Welcome to the Adaptive Mindset. I'm Brett Gallant, cybersecurity thought leader and founder of Adaptive Office Solutions. Here, we don't just talk tech, we unlock the strategies, stories, and mindset shifts you need to stay secure, lead boldly, and thrive in a digital world. Let's get started. Welcome back to the Adaptive Mindset. Today's guest has spent over 30 years leading in finance and cybersecurity, but behind that experience is a deeper mission, helping people transform fear into confidence, both in business and life. I'm very pleased to have with me today, Michele Novack. Michele, welcome to the show. It's great Looking forward to it. Perfect. Hey, let's dig right in a little bit of your origin story. You've worked in leadership and cybersecurity for decades, but your story goes way beyond that. It's one of transformation and mindset. How You know, it happened many, many years ago, you know, beyond my role as a business owner, my journey has been one of like really resilience and growth and trying to empower only, not only myself, but others. And a couple of years ago, I mean, I worked in finance and banking for over 30 years, like you said. And I saw the writing on the wall, right? The transition, the changes. And I said, you get to a point where you know that you're next up. You know that eventually you're going to get hit with, you know, we're downsizing and this and that, you know, and it had to really kind of hit me and say, where do I start? Like if I get if I lose my job today, I've never not worked for someone. What am I going to do? Where do I go? How do I start over? And, you know, I'm in a later stage of my life. Right. You know, I'm not a spring chicken anymore, I tell everybody. So it kind of really made me kind of figure that out. Right. I had to sit down and say, well, I can see the writing on the wall. I know it's coming. It's a matter of time. And that's really kind of where it started. Right. It drove me to like a profound desire to kind of find out who Michele was without a corporate job. Hmm. Yeah. And push me into me, finding me and, you know, creating new skills. I went back to school when I was 50, you know, and became a cyber engineer. It wasn't easy, you know. Yeah, so I think that, you know, answers your question, right? Like, where did it start? That's where it started. It was the fear of being casted out. And what would I do next if I lost my job? It's kind of where it started, right? And I think for me, helping people and empowering them and helping them through that journey, because I'm sure there's many, many people out there in this world today either going through it or have the same fears, which Joel may write my book too, right? Overcoming your fear as an entrepreneur, right? So how do you help people that have had that fear? Like You know, I think when I sit down and I have a conversation just like you and I are having right now, you know, you talk about it, you know, what's on your mind? What are you worried about, right? When you start with those conversations, you know, why are you afraid to follow that dream, right? Everybody has some type of ideal or dream that they want growing up or later stage of life, but it falls in the fear of silence, right? Why do some of those die in silence, I always say? And it's about transforming your mind, right? Like people have to get to the sound understanding that anything you do is a risk. And once you overcome and understand that risk and understand that, you know what, so what if you fail? it's how you pick up those pieces and begin to continue on that matters, then you get through it, right? Transforming your idea into action seems to be a thoughtless challenge that most people have, you know, and it's not only personally, but professionally, right? We gather our thoughts, we sit there and we say, I want to do this, but nothing happens. And that's what goes on. And, you know, my conversations are, you know, why are you afraid to follow your dream and be innovative? I did it. I said, you know what? Got to write down a piece of paper. Well, the skills I have, what does that mean for me? What can I do with all the skills I have in 30 years in banking? Right? Or what new skills can I acquire that support what's Yeah. Yeah. You know, Brett, I'm sure you yourself, right? We all been through that journey. You and I have the same background, right? In cybersecurity. And it's not an easy field, you know, but Yeah, you have to be one of resilience. You got to buckle down. Oh, But it's actually I love it. You know, I would never give it up now that I do it. Right. Yeah. But it's not it's not for everyone either. Right. No procrastination. I always tell everybody. But I think on some level, procrastination in some level is healthy. People who procrastinate, some people just get caught in that realm and they continue to procrastinate and they worry, I'm going to start my business. And then they'd start the planning phase and they stay in that planning phase for a year and two years. And they keep finding more and more reasons why not to do it. That's huge to do it, right? Oh, I can relate to that so much. It parallels how I started my own business. I started Adaptive in 2010 and there was another person in the community that had the clients from another company, but before he officially started, he was waiting for the perfect business card, perfect plan. I