Happiness is Courage: Redefining Work feat. Sarah Ratekin

In this episode of Taking Back Monday, Alyssa Nolte sits down with Sarah Ratekin, founder of Happiness is Courage, to explore how optimism and positive psychology can inspire courage, improve workplace culture, and combat the challenges of modern work. From addressing burnout and brain drain to redefining leadership accountability, Sarah shares data-backed insights and actionable strategies for creating workplaces where people and organizations thrive. Discover the power of laughter yoga, the importance of happy employees, and why courage grounded in happiness—not fear—is the key to a sustainable and successful future.

Key Takeaways:

• Courage Rooted in Happiness Creates Sustainable Success
  Traditional fear-based motivation may work in emergencies but isn’t sustainable. Tapping into happiness and optimism as sources of courage leads to more positive, long-lasting outcomes in both personal and professional settings.
• Happy Employees Drive Happy Customers
  Employee well-being is the foundation of organizational success. Companies that prioritize their people—not just their customers—see improved brand perception, better customer experiences, and a stronger market position.
• Laughter and Positivity Are Powerful Workplace Tools
  Techniques like laughter yoga harness the brain's natural chemistry to reduce stress, foster connection, and build resilience. Encouraging positivity and joy in the workplace isn’t just good for morale; it’s a strategic advantage.

00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:15 Understanding 'Happiness is Courage'
01:13 The Importance of Courage in Leadership
02:11 Addressing Employee Turnover and Engagement
03:51 The Link Between Happy Employees and Business Success
06:05 Challenging Traditional Corporate Mindsets
07:42 The Concept of Brain Drain
14:17 Military Experience vs. Corporate Culture
17:09 Exploring Laughter Yoga
20:28 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

It's time to say "goodbye" to the Sunday Scaries.

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Transcript

Alyssa Nolte: 0:00

Hey everyone. Welcome back to taking back Monday. I am so excited that you decided to say goodbye to the Sunday scaries and hello to a future of more meaningful work. And I'm even more excited to introduce you to my new friend, Sarah. Sarah, welcome to the show.

Sarah Ratekin: 0:12

Hey, i'm excited to be here. Thanks for the chance

Alyssa Nolte: 0:15

The name of your company is happiness is courage. What does that even mean?

Sarah Ratekin: 0:20

So a lot of times when we think about sources of inspiration for bravery or like doing the hard things We think of other Aspects of life and a lot of times it's a fear based source of courage. Like this is a really scary situation But i'm just gonna grit my teeth and suffer through it and make that happen and that is You Perfectly functional sometimes, but it is not the best option all of the time. And what I have found and what the research shows us is when we can tap into happiness or optimism as our inspiration for doing the hard things that actually leads to more sustainably positive outcomes longterm. And it's way less likely to leave us with that adrenaline hangover that comes from that other source of inspiration, which again, if you're in a car accident, that's the right place to draw your. Your motivation, but if it's just a Monday morning, that is perhaps not your best option.

Alyssa Nolte: 1:13

And it's, it's so funny that you say that cause you and I have never met. This is our first time kind of talking on the podcast. And I spoke to a local university class this morning and I was just talking about my entrepreneurial journey. And I posted about the podcast and I said, Hey, you know, this is the podcast. And someone said, well, why did you start this? And I said that it is my fundamental belief that we can all enjoy our work lives and our work experience. If only our leaders have the courage. to do it. And I use the word courage very specifically. And then I opened up this to get ready for this call. And I was like, this is like the universe, you know, putting us together in the moment. Exactly. So how, you know, I have my opinions and I'm trying to do it through this podcast of helping leaders to develop the courage to, to do what it takes to create a great work environment. But how have you seen that work in your experience and, and, and teaching people how to. Tap into their courage when it's not a fight or flight response.

