Eric Saperston: Award-Winning Filmmaker Talks Living In Wonder, Communication, And Stories

Eric Saperston is an Award Winning Filmmaker of the \”Most Memorable Documentary of the Past 10 Years Award\” at the South by Southwest Film Festival for his acclaimed film “The Journey,” where Eric called up extraordinary people and asked them to have a cup of coffee. Celebrities like Billy Crystal, Jerry Garcia, Jimmy Carter, Ann Richards, as well as powerful business luminaries like Marshall Goldsmith joined him and had impactful conversations about what traits make them who they are. Eric is also the bestselling author of “Live In Wonder: Quests, Quotes, & Questions To Jumpstart Your Journey.”

Today, Eric has an upcoming digital series called “Three Things,” where he interviews more transformative people like Woody Harrelson, Shep Gordon, and Henry Winkler. The series is based on a very successful game and team building exercise he created.

Eric has appeared on The Today Show, CNN, in The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, The New York Times, and has been a world renowned speaker for the past 15+ years, delivering his expertise on communication, leadership, and performance.

—

Watch the episode here

Listen to the podcast here

Eric Saperston: Award-Winning Filmmaker Talks Living In Wonder, Communication, And Stories

Joining us is Eric Saperston. He is an award-winning filmmaker of the Most Memorable Documentary of the Past Ten Years Award at South by Southwest for his acclaimed film, The Journey, where Eric called up extraordinary people and asked them to have a cup of coffee. Celebrities like Billy Crystal, Jerry Garcia, Jimmy Carter, Ann Richards, as well as many powerful business luminaries like Marshall Goldsmith, joined him and had moving conversations about what traits made them who they were.

He is also the bestselling author of the book, Live In Wonder. Eric has an upcoming digital series called Three Things, where he interviews more transformative people like Woody Harrelson, Shep Gordon, and Henry Winkler, which is based on a very successful game and team-building exercise he created. Eric has appeared on The Today Show, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and The New York Times. He has been a world-renowned speaker for the past years on the topics of communication, leadership and performance. Please join me now with the amazing Eric Saperston.

—

Eric Saperston, thank you for joining me here on the show. How are you doing?

I\’m well. It\’s nice to see you.

It\’s great to see you. Thank you for coming on. I have been looking forward to this. I have known about you for a long time. I\’m a huge fan. I have been wanting to talk to you here for a while. A lot of things about you are so cool. The main word I think of when I think of you as a speaker is communication. You and I have a lot in common when it comes to the way we think about communication, sales, leadership and performance. It\’s an exciting journey that you have been on. I know it all starts for you with the movie you made called The Journey, which was a very successful documentary that won the South by Southwest Film Festival, which is incredible. That is point-A for you. That\’s where everything started.

This was years ago now. After college, I graduated and thought I could take a year off and go travel, get a corporate job, or go to graduate school. Those are my three choices. I chose door number one, which was to take a year off. I was going to travel and follow the Grateful Dead and work a ski season in Aspen. My mentor at that time said, \”Eric, traveling and partying are going to be great for you. You are good at that. What else can you do to make the trip more meaningful?\”

[bctt tweet=\”Everybody has a gift, a contribution that they make for the world.\” via=\”no\”]

I was thinking about how I could take that trip and do something that would have meaning for myself and others. On a dare from him, he challenged me to think about what can I do to be of service? How do I make that trip have an impact, not just have fun? From that dare, I decided when I wasn\’t traveling and having a good time that I would call up some of the most powerful people in the world and take them out for a cup of coffee.

What gave you the impetus to do that? Were you already in sales? How were you so confident and thought you could just call the most successful people up wherever you were traveling and interview them?

This was early in the technological boom. I was living in a Volkswagen bus with my dog, traveling around the country. I was van life before van life was a hashtag. I was out traveling by my bus. I was selling what I called sexy kind grilled cheese sandwiches, but they were just grilled cheese sandwiches off of my Coleman stove at rest stops to raise money. At that point, I was using payphones to call up people directly at their office and try to hunt extraordinary people down.

