[Music]
for me my story kind of unfolds in the
traditional way all our stories kind of
tend to unfold you know type-a driven
Greece England MA in economics writing
books moving to New York having children
juggling getting divorced juggling and
and then in 2007 it all came to a
crashing halt when I collapsed from
exhaustion sleep deprivation and burnout
hit my head on my desk broke my
cheekbone almost lost my right eye and
as I went from Doctor to doctor trying
to find out what was really wrong did I
have a brain tumor
did I have a heart problem I had this
amazing doctor who said to me Arianna
there’s kind of nothing wrong with you
medically and everything wrong with you
in terms of the life you lead he said
you have civilizations disease burnout
and there is nothing the medical
profession can do for you you have to
change the way you live
so that was 11 years ago and it led me
on this journey of studying the latest
science looking at our culture and the
way this burnout epidemic was based as
you said in your introduction Geordi on
the delusion that in order to succeed
you have to burn out completely and
utterly false and I think any changes we
make in the culture have to start with
ending that delusion ending that belief
which is no longer clearly based on
science okay but if there’s so much
science out there that’s saying that
like none of this is good for us then
why do we all keep subscribing to it why
is it just like part of the deal to be
successful is you got to burn yourself
out this is such a good question
and if you look throughout history
believe it or not there have been many
times when entire cultures believed the
wrong thing like for a very long time we
believed that the earth was flat
which led to a lot of a lot of
shipwrecks right because the the whole
rules of navigation were false based on
it completely fundamental false premise
you can go back to cigarette commercials
from the 60s when you had doctors in
white coats advertising cigarettes
I remember one which is truly stunning
where the doctor says I smoked menthols
because they refresh my throat yeah they
also give you lung cancer but that we
believe that smoking was glamorous I
mean how many Hollywood movies do you
see where they all light up and I mean
for many many years we all believed that
Brad and Angelina would be together
forever so you know entire cultures
believe the wrong thing and then one day
they wake up in the air and they realize
this was incredibly false and I believe
in what we are doing on a media platform
at thrive is to try to get moments in
the culture that become teachable
moments in order to change that false
belief and right now we’re living
through the most amazing teachable
moment which is called Elon Musk he
lives and breathes the delusion that in
order for Tesla to be successful he has
to sacrifice himself he sleep his
children everything he talked about that
in detail to the New York Times I wrote
an open letter to him immediately after
because I saw this as a great teachable
moment because in front of our very eyes
he’s destroying Tesla you know yesterday
he was actually sued by the SEC and now
we are told the company is going to be
sued because of this late-night tweet he
did saying that he had the funding ready
to take the company private which was
not true and there are so many
examples of how because of his
exhaustion because he’s running on empty
he keeps making serious mistakes that
are undermining the very thing he’s
putting at the front burner of
everything he does you know remember he
had an earnings call and she berated the
analyst called him boneheaded and boring
and then at the next earnings call she
had to apologize and he blamed sleep
deprivation of course but when I did the
upper letter to him he tweeted at me
saying that what I’m suggesting which is
actually to take some time during the
day or night to recharge and also to
build a management team you know what
you can’t scale alone anybody here who
built a company you’re trying to do it
all on your own just doesn’t work and if
you are basing your busyness on energy
and how do we produce renewable energy
for our cars how about how we manage a
human energy but you know in the grip of
this delusion he’s saying it’s not an
option a la villain I think he’s a
visionary he’s brilliant what he’s doing
is fantastic but right now he’s also
acting as a case study of what is not
working hmm
I think I’m gonna be a little
controversial here ya go okay all right
I think if some people some people might
think that it’s pretty easy for you to
sit here and say take care of yourself
work less right you have launched one of
the world’s most powerful media brands
and my question is I mean do you really
think that the Huffington Post could be
what it is today if you didn’t have
those first few years of sleepless
nights so I think that’s a very
important question because a lot of
people think of that so first of all let
me just say I’m not saying worthless I’m
not saying don’t work hard and I’m not
saying slow down I’m saying work smart
I’m saying that when we put our own
oxygen mask on first we are going to be
better at everything we are doing we are
going to make better decisions we are
going to be more creative we are not
going to miss red flags if anybody
follows me on social media you know that
I do work hard I love my work I was in
Toronto yesterday here now in New York
tomorrow so the point is but I did get
eight hours sleep last night so you see
what I’m saying it’s the choices you
make like I could have gotten into my
hotel in San Francisco and chosen to
have dinner with my great friends in San
Francisco couch I would have loved to do
but I sacrifice that in order to be able
to get a good night’s sleep and be here
and be fully present but I love being
here and be fully present as opposed to
all the years in my life when I showed
up like a zombie cross something off my
to-do list but I wasn’t really bringing
my full self to it and I wasn’t enjoying
it and for me increasingly joy is just
an incredible barometer of how we’re
living our lives yeah are we just
getting stuff done or are we also
experiencing the joy and gratitude of
being able to do something we’re
passionate about and that’s what the
Huffington Post actually it was two
years into building Hospice when I
collapsed and the best decisions are
made to take half as global to move
beyond politics into lifestyle all these
things were what made half was