Sarah Ratekin: 2:11

I think honestly, it's a really hard conversation for people to have right now in the place We find ourselves in history most people that I work with or just talk to socially are pretty badly battered by the last five years or Even beyond the pandemic, like the past decade or so has just been really, really stressful. Uh, so the truth of the matter is by and large, the initial conversation to crack that door open to those healthier conversations is to follow the money. I mean, if you are a leader in an organization, the reality is you are probably dealing with some pretty significant turnover or disengaged employees. The research on that is scary and compelling. If nothing else will compel you, then the fact that your budget is being impacted by sometimes millions of dollars globally by trillions of dollars, uh, is really a way to push people over that hesitation of engaging in a conversation of finding alternate sources of the way we do work. Once they've kind of accepted that they have to change things, then there's a room. There's room in that space to have the conversation of, have you considered approaching this from a different lens? But the reality is people don't have the bandwidth a lot of times to jump into these kind of, uh, weird, unusual, out of the box ways of thinking. And that's, that's fine. That's real. So let's just have that transactional conversation. You're bleeding money. Let's stop that first.

Alyssa Nolte: 3:40

And I think it's, it's an important point, right? Because we always go to, I, I agree with you. Follow the money, right? Figure out where the money is coming from. But it's more than just your budget. It's, it's in my research, I found that. So I'm on the more of the customer side. In my research, happy employees means your customers are happy. And if your customers are happy, you have a great brand perception. If you have a great brand perception. you will lead the market. And when it comes down to though, you have to get to that core. A lot of companies spend time on customers and brand perception, but they neglect the core of it, which is happy customers leads to happy or happy employees, excuse me, leads to happy customers.

Sarah Ratekin: 4:18

Yeah, I really think of it as like, people are, organizations are ignoring like the Preventative maintenance on the foundation of their business, which is their people. And, uh, I see this really heavily in spaces like education and healthcare, but it's true for every industry. If you are not taking care of the people who are doing the work, then the work is going to suffer. And as a result, your customer, whoever that is, is going to be poorly served. So it can seem a little backwards to organizations that have really grounded themselves in the concept of keep the customer happy. But you have to think differently. Uh, it's, it's more holistic than that. It's not as simple as the customer should be happy. Yeah. Of course the customer needs to be delighted with your services, but how do you, how are you really getting them there? It's maybe not by beating up your people.

Alyssa Nolte: 5:07

Yes, 1000%. When we, when we first started, you know, we do the things that all founders do, where you set your core values, right? And one of our core values was, um, we were science clients, team and efficiency, right? In that order. And so we were a research company. So it's important to be scientific and valid. And, and, you know, of course, we want to serve our clients, but that I appreciate it. Second, that third one was our team and those two really went hand in hand because we would actually tell our clients at the beginning of this like, Hey, I'm so glad that you want to hire us. I'm so glad that you want to engage us. Here's what you need to know about working with us. We believe in client success, but not clients getting whatever they want. We're going to do things in a way that mean you get the best outcome that were scientifically valid and that our team doesn't suffer. And so like, that's kind of a shock for some of those companies when they hired us, because we were saying, Hey, we're not going to do everything you ask us to do. We're going to do the thing you need us to do. And the thing that makes it your best outcome. And that was different for a lot of people we were talking to.

Sarah Ratekin: 6:05

That's really a shame too, right? Because when did martyrdom become the standard of norm of normal employee experience, I don't understand how anybody thinks that that's sustainable. And I don't care if you're in a purpose driven industry or a strictly Profit driven industry. It doesn't make any business sense. And it doesn't make any ethical sense to treat your people like disposable Lego pieces within your organization. I, I, I really think we need to take a hard look at why we do that so we can stop doing it because it is not, it's not serving us well. And the truth is it's not serving our customers well either. Nobody is winning in the current model. So we've got to really radically change how we approach that paradigm. I'm glad to hear y'all are doing that. Good for you.

Alyssa Nolte: 6:48

We're trying. We're trying. I had a conversation, an argument. I don't know how to how to characterize it with someone who refused to refer to people as like people, he would always call them resources. Yes. Always, it was always the resources and I hated that word because it just gave me like that dehumanizing ick when we were talking about, Oh, well, use your resources. Make sure you're using your resource. I'm like, you mean our people who work here, not our resources, our people who work here. They're not resources. They're not a box sitting on a shelf. They're people. Let's refer to them as such.

Sarah Ratekin: 7:21

Love that. It's so important. And I think the language does give away the paradigm. When we see organizations who have like a chief human capital officer, I get really squicked out by that. Right?

Alyssa Nolte: 7:31

a super, I just got like a super ick feeling.

Sarah Ratekin: 7:34

Like, hmm, what's your culture like? I'm going to Take wild guess here. Not so wild guess. Not great.

