#174 - Why We Wait Too Long to Say What Matters Most | Walter Green

0:00 The power of anybody's contribution is always in the form of a question, not an answer. All right, you all welcome back to another episode of the necessary entrepreneur. And one of the things that I personally enjoy as I get to spend time with guests for a few minutes before every episode, so many things now are done via zoom and riverside.

0:40 We don't get to be in person. We're in person. I spend maybe an hour, but the 10 or 15 minutes that I get to spend before these episodes always are enlightening for me. And it tells me how much I'm going to enjoy and appreciate and grow from the next 45 to 50 minutes. And those that really know me well, I don't just pass out accolades. I don't just prop people up. should more than I more than I do. But I think today's going to be one of those moments for me. And I think then it's going to be a moment for me. hope it's one for you. So I'm going to jump in here to the intro to, um, in almost 200 episodes to talk to our first Walter. So today's guest is Walter Green. Walter spent 25 years as the CEO of Harrison Conference Services.

1:22 leading the company through decades of growth, change, and real leadership responsibility. More recently though, he's the founder and CEO of the Say It Now movement. The author of a new book called The Gratitude Express out in January of 2026 when we're recording this. And the creator of the 2025 documentary Say It Now. And then some TEDx's and a lot of different things. Walter brings a rare perspective shaped by long-term leadership. and decisions that only show up over time. I'm personally looking forward to digging into those lessons today. So Walter, welcome to The Necessary Entrepreneur. Thank you very much.

2:02 name of the movement is Say It Now, and we'll talk more about that later. Awesome. So I just think that we could talk for hours. have a short 45 or 50 minutes here because, uh, time's the most valuable thing we have. like, let's get to it. But this book, the gratitude express, those two words seem like they could be a foundation for what I've learned in my short 46 years, a foundation for a great life. And express, I don't know if we're going to use the metaphor for a train, but also for some reason you might smack me and tell me I'm wrong, but speed has meant a lot to my life.

2:45 and gratitude, seems like I'm coming more into this season of expressing and feeling more gratitude for the things I have for the opportunities that continue to show up in my life. And honestly, for the roles that I get to play in helping people change theirs. so tell us about this book. Well, the book is really an outgrowth of I don't want to shortchange your audience. think I need to set the table a little bit for this. Uh, and then the gratitude express will fit into the program more than featuring a specific response. So I kind of describe my life in three segments.

3:26 The first 29 years, I was just trying to figure out what I'm going to be doing with this life. was. moved to 16 different cities, really had no friendships because they never lived long enough in the same town to make a good friend. The next 29 years, I kind of focused on finally finding something that was meaningful work. And I had tried 13 jobs before this, so it wasn't like I wasn't trying. But I found this startup idea of building executive conference centers, which became Probably the largest network of centers of executive education in the country. Very proud of that. But after doing that for 29 years, I said, you know, my dad died at 53.

4:10 I'm 58 at the time. Life is going to be more than just figuring out what you want to do for work. And then what do you work on? I thought, well, if I'm going to have any time left, why wouldn't I do something really different? So I got involved in mentoring young adults and then did... Yeah. So I was actually reminded one thing during my second phase, actually made some friends. had five really good friends and I entertained them for my 50th birthday.

4:50 Uh, really a wonderful weekend with their spouses and my family. And at that time I expressed gratitude to each one of them publicly at the reception because they were really important to me. They meant a lot to me. And it was an extraordinary experience having the opportunity to express the gratitude, little less what it must have meant to them that they had had that impact in my life. So that's the first kind of stake in the ground to this gratitude guy. And then I became a little bit more sensitive to the fact that that was such a good experience. I assume a lot of other people are doing it.

5:30 Mm. I was shy. So read about Tim Russert, you're probably, maybe a little too young to remember Tim. Okay. So, you know, he gets a heart attack, dies in his fifties. He has 1500 people at his funeral. The tributes paid to him by former presidents, astronauts, and everyone were unbelievable. And I thought, wow, that's unbelievable. And then I thought, The man they're honoring is in a casket. He never heard a word of it. And then proceeded to come across books like Tuesdays with Morrie, who was in his last year and he got very authentic telling his student about life and then he dies.