What gave me permission to do it was that I saw a genuine need. I was connected to a higher purpose right out the gate. I saw that there was a breakdown between young people and elders. I thought that young people who want to live extraordinary lives, most of the elders that they had access to were cynical, jaded and unhappy with their lot in life.

We were going to a lot of people like that for wisdom. They were sharing with us how to live, and I thought that didn\’t make any sense. I want to talk to the top of the food chain, the people who are waking up excited, going to bed fulfilled, and living extraordinary lives. I realized that if I\’ve got access to them, I could be a conduit. I can open up a dialogue between young people who want to learn with wise elders who want to teach.

How old were you when you had this realization?

Live In Wonder: Quests, Quotes & Questions to Jumpstart Your Journey

I was in my twenties.

That\’s amazing that you had that insight. Even having a mentor says a lot about you. Do you care to talk about him at all or where he came from?

Tony Smith passed away now. He was a superstar human. I met him when I was a student body president in college. I brought him under my wing as an advisor then, and he continued to be my mentor. He fundamentally changed my life. I thought I was going to travel and have a good time. On his dare, he said, \”What can you do to make it more meaningful?\” That was a massive contribution. There was another contribution that he made that helped me identify my higher purpose. I believe everybody here has a gift, the contribution that they make for the world, and the real journey that we are all on.

Every one of us is on a journey. My movie was called The Journey. Why it\’s so important and relevant in how it continues to impact people is we have never gotten off the journey. We are all on a journey. On this journey, how do we find our purpose? How do we find meaning and fulfillment? My mentor, Dr. Tony Smith said, \”The best way to figure out your calling is to ask yourself three questions. What is the problem? What is the need? What is the solution?\”

If we can identify a problem that\’s in our life that matters to us, haunts us, pulls on our pant leg, gets us angry for its injustice, or whatever it is that we are called forth because we care about this topic, if we can identify what that is. The second thing is what’s the need? Here is this injustice, an environmental issue or a political issue. I care about this. If we can identify what the need is, it\’s awesome. The third part is what is it about my life, the bicker of my mom and dad, and all my life experiences that have brought me to this moment. Do my gifts align with that as a solution?

I grew up with a father that had a stroke when he was 28 years old. I grew up with a man that was disabled and crippled on the entire left side of his body. He walked around dragging his left side. He had been an athlete, a professional baseball player, and an executive at a top company. He was the main breadwinner of my family. All of a sudden, he had a stroke at 28 that was unexpected. He became paralyzed. My mom, who was a stay-at-home mom, became the main breadwinner. My whole life and our whole family life changed.

[bctt tweet=\”The more people can get clear about what they stand for, the more commitment, power, and vitality they can bring to their lives.\” via=\”no\”]

I realized my father was not this optimistic and inspiring person. He was pretty jaded, angry, and mad at the world for robbing him of his life. I saw that and realized, \”I want to live an extraordinary life. I want to seek out people who are not stopped.\” My father\’s paralysis gave me the strength to go after this. I realized that there are a lot of other people like me who have people in their lives that are cynical, jaded, upset, and something wronged them.

That\’s when it dawned on me that the problem was a gap that needed to be bridged between everyday young people and extraordinary elders. I saw that need. If I could bridge that gap, would it provide value for people that want to learn it? Would it provide value for those that have the wisdom to teach? Would they be inspired by each other? I looked at my life and said, \”With my skillset, can I be in the solution?\”

It turns out that I had been gregarious as a kid. I\’m a person who loves to ask questions. I love to engage in all walks of life, and I love building bridges. I like opening up dialogues. It became obvious that it was my path. My invitation for everyone that\’s reading is to do the same experience. What is the problem you care about? What is the need? How do your gifts become part of the solution? I believe if that calling is real, it will give your life power, vitality and fulfillment.

These very extraordinary people, I assume they were mostly pretty successful people. A lot of them are probably entrepreneurs and founders of companies. Correct me if I\’m wrong. It seems like that\’s the mantra of successful people. In many cases, there\’s a problem that they want to fix. There\’s a status quo that they will not accept that they want to change. That\’s the reason why they were passionate about changing the world and doing something amazing that they did.