ultimately successful and so I can show
you decision after decision that was
made after I had changed the way I lived
my life well thank you for doing that
that’s great so it seems like a pretty
logical case you know you’ve shown how
you can be successfully shown here you
can run these businesses what do you
hear what are the most common objections
that you hear right when you go and you
work with a company or you work with an
individual
what do they say why no no this whole
thrive thing that is not it won’t work
for me why well here’s what is so
interesting we rarely hear that anymore
hmm
I think the companies to work with and
we work you know with big multinational
companies like Accenture JP Morgan the
Hilton Hotels Goldman etc are realizing
that taking care of their human capital
has a real impact on the bottom line
it’s no longer seen as a nice to have as
an HR benefit given to employees by
benevolent employers it is being seen as
directly affecting recruitment attrition
productivity engagement so the problem a
lot of companies have is know is
learning how to move from knowing what
to do to actually doing it and that’s
where we come in yes sure them shoe
companies that are still caught in the
dark ages you know and they’re not up on
the new science but I think the majority
of companies that we are working with
that you are interacting with
theoretically understand they have to be
changes so it’s a question of how do we
implement these changes and in our
workshops you know we both do a lot of
workshops we’ve just done over 150
workshops for accent for example around
the world but we also have digital
products that are science-based behavior
change micro steps so the way we see the
change is moving from first of all
changing beliefs you have to show people
all the science so that they can
actually recognize that getting enough
sleep is not a luxury yeah it means
they’re going to show up at their best
at work that disconnecting from
technology in order to recharge is not a
luxury that multitasking is a myth
like if anybody here I mean I’m very
impressed to see you’re not on your
phones that’s rare
you know the truth is that you can
either listen to us or do your emails
you can make a choice but don’t fool
yourself into thinking you can do both
at once so that’s the reason for example
that I’ve made all my meetings at thrive
device free meetings you know people say
but you know I need my laptop or my
phone to take notes we give you a
beautiful leather-bound notebook and if
you have something more important to do
don’t come to the meeting and that way
the meetings are shorter people are
present who make decisions quickly
people bring their whole selves to the
meeting hmm we also find and that’s what
we bring to our both to our users on the
media platform because thrive is really
two things it’s the media platform which
think of it it’s like The Huffington
Post except no politics with a few
exceptions like dr. Ford yesterday
because it was an exemption of car it is
an exception demonstrating carriage and
standing up for yourself which is a big
thrive value but also both on the media
platform and the second part of the
company which is the b2b working
directly with corporations and changing
the cultures we try to do it through two
things one is bringing the latest
science and then then the second is
bringing new role models because people
learn through role models yes so with
people in the arena who talk and write
about how they’re doing it so when Jeff
Bezos for example wrote on thrive and
they pieced the headline he chose was
yes why am i sleeping eight hours a
night is good for Amazon shareholders it
went crazy viral had a big impact on
people because he analyzed his decision
making yes and he said the value of
brain to Amazon is the
quality of my decisions and if I get six
hours if I get less than my optimal
eight hours
here’s analyzed that his decisions are
five to twenty percent less good and we
have I mean that’s my favorite thing but
like Johnny you have to write something
about that all of you I want to invite
you to tell us your stories because
everybody here is in the arena yes you
are not chillin under a mango tree you
know you are here because you want to
learn how to be your most effective boss
self and power itself so if you tell us
your stories and how you do it it will
influence others so I read it really
good leading off of that role model idea
I read a really interesting article by a
pretty pretty well-established CEO a
couple of weeks ago and he was quoted
saying it was about digital detox and he
was quoted saying if you truly blindly
love what you do you don’t have to worry
about path about burnout and so I just
kind of stopped thinking about that and
you know can can we be can your passion
for your work blind you from burnout and
if so then like we’re all kind of in
this happy delusional state how do you
even know you need to be woken up
amazing question the truth of the matter
is that unfortunately our passion for
our work does not give us immunity in
fact on the contrary it blinds us to the
fact that we are burning out it’s a slow
process it’s like putting the lobster in
the water you know and if you do it
slowly the lobster doesn’t know it’s
about to die so you know burnout works
until it doesn’t and the story that I
gave you of my collapse is not the most
extreme story I mean we all have friends
who ended up with strokes with heart
attacks of one kind or another and the
connection between stress burnout and
disease is so clearly established
three-quarters of our health care costs
and our health care problems are
stress-related and lifestyle related
it a quarter you can do everything
perfectly and something happen is an act
of God but we can affect three quarters
and we call this going upstream hmm so
all our interventions are going upstream
and identifying stress triggers before
they become symptoms yeah because it’s
so much harder and now you know we have
this explosion of mental health problem
right depression anxiety especially
among teenage girls 33 percent increase
in the last few years now that it’s
clearly connected to stress and our
growing addiction to technology yeah
yeah so we have an entire module to help
us disconnect from our phones and
reconnect with ourselves now in fact
it’s actually great because an app or
launched screen time last week which
helps you manage your relationship with
your phone we have an app for those who