6:20 And the chairman of KPMG, big public accounting firm knew he had four months to live and wrote a book called Chasing Daylight. And all of a sudden they begin to focus on getting connected to people who've been alive, have been important during their life. And then they die. but they don't have time. coming up on my 70th birthday. I asked my wife, I did not want to be in the situation where people pay tribute to me when I'm gone. And I didn't want to have my friends go without me paying tribute to them more importantly.

7:00 So I asked my wife for a birthday gift on my 70th birthday that would allow me to travel around all parts of the United States, Canada, Mexico, Kenya, give me a chance to sit down in person. But everybody had been important in my life. That was an unbelievable experience. Turned out there were 44 people, a publisher called Hey House heard my journey, asked me to write a book. And so that was the first book that I wrote called This Is the Moment, how one man's year long journey captured the power of extraordinary gratitude.

7:40 And in that book, I'll get to your gratitude expressed in a minute, but in that book. I wrote about how I came up with this idea. You know, where'd you come up with this idea that you go visit people when they're alive to tell them how important? And I brought them in on the conversations that I had. And then the last third of the book was, listen, that's what I did. How about you thinking about what you want to do? That book influenced thousands of people. And I really thought I was onto something. You know, it's... rare that you find something totally new. I was shocked, shocked at how gold, this is like human relations gold, the idea that we all have been trained to wait till a person dies to pay tribute to them.

8:33 Now I'm not saying it's 100%, but if I had a nickel for all the regrets that people feel for things, I wish I had told them when they was alive. I'd be quite wealthy. from the feedback on the, this is the moment book, I then was asked to do a Ted talk. And the Ted talk, I tried to say, you know what, I'm really perplexed why we wait till people go. So this isn't a discussion of the great areas of gratitude that we should be thankful for. freedoms and our fresh water and our conveniences, this has nothing to do with it.

9:16 This is a drill down in the specific area that none of us are self-made. None of us are self-made. And all the speeches I've ever given, I've never met one person who actually legitimately said he did it all on his own. So with that premise, The answer is if we wait, we're never going to be giving the gift that only we could give to that person. So you can't ask somebody will give him this gift. You're uniquely able to describe the impact the person had on the life. So I then decided I was not getting any younger, but I was going to take a shot when I was, guess I should declare myself when I was 82.

10:03 Now I said, I think this should be a global movement. This isn't just a United States opportunity. This is a global movement. So I've spent the last four years um with podcasts and actually teaching materials to over 80,000 schools around the world. So Say It Now has been taught in 85 countries. and it has inspired over 10 million expressions of gratitude. So we're onto something. It's been, the message is powerful. And we'll talk a bit later if you're interested.

10:46 I've never had one person come to me and said, you know, I'm sorry I did it. I've got thousands of the other kind. So now I'll get to your question about the book. Really two things, one is, Zoom, what we're doing, allows you to actually create a group of people to pay tribute to somebody. So that is even more powerful. And I've done that many times in addition to the one-on-one, which really is wonderful. You can also with Zoom, nobody has to travel. You can bring one person to your call and pay tribute to him from a group.

11:26 So I was thinking about, maybe I should do another book that has the story that is kind of the birth of the Say It Now movement. Actually, the documentary is called Say It Now. And actually, it my son who said, Dad, know, a lot of people are learning visually now. In addition, there are less people that seem to be reading. So, It just so happened that I said, well, maybe I should do a documentary. And so it was just released on November 15th. we've had over 600,000 views in the first two months.

12:10 the message is just powerful, but getting now to the book, decided the first book was a more enlightenment, educational, prescriptive, if you would, uh, the, is the moment. And I happen to have, I'm reading. disabled. ah It's very hard for me to read any book. So I know there are a lot of people that are also challenged by reading. And I said to myself, how short could I tell the story of the gratitude, power of the gratitude movement in a short story? So this is very different than the first book.

12:51 This is a short story. Little self-promotion. That's the size of the book. It's less than an hour read. You finish this book, you come on the story, you were right when your presumption is, you get on a special train called the Gratitude Express. And it takes to various stops along the way. And when you stop at these places, you will see part of your life and part of the people who may have influenced your life. And by the time you're done, you realize the importance of making sure you don't miss the opportunity to express the gratitude.

13:35 Sorry for that long answer, but I kind of set the stage. Yeah, I you had to say, Mark, there's better questions than the one you asked. No, it's just a bigger context that I think sometimes if we create the larger understanding, the more specific questions, a little bit more understandable. So, um I don't know why it's one of my favorite movies, but the holiday season, come from the Midwest, a lot of traditional cultural things, but it's a wonderful life. It seems like that's a similar story. Well, you know, I think I've valued my friendships because of never having them when I was young.

