiness, I I I have to change it from you, you demonic to profitable happiness. I changed the a b ABC to the things that actually make them work. So the antecedent, the thing that comes before a behavior has to get your attention. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, if, if, if you set an alarm that you can't hear, so that you can wake up every morning at 7:00 AM it's not gonna work. Right. Right. So that alarm has to really get your attention. So what you do is you design something in your life that creates an attention getter for you so that you can jump into the behavior, then you jump into the behavior that you're gonna do. Yep. And here's the problem. Most behaviors, you, you and I won't do them if you don't believe that they're gonna create something for us, if there's no what's in it for me.
(20:37):
So that sense of belief in what you're doing has to be ingrained. And this is where leaders and managers come in to help their employees believe that they can actually create outcomes by being happy and so on. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So belief instead of just behavior, it's belief of that behavior is power. Right. And then see consequence, which is what happens after the behavior. I added celebration. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Why? Because when we find a way to celebrate, give ourselves some of that, you know, dopamine, endorphin, whatever mm-hmm. <affirmative>, when we find a way to celebrate right after we've done the thing we're trying to become better at, that makes us want to do it all over again.
Tom Ruwitch (21:13):
Brings it full circle.
Dr. Pelè (21:15):
Yes. And that's how you, you, that's how you create habits by having the a, b, C process happen over and over again. Now, when you do that in an organization, boom, you're changing your culture over time.
Tom Ruwitch (21:26):
Yep. And one of the key things about habit development, especially when you're trying to do it across multiple people in a, in a large organization, is that you need tools. You need to keep track, you need to keep score, you need to know where is it working, where is it not, where, where are the holes that we need to fill? And how, how can an organization do that? How do you help organizations do that?
Dr. Pelè (21:55):
Well, you know, Tom, you know, I don't know what I'm gonna do with you, my friend, because you're just hitting me on all the points here. I love it. Lemme show you something. You see this, this is the book. Clearly we're talking about the book Profitable Happiness. But you know what's interesting? I actually have created software called Profitable Happiness. And the software is really what makes this all happen. The book is where you get the concepts and you learn and you understand the science behind profitable happiness. But the truth is, what I'm really sharing with the world, and I hope to be my legacy, is the software. Now I have a software tool called Profitable Happiness that is all focused on using people, data, data about your people, about profitable happiness, of course, the elements to help you implement a new culture. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> software is the most powerful way that you can, as you've said, Tom, take large numbers of people and slowly, but sure surely help them get new habits.
(22:55):
Now, you want, someone might ask, well, how can software help me get, get new habits? Well, first of all, one thing about a habit is that it is only formed based on what we focus on. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, right? So for example, you may have heard whatever you focus on, or sorry, whatever you feed is what will grow. If I keep thinking positive thoughts all the time, I will someday become more positive. If I keep thinking negative thoughts, I will remain there. <laugh>, I will be negative. So what software can help us do is it helps us to focus all employees on specific things. So if I wanna focus you on something, Tom, I can just ask you a question. That's it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So Tom, how do you feel today focusing him on his feelings? Tom, how do you feel today focusing him on, on his feelings third day?
(23:43):
Tom, how do you feel? Again, I'm focusing you on your feelings. If I do that enough times, someday you'll independently come to me and say, Hey, hey, Dr. Play, here's how I'm feeling today. <laugh>, don't ask me again. I get it. I'm supposed to focus on my feelings. But that's how organizations can slowly but surely help all employees Yep. Focus on things like employee engagement. These, a lot of these things come from choices we make. Yep. You know, look, some might say, well, employee engagement is not a choice. Well, yeah. It is because HR and leaders can help employees tap into their greatest strengths and reassign them to jobs or duties that take better advantage of their strengths and therefore improve their employee, uh, their engagement. Yep. So, so these are things that are actually under our control. And, uh, the, the ways to do all of these things have to do with getting people focused on specific things. And you do that through software that asks you questions every week.