are on Android and are not on iOS you
can download it it’s called to thrive up
it helps you put your phone in thrive
mode so Jodie let’s say you’re having
dinner with Glen hi Glen yeah she really
loves you you know we’re backstage
watching you meditating with your eyes
closed she was marrying like saying
that’s glad that’s my hobby can you
stand up so we can applaud you
[Applause]
so let’s say you’re having a date night
with glass yes but don’t want to be
disturbed okay okay you put your phone
in thrive mode and it’s bi-directional
so if I text you I get a text back that
says I’m in thrive mode and he likes the
next time until such-and-such a time
it’s awesome so it’s kind of perfect so
that one of the things I love about that
is that it teaches the world that you
know you don’t have to respond to text
immediately you know right now the
culture has such expectations that if I
don’t respond to a text immediately my
friends Pratley call 911 we need to
change that you know when did either
when did that become the conventional
wisdom so good and the other thing that
the Thrive app does is it gives you
everyday a dashboard of your use of apps
games you know how much time you spent
on Instagram on candy crush on whatever
you know whatever it is you’re on
Netflix whatever it is your particular
addiction and you know you’d be amazed
my my addiction is Instagram so I was
amazed when I started looking at how
much time I spent on it I mean not even
I couldn’t possibly have spent on a
march of time but I did and then you can
set limits and let’s say you spent two
hours on Instagram and you understand an
hour and a half you set the limit and I
an hour and a half we block you off
laughs laughs so what I recommend our
whole theory of micro steps is don’t put
and limit yourself in a way that’s
manageable like do it 10 minutes less
and and be a tweet is like exercise you
know building that master yes yes I love
it I think you know we get into our
habits whether it’s we’re instagramming
for hours or we’re just kind of trudging
through our days going to countless
meetings and someone comes up to you and
they say how you doing oh I’m fine I’m
fine
okay I’m fine and you yourself once said
that on the very day that you
collapsed if someone had asked you how
you were doing you would have said you
were fine
yes right and so I feel like we keep
saying I’m fine
I’m fine and we keep perpetuating this
same delusional cycle then I’m fine so
I’m curious to hear from you like what
do we really need to be asking ourselves
to try to say am I really fine like what
what should we be looking at wow what a
great question yes I would have said I’m
fine because I thought that’s the only
way to do it
and now the way we break it down we have
a thrive pants which you can go and
thrive global and take it and the thrive
pulse has ten questions that will help
you assess whether you’re really fine
there really like ways to see are you
allowing yourself to gradually burn out
one of the questions for example is are
you sleeping with your phone this is a
judgment-free zone and now the majority
of you are sleeping with your phone
because 70% of the world is I just want
you to look at the science you know I’m
sure everybody here is data-driven you
know that’s the irony yes we are so
data-driven yes when it comes to
building a product dealing with
consumers but we’re not data driven when
it comes to how do we live our lives how
can we be most empowered in our daily
life so it’s absolutely unequivocal that
we just need to redress all these
questions and stop kind of believing in
this delusion just get out of this rat
race alone yes take a little step back
okay
I think that you’ve spoken a little bit
about sacrifice in the past and I think
that there’s just sort of this I feel it
like there’s just this common belief
that you can’t really do well at work
and have like you know the perfect body
and the perfect you know medical report
that something’s got to give right and
so
you know for somebody who’s just
starting down this journey what are the
sacrifices that you think they should be
looking to make in their work so that
they can live more well so I don’t see
there is a quote that we both love by
Mark NEPA yes which is sacrificing and
what is not really important in order to
focus on what is truly sacred yes and so
I would say for example let me tell you
some of my sacrifices I have not seen a
single episode of Game of Thrones I
would like to but it’s a sacrifice I’m
willing to make I also do a regular life
audit and look at what are the projects
that I put down sometimes I don’t even
put them down in writing but in my head
it’s like I want to do this or I want to
do that and they are like files that you
open on your computer and you need to
close them if you are not going to do
them just so sweep it clean
yeah so what I do is like for example
one of my open computer files in my
brain was I want to learn to be a good
skier because my children love to ski my
two daughters and I think it’s fun to do
something like that together and I’m a
lousy skier and then I kind of realized
that I’m not going to give the time and
attention it takes to become a good
skier so I have this rule which is
called I can complete a project by
books you know you start a book and
you’re not really fine you don’t really
find it sufficiently interesting but we
have this compulsion to finish it yes
you don’t have to oh you know I have
left movie theaters theaters theaters
you know anything the most important
thing is to recognize that what you can
what we cannot sacrifice is our own
health yeah and our own relationship
because nothing is really worth it if we
if we lose our health or if we undermine
our health for no reason and that of
course is the ultimate undermining of
our work so that’s why we don’t use the
term work-life balance work-life balance
is a myth you can call it work life
integration Jeff besos calls it work
life harmony the key is that there’s
never going to be a day when everything
is balanced you know 50% work 50% family
we’re not talking about that we are
talking about refueling so there may be
a time when you pull an all-nighter I
mean I obviously emphasize sleep but I
think that all-nighters yes I mean let’s
say the day before we launch drive we’re
all in the office pulling an all-nighter
the question is how quickly do you
refuel hmm the next I’ve you can do it
the next day or the day after that we
even in our cultural values are thrive
