Announcer: Welcome to behind the mic presented in part by CAPS, the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers. This podcast is dedicated to recognizing excellence in speaking through fascinating stories and interesting conversations with the people who make the speaking world come alive. Now please welcome your behind the mic hosts, Roxanne Durhodge and Carl Richards.

Roxanne Derhodge: Hi, everyone. It's Roxanne Der Hodge. Welcome back to Behind the Mic. I'm here with my amazing co host, Carl Richards, and our fantastic guests, Robin O'Grady. And I'm gonna throw it over to Carl to introduce our amazing guest, and then we'll jump right into things.

Carl Richards: Thanks, Roxanne. Yet another great episode. So glad you're along with us. And Robin O'Grady here today as well, An international speaker, fitness industry leader, and corporate culture specialist. She is dedicated to empowering individuals and organizations to achieve attainable wellness goals leading to a sustainable workplace culture.

Carl Richards: She delivers simple strategies and actionable tools that make wellness achievable for everyone. Robin's dynamic presentations are tailored for businesses in need of revitalizing their culture, boosting employee engagement, and reigniting team motivation and productivity. Now she's also known as a trusted educator for fitness professionals seeking to enhance their skills and knowledge and growing their own businesses. As the founder of O'Grady Consulting, Robin brings a wealth of experience to her speaking engagements, drawing from her diverse background as an operations director, fitness industry leader, dance instructor, and aerialist as well. I'm sure we'll be talking about that for sure.

Carl Richards: Her sessions are infused with contagious energy and uplifting stories, leaving audiences with renewed vigor and renewed sense of purpose. Now outside of her professional pursuits, Robin finds joy in dancing, group fitness, aerial arts, and just for fun, doing handstands. Why not? She's based in Calgary with her husband and two boys. She embodies the balance of a thriving personal life alongside her dedication to helping others thrive in theirs.

Carl Richards: We're so glad you're here today. Robin, welcome to the podcast.

Robin O'Grady: Thank you. I am so excited to be here. Let's go.

Carl Richards: Let's do it.

Roxanne Derhodge: Robin, you started off, I think initially in the fitness world, or you did that concurrently with being in business. So I'm always fascinated because when I see Robin and I might see a Bollywood kind of production to she's an aerialist as well. So I'm always fascinated when I see some of the things that she does. Robert, tell us a little bit about your path. We know what you're doing today, which is keynoting and consulting around the areas of wellness and resilience.

Roxanne Derhodge: Kind of give us a bit of your path so people can understand kind of your frame.

Robin O'Grady: Yeah, absolutely. Because I'm getting up in those years, I have a whole another life even before all of that. So I started in hospitality. That was my first career and my first road. And I worked my way all the way up that path as well.

Robin O'Grady: And then I moved into fitness. And so in the fitness industry, I worked as a group fitness instructor in the beginning, but then I worked my way through the businesses and up to director level. So operations director, and taking care of the day to day of the facilities and all of the teams. And there's a lot of experience back there in those days. And I loved every minute of it.

Robin O'Grady: Also being able to take other fitness professionals and help them grow their business and sort of extend my reach by that way as well has always been really a big part of my passion project. And this is what I really love to do on that side of things. And then yes, now I'm keynoting and I'm consulting in companies and helping them to find all of the successes that I found through my journey and building up and ensuring that they have a really strong culture, that they're working well together as a team, and that people are inspired to not only do better for themselves, but to take better care of themselves. And so that all of those things come combined into one big package.

Carl Richards: The fitness area is, and by the way, congratulations on all of that success, success, kudos. The fitness area though is extremely competitive. I don't know about cutthroat, but definitely competitive. How did you find the niche? Where did you, or at what point did you say, Hey, I don't want to be just like this.

Carl Richards: I have so much more to offer. What was the journey to that point?

Robin O'Grady: Sure, yeah, that's a great question. I really believe in the simplification of wellness as a whole. I won't call it just fitness, but wellness as a whole. What I don't do and haven't done is trend chase. It is an industry that is very marketing heavy as well, which is what makes it a little bit more competitive and those sorts of things.