Was that something you knew was the case going in or did you just want to get all of this information? You started filming it, which was also very intelligent of you to have that idea to do so because it became an incredible documentary. Was it your main purpose? You wanted to steal and learn a little bit from these people on how to be successful and extraordinary, also in what you were doing in linking the young with the older.

There are a couple of things I heard out of that. All these extraordinary people that I have interviewed are rockstars, CEOs, astronauts, Olympic athletes, physicists and farmers. I have met the top of the food chain all these years. For many years, I have been studying the common traits of what it takes to be extraordinary. We have met some of the most phenomenal people on the planet. If you are asking, \”Are they committed to solving a problem?\” The answer to that is yes. That is what drives them to do what they do. That is what gives them the power to pull up their enthusiasm like a pair of socks and go out there and make magic happen.

Living In Wonder: We are all on a journey. On this journey, how do we find our purpose? How do we find meaning and fulfillment?

I interviewed the world-renowned architect, John Portman, who is amazing. He was the one that created the atriums in hotels. Everyone knows about these big atriums. He was the visionary that came up with that idea. One of the things I asked him was, \”What is the greatest challenge you think is facing our society right now?\” He said, \”The greatest challenge is that we become rudderless boats. What happens to a boat without a rudder? A boat drifts at the whim of the elements. It\’s at the whim of the tide and current.\”

As a society, most people are working hard. They are putting countless hours into creating a livelihood, yet they go to bed exhausted and wake up tired. The reason why they are doing that is that they have not identified their own rudder. They have not gotten clear about what they stand for, what are the guiding principles that push and drive them to do what they do, what are their commitments and higher purpose.

Being able to identify what those are gives someone meaning, purpose and fulfillment in their life. What we work with our clients all the time and give speeches about is to help people get clear about their individual rudders. The more they can get clear about what they stand for, the more commitment they can bring to their lives, and the more power and vitality they can bring.

It seems like you took a lot of these lessons. You created this incredible movie that made you well-known and won in a major film festival at South by Southwest. You took it and wrote the Live In Wonder book many years later.

I\’m a person who likes to do things once. I have made a movie and it was released. I was blessed that it inspired millions of people now. I then wrote a book and it took me a while to write one. That was because when I would give speeches in front of all these amazing companies like ADP, SAP, Gartner, Nike, Coke, Hilton and all of them, I would oftentimes open it up for Q&A because I love to be able to engage with the audience. It\’s fun to do that. It\’s extemporaneous and engaging. People get a chance to participate and co-create the experience.

I would ask questions and people would raise their hand and say, \”You\’ve got a chance to meet all these iconic and amazing leaders, visionaries and pioneers in all these industries. What did you learn?\” I would share lessons of what I learned and what they taught me. There are a lot of them. Everything from being clear about your guiding principles, having the humility to ask others for help, and knowing that language is either in the on position or off position. You are either inspiring and bringing people towards you or repelling and pushing them away, so you want to switch that into the on position. There is building a community and having community standards that genuinely care about one another, and all these great lessons.

[bctt tweet=\”In this world of short-form content, get to the point and be succinct.\” via=\”no\”]

I would share stories from Jimmy Carter, Maya Angelou, the President of Coke, or whoever it might be that I was sharing back on The Journey, and then conversations that I can share from Woody Harrelson, Henry Winkler, and the tons of people that we are still in relationships now. There was always somebody smart in the audience. They raise their hand and say, \”Eric, I get you are a great storyteller. I appreciate all the people that you met. Can you share with me what you learned, not just what they taught you? You\’ve got a chance to go on this adventure and look for the commonalities of all these extraordinary people. You\’ve got up on this mountain and got access to all this information. What did you deduce? I want to know that answer.\”

It truly humbled me. I didn\’t have it. It was a bummer. I don\’t know what that is yet because it hasn\’t come to me yet. I would have to go back to that moment because I didn\’t have it. I would go, \”I\’m still working on it.\” It took many years before the epiphany finally popped in. What I realized is what all these people have in common. We are talking about extraordinary people. There\’s a difference between good to great. I\’m talking about great to extraordinary, people that are living fully self-expressed lives.