we have something that we call thrive
time mm-hmm
we don’t say this is a nine-to-five job
yeah they are no interesting
nine-to-five jobs so first of all we
need to accept that this period of
transition is very natural it’s like
just think of it historically moving
from the dark dark ages to the
Renaissance you know there is a period
when multiple behaviors are coexisting
even in the same company we have found
that the most important thing is for
leaders in each department to role model
the new behavior because people are
looking for permission and nothing gives
them permission more than having
managers executives model that behavior
I think leaders role modeling behavior
is the key at JPMorgan we did a
challenge for 28 days they have over
200,000 employees we did a video for
them where leaders the CMO the CEO of
the Private Wealth Bank and said on
video what they were going to work on
and the four challenges were sleep
mindfulness relationship with technology
and gratitude and immediately it spread
that 64% participation and it began to
change the overall culture is it better
to take like a two or three week
vacation once a year could be a digital
detox no phones or is it better to take
shorter smaller breaks throughout the
year and I guess well also we should
probably cover how much time off should
we be taking so obviously that’s
individual but I think the key here is
making sure that when you are not on
vacation
you have little breaks to refuel mm-hmm
and when I say little Blake’s literally
it could be one minute between stressful
events literally neuroscience tells us
that it takes less than one minute to
course-correct the problem is not
stressed we’re not going to eliminate
stress completely the problem is stress
becoming cumulative so you have a
stressful meeting and then you gone to
another thing and bring the stress with
you if you took one minute to take deep
breaths to look at something that helps
you course-correct with pictures of your
kids it could be a quote that you love i
have quotes that i love all around my
office my favorite is live life as
though everything is rigged in your
favor that quote i love that quote i
havent saying that and so in terms of
vacation what is most important is
it’s better to have a short vacation but
really disconnect then a long vacation
where you try to take phone calls and be
on conference calls you know I’m I was
talking to Barry summers he’s actually
the head of Private Wealth globally at
at JPMorgan and he said I learned the
hard way that if I’m on vacation and I
think I’m going to do this one
conference call what does it matter the
truth is your whole movement mode of
behavior changes you are suddenly back
at work you have to prep then after the
call you are thinking about it so you’re
away from your vacation time with your
family or your friends or whoever you
are with so I think it’s better to at
least have a few days when you can
really disconnect and we have an app for
that as you would expect yes it’s a call
flies away and if you’re on vacation and
I email you I’ll get it back an email
back that says Jody’s on vacation until
such-and-such a day if this is urgent
please contact so and so if it is not
email her after that date this email
will be deleted that is very important
because if it’s the whole point is that
you are going to have a vacation it can
be two days or two weeks you decide what
you can handle but during that period
you are going to have zero emails in
your Inbox
when was the last time you had zero
emails in your Inbox I think it was the
day I started my job we need to kind of
have that real disconnect in order to
reconnect yeah and and be recharged and
we all know that really the best things
we bring to work our creativity are
great ideas problem solving our ability
to collaborate and these are the first
things that are sacrificed yeah when we
are burnt out right so I think
truly the first and most important thing
is no judgments like when we fall off
the wagon
we need to forgive ourselves and start
again because everybody here is type-a
I’m sure and the first name the worst
thing we can do is to have one more
thing to beat ourselves up with
especially I’m talking to women here
because we have perfectionists and
perfect and you know we have this what I
call this obnoxious roommate living in
our head that puts us down judges us you
know negative self-talk so I think we we
need to make sure that this is not
another thing for the obnoxious roommate
to berate us about so that’s why I
thrive everything we’re doing is based
on very very tiny micro steps and
especially if they’re micro steps that
you can attach to existing habits let me
give you an example we are working with
a lot of brands we are working with PNG
for example with secret unites a
deodorant right and secret sells itself
because it’s going to reduce your stress
of worrying that you’re going to have
sweat stains on your dress if you’re
having an interviewer an important
occasion or something so we are adding a
stress reduction micro step that goes
beyond the sweat streams and that helps
empower women to actually show up
confident beyond them did the order and
advantage coin that’s because you’re
already putting the deodorant so when
you are putting it on can you say enough
formation about how you’re going to show
up at this interview can you remember
three things you are grateful for in
your life something that will actually
connect us who is a positive empowered
part of us yes
so and you can do that when you’re
brushing your teeth when you are walking
to work on an existing micro step add
another micro step
if you don’t work out at all don’t say
I’m going to start working for an hour a
day working out no don’t I say I’m going
to do ten minutes on the bike or I’m
going to take the steps instead of the
elevator
create like a small actionable step
rather than an overwhelming New Year’s
resolution you’re going to break in a
week yeah but like I I cannot believe I
am the only one in the room that’s
really struggling this like how do you
get over the separation anxiety of
leaving your phone outside of the room
and that really goes to the heart of the
matter which is control your device is
the instrument of control in your life
you know you can control your work the
arrangements for your family through
your device sleep is about surrender we
just have to give up control Oh God
[Applause]
[Music] [Applause]
for me my story kind of unfolds in the
