Becoming Socially Conscious – Ep.75

Steve Napolitan discusses how mindset shifts can enhance personal growth and increase social consciousness.  

Melyssa Barrett:  Welcome to the Jali Podcast. I’m your host, Melyssa Barrett. This podcast is for those who are interested in the conversation around diversity, inclusion, and equity. Each week, I’ll be interviewing a guest who has something special to share or is actively part of building solutions in this space. Let’s get started.

Steve Napolitan has been recognized by National Media as a pioneer in the new media market. He has a background in film, creating, directing, and producing award-winning content. He’s been known for design campaigns that generate massive amounts of leads that turn into revenue. His executive coaching and training has publicly served more than 35,000 professionals, business owners and entrepreneurs on their business, and taught them how to increase marketing sales while systematizing business to minimize their effort and maximize their revenue. Steve helps his clients have the lifestyles they deserve. Ultimately, Steve is about people, relationships, and the convergence of vision, focus and teamwork that allows true freedom in life. His core purpose is to help as many people have the freedom they desire. He literally spends his time focused on CEOs and entrepreneurs who have found success but don’t have the life they want. He is one of my mentors, a friend, and he has personally helped me transition my own life into a life of purpose. And yes, that’s one of my Kwanzas principles too, intention and vision. It’s truly my pleasure to have him join me on the Jali Podcast.

All right, so this week, once again, I’m excited because I get to talk to my friend Steve Napolitan, and as an award-winning marketer, best-selling author, coach, dad, CEO, speaker and consultant. I figured it might be nice to just kick off the year talking to you about just how you are managing life in general because I think everybody, a lot of people start with kind of New Year’s resolutions, goals, whatever, and they last for however long they last. But I figured what would be interesting is to really talk to you about … I know you’re typically talking to socially conscious entrepreneurs and maybe you can talk a little bit about what that means for you, first of all, in terms of being a socially conscious entrepreneur, especially when we think about diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Steve Napolitan:  Absolutely. Well first, I have to thank you so much for having me on your show. I’ve been waiting for this moment to be on the Jali Podcast, which is socially conscious in its way because it’s the speaker of the people. So I love the name. Kudos on that. And so happy that you’re doing what you do. And with that, this kind of really leans into the question, socially conscious to me, our folks that are thinking beyond making money, the status quo is it has never been okay for me when someone says, “Oh, it’s just business.”

So for me, that’s like if you look at the opposite and when people say that, they tend to mean like, “Oh, it’s okay if I do something on the edge or I’m mistreating people because it’s just business. I’m going to be a little harder on this thing or that thing.” When the reality is everything affects people and our planet. And so socially conscious to me means that you’re thinking of all those things that for me, it has to be okay for everyone involved. Otherwise, I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to do it and I’m going to focus on if it’s a win for me, if it’s a win for the client, if it’s a win for the community, if it’s a win for the planet, then it’s a go.

If any one of those gets hurt along the way, then we have to stop and say, “Whoa, what happened?” It’s like if you’re driving your car and you hit someone, “Oh, oops, okay, just keep going.” No, you don’t. Just stop. Oh my gosh, what happened? I didn’t mean to do that. That’s the kind of care it to me is socially conscious that we’re not just driving our businesses and we knock people over and be like, “Oops, that’s just business.” No, that’s not the way we should live our life. So hopefully that helps shed the be socially conscious.

And then for me, I want to help everyone because there are some businesses that want to change and maybe they have had some things where they’re hurting. Okay, well good thing that you’re noticing and you want to change and I will help you. If you’re okay with hurting people on the planet, then it’s hard for me to work with you just unless we’re going to make change, then I won’t. So ideally, that’s why I work. It’s not even ideal, it’s a must. So if someone is going to stay in that realm, then it’s just not okay. I won’t do business with those folks until they start to make that shift. Does that make sense?