I\’m interested in learning from those folks. What I realized is that all of them live in wonder and bring a deep sense of awe, marvel, astonishment, and gratitude to the moment. In a world where it is changing, disruptive and uncertain, everyone is mostly panicking like, \”This is crazy. I don\’t know what is going to happen.\” People who I interviewed are not threatened by not knowing what is going to happen because they have never known what is going to happen.

They create what is going to happen.

They co-create it and build a community that uses a language to speak their possibility into the world. They are tenacious. It\’s all kinds of things that help make that happen. Every person on this planet was born with a sense of wonder. It transcends race and religion. It\’s a unanimous experience. Some would say that our first emotion is wonder. It\’s the sense of awe, marvel, bewilderment and curiosity. All of that is how we start to evolve into this world.

Somewhere along the line, we get taught, \”You\’ve got to knock that out of you. You\’ve got to stop being that, get practical, real and focused.\” The people that I know are real, practical, focused, and have a huge sense of wonder. They bring curiosity to the moment. They are incredible talkers. They are able to speak well. When I get to hang out with them, they are incredible question-askers.

Living In Wonder: There is a gap that needs to be bridged between everyday young people and extraordinary elders. If we could bridge that gap, would it provide value for people that want to learn it? Would it provide value for those that have the wisdom to teach? Would they be inspired by each other?

That\’s what I was going to say about you. You lived in wonder from the very beginning. You wondered what these people were thinking, where they were coming from, and what made them successful and extraordinary. It sounds like live in wonder is such a great theme for you and in your life. It\’s not only that movie but also the book, which I know has sold a lot of copies and has done very well.

It\’s who you have been and you still are. You love to wonder, ask questions, get to know people, and spread that knowledge in many different forms that you have done all these years as a speaker, writer, and movie-maker. You have an interview show that you are doing, which is the thing you are passionate about now. You mentioned Henry Winkler and Woody Harrelson. I know they are two of your guests on the upcoming digital series, Three Things. Tell us a little bit about that new project.

Three Things has been a real blessing. In this world of short-form content, get to the point, and be succinct, we have been brewing this idea for years. It has morphed into a whole bunch of things. Now it has finally found its moment in time. Years ago, I interviewed all of these people. I learned being a movie-maker that I could sit down for an hour and a half and interview somebody. It would be impactful and great, but then I would have to go back and watch it for an hour and a half. I would have to have cutaways. I would have to figure out how to edit it all together.

We started talking, then we went off on a tangent. We came back and talked again. If somebody said something great at 6 minutes and then they said something relevant to that idea 16 minutes later, in the editing room, you\’ve got to put all of that together, make it sound intelligent, and have cutaways to do all that. I realized that was a lot of work. I wanted to figure out how can I tell stories well and quickly? That was the problem I was trying to solve.

We started this journey around figuring out how we could do that. We thought about storytelling and the power of storytelling. That storytelling has three acts. There\’s a beginning, middle and end. There\’s a setup, conflict and resolution. That\’s what storytelling is. If we can create a three-act structure that will help people share their wisdom, can we do it in an impactful and succinct way? That was the inquiry. We started filming people, and then it has evolved from interviewing strangers all over the world to becoming a game that people like to play. We evolved the game into a new digital series.

That series is called Three Things: Pearls of Wisdom From Extraordinary People. Why it\’s called Three Things is because we get to ask three-things questions. We interviewed Patrick Simmons from The Doobie Brothers who wrote the song, \”Old black water, keep on rolling. Mississippi moon, won\’t you keep on shining?\” He is so fun. He wrote this iconic song so we asked him, \”What are the three things you have learned about songwriting?\” Pat said, \”1) Keep it simple. 2) Write about what you know, your own experience. 3) Don\’t bore us and get to the chorus.\”

[bctt tweet=\”Enjoy the heck out of the journey because none of us knows when it\’s going to end. That\’s why we are living in wonder.\” via=\”no\”]

Every songwriter needs to remember that, for sure.

