Episode 25 / Susan McPherson
Do Intentional Connections Really Make a Difference? Susan McPherson Will Transform Your Networking Habits
This episode is for you if you’ve ever wondered:
How Susan transitioned from corporate America to becoming an accidental entrepreneur.
The importance of kindness in leadership and fostering a positive company culture.
Practical tips on making intentional, value-based connections using the Gather, Ask, Do method.
The role of meaningful connections in combating loneliness and fostering personal and professional growth.
Strategies for seeking diversity in your professional and personal networks.
About SUsan
Susan McPherson is a serial connector, angel investor, and corporate responsibility expert. She is the founder and CEO of McPherson Strategies, a communications consultancy focused on the intersection of brands and social impact. She is the author of The Lost Art of Connecting: The Gather, Ask, Do Method for Building Meaningful Relationships (McGraw-Hill). Susan has 30+ years of experience in marketing, public relations, and sustainability communications, speaking regularly at industry events including Massachusetts Conference for Women, BSR, DLD, Worth Women and Techonomy, and contributing to the Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and Forbes. She has appeared on NPR, CNN, USA Today, The New Yorker, New York Magazine and the Los Angeles Times.
“Think about how to break out of that hermetically sealed bubble that so many of us find ourselves in, myself included, where we tend to attract people that look like us, sound like us, the same age, race, and color, and career as us.”
Susan McPherson
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Lindsey Epperly [00:00:02]:
Welcome, Susan, to who made you the boss?
Susan McPherson [00:00:05]:
Oh, my goodness. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. Lindsay. Thank you.
Lindsey Epperly [00:00:09]:
Of course, we're excited to have you. You have such an incredible topic that you're so passionate about and that I'm so thrilled to have connected with you to begin with over the art of connecting. And I know listeners are going to get so much out of the conversation today because you've got just great tangible tips, but also, you have such a big why, right. Like a big heart behind the reason that we should be connecting and putting intentionality. I have so many questions for you after reading your book. So we're going to dive in pretty deep into this art of connecting. Um, but before we go into the more tangible tips part of the conversation, you know, the podcast is called who made you the Boss? Because the kind of running joke for the more entrepreneurial set, especially, is that I made me the boss, right? Like this was, I have to look in the mirror and face that decision every day. And I'm curious if you can share a little bit about, like, you know, you are the founder and CEO of McPherson Strategies.
Lindsey Epperly [00:01:01]:
I've heard you talk about the fact that that was kind of an accidental venture for you, but now you are the boss. Now you've made yourself a leader. What did that look like? What did it look like giving yourself permission to step into your ability as a leader?
Susan McPherson [00:01:13]:
Well, I had at this point, had, well, I used to say nine lives, but I guess now after the book I can say ten lives. And I had come up in corporate America like probably many of your listeners. And at the age of 48, I realized there may not be a future for me at the company I was at. So I started putting out feelers, as I think the first time we met, I shared with you to find out what is next. And a couple of organizations said, if you go out on your own, we'll hire you. So for me, there wasn't this magical moment of becoming an entrepreneur. It was more a placeholder till I found my next job. And a year into the consulting business, that was basically a timestamp till the next job came along.
Susan McPherson [00:02:02]:
I started to really kind of figure it out. Prior to starting it, I always thought, well, I can't do excel. There's no way I can run a business. But then I realized once I started, I could hire somebody that could do excel for me. So it's kind of a backwards way to get into leadership. But I had always managed teams, and one of my magical kind of, aha, moments was founding a company, leading a company. I could instill the notion of kindness in everything we do. And when you work for someone else, you don't have that power, right? And to me, in all the years I worked at various corporations, what I saw was people treating clients and customers better than they were treating their colleagues.
Susan McPherson [00:02:55]:
And I wanted to reverse that. And I wanted to create a culture where we treat each other better, or at least on the same par as how we treat the clients or the customers or the people providing our income. So that was the greatest moment of becoming a leader, to be able to make that the theme, the culture. And we try, we aspire to that, to that every day.
Lindsey Epperly [00:03:19]:
Gosh, that resonates. I think it's, I mean, just a couple of things I want to pull out from what you just said. First, we should all be talking about the fact that you don't have to know how to do everything in order to start and run a business, right? Like the whole excel thing. I raise my hand, still don't really know how to use it. And I even had a friend recently approach me and say, how much accounting did you have to know before you started your business? And I'm like, girl, I failed accounting. Like, this is not my fourth day, right?