14:18 there's, you know, I always think people who are deprived of things either feel like they're victims or they're empowered. I was empowered. And so I cherish my relationships and I am so excited and so blessed. There's no, this is not a business. I'm not promoting anything except a powerful idea to enrich a life. There is no income that comes to this. It requires a substantial investment of my part to spread the message. ah But I consider it an absolute blessing for me to be able to be in this arena at this stage of my life.

14:59 And at the end of the day, although I'm proud of a lot of things, my marriage, my kids, my family, my friends, This movement could very well be a significant legacy for me. Can you think back in your life, you had these three segments, the first one to infant to 29, 29 to when you sold your business. And then it seems when you sold your business until now, it seems like this is a fourth segment, but can you reflect back and remember, because when we first started talking before the podcast, your energy and your spirit is a decade younger than the age on your body.

15:41 And. I'm assuming that coming into this place of gratitude in your life and leaning in that maybe started with talking to those 44 people that impacted your life. that it seems like it keeps you young. Well, yeah, I think that is an accurate reflection, but I think it's something even more than that. ah I think we all want to know that our lives matter. And that is a great energizer.

16:23 And I also think being aligned to something that speaks to you. is a great energizer. And I think life experience is unbelievable. So I'm mentoring maybe 10 people, 10 young people for over 10 years, probably average 15 years. I think I'm better than I was when I was your age. I've seen this movie and I'm inspired by the fact that I can continue to influence. people either through the gratitude movement or through mentoring. But I think I have big advantage.

17:04 I have age on everybody. I was kind of smiling. I always needed extra time when I took tests when I was a kid. I was pretty slow. So somebody gave me some extra time. I I'm 87 years old now and I'm thinking like, I've been blessed with some time, but I... I don't look at myself as 10 years younger. I'm looking myself. I've never been better. These people that you're mentoring for a decade or 15 years without us being present or being mentored as one of those eight, nine, 10 people.

17:45 What does that look like through a descriptive of 60 seconds or so? Because you wouldn't do it if you didn't feel like you were helping them and making an impact for your wife and theirs, I'm assuming. Absolutely. Yeah, no, uh I just had a session last week with one of them and it's usually several hours a year. I have a joke, I usually invite them to lunch and I never know if it's the hamburger that I get for them, which is really a nice hamburger or whether it's the wisdom. But most often they all write me a note afterwards to distill the value of the experience to them.

18:30 And I told the young man who's now 33, but I started when he was 18 and We all start with kind of the professional issues, but we spend more time on the life issues. Each one of their responses, they're framers in terms of the values to them. And when I walk away and I've spent two hours, my life has been enriched because they're in my life. Why do you spend, why do find that you spend more time on the wife things than the professional things? They're more important.

19:17 Why is that? Well, I think when we're into mislism, I built a company, I had 1400 employees, it wasn't exactly a small operation. And I was really proud creating the leading company, pathfinding in the hospitality field to create executive conference centers where corporations can go and not put up with the distractions of traditional hotels. I had a lot of pride in can't compare to the last 29 years. Because I think some of us are here to make a difference in people's lives. And I've got a platform to do that.

19:58 ah When I was in business, there was nothing, I work really hard. I was really a hard worker and it was really important. But as I look at it as this longer mirror, it's just a part of life. It's just a part of life. And I think our work needs to be aligned with our life, not our life being aligned with our work. Can you go into that a little bit more? Yeah, I think so many times we can work on our professional pursuit because we think that's it.

20:44 And then we often sacrifice personal relationships, marital relationships, parental relationships, friendships. A lot of things can get sacrificed because we think our professional life is so important. And so A fairly common question that I asked both myself for the last, I've been doing this 50 years. I don't ever ask what I am going to do. I asked myself if this, usually do it in the framework of five years at my age. I'm now down to one year, but my younger people were probably three to five. And I said, when you think about your life, what would ideally be happening three years from now for you to look back and say, I've had a fantastic three years.

21:32 And so we break out their personal finances, we break out their professional development, their relationships, their spiritual, their community service, each of these areas and it's there. So they get what I call the right side of the page. They got a picture of what success looks like. And as you know, even before we started this conversation, I asked you the question, what would success look like in our conversation today? Because I don't ask you what I should do. I understand where we wanna go and it's up to me to figure out with you how best to get there. And so that's why I don't talk about what I do, but I have a very clear picture of where I wanna end up.