traditional way all our stories kind of
tend to unfold you know type-a driven
Greece England MA in economics writing
books moving to New York having children
juggling getting divorced juggling and
and then in 2007 it all came to a
crashing halt when I collapsed from
exhaustion sleep deprivation and burnout
hit my head on my desk broke my
cheekbone almost lost my right eye and
as I went from Doctor to doctor trying
to find out what was really wrong did I
have a brain tumor
did I have a heart problem I had this
amazing doctor who said to me Arianna
there’s kind of nothing wrong with you
medically and everything wrong with you
in terms of the life you lead he said
you have civilizations disease burnout
and there is nothing the medical
profession can do for you you have to
change the way you live
so that was 11 years ago and it led me
on this journey of studying the latest
science looking at our culture and the
way this burnout epidemic was based as
you said in your introduction Geordi on
the delusion that in order to succeed
you have to burn out completely and
utterly false and I think any changes we
make in the culture have to start with
ending that delusion ending that belief
which is no longer clearly based on
science okay but if there’s so much
science out there that’s saying that
like none of this is good for us then
why do we all keep subscribing to it why
is it just like part of the deal to be
successful is you got to burn yourself
out this is such a good question
and if you look throughout history
believe it or not there have been many
times when entire cultures believed the
wrong thing like for a very long time we
believed that the earth was flat
which led to a lot of a lot of
shipwrecks right because the the whole
rules of navigation were false based on
it completely fundamental false premise
you can go back to cigarette commercials
from the 60s when you had doctors in
white coats advertising cigarettes
I remember one which is truly stunning
where the doctor says I smoked menthols
because they refresh my throat yeah they
also give you lung cancer but that we
believe that smoking was glamorous I
mean how many Hollywood movies do you
see where they all light up and I mean
for many many years we all believed that
Brad and Angelina would be together
forever so you know entire cultures
believe the wrong thing and then one day
they wake up in the air and they realize
this was incredibly false and I believe
in what we are doing on a media platform
at thrive is to try to get moments in
the culture that become teachable
moments in order to change that false
belief and right now we’re living
through the most amazing teachable
moment which is called Elon Musk he
lives and breathes the delusion that in
order for Tesla to be successful he has
to sacrifice himself he sleep his
children everything he talked about that
in detail to the New York Times I wrote
an open letter to him immediately after
because I saw this as a great teachable
moment because in front of our very eyes
he’s destroying Tesla you know yesterday
he was actually sued by the SEC and now
we are told the company is going to be
sued because of this late-night tweet he
did saying that he had the funding ready
to take the company private which was
not true and there are so many
examples of how because of his
exhaustion because he’s running on empty
he keeps making serious mistakes that
are undermining the very thing he’s
putting at the front burner of
everything he does you know remember he
had an earnings call and she berated the
analyst called him boneheaded and boring
and then at the next earnings call she
had to apologize and he blamed sleep
deprivation of course but when I did the
upper letter to him he tweeted at me
saying that what I’m suggesting which is
actually to take some time during the
day or night to recharge and also to
build a management team you know what
you can’t scale alone anybody here who
built a company you’re trying to do it
all on your own just doesn’t work and if
you are basing your busyness on energy
and how do we produce renewable energy
for our cars how about how we manage a
human energy but you know in the grip of
this delusion he’s saying it’s not an
option a la villain I think he’s a
visionary he’s brilliant what he’s doing
is fantastic but right now he’s also
acting as a case study of what is not
working hmm
I think I’m gonna be a little
controversial here ya go okay all right
I think if some people some people might
think that it’s pretty easy for you to
sit here and say take care of yourself
work less right you have launched one of
the world’s most powerful media brands
and my question is I mean do you really
think that the Huffington Post could be
what it is today if you didn’t have
those first few years of sleepless
nights so I think that’s a very
important question because a lot of
people think of that so first of all let
me just say I’m not saying worthless I’m
not saying don’t work hard and I’m not
saying slow down I’m saying work smart
I’m saying that when we put our own
oxygen mask on first we are going to be
better at everything we are doing we are
going to make better decisions we are
going to be more creative we are not
going to miss red flags if anybody
follows me on social media you know that
I do work hard I love my work I was in
Toronto yesterday here now in New York
tomorrow so the point is but I did get
eight hours sleep last night so you see
what I’m saying it’s the choices you
make like I could have gotten into my
hotel in San Francisco and chosen to
have dinner with my great friends in San
Francisco couch I would have loved to do
but I sacrifice that in order to be able
to get a good night’s sleep and be here
and be fully present but I love being
here and be fully present as opposed to
all the years in my life when I showed
up like a zombie cross something off my
to-do list but I wasn’t really bringing
my full self to it and I wasn’t enjoying
it and for me increasingly joy is just
an incredible barometer of how we’re
living our lives yeah are we just
getting stuff done or are we also
experiencing the joy and gratitude of
being able to do something we’re
passionate about and that’s what the
Huffington Post actually it was two
years into building Hospice when I
collapsed and the best decisions are
made to take half as global to move
beyond politics into lifestyle all these
things were what made half was
ultimately successful and so I can show
