The Undeniable Leader with Rob Cressy

Intentional Reciprocity: My Favorite Birthday Ritual

• Rob Cressy

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Birthdays reveal more than you think, they show you who’s really in your corner. In this episode of Built For The Game, Rob Cressy shares a powerful reflection on intentional reciprocity, relational wealth, and why the messages you send and return matter more than ever.

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Today is my birthday, but amazingly, this day isn't about me. It's about all the amazing people in my life who are reaching out and sending me messages, whether it's voice, audio, DM, text message, or something on social media, and then what that gives the opportunity for me to do with it. And this is all around intentional reciprocity. What's good? I'm Rob Cressy. And what's alive in me right now is in this birthday day, one of the things that I wanted to do was give myself the gift of creating just one thing today. And I asked myself, I'm like, what's alive in me? And what's alive in me is actually all of the messages that I'm receiving, but then what I'm doing with them. Because on your birthday, you quickly find out who cares, who's in your inner circle, in the variety of ways that people are creative or find ways to build that connection with each other. And I've got tons of examples here, but I wanted to share sort of my mindset in terms of what I am doing on this day. Because when you receive the flood of messages, yeah, that's nice. But more importantly for me, is all around the concept of what can I do to be a mirror back to them? And I think to one of my friends, Dawn, and Dawn sent me a video message from her car, uh, lighting me up with so many good vibes and such positive love and how I'm impacting the world. And it made me feel really good. But guess what? I wanted to do I wanted to send a video message back to her saying, you know what? This speaks volumes about you being willing to take a minute out of your day to compliment me and give me some positive energy. And I just want to let you know that that stands out about you. It's received on my end, and it's what makes you amazing. And right after I received the message from Dawn, I went and got my haircut from my girl Tina, who's the absolute best. And in there we're having our usual conversations, and I mentioned that it's my birthday. And at the very end, she's like, hey, this haircut's on me. You're coming up, you're coming in every three weeks. And I was like, no, I don't want that. I would love to pay you. She's like, no, this is my gift for you. It's your birthday. And what I ended up doing for Tina was anytime someone does something like that, I'm like, well, what can I do to give her? She won't accept the money right now. So I said to her, hey, Tina, in the next week, something amazing and unexpectedly positive is going to happen in your life. And I want to set that seed of intention and manifest that for you so that when that does happen, that you can draw the connection to this moment right now. And she's like, oh my God, I believe in that. Thank you so very much. Because one of the things that I love to do is when someone does something nice for me, boom, I'm gonna immediately mirror it back to them. But sometimes you don't really have an opportunity to do something. Maybe it's not monetary, maybe it's just a passing stranger. And one of the simple things that you can do is just plant these manifestation seeds, aka this instant, this intentional reciprocity for somebody else. And another instance of this was uh a week or two ago when um my wife and I went out for a date night and we drove like an hour out. We live in Sarasota down to Anna Maria Island, and we went to this awesome um restaurant called Shore out in Longboat Quay, had a great night, and I left my sunglasses there, and I was like, oh my God, it's gonna take an hour there and an hour back, and like those things are gone. Well, I called the restaurant and amazingly found a way to get somebody who works there who lives near me the next day to drop them off for me at Target. And I was like, hey, is there anything that I can do for you? She's like, no, not really. And I was like, boom, same thing that I gave Tina. I was like, something unexpectedly positive is going to happen for you. Setting that energy, setting that intention. And with this, I love the way that life unfolds this way because I'm a relationship builder, I'm a lover, I'm a go-giver. I always want to make the world a better place. I also want to be a gracious receiver as well as a gracious giver. And one of the things that we can all do to make this world a better place is intentional reciprocity. When someone does something nice for you, even if it's a message, boom, you send that light and love back to them. And it's such a simple game that we can all play with each other. And you can even think about this in terms of you being the person to lead with this. It's one of the number one relationship-building things that I've had in my creator tool belt forever. Is if you're sitting there and you're looking to um be better with relationships or stay in touch with your friends or have more touch points with people, just send some positive energy for someone, let them know hey, I'm thinking about you. I'm always doing this on audio or video because uh you cannot give to others that which you're not experiencing yourself. And I want someone to be able to feel this thought and this intention, this love for them, because boom, that's that little drip, and you never know what is happening in somebody else's day. And I had a friend of mine where I did this yesterday, and I sent them that, hey, uh just thinking about you, hope something amazing is going on in your life. And he's like, by the way, I just got engaged yesterday, and I was like, holy smokes, look at this. So, for those of us who are on this frequency who believe in the energy and the flow and the rhythms of the life, I encourage you, be intentional about intentional reciprocity. Give your love, give your light, give your energy to somebody else. And by the way, on this day, if there is anything that I've ever shared that you've learned from that has inspired you, um, I encourage you. One of the things I'm doing this year is I'm running the 2025 Chicago Marathon, and I'm doing so for the V Foundation to support cancer research because myself and my family and so many of us out there, we have been affected by cancer. And I want to do what I can to help support that and find a cure for that. And if you want to get some good vibes in your life, go to runrobrun.com, donate and support my journey. I have a goal of raising$2,500 for that. And for every person who donates, no matter what the amount is, um, I will reach out to you and you get to sponsor a mile of my race. And what's that mean? Miles one through 24, you get to choose one of them. And whatever you choose, I'm going to set that intention that I am running and embodying you on that. Why not mile 25? Because the mile 25, actually that 1.2, that last mile is free. That is my mile. So if you're someone who has had a family member or someone you know um go through a cancer journey and you've enjoyed anything that I've shared, have that reciprocity and go to runrobrob runrobrun.com. I'd really appreciate you supporting my journey as I'm fundraising for the V Foundation. Other than that, sending tons of love and good vibes your way. And if you're seeing or hearing this right now, I really appreciate you and all that you do for being a part of my journey. And uh thank you. Much love.