Permission to Thrive: Taking Ownership of Your Workday Mindset feat. Lori Rogers

Is your Sunday ruined by the dread of Monday? In this episode, we’re tackling the Sunday Scaries and transforming them into an opportunity for growth and success.

Join Alyssa as she chats with Lori Rogers, founder of PositiveActivity.net, about the science-backed strategies that elevate happiness, productivity, and sales performance. Lori shares her journey of shifting from negativity to abundance, the life-changing power of the High-Five Habit, and the surprising hacks that make positivity a competitive edge in business.

Whether you're a team leader looking to energize your crew or an individual contributor battling burnout, this conversation will inspire you to rewrite your story, embrace optimism, and finally take back Monday.

Key Takeaways:

• The Morning Mindset Shift That Works: Learn how a seven-second habit from Mel Robbins’ High-Five Habit can transform your confidence and productivity every day.
• The 3-Minute Energy Hack: Discover Lori’s go-to activities, from dancing in the kitchen to a quick nature walk, that instantly shift your mood and get you back on track.
• The Subconscious Mind Trick: Find out why saying affirmations like “Clients are looking for me—it’s so easy!” 50 times a day for three days can rewire your mindset for success.
• The Secret to Joyful Selling: Hear the science behind how positivity can make you 31% more productive and sell 27% more—plus actionable steps to apply it in your sales process.
• How to Overcome the Sunday Scaries for Good: Lori’s practical advice on embracing Monday with optimism, even when the week ahead feels overwhelming.

If you skip this episode, you’ll miss game-changing insights into how positivity isn’t just feel-good fluff, it’s a proven tool for achieving more in business and life.

Key Moments:
00:00 Welcome to Taking Back Monday
00:09 Introducing Lori: Overcoming Negativity
00:53 Strategies to Shift Your Energy
03:21 Dealing with Post-Holiday Stress
06:48 Positivity in Sales and Business Growth
09:06 The Power of Positive Mindset
13:23 Laurie's Journey to Positivity
16:05 Taking Back Monday: Practical Tips
19:35 Recommended Resources and Final Thoughts
21:20 Connect with Laurie and Conclusion

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

Connect with Alyssa
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyssanolte/
Subscribe to the Taking Back Monday Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7158635254474272768/
Follow the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TakingBackMondayPod
Follow the show on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@takingbackmondaypod

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 much more meaningful future of work. And I'm even more excited to introduce you to my new friend. This is Lori. Lori, welcome to the show.

Lori Rogers: 0:14

Thank you so much. I'm happy to be here.

Alyssa Nolte: 0:17

You know, it is we're recording this after a major holiday. We've all been stuffed for the hard Thanksgiving dinners. And, you know, I really want to hear from you because I think a lot of us have this experience when we are with our families. Maybe it's not always the greatest experience. Maybe it's a little bit of a frustration or maybe we aren't just we're not happy to be here. after we've come back to work. So, you know, when I experience negativity, sometimes I really just get stuck in it, and I sit there and I mull over frustrating experience, or this thing that's upsetting me, and it kind of ruins my entire momentum for the day. So in your experience, how do I get out of that?