Melyssa Barrett:  Absolutely. Well, and I think there’s so many people in the world, especially when your business gets to a certain level, you’re constantly looking at how do I increase my dividend or get to the next level or the next product or whatever. And a lot of times, you do kind of lose sight of what’s important in terms of why did you start the business in the first place? Or what are you doing to actually leave this planet better than when you inherited it?

Steve Napolitan:  Well, and just one-

Melyssa Barrett:  I love my Kwanzaa principles, so that is one.

Steve Napolitan:  Well, and I didn’t mean to jump on you there, but I think the profits follow. That’s what’s so significant about this. When you do this, people think, “Oh, I’ve got to do business and this is the way that it is.” And no, and if you look at, so let’s just bring up some examples. Patagonia, a billion dollar private company and now their founder is giving it to the world instead of selling the company because he’s getting to the age where it’s time to move on. And he made a nonprofit and a group of people to oversee the company. And the company’s sole purpose is to make the world a better place.

And yes, they sell, apparel is the main driver of their business. They also sell foods and other things, but it’s all in sustainability. It’s all making the world better. And they reach the billion dollars. And a lot of other companies felt that they had to “go public” and do all these things and be fiduciary. Their responsibilities is all fiduciary, that that’s what they has to do. And the reality is they put the world first and they actually are financially doing better than a lot of other companies.

And I’ve seen other restaurant chains and they started off doing all of the right thing and then in order to grow, they canceled those things like you’re saying. But then to a negative effect, they lost their luster. They lost why they were there. So I think there’s Built to Last, which was written by Jim Collins and his writing partner, I forget his name right now. They prove that when you hold the why and you care, those are the companies that last. And the ones that just care about dollars, they’re the ones that are forgotten. And there’s so many. There’s millions of businesses that none of us remember because they’ve come and gone because they didn’t have a purpose beyond making a buck. And it never was. Okay. And it’s really not okay now.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yeah, the further we get. I mean it’s like the further we go, the more we need to go back to really the basics and the fundamentals of increasing our consciousness. So speaking of consciousness, I want to talk to you about mindset because I know you are so heavily into mindset and maybe you can share some nuggets about your own personal experience when it comes to mindset.

Steve Napolitan:  It’s such a broad thing. So there’s so many ways we can go. But when you said that question right now, what comes to mind? I will say, I’m going to tie it into personal growth if I may. When I first started with personal growth, I thought I was working to make myself better. And it did. Overall, I’m enjoying my life a lot more as I’ve worked on myself. But the reality I found is it’s actually not making myself better. It’s actually shedding all the things I thought it was supposed to be by my upbringing, by community, by church, by so many things. And I’m not saying those things are bad, please understand that. A lot of them, they have good intentions most of the time. Sometimes they’re not good intentions, but most of the time they’re good intentions. But they push a certain thing onto a subject, like that old thought of, “I want my kids to be doctors and lawyers.”

And that kind of thinking, it puts people on a box that their heart might not be there. And this happens a lot, whether it’s big or little bit. Either way, it happens. So what I found is through this quest for personal development, I found that I needed to shed all those things like an onion, peel it all back like armor. That’s a good metaphor for me. There was a lot of some wounding and my broken heart and stuff from a young age and not really knowing who I was as a young man. And I held my armor. I didn’t want anyone to see me and I wanted to be protect myself so I don’t get hurt again. And this is all mindset too. So what I’ve actually realized is I’ve had to shed all that armor, let my true heart come out.

And then this has allowed lots of things. For me to love unconditionally, it actually protects me more. The more that I love, the more people that love me. And I have more protection than wearing any armor, fighting any fight. I can have more love and more neighbors, friends, loved ones in my life. And so the mindset that I always would say, in short, because there’s so many layers, like I said. But it’s really first finding yourself. And so even in deep meditation, that’s one of the first things you want to do is connect with yourself. And so that takes quiet.

So I think the first thing where people aren’t ready to meditate or they’re restless, the thing to think about is slow down. So often in modern society where go, go, go, and I was there, I was building businesses and I was running the rat race and I was working really hard.