you decision after decision that was
made after I had changed the way I lived
my life well thank you for doing that
that’s great so it seems like a pretty
logical case you know you’ve shown how
you can be successfully shown here you
can run these businesses what do you
hear what are the most common objections
that you hear right when you go and you
work with a company or you work with an
individual
what do they say why no no this whole
thrive thing that is not it won’t work
for me why well here’s what is so
interesting we rarely hear that anymore
hmm
I think the companies to work with and
we work you know with big multinational
companies like Accenture JP Morgan the
Hilton Hotels Goldman etc are realizing
that taking care of their human capital
has a real impact on the bottom line
it’s no longer seen as a nice to have as
an HR benefit given to employees by
benevolent employers it is being seen as
directly affecting recruitment attrition
productivity engagement so the problem a
lot of companies have is know is
learning how to move from knowing what
to do to actually doing it and that’s
where we come in yes sure them shoe
companies that are still caught in the
dark ages you know and they’re not up on
the new science but I think the majority
of companies that we are working with
that you are interacting with
theoretically understand they have to be
changes so it’s a question of how do we
implement these changes and in our
workshops you know we both do a lot of
workshops we’ve just done over 150
workshops for accent for example around
the world but we also have digital
products that are science-based behavior
change micro steps so the way we see the
change is moving from first of all
changing beliefs you have to show people
all the science so that they can
actually recognize that getting enough
sleep is not a luxury yeah it means
they’re going to show up at their best
at work that disconnecting from
technology in order to recharge is not a
luxury that multitasking is a myth
like if anybody here I mean I’m very
impressed to see you’re not on your
phones that’s rare
you know the truth is that you can
either listen to us or do your emails
you can make a choice but don’t fool
yourself into thinking you can do both
at once so that’s the reason for example
that I’ve made all my meetings at thrive
device free meetings you know people say
but you know I need my laptop or my
phone to take notes we give you a
beautiful leather-bound notebook and if
you have something more important to do
don’t come to the meeting and that way
the meetings are shorter people are
present who make decisions quickly
people bring their whole selves to the
meeting hmm we also find and that’s what
we bring to our both to our users on the
media platform because thrive is really
two things it’s the media platform which
think of it it’s like The Huffington
Post except no politics with a few
exceptions like dr. Ford yesterday
because it was an exemption of car it is
an exception demonstrating carriage and
standing up for yourself which is a big
thrive value but also both on the media
platform and the second part of the
company which is the b2b working
directly with corporations and changing
the cultures we try to do it through two
things one is bringing the latest
science and then then the second is
bringing new role models because people
learn through role models yes so with
people in the arena who talk and write
about how they’re doing it so when Jeff
Bezos for example wrote on thrive and
they pieced the headline he chose was
yes why am i sleeping eight hours a
night is good for Amazon shareholders it
went crazy viral had a big impact on
people because he analyzed his decision
making yes and he said the value of
brain to Amazon is the
quality of my decisions and if I get six
hours if I get less than my optimal
eight hours
here’s analyzed that his decisions are
five to twenty percent less good and we
have I mean that’s my favorite thing but
like Johnny you have to write something
about that all of you I want to invite
you to tell us your stories because
everybody here is in the arena yes you
are not chillin under a mango tree you
know you are here because you want to
learn how to be your most effective boss
self and power itself so if you tell us
your stories and how you do it it will
influence others so I read it really
good leading off of that role model idea
I read a really interesting article by a
pretty pretty well-established CEO a
couple of weeks ago and he was quoted
saying it was about digital detox and he
was quoted saying if you truly blindly
love what you do you don’t have to worry
about path about burnout and so I just
kind of stopped thinking about that and
you know can can we be can your passion
for your work blind you from burnout and
if so then like we’re all kind of in
this happy delusional state how do you
even know you need to be woken up
amazing question the truth of the matter
is that unfortunately our passion for
our work does not give us immunity in
fact on the contrary it blinds us to the
fact that we are burning out it’s a slow
process it’s like putting the lobster in
the water you know and if you do it
slowly the lobster doesn’t know it’s
about to die so you know burnout works
until it doesn’t and the story that I
gave you of my collapse is not the most
extreme story I mean we all have friends
who ended up with strokes with heart
attacks of one kind or another and the
connection between stress burnout and
disease is so clearly established
three-quarters of our health care costs
and our health care problems are
stress-related and lifestyle related
it a quarter you can do everything
perfectly and something happen is an act
of God but we can affect three quarters
and we call this going upstream hmm so
all our interventions are going upstream
and identifying stress triggers before
they become symptoms yeah because it’s
so much harder and now you know we have
this explosion of mental health problem
right depression anxiety especially
among teenage girls 33 percent increase
in the last few years now that it’s
clearly connected to stress and our
growing addiction to technology yeah
yeah so we have an entire module to help
us disconnect from our phones and
reconnect with ourselves now in fact
it’s actually great because an app or
launched screen time last week which
helps you manage your relationship with
your phone we have an app for those who
are on Android and are not on iOS you