Lori Rogers: 0:56

So that's a beautiful question, and it happened to me today actually. And what I try to do is, well, for instance, in this instance, I have a, a non-speaking son with autism, and he was having. Uh, uh, not great regulated day. So when he's not feeling his best, of course, ah, I don't feel my best. So I feel that, that, that weight in my heart, in my chest and that, and that just sinking feeling, um, and your stomach hurts, you're just like, oh, you know, and I mean, other things may set people off in that same way. So I say, okay, all right. Um, Acknowledge it. This is it. This is the emotion I've got with me today or in this hour, in this moment. What am I going to do to, you know, sort of free it and let it go, feel it, acknowledge it and say, okay, tomorrow is going to be better. And I would talk to him and say this to my son as well. Um, I see you're not feeling great today. I see you're a little dysregulated. Mom is going to stay as calm as she can and just send you love and compassion and grace. And I'm going to send the same to myself, love, compassion, and grace. Then I'm going to go and he wanted to go walk like, okay. So Tim took him out for his walk. I said, get out in nature and walk. So I have a list on my website of 10 things. Maybe it's 20 at this point of three minute things. Just to sort of shift your energy and just to get it passed through you. The thing is you don't want to stuff it down. You want to feel it. You want to understand it. You want to acknowledge it that you're having kind of a snarky day. And usually you know why. So I'm like, okay, so I'm going to go walk. I'm going to go walk for 30 minutes outside in nature and just breathe and listen to music. I'm going to put some fabulous dance music on in my kitchen and dance for three or four minutes. I'm going to call a friend. That always makes me laugh and we reminisce and laugh and it's so much fun and brings joy. So I listed several of those things on our, on my website and one of my blogs. And I do the same thing like, okay. And I guess the one thing I would recommend not doing is don't beat yourself up over it. We're all human. We all feel things. We feel things for different reasons. And I can imagine that this morning people woke up and were like, Oh my gosh, I didn't look at my emails for five days and look at this inbox, right? Or this project that didn't get in. Oh, I didn't send in this order yet. Oh, I didn't invoice them. And I can imagine that was a lot today. What I did this morning was I said, okay, here's my I am statement for the day. I am productive and everything gets done. Everything that needs to get done today will get done. And I am productive. So I did a lot of self soothing this morning and self talk this morning on that. Um, so those are some strategies and tips and tricks. I actually even feel better just talking about it right now. Um, so if you have a great friend that you can call and say, all right, you got three minutes, this is what happened. I'm mad and, and I just need to get it out. You know, like. We all hopefully have friends, or a partner, or someone we can talk to, or a dog for crying out loud, whatever, you know, that we can talk to about it as well.

Alyssa Nolte: 4:25

You know, it was interesting. I, I have the young kids. Um, so I have a, he's almost 10 now, which is wild to say, and a, and an almost six year old and my six year old daughter this morning, she's very nervous about new situations. So like going to kindergarten was very stressful and going to the dance lessons for the first time. And then once she warms up, she's, she's great. But she said to me this morning, she's like, mom, I am nervous to go back to school. We've been gone from school for so long. I'm nervous to go back. And I said, you know, honey, why do you feel that way? And she goes, well, what if my friends don't

Lori Rogers: 4:56

had to get up early. What if my friends don't like me anymore? What if my teacher doesn't like me anymore? Those things where I think she was articulating.

Alyssa Nolte: 4:59

And it's like one of those things where I think she was articulating

Lori Rogers: 5:03

Something

Alyssa Nolte: 5:04

kids

Lori Rogers: 5:05

kids experience.

Alyssa Nolte: 5:06

we can't explain as adults. That's specific and unique to kids because they, you know, from the mouths of babes, right? But how many of us had that feeling of like, I'm going to go back and what if it's just as stressful as it was before? And what if I have lost all my momentum for the year? And you know, the timing of this break, what if it wasn't great for my personal growth and my personal success?

Lori Rogers: 5:30

Wow. Yes. So, wow, that's a lot. And she's a child and she is a, well, first of all, a, it's amazing, Alyssa, that she can tell you that I love that she, I don't know that I would ever said that to my mom when I was six years old. So for her to have the wherewithal and the gumption and the confidence in you that she can express that. That's a beautiful thing, and if it were my daughter, if it was my son, I would say, I would acknowledge that, and wow, you know what, sweetie, I bet many kids feel like that today, so that's normal, and it happens, but I bet your friends are there, and they're going to hug you, and see you, and be happy, and you're going to be playing with them on the playground later, and it's going to be a wonderful day, so I understand that you could feel that way. Um, but I bet it's just going to be wonderful.

Alyssa Nolte: 6:29

Yeah. And the, the exciting thing for me was her being able to articulate that emotion of like nerves as a kindergartner.

