Welcome to the first episode of the Get Busy Livin’ podcast! We’re Anne O'Neil and Barry Gottlieb, and in this episode, we share about our unique friendship and lay the foundation for what listeners can expect from the following episodes. We talk about how we connected on growth mindset, meditation, athletics, leadership philosophies, and our passion for helping others. Listen in to hear more about who we are and our plans to bring on unique guests and highlight their favorite charities.
In today’s episode, we’re diving into what inspired us to start the Get Busy Livin’ podcast. Get Busy Livin’, or GBL, is Anne O’Neil’s family tradition, and saying that brings the good vibes and positive energy to any situation. For Anne personally, she has always had a foundation of positive psychology and growth mindset which stems from her standout basketball and academic career. Anne earned All-America Honors on the court and in the classroom from Iowa State University and then was drafted into the WNBA. Her career spanned across athletic coaching, TV sports commentary, and business performance consulting where she developed her skillset to see big picture team alignment and build roadmaps for success.
When Barry was given a terminal cancer diagnosis, he was determined to be grateful for every day. In his words, you don’t have to wait for Friday to have a good day, which is how he came up with the phrase TGIT, Thank God It’s Today. When he left academia to pursue business, he switched from the classroom to the boardroom to teach leaders how to be more effective and empowering.
Both Barry and Anne are passionate about helping others while maintaining a positive outlook on life. They may come from different generations, but their mission to be the change they wish to see in the world is timeless. Tune in to hear more inspiring stories from Anne and Barry, as well as interviews with industry and community game-changers.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, Simplecast, or on your favorite podcast platform.
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[00:00:00] Anne O’Neil: Alright, here we go. We're recording, BG.
[00:00:09] Barry Gottlieb: Hey AON, everybody, welcome to Get Busy Livin'.
[00:00:16] Anne O’Neil: That's right we're here recording episode number one together.
[00:00:20] Barry Gottlieb: Yeah. So actually, you know what we're doing, we're visualizing that we're sitting at restoration hardware, one of our champagne masterminds, but in order to get to that, that's sort of a fast forward. Let's go and talk about Anne. How did we first meet? Share that with everybody?
[00:00:36] Anne O’Neil: Oh my gosh. Well remember it like it was yesterday. So there I was, I was on this networking event in West Palm Beach with about 50 other leaders. And I saw this guy who was like 6'4", very sharply dressed with some amazing like meditation type jewelry on.
And I was like, I like his vibe. And he stood up and introduced himself and said, I'm Barry Gottlieb. And I was like oh my gosh, that is the guy that I heard on the podcast that I kind of studied for and listened to. So I went up to Barry on this train, having some champagne after the event. And I said, you're the TGIT guy. Thank god it's today. That was just like such an amazing introduction cause I said, I've got this thing with my family called GBL Get Busy Livin'. Share a little bit about TGIT and what that's meant to you in your life, Barry.
[00:01:26] Barry Gottlieb: Yeah. So just a quick story for those people that are tuning in the first time. I always wanted to change the world in a positive way. You know, there's too much negativity. And when I was a young man teaching at the University of Florida and at Santa Fe Community College, I thought my life couldn't be any better. And then one day I sat down in front of an oncologist who, you know, looked across his desk at me and he said, hey, I'm sorry to be the one that's going to tell you this, but you've got three months, six at the most to live. You have terminal cancer.
And so I'm still here, but at that very moment, I had to make a decision. You know, you get to either be a victim or you get to be a victor. And I made the decision then whether it's going to be three months, six months or whatever time I have that I am going to be grateful for every day. And that's really the origin of my way of thinking. I don't have to wait for Friday, T G I F to have a good day.
My decision was that every day I'm going to just make every day, a great day. And I'm going to say, thank god it's today. Or thank goodness today. It doesn't matter. But TGIT is all about living in the moment enjoying today. And that's my story on TGIT. And we'll get into that in future episodes, but right now, Anne, where did GBL come from?
[00:02:46] Anne O’Neil: Oh man. What an incredible story. We definitely will have to dive at deeper into TGIT, but it was just such a foundational moment in our friendship. It was like we were lifelong friends from way many, many lifetimes ago. And so we got into this conversation. I said, yes, I've got this thing with my family called GBL, which we stands for Get Busy Livin' And it has the same kind of vibe and energy that you're talking about being in the present moment, just standing and taking in today.
