Before we begin, let me alert you that the content of this episode includes conversation about mental health struggles and suicide, which can be distressing for some people. Don’t worry, we don’t go into too much detail, but if you are uncomfortable about that kind of thing, you may want to avoid this episode.

Imagine it’s 3:00 AM, and your life is coming apart at the seams.

You don’t know how you can keep going, and maybe you’re not sure you want to. Even if you believe this will pass if only you could get some sleep, you really need someone to hear your story and provide you some sort of comfort and support.

Who would answer the call if you dialed their number right now? Is there even one person who comes to mind?

Keith McNally was there and realized there was not one single person in the entire world who he felt would be there for him in his hour of desperate need.

Growing up, he followed all the Catholic traditions and holidays, and gained the values of being kind, being yourself, and doing what’s right. After high school, he joined the Marines. Then went on to college and all the way through to completing his PhD. He embarked on a successful career that included working in IT and being a professor of information technology.

Along the way, he discovered how his values didn’t so much change as he redefined their meanings and how he interpreted them. However, he says, he spent most of his adult life not knowing who he really was. He played roles and carried titles and filled expectations of others. But he didn’t dig into and examine what was really important to him. Didn’t ask himself, what is my life about? What is my philosophy of living?

Which is why, perhaps from the outside, things looked fine for a while – but Fine is a 4-Letter Word.

Between 1996 and 2021, he attempted suicide five times.

It was after that fifth attempt that he took a good, hard look at things and realized he wasn’t sure who he was, who he was meant to be – and that he had nobody to talk to about anything, really.

In a moment, when you meet Keith, you’ll discover the baby steps he took to turn things around. It started with simply talking to people on LinkedIn and listening to them tell their stories, which led to him launching several podcasts and YouTube channels.

In the same time period, he started to focus on his physical health in a new way, adapting his exercise routine and his diet. And just when he was getting in better physical shape, building his resilience muscles and support networks to prevent another suicide attempt that could leave his teenage daughter without a dad – he had a heart attack.

So once again, he gave the Grim Reaper the finger – and now he’s gearing up to hike the entire Appalachian Trail!

Keith’s hype song is “Gonna Fly Now” by Bill Conti.

Resources:

• Keith McNally’s website: https://drkeithmcnally.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drkeithmcnally/

Invitation from Lori:

Let me ask you, if there was a simple way to reclaim your peace of mind and not feel so frazzled, would you want to know what it is? Enter the “10 Proven Habits Top Leaders Use to Stay Calm and Focused Every Day” checklist — your quick guide to creating calm, intentional days.

These practices are so incredibly simple, you'll probably question their effectiveness. Like, how could just doing THAT alleviate my stress?!

But take my word - and all the science and research that's been done on these methods - implementing even ONE of these strategies will absolutely...

“Life is short” is one of those cliches that gets thrown around with the idea that you should let things roll off your shoulders or not spend time analyzing the past.

The truth is, though, that life is longer than you realize because...

A person lives on in the memories of those who knew them, are familiar with their stories, and share these stories so that other people may know them too.

Frank Favaro’s grandfathers both died in 2004 when Frank was 27, but they are very much alive for him due not only to their stories, experiences, and lessons, but how they instilled in him both the values and the expectations that have simultaneously driven Frank’s success and sometimes gotten in the way of it.

His paternal grandfather, also named Frank Favaro, grew up fighting in a tough neighborhood to keep his lunch money, then had to fight to stay alive when the Mob took over his contract as a light heavyweight fighter, then went on to become a fighter as a union leader. Yet Frank Sr., who had a seventh-grade education, read poetry and discussed its lessons with his grandchildren.

His maternal grandfather, Jim Biggins, was the nicest guy you’d ever meet and showed Frank how to be a great husband and father. Yet Jim’s own daughter (Frank’s mom) got divorced and left her son emotionally scarred by what she DIDN’T do.

Frank Sr. taught him to look a person in the eye, while Jim taught the value of connections. Together, these values underpin the guiding principle that has brought Frank success working in six industries and as an entrepreneur, which is to find out who people are and how to create emotional connections with them.

With all that, he should have been just fine – but Fine is a 4-Letter Word.