22:15 And that's life. Business is just part of that. Those five people that you celebrated your 50th birthday with, they were friends, not family members. Those were five close friends I invited. My brother, my sons who at time were 18, uh my wife and I invited. So we had a total of 17 people, but the feature was not for the family. The family members became witnesses to the experience.

22:55 Paying tribute was really primarily paying tribute to the five friends. Can you take us to that, that weekend, the special parts of it? yeah, that's a classic. So yeah, so at the time I didn't have much cash. I mean, it was 50, I was still investing in the company. But I think, man, I'm 50, I may only live to 53 for the reason I described earlier, that's when my father died. So I said, you know what, this may be my only chance. So I, you know, we've been putting on special events in our business for years, so special events were part of what we did. And so I created a carton of apples and in each apple I put a flag and each flag represented another activity and it was all going to take place in New York City.

23:46 It was the opening of Phantom of the Opera. This is 36 years ago. Got tickets for all 17. I remember it was really quite a commitment and I even arranged for a limousine. I couldn't afford limousines, but I had to have a limousine my friends. And I'll always remember the first time I got into the one I fell because I thought the seats were in a different place. I had never been in one. It was a little embarrassing since I wanted to kind of act like this was way I was living. In any case, we went to the theater. We went to carriage rides. We had this reception. Our two sons played the role of Phantom. The opera came in off of the balcony in the hotel room at the reception.

24:29 But mainly, It was a deep expression of what each of these had meant to me. And I don't know if I have it, but so this is a book that was, these are all letters. I don't know if you can see them, but these are all letters that were put together in this book representing what this experience had meant to them. I've read it many times. They're all passed away now, so. This is my recollection of our life. But the reason I show it to you, I'm not trying to brag here.

25:12 I'm just trying to highlight how important they were to me and clearly how important the experience was to them. Was there a significance of Phantom of the Opera? Well, yeah, I wanted to treat them to something that they hadn't done before. Yeah. And treat yourself to a limo that you hadn't tripped into before. yeah, yeah, no, that was, I still remember it was so embarrassing. Um, these 44 people that you went around and sat down and had conversations with, were they all structured the same?

25:55 Did you have specific questions you wanted to ask them or were they all organic in their own way? I would say yes, yes, ah but I spent my life in the conference business. So I really pay a lot of attention to how we use the process we use to communicate. So I began to think, well, I've never done this before. How would I do it? So. So I took out uh a legal pad. And for the audience, this is to me one of the most powerful questions I've ever come up with.

26:37 And I always think questions are really critical. If we get those right and our answers are good, we'll have a good outcome. But if we don't have the right question, it won't matter how brilliant the answer is. So the question is, wrote on top of the page, what difference did this person make in my life? And I put the person's name. And then I put bullet points down the legal pad. And then I looked at it, I said, I need to go talk to him. So that's the preparation part of it. I know you asked the conversational part of it. So that was never changed.

27:17 And if I did one today, I would do exactly the same thing. I nailed that question. that pad with me to each one of the visits, because I didn't want to, I didn't read from it, but I wanted to be able to refer to it because I didn't want to miss making any of those points. But of course, I think you might enjoy the fact that I didn't just show up. mean, they were on the other part of the country and whatever. So I had to call them. This is 16 years ago and we were still using the telephone. So I called them and I said, you know, I'm 70 this year and I I want to celebrate by coming to express to you how important you've been.

28:00 What do you think they said? Well, without a doubt there they were elated that you wanted to take the time The first question was, are you okay? I said, yeah, I'm fine. They said, you sure you're okay? They're wondering if this, you have four months to live? What's happened? What's causing the reflection? almost 100 % thought I was dying. That mark just shows you how unusual the experience is. Now with the Say It Now movement, that won't be five years from now unusual. They're gonna say I'm coming to do a Say It Now.

28:43 But back then it was like, oh well, are you honest with me? You're gonna fly all the way across country to tell me what, you know, really? So I had to get over that and I did because they believed me. When I said it the third time, they believed me. And then when I went there, the conversations, once again, I didn't change it for all 44. It worked. Now everybody will have their own approach, but my approach, you asked me what it was. The first one was I wondered, how did we meet? You my wife's very social. She's more social than I am and she's...