And in that, you have no time to find self, you have no time to work on that mindset. It’s just like go or no go. And that just doesn’t work. So I was working to not work hard. So that was my thing. I’m going to work really hard right now so I don’t work later. And then that doesn’t work. It was all a mindset and another mindset. It was no pain, no gain. If I don’t drive for it and hurt myself, then I’m not going to gain. And those are things I bought. Those are armor. That’s like another armor sleeve that I put on and another one. And then I was Steve Robot and I’m doing all the things I was told to do when in fact I was hurting myself. And so another part of mindset to me, and then I’ll try to wrap this up here quick, is that it was feelings.

We also are told not to feel like just don’t feel that, don’t feel that pain. You’ve got to be stronger than the pain when the reality is the pain was there for a reason. It’s like if you put your hand on a hot grill, hopefully you don’t even do it. Hopefully, your body reacts and you pull back before you even touch the hot grill or the coals or whatever by a fire. And hopefully, you pull back and go, “Oh, whoa, there’s something hot there.” Or if you do touch it, it’s only for a second and your body is going to react without you even knowing. It’s going to pull back. And that is our body’s mechanism for safety. Well, guess what? When you’re at work and something doesn’t feel right or you’re having a bad day or you’re like, “You know what? I don’t think this client is for our company. I think that’s not a good client. I have a feeling about that.”

You should be listening. That is our intuition telling us, “Don’t go that way. You’re going to burn yourself.” So those are just very much touching the surface level, Melyssa, that it could be letting ourselves be our true self. That’s one mindset. The other one is that we can quiet our minds so we can actually hear our intuition and know ourself. And then the third is knowing our feelings so that we can be aware of what’s going around, almost like a thermometer of our intuition in a way.

And each of those I could probably speak a whole podcast on, but that’s just the loose level to think about where to start. Are you slowing down enough? Just even five minutes journaling, just think about where you are in the world and what do you really want? And are you just accepting a recipe that was handed down to you by your community or your peers, or are you actually doing what you love?

Melyssa Barrett:  Yeah. Well and that’s incredible because I think when you take all the money in the world, all the time in the world and you go, if you had it all, what do you want? Sometimes people go, “Wait.” I mean I know in many cases in our coaching sessions even, you would say, “What do you want?” Let me give you permission to dream even. Yeah. And it’s like, I don’t even know. It was a transformation. That’s pretty awesome.

Steve Napolitan:  Well, yeah, sometimes you need the space, even for that. You’ve gone so many years, not at that level of dreaming that it takes a minute to catch up with all and to reallow yourself to dream almost like a child. Sometimes we have all these dreams as a child and we’re like, “Oh, the real world.” You even notice it when you speak to children and they’re like, “I want to be the president. I want to do this, or I want to be an astronaut.” We’re like, “Yay.” Then you turn 18 or you’re in your 20s and you say that and they’re like, “Yeah, right.” Your friends. And you think, “Good luck.” Now welcome to the real world. Pay your bills. Better get a job.

Everyone does but not everyone, I’m generalizing, but a lot of people do this. And then we wonder why we all stifle our dreams. So yes, I’m an advocate of dreaming. I think that your reality of what you want and what you’re meant to do in this body and this life is right there if you would allow it. And so I think that’s the reason I ask those questions because I believe you can have it. And I believe when you do the thing you know you’re supposed to do, going back to the mindset, you’ll also be abundantly rewarded.

Melyssa Barrett: Well, and what’s interesting to me is I know you’re so focused on gratitude and I love when you say choose gratitude, create freedom. So what does that mean to you? Because I think gratitude is such a … I think a lot of people think about gratitude today and they’re like, “Oh yeah, I’m grateful that I made it to 2023 and I’m grateful that everybody’s healthy or doing okay in my family.” But you have kind of a whole nother level of gratitude from my perspective. When we started interacting, I was like, “Wow, I really need to think about what I’m grateful for.”