Susan McPherson [00:03:44]:
No, I was like math in college.
Lindsey Epperly [00:03:48]:
Totally.
Susan McPherson [00:03:49]:
Well, forget it. No, completely.
Lindsey Epperly [00:03:51]:
You still don't know. And it wasn't accounting I failed. It was economic. So probably even worse for business. But yeah. So I think it's important to know you learn your strengths and weaknesses and you hire for your weaknesses. But what is so beautiful is you have this cause and this why of I can create something that is putting good into the world that resonates so much because I had the same thing behind my business too, of, you know, I saw how it was being done in a way where others were being mistreated. And I would see certain companies like a chick fil a excelling, right? Because they treat their people well, so that they treat their people well.
Lindsey Epperly [00:04:24]:
And I think that that ripple effect is so important to come from leadership. I really commend you for doing that. And you can, you can tell from the work that you put into the world, from the team that you help lead, that you do instill that in your company, which is really special.
Susan McPherson [00:04:37]:
And look, I'm not perfect. I'm sure I have made mistakes over the last eleven years, but that it has to start at the top. And if you don't lead with kindness, others aren't going to follow.
Lindsey Epperly [00:04:49]:
Yeah. Yes. Okay. I want to talk a lot about the work that you've put into the world with your book, with the lost art of connecting. I love your quote that magic happens when you connect people, because this is something that, that I've long felt and long suspected. I love being a connector myself. I love meeting other connectors who, you know, just in the moment you're thinking, oh, I've got it, I've got to introduce you to this person. I'm with you that it has such great ripple effects.
Lindsey Epperly [00:05:13]:
But I've never actually spent time thinking about the intentionality, which is what your book does. It really aligns with the idea of, well, if you actually put forth a little bit of intentionality behind this art, it can go in incredible ways for you. So you focus on fostering value based connections is how you put it. And I want to know, what exactly does that mean?
Susan McPherson [00:05:34]:
Well, I think your word about intentionality plays a role. Right? I mean, we live in a world where we're more connected than we've ever been in, in human history, yet we have loneliness, crisis. We have young people that are feeling very, very disconnected, people approaching retirement. We have the pandemic. So to me, this is a time to first do self reflection. Like, what do you want to create with your connections? Who do you want to help with your connections? Right? So there's this whole notion of intentionality that comes into play. I think there's also a realization, at least for me. About five years into my company's trajectory, I noticed 90% of our business was inbound.
Susan McPherson [00:06:18]:
So what that taught me was all those connections that I intentionally fostered in my twenties. In my thirties, a good part of my forties were not all for not saying yes to all those meetings. I know there's many people who say we shouldn't be saying yes, and I understand you have priorities, but if I hadn't said yes to a good chunk of those meetings, I don't think my business would have been successful. Yeah, but it wasn't that. In my twenties and my thirties and my forties, I knew I was going to be running a business. Right? It wasn't like, I'm going to meet with you, I'm going to support you, and then 30 years from now, I'm going to come calling. Like, that wasn't part of, I was still in that. I can't do excel.
Susan McPherson [00:06:58]:
I can't run a business mind.
Lindsey Epperly [00:07:00]:
Right. Well, and I think there are individuals, you know, you and I are cut from a similar cloth when it comes to we just love people love meeting. People love getting to know stories. You have a beautiful story about how your parents inspired you to connect. Right. They would cut out newspaper clippings and mail them to their friends. And that was, like, early on realizing what value based connection is.
Susan McPherson [00:07:21]:
Back to, you know, overuse the term, but kind, and putting thought into it. Right. Instead of just saying, Lindsay, meet Joan. It be like, wow, Lindsey is this exponential traveler, and she wants others to learn the magic that travel brings into our lives. And Joan just came back from Antarctica. Right? Like, bringing, like, making some sort of semblance. So that was a very long winded answer. But to me, the value is actually putting the wrapper around it.
Lindsey Epperly [00:07:52]:
Yeah.
Susan McPherson [00:07:52]:
Make it meaningful.
Lindsey Epperly [00:07:54]:
You know, I heard you say on an interview recently that connecting is no longer a soft skill. And I thought that was a really powerful point because I think a lot of times we might think of it as, like, the fuzzy, right brained activity and it's just being a people person. But for. For listeners who maybe are not naturally wired, like, the two of us that are. That are like. That sounds like the worst thing on the planet to me, to get out of my comfort zone and have to connect with people. Let's talk about, like, some tangible tips for those individuals. Like, what can they, you know, you've got in your book a specific method behind connecting.