Robin O'Grady: I always find and I coach my clients being genuine and true to your own values and who you are as a person is always going to bring you the biggest successes. So trying to become the next whatever doesn't do it. You to come back to what's important to you and what matters to you and also what works for you. So this diet, that diet, this exercise, that all of that is important. But very early on in my career, I discovered that there is no value in shooting down the other things.

Robin O'Grady: And so lots of things will come up, lots of new trends will come up, lots of rebranding, it's very cyclical. If you go back in time, you'll see the same things over and over again, just with a new name and a new face. All of that is happening all the time. The truth is when it comes right down to it, the only thing that works, the magic pill, if you will, is consistency and finding that one thing that works just for you. And if you feel good and it makes you feel good, then I'm in support of that and we're gonna work on that.

Robin O'Grady: And that's really what it comes down to as a whole.

Roxanne Derhodge: So when you work with organizations around wellness and resilience, how do you marry movement with the concept of resilience? I'm curious because that intersectionality of both, I think, is quite fascinating from the frame that I come from. But I'm curious how you kind of weave both of them together.

Robin O'Grady: Yeah, honestly, really comes down to, I categorize it as three buckets. You've got mind, body and soul. And so to become a whole person, to be a healthy, strong, long living person, you do have to fill all three of those buckets. Most people are draining one of those buckets in favor of the other. And so often if you're very driven in your work, then you are really filling up the mind bucket.

Robin O'Grady: You might be filling up the physical bucket depending on what you're doing, but maybe that soul bucket is not getting enough attention. Your fulfillment is not happening. You hear people say all the time, I do this job because it pays the bills. I hate my job. I do it only for those reasons.

Robin O'Grady: Clearly that fulfillment bucket is lacking some energy. And lots of times it's the movement bucket. People who work a desk job all day. Some of the stats that I heard are almost painful to me is that eight hour day, seven to eight hours sleep, whether that's good or not is a whole another story. And then additional four hours of television, two hours of driving.

Robin O'Grady: Well, there's your day, it's done. So you've literally spent the entire day sitting that movement bucket, your body bucket is now empty. So something has to give. If one of those buckets is empty, something is going to give and the dam is going to break. So we have to make sure that we are just focusing on all three of them in our mind and in our week programming and planning our week out so that we are making sure that we're just getting a little bit into all of those.

Robin O'Grady: People comment like you did, oh my gosh, how do you do all those things? You dance, you do this, you do this. Well, those things fulfill me. And so it's not hard for me to do that because that is my fulfillment. And so when I'm fulfilled and I'm taking care of my body and something like dance, for example, also fills my soul, fills my body, fills my mind, it's challenging me in the choreography.

Robin O'Grady: Now I found this one thing that actually fills all three of my buckets at the same time. So you've got to really just be strategic, make a plan that's good for you. I'm not telling you to go out and dance if you don't want to. There's other things you can do, but you do have to really step back from the tornado of your day to day, step out of it just for a minute, just for a day, just for an hour and just take a really hard look and ask yourself if all three of those buckets are being filled.

Carl Richards: How receptive are organizations and companies when you're going in there and talking about these three buckets and saying these need to be fulfilled. As an employer, I may be like, okay, no, I want you to be married to my company. So how receptive are they to these concepts that you're sharing?

Robin O'Grady: Yeah, the truth is some are and some aren't. That's the truth. So I try to approach it from a leader's first perspective. And so I don't necessarily come into the CEO, excuse me, and say something like, this is what you have to do for your entire team. You have to make sure that they get an hour of fitness every day.

Robin O'Grady: That's not gonna work. So what I might say is, how do you feel? How are your buckets? Because most of the time there is something missing for that leader as well. And then that trickles down and represents in his or her role modeling for the rest of the team.

Robin O'Grady: So I come in from a leader's first perspective. It's always you first. If you're not taking care of yourself, if you're not filling all of your three buckets, how can you expect your team to do the same? Yeah.