Alyssa Nolte: 7:41

Yeah. Not great for sure. So you talk about how you help companies reverse brain drain first. What is that? What is brain drain? And also how are you doing it with your data backed methods?

Sarah Ratekin: 7:51

So we're really seeing an exodus of highly skilled professionals in a lot of different industries. Obviously, as I mentioned, healthcare and education are front and center. We're seeing that we've seen that for a while now. And again, it's not just from the pandemic. This has been going on for a while. So highly skilled individuals getting burned out. More and more quickly in these spaces, and so we're losing the institutional knowledge that comes from those highly skilled individuals, because the reality is, it's not enough to just have a deep skill set in whatever it is that your organization does. There's also all of those other supporting. Paradigms and knowledge bases around how we as an organization operate and how we want to operate. What are our norms, our customs, our history. That's all really important when it comes to the employee experience and the organizational performance that go hand in hand. So we're seeing a stronger and stronger. More and more damaging exodus of these highly skilled folks. And I'm seeing tons of people leaving these industries and going into like this gig economy. I mean, the, the burgeoning supply of consultants is awesome in the one way, but also really scary in another because everybody can't be a consultant. We have to have some

Alyssa Nolte: 9:01

Somebody has to execute the consulted work,

Sarah Ratekin: 9:04

Exactly. Exactly. So, So that's what the brain drain is. It's when you're losing skilled talent and as a result, you're really also usually not developing the existing like junior talent because they have no mentors now to learn from all that, you know, non documented knowledge people keep close to the chest because they don't want to lose their jobs that go walks out the door with them. So you lose all of that stuff as well. And that begins to erode your culture, and you become known as a company that's not a place where people can develop a set of roots, and they can really grow, and I'm not saying that anybody should commit to a company for 30 or 40 years, which is how long we're actually in the workforce now, right? Or longer. But I do think that the current 18 to 24 month rotation is awful. Um, I don't think anybody can become excellent in a role in under three years I I just don't you can become competent pretty quickly, but excellence takes time. It takes relationship building. It takes all of that Space understanding and that doesn't happen overnight and you can't pick that up from a manual that has to actually be learned in on the job So we're really suffering as industries and that's industry agnostic It doesn't matter what the field is that the company is where this is happening everywhere. So what do we do about it? Well, first of all, you have to actually understand why and you know Honestly, I'm a little surprised by how few leaders either truly don't understand why their people are super unhappy or have managed to successfully put on a set of blinders to avoid understanding how the current landscape is affecting their talent pipeline. People are pretty vocal in today's marketplace about what's going on in their space and why they're unhappy. And it's just really frustrating to see leaders. Refuse to acknowledge the data. So I mean you can bring data to the table all day long And I like to talk about data. Like what is your retention ratio? What is that causing? What is the impact that's causing to your bottom line? What is that doing to your organizational performance your brand identity all of all of those sorts of things but So many leaders are just like, nah, so it's a little frustrating in the current space, because there is this just absolute resistance to acknowledging the actual hard numbers of what's going on. I've had leaders tell me we don't calculate the cost of our turnover, because we don't want to know, and I don't. I

Alyssa Nolte: 11:26

Then you already know, you already

Sarah Ratekin: 11:27

Yeah, exactly.

Alyssa Nolte: 11:28

it, you know

Sarah Ratekin: 11:29

Right. At least you know. it's bad, Right. You know, it's bad.

Alyssa Nolte: 11:33

Yeah. You know, I wonder too, how much of that is almost like, you know, we talk about in, in social circles of like generational trauma. I wonder how much of that is like a workplace generational thing of like, well, my boss didn't coddle me and I turned out fine. So you guys need to suck it up and deal. But, you know, it reminds me of that book of like, you know, what got us, you know, What got you here won't get you there, right? A lot of people are still taking that mindset of like, well, this is how it was when I was coming up through the ranks and you don't get to have it any easier or different than I do. Um, but they're forgetting that the world has changed in the last, you know, 20 or so years that they've been coming up through the workforce.

