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The 7% Club
The 7% Club
Episode 51: Renee Giarrusso - How a Gift Mindset lifts people and culture
In this episode, I sit down with Renee Giarrusso - a highly sought-after communication, leadership and mindset expert, four-time international award-winning author, speaker, educator and coach. Renee works with organisations and leaders to elevate communication, collaboration and culture, with one clear purpose: to make workplaces exceptional places to work.
Together, Renee and I dive deep into one of her most powerful frameworks: The Gift Mindset - a concept that asks us to stop, reflect and look for the “gift” in every experience, challenge and change.
💡 In This Episode You'll Learn:
✨ What inspired The Gift Mindset
Renee shares how a personal loss at a young age sparked a lifelong approach: turning events into experiences, wounds into scars, and challenges into opportunities for growth, insight and connection.
✨ The 12 Gifts that shape purposeful living
Renee explores key gifts - including optimism, curiosity, courage, connection, growth, forgiveness and re-energising - and how these human skills help leaders create more conscious, connected and resilient workplaces.
✨ Why optimism and realism must coexist
True leadership isn’t surface positivity. Renee explains how grounded optimism fuels resilience, momentum and culture - and how leaders can cultivate it authentically.
✨ Courage, comfort zones & the stretch zone
Renee unpacks how courage expands through action, how to move beyond the “safe zone,” and why courage is built through small steps that compound over time.
✨ The human skills AI will never replace
Connection, curiosity, empathy and emotional intelligence - why these skills matter now more than ever and how leaders can intentionally build them.
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💡 Need help scaling your business from 7 to 8 figures? Get in touch jenny@jennystilwell.com.au
Remember: Better strategy, better business, better life! See you next time!
Hi there, this is Jenny Stilwell, and welcome to the 7% Club Podcast for the 7% of business owners who break through two million in sales and for those on track to join this club. This podcast is to help you upscale. Today I'm talking with Renee Giarusso. Renee is a highly sought-after communication, leadership and mindset expert. She's a speaker, international four-time award-winning author, facilitator, educator, and coach. She works with leaders, teams and organisations to energise mindset and accelerate communication, collaboration and leadership to lift performance and culture. Her sole purpose is to make workplaces exceptional places to work. Hi Renee, welcome to the podcast. It's really good to see you.
Speaker 1:Super excited, Jenny. I've been looking forward to this, having a good chat.
Speaker:Fantastic. Well, you've written both the gift mindset and limitless leadership, but I'd really like to spend some time talking about the gift mindset today. So could we just start by discussing what inspired you to write that book and what's the core message of it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, what inspired me was a mindset, I don't like to say a concept, a mindset that I've really lived most of my life. And in my early 20s, which is a while ago now, when I lost my dad, he was only just about to turn 50. I said to myself, what is the gift in this? And at the time you sort of go, really? But he was an entrepreneur, he was a bit like me, go, go, go. And I was like, the gift in this is I need to live my life to the fullest, embrace change and embrace challenges and sort of not live for him, but I'm very similar to him DNA-wise. And I brought that in and I started using the gift concept with a lot of clients. So if I was coaching or training and someone was a bit flat and something had happened, I'd say, What's the gift in that? What's something that you can use to progress yourself and others forward, especially at work? So when I saw people using, you know, saying the gift, I was like, you know what? I want to write a book on this. And ironically, it was towards the end of COVID, which was the big gift that we all got. And the gift mindset really is the ability to stop and turn an event into an experience, or what I say, a wound into a scar. So whether it's a challenging person or a challenging situation, or even Jenny, you know, a positive thing or a positive person, what are the gifts in knowing them or going through that experience that we can use instead of just being on this trajectory of doing and not stopping to go, what have I learnt? What's the gift? The gift's a lesson. So that's sort of the overarching and building that into workplace culture where there's forums to share wins, but there's also forums to share mistakes, failures, and creating a culture that will support people to move beyond that, not penalise them.
Speaker:It's such an interesting concept, and the fact that you looked at experiences or events that happened at such a young age, relatively, and were turning it around, it's really interesting. And in the book, I'm just going to go through them for people who are listening. It outlines 12 gifts, which are optimism, courage, resilience, growth, curiosity, change, empathy, forgiveness, gratitude, connection, contribution, and re-energizing. So could you just I know it's a big question, but could you talk us through how these gifts in general help people to live a life on purpose? How do they guide that?