just went and executed. In that case, I didn't procrastinate, but sometimes we procrastinate too much waiting for the perfect plan. It's sort of like that story I've heard about the man and woman waiting for the perfect time to have children. By the time they paid off the mortgage and the education, they were 72. It was too late. Perfect time is now. You got to go after You know, it's interesting. I talk to a lot of people like you do, and it's right there. And I always say, well, what drives that? But it's really the fear of failure. Most people are afraid to fail. And when somebody tells me that, oh, well, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. I'm like, just pull the trigger. I started my business. I was like, I have no idea, but I'm going to go out there and say, this is what I'm doing. And I'm just going to figure it out along the way. Doesn't mean I haven't made mistakes. Doesn't mean I haven't come back to the board. Doesn't mean I had to learn how to build a business plan, understand how to project. I had to do all those things. I never did. I never ran a business before in my life, right? You know, obviously working for corporate, they make it look simple, but it's not, right? It's a lot of responsibility. You have people that rely on you now. And that's even more of a responsibility. But it's fear of failure, right? People get so stuck in the fear of, well, what if it doesn't work? Well, what if it does? Right? Like... Bingo. Yeah, yeah. You don't know unless you try. Michael Jordan failed. Right. Think about Michael Jordan. I always I'm inspired by his story, but him and others. Right. But I always go back to that, Michael Jordan, that a thousand times he failed before he made it. Einstein, even These are great minds, great people. But, you know, everybody had Yeah. You know, how do you know your purpose, right? And commit to it. I think that's another thing that, you know, people don't trust themselves. And I think that comes, it comes from a deep innate of how you are raised, the things that you've been taught throughout your entire life, what you've seen growing up, and what you believe about yourself, right? We all self-sabotage to some extent, because we're conditioned that way, right? I Oh, bingo. I've you know, I I'm a card carrying member, but I'm I'm working on resigning my membership of the imposter syndrome club. Yeah, I'm almost out. So. That's a good thing. Yes. Yes. You know, there's a heart of what you're saying. And it reminds me of a gentleman that helped me launch the podcast. He says, who's missing out because you're not showing up? Oh, my God, I love that. Yeah. I love that. Because deep down, we're all meant to help people. And if there's something, for folks listening, there's something on your heart that you're called to do, you're possibly affecting somebody's life by not showing up. You could make an impact on somebody's life. Who's missing out? Speaks Yeah, as you say it, it's absolutely true though, right? Like, I never looked at it that way, but as you say it, it's absolutely true because, you know, I always believe like you have Your life's path will lead you where you're meant to go, right? If you really trust in it. And let's get to trusting your decisions, right? Because that's another reason why people fail. They don't trust themselves enough. You've got to trust your decisions and be a game changer. That's how you get there. You're not always going to be right, but you've got to make that decision. Pulling the trigger, making it happen, right? Keep going. But trust is a very finicky thing, right, for a lot of people. And, you know, you're right. Like, think about it. If Einstein never showed up, right, where would we be today? Candles, right? Benjamin Franklin never showed up where we would be today, right? Like, think about think about like people from four or five hundred years ago. They don't have the technology. They don't have the advancements that we have today. We're so much further advanced that we could do anything we want. Let's not even get talk about AI. Right. Oh, I know. As soon as you said everything, everything I use is AI today. Right. Like so. Yeah. Let's not even talk about machine learning. Let's not talk about quantum computing. Let's not talk about all of that, right? Think about those folks, you know, hundreds of years ago. Things we take for granted. Yes. Yeah. Right. Exactly. To my point, we take our lives for granted because we don't know any better. You know, I mean, and that's the way the evolution of life is supposed to happen. We're supposed to get better and better and better and better over time, right? Our parents want for us more than they had. We want for our children more than we have. And it will always be cyclical and continue to give and go and go. But, you know, again, why do some people get it done and then others never give their ideas, get their ideas like what ties back to my own personal transformation. Sometimes you just get to that point where you say enough is enough. It's either that, or you've just instinctively always been a person that's just, I'm going after it. But for me, for some of my pivotal moments is when I've decided what I've, I recorded a reel recently where I really dawned on me, it's time to go all in. I fall in on the belief of myself, my identity. There are things that I really haven't accepted and I