Lindsey Epperly [00:08:24]:
Like, let's talk about that.
Susan McPherson [00:08:25]:
Sure. Sure. Well, there's three sections to get to the methodology. Gather, ask, do. But the underlying principle of the entire book is leading with ways you can be supportive of others. Now, the first thing someone can say when they hear that or see that is, I have no ways to be supportive. And this is when I beg to differ. And it is very important to realize we all have superpowers, we all have friends.
Susan McPherson [00:08:50]:
We all have, dare I say it, connections. So we, in many, many ways that maybe are beneath the surface. We have ways to support others. And there's going to be times in our lives when we can be more supportive, and there's going to be times in our lives when we can't help anyone because we're having so much trouble helping ourselves. So I just want to make sure that that is the kind of the underlying theme. In the gather phase, which is the first phase, you connect with the most important person in your life, and that is yourself, and do a deep self reflection, determine what your goals are the next one year, three year, maybe even five years. Then you think about what your superpowers are, so you can think about how you can be supportive of others. You also think about who you can connect with or reconnect with that are going to help you not only meet your goals, but ways you can be supportive of others.
Susan McPherson [00:09:41]:
And lastly, and this is probably something that's really, really important in the world we're living in today, where there is quite a bit of vitriol and challenges in our public discourse. And that is to think about how to break out of that hermetically sealed bubble that so many of us find ourselves in, myself included, where we tend to attract people that look like us, sound like us, the same age, race, and color, and career as us. So that's gather in the ask phase. You learn to ask the meaningful questions of others so you can find out what their hopes and dreams are. And if you listen carefully, which is super challenging, you can go to the do phase, which is, I think, where you live much of the time, Lindsey and myself, where that is, you take what you heard, you take what you listened, you take all that info, and you become responsive, reliable, resourceful, all the things that make a good human, let alone a professional person. But that's when you become helpful to others. And again, I want to just remind people who are listening to this thing. I don't have any time to help.
Susan McPherson [00:10:46]:
1 hour a month. You can be helpful.
Lindsey Epperly [00:10:48]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Susan McPherson [00:10:49]:
That's gather ass do.
Lindsey Epperly [00:10:51]:
Okay. Gather, ask do. And there are so many tangents that I want to take us on in different directions. So I'm going to just pull from that at, you know, various points, because I do. I want to talk about the diversity side of things. I want to talk about, like the. The reconnecting with yourself, but just from a pure perspective of a tangible takeaway that someone can have from the gather, ask, do method. I'm curious when you say, especially if people are starting off and they're like, I don't have anything to bring to the table, how can I support others? And those are, of course, the times where we have imposter syndrome.
Lindsey Epperly [00:11:19]:
The worst where we're going, who am I to even step into this role, much less go to someone in a higher position and ask them for something, or ask if I can support them. What could I do? Something I found helpful is you can always be a cheerleader, right? Like, you always have your voice, you always have the ability to connect. And even if it's, you know, finding out what is their why and what are their goals, to your point, and maybe making a little note on your calendar to follow back up with them when they have that book date or when they, you know, like, there's just little, simple things. Do you have any hacks like that that we should keep in mind? Like, just little things to do to be a supportive person?
Susan McPherson [00:11:54]:
Sure. I mean, you. You basically just shared a bunch, and that, you know, is showcased that person on. On various social platforms. If the person's active on LinkedIn, give them a shout out.
Lindsey Epperly [00:12:04]:
Okay.
Susan McPherson [00:12:04]:
I realize, again that, you know, when you're just coming into your career or perhaps approaching retirement, you feel insecure. I love this exercise of even talking into the mirror and reminding myself what my superpowers are, because even if somebody appears to have a more powerful position in society or even if they are senior to you at your place of work, that person still needs things. Right. Even just suggesting a podcast that you think that person might have interest in or a restaurant they might love, which I realize may be more on the personal side, but a book you just read sometimes just suggesting those things is a superpower. It's kind, it's deliberate. It's meaning you're thinking about that. All right. I always ask.
Susan McPherson [00:12:53]:
I poll audiences that I'm speaking to is, how often do you reach out to. Or, excuse me, how often does somebody reach out to connect with you on LinkedIn? You kind of sit there and say, yes. No, yes. And then you say, yes, and then within an hour, they're selling you something. And I always say, look, I understand. We need to make. We need to do business development. We need to cultivate new revenue streams.