Every songwriter, organization, salesperson, husband, wife, and everybody can all utilize this skill of being able to articulate our ideas by saying, \”Here\’s my idea number 1, 2 and 3.\” It\’s one of the most powerful communication tools we have uncovered. The amount of wisdom that\’s transferred at that moment in time is incredible.

We are seeing it impact organizations on every level. We are going to top leaders and saying, \”When was the last time you turned around and said, \’What are three ways that I can exceed your expectations in the next 90 days? Salesperson, what are three things you are looking for in this new product that would exceed your expectations?\’\”

You have been doing this as a team-building exercise as well. It\’s a workshop flavor to your keynotes and in-person and virtual presentations. That\’s where it came from.

It evolved another asset out of the idea of Three Things. This is as timely, as meaningful and as value-add. This is an offering that is making a profound difference for organizations. We have created a team-building experience around question-asking. We are using the Three Things model to engage an organization. It has increased psychological safety and produced greater levels of empathy, inclusion, and belonging. It opens up a dialogue between everybody. It celebrates shared values.

It has been phenomenally off the charts for us in a world where most organizations are doing things remotely, and a lot of companies are hiring people. The people that they are working with, they have never met before. They have only met them digitally. They never had the opportunity to be around a water cooler and get to know or go bowling. In this new digital world, this one experience will transform an organization. It\’s the beginning of a brand-new dialogue. The feedback that we have gotten from the companies we have been collaborating with has been off the charts. We love it.

Living In Wonder: What is the problem you care about? What is the need? How do your gifts become part of the solution? If that calling is real, it will give your life power, vitality, and fulfillment.

If any organization out there wants to build a community, celebrate shared values, reduce anxiety and fear, build trust, inclusion, and belonging, please call on us. We would love to help. We have been doing this exercise virtually. It\’s poised for it to be virtual because that\’s exactly where we are. We are sitting in our homes. We are relating to people that we have never been physically with. I will walk you through what it does. The experience is we come up with questions. We put everybody on teams, and then we are able to give people questions.

Everybody in the organization gets a Three Things question. Yours could be, \”What are the three things you have learned about making mistakes?\” Mine can be, \”What are the three things I have learned about listening?\” Somebody else can be, \”What are the three things you have learned about leadership? What are the three things you have learned being on a team? What are the three things you have learned about trust?\” We work with the HR department to come up with a whole list of questions that match their ethos.

We have everybody go around and we say, \”Let\’s give everybody a question,” and then have that group of people walk around. In this case, we have them digitally connect and ask each other their question. We have the whole organization asking each other these questions. Within a certain amount of time, you\’ve got fifteen people who have asked the same question. Everybody is getting wiser and smarter because they listen to all their colleagues share their wisdom around this.

The colleagues ask them their questions. Everybody gets to be seen, heard and celebrated. Everyone gets to share wisdom, listen and learn how powerful questions are. Everyone gets a chance to ask each other questions, and then we come away from that. Each person gets a chance to share what it is that they learned from asking all those people that question. They are mini-TED Talks with the quality of information that\’s shared at that moment. Everybody comes across so smart because they learn from everybody.

In the third round, we talked about, \”What was the impact of asking questions? What did you learn about yourself, about others, and the power of questions?\” Everybody comes out of this with raving reviews. We are blessed when people say, \”Out of all the team activities we\’ve had, and we have done many cool ones, this one has been the deepest and the most meaningful for our organization. This has made a dent in our ability to connect and get to know one another.\”

This is your mantra and your quest your whole life. It\’s asking questions, spreading knowledge, and getting people to share with each other through whatever means you have chosen. This is what you have meant to do. Is Three Things something that\’s coming out soon? I wanted to ask you about your digital series. Is that out yet? Is it going to be on a YouTube page? Where is that going to live?

[bctt tweet=\”Living in wonder means that somebody is optimistic and open. There\’s nothing more important than this moment that we are having now.\” via=\”no\”]

We are gathering all the episodes and holding them. We are going to put out a release on them. We are excited about that. Come join me on all social media platforms on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. You will be the first to know when they come out.