Speaker 1:The beautiful question. So the 12 gifts came from, and they could have been a well, you asked the publisher, there was triple those gifts, but these are sort of the life or human skills I think we deepen and develop when we actually look at what we've learned from something. So there's a few there, but I suppose the optimism, you know, it's in the top six traits of effective leadership. It's an energy. Bring it in, ask your team what makes them optimistic. It gets people in that forward thinking, and it's not positivity. A lot of people confuse it. Positivity is more in the moment, optimism's about hope for now and the future, so there's longevity. Love to talk about curiosity. That's been one of the most popular of the 12. So really being curious in your own life, but as a team or a business owner, you know, if you're listening now and you see a business that's doing really well, and you say, That business does really well, that doesn't go anywhere. But if you turn that statement into a question, what is that team doing differently than me? Then you provocation opens up and you can become curious. Teams are really lacking a lot of connection globally. I don't know about you, Jenny, you probably see it too. And curiosity, get your team together, even if what you're unpacking doesn't come to fruition. The art of being curious, the byproduct of that, I believe, is collaboration, which is important. Forgiveness was an interesting one. I had I had purpose in there, and I thought, you know what? No one talks about forgiveness, especially in the workplace. It's a bit taboo. But what relationships do you have? What relationships could be better? Is there someone in your sphere at work that something's happened and you've never really gone inwards and forgiven that person? And I say we go from poison to peace. Because I don't know about you. If you don't forgive something or someone, you end up thinking it's you, and the other person's not giving it any air time, so it's about letting it go. I think the other one that's really important is connection, they're all important, but we're all wired to connect, and and we did a big program the other week, and people had to rate about six different leadership skills, and connection came up. 87% said connection is what's really yeah. And if you think about why, I think you know it's too easy to jump on a Zoom, not meet face to face AI. You know, I think AI is really dulling it. I I don't know about you, but if I get an email from someone and it's done purely by AI, I barely read it, or articles written all in AI, it's a bit cold.
Speaker:Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1:I think AI can think, but it can't feel. So all these gifts, all these human skills are the skills that AI will never replace, and and that's all the work we're doing, which we've always done. But these skills we we really need to be mindful of, and you know, growth's pretty self-explanatory. If you're a business owner or a leader in a business, knowledge is no longer power. Anyone can access anything, it's the application of it.
Speaker:Yep, absolutely. And what I love about curiosity and what you just said about it is that it does take a shift in your thinking to be curious, and it takes time. I think everyone can be so busy looking inwards at their business and setting goals and targets and measuring performance. But to be curious, you have to step back from that and look out into the world and look beyond your business and ask those questions and explore and find some new answers and some new inspiration and some new ideas. But I think a lot of the time people are so busy doing the the day-to-day, you know, getting caught up in in how people work that curiosity sort of falls by the wayside a bit. And and also connection, you know, I love what you said because AI doesn't connect people. I think if it's not used properly, it it does the opposite thing. And people do want connection, you know, they want to meet someone face to face and they want to have that that real conversation and they want to know that the communication they're having is actually with someone who's written the email or written the article or whatever it might be. So I think that's, you know, they're all important, but I think those two, just in particular, the with the way we work now, they're they're really important. But I wanted to cover off a couple in particular. There's so many stories in your book, and they're all so interesting. But there's two gifts in particular that I'd really like to talk about, and one you've already touched on, is which is optimism, and how as leaders we need to be optimistic, but also grounded with realism. So, how does optimism prevail? How does that optimism and realism coexist?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's it's a really good point because you know, we are, along with the US, known as a bit of a Pollyanna country. And I think if we're always putting on, I call it surface optimism, and it's not real, it's not sustainable. So I think be yourself, and I actually said this to a client last week, just having a flat day. I said, let your team know, but just don't make it every day. So I think when you're not really optimistic, that can also help connect you to your team because you're just being human and we're messy, we're humans, right? But there's a fine line. So I I always people go, how do you do optimism? And you know me, I'm off the charts probably to drive people nuts sometimes. But um I always look at I call it the three to one ratio. If a negative comes up, I look at the three positives, and I do that in workshops, especially if we do strategy sessions with team and people keep looking backwards, you bring that in. Optimism, I think, optimism and gratitude underpin resilience. So if resilience was a cake and we all need to be resilient, if you're optimistic about what you can do, you know, you're gonna move forward. And if you're in gratitude and you focus on what you do have, not what you don't have, and that got me through my cancer journey. Those two things became even more amplified to the point now. Certain people in my medical team are saying, when we first met you, we were like, Oh, here we go. But I stayed like that energy the whole time, and it got me through, you know. Victor Purden, who I think you know as well, who's the CEO of the Center of Optimism. I interview him in my book, and he went all over the world and he interviewed blue, white collar workers, women washing clothes in the river Ganges, and he asked them this one question what makes you optimistic? Even asking that makes you optimistic. So it's a great one to do if you're in your own business now, and you know, there's a lot going on, there's noise overwhelm. Sit down and just go, what am I optimistic about in what I do, in what's going on in the world? In the world's, you know, we're not in a great place, but there's always something, it's a really good thing to do, even with your team. What's making you optimistic today? People always answer, Jenny. Always.