Lori Rogers: 6:37

I know.

Alyssa Nolte: 6:37

then of course we looked out the window and saw that it had snowed here in Iowa where I'm located. So then she was all onto her new snow boots and her snow pants. And it was, it was all, all was well at that

Lori Rogers: 6:47

right, right.

Alyssa Nolte: 6:49

So one of the things that, you know, you mentioned you have a lot of content available, but one of the things that I particularly keyed on as I was kind of prepping for our interview was this idea of you know, your positive activity in sales and business growth. And I am really into, I love those like motivational mindset speeches that those like spoken word, that's such a really intense music. Tell me though, how do you take this concept of like positivity and put it into sales and business growth? Cause I'm not going to lie. Being a business owner is hard and selling is hard. Like I feel like it's just constant rejection. So How can we help our sale sellers and sales teams get out of this idea of like, I'm going to be rejected all day rather than, and taking that more positive approach.

Lori Rogers: 7:35

Right, so it has been research and research has shown that when your mind is more positive and optimistic and joyful, you're 31 percent more productive. You sell on average, 27 percent more. Your mind is open to creative solutions to challenges or issues or problems that might come up. You are more immune to disease, you have better teams, your teams want to work for you, you have a higher income. So this has all been researched and it's amazing, you can Google it and find it. Um, so I say, okay, well, if all of that is true, Then why wouldn't I want to be more optimistic and positive each day and try to reach those higher happiness levels every day, because all of these amazing things can flow to me. So now we want to back into that. So, okay, Laurie, yeah, I have all these goals, too. I want to sell. I want to have a robust business. I want this, this, this and this. The way to get those things is to say more light and joyful and airy and more positive and have a more positive mindset. So how do we keep that positive mindset? And those are the activities I teach that have been researched to keep you more positive and optimistic so that all those things can flow to you. So. Some of the things I do in the morning are the high five habit. If you haven't read that book by Mel Robbins, it's great. It takes seven seconds to go into a mirror and look at yourself and give yourself a high five and say something amazing and wonderful to yourself. Um, I write down three unique appreciations for the day. Something I appreciate that happened in the last 24 hours. Um, a conscious recall. I write down something amazing that happened in the last 24 hours that made me laugh or smile or joyful. So all of those things that you're writing, you're thinking about them, you're remembering them, and your brain doesn't know whether it's happening or not. Whether it happened yesterday or it's happening right now. So why not fake it and just experience it all over again? Make you feel so much better. Um, and exercise and meditation. I meditate five minutes in the morning. And exercise. All of those things have been researched to show they Keep your mind in a more positive way, in a more positive environment, in a more positive level, and that brings you the things that you want. And also, it's about, you have to change your story. So I stopped saying selling is hard, and I stopped saying having my own business is hard, and now I say there's plenty for everyone, including me. Clients are looking for me. I am like a magnet to new clients. Um, having more abundance is so easy. Um, and there's a little hack that I use and learn this from actually from Dana Wilde. So If you say something for three days, 50 times a day for three days, your subconscious mind kicks in and says, Oh wow, she really means that I need to pay attention to that. So it has to end with the phrase is so easy. So for instance, in, um, I laugh with my friends because I'm learning to and I would say, um, for three days, I said, It's so easy. No, I said winning at Mahjong is so easy. So I said that 50 times a day for three days straight and, and that now it's become my, I've attracted that. It's become my belief, right? Now I don't say, Oh, it's so hard. Oh, I can't win. Oh, this game is so difficult. Like things like that. Um, because then if you say that, and those are your beliefs, then that's what you're going to. experience. So if you want to experience a different life, a different business creation, a different experience, then you have to tell your story as if it's already happening. And so that, and then anyway, but I love that is so easy hack. So right now I have something written on my desk that says, having more abundance is so easy. So saying that 50 times a day for three days, 72 hours actually, and that will my, my subconscious mind, which is what wants to match your outside world to your inside world. It's like, Oh, she really means this. She's been saying it over and over again. So to me, it was really important for me to release those negative thoughts about myself, about my business, about my sales, about my abundance, and Switch it on its head to make it more positive and to make it, I can remember when we were in the recession and our, our business was down and our suppliers, our clients were going out of business or not ordering, and that's when we, I really needed to sort of use those new statements to help myself feel better about it and help myself get to that higher level of happiness and joy. Yeah.