It\’s pretty cool that you have already had interviews with Woody Harrelson and Henry Winkler. This sounds like it\’s going to be a lot of fun.

It has been great. We have interviewed Samuel Beard, who worked with eight United States presidents. We talked to Dennis McNally, who was the publicist for the Grateful Dead and many others. It has been a blast. I already told you about Patrick Simmons and so many great people. On our wish list are Jane Goodall, Warren Buffett and Jim Carrey.

I have a feeling you are going to get whatever is on your wish list. It seems like you have been good at wishing and visualizing things, and making them come to fruition. That has been another MO of yours throughout.

Thank you for that. Coming full circle to where we began, I\’m grateful for Architect John Portman that had me think about guiding principles. For everyone that I know that\’s being extraordinary, they are committed to something. That\’s what gives them the courage to do the thing that everyone says can\’t be done. I invite everyone to ground down to take time. I live on an organic farm now. Nature is so powerful. We have become this technological world in which we are around phones, monitors and all that. My wife Sarah likes to always say, \”Whatever we are doing a lot of, do the opposite.\”

If we are spending a lot of time around technology, it\’s equally as important for us to spend time in nature and ground down. Please do that. In that time where you are in nature, that\’s the best place to listen to yourself and figure out, \”What are the answers to those three questions? What is a problem I care about? What is a need? How do I become part of the solution? What are my guiding principles that I\’m going to use to govern my life so I can be that?\” Go for it and enjoy the heck out of the journey because none of us knows when it\’s going to end. That\’s why we are living in wonder.

Living In Wonder: In a world that is changing, disruptive, and uncertain, everyone is mostly panicking. Those who are not threatened by not knowing what will happen are the extraordinary people living fully self-expressed lives.

I know you have these conversations with so many great people. It\’s your quest and what you do. You are surrounded by a lot of great people who have been your friends over the years. Are these extraordinary people now singing a different tune in general than they were before the pandemic or before the 2000s? Does anything noticeably changed with the main mantras or focuses that they have?

In my experience, when I say that the people who I have met are living in wonder, I mean that with the greatest amount of earnestness. Living in wonder means that somebody is optimistic and open. There\’s a curiosity, a not knowing, an appreciation, a deep sense of gratitude, and a presence and awareness to it that all life is sacred and that I\’m here to be present with you. There\’s nothing more important than this moment that we are having now.

Everyone is saying, \”I\’m busy.\” One of my friends likes to say, \”Busy is the new stupid.\” Being busy isn\’t great. It\’s being intentional and present. If we can slow down and be present with everyone, that makes our journey count. That\’s what everybody wants from us. My friends that are living this life were already living with uncertainty. They were already living like there was a pandemic and political upheaval. They were living their lives every day like it was their last day.

They are not taking anything for granted. They don\’t feel entitled. They feel very strongly about contributing. One of the distinctions that we talk about with our clients all the time is consume versus contribute. We become such a consuming, taking, needing, I want this, this is me culture. The people that are living extraordinary lives are thinking, \”How can I help?\”

Aren\’t they trying to also manifest ideas and innovate? Isn\’t that a big part of living in wonder as well?

Innovation is a big part of living in wonder. Another form of wonder is bewilderment. Bewilderment is being stopped. It has both positive and negative tones to it. There\’s fear and excitement. The innovation comes at that moment of pause right there. Why wonder is important is that it\’s the beginning of the inquiry. Where innovation starts is by asking, \”What can we do? What can be done?\”

[bctt tweet=\”There\’s nobody that\’s an expert at the beginning of a journey. There\’s only learning and growing. \” via=\”no\”]

In the same way that a problem needs a solution, it\’s right there too. To innovate, what is the problem? What is the need? How are we part of the solution? Wonder is our pathway to get that done. It gives us the opportunity to try, explore and experiment with things. We have become this culture that wants everything to be perfect out the gate. There\’s no perfect out the gate. There\’s nobody that\’s an expert at the beginning of a journey. There\’s only learning and growing. That\’s it. That\’s back to being kids again, living in wonder, learning and growing, and saying please and thank you a lot.