29:23 made that an important part of our life. So I figured, most of these must've come from her. I was so excited. Most of these I had made over my career. So that was kind of nice. So the first question is how do we meet? It didn't take a long time and it was kind of fun. The spontaneity of how you meet 44 people over the course of your life was a, that's a rich experience by itself, right? So the second question was, well, let's walk down memory lane. Let's go down memory lane together. We've had a lot of shared experiences, some humors, some painful, some grief. Let's talk about the highs and lows for a bit.

30:04 That was the second base. The third base was the main event. That was when I said, no, this is my time. And I referred to my pad. Incidentally, I recorded all of them. All of the conversations were recorded. So I had a chance to go through everything that had meant a difference to me. And then I added a fourth base, which probably was a little self-serving, but I had known these 44 people over a thousand years. And I'm saying to myself, I'd like to know how I'm gonna be remembered.

30:44 So I said to them, listen, I'm gonna kind of build the mosaic over this next year. That's how long it took to do it, 11 months. And if you had to put a little piece on the mosaic, what piece would you put about me that you would say should be in the mosaic? So that was the fourth base. And as I mentioned, I recorded it, sent each of them a recording with a picture and uh a 120 word letter highlighting what the experience had meant to me and framed them all. It was a Took me a month to do the mementos. Hmm. So what has you that process you went through of saying it now?

31:28 Because that's what you were doing. Yeah, we didn't call it say it now at the moment, but that's exactly what it That's what you were doing. What's been the biggest and best impact? This is your sales pitch. to your wife from taking this approach. Well, I don't think what it meant to me would be unique, but it is powerful. Is that, I got a chance to tell everybody who had been important to me how their life mattered to me.

32:16 So I was given the opportunity to give the most powerful gift you can give to anyone. That enriched my life. You know, I also learned a little bit about myself, but it wasn't like shocking, I, oh my God, never thought about that myself. So the biggest thing is I've lost 12 of them since that time. 12 of the 44. I don't have any regrets. for things I wish I had said. So if you wanna help people accomplish what they're here for, which is letting them know their life mattered, this is say it now.

33:03 If you wanna eliminate any future, I can't do anything about your old regrets, but we can eliminate any future regrets. And... uh The fact is that, and I have so many funny stories, I'm waiting for the first one to come tell me, well, it didn't work. It's not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen. You know, I'm talking now we have millions of people who have acted on the message. And there's one story, I don't know if time permits here, but I think it's the, it just happened two weeks ago.

33:46 So this is a person who actually provides some services in our home. We have plants and she maintains the plants. And so she had read my book. This is the moment she said, I don't know if I ever, I don't see her very often cause I'm out. doing my thing. So she said, I don't think I ever told you my, the time I did This Is Your Moment with my father. This was before, my gratitude express is just coming out, so she wouldn't have even seen the book. So I said, no, I don't think you told me. She said, well. uh I knew I wanted to tell my father what he meant to me.

34:30 And when I thought about it, I couldn't think of anything. And then she said, and this is live, this is real time. She just walked in right in the office I'm sitting. She said, but then I thought about my childhood. I said, my God, he provided that. I'm going to write a letter now telling him how much I appreciated the fact that he created that kind of childhood for me. So it was father's day. So this was a story that was last father's day. she said, she said, I got him a card, but in the card I wrote this letter and I read him the letter.

35:12 I said, wow, what was that like? She said, he didn't say a word. Thinking, okay. This is the first one I'm gonna have like, Walter, why did we do this? And of course I stayed away from any judgment. said to her, what was that like? I think he, my God, what am I gonna hear? She said it was the best day of my life, or to be accurate, it was one of the best days of my life. I said, really, why? She said, I got a chance to tell my father how important he is to He's not capable of being expressive, but that didn't take away from the joy that I now have that he knows the importance he placed in my life.

36:00 I ask you. Come on. Yeah. So I thought I had my first one there, but I didn't. I know that, so two things you said that you wanted to eliminate judgment or stay away from judgment. I have a lot of things I'd say about that I've grown to learn about not judging ourselves and therefore not judging other humans and that I think I've learned, but that's a profound statement that you just kind of littered in there. Why stay away from judgment? Well, I think often we learn more by asking a question.