Speaker:And it's a great question because it it leads you into optimism, doesn't it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it really leads to it. That's right. That's right, yeah.
Speaker:So the other gift I like to mention is courage and operating in our comfort zone, our step-up zone, and then into our stretch zone, which you talk about. Could you just talk us through that and how it that plays out and the impact of courage?
Speaker 1:So, courage, we can't be courageous if we're in a comfort zone or what I call your safe zone. And that's you'll know if you're in this, if you walk into work and go, I could do my job with my eyes shut. You're in a comfort zone, uh, a safe zone. But if you want to step up and really grow, it's a it's sort of like the rings in a slice of the bark of a tree. So if you think about starting, I don't, and you probably the same, starting your own business, leaving corporate, that inner circle, we're out of our comfort zone, but after a while we get back in it. So now we start doing different things in our business, and we're out of our comfort zone again. And I think some people are more courageous than others, and people always say, Renee, is it is it taught? I believe, and I've been through quite a bit in my life. I believe emotional intelligence and courage grows as we grow. It's a muscle. The more we've been through, the more we can get through because we've got a reference point. But yeah, courage for me is be bold, you know, don't be a yes, you know, those groups that is yes and then they're no when they walk out of a meeting. Be straightforward. Straightforwardness is one of the top ten competencies of EQ. Be straightforward. And I have a little saying, debate with intent trumps harmony for comfort's sake.
Speaker:Debate with intent trumps harmony for comfort's sake, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, and if there's something you believe in, and I think it's selfish if we don't share our ideas or have a voice, and that's a really good lens to put on. If you're not sharing, you know, in storytelling, if leaders go, I don't want to share that. And I said, I used to be like that. I thought it was self-indulgent, but if someone else can learn from that, holding back, you know, is is not a good thing. And courage can be a whisper, Jenny, as you know, courage could be turning up to a meeting that you don't normally get invited to and just connecting. That could be big for some people. So don't compare your courage barometer to anyone else's, but courage, I think, breeds courage.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely. I agree with you entirely because once you've done something, even if it's small, that for you is has taken courage. Once you've done that and you know that and you remind yourself of that, it just gives you a little bit more courage for next time, something a little bit bigger. So it's uh very important. So, okay, which of the 12 gifts do you think senior leaders struggle with the most? And why do you think that is?