Roxanne Derhodge: And Robin, it's interesting, right? Because a business case, if you look at it, even if we're the ones that are not open to it, when you look at the short term disability claims and the long term disability claims and incidental absences and presenteeism, which is like when people show up but you get about sixty five percent. Even for the people that aren't willing, the business case kind of shows itself itself too where people start to recognize the leaders that are already converted. That's fantastic. You can build off that.

Roxanne Derhodge: But oftentimes, companies might come forward because they're recognizing that their financial bucket has got a leak in it, to be able to have that conversation about the three buckets. So I love the fact that you kind of talk about all three buckets. I love the fact that you think about the trifecta. I'm thinking of it as the trifecta with you, right? Like, if only we could all come up with things that hit those three trifectas.

Roxanne Derhodge: With companies, when you go in, are you looking at all three buckets as a strategy to develop your keynote or consulting? Or how are you overall looking at the terrain when you're going into a company?

Robin O'Grady: Yeah, actually, maybe I'm gonna add a fourth bucket now. I like the financial bucket. Who doesn't, right? Doesn't like the financial We like that

Carl Richards: bucket. It's

Robin O'Grady: good bucket, but maybe it's an offshoot of the mind bucket. I don't know. Well, I'm gonna play with that a little bit. The good news is for those of us in this space, that the research is now finally coming through. So over the last post COVID, whatever you want to call it, the last five years or so, there has been a lot more actual research being done on the outcomes of this type of workplace.

Robin O'Grady: Part of it is the generational thing. And we could you could talk that ad nauseam, but essentially, people coming into the workplaces now are far more demanding of a healthy balance in their workplace. So the leaders, whether or not they believe in that, it becomes a need for them because their workers are demanding it up. And so when that's happening, you either lose all those workers or you make a change. And so most leaders understand the value of keeping employees versus continuously replenishing their employees.

Robin O'Grady: Those numbers have been established for a long time. The new numbers coming through show so clearly the value and in the one hundred, two hundred, 300% returns on doing these types of things in your workspace to create an environment with which your employees can work productively. So I'm so glad that you said that because that is so very important. As far as assessment, that is the first thing that I do when I come in and that is a really important part of things. My superpower is operational.

Robin O'Grady: And so when I go, I can go anywhere. It's sort of a joke, an ongoing joke between my husband and I, because it kind of drives him a little bit crazy, but I can't walk into a place and not see the operational deficiencies. It is very clear to me. My mind sees things immediately. If there's going to be a spelling mistake caught on a menu, it's going to be me that does it.

Robin O'Grady: We were at the airport one time and we were standing in line at security and there was a drywall wall standing beside us. And it was all cut up and marked and knocked and banged into. And I thought, and I said to my husband, my poor husband, we're going to vacation and I'm talking about the wall at the airport, but there's no reason that they should have had drywall there. It should have been a better material on that particular wall because it's such a high traffic area. And my husband's, you're on vacation, just let it be.

Roxanne Derhodge: You try that with his man cave do you go in or his tv room or something like

Robin O'Grady: his space is his space. I do want to stay married we're coming on twenty five years, six years. Some things you just gotta, I just don't go in there that's not my room.

Carl Richards: It's it's true, though, that if this is the work that you do I I spent years in radio and it was the same thing. As I'm going about my day, I'm observing what's going on around me. It took a while to start doing this, but it's called show prep. Yes. It's called having something to talk about in your in your world or in your coaching or in your keynotes or whatever it is.

Carl Richards: Even years ago when I was in Toastmasters, we talked about, well, do you get ideas for a speech? Write things down that are happening all the time. So there's one of those things you would even if it goes here, it can end up being content elsewhere or just something that your husband can point out when you're on vacation. What's the other? It's still an observation that becomes it was pretty crucial, really.

Robin O'Grady: Yes, yes. And when your brain, it's what there's that theory, starts with a B, bind off or bind off or something like that. There's a theory that once something is pointed out to you, then you're going to see it all the time. I own a white Volkswagen Beetle. So before I owned the white Volkswagen Beetle, I never saw a white Volkswagen Beetle.