Susan McPherson [00:13:15]:
But what about if you could offer something up when you make the ask, or before you make the ask, or just make a suggestion? Like, Lindsey, I just read this great article in Conde nas Traveler. I'd love to send it to you. And, oh, by the way, right, like, if we are much more intentional and thoughtful, then the ask isn't so much harder. But I want to remind every one of your listeners, you all have skills. You all have superpowers. And if, for instance, in your sophomore, junior year of college, something tells me you know TikTok better than somebody like me who's turning 60 in several months. So maybe you could help me with TikTok.
Lindsey Epperly [00:13:58]:
So that's a need. Just finding out, taking the time to listen and find out someone's need.
Susan McPherson [00:14:02]:
But I think sometimes we think, like, at different points in our lives, that we suck and we don't have. I was on a stage at mom mom 2.0 last week, and one of the things, you know, the audience kind of kept bringing up this, you know, I feel insecure reaching out to people. I was like, how was the last time we all watched Sesame street? And everybody was like, it's been a while. I'm like, I think we all need to watch another because it's all about building ourselves up. So connections come when we're feeling, obviously, a little bit more confident. But how do we do that? We ask our friends. We watched Sesame street.
Lindsey Epperly [00:14:36]:
Yes, yes. You know, I was talking recently to a mutual friend of ours, Amy Showenthal, about the setback cycle that she wrote. We got to interview her on here. And the fact that she does the whole exercise of, like, naming the inner hype woman and naming the inner critic, you know, when we're talking about building ourselves up, is actually like. It's kind of like naming the voices in her head. Right, but it is the monkeys in our head. The monkeys, yes. But I love that that's part of your methodology as well as you've got to get to know yourself, ground in who you are in order to make this successful for anyone.
Susan McPherson [00:15:09]:
Yeah. And ask. Look, a lot of times people are like, how can I figure out my superpowers are, look, if you can figure, ask your friends, ask your dog, ask the people closest to you, and they.
Lindsey Epperly [00:15:20]:
Will tell you yes. So changing yours a little bit, although it nods to an answer you gave earlier. I even took note of the fact that you mentioned in that gathering phase you recommend actively seeking diversity. And I thought that was so interesting and so helpful because I remember in my first few years of business, I did not. And it was to the detriment of my own personal self and to the business. Right, like, where one day I just woke up and looked around and I was like, everyone on my team looks like me, talks like me, acts like me, dresses like me. Oh, I just hired a bunch of people that would be in my friend group or whatever that looks like, you know, and that. That's serving us well.
Lindsey Epperly [00:15:54]:
So I'm curious how we can do that. Like, you know, what are some tips that we can break out of our usual little bubble and comfort zones so that we are seeking voices and backgrounds and beliefs and everything and respecting those that are so different than ours in order to help everyone grow. Right. Like, that helps the other individual as well. So what does that look like, and how do we go about doing it?
Susan McPherson [00:16:17]:
Something I did over the span of my career was anytime I moved to a new city, I would get involved in either a kind of a local political organization so that I would meet people different from myself, but maybe have the same values as me also, I would get involved in a nonprofit for the same reason. So I would also gain skills that I wasn't gaining in the workplace. And again, I would meet people who had very different backgrounds than me, but maybe similar values. Right. And that helped build that kind of Rolodex, for lack of better terms, of people who were not like me. I also think doing everything we can to read and watch different culture from what we grew up in, like, black authors, black podcasts, latina authors. Right. So that we can actually help educate ourselves on these people's livelihoods.
Susan McPherson [00:17:10]:
And like you, I run a people person business, and it's vitally important that we have different viewpoints and different idea and ideation on our team. So to me, like, I, over the last several years, building the company, would reach out to friends who were of color to ask for their recommendations. And I think, you know, this is. I want to make sure this sounds acceptable, because it does sound kind of awkward when I say this, but you can ask your black friends to meet other black friends for the main reason that you want to be more inclusive, and that is not. You're not asking them to do the labor for you. I think it's important to make sure that we couch that you are trying to learn and become a better human who, I think it's okay to say, to reach out to people who are different from yourselves and say, I want to meet more people in your circles so that I can expand and be more inclusive. Like, let's not be afraid of opening that can or, you know, I don't want to say can of worms, because it's not.
Lindsey Epperly [00:18:15]:
No, I hear exactly what you're saying because I hear your heart behind it, too, of this is a genuine. I mean, my question was, how do we proactively seek that diversity?