In a moment, when you meet Frank, you’ll discover how being a wrestler in high school not only left him feeling beaten down like a failure and demolished his will to apply himself in college, but pinned him down emotionally, leaving him unfulfilled in his career. Expectations are a lot to wrestle with, especially when they’re someone else’s.

Then you’ll learn how zooming back to the experience of his parents divorcing when he was seven years old, the lack of support he received when he blamed himself for it, and the stunning reason his parents, who were great people who loved him, did not offer him that support or even think to do so, left its marks.

These unrelated threads came together to show Frank the importance of the customer experience – his life’s work. And in their own way became pillars of his work, just as the memories of his grandfathers are living pillars for him.

Frank’s hype song is “Believe” by Lenny Kravitz.

Resources:

• Frank Favaro’s website: https://serve-centric.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frank-favaro-b1507b80/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frankfavaro1/

Invitation from Lori:

Let me ask you, if there was a simple way to reclaim your peace of mind and not feel so frazzled, would you want to know what it is? Enter the “10 Proven Habits Top Leaders Use to Stay Calm and Focused Every Day” checklist — your quick guide to creating calm, intentional days.

These practices are so incredibly simple, you'll probably question their effectiveness. Like, how could just doing THAT alleviate my stress?!

But take my word - and all the science and research that's been done on these methods - implementing even ONE of these...

In the written description of my podcast, Fine Is a 4-Letter Word, I begin by asking:

“Wasn’t it just a couple years ago you were sitting on the beach at spring break in Ft. Lauderdale – listening to the Pet Shop Boys, U2, and Def Leppard - with your entire life ahead of you? Now you’re looking back 30-plus years and wondering what the hell happened.”

Basically, I’ve just described what used to be called the mid-life crisis. I started the show shortly after I’d embarked on some major mid-stream changes and was hearing similar rumblings from many of my friends.

But I’ve long maintained that this isn’t a crisis!

What if everything that happened was just groundwork setting you up for your current success – and that there’s a lesson to be found in how fast time seemed to zoom until one day you looked up and said “Holy s*it, I’m 52 years old!”

This is what Katie Carty Tierney tells those who have yet to go through it.

Her early life didn’t seem like much of a crisis – she came from a good home where she learned that when you say you're gonna do something, you do it; and if you make a mistake, own up to it and work hard to be better.

Growing up, she wanted to be a brain surgeon, then a pediatrician. As a college freshman, as part of her studies toward becoming some sort of doctor, she was made to do something in a biology lab she didn’t agree with, which I’ll leave to your imagination.

So she pivoted to business analysis and research.

This led Katie to a career in the computer industry as a consultant, which she enjoyed until she and her husband decided she would be a stay-at-home mom just before the birth of her first child in 2000.

Her husband was doing well in his career, so she became a stay-at-home mom for a while, volunteering for various networking organizations and stuff for the kids. She figured she’d never go back to work and everything seemed fine.

But Fine is a 4-Letter Word.

In 2007, Katie took an opportunity to go back into the workforce, and it’s been a wild ride since then.

In a moment, when you meet Katie, you’ll discover how her need to hang out with adults again led her down new career paths, including landing a job that required her to go through fifteen – yes, fifteen – interviews.

What did she learn from that?

And looking back with 20/20 hindsight, how has becoming an empty-nester for the first time in 23 years not only brought things full-circle, but also given her a wealth of information to pass along as she blazes the trail for others?

You’re about to find out.

Katie’s hype song is "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor.

Resources:

• Katie Carty Tierney’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiecartytierney/

Invitation from Lori:

Let me ask you, if there was a simple way to reclaim your peace of mind and not feel so frazzled, would you want to know what it is? Enter the “10 Proven Habits Top Leaders Use to Stay Calm and Focused Every Day” checklist — your quick guide to creating calm, intentional days.

These practices are so incredibly simple, you'll probably question their effectiveness. Like, how could just doing THAT alleviate my stress?!

But take my word - and all the science and research that's been done on these methods - implementing even ONE of these strategies will absolutely change your ability to manage your energy, embrace change, and foster resilience. PLUS, you want to cope with the distractions in your mind so you can stay focused and achieve your desired results? THIS checklist will give you the direction to do that.

Oh, and lastly, it isn't about perfection...