Tom Ruwitch (24:43):
I love it. I love it. And, and I know from my own experience that this sort of thing works. So I, like everybody who's watching it or listening have been through the experience of, of trying to establish a positive habit mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and you get going New Year's resolution or, or whatever it might be, you get going, you build momentum, it wanes, you forget about it, then you feel bad about it later and, and the whole thing. Yeah. And one of the things I've done is implemented tools for myself where I'm recording the goal. I'm just, it's literally about checking the box each day. Yeah. And after you check the box each day for 10 or 15 or 20 or 30 days, boom. All of a sudden it's like riding your daughter, riding the bike. All of a sudden it's no longer this thing where I'm concentrating and it focusing on every, oh, I have to remember to do this or do that or whatever. I promised myself. It just happens. It's now habit, it's reflex, it's, it's just built into me. And I think, uh, um, what you're talking about with your software is, is not necessarily so simple as check boxes, but it it's based on the same principle. I know.
Dr. Pelè (25:58):
Yeah. I mean, companies like Zoom, right? Uh, which we're using right now, uh, are well celebrated for having a happiness first employee first approach mm-hmm. <affirmative>, even before, uh, customer happiness for them is employee happiness because they know they're, you know, just as we talked about the goose and the golden eggs, that goose is the most important element there. That's right. And so, uh, zoom communications, um, they actually have a 100 person happiness crew, people who, their job in the organization is to create meetings, events, and different tools and capabilities that help people feel happy inside the company. Yeah. So this, this is not just a, a, uh, a theoretical thing. This is something that real companies that have created real success in the world are doing proactively to help employees become, uh, more successful through happiness.
Tom Ruwitch (26:56):
Yep. Now, some people who are listening, some people in my audience may not be a leader in a large company, and maybe me thinking, well, all right, whatever. That's good for the corporate world, but yeah. You know, I, I run a small business, I have a few employees. Does it apply to them?
Dr. Pelè (27:12):
Oh, absolutely. It applies to anyone who has the, uh, title of person <laugh>.
(27:18):
The, the, the, the, in fact, in fact, my software is, uh, targeting, um, the small to medium sized businesses at this point because, you know, anywhere from, you know, 20, 30, 50 employees up to 500 or more, but definitely under a thousand employees that range, oh my goodness. They're hurting because for most of them, they don't wanna be spending the thousands and thousands of dollars on the larger solutions out there. And there are solutions, HR solutions, although I personally think they're too complicated and hard to use, but that's a different conversation, Uhhuh. But they don't wanna, you know, invest in those massive it, you know, implementations. Yeah. So my tool is just a very simple software, uh, tool that is very easy to use, that addresses that very small to, to medium size enterprise. Um, so yes, absolutely.
Tom Ruwitch (28:10):
Beautiful. Beautiful. And where does someone go if they wanna learn more about you? Get the book, learn more about the software?
Dr. Pelè (28:18):
So there are basically three places. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I'll say four because I'll add Amazon <laugh>. So on Amazon, of course, you can go get the book, and I, I'm sure you'll have a link to, to that. Um, but I'm active on LinkedIn mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but that's where I am. So again, I'm sure you'll have that. Um, but the, the other two places are my two websites, dr p.com. D r p e l e.com is basically my speaking and more personal website where I have everything I do personally. And that's a good place to learn about all these things. But the software itself is on the fourth, uh, area, uh, area, which is profitable happiness.com, and that is based on the software. Of course, the book is there as well. But these are the ways that anyone can reach me. And since you asked Tom, I have to share with everyone that right now I am seeking, uh, private beta companies. So if you're a company with, you know, 30, 40, 50 employees or up to 500 and you'd like to join my pri private beta, which means you get to use the software for free to create results in this particular phase of our development, um, just, uh, let us know. Let me know, let Tom know, and, uh, I will absolutely have a conversation with you, and we will get you this software so you can build a high performance culture.