And it just having a positive energy about you, you know. There's ways to look at the world and why not go out and conquer and be happy. That was really kind of it. The scene of that with my family was I was in Iowa where I'm born and raised and my parents had their 45th wedding anniversary and being the daughter that I am, I created all these like fun stickers and koozies and a video, but all of it was based in GBL.
And then, so I was presenting this and my dad actually came out at this same moment and had all of these GBL hats. And I was like, what? We had never even spoken about it before ever. And I had the same theme that he had for the 45th wedding anniversary. And so now it's just one of those fun get togethers with our family and friends.
And we're always like are you GBLing? And everybody asks, what does GBL mean? And we're like, are you busy living? And people, you know, come to that. And it's just a fun vibe where it's a community energy to embrace, and it was just such a fun party on the 45th wedding anniversary and has just developed and grown since then into our podcast. So here we are.
[00:04:21] Barry Gottlieb: Yeah. And for all of you that are listening, you can see why and how, Anne and I connected right at the beginning. The whole concept of GB L the whole concept of TGIT it's all the same vibe. And look, the more people that walk around this planet that have this vibe about let's focus on the good let's enjoy what we have, while are we have it. That's what it's all about. And so that was that sort of launched this friendship with Anne.
And shortly thereafter, we started this little group called champagne masterminds because the champagne on the train ride was so good that we said, okay, instead of everybody getting together and meeting for a cup of coffee, I had been doing a lot of work with some companies and creating mastermind groups. And so I said, well, let's, let's have this mastermind group and call it a champagne mastermind, and our friendship grew.
And the more Anne and I got to know one another and we got to know our backgrounds, we saw that we were on a similar path. Just me decades ahead of her, but it was great for me to connect with somebody, somebody younger than me that just had that vibe. But I think before we go any further, people are hearing us talk about TGIT, GBL. Anne, please, share with everybody that's listening, what your background is.
[00:05:36] Anne O’Neil: Alright, we'll dive right in. And especially how we found so many commonalities in our personalities and our backgrounds, and one of them that we, we definitely hit it off was athletics. Yeah. Right there, right there. So I grew up my entire life, like I said, in Iowa, but playing basketball. I was driven to be the best, whether it was academics or athletics, but I really kind of found my heart in basketball and played all the way through high school through Iowa State University at a division one scholarship level.
And even it was fortunate enough to be drafted and played a little bit in the WNBA for the Sacramento Monarchs. Oh, yeah. So it was an incredible journey. The game took me around the world. I got to play in the world university games in Daegu, South Korea, and just played with some of the elite athletes and coaches in the world, which made it so much fun. You know, the friendships and the experiences and how you take your focus from just one little sport. And it actually opens up the whole world for you. And that's really kind of what happened for me so.
[00:06:38] Barry Gottlieb: I think you hit on a big point here, you know, when I encounter people that have had that discipline in their life where they've had a mentor or mentors or a coach, and those coaches and those mentors are always, always helping them, empowering them with a growth mindset where, you know, every day it's you and you, how can you get a little bit better every day? And it's not so much the comparison of you to everybody else, but it's that to yourself and to have played at the level that you played to be an all American college basketball player and then be drafted into the WNBA. Let me tell you, there's not a lot of people walking this planet that could say that they were a top of the line world-class athlete. So kudos to you, AON.
[00:07:26] Anne O’Neil: Oh, Barry, thank you so much for making me blush here, even though no one can see it, but yes. And what you just said about the tiny increments, you know, it's you waking up every day and kind of you verse you, you know, waking up and one of our conversations, I actually should that, you know, continue to develop. And we have often the mantras and the meditations and how we kind of visualize our day. So share a little bit about that through your life and how important that's been, you know, even coming over your cancer diagnosis that you started out with.
[00:07:55] Barry Gottlieb: Well, I think that everybody needs to get in touch with the idea that meditation is really beneficial. Back in the days when I, and I've been meditating now for 50 years. Right. But back in the days when I would tell my friends and colleagues, and I would go and do consulting for companies. I would say, look, you need to add meditation to your thing. You know, in the early days everybody thought it was this LA LA land type of thing, but now what you have is you have all this research that's come out that talks about the benefits of meditation, but I think it also goes beyond meditation. So I've been meditating since I was 21 years old.