Robin O'Grady: But now everywhere I go, there they are. And so there is an actual name to it. So sorry, I put it in the show notes, but this is so true because I'm operationally functioning that way in my brain all the time. It's just right there. It's right in front of me.

Robin O'Grady: So when I go in to do that assessment with people, often they're shocked by the clarity. But the truth is that it's very difficult to see the things when you're in the middle of that chaos. So when you're in your stuck in the chaos of your day to day, the critical point for you as a leader, if I were to give you one tip to walk away with today, is pull yourself out. Take a full step back and look at it from the outside. You will then start to see the cracks.

Robin O'Grady: When you're in it and you're doing this all day, every single day, you're just managing it, it's impossible to see and that's fair enough. But that's why you hire someone like me. Because then I can come in and look from the outside.

Carl Richards: Exactly, exactly. I did want to transition our conversation. Speaking of pulling something out, one of the things that we mentioned in your bio was aerial arts. The thinking of how you pull yourself in and out of things. Roxanne, I think was at first mortified when you, she found out that you don't start at 20 feet, you start on the ground.

Carl Richards: But how do you incorporate that into your keynotes? What's the methodology behind that?

Robin O'Grady: Yeah, so my resilience keynote, which you can find on my website, is with an aerial performance. So it incorporates entertainment, athleticism, along with the message of resilience. The beginning of the keynote starts with a two minute piece where I am suspended from the air in the silks or I also have, it's called a lollipop and it's a big hoop that's about eight feet, 10 feet off the ground. And so the performance aspect is coupled with a backtrack is me talking. It's a little bit of my personal story and my history from the ground up and where I came from and the necessity of resilience to get me to where I am today.

Robin O'Grady: That message is then carried forward once I come off of the equipment and catch my breath a little bit and then the rest of the keynote continues. So it's a beautiful combination of the resilience you need for the athleticism, the dedication and time that you put into being able to do something like that at 50 years old, let's be, I'll just put it out there, and whether or not I should be doing that at all, then ties into your day to day resilience and how you pick yourself back up and not just carry forward like everybody thinks, but what comes from that and where that's built from.

Roxanne Derhodge: Robin, I would think that using that, right, if we would think about me not picturing myself falling on my head, Karl, but if you look at the elements of beginning when you start off a journey like that, which is powerful when you see silks. I've seen it on different realms out with Cirque and just different environments. So I'm gonna assume that you talk about the trajectory of what that buildup of strength is and what how that translates day to day. And what a beautiful kind of mirroring that that would create. I mean, first of all, starting off your keynote like that, I'd be like, that's amazing.

Roxanne Derhodge: But then teaching those lessons that things build is something that I I would think that a lot of people would have gotten just within two minutes of seeing you on stage.

Robin O'Grady: Yeah, people really need to come back to themselves in a lot of cases. We get very caught up in the things that we are supposed to do. We get very caught up in the idea that the social constructs that are around us and that this is what life is supposed to look like. We forget that we and only we as an individual are in control of what happens in our life. And that some decisions, although difficult, are really the choices we should be making.

Robin O'Grady: And often a decision because it's difficult doesn't get made. They call it no choice. They'll say, I can't quit my job. I have no choice. That's not exactly true.

Robin O'Grady: It's not exactly true. You always have a choice. It's about really taking the time to decide what's best for just you. Only you. And then you can work out to your closest people, your spouse, your partner, your kids.

Robin O'Grady: Then you can work out from there. But truthfully, we could all benefit from spending more time in our week coming back to what's best for just me, just me. And if we can do that, only positive things are going to grow from that. And that's a fact I've seen it time and time again.

Carl Richards: I love it. I love it. Robin, how influential or important has CAPS been on your business journey, especially through your keynoting and the programs offerings that you that you put out there?

Robin O'Grady: Yeah, anybody that knows me knows I love CAPS. I'm a big fan of CAPS and my journey, I've been, I'm coming on eight years with CAPS now. And the only regret that I have about CAPS is that I didn't hop onto the board sooner. So I would say that was the biggest sort of turning point for me within CAPS. So I got a lot from it before then just going to the meetings and learning from the incredible speakers that come out and getting to know people locally.