can download it it’s called to thrive up
it helps you put your phone in thrive
mode so Jodie let’s say you’re having
dinner with Glen hi Glen yeah she really
loves you you know we’re backstage
watching you meditating with your eyes
closed she was marrying like saying
that’s glad that’s my hobby can you
stand up so we can applaud you
[Applause]
so let’s say you’re having a date night
with glass yes but don’t want to be
disturbed okay okay you put your phone
in thrive mode and it’s bi-directional
so if I text you I get a text back that
says I’m in thrive mode and he likes the
next time until such-and-such a time
it’s awesome so it’s kind of perfect so
that one of the things I love about that
is that it teaches the world that you
know you don’t have to respond to text
immediately you know right now the
culture has such expectations that if I
don’t respond to a text immediately my
friends Pratley call 911 we need to
change that you know when did either
when did that become the conventional
wisdom so good and the other thing that
the Thrive app does is it gives you
everyday a dashboard of your use of apps
games you know how much time you spent
on Instagram on candy crush on whatever
you know whatever it is you’re on
Netflix whatever it is your particular
addiction and you know you’d be amazed
my my addiction is Instagram so I was
amazed when I started looking at how
much time I spent on it I mean not even
I couldn’t possibly have spent on a
march of time but I did and then you can
set limits and let’s say you spent two
hours on Instagram and you understand an
hour and a half you set the limit and I
an hour and a half we block you off
laughs laughs so what I recommend our
whole theory of micro steps is don’t put
and limit yourself in a way that’s
manageable like do it 10 minutes less
and and be a tweet is like exercise you
know building that master yes yes I love
it I think you know we get into our
habits whether it’s we’re instagramming
for hours or we’re just kind of trudging
through our days going to countless
meetings and someone comes up to you and
they say how you doing oh I’m fine I’m
fine
okay I’m fine and you yourself once said
that on the very day that you
collapsed if someone had asked you how
you were doing you would have said you
were fine
yes right and so I feel like we keep
saying I’m fine
I’m fine and we keep perpetuating this
same delusional cycle then I’m fine so
I’m curious to hear from you like what
do we really need to be asking ourselves
to try to say am I really fine like what
what should we be looking at wow what a
great question yes I would have said I’m
fine because I thought that’s the only
way to do it
and now the way we break it down we have
a thrive pants which you can go and
thrive global and take it and the thrive
pulse has ten questions that will help
you assess whether you’re really fine
there really like ways to see are you
allowing yourself to gradually burn out
one of the questions for example is are
you sleeping with your phone this is a
judgment-free zone and now the majority
of you are sleeping with your phone
because 70% of the world is I just want
you to look at the science you know I’m
sure everybody here is data-driven you
know that’s the irony yes we are so
data-driven yes when it comes to
building a product dealing with
consumers but we’re not data driven when
it comes to how do we live our lives how
can we be most empowered in our daily
life so it’s absolutely unequivocal that
we just need to redress all these
questions and stop kind of believing in
this delusion just get out of this rat
race alone yes take a little step back
okay
I think that you’ve spoken a little bit
about sacrifice in the past and I think
that there’s just sort of this I feel it
like there’s just this common belief
that you can’t really do well at work
and have like you know the perfect body
and the perfect you know medical report
that something’s got to give right and
so
you know for somebody who’s just
starting down this journey what are the
sacrifices that you think they should be
looking to make in their work so that
they can live more well so I don’t see
there is a quote that we both love by
Mark NEPA yes which is sacrificing and
what is not really important in order to
focus on what is truly sacred yes and so
I would say for example let me tell you
some of my sacrifices I have not seen a
single episode of Game of Thrones I
would like to but it’s a sacrifice I’m
willing to make I also do a regular life
audit and look at what are the projects
that I put down sometimes I don’t even
put them down in writing but in my head
it’s like I want to do this or I want to
do that and they are like files that you
open on your computer and you need to
close them if you are not going to do
them just so sweep it clean
yeah so what I do is like for example
one of my open computer files in my
brain was I want to learn to be a good
skier because my children love to ski my
two daughters and I think it’s fun to do
something like that together and I’m a
lousy skier and then I kind of realized
that I’m not going to give the time and
attention it takes to become a good
skier so I have this rule which is
called I can complete a project by
books you know you start a book and
you’re not really fine you don’t really
find it sufficiently interesting but we
have this compulsion to finish it yes
you don’t have to oh you know I have
left movie theaters theaters theaters
you know anything the most important
thing is to recognize that what you can
what we cannot sacrifice is our own
health yeah and our own relationship
because nothing is really worth it if we
if we lose our health or if we undermine
our health for no reason and that of
course is the ultimate undermining of
our work so that’s why we don’t use the
term work-life balance work-life balance
is a myth you can call it work life
integration Jeff besos calls it work
life harmony the key is that there’s
never going to be a day when everything
is balanced you know 50% work 50% family
we’re not talking about that we are
talking about refueling so there may be
a time when you pull an all-nighter I
mean I obviously emphasize sleep but I
think that all-nighters yes I mean let’s
say the day before we launch drive we’re
all in the office pulling an all-nighter
the question is how quickly do you
refuel hmm the next I’ve you can do it
the next day or the day after that we
even in our cultural values are thrive
