The Mind Body Project
The Mind Body Project
Sit & Talk: The Power of a Moment
We explore how small, ordinary moments shape lives, work, and families. From “penny actions” to a father’s one-line advice, we show how attention and intention turn tiny gestures into lasting change.
• defining the power of a moment and why it matters
• the penny actions metaphor and compounding kindness
• making people feel seen, loved and important
• leadership through tiny opportunities and quick support
• honest encouragement that admits the hard path
• practical ways to be present and intentional daily
• a closing challenge to create powerful moments
What can you do today, tomorrow, and this week to create a powerful moment for someone else
Thank you for taking a little time to join me today. Thank you for joining me on Walk and Talk. If this is your first time here to Walk and Talk, thank you so much for joining me. And I hope you enjoyed. Let me share you a little bit about what walk and talk is. Simply, I'm walking, I'm talking just as we're a couple friends. Um, what do you do with a friend? You'll just walk and visit and talk and have the greatest conversations. And that's kind of our goal here today. You might be out walking, you may be on the treadmill walking, you may be sitting in the office working, you may be just sitting and taking it easy, but I'm gonna walk and talk just like we're a couple friends walking and talking. I'm gonna share some things with you, some challenges, some ideas, some thoughts to encourage your growth and hopefully impact your life a little bit. So today we're gonna talk about the power of a moment. I first heard um a talk about the power of a moment from Heidi Thompson. She is the co-founder of Sensi. If you haven't ever heard of Sensi, Scentsy sells waxes. Uh they sell warmers, the waxes melt, the warmers smell good. But it was, I think, in California, maybe four or five, maybe six years ago, we were at a convention there for Sensi, and she she gave this talk, and it was just so powerful that I wanted to share a little bit of that talk, some ideas from that talk, and how you can apply those to your life. I tried to apply some of those things to my life, and those power moments are so powerful because our life is made up of moments. Those moments make up minutes, those moments make up hours, days, weeks, years, but all of them are made up of little moments. So we're gonna talk about the power of a moment. She she really highly emphasized that that how seemingly, how small, seemingly ordinary moments can have an extraordinary impact on people's lives. Moments that we don't even catch sometimes can have an extraordinary impact on their lives, especially in relationships, in leadership, in business, they can just make an amazing impact. And to some, they'd be so small, so minute that you may not even recognize them. So she talked about how does the power of a moment affect us? How are we affected by that? And one of the things she talked about was you never know when a small act of kindness, encouragement, or service might change someone's entire life. Think about in your life, when was somebody did something, it was a small act of kindness, of generosity, that really made an impact on you, that really maybe changed your life. Maybe that person encouraged you. Maybe they you're in a rough spot, or you're looking to change a job, or start a relationship, and they gave you some encouragement. Maybe it was a relationship, and maybe that encouragement you you ended up because of that encouragement, you ended up marrying that person, having kids, having a grand life, having grandkids, all because of that encouragement. It completely changed your life. Maybe how you served someone that the that or they served you, that could have changed your life, that could have made a difference. And it's you know, it's so small. Um, I've talked about when we talk about small things, I like to call them penny actions. I mean, if you see a penny on the ground, let's say you have its heads up, definitely if it's tails, you're not picking it up whatsoever, but if it's heads up, you look at it, and sometimes we miss it. We walk by it, we don't even see it. But sometimes we see it and we go, it's a penny. It's not even worth me picking up. But that penny, can we, especially with inflation, everything else going on today, can we buy anything with a penny? We cannot. But what if we take that penny, we grab it, we take it home, and we put it. For me, I have this big old milk jug jar that I put all my pennies in. So we go ahead and just dump it in that penny in that jar. And now we're, you know, every time we see a penny, we grab it, we just put it in that jar. And over the years, we decide to go ahead and cash it in because it's about full, it's you know, it's about topped out. We end up having a hundred, two hundred dollars worth of pennies. Now, can we buy something with a couple hundred dollars? Yeah, we can definitely buy something, but at the moment of that penny, and we took the time to bend over, pick it up, it was we could do nothing with it. But when we start compounding those pennies and saving those pennies, that small act makes an extraordinary difference. And maybe it's in our life, maybe we can buy food with it, maybe we need some food, maybe we need to pay a bill with it, maybe we need to pay it towards a vacation, maybe we use it to buy ourselves something special because we did something. It's a penny action, it's it's a small act that if we walk by it, we don't do it, it could, it wouldn't mean a lot at the moment. But what if we start compounding those small acts of kindness? Those encouragements, that service. How could that