Sarah Ratekin: 12:11

Yeah, and I think I am seeing a shift in that paradigm and maybe it's just that the folks who hold on to that kind of mindset are either aging out of the workforce or are dying of heart attacks. I'm not really sure what the solution is there. And I say that a little bit flippantly, but not really because stress related illnesses are on the rise as well. Right. So that's another Problem that's inherent in this current paradigm, but I do think when I have conversations with younger leaders who are the older millennials in some of our new Gen Z leaders, I'm seeing a completely different paradigm about the workplace and what it can do. Can look like not even what it should look like. I don't think anybody has a solid grip on that, but, but because it is so unique to individuals and spaces and work needs and all that kind of thing, but there's a willingness to engage in a flexibility around what the new workplace can look like, but we have some options that we could pursue that we haven't historically looked at as ways of doing work. And that's actually really hope inducing for me, because we do see that kind of Dominant narrative or formerly dominant narrative of suck it up buttercup. And I would argue that the people who say that actually aren't doing so great, which is why they're dying a year after they retire. That's that's not that doesn't make any sense. So i'm hopeful but it's not moving fast enough to save a lot of our companies at this point.

Alyssa Nolte: 13:35

Well, you made a, you made a comment about a heart attack and someone actually once told me that there's stats out there that the most likely day that you're the most likely day to have a heart attack is Monday. Like, can you imagine if you're such a culprit of work that Monday becomes the day that most people have heart attacks? That's wild to me.

Sarah Ratekin: 13:51

It's the stress, right? I mean, we're all swimming in a sea of cortisol anyway, but I think Mondays have this really weird, negative connotation, and I mean, you know that, you talk about it all the time, but I think it's so mind boggling, like, that shouldn't be so overwhelming that, you know, It pushes you over the edge, but it does. That's real,

Alyssa Nolte: 14:10

Yeah, 100%. So you talk about, um, in your story, your route, you're a veteran and a small business owner. How has that impacted your relationship with with corporate with that big corporate machine? We all think of when we think of business,

Sarah Ratekin: 14:24

uh, transparently. It's super frustrating, right? Uh, so one of the beautiful things about the military, not that it is a perfect landscape, but one of the beautiful things about the military process is there's a very clear vision for what the mission is. No question. And there's a very clear understanding for the individual cogs in the machine of what your role is to accomplish that mission. And I think

Alyssa Nolte: 14:45

right? And how you contribute to the success of

Sarah Ratekin: 14:47

Absolutely, absolutely. And so I think that that is I don't think I know that is dramatically missing in many corporate spaces But the other piece that's really a hard transition is the accountability And again, I want to make it very clear. I am not saying that the military has accountability figured out 100 Nobody does but there is definitely a stronger sense of accountability personal accountability and leadership accountability that is very You Dramatically less in a corporate America. I see a lot more, um, corporate doublespeak. I see a lot more unwillingness to have hard conversations. And that is really problematic. And I see this a lot with my veteran peers. A lot of us are like, can we just get some stuff done here? And meanwhile, we're in a 12 week long committee meetings about how we might want to think about getting stuff done. And so that's a, that's a really interesting juxtaposition. Um, I do think that the military can benefit from some greater inclusion of all stakeholders in conversations about how to get things done, but it's a very different mission organization too, right? So that's a little different. But that being said, it is a little frustrating, honestly, to work with corporate leaders who position themselves as leaders and then they're not. They're not leading, right? They're just sort of like positionally making decisions. But, uh, I think that there is a gap in leadership development in corporate America that most companies do not do a great job of addressing if they have a leadership development plan at all. Again, that's one place the military has a pretty good. Good understanding. If we're going to ask you to do a job, we're going to ask you to lead people. We're going to give you the tools, the tools and the skill set to be able to do that at least effectively, if not necessarily awesomely. I would settle for effective at this point in corporate America.

Alyssa Nolte: 16:37

Uh, and the irony too is, I don't know about you, but I hear a lot of corporate people who've never served in any military capacity whatsoever, but they love to use military jargon and military, like,

Sarah Ratekin: 16:47

on. Yeah. It's, it's a little frustrating.

Alyssa Nolte: 16:51

I work on Zoom. You don't have my six.

Sarah Ratekin: 16:53

Right. Exactly. Do you, can you tell me what that means? Do you know what that means? No, no. Okay, cool.

Alyssa Nolte: 16:57

Right, right. Or they talk about, you know, the mission and, and the troops and the, we're going to battle. And I'm like, you're not, you're you're selling widgets. Like, it's not the same. It's not the same. So one of the other things that I found really interesting in your bio is this concept of laughter yoga. What is that?