36:47 Clearly that was the case. I mean, if I went in and I said, I'm really sorry, you know, I'm sorry. I encourage you to do a say it now. That must've been so painful. I really, Oh, I feel terrible. Well, it had nothing to do with reality. That's my judgment. Right. That's how I would have judged it. But when I said, you know, what was that like? not only wasn't unpleasant, it was joyful. And I would have missed enjoying that. So to me, I have, whether it's mentoring or, you know, I've been in these presidents groups for 50 years, three groups of guys for over 20 years, see them every month, I speak to them every month.

37:36 And I would say the... The power of anybody's contribution is always in the form of a question, not an answer. And so sometimes to me answers and judgments kind of overlap a little bit. Hmm. What, um, why do you think we've had such a hard time as a human race on saying it now? custom. tradition. You know, it's just the way it is.

38:17 And the way it is, is the way it becomes. You know, it's like, didn't have trouble. They just didn't see any value in it. Do you think it feels uncomfortable for people for some reason? Maybe that's the culture and just how it's been done. Do you think it's a vulnerability that they just don't feel comfortable in or they haven't learned to embrace? Yeah, well listen, that's understandable. You remember the first time you learned how to ride a bike? Probably wasn't comfortable. What is there anything the first podcast you did was that comfortable? Yeah. So I don't, I think we got to help them get over the understandable discomfort because there will be some.

39:06 But when I try to offer people is you don't need to fly around the country and whatever, and sit down with people in person. You could, but you don't have to. You could write a letter, powerful experience just to write a letter or Nowadays you can take out your cell phone and do a video. um you choose your own comfort level. And my fit, my favorite story to this point, this is a contemporary friend. And incidentally, there's a whole reason I'm trying to change the culture for young people.

39:52 And the reason I want to work with younger people. is I don't have to unlearn that they've been going to funerals for 30 years and that's the way they think you're supposed to do it. So for my contemporaries, you gotta say, hey, wait a second, you know what you used to do? You can still do that, but let me suggest you do something in addition to that. With young people, you don't have to say, you just say, here's what we're doing. We put them in right into the model. And so for them, it's gonna be very normal. And I hope in years they're gonna say, you know, I've got a friend I'm going to do a Say It Now. But here's the story, because stories, I think, tell the point. So this was a contemporary of mine, so he's not young.

40:35 And he had one person in his life who transcended everybody in terms of the impact. And this person happened to be a power in Washington. I won't mention his name. He lived in Chicago. And my friend was from Palm Desert from California. And so I said, you know, My mentor is not going to be around very long. I'm going to go visit him. Now this is a guy who read my book. He knew my book and he's saying, I'm going to go visit him. I'm thinking, okay, wow. What a commitment.

41:16 He calls me when he gets back. He said, I want to tell you about my trip. And so he came, we had lunch. I said, how long did you spend? He said, I spent four days with him. Four days. I never spent two days with these people. He spent four days. So I said, well, Tell me, what was the dialogue like? Now, mind you, Mark, this guy transcended everybody else in his life in terms of the impact on him. He said, well, you know, when I went to leave, I gave him a hug and I told him I loved him. I said, the response was, he said, I know you do.

42:03 Uh, is that it? that the whole, was that it? He said, yeah, that was it. Like he was kind of a little proud of it. Yeah. I said, um, Did you have things you didn't say that you would have liked to said? He said, yeah, I did, but I'm a Marine. Marines don't do that. I said, okay, I understand. It's not easy for you to do in person. There are other ways to do it. And I was just like this, you could write a letter. We end lunch, two weeks later he comes back. He said, well, I gotta tell you what's going on.

42:44 I said, okay, we have lunch. He said, you know what? I get chills right now. He said, I wrote that letter. I said, how long was it? He said, two pages. How long it take it? He said less than an hour. What happened? He said when he received it, he called me and he couldn't stop crying. And he died three months later. So at the time I said, so for less than an hour, two pieces of paper, one envelope, and at the time it was a 44 cent stamp, you got closure that you couldn't get in 75 years of your life.

43:32 Walter Green. I don't know about this. think you're making a difference. I just sit here and reflect. um I know you're right. I know you're right about this because The best times in my life for me are when I'm letting those people close to me know that they made a difference in my life. You got it, man. Yeah. Um, it can be a mom at Christmas that you put an arm around and you just say, Hey, thanks for all the great things you did to give me the life that I have. Who cares about the things that people want to point out that didn't go well?