Speaker 1:Okay, I think growth's a big one I see because I'm too busy, I can't do this, I'll do it if it's an hour, but I haven't got time to learn. Self-growth, you know, and you know, we don't all know the growth mindset, learning something new every day. I've my mum's always drilled that into me since I was a kid. What did you learn today? It could be something you learned not to do, but whether it's reading, podcasts, the world is your oyster, and it can get overwhelming. I'm a big learner, I've never stopped studying ever. And sometimes I have to go, what is it that I need now? And then go, what is that topic? Who is the best at that topic? What is the best book about that topic? And that can really um help you streamline it. Re-energizing is a big one, like until you know the next few weeks, we're running lots of sessions on this, so you know, we're limitless leaders, which means we learn, unlearn, relearn, and evolve. So we're never an expert, we're always learning. And I really think we can't pour from an empty cup. You know, you want to give the world the best of you, not what's left of you, and we're all guilty of it. You get home, and you know, it's your last bit of energy you're giving those that you really love. So lots of tips in the book, but you know, sleep, eat well, all of those sorts of things. But I think do what lights you up, bring in the tasks at work that give you the most energy, especially on a Monday morning. So doing this with you today is a Monday morning, it's in real time, that sets a tone for the rest of the week. So I think to keep your energy up, be around people that light you up, be around situations that light you up, and be really cautious of your energy vampires, I call them. What's your flame and what's your drain? I like that. When we feel low, we tend to gravitate to people on the same vibration, not intentionally. They're usually around the water cooler. So, what you want to do is say who could really lift me up at the moment and call that person and just pick the phone up that can really inject some um energy in as well.
Speaker:I love what you said about giving people the best of you, not what's left of you. That's great. Yeah, so what's the most just pick one memorable transformation you've seen in a leader or a team after adopting the gift mindset? I'm sure there's many, but just give us one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there is. So I won't name the client, but there was a team that we went through the 12 gifts with, like little workshops on each of them. And for me, proof is in the pudding, right? Like knowing is is amazing, but doing is where the magic is. And actually going into their office and they've got the posters up, and you can hear them saying, Well, what's the gift in that if you did that? What's the gift if you didn't do that? And using the language. And my my hope is to really build a movement around this where people just hear that what is the gift in it, and you don't always see it, but a particular client was they had a big transformational change, and we did a lot of work in there, and it went really, really well. But then there was a bit of a you know, they had another restructure, and going in and talking about this, and people saying, Well, what's the gift of me becoming redundant? And I'm like, Well, you're freeing up your future. What would what's your passion? Are you actually in the role and the industry that you like? Too many people are in the role that they like, but not the industry, and and they were like, Yeah, well, I didn't even think of that. And three execs in that group have two have gone on to do their own business. One's written a book that I've worked with, and another one has ended up going into a trade. Oh, really? Wow, what a what a shift. Yeah. You know the what great work you do, just seeing people actually when it when it lands. And they create the space for that.
Speaker:Fantastic. Wow, they're great examples. So, next question's about you. So, what's a leadership experience or a gift in disguise from your own career that's had the most impact on how you lead?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a good question. If I think back to my corporate days and I was in a global FMCG for 12, 13 years, I had amazing, amazing managers. Like, can't fault them, had a coach at 22, I was taught to coach at 25, so way ahead of the game, but you don't appreciate it when you're that young. But unfortunately, I did have one manager that was less than great. And I still remember the day I got home and I wrote down everything this manager did. And I said to myself, when I go into a leadership role, I'm gonna do the opposite. So that's a really good example of a difficult person that that's become a gift. And I thank that person and I've thanked them, and they're like, What for? And I'm like, Yeah, whatever. Um, but you can actually learn what not to do when people model the behaviors that aren't congruent with your values or you know, human beings, I guess. So that was probably one of the best examples, and I started to do a lot of self-development over and above what I was doing, including coaching. And I ended up staying in this company. Um, this person went to another division, but it helped me realize training, coaching, that's my gift, that's that's what I love doing, and I started my own business, so it can have a flow-on effect years later, even when you're not consciously aware of it.
Speaker:That's so interesting because people can, you know, they can go down the path you went down, like what's the lesson in here, what not to do. But also people can think, well, that's kind of how a leader or a manager rolls, and they either intentionally or unintentionally pick up some of those behaviours and go down that path. And you know, to have the foresight and have those questions about does this resonate with my values? Is this what I want to follow, or is this an example of what not to do? That's so insightful, and that changed everything for you.
Speaker 1:It is, and I think if you've had it, I knew what good was, if that makes sense. I knew what a great manager was. If you're quite young or you're a grad and you just have the one not so great manager, you're right, the opposite can happen. You can think, well, this is the way you do things. So, you know, anyone listening out there, think of the great leaders you've had and think of the not so great. Do your list and really ramp up on the behaviours that made you think of that person as a great leader.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so what are some of the common barriers that leaders face when they're trying to shift team culture toward more openness, more collaboration, when not all the members of their team willingly embrace these behaviors?