Sarah Ratekin: 17:16

Laughter yoga is magic. No, actually, laughter yoga was invented or created in 1995 by a gentleman named Madan Gitaria out of India. And laughter yoga is based on the neurological principle that you can trick your brain into releasing all of the make you feel good chemicals. Without actually being amused. So he and his, he was a medical doctor doing research on happiness and positivity and how laughter is beneficial. And his wife was a yoga instructor and together they created this system called laughter yoga. So laughter yoga is essentially a series of laughing exercises, interspersed with, you know, Deep yogic breathing. And as a result, what you're really doing is biohacking your system into releasing dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, endorphins, all the feel good neurotransmitters, and you're hyper oxygenating your system in the process. So, you know, when you were a kid and you sat around laughing with your friends for like hours on end, and at the end of it, you just felt awesome and everything was wonderful and you were glowing with happiness and, and oxygen. It's really replicating that experience in a way that is very. Straightforward. It's so interesting to me that children laugh so easily and adults. It's like it's bad. It's a badge of honor to be a cranky pants. I don't really know why we think that makes us more professional or more mature to give up humor and laughter. And I don't mean like the nasty graveyard humor or inappropriate jokes, but just laughing in general is like seen as a sign of. I don't know, weakness or lack of professionalism. So whatever, I throw that paradigm in the trash because it, because it is tapping into the hormones that we were given as humans to manage life stresses is really amazing. And to be able to do that on a, On an average tuesday afternoon at the park is a pretty pretty powerful tool So I was actually introduced to this by my spouse who's a certified laughter yogi and has been for almost 20 years now So it's been around for quite a while We love to do this as like an icebreaker for organizations or a team building exercise because when you laugh together you actually bond It's kind of impossible not to neurologically. So it's a really powerful tool and Uh, actually in america, it has a weird twist So it's been around for quite a while now, but in america, a lot of people don't understand what it is So there's a there's been a little bit of a friendly split in the laughter yoga community Laughter yoga is more prevalent like on the coasts or overseas Uh, in sort of the core of America, you might hear of it as laughter therapy, but it's the exact same principles. It's the science of triggering laughter because your brain doesn't care if you're actually amused going through the motions, like holding a smile will still release serotonin. It's just how we're wired. So let's just tap it into our natural, Goodness.

Alyssa Nolte: 20:02

I remember taking an intro to psych class and they said take like a pen or a pencil and

Sarah Ratekin: 20:07

The Duchenne smile. Yep.

Alyssa Nolte: 20:08

yourself to smile and you're because your brain can't tell the difference between actual happiness and faked happiness So let's all figure out like you got a bio We're not going to be able to do it unless you do it for yourself. So go ahead and biohack yourself and trick yourself into being happy, because then you will be. right. You put it out there and it'll come for you. So that is fascinating to me. And this has been an fascinating conversation. I could probably talk to you all day. Um, you know, if you think about all the people that you've had a chance to meet or to hear from all the incredible thought leaders out there, Who is taking back Monday? Who is leading that charge?

Sarah Ratekin: 20:41

You know, I really think it's the people who are really diving into positive psychology as a rigorous school of thought. So, my dad's a retired behavioral psychologist. When I first started researching this space, he was pretty poo poo about it. He's like, oh, that's like, that's like, Pops like garbage science, but it's not anymore. And so the one person that I would like to like buy coffee for and just pick their brain would be Martin Seligman. Who's kind of the father of modern positive psychology. The concept of taking back Monday, I think has some of the same connotations as like being happier at the workplace. People kind of think it's impossible, but there is some amazing data out there. And the scientists like Seligman are. Are the responsible for stockpiling the research that helps us understand? Yes. This can be done. Yes It does work and here are the actual measurable impacts that you're going to see on the other side So that's the person I would go to first and i'm just kind of a nerd fan girl. So that's where I would start

Alyssa Nolte: 21:36

I love it. Well, we'll put it into the universe that, that coffee date is going to happen. And that's our show. We hope you enjoyed this conversation with Sarah and are ready to take back Monday. If you'd like to learn more about Sarah and what she is working on, you can head to happiness is courage.com.