Tom Ruwitch (29:34):
Yep. Beautiful. Beautiful. And, and one thing we haven't talked about, which I want to get into just a little bit as we close, is the fact that you are a musician. That a lot of your philosophy about happiness and a lot of your approach to life is rooted in the joy that you get from composing and performing music and the joy that you spread when you compose and perform music. And one of the things I love about the book is that every chapter includes a, uh, well, the, the, the book has a soundtrack and every chapter includes a, uh, a song from the soundtrack, which is Yeah. Is just awesome. And, and how do you actually get access to the songs themselves? I, when I read the book, you make reference to the song, and where do I go to find the songs?
Dr. Pelè (30:33):
Yeah. Well, I'll, I'll actually make that a little bit clearer at some point, because the songs right now are everywhere that you can get songs such as, yeah. Spotify or Apple Music and so on. So that's, you're right. There's got, I gotta be a little clearer about that. But, but I, I do wanna just talk a little bit about this music thing you've talked about. You know, I've had several people, uh, tell me that, um, nobody's buying music <laugh> at these companies that you're going to. Why are you even talking about your music? And I go, thank you very much. I am what you call a purple cow. You can even see the color purple behind me. Okay. Yeah. I plan to use every gift that God has given me, and music is definitely right up there to help people understand this stuff. And it just turns out that music is more than just a fun thing I I do for marketing. It's actually something that drives the book. So, for example, we talked about the software. The software is called a Profitable Happiness Jam. Now, what is it? Yeah, I love
Tom Ruwitch (31:30):
It. Jam. Yeah.
Dr. Pelè (31:31):
Yeah. Well, what is a jam? A jam is when musicians get together and they decide on, you know, you know, you say, okay, here's the key of the song. Here's the temple, let's go, you know, a jazz jam. The funny thing is that when you use the concept of an event like a jam, as a way of listening to your employees, giving them feedback, getting feedback from them, it is a powerful way to build habits of listening and, you know, culture and happiness building in an organization. So it's a powerful, so my software is actually using the concept of a musical jam, um, as part of its, uh, way of explaining what it does. So I'm involved in Music from the Heart all the way up. It, it is, it is something that I believe in. And our b business breakfast that we have here in Austin, it's a jam. It's people just come and they learn about profitable happiness. They learn about high performance in their organizations, and they enjoy some awesome music as
Tom Ruwitch (32:26):
Well. Beautiful. Beautiful. And, and I had forgotten about this until we started talking about it. We've known each other now for a few years and bonded over music. Yeah. And, uh, some months after First Connected, we put together a playlist that Yes is available on Spotify and Apple that includes some of our favorite songs that are all about inspiration and, and, and happiness. And, and, um, you know, when we're down, we listen to these songs and Yep. I'm gonna make sure that we share that playlist in Absolutely. Uh, in the show notes. The other thing I want to note, this is gonna be a little cliffhanger for those of you who are, are, uh, listening or watching the opening of this book, profitable Happiness is a story that Dr. Polli tells about his his immigrant journey. Um, and, and it's a remarkable story about his mother and him and escaping chaos and war and making his way ultimately over here to America where he got his PhD and became a great business leader. Uh, and, and it's about music and it's if, if for no other reason than reading that story, go get the book, read the story, and then the second story is the story of how and why your father chose to name you after Pele, the great soccer player. Both those stories are just awesome. You'll keep reading after you read those two stories, but get the book if for no other reason than to read those two stories. So, Dr. Play any parting thoughts for us before we call it a day?
Dr. Pelè (34:21):
I just wanna say when a storyteller like you tells people that a story I wrote is worth reading, that means something to me. <laugh>. Ah, thank you so much, Tom. It's been just, uh, an honor to be part of your podcast
Tom Ruwitch (34:33):
Today. Thank you. I always enjoy getting together with you. I really encourage people, even if you don't have a company with 20 employees, even if it's just you and three employees, there's so much that you can get for yourself. And then for your small organization from this, this book, go check out profitable happiness.com, dr p.com, find him on LinkedIn, and you will benefit from the relationship as I have. Thanks so much.
Dr. Pelè (35:00):
Thank you so much, Tom.
Announcer (35:12):
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