Susan McPherson [00:18:24]:
Right.
Lindsey Epperly [00:18:25]:
So that's. Those are.
Susan McPherson [00:18:26]:
Everything is meant to be, like, great tips.
Lindsey Epperly [00:18:28]:
Yeah. Yes.
Susan McPherson [00:18:30]:
We have to be very, again, attentional. If we don't do these things, they're not going to magically change.
Lindsey Epperly [00:18:36]:
Yeah.
Susan McPherson [00:18:36]:
That's why we are still in the situations we're in after, you know, 400 years or so of this. This country before it's founding.
Lindsey Epperly [00:18:43]:
Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Speaking of book recommendations, and I'm so excited to get to interview him. I haven't done it yet, but Tyler Merritt, who wrote, I take my coffee black, if you haven't read it, I'll send you the interview once it's done, too.
Susan McPherson [00:18:55]:
Thank you. I'm excited.
Lindsey Epperly [00:18:56]:
Beautiful example of what you're describing. Because he takes us back through history from the viewpoint of a black man. And it's a really, really powerful book. It's great. Well done. Okay, thank you for that. So I'm curious too, when we talk about like changing perspectives and changing the ideas of people around us and changing ourselves and our own ideas. I'm in an industry that is really great about community over competition.
Lindsey Epperly [00:19:21]:
It's really fun to lean into that. It's fun to collaborate with people who would be considered my competitors. And I. Maybe this is just a personal thing, but I think also the travel industry lends itself well to it. But say you're not in one of those industries, right? Like, say you're in one that is a little bit more holding their, their cards close. And it's not normal to engage with colleagues, coworkers, competitors. But I think it's very important, and you make this point too, quite often, that I think that it's important for industries to become more collaborative, that our peers and our friends are actually who will engage and make us more productive and efficient. How do we go about doing that in a professional setting if we're in one of those industries that feels more closed off?
Susan McPherson [00:20:00]:
Now, the nonprofit sector is one of those. And I've witnessed firsthand, I mean, oh, you have? Well, because they're all chasing the same dollar.
Lindsey Epperly [00:20:07]:
That makes sense.
Susan McPherson [00:20:08]:
They're really afraid. But there's no more important sector where collaboration is vitally important. When you think of working in refugee and displaced person and migration, these organizations, if they didn't come together, the impact would be negligible. So I think what has to happen in various industries is you have to look at the shining star that you're all trying to reach and then find which swim lanes, right? I mean, I get it. If people are competitive, you each again back to that. You each bring your own superpowers, your own, and each have defined of what you're going to do. And then the kind of the cake that you're all baking together will be much more delicious. I mean, I hate to use this ridiculous kind of, but I like this analogy.
Lindsey Epperly [00:21:04]:
I'm a sweet eater. So this is good. This is going in the right direction for me.
Susan McPherson [00:21:07]:
Years ago, I remember working on a project around conflict minerals, okay, which go into all our iPhones and everything. And this was 2010, 2011, when there were more and more and more phones. And so intel and AMD and a variety of other semiconductor companies who would never work together, realize if they didn't come together and establish rules and ways of playing and limiting child labor in this space, it would become regulated. Right? So the goal for them all to work together was to avoid regulation. Look, whether that's the right way or whether regulation is the right way, I don't think we need to go into that on this podcast. But they put their insecurities behind and came together and actually put together ways to be supporting. Now, there's still a conflict mineral issue, but again, that's just an example.
Lindsey Epperly [00:22:04]:
Right? It's when you have a shared collective goal or a larger why that can actually bring you together. That's all very fascinating. I didn't realize that about the nonprofit space, too. I mean, you know, and that brings me to even the question, just like a big picture question here, as we talk about connecting and how important it is. I mean, what is at stake when we don't do this, right? Like, what is at stake when we're just head down and we think in a very isolated way, like, what do you see as the ripple effects for not being intentional?
Susan McPherson [00:22:32]:
I mean, well, we see what's happening with children today and teens who are not, who are just stuck on their phones and not being social. I mean, the pandemic didn't help, obviously, and really hurt that age group. But I think we're seeing the results of that. We're seeing the vitriol in society because we've become polarized. We all have our chosen media, our chosen books. We're not opening the blinders up to meet people who are different from us. I mean, one of the things my parents taught me from a very young age, that people, no matter who they are, no matter the role they play in society, no matter where they came from, are deserving of our compassion, our kindness, our care, and our curiosity. And I don't think that is widely accepted anymore.