change someone's entire life over time? Maybe you were just a one penny that gave that small act of kindness and encouragement. And then later down the road, there was someone else that did another penny of encouragement, kindness, service. And those start to build up. And that person starts to be affected by all those small acts, those penny actions. And they begin to act differently, they begin to speak differently, they begin to look different, they begin to have a different life because of those small acts, those small moments that we took the time to be kind, encouraging, serve. And maybe as you're thinking, as we're talking, you're thinking about someone that has done that in your life. And maybe it's not just one, maybe your life is a strength of people pouring into you those those moments, those ordinary moments over time. And so we always have to stop and pick up the penny. We always have to stop and give that small act of kindness. And also we have to receive those small acts. Be mindful when those small acts are coming towards us, when we're being giving, given that penny action. And with Cincy, she was she was talking about business, but she was also talking about people in your business, people in your life. Um, so she talked about building a business isn't about selling a product or service, it's about creating a moment with customers, team members, even strangers that make them feel seen, loved, and important. It doesn't matter if we have a business, we have customers, it doesn't matter if we have team members in our business, in our job, as strangers, our family. People want to be seen. They want to feel seen, loved, and important. Do you like to be seen? Do you like somebody to notice you? Man, your hair looks nice. That looks great. Wow, your dress the other night in one of our classes, our small group classes, my daughter comes to, and one of the other ladies had seen her at church, and she mentioned to her, my mentioned to my daughter, that her daughter liked the way she dressed. She said, Man, mom, she is always dressed so cute. And I could just see my daughter's face light up. And because she felt seen, she felt, oh, somebody noticed me. That made her feel really good. When you feel loved, don't we all want to feel loved? And if and if those are things that we want, it's really also things other people want. So how can we how can we create those moments that make someone feel loved? And just by just by the lady telling my daughter that her daughter liked the way she dressed, she took, she could have very easily let that go. But she took that moment to say, hey, I'm gonna take this small moment, this quick moment. I mean, it was it wasn't even a 20-second exchange. That's how small it was, but it made a very big impact on my daughter. And don't we like to feel important? And we like to feel needed. Uh, I think sometimes when we feel needed, we feel important. You know, hey, what do you think about this? Um, I've had clients come and talk about, have questions about relationships, about marriage. And it makes me feel important that I can give, help give them the answer, help. Maybe not the answer is the right word, but share some insight, some things that they might be able to take with them and help them in their relationship in their marriages that can make a difference. So it kind of makes me feel important. We all like to feel that way in any any aspect of our life. And so we want to do those things that we can create a moment with the people, whether it's in our business, whether it is in our family, uh, wherever it is, how do we create a moment? And those are created, but we have to take time to be able to create those moments. And again, as she talked about her business and speaking to those that were in the business, um, she talked about how leadership and growth come from seizing tiny opportunities. One conversation, one compliment, or one supportive message at a time. And when we talk about leadership and growth, when we talk about leadership, we often think about leading other people. But we also have to lead ourselves. But all of us are leaders if we influence one other person. We are a leader. We we lead our families, we lead co-workers, we lead maybe a spouse. No, we lead a significant other. We are leaders, and when it comes to growth, we have to seize those tiny opportunities for growth, not only for us, but for those around us. Maybe it is that one conversation that we're gonna have with someone else that encourages our growth or helps our leadership, whether it's in our family and our business, and it's our growth. Maybe it's that conversation we're having with someone that gives us an idea. Wow, I can apply that. I can apply that value, I can apply that principle and help me grow. Uh, maybe it's one compliment. It's tiny opportunity, just like the lady giving my daughter a compliment. She sees that tiny opportunity to be able to do that for her. Or it's one supportive message. It's, you know, we don't have to write letters anymore. Supportive message is as easy as a text, a quick text to say, I'm thinking of hope everything's going good today. I know you're gonna have a big meeting today. You got this today. I know you're gonna have a stressful test coming up. You you can do this, you're smart enough. You got it. It's just a message that conveys that that we are seizing that opportunity, but to seize that tiny opportunity, we have to be intentional about that. We have to be intentional about taking the time. Um, the big really takeaway from it was moments matter because people matter, and we're all human, we all have that in common, whether the way we look on the outside, you know, gender, skin