we have something that we call thrive
time mm-hmm
we don’t say this is a nine-to-five job
yeah they are no interesting
nine-to-five jobs so first of all we
need to accept that this period of
transition is very natural it’s like
just think of it historically moving
from the dark dark ages to the
Renaissance you know there is a period
when multiple behaviors are coexisting
even in the same company we have found
that the most important thing is for
leaders in each department to role model
the new behavior because people are
looking for permission and nothing gives
them permission more than having
managers executives model that behavior
I think leaders role modeling behavior
is the key at JPMorgan we did a
challenge for 28 days they have over
200,000 employees we did a video for
them where leaders the CMO the CEO of
the Private Wealth Bank and said on
video what they were going to work on
and the four challenges were sleep
mindfulness relationship with technology
and gratitude and immediately it spread
that 64% participation and it began to
change the overall culture is it better
to take like a two or three week
vacation once a year could be a digital
detox no phones or is it better to take
shorter smaller breaks throughout the
year and I guess well also we should
probably cover how much time off should
we be taking so obviously that’s
individual but I think the key here is
making sure that when you are not on
vacation
you have little breaks to refuel mm-hmm
and when I say little Blake’s literally
it could be one minute between stressful
events literally neuroscience tells us
that it takes less than one minute to
course-correct the problem is not
stressed we’re not going to eliminate
stress completely the problem is stress
becoming cumulative so you have a
stressful meeting and then you gone to
another thing and bring the stress with
you if you took one minute to take deep
breaths to look at something that helps
you course-correct with pictures of your
kids it could be a quote that you love i
have quotes that i love all around my
office my favorite is live life as
though everything is rigged in your
favor that quote i love that quote i
havent saying that and so in terms of
vacation what is most important is
it’s better to have a short vacation but
really disconnect then a long vacation
where you try to take phone calls and be
on conference calls you know I’m I was
talking to Barry summers he’s actually
the head of Private Wealth globally at
at JPMorgan and he said I learned the
hard way that if I’m on vacation and I
think I’m going to do this one
conference call what does it matter the
truth is your whole movement mode of
behavior changes you are suddenly back
at work you have to prep then after the
call you are thinking about it so you’re
away from your vacation time with your
family or your friends or whoever you
are with so I think it’s better to at
least have a few days when you can
really disconnect and we have an app for
that as you would expect yes it’s a call
flies away and if you’re on vacation and
I email you I’ll get it back an email
back that says Jody’s on vacation until
such-and-such a day if this is urgent
please contact so and so if it is not
email her after that date this email
will be deleted that is very important
because if it’s the whole point is that
you are going to have a vacation it can
be two days or two weeks you decide what
you can handle but during that period
you are going to have zero emails in
your Inbox
when was the last time you had zero
emails in your Inbox I think it was the
day I started my job we need to kind of
have that real disconnect in order to
reconnect yeah and and be recharged and
we all know that really the best things
we bring to work our creativity are
great ideas problem solving our ability
to collaborate and these are the first
things that are sacrificed yeah when we
are burnt out right so I think
truly the first and most important thing
is no judgments like when we fall off
the wagon
we need to forgive ourselves and start
again because everybody here is type-a
I’m sure and the first name the worst
thing we can do is to have one more
thing to beat ourselves up with
especially I’m talking to women here
because we have perfectionists and
perfect and you know we have this what I
call this obnoxious roommate living in
our head that puts us down judges us you
know negative self-talk so I think we we
need to make sure that this is not
another thing for the obnoxious roommate
to berate us about so that’s why I
thrive everything we’re doing is based
on very very tiny micro steps and
especially if they’re micro steps that
you can attach to existing habits let me
give you an example we are working with
a lot of brands we are working with PNG
for example with secret unites a
deodorant right and secret sells itself
because it’s going to reduce your stress
of worrying that you’re going to have
sweat stains on your dress if you’re
having an interviewer an important
occasion or something so we are adding a
stress reduction micro step that goes
beyond the sweat streams and that helps
empower women to actually show up
confident beyond them did the order and
advantage coin that’s because you’re
already putting the deodorant so when
you are putting it on can you say enough
formation about how you’re going to show
up at this interview can you remember
three things you are grateful for in
your life something that will actually
connect us who is a positive empowered
part of us yes
so and you can do that when you’re
brushing your teeth when you are walking
to work on an existing micro step add
another micro step
if you don’t work out at all don’t say
I’m going to start working for an hour a
day working out no don’t I say I’m going
to do ten minutes on the bike or I’m
going to take the steps instead of the
elevator
create like a small actionable step
rather than an overwhelming New Year’s
resolution you’re going to break in a
week yeah but like I I cannot believe I
am the only one in the room that’s
really struggling this like how do you
get over the separation anxiety of
leaving your phone outside of the room
and that really goes to the heart of the
matter which is control your device is
the instrument of control in your life
you know you can control your work the
arrangements for your family through
your device sleep is about surrender we
just have to give up control Oh God
[Applause]
[Music] [Applause]
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