Steve Napolitan:  Thank you for bringing it up. It is one of my core values in a very deep way. And I’ve been using choose gratitude, create freedom. It is one of our trademarks. And it is something that has been in my life for a long time, more than a decade. And I know that it’s becoming more popular. And I’m glad that people are talking about gratitude more. And you’re right, some mood is surface level. And the reason that it goes deeper for me is that what I define gratitude as is appreciating all results.

And I emphasize all. That means everything in my life. So the thing I didn’t want, I’m grateful for. As I think you know but I haven’t said on this podcast yet, but 17 months ago from the time we’re recording this, I was paralyzed. My whole body, arms, legs, and my face. It’s called Guillain-Barré syndrome that came into my life. And you could say, “Well how could you be grateful for that?” Well, I can tell you right now, and we can back up a couple steps in a minute here, but I’m sitting here right now with you. And if I could go back in time and I could take it away, I wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t do it. And I’m being completely honest right now. I wouldn’t do it because I love who I am right now, and I wouldn’t be this man before you if I didn’t go through that.

So sometimes in life, and I think this stifles us. So this is really important to me. We get upset at ourselves. And I did this once. I’ve gotten into deep depression, felt like a loser. Nothing is going right. And this is when I was coming out of my 20s, coming into my 30s. And I grew up in Silicon Valley in California and other peers of mine were skyrocketing startups and all these things. And I had made millions and lost millions by the time I was 31 years old. And I felt like a loser.

And then I met my mentor and he said, “Well, how many people do you know at 31 that have already lost over $4 million?” And I was like, “Oh no, not that many. None that I can think of in their 20s.” And then he said, “Yeah, exactly. So you’ve lost 4 million. Would you do it the same way if you went back?” I said, “Absolutely not. I learned so many things. I’m going to do it different.” He’s like, “Exactly. So all those things happen so you can be this 31-year-old guy sitting here before me right now and you can actually make new decisions because of all the things you learned.”

And he flipped the whole thing on me and realized how grateful I was for all those experiences. And then it did. I took all those lessons and then made a way better business in my 30s, moving into my 40s, had abundant opportunities with my life and my three children and we’ve been able to travel around the world and all these things. And it wouldn’t have been that way, Melyssa, if I didn’t go through that. So I had already had that happen and that transition, and now through Guillain-Barré, it’s changed my mindset to where I’m making different decisions. So I believe that life doesn’t happen to us. It happens for us. And that’s part of this gratitude. And I’ll say one last thing. I know it’s a lot. I’m really truncating this lesson, but I hope you’re getting the high points.

But when I appreciate everything, I can actually proceed in my life. So there’s another part of the belief that all of life is learning. And I believe that’s growth is part of my core values. All of life is learning so that everything that happens to me is learning. Carl Buchheit, another one of my mentors, he always says, “There’s no failure, there’s only feedback.” So then when something happens that I don’t like, I can be grateful for that feedback. So I never do it again. It’s like, “Okay, don’t do that ’cause this happens.” And then if I do something that I like, then I can say, “Okay, do that again because that feedback was good.” And so the thing is about choices. If gratitude makes my choices more rapid, and if I choose and then it doesn’t work out, then I can take that.

And this is another thing I learned from Carl, is that I choose what I want. I take what I get quite literally, and then I choose again. But what helps me in that transition, when I take something I didn’t want taking Guillain-Barré into my life or losing millions of dollars or having lost people in my life that have passed away or different things, those grief moments, I can find that gratitude and then choose again. And I find that the more rapidly I choose, then I’m learning and I’m choosing. I’m learning and I’m choosing. I’m learning and I’m choosing and I’m learning and I’m choosing. And then before you know it, you’re like, “Whoa, I’m living the dream.” I literally cried driving up my driveway, calling my mom a couple of holidays ago, and I was like, “Dreams do come true.” And I wasn’t planning on crying. I just called my mom to say hello and let her know.