[00:08:32] Anne O’Neil: That's amazing.
[00:08:34] Barry Gottlieb: I think what it does is that it gives me the energy at 72 years old to feel like I'm 32 years old. I tell people all the time I'm celebrating my 40th anniversary of being 32.
[00:08:48] Anne O’Neil: That's great. Good to see you talk about mindset right there.
[00:08:51] Barry Gottlieb: Yeah. I attributed so much of that. I attribute so much of that to the meditation. I meditate twice a day have been forever. Back when my partners and I had our company, everybody knew that in the middle of the day, I would put a yellow sticky note on my sliding glass doors. And they knew when that was on there, that I should not be disturbed unless the building was on fire because I was meditating.
[00:09:16] Anne O’Neil: Oh my gosh. You're like decades ahead of the trends. You know? Cause now everybody's talking about meditation and not just talking about it, which was one of the things I discovered, Barry, like you said, there was a lot of research. So I read a lot. I studied a ton, but I didn't put it into action. And when I started to actually do that and sit and, you know, kind of sit with my thoughts, even doing walking meditations, which are some of my favorite, probably because of my physical abilities from before. But it is a game changer when you actually go from knowing something to actually being the work. So that's what, and you've been doing it forever. You're such a great mentor for that.
[00:09:52] Barry Gottlieb: It's very similar to the sports. I didn't play at the level that you did. I was a professional racquetball player and when I got injured doing that, I needed to switch sports, and I took up beach volleyball and I did that until my body wouldn't do that. I played my last beach volleyball tournament at the age of 46, you know, so I think what we get from sports, and what we get from great coaches and mentors is this growth mindset. Right. But whether it's meditation or whether it's sports, you have to have this thing that I love to say PSD, positive self discipline.
Because even whether you have the coaches or teachers, whatever it may be, if you don't have the positive self discipline to go out and do them and do them consistently and repetitively, then you're really not going to get the full benefits of training. I mean, a young kid today could come up to you and ask you for advice on how to play basketball.
You could sit there and tell them, but if they don't go out and practice what you've taught them as a coach, they're not going to get any better. So with the meditation, for me, it was okay. I went, I learned how to meditate and really, I owe that to the Beatles because the Beatles went off and they studied with the Maharishi. And I said, okay, if the Beatles are doing this, I'm going to give this a shot. And that's how I started meditating. But it's the discipline of doing it all the time.
[00:11:14] Anne O’Neil: You spoke about your meditations at such an early age. You also went to a lot of different events, right? Kind of that they were coming of age. So share a little bit about that. Like what you experienced and how you're always learning. That's probably one of the commonalities that I love to talk with you about whenever we get together.
[00:11:31] Barry Gottlieb: Well, the Japanese have a word - it's called Kaizen. K A I Z E N. It's really cool. They have this word that has this great meaning. And basically what Kaizen means is continuous learning, continuous growth. And so everything that I've done, it's all about continuing to learn, continuing to grow. And I think that came from my background as a teacher. You know, when I was a young man and I had a full head of hair and everything,
[00:11:54] Anne O’Neil: You had the long hair, we all will have to post some pictures of that.
[00:11:57] Barry Gottlieb: We'll have to post a picture of that one of these days. Now I just have a long mustache okay. Thank you. But the idea was that I wanted to change the world. I wanted to follow that Ghandi thing of be the change you want to see in the world. And so I thought to myself, okay, there's a different way to do this. You know, you can do this through revolution or you can do it through evolution. And my choice was through evolution and I said, okay, well, how can I have an impact on other people?
And I said, okay, the best way to do it when you learn from a psychology point of view and an educational point of view, you learn that so much of what we learn happens when we're young. And so I thought, okay, if I really want to have an impact on the world, then what I need to do is teach young children. So I became an elementary school teacher. And then from there I became an elementary school principal. And then I taught at Santa Fe and at the University of Florida.
And then knowing all that, at one point, I gave all of that up and I left teaching, but I never left teaching. I left teaching in the university, even though I had just gotten my tenure, I left and I got into business. That's also a part of how you and I connected. We connected because at the time when we met, you were doing leadership consulting, which is what I've been doing for a really, really long time myself.