think there's things in everybody's life that we don't accept about who we are and how we show up in And, you know, that's so important. So I wrote another book, right? It's called Shifting Your Mindset to 21 Days of Abundance. That book, so profound. But for me, I did it for me because I was going through a really horrific time in my life. I got depressed. You know, things were overwhelming. You know, we all go through that. Right. And if you say you've never had one of those moments, well, I don't know. But I had one of those moments and I really had to look at myself and say, who are you, Michele, looking hard in the mirror, cry at night, and then kind of break all down my trauma from my years of living and get through it. And, you know, I wrote that book that's profoundly personal for me, but also as a guide for others. Because if you go through that book, it's many chapters, but you take a 21 day journey And it asks you deep questions in each chapter before you can move on to the next. And you find who you are. You may not like who you are. You may not find what you what you what you thought you are, but you become a better version of you. And that's really what I found, like by doing and writing that book to your point. Right. You get to the nitty gritty and you can look at yourself in the mirror and be authentic. Right. We got to stop worrying about what other people think. I mean, we're living in a society that everybody judges everybody. And it's just it's just very sad because Nobody can judge me. I don't judge anybody. Be you, let me be me. But it's very hard to live that way these days, unfortunately. And my passion has really given me the opportunity to share my experiences, whether it's navigating the highs and lows. of entrepreneurship, creating impactful collaborations or just offering whatever free resources or support in the community and be mindful about other people's journey. I think that's very hard. When you meet somebody, you'll get nervous. I mean, I get nervous. I don't know you that well. Right. And you're afraid to kind of just speak your truth because you don't want to be judged. But we have to do that. We have to do it because who's missing out if we don't do it? Again, going back to what you said, it's profound. That saying is profound, right? Like, maybe one person will hear you and I speak today and say, you know what? I do need to evaluate my life. I need to get over the fear of what I'm doing. And I want to start that business. I hope I do it right. Like if I we can encourage one person to find those hidden fears that hold them captive and let it go. Right. And, you know, I dare you, right? I'll dare you reveal your own journey, explore the raw battlegrounds of your mind. start And what are you going to be honest with yourself? Don't you? And if you're not, and if you're not ready, you just need to explore or I think we all have. And you know, whether you have a sound friend, a spouse, you know, that one person that's been there, whatever it could be, it could be a partner, it could be anybody. You know, if you're spiritual, spiritual people, whatever it might be, right? You got to ask for help. People are so afraid and ashamed. I'm going to use that word ashamed. I think a lot of people are ashamed of showing their true person to other people because they're afraid again of being judged or not being accepted. And you know what? It doesn't matter. Showing yourself to Yeah, I danced in the bank today. I seriously did. Good for you! We were pretending to be, we were waiting for the bank to open and we, I live in Canada, the bank, it was called Scotiabank, but we were all there, we were pretending to be Walmart readers. I said, you know what, that's it, I'm renaming the bank to the Social Bank. Be I love it. You know, it just brought me to something that I do. I mean, I have a grandson that's two and a half, and we go around Target, and I'm like absolutely crazy in the aisles with him. I mean, everybody's always looking at me, and my sister's like, calm down, you're embarrassing me. I'm like, I don't care. Don't stand next to me. I'm a kid right now. I'm a two year old kid playing with a two year old. And that's all that matters to me. But that's how genuine you have to really get to. And it's really hard for some people to let that, you know, to get there. And, you know, I don't want to minimize that journey because it's no, no, 100 percent. I'm just I'm at a place where I feel comfortable doing that, even dancing. And when I go to the United States, especially when I was in Denver with my wife, we went to Target. I was dancing in the middle of the aisle. And she's like, I don't know you, but You do. And then, you know, you want to embarrass them more. So you continue with it. You know, the shenanigans, guys, I have. But it's good. It's good for us. You know, that just means that, you know, we've come so far in our own journeys that we're OK with it. Right. Like, yeah. And Yeah, I think. Yeah. And we're talking about it right now, aren't Yeah, and I think, you know, our message out there is, you know, a let's talk about being a game changer when when you want to start your own business and you could probably validate this. You don't know where to start, but there are free resources out there. I went to a government. training program, right, to teach me how to start my business. It was a six-month