OS 75: Amazing Workplace with Linda Ruhland

Interview Transcription Hugh Ballou: Greetings, it’s Hugh Ballou. My guest today is a long-time friend and colleague, Linda Ruhland. Linda has a lot of superpowers. She’s got some unique gifts. Not alone from those gifts is her wonderful, pleasing personality and her wisdom for things that aren’t common in life. I have enjoyed working with Linda over the years and have enjoyed her insights into things that challenge other leaders. Linda, welcome to the podcast today. Linda Ruhland: Thank you, Hugh. I am very honored to be here. It is a privilege to be among the people you have interviewed because I have been following your podcast for a while. There are some pretty impressive folks who have shared this stage. My company, Spirit of Success, is something you are familiar with. We have worked together for a long time now. Hugh: Yeah, yeah. I prefer not to do these dry introductions for people, so I’m going to let you go ahead with that track. Tell us about Spirit of Success, and tell us about Linda Ruhland and how you’ve developed this skill and got you to where you are now. Linda: Okay. Spirit of Success was an inspiration a few years ago. Basically, we’re coming out of a tough economy back in 2010, and that continued. We slowly came out of what people are often now lovingly referring to as the new norm. From that, I wanted to see what could happen to really jumpstart us in terms of business and inspiration and, with all the change we have going on in society and in the workplace, what doesn’t change. From my point of view, the idea was that the spiritual drive, the commitment that we have, the energy we have within us, is the one unchanging factor. That is where the name came from. Since that period of time, I and a group of colleagues, friends, and associates have put together ideas on a website or two, one of them being spiritofbusinesssuccess.com, where we discuss success stories, and solve or at least share ideas on solving problems of common issues with regards to business and workplace issues that advance business, based on where we go with those in the shoe tips. Hugh: You have a new book out. I know something about this book. Linda: You are in it. Hugh: Yeah, I’m in it. What prompted you to want to put a book out? There are lots of books out. What’s the specific niche? What’s the title of the book? What’s it all about? Linda: The title of the book is Amazing Workplace. And the workplace of course with business is where everything comes from. It’s where success is really evolving from. It’s no big secret. If you look at some of the Gallup findings, 70% of people are disengaged at work. You couple that with the fact that 51% of the people who are at work are looking for other jobs and contrast that with the fact that we are in a declining job market and new business start-ups are declining. We have horses going in the wrong direction. Hugh: Wow. That’s not one problem; that’s a series of problems. Let me recap that. The Gallup poll, and they have been doing it for years,