And we're we were helping other people, companies, leaders get ahead, help their companies. And I think that the other commonality that I found that I would love for you to speak about is that what we know now is that businesses, leadership is not this chief executive officer, the way we've always seen it.
But to me, it is now the CEO is that chief empowerment officer and that it's all about the people. So that was something that you were very focused on and still are. So share a little bit about your thoughts about how you focus on what you do training for companies. When you help people develop in leadership, how it's about not just the structure and the strategies, but also the people, the human side.
[00:14:04] Anne O’Neil: That's so great. So you heard it here first people, chief empowerment officer right here from Barry Gottlieb. So when you were mentioning that it reminded me of one of these stories that I learned very early on in my basketball career. I was a junior in high school and I was getting recruited by all these different universities throughout the United States and some of the top women's programs.
So Yukon, Tennessee, Stanford, if you're a women's basketball fan, you'll at least know some of those names. And I had the late great Pat Summit show up to one of my high school games. And so I actually didn't know she was going to be there, but her and her assistant coach at the time took a private jet and came into one of the high school games that was just a little bit outside of town from me.
And, you know, being from Iowa, there's nothing you can get by without having a blizzard anytime there's a big event. So of course. Of course, there was a big blizzard for this game, you know, which affected the attendance and whatever. But the whole point of the story is I remember after the game, a lot of people wanted to talk about having Pat Summit there.
And if you know, recruiting, they can't stay after to go. They can just watch. And then they have to leave the gym. And I saw my parents waiting there, and I was waiting to get in the car with them. And two of the people that always came to my game were these older gentlemen with mental handicap abilities, but they always sat in the front row and took all of the stats for every person and player.
And they would come up and want to talk about the game afterwards. And I always made time for them after the game, because they were just so excited, literally, no matter win or lose, they were excited about the game. And then at the very end we're outside of town and my parents go, we should take Greg and Ryan were their names in the car with us cause they don't have a ride back because of the bus system's not working because of the blizzard.
And I'm like, absolutely. My parents didn't even talk about the game. They didn't bring up Pat Summit's name. It was always about Greg and Ryan. And so it was just such an incredible moment for me in my athletic career, but also my entire life, because I realized at that moment that things are always bigger than yourself. So it's the fans, it's the janitors, it's the, you know, the people that are taking tickets that are making popcorn and just, you know, an athletic setting there. But when we look at businesses, it's the same way you have customer service reps. You have engineers, you have HR, you have so many different people that are making things run like, you know, the intricacies of a Swiss watch.
It was just so powerful for me to be able to see it in athletics and then also in the business world and, and kind of just in life and how people work in communities. So that's what I've been able to do in consulting has really kind of see that broad vision of how everybody has a role and everybody matters on the teams and in organizations. So great segue there.
[00:16:46] Barry Gottlieb: You know, it's interesting. When, when I go in to do consulting for companies, basically one of the things that I pride myself on is that my coaching, my consulting is from the inside out. What I say to any of these owners of these companies, the CEO's the presidents. I say, look, anybody can come in here. You can grab a book, you can grab one of my books and you can learn all the basics of business. But somewhere along the way, what you have to understand is really what makes this business tick. And that's the people that work with you. And so whenever I do consulting, I say, look okay, I'm going to do a program for you, but I'm going to work from the inside out.
And so I'll do work on things like emotional intelligence and company culture and leadership and strategy and all that. But also along the way, I'm going to do things about helping the people that work with you have a better day, every day, have a better life than they ever imagined that they could. Help them overcome their challenges, because what we've learned and what you know, working for Palo Alto is that when you help people and when you work for Vanto, when you help the people, guess what happens to the productivity at those companies?
You know, I think going back to our very beginning of what connected you and I was not just whether it was sports or whether it was champagne, but it was our desire to help others. I remember from the old days, a guy by the name of Zig Ziglar. You can have anything that you want in life if you will just help enough other people get what they want. And that's been a driving force for me for decades now. That's the way that it should be.