And life changed so much from the hard times. And I’m a man that used just to put the bookend on this. I was a man that thought life just really was not good and you just had to deal with it. You just had to be tougher than the next person to make it through. I believed that. Talk about mindset, right Melyssa? That was my mindset. And now I’m so grateful for all the things and I’m learning so much faster and I’m choosing new ways to live that now I’m living beyond abundance that I could have ever dreamed of to the point where I’m crying on the phone with my mom saying, “I never believed that I could have all this. And I do.”

Melyssa Barrett:  Yes. I love it. I love that. Well, and I love the fact that you’re bringing in so many different elements when it comes to the way people, not only the way they work, but the way they live, the way they actually engage with their own life. And coming from someone who has been in corporate America for decades, you realize how much you minimize your life to give to a company. And then you realize that life is short. You’ve got to make sure that you’re here doing the work that you were made to do on purpose. So I just love the way that you’re thinking about just how to open people up so that they have the life of their dreams.

Steve Napolitan:  Thank you for that. And just to comment on that, I think that we under focus on death. And I don’t mean that in a really morbid or depressing way, but I think the reality is we are going to die. And I’ve been able to travel enough now and be with different cultures. And there are many cultures around the world that actually, there’s some that I’ve met some of the indigenous tribes in South America, they actually have a saying. They say, “You can’t live until you die.”

And even in some of the Buddhist philosophies, they say that until you recognize the end, meaning your death, you can’t live fully now. So in that, I think it does … So even this being paralyzed, going back to my own story, it wakes you up and you’re saying, “Okay, what is really important to me? What experiences do I want to have?” And I think, again, in modern society, we get through a school or into a career and we say, “I’m going to make this amount of money and then I’m going to live my life.” And then we become really old and grumpy and sometimes we never get there.

I once knew a guy and I was working with him, I loved him to death. He was the nicest guy. He was one of the first investors in eBay and he was big in tech and all this. And he was investing in one of my companies. And then he finally got paid off. And a year into that he had an aneurysm. So he gave his whole life to build up this huge chunk of money and he was ready to live that life and then he passed away. It was a hard moment. And that was in my life for a reason. That’s another thing that I can be grateful for.

Yeah. At the time it really sunk. I lost a friend, he was older than me and he was taking me in some mentorship. I lost an investor. A lot of things I lost there, but I gained awareness that life is short and you do not go make a lot of money and then say, “Ta-da, here’s my life.” It’s very rare that that happens. So my awareness now, and what I can be grateful for, again, is that I now choose, and you can choose too, to define the experiences I want in my life. Then I design the life to include those experiences, and then I build the income around that. Then I can choose my job, then I can choose the business I want to create, what income is going to support that life.

So you got to write the script, you got to design it. Just think of it in a really direct metaphor. If you build a house and then this is what we’re all doing, we’re making money and we’re just assuming the house is going to be the way that I want. If you are going to have a custom house, your house, and then you just let it happen, then what? You’re going to show up and you’re like, where’s the kitchen? Oh, you didn’t ask for a kitchen. We didn’t put a kitchen in this house. Oh my gosh, I need a kitchen. I want a cook. Or there’s no bathroom, there’s no shower.

We decided to opt out of hot water on this one. No, you’ve got to choose, I want this bathroom, I want this kitchen. Just like you have to choose your life and don’t wait. The first step is design. You design your life and then you build your career, your income around that. That is life changing. And it’s rare that people think this way and then they wonder why they wake up at some decade in their life going, what the heck? This is why we have midlife crises and things like this because people go, “This is not what I wanted.”

Melyssa Barrett:  Right. Yeah. No, that’s so true. Well, and I love the fact that you’re like, “And if it’s not what you want, choose again.”

Steve Napolitan:  Yes.

Melyssa Barrett:  Today is a new day. Just start now and design it.