course with the Women's Economic Development course, and that's what it was called, and you got a certificate. But they taught you all about business, all the essential things of what you needed to know about business. So for anybody out there that's really looking to do that, they need to start there. If you have no idea about how to run a business, yeah, you can wing it, you can go out, you can, you know, whatever. It depends what type of business you're running, but it helps you talk about how to structure it, the type of structure you need, legalities of it. It walks you through building a business plan, the marketing, right? We all struggle with marketing. Gotta love my AI bots that are out there every day, posting to LinkedIn, Facebook, right? Because Lord knows I don't have the time. Um, but, you know, so you need to have, it was really foundational for me because again, I've never ran a business before and everybody has their own way of approaching those things, but there's a lot of free resources. Um, you know, government contracting and stuff like that. There's a whole nother element Other business owners. I found over the years, speaking to other business owners, hey i'm i'm doing this or going to a chamber of commerce but other business owners we we often forget to ask others and i believe most people want to help each other so we don't ask question enough questions or or the right questions or we feel like And you know, you hit it dead on, right? Like the Chamber of Commerce and small business. When I launched my business, I did. I reached out to a lot of people that I knew owned businesses, friends of mine. talk to me, you know, here's my thing. I tested my theory right before I launched, you know, and then when I first came out, I asked them, I asked them, I said, can I do this on your business for free? Can you allow me, give me feedback, right? Like I went out there and I, you know, put myself out there because I needed to test it. And I made tweaks along the way before I got my first client. You know, I remember walking into my first client and I had to do a presentation. Yeah. I'm going to tell you, I was a nervous wreck. But one of the things I did and, you know, I walked into this client and I was in there and I was like, you know, listen, I'm going to be very honest with you. You're my first client and I am scared right now. And I told him straight out. I was like, you know, I'm hoping that you will find through what I exposed to you today, through me telling you about the benefits of working with me and who I am, that you'll agree to be, you know, take me on and continue with me or whatever I said. But, you know, going back to what you said, people are willing to help. And that client looked at me straight in the face. And you know, they weren't a small client. And they said, you know what? We got you. He actually said that. The owner of the company, we still talk. He's like, we got you, don't worry about it. He goes, you know, feel free, walk us through your product, walk us through your process. And That moment and vulnerability, that was another key thing. I just, I feel like, I just want to say, I feel Yeah, I mean, it's hard to be vulnerable because again, that leads back to, you know, imposter Yeah. And you know what? I'm trying to get over that. It's hard. I had that too. I mean, I think we all go through it. A lot of people go through it. I don't know. I haven't met one small business owner who hasn't told me they haven't gone through it to tell you the truth. Okay. Yeah. They've done the mental drills and you know, know your best self. Right. But they've all gone through it. You know, I think what empowered me most was, you know, just helping me break through that barrier of myself and overcoming my own, again, fears about who I was, building my own journey and trusting my own journey and letting go everything else, right? You know, I have an atypical personality. So a lot of people tell me you're very direct. And It's just who I am, right? And I don't want to change that because that's who I am. You have to get to a point. Of course, you're tactful and you adjust to your audience because you have to in business. But there's an element of you that should not change, I should say. And you've got to be authentic and true to yourself. And once you get there, I think in anything that you do, whether it's a business, whether it's going to play soccer, or you want to go and become the next opera singer, I don't know. You gotta just be true to yourself, right? You and I have that similarity where we agree with that, right? Like other people do wanna be out there and help you. There are so many communities now building up, especially I think after COVID, people are trying to get back out, networking more into the community where you're seeing people face-to-face, but online, there's tons of them. I just met a gentleman the other day that works for a big company And they've been in business for 25 years marketing, but they are developing platforms for online communities. Like some of their customers are Lego, right? They have the online community so people can meet and talk about just Legos or whatever it is that they want to do in that community. It's isolated. But I see a lot of that today, right? Like even us, cybersecurity, we're trying to build a community on LinkedIn and gathering people together. And you see more and more of that happening because We all need support each Well, human beings, we all thrive on connection. And I remember after COVID, or in the middle of COVID, when we were first able to do something sociable, I was doing Scouting Leader, and we were able to allow the kids to meet together, but we had to maintain social distance. Within the first 30 seconds, By the first thing, the other scout leaders of child clothes line, my boy, and they were just laughing and having fun. But it was so beautiful. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, I mean, we are what you do. You want that connection. You need that. That's what makes the world go around. I mean, there's like I said, there's good and bad and everything that, you know, there's a lot going on in the world today. And, you know, to stay grounded, to say to stay focused, to, Like, I can't let there be in the driver's seat. Oh, God, no. Yeah. Yeah. And we too often we do. But you know what, I'll tell you the truth. But like, I can't say that I don't have doubts every now and then, right? Like, we all do. Financially, we all have that financial responsibility and burdens, which they add up. But you got to live a meaningful life. Like my motto to everybody is live your best life yet. Go and live your best life yet. I tell everybody it's in my book. Go live your best life yet. If you had to close your eyes today and nothing mattered, no money, no health issues, no nothing, what would Yeah, that's one of the questions I have in my book. And are you being honest with yourself? Is that Yeah, it's one of the questions in my book, but some of those questions will really make you think about yourself. So, you know, it's not and I think I even stated in like the very foreword of the book that, you know, this is not for somebody who wants to pick up a book and, you know, doesn't follow through. This is someone who's going to do the work. And I state it very clearly because you really, it's got to be thought-provoking, right? It's very thought-provoking questions and you're creating a space for authenticity. You're inspiring yourself, right? You're kind of unpacking who you are. You know, I'm making making it, you know, being informed about kind of how you're going to live your life going forward. What's going to motivate you? What empowers you? You know, for me, living vicariously to my grandson is what's doing it for now. Right. but you and your scout kids or whatever it might be, right? Your sons, I think we all have that. We lose sight of that. Like life is life. And we, you know, as entrepreneurs, you know, we can work 70, 80 hours a week and we have our heads down. And especially in the cyber world, you know, that's when it gets hacked. That's three days of your life, you know? You know, but pulling back from that, right? What does Well, I think the lesson I've learned in my own journey, I've lost, released over 120 pounds since October 23, Michele. God bless. And entrepreneurship, as you know, The one thing that I would tell people what I've learned is you have to treat yourself first, treat yourself like your best client. So you have the energy and we forget that. And so that's part of the mindset of that. We need to be really honest with ourselves. Are we really putting our own oxygen mask on to be able to show up? And then you handle fear in a whole different way, because I'm handling fear in a whole You know, it's interesting what you just said, putting the oxygen mask on, you know, because we don't take care of ourselves as entrepreneurs. No, you learn to. So I'll rephrase that. But as you're growing your business and scaling your business, you know, we all go through certain phases as you grow your business, right? And you get to the next level, whatever. And you got to say, what's enough for me, right? There's got to be a point where, what do you really want? And it goes back to some of those questions, right? Like, what does that mean? Yeah, what tells you nothing will ever fulfill you unless you love yourself. And I don't care what anybody says if you don't love yourself first. you'll never be fulfilled. So it's got to start with that. And that's where that oxygen mask. Yeah. That's where you know, right. We've all had those moments and you let your hair down and you sit in bed at night and you know, you're up until three o'clock in the morning and everything's rushing through your head 100 miles an hour. And sometimes you get the most inspiring things on how to change your business at those hours. But, um, you gotta also learn to shut it down, shut the noise. And I've done that for myself, right? Well, I'll tell you one of the strategies and, you know, one of the things that I've done because we all have full plates. I have a list of maybe 20, 30 things, you know, you look at your calendar, like you said, we've been on meetings all day. I've always said there's three things I wake up in the morning and I write down the three priorities that I need to complete looking at my list, three. If I get to a fourth, you're very lucky. Three. And I know by the end of the day, come no matter what, I'm going to fulfill them. I'm going to do those three things. And I make it around taking care of myself first. It's got to be one thing that I take care of myself. What am I going to do for myself today? Because that's the most important, to keep us going and not having to use an oxygen mask. The second is, what do my clients need? And the third is, what's my business need? Or what's the community? Where am I at? Right. If the business and the clients are good, then, you know, where my community, what else do I need in my family? So like those are the three things that I always kind of focus. And I, you know, I scale through and I pick the three things and I break at a time. OK, between this time and this time, I'm going to do this for this. This is my time. This is business time, work time. Right. So I'm doing this podcast with you today. This is my time. I wanted to do this today. I wanted to share. This was part of my car today. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yes. Right. And that's I think that's fundamental people. If you don't have some kind of structure or goal in your day, no matter how. how big your company is or how small it is. You'll just keep spinning. You're on the spin cycle. You'll be a boat lost at sea. You can think that you got 90 things done and you know what? All of that stuff is still gonna be there tomorrow. And that's why you have people. You have to learn to delegate, right? You've got to learn to trust, trust others because we all get caught up and I can do it. I can do it. Can they do it? Can they do it the same way? Let it go. You hired I've adopted what I say a lot now, because I've learned this from scouting with the scouting group that I partner with a lot in another city on their trailer, the slogans there, train them, trust them, let them lead. And when I talk about leadership, I think of that all the time, because that's what I've done with my team. train them, trust them, and let them lead. Step back and let them do what they do so I can have that time and I like that's key. So And it doesn't mean it's not going to come with all of the baggage that comes with, you know, running a business, right? You're going to have those moments. They're going to have people. Things are not always going to work out. But, you know, if you train them and you train in the right way and it's how you react, you know, one of the things I've learned is, you know, when the fire is burning and there's a fire and you've got to put it out, I step back, I'm very calm, and I listen. Okay, well, we have a fire today. Well, what's the solution? I get it, what's the solution? And you know, they'll all, everybody's, what's the solution? And I'll ask them 15 times, what's the solution? And so everybody kind of, you know, and it's funny, like Fridays are a fun day. It was called Friday fun day. an hour before the weekend, before the end of the, I don't care what went on this past week, I don't care if we lost clients, gang clients, fires, talk to me about you. Like, what are you doing the weekend? What are our plans? What's going on? Tell me about a fun moment this week, you know, whatever you need to do, right? Let it all out, vent it out, let's get it out, you know, but giving them that space to do that, right? Being a leader, you have to lead and we're on show and I've learned that, you know, the tough way, you do learn that the tough way, but I've been in corporate for many, many years. So I get it as well, right? I have, God, I've had that ability where I understood that a very long time ago and learned that lesson that, you know, they're watching you and, you know, if you're crying in the corner, they're gonna cry with you. But if, you're reassuring them, it's gonna be all right. They're gonna build that confidence even further. And next time when a fire comes, they're gonna handle it and they're gonna come to you and say, hey, we had a fire today, but this is what we did, right? And that's where you get to eventually with your folks. So I think that's very important, right? Like doing that and just being real and authentic. I mean, it doesn't mean we don't fill up our days, doesn't mean that Again, I've gotten calls nine, 10 o'clock at night. Clients have my personal cell. I have some, which I don't recommend everybody do, but I'm one of those. But there are a few clients out there where, you know, they have my cell and I've gotten calls, you know, I think I've just been hacked. I'm like, okay, well, let's go, you know, but you have to blend it. And it's very hard to balance. Life is hard, right? Like, Sometimes we have personal lives, we have family that gets sick, right? We have, you know, I'm in, you know, Gen X, so I have parents that are older, right? We have kids, you know, and going through God knows what crisis at this age, right? So you're dealing with a lot of moving, juggling pieces and juggling that is not easy. And that's, you know, listen, getting a therapist is I recommend it. I've had one myself, right? It helps you get grounded. My book, my first book was dedicated to my therapist because she really helped me understand loving yourself first is what it's about. Once you love yourself and know who you are, everything else will fall in line. And it's absolutely true. I didn't believe her back then, but I know it takes a while to accept that. Yeah. Now, you know, I wrote this down. I wrote a few things down while we were talking and And I will, you know, I'm looking forward to the next phase You know, I'm again, life is living and having fun and making experiences and, and living at your 10 X potential. No. You know, it's interesting. Life is really that simple. Like you can do whatever Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm I'm a member of that overcomplication club. But I've I've I've joined the simple, simple life. I'm not simple, though. I dance right along with you. I'll tell you the truth, Brett, because I'm right in there when I see something fun. I'm like, let's just do it. Who It was great. Michele, when I went to tell her before they opened, But that's when you know you're alive, right? You're living your best life. You know, I'll share a quick story because I don't know how much time we have left. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Two years ago, I died. They had to resuscitate me. True story. Right. Oh, wow. And yeah, well, you know, stress as a kind of, you know, health is very Yes. Now, you know, love yourself first, but take care of your health. But anyway, short and long of it is, is you really do kind of get a different perspective on life in addition to everything else that you're already going through in your journey. And I mean, I woke up in a hospital didn't know where I was. but it made me look at my life differently, profoundly, and ask a lot of tough questions in addition to that book I wrote, right? And I think, you know, you gotta really kind of, if you're not a writer, you're not a journaler, record yourself, talk to yourself. You may seem crazy, but you're not. Love yourself, yeah. Love yourself. And then write down what matters to you, right? Like, I write that every day. I write down one thing that matters to me in the morning. Right? What matters to me today? Yeah. Right? Outside of everything else, I always write what matters to me today. And I answer that question. I'm like, that's my focus today. That's what matters. But I remind myself that I matter. A lot of people do not do that for themselves. You matter. We all matter. you know, and again, it's about loving yourself, right? But what matters to me today, and it could be what matters to me today is making sure that everybody gets paid on time, right? It could be anything, right? I'm just, you know, being very lighthearted, you know, but, you know, it could be what matters to me today is going home and celebrating my daughter's birthday. It could be anything, but whatever matters to you, make sure that it's the most important thing in your life at that moment. And be happy with it. I just, I want to piggyback on that for people listening, you matter. You I think it's ideal. I mean, we drive a message and you're doing a great, great job here, right? But getting that message out for people, I think it's very important. You know, adoptive mindset is, you know, the name of the podcast and it is about mind. Our Mindset is a muscle, I say. You know, it's a muscle that Absolutely. You know what's interesting? The mind is a computer and the mind doesn't know what's real or not. And that's my book. Your mind only knows what you tell it. And If you tell yourself you're sad, you're gonna be sad. You can control that, but you just have to make the decision on how you're gonna perceive it and turn it into something. It's just like energy. Where Yeah, so that's a, you know, again, my name is Michele Novack. The name of my company is Cardinal Bytes Cybersecurity Risk Management. They can certainly find my book on Kindle. I have a few books out there. So it's definitely on Kindle, Amazon, wherever you want to go. Yeah, I'm on LinkedIn. You can find me on LinkedIn. You can find me on a lot of different kind of connective type of small business community centers and stuff. But those are the primary. I think I'm on Facebook. I know I'm I would always say LinkedIn. I tell everybody to go to LinkedIn. You know, I'm always on that thing. It sends me messages. It kind of reminds I love it. Hey, before we go, I want to do something, okay? Okay. I've been doing this a little fun. Rapid fire Okay. Okay. Let's start. Okay. One small business, one small business Jeeva AI. Okay. Okay. What's Yeah. What's one thing you do every day that protects your mindset? Tell myself what matters. Yeah, you said that. Finish this sentence. Living my best life yet means. I love it. I love it. Hey, okay, My IT guy is gonna take care of it and antivirus cures So true. Okay, and if you could tell your younger self one thing about leadership, what That's an interesting question. My younger self would be, believe in who you are and don't Yeah, that's so true. A business client of mine says, don't let anyone ever tell you how to run your business. Last question here for you. A Find a way. I say that to everybody. Find a way. They tell me it can't be fixed. Find a way. Diana Ayad. Her story was one of the best stories. I always go back to her TEDx talks, but Perfect. Beautiful. Michele, thank you so much. We had such a great time today getting to know you. In closing, just think of what Michele says, living, you know, live your best life yet. So please connect with Michele, share this episode. like it, but especially share it with somebody that could be impacted by what Michele shared. You can make a difference in somebody's life, in somebody's day. And that's what we're here for. Michele, thank Thank you. Thanks, Brett. Appreciate the Thanks for tuning into the Adaptive Mindset. If you found value in today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who's ready to thrive in the digital age.