Susan McPherson [00:23:24]:
And I don't necessarily have the answer for it. But I do think we have to open up ourselves to meet people who have differing opinions, differing ideas, as hard as it may be, just educate ourselves.
Lindsey Epperly [00:23:37]:
Well, just the kindness and the curiosity pieces of that, too, are so, so important. I love the curiosity piece because. And this goes back to your whole methodology, right? Like, you are asking thoughtful questions. You want to get to know someone genuinely, because we are both humans, not because.
Susan McPherson [00:23:55]:
Not because they're something, right?
Lindsey Epperly [00:23:58]:
Yeah. Because everyone deserves that.
Susan McPherson [00:24:00]:
Yeah.
Lindsey Epperly [00:24:01]:
Yeah. This is beautiful. Tell me more about time affluence. You have this as kind of points in your book. Like, what exactly is that? And how do we use that?
Susan McPherson [00:24:12]:
Well, time. And it's been a few years since I've read my book. So if I, if I, sorry, I'm.
Lindsey Epperly [00:24:16]:
Pulling, I'm pulling deep from the devs.
Susan McPherson [00:24:17]:
I know, I know. You just read it. I'm like, oh, God. Well, for me, you know, it. This is not like slam bam, thank you, ma'am. This is like over time, right? You connect and then you don't have to immediately support someone or vice versa, that this is over. I love that you make a note in your calendar. So, you know, a few years ago, I had a number of hospital stays, so I couldn't be the typical helpful Susan.
Susan McPherson [00:24:46]:
But what I did do during my, whatever it's called when you're healing, recovery. Thank you. Good word. I put in my calendar to get back to people who inevitably, while I was gone, asked for introductions or asked meeting. But the notion of time, I mean, right now I don't have parents, I don't have kids, and I don't have a partner, so I have more expendable time. Yes, I do run a company, and it's very, very busy and I serve on boards, but I have more time than, say, a friend who has ill parents or a child going through a difficult time. So to me, there's going to be times in your life when you can be more helpful, and there's going to be times in your life when you have to take a step back and that's ok. Yeah.
Lindsey Epperly [00:25:37]:
Yeah. And give yourself Grace during those times where you might be spread more thin.
Susan McPherson [00:25:40]:
Thank you.
Lindsey Epperly [00:25:40]:
That's very helpful. Okay, Susan, this has been such a fun conversation. A couple of closing out questions for you. One is your favorite question, which is, how can I help? That is, how you get to know people. But listeners, how can we help you? What does that look like for us to become more involved in everything you're creating? How can we put that into the world? On behalf of Susan McPherson?
Susan McPherson [00:26:03]:
Well, three things I always love new friends. So reach out. I've been single for ten years. I'm looking finally to find love before it's too late.
Lindsey Epperly [00:26:17]:
Yeah.
Susan McPherson [00:26:17]:
Okay. Putting that out there. And then lastly, if any of you work for organizations looking for impact communications, please look us up. McPherson strategies.
Lindsey Epperly [00:26:27]:
Absolutely. We will do that.
Susan McPherson [00:26:28]:
All right.
Lindsey Epperly [00:26:29]:
My question that I close out from everyone, this is inspired by the question we ask one another at my dinner table every night. And it's not just like a, you know, wisteria lane kind of moment. It's because we really try to cultivate gratitude, and that is what has made you smile today. So tell us.
Susan McPherson [00:26:44]:
Blowing bubbles in my puppy's belly.
Lindsey Epperly [00:26:49]:
So sweet. You. This is probably not shocking, actually, the number of times people bring up their pet as the thing that made them smile today is almost unanimous at this point.
Susan McPherson [00:26:58]:
I get it.
Lindsey Epperly [00:26:59]:
Puppy so little.
Susan McPherson [00:27:01]:
Well, she's a year.
Lindsey Epperly [00:27:02]:
Okay.
Susan McPherson [00:27:02]:
Yeah, that's puppy. Love it.
Lindsey Epperly [00:27:06]:
Susan, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and your heart and everything that is inspiring our listeners. We really, really got a lot out of this conversation.
Susan McPherson [00:27:12]:
Thank you. And wow, you are an amazing interviewer, Lindsay. I am blown away. You're so kind. You should have a radio program, my dear.
Lindsey Epperly [00:27:23]:
Thanks, Susan. I'm still recording, so I'm definitely going to keep that in just in case any radio programmers are listening. Okay. Thanks for another awesome episode of who made you the boss? Susan.