Steve Napolitan:  And would you not? If you lose the loved one, you better Sure bet, you’re probably going to think differently tomorrow. And when’s a good day to change? Now, why wait?

Melyssa Barrett:  Yeah, I think it was a bit of an epiphany for me, and most folks that have maybe been listening to the podcast know that I lost my husband several years ago, but we had a great partnership, but it did allow me, him dying at such a young age and me being a widow at 49, it was like, “What am I doing with my life?” And hopefully it doesn’t take people, something like that to happen or Guillain-Barré for people to go, “Oh, maybe I should do something differently.” But it’s so freeing. And so when you talk about creating freedom, it’s true. It really creates the freedom that you want for your life because your mindset is so different. So I love all that.

Steve Napolitan:  And I was friends with your husband as well, and it was very sad to lose him at a young age. And then there’s so many things we can be grateful for, for the time that we had with him, like you said, the meaning of life to really realize how important it is. So all those things of gratitude can then prepare to our for freedom because sometimes something really bad could happen in our life. And then we can choose to allow that to suffocate us, to put us in a really dark place.

So by us choosing gratitude, we can pull ourselves out of that and create our freedom. And only you can do that. Yeah. No one can just grant you freedom. Even people that are sometimes free, they lock themselves up by their choices. And I don’t think Melyssa and I are intending, I’m speaking for you right now, but you can tell me, but we’re not intending to brush over the grief. It’s there and it’s real. But yet also then it’s your choice. Are you going to live? Because this is your opportunity. And so some of those people that have left us that we loved so dearly can be a direct message. Every time, I’ve been to three funerals in the last, I guess six months maybe. And each one of them, it just made me want to live more.

And I did shed some tears and it was sad to see them go. But then at the same point, I’m like, what a blessing that I have my life right now.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yeah, no, definitely. I mean, have learned so much when it comes to just the way to think about gratitude so differently because it does allow you to break down all of those things. So I’m hoping that people hear some of these wonderful nuggets you’re dropping on, both from a work perspective, whether you’re a socially conscious CEO or not. The information that you are talking about really begins to transform people in a way so that they do live differently in all sense of the word. Whether you’re talking about unconscious bias, diversity, equity, and inclusion, whether you’re leading a company or working for one, to me, these are some really entrepreneurially focused principles and values that kind of totally change how you view your own life, not just your profession or your skills.

Steve Napolitan:  Yeah. And I think it’s because then it’s people centric. All this we’ve been talking about is about people. And that’s what’s most important. And then it includes everything that you just said because it includes all people. Then love to me, by definition, it includes everything and everyone unconditional love as we know that. And that’s what we need to do. We need to bring back the human aspect. And that’s why I was saying, socially conscious businesses are that, that everyone is winning or it’s no deal. It’s like we’re either helping people or we stop. It’s just not okay. And that I think then automatically includes everyone and takes care of all people involved. And so if it’s not for the good of all, then don’t do it. Period. Yeah, that’s it.

Melyssa Barrett:  Love it. And if it’s not for the good of all, then change it.

Steve Napolitan:  Yes, you can change or stop it. I mean sometimes you have to stop the train and fix it. Sometimes you have to stop first. If you’re hurting a lot of people, stop, reassess. Now that’s scary because you might see a lot of dollars happening. So sometimes you can pivot because there are people’s lives involved as well. So if you stop a business, it could mean layoffs and all these things. So some, you make a transition plan. Even Patagonia, which we brought up earlier. They didn’t realize some of the pollutions they were creating by the dyes that were going into their clothes. But as soon as they became conscious of it, they made it a plan over several years to completely remove it. So that’s okay too. Then it’s like, okay, we identified this issue, now we made this plan to get rid of it. And here’s our …”

So it’s just like any project, here’s the thing, this is what we’re going to do. Here’s the delivery date. And you just take action and you stop. And then you can keep the business alive and not lay everyone off and all that stuff. So I think you’re right. It’s about choosing, noticing it, acknowledging it, and then choosing to do it different and then making the appropriate action.