Alyssa Nolte: 13:13

So. I can't imagine that you just started one day and woke up and said, Hey, you know, I am going to start being more positive. Like what was the origin story of, of how this mindset

Lori Rogers: 13:27

Oh my gosh. So yes. No. Um, so back in 2011, 2012, I remember back then, well, you're very young, but back then we were in a major recession. Many of our clients stopped ordering products. We own a promotional products company. Many of our clients were no longer in business. And, you know, I was kind of worried and stressful and anxious over that. And my daughter was home suffering from a head injury that she had suffered in college, um, playing lacrosse. I was worried and anxious about that. Our son with autism was transferring and transitioning from high school into his The adult world out there, which is very different and not as, you know, sort of planned out as a high school environment would be, that was like worrisome. So all of these things accumulated and accumulated and, and my daughter, when she was home, recovering from her injury, and she's perfectly fine and healthy and well now. Um, asked me to drive her to a wellness fair because she couldn't drive. And I said, sure. And we went to a wellness fair. And that's where I was introduced to these concepts of shifting your mindset, telling a new story, what you say, what you think, what you believe is what you create in your life. I was like, what? What are you talking about and how did I not know this? And we grabbed a few books. I took some books, went to some presentations. So that was like 12 years ago. And that's when I decided, Oh, wow, this is amazing. The more I read, the more I learned, the more I researched and started doing these practices to really raise my happiness level. Things started to shift and change in my life. And then once I realized they were scientifically. When I started, I didn't know that, but as I did more research and learned more, Oh, I need to teach these things. This is ridiculous. They're free. They're easy. It's your time. It's, it's just a different way of life. It's a different way of living. It's a different way of perceiving the world than we do now. So I want to teach people how to do this because I was, Oh gosh, how old was I? I don't, am I like 50 when I started doing it? Like, I don't want people to wait till they're 50. I want them to know now. I want them to know it's six years old, right? No.

Alyssa Nolte: 16:06

you know, the whole premise of this show is the idea that we are taking back Monday, and that means a lot of different things to different people. From my perspective, it means that, you know, if you're a team leader, if you're a people manager, you not only have the power, but in my opinion, the mandate to help your team take back Monday and experience great work, and, and something that means more than just a paycheck. But for a lot of people that listen, they're individual contributors. And, and they hate Monday. They have the worst Sunday scaries. It's like they ruin their entire Sunday simply because tomorrow is Monday. So, what is the one thing you would have them start doing if they're an individual contributor who hates Mondays? What is the one thing you would have them start doing to really take back Monday and focus on the positivity?

Lori Rogers: 16:52

I would say, okay, well, actually it's like two things. First thing, you're going to go to Amazon and you're going to buy the High Five Habit by Mel Robbins. Read the book and then start doing that high five habit every morning. So what you're doing is you're priming your brain, you're priming yourself, you're looking yourself at yourself in the mirror, saying something amazing and positive and wonderful, giving yourself a high five and doing it every day, not just on Mondays, not just on Sundays, but every day. And tell yourself, You've got this. You're going to be productive today. You are going to have a great zoom meeting today and an awesome interview today. Uh, whatever it is, give yourself a high five. That physical act of the high five has been researched to, to do so many great things for our mind and for our perceptions and our overall wellbeing in children as well. So I think that's the coolest thing that I ever started to do, honestly. And so if I had to say one thing, I'd say, start there.