Robin O'Grady: But once I jumped onto the board, then I had the opportunity to get to know people all across the country. And now that I'm on the national board even more, so that's expanding even further for me. And so those relationships have been critical to my business success. Not only in maybe some people think it's about getting referrals or getting business from each other. Sure, that's part of it.

Robin O'Grady: But that isn't the biggest part. For me, it's the support, this being surrounded by people that are doing the things that I want to do. I fully believe that you should always surround yourself with people that are doing the things you want to do. And getting advice from them, getting solace from them, getting reality checks from them. Those types of people in your life are so important.

Robin O'Grady: We have lots of relationships in our life and we have the people that we can cry with, the people that you go to when you want to vent and you want somebody to say yeah you're right no matter what but you also need accountability partners who will call you out on your own stuff and let you know when you're wrong or let you know that your mindset is not in a great place. What I found in CAPS is a lot of people who are willing to openly do that. And I'm a pretty direct person. I don't know if that's coming across, but

Roxanne Derhodge: No, not at all. Not at all.

Carl Richards: You? Direct? Say this in solo.

Robin O'Grady: I appreciate directness back. And so if somebody looks at me and says, you're not handling that well, I need that sometimes. We all do. And it's a lonely business sometimes. It's so great to have that community around you.

Robin O'Grady: And I'm telling you, there's not a single person in CAPS that I would hesitate to call. I can't think of a single person that would not pick up the phone if I called and said, Hey, I need something from you.

Roxanne Derhodge: Absolutely. And I can echo the same, because I'm above the same amount of time in Robin. And just the different parts of the business and building and the actual craft of speaking in the different platforms, not just on the stage, but just with consulting or how to approach a coaching kind of client, whatever. There's always someone that you can gain. Yeah.

Roxanne Derhodge: Whether it's at an event or at conference, those types of things that people are also always so willing to reach out whenever you're needing it.

Carl Richards: It's good for on the podcast too. Yeah. Just saying.

Robin O'Grady: I'm not in there.

Roxanne Derhodge: Yeah. Is wondering if there's any last words. Like, you know, so we know about the consulting. We know about the speaking, now I'm gonna say it's I would say trifecta plus one. We know about your what you do.

Roxanne Derhodge: Any last words for leaders listening out there or companies that are needing a shift in their corporate culture in reference to wellness? What would you like to say with that to them about what you can offer them?

Robin O'Grady: Yeah, it's okay. It is okay to recognize that there's room for improvement in yourself personally or in your company. It not okay to just get by and let your team suffer. So knowing that there's room for improvement doesn't say anything about you as a leader in a negative capacity. In fact, it makes you a better leader.

Robin O'Grady: It raises you up as a leader to be cognizant that there's always room. There's always space for something a little bit more. And I would really encourage all of the leaders out there to not make wellness the fluff because it isn't. It is critical to the success of you as a human and to your business as a whole.

Carl Richards: Robin, this has been amazing information. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing it. If someone wants to get ahold of you today, get into your ecosystem and learn more, what's the best way for them to do that?

Robin O'Grady: Yeah, my website is robinspeaks.ca. You can email me at connectrobinspeaks. Ca and then Robin O'Grady, I'm all over social media. You can find me.

Carl Richards: Awesome. That's where I usually do find you actually.

Robin O'Grady: Yeah. On social media. There. It definitely exists.

Roxanne Derhodge: For everybody that's been loving the conversation, obviously Robin shared so many amazing things about us. As a community at CAPS, reach out. Carl is also a part of the community. We want to have chats with you. And if you want to just check us out, go to canadianspeakers.org.

Roxanne Derhodge: Showcase all the different personas in the spoken word and exposure that you could get and come to one of our events and hang out with us. We'd love for you to come and meet either one of us or all three of us at some point. And again, Robin, as always, thanks so much for taking your time. And Carl, as usual, my cohost, always a pleasure. You again, everyone, and check us out again next month as we do another Behind the Mic.

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