44:13 Because the reason why I'm here with the opportunity is because you kept the roof over our head and you just kept working long enough and hard enough and fighting for us to give us a shot at living a great life. And. I think we can find those if we're honest with ourselves, and this is your point. We can find those in a lot more relationships in our lives if we're really honest about it. Yeah, as a matter of fact, thank you for bringing up something and that is the power of the gift. I'm not trying to let people just say, you know, mom and dad, I love you. And I even want to encourage more than thank you for the good life.

44:56 I would like to encourage you to be very specific about the things that they did that made a difference in your life. all very authentic, all very specific. It enriches the gift by being specific. And sometimes, I just wanna make sure everybody thinks about the additional power of being specific. It makes a difference. But the emotional orientation that you bring is exactly on Mark. Use the expression. this is going to be good. I'm going to dig in more with, know, you remembered what it was like. You touched on the 50 years that you were in business, 50 something years, 58, 59.

45:41 You worked a lot. And I think a lot of people that are in this segment that I'm in, that I've been in for the past 20 years from 26 to now to 46, that it's tough to find time. And we tell ourselves that, but that's real. If we have these big goals and You know, we, probably don't lean into the friendships the way we should. And, um, but I think this is one of the things that across the 200 episodes that I've been able to be a part of here that feels worthy to make a little bit better and more of a difference in our lives outside of just the daily run. So I appreciate you coming on and, taking your time. found myself in New York city last week.

46:22 I'm finding myself in these rooms with people. funny, you had a story about New York city. I didn't trip in a limo, but, um, we find ourselves in these places. The more that you accomplish and you impact other people in life, the more rooms become special and the type of people in the level of special that the authenticity you get. And I found myself just smiling in this room, not to talk about the people that were in there, but for about three hours. And I honestly was laughing to myself and I, I was more subdued than I normally am. And I went, what a life that I'm 46 and it can become this.

47:06 But here's the bigger thought I had of the three biggest names in the room. mean, these people are busy. They took their time for three hours that night to come spend with eight people and they don't need money. They don't need any more accolades and they don't need any more awards. And that those people took that time to lean in, to engage, to embrace. um I walked away with an appreciation at a level for that, that stuff to replicate. so. I think that, um, as I look at all these relationships in my life and the people that I'm around, there are significant impacts.

47:52 The first point that you made, no person has done it on their own. And there are significant moments and significant impacts that almost everybody that I come into contact with even a short period of time that they, um, that they provided for my life. And for you doing this, the documentary, the books and taking your time. Um, for somebody that didn't even know you, I'm not impacted by a lot. I should be more, but I appreciate you doing this. Yeah, so I, first of all, thanks for the opportunity. I, as I said, I have a little bit of an advantage. I've been around 40 more years than you have, so I better learn something from it. But I wanted to simplify the task, which is, I know there are a number of people that influence you, not talking to you, to our listeners.

48:43 Just pick one or two, but do it. But just do it. I had a fellow, I had another lunch. He said, I got it. I got how I'm going to do it. Sometimes they can't figure out, should I go visit, whatever. He decided he was going to ring, write some notes. Once again, he called me maybe a month later and he said, I'd like to tell you what the experience was like. I said, I love it. That's how I get my compensation. It's all psychic. I love hearing these stories. They're really life-changing stories. So he came to me and he said, I want you to know, I wrote 17 letters. after I had lunch with you. And he said, every one of them was important to me.

49:27 And he said, but the one I want to highlight is I sent one to my sister. Oh, I got chills again. I sent one to my sister who I haven't spoken to in 10 years. But when I thought about it and looked at her life and my life, I realized it did get fractured. But she gave me an awful lot before that happened. And he said the letter rekindled the relationship. So good. Hey, I wish we had more time, but I'm going to take what we can get and I appreciate it. And I know the listeners will too. And thanks for the time you gave us here in January.

50:11 And I can't wait to really dig into the gratitude express when it comes out here in a couple of weeks. Yeah, and so I would say for just a final comment for people who want to explore a little bit, I try to make it really easy on my website. So it's called just say it now.org and there have some of my presentations. They'll have ideas about how to do it. The Ted talk and other things. So it's kind of like one stop shopping right there. have nothing to sell. Thing. It's all. Walter Green, thank you, sir. Pleasure, thank you for your time Mark.