Alyssa Nolte: 17:57

I love that because I think that There's so much power in, in the decisions we make and the active decisions we make that don't require anyone's permission, right? No one has to give you permission to, to go ahead and read a book and think about changing your mindset. Just simply give, do that high five, you know, approach. And I think a lot of us are waiting. For someone else to give us the permission to do something about it, whether that's our boss, our family, our friends, or our subconscious selves. And like giving yourself permission to enjoy your work day and to open up for opportunities and giving yourself permission to be positive and experience that life. Even though most of the world that we see on social media is all about, you know, the victim hood gets more attention than the positivity and the happy experiences.

Lori Rogers: 18:46

Right. Funny that you said that because every morning I do just open up my arms and I say, I am open to all the good and the abundance today. I am open to it all. And just to remind myself that it's always coming to us. It's always coming to us. But what are we doing to sort of block it? Are we being negative? Are we, you know, uh, talking negative about other people or ourselves? Are we thinking bad thoughts about our business, our, our boss, our coworkers, our team? Are we just in a negative sort of anxious space and we're not letting all that, those good ideas in, we're not letting in all that joy. Um, so we have the power to change it.

Alyssa Nolte: 19:36

So, you know, obviously you've, you've mentioned several books, the high five habit, you've mentioned that you went to some presentations, thinking about all of the people that you've had an opportunity to meet those that have really had an impact on your life or those that you aspire to meet, who in your mind is taking back Monday? Who else should we be listening to?

Lori Rogers: 19:55

Well, take 12 minutes and 53 seconds of your life. And go to YouTube and listen to Sean Acor's TED Talk. S H A W N And his last name is A C H O R And he has a TED Talk, I forget what it's um, called But it's about um, you know, raising your happiness level. And it's just easy. It's fast. It's flowing. And he talks about these different practices that can help lift you up. And he's written several books about, um, happiness and positivity and done the, he was a Harvard researcher and researched how being more positive and optimistic has affected people's lives. So. I, I think that TED Talk is amazing, and once you hear it, you're going to be like, Oh, why don't I do those things too? So, yeah, and it's the things we talked about. The appreciation practice. The conscious recall. Conscious act of kindness. Meditation. Exercise. There's one other one that I can't remember right now. Um, I think there's six and those are the six activities that have been scientifically researched to affect your life. So I love him.

Alyssa Nolte: 21:15

Though, that is great. And we will definitely have to add him to our list of people to check out. You know, Laurie, if someone is really connected with you and they are wanting to learn more about you, your mission, and what you're up to, where can they find you online?

Lori Rogers: 21:29

Sure. So we're at positive activity dot net. When you go to our website, you'll see our links to, um, Instagram, Instagram. YouTube, Facebook, um, and also on that, on our website or blogs that I've written. You can sign up for workshops or one on one mentoring. Uh, we also do keynote speaks and speaking. So it's really fun. So my, uh, I say we, because I'm in partnership with my husband, Neil, and when you go out there on positiveactivity. net, he wrote a book called Bar Tips. Um, everything I needed to know in sales, I learned behind the bar and it's a really great read. A great stocking stuff for everyone. And it's on Amazon. Uh, a really fun book for those of you in sales or are entrepreneurs and young

Alyssa Nolte: 22:21

I love that. I love that. Well, if you are interested in learning more about Laurie and connecting with Laurie, make sure you check out our website. Her website, connect with her on LinkedIn, follow her on social media. And Laurie, thank you so much for taking back Monday with me. This was a great

Lori Rogers: 22:33

my gosh. Thank you, Alyssa. This was great fun. Thanks so much. I love Mondays now. Thanks for joining us on Taking Back Monday, where we say goodbye to the Sunday scaries and hello to meaningful and fulfilling work. If you enjoyed today's episode, let's connect on LinkedIn. I'd love to hear your thoughts. And if you found value here, share the podcast with your network. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and leave a review. It helps us inspire more leaders to join the movement. Until next time, let's take back Monday.