[00:18:24] Anne O’Neil: Right there. I was just going to say, you know, that's how this podcast actually got developed. COVID threw a little wrench into our get togethers, but also our volunteering. And so, you know, volunteering, being able to give back, and that's what we want this podcast to be able to do. So, you know, if you've heard the beginning where we're going to have good vibes, which we're bringing, hear some great stories, but an extra cool piece of this is going to be to learn about nonprofits and charities and community events that are going on that we would have never otherwise heard of before. And a way for us to be able to give back and put those kinds of charities and non-profits on a platform.
[00:19:00] Barry Gottlieb: For me personally, my father, many, many years ago always told me that it's important to contribute. And he would contribute every single month to St. Jude children's hospital because cool backstory. My dad was friends with Danny Thomas.
[00:19:14] Anne O’Neil: Wow. I didn't even know that, yeah.
[00:19:17] Barry Gottlieb: So pretty amazing. So even after my dad passed, I picked that up. And one of my websites, tgit.org. On there I also have sort of a store and on that store, it sells TGIT shirts and hats and mugs and stuff. A hundred percent of the profits from that website that when people buy on that store go to St. Jude. I think it goes back to, you can have anything you want, if you just help enough other people get what they want. And so I think that we're going to try to focus on bringing on people that are doing good things for other people. That are making your life a lot better. But before we get into that talk about charities or things that you're interested in.
[00:19:56] Anne O’Neil: Oh my gosh. Well, I love that backstory and that it's been with you for so long. My nonprofit and charity experience is a little bit more jumping around where I'd love to learn new ones. And when I hear about it, I want to jump on it. So that's why this podcast is so exciting for me. I've worked in Costa Rica and a global volunteer network.
I went to Dominican Republic and put on a basketball camp for underprivileged kids and stayed at a missionary down there, it was an incredible experience. But even some that are closer to home, that one that I've loved for a very long time has been Special Olympics. You know, when you get to see the athletes, you know, they're not concerned with winning.
They are really concerned with having fun and being around their friends. And it's just so heartwarming to watch Special Olympics. And we have many of them here in South Florida, even ones like a nonprofit called A Prom to Remember that I've worked with for a couple of years, that's for putting on a prom for kids with pediatric cancer.
And then we have, you know, saving the sea turtles, which, you know, have definitely been a part of. And, you know, if we're, if we we'll probably dive into some animals psychology here eventually, which is one of my favorite topics. But, you know, just to have some fun with, you know, learning these new non-profits and being able to give back in a way with putting them on this platform, you know, showing them on social media and then also being able to donate to their charities.
[00:21:14] Barry Gottlieb: I've always looked at true abundance, not being a question of what you have. Rather, it really should be defined by what you give. And part of the reason that I agreed to be your cohost on this Get Busy Livin' was because you share in that same goal and ideal that I do. That Get Busy Livin' doesn't mean just you Getting Busy Livin' but it's helping others to be able to Get Busy Livin'.
[00:21:44] Anne O’Neil: We are here to create something that's bigger than ourselves. Give back, but also have fun doing it. Cause you know, like you said, it's all a mindset and how you show up every day and with that kind of abundant attitude that you just spoke to, you know, that's more to give out and more to bring into our community. So I'm so excited about what we're up to here and that you said yes.
[00:22:05] Barry Gottlieb: Look, I'm delighted to be here because it's, for me, my personal mission statement has been for as long as I can remember. You know, every, every company, you know, what your mission, what's your vision. I wrote one for myself a long time ago, and mine was quite simple to inspire and empower others to reach their full potential.
And that's one of the reasons that I love creating this and hopefully for our listeners whether it's one person or not. Our goal is to help somebody that needs to hear what we have to say. And if any of you out there know somebody that's doing something great to give back, make us aware of it so that perhaps we can invite them to be on the program with us.
[00:22:48] Anne O’Neil: That's what we want to grow this community. You know, when you find somebody that's, like-minded, it's almost like a magnetism towards them, which is, you know, what we felt like on that networking event and just immediately hit it off like old friends. And I think that's, what's going to show up here in our community here of GBLers and people that are making each day a great day.
[00:23:08] Barry Gottlieb: Most, definitely every single day as a gift. And the quality of your life is your gift to yourself.
[00:23:15] Anne O’Neil: Amazing. Well, I enjoyed this one, the kickoff so much with you, BG. And again, we thank you so much for listening. We want you to have a great day every day and hope you share in GBL with us. GBL all right, baby.