color, ethnicity, or any of those. We are human at the core. We're all human. So moments matter because each of us humans, each of us people matter. I want to just take a just a quick moment and read in short her Heidi's speech. It's short, kind of give you the highlights of it, but this is this is what she conveyed in her in her talk. There's a power in a single moment. Not the big ones we plan for, not the grand awards, or the spotlight moments, but the little ones. The ones that seem small, invisible even, but leave a mark forever. A smile when someone feels unseen, a word of encouragement when someone wants to give up, a hug when someone feels alone, a you matter when someone needs to hear it the most. These moments change lives. And most of all, and most of the time we don't even realize it. You have the ability every single day to create those moments for your customers, for your friends, for your team, for your strangers who might desperately need someone to see them. Business isn't about products, it's about people. It's about creating a connection so real, so genuine, that stays with someone long after they walk away. One powerful moment can change a day, it can change a life, it can change the world. Don't wait for the big stages or the perfect time. Your power is in the ordinary moments. Use them because moments matter, because people matter, and because you matter. Now we talk about the little moments and taking those times. I'm reminded of the day when I was in my early 20s. I went, had my dad, he was, is, he he will only give me advice if I ask for it. He won't give me advice any other time. I have to come out and say, Dad, what do you think? What should I do? What are your thoughts? And this particular day I was in my early 20s. I had called over my uh mom and dad's to to ask him a question. He was outside mowing, and so he was just finishing up, and I called him just as he was finishing up. So we sat down on the porch and I asked him as the question, and I asked him some advice, and his advice to me was and I don't even remember the question, I just remember the advice. The advice was he said, you can never go wrong doing the right thing. And that has stuck with me. That was my early 20s, early, early 20s. And I have never forgotten that in all these years. And I I've told my kids that, I've told clients that, I've told those that I coach and mentor, I've told them that. I've used that over and over and over and over again. And probably if I brought it up to my dad, and I said, Hey dad, you remember that time we're sitting on the porch and I had I need some advice, and he told me, and and you said, No, you can never go wrong doing the right thing. And he'd probably say no. And I have brought it up, and he goes, Yeah, I don't I don't really remember that. But that was a small moment that he doesn't even remember, that has changed and directed my life. And not only has it done it for me, but I have passed it on and it has done the same for others. I always like to share the the rest of it that he never shared with me. He let me figure that out on my own, which was you can never go wrong doing the right thing. But it doesn't make doing the right thing easier. It is still challenging to do the right thing. You'll find hardships, you'll find challenges in doing the right thing. But in the long run, you can't go wrong. And so I always feel obligated to share the rest of that with those I share that knowledge with because I had to find it out the hard way. But it's a small moment that my dad probably doesn't even remember that has guided my life. It's one of the principles that has guided me, and we do that, we share those small moments that are ordinary. That was an ordinary thing for him, but it was an extraordinary thing for my life. And we'll do the same to others, and you have done the same for others. You have done something that's been very ordinary, has made an extraordinary difference in their life that they came back to you and said, I don't remember that. There are things that Kim and I have done with our kids that made a huge impact on them. And as they're older now, they're on their 20s, they tell us about, we'll go, don't remember that. But it made a huge impact on them. So the challenge is to be present, be intentional, and create powerful moments every day. We have to be present and in that moment. My dad was present with me in that moment when we had that conversation. He was intentional about his words. And for me, that created a powerful moment for my life. And those mean by sending a thank you note, making someone feel heard, making them feel seen, remembering someone's birthday. These are simple ways giving a word of encouragement when someone's doubting themselves. These are things that are simple, and there's a gazillion million of them that you could do to be present, to be intentional, and create powerful moments every day. So that's my challenge to you is what can you do today? What can you do after you listen to this to create a powerful moment? What can you do tomorrow? What can you do this week to create a powerful moment for someone else? And be looking for those. Be looking for those powerful moments in your life that are seemingly ordinary, but you know that it is a powerful moment. So that's the challenge. Go up and create powerful moments out of the ordinary into extraordinary. Thanks for joining me on Walk and Talk today. Hope to see you right here next time as we walk and talk and have great conversations about topics that will can change our life, can make a difference not only in our lives, but in those lives we come in contact with. So I'll see you right here next time on Walk and Talk.