Melyssa Barrett:  Love it. All right. So last question. If this was your last year, how do you think you would make this your best year?

Steve Napolitan:  Wow. I’m having a moment with that question because you made me realize I’m already doing it.

Melyssa Barrett:  All right.

Steve Napolitan:  The plans that I have would not change.

Melyssa Barrett:  Awesome.

Steve Napolitan:  Because I can tell you, I’ve designed my life so that I’m giving ample time to my wife, to my children. And often I’ve thought about this, sometimes as a parent, we think I’m going to stop doing everything and I’m just going to devote every hour to our kids. But that is not in service either. I’ve been in deep meditation and the words have come to me ’cause I used to think, oh, once they’re 18, then I can work more. And then I realized, you know what, you being a father or being a mother doesn’t stop when they turn 18. You are a mother or father the rest of your life. And the second thing that came to me was I need to show them how to lead and how to make the world a better place.

And if I sit at home with them, yes, it’s lovely to be with them every waking moment, but then I’m not showing them how they can lead and how they can make a difference in the world. So the business and the things that I do with my work hours are showing them what can be done in the world and that we can make it a better place by our efforts. And then I do also make sure that I’m not working too much so that I can have that one-to-one time with them. And I schedule times that we have that time.

So coming into this new year, I’m scheduling time with each of my children one to one. I’m scheduling date nights with my wife. I’m creating time for myself to meditate, to move my body. I say movement instead of exercise, but ultimately it’s in that realm to read to journal so I can have that time. I’m scheduling time with my team so I can teach them what I do. So ultimately, if something does happen to me again, like Guillain-Barré or I leave this planet, then the good work I’m doing moves on. And then I give another chunk of time to my clients to help them and to have better life.

And then anytime that’s left is with friends and other loved ones, which is also planned for, that free time. So I guess ultimately I can say, and summing this up is I’ve literally took pen to paper. I literally printed off a calendar for the year and for a week, and I drew out how I want my year to look. I drew out however I want my week to look. Then I share that with my family, see if everyone matches up. Then I share that with my team, make sure that it matches up. It’s by design and so that I can live my life that I could be happy and say if I were to die tomorrow, that I did everything I could to be the best that I could be.

Melyssa Barrett:  Awesome. That’s awesome. What a way to close out the podcast. I think we’ll have to have you back.

Steve Napolitan:  Well, I’d be happy to, and I appreciate the question because literally I knew I was doing all this, but until you asked me that question right now, it fully dawned on me that I’m doing what I would want. In years past and not to drag the podcast, but in years past, I wouldn’t have been able to answer that way. I would’ve said, “Oh, well, I wish I was doing this and that.” And so thank you for that. I’m grateful for this podcast because sometimes when you’re getting interviewed, you fully realize things that you’re doing that you didn’t notice. So I appreciate you. I appreciate what you do with your podcast, the Jali Podcast. I believe in what you’re doing and grateful to be a part of this, and happy to come back anytime you ask.

Melyssa Barrett:  Thank you so much, Steve. It’s always such a pleasure. Having known you now for I think maybe almost 20 or 30 years now, I don’t know. I’m sure it’s over 20.

Steve Napolitan:  Yeah. It has to be because I met you pre-kids. So it has to be around that realm.

Melyssa Barrett:  My gosh, I’m aging myself.

Steve Napolitan:  Yeah, both of us. And by the minute, by the minute. But you know what, again, I don’t regret anything. I’m grateful for it all, and I’m grateful that we’ve had all these great years together, and I look forward to many more.

Melyssa Barrett:  Absolutely. Thank you so much for joining me.

Steve Napolitan:  It’s my pleasure, Melyssa.

Melyssa Barrett:  Take care.

Steve Napolitan:  You too.

Melyssa Barrett:  Thanks for joining me on the Jali Podcast. Please subscribe so you won’t miss an episode. See you next week.