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's there's seven barriers, but I'll give you the main ones. There's obviously sort of like great culture where I call it great culture where the leader might not create these forums. So if you're in a team or business, manage upwards and organize some forums and don't just share wins and mistakes, share how you got through them. Australia is a very watt economy for those in Australia listening. You know, I did this, this was my win, this was my failure. But how did you actually move through? That's that's where the gold is. Sometimes things are swept under the rug because people fear judgment. I'm not gonna share that I made a mistake, I've fixed it now. Why would I do that? So that's up to the it's a cultural thing. You've got to build this safe, safe space where people can actually feel like they can be open. And I always say share what serves the room or the zoom. That's what I say. You know, if it's a lesson that's really nichey and not so leave it, always, even through my journey, my health journey. If I did a video, I never not a winger, but I always just shared what I'd been through, but what I learned that I know, and I've had hundreds of people reach out to me going through different challenges, going that got me through. So I think that's a really important piece as well. Yeah.
Speaker:Fantastic. And okay, so looking ahead, what are you most excited about next? Are there any new projects or themes or expansions of the gift mindset or limitless leadership ideas that you want to plan for the next year?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's interesting, Jenny. I, you know, we used to all do the five-year plan since the pandemic, things change life can change in in an hour, right? So I'm more I plan probably a year out. So we're continuing to run our limitless leadership projects, and we're doing those globally now, which is amazing. We've had we've had a particular client that's had a 62% decrease in retention in the teams we're working in. Wow, that's fantastic! Thank you. It's an amazing thing because you can't always measure these human skills. Sales training's different, so we'll continue doing those, but you know me, they're always updated and refreshed. We're really focusing on the key skills that AI will not replace. So doing a lot of work around EQ, we use the Roach Martin tool for that, and a lot around brand presence and communication because take the word leadership out, that's a byproduct of lots of different skills. So a lot on comm. So there'll be a lot on that next year with our game that we've got. And the exciting news, which which I shared a little bit earlier, is we are partnering with a company that does amazing work in the mental health space. So the programs they offer aren't a tick and flip, so it's moving from compliance to community, and they've got an app, which is amazing. So, yeah, so that's next year, so that's quite exciting. And I don't think any of us don't know someone that's been touched with mental illness, so it's uh I feel excited, really excited with that. And a little bit on breast cancer advocacy, helping people, women and men, one in a hundred men get breast cancer. Women, it's like one in four or five now, it's pretty big. Just helping people realize without getting too technical, know your breasts as well as you know your face. Because many of us don't. And for me, I as you know, I I had a clear mammogram last January in 2024, and three months later, I just had this high intuition something was wrong. I couldn't feel a lump or anything, and I went and had a biopsy and I had stage three cancer. So just make sure you're being intuitive, follow your gut, follow your heart, and then bring the logic in, not the other way around.
Speaker:Yeah, great advice. And I knew there'd be lots of things on the horizon for next year because otherwise it wouldn't be you.
Speaker 1:And a few more retreats, too, I think, with the cooking that we do in the retreat.
Speaker:The cooking, of course. Okay, so what's one piece of advice that you could leave us with to help everyone embrace a gift mindset and the positive shifts that follow from that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, stop. Stop and be present. It's not a luxury, it doesn't have to be two days sitting in a meditation studio on a silent retreat. It could be just 10 minutes a day, put it in your diary. Because I think we we never miss a meeting with anyone else, but we do with ourselves. Yes, of course. Yeah, put it in the diary. So stop and reflect, and I think I would really just go, what's something that's happened, positive or negative, lately? What was it? And what did I learn? And how could I share that with others?
Speaker:Great advice. Fantastic. I knew it'd be interesting talking to you.
Speaker 1:Thanks for having me, Jenny.
Speaker:It's been really great, and I'm sure there's loads of takeaways and lessons in that for everyone. So thank you so much, Renee.
Speaker 1:Thanks, Jenny.
Speaker:And that's all for today's episode of the 7% Club. Thank you so much for listening. And as always, wherever you are in the world, remember better strategy, better business, better life.