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Your Second Act isn't just about starting over; it's about starting smarter. You’ve left the safety of a structured career to follow your passion, and while the opportunity is exciting, the uncertainty is real. You have the vision and the drive, but without a roadmap, that leap of faith can quickly feel like a freefall.
Welcome to Second Act Business Owner, the podcast dedicated to ensuring your new venture lands on solid ground.
Hosted by Lee Gray—an award-winning ActionCOACH, certified executive trainer, and serial entrepreneur—this show is for the courageous professionals who are trading corporate stability for entrepreneurial freedom. Lee understands that being an expert in your field doesn’t automatically make you an expert in running a business.
Each week, we strip away the fluff to provide the real-world MBA training you need to turn chaos into clarity. From navigating the emotional rollercoaster of ownership to mastering the mechanics of profit, Lee brings the structure and strategy required to build a legacy.
Hit follow and let’s get to work.
Ep03
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[00:00:00]
Lee Gray: Welcome back to the Second Act Business Owner podcast. I'm your coach, Lee Gray, and I am thrilled that you are here today. Very excited to talk to you today about two things. We're going to be talking about gratitude, and we're going to be talking about I am statements and I, I promise you the two go together very, very well.
The Power of Gratitude
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Lee Gray: Couple of things about gratitude. [00:01:00] You know, gratitude's a common thing, isn't it? Like, ah, be grateful. Be grateful. Be grateful, whatever. I've got a lot of things to be mad about. We might think or say even out loud. So we're gonna talk about that, change that thinking a little bit, and the power of gratitude and how to use it to be successful in your second act.
First thing I wanna do is share a quote with you, and it's a gratitude quote. Stress narrows thinking. Gratitude expands it. How about that? What I love about that is if we want something to grow, we get to decide that we, we grow. It, it, it, it's something. I mean, there is an actual, physical way to make ourselves feel and be grateful.
People who practice gratitude weekly are 25% happier and more optimistic. There you go. Stat number one on gratitude. Who wants to be 25% happier? I