It\’s almost like you can be perfect for a period of time, and that goes unnoticed. When you make a mistake, that\’s when everybody is pointing fingers. Everybody is their own worst critic but also everybody else\’s critic. People want to point out things they disagree with or don\’t believe in a lot, which is sad.

We’re living on an organic farm. I\’m learning about soil, regeneration, sustainability and growth. All of that needs nourishment. All these people who are walking around in leadership positions are being stingy with their gratitude and appreciation. They are holding back, waiting and watching for somebody to make a mistake. They will try to criticize them and want to shift their behavior, which isn\’t working. In this great reset and resignation that\’s happening, people are full, fatigued and exhausted. The amount of money people are getting isn\’t enough to make people care. They\’ve got to want to care. They want to be in a culture and community that stands for their greatness, listens and is inclusive. It creates belonging and all that.

One of the things that we need to focus on as a society is appreciation and gratitude. We want to be able to be forthcoming, notice people doing things well, and acknowledge them for doing things well. If we can make more deposits into somebody\’s bank of Aloha and contribute to them, when there is something that didn\’t work out, they are listening for your chance to go in there and course-correct or change behavior. Their listening is so much higher because you have contributed to them. You gave, supported, and nourished them, and then they can listen. Nobody wants to make mistakes.

You start walking in a room and somebody goes, \”I blew it, didn\’t I?\” They will be so much more ready to try to shift behavior because they know you genuinely care about them. That\’s real leadership to me. People are starving for gratitude, acknowledgment and appreciation. The leaders who are going to be successful in this new world will be the ones who are building communities. Using that boat analogy that I said about rudderless, one of my other favorite things about a boat is, \”A rising tide lifts all boats.\” Those are the kind of leadership we need, people that are able to create win-wins and lift and care about one another. Those are the teams and communities I want to be a part of.

That\’s very good stuff. It\’s amazing. That\’s what you have been doing and what you stand for. You embody that. You inspire many people and have done it in many different ways. I\’m excited to see the series, Three Things. Whatever you are doing, I always want to find out and be a part of it. If you are speaking, I need to be there. I hope you are in California sometime soon. I may have to go to Hawaii and catch you there. Thank you so much for coming on here. The time has flown by. I know we always talk for way longer than we expect we are going to. There are so many great nuggets in here. This has been awesome. Thanks a lot.

Living In Wonder: People are starving for gratitude, acknowledgment, and appreciation. The leaders who will be successful in this new world are the ones who are building communities.

I will leave you with a quick little joke. What did one strawberry say to the other strawberry?

I have no idea.

“If you were not so fresh, we wouldn\’t be in this jam.”

Thanks, Eric. I will talk to you soon undoubtedly. Have yourself a great beginning of 2022.

It has been a pleasure, Chris. I\’m so grateful to be in partnership with you. Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to connect. I look forward to making magic, having fun and laughs, and impacting organizations together.

I will see you and talk to you again soon. You are the man. Thank you.

Aloha, my friend. Cheers.

Important Links

• Eric Saperston
• Live In Wonder
• LinkedIn – Eric Saperston
• Facebook – Eric Saperston
• Instagram – Eric Saperston
• YouTube – Eric Saperston

About Eric Saperston

Eric Saperston is an American award winning filmmaker, best selling author, international keynote speaker, executive coach and host of the hit series \”Three Things: Pearls of Wisdom from Extraordinary People\”

Saperston began his leadership journey traveling the country in an Volkswagon bus with his Golden Retriever Jack, funding their trip by selling grilled cheese sandwiches off a Coleman stove for gas money and dog food. His mission: to call up the most successful people in the world and take them out for a cup of coffee.

For the last 25 years, Eric has dedicated his life to learning leadership lessons from top visionaries, business tycoons, entertainment icons and world leaders on his quest to discover what it takes to achieve extraordinary results.

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://slot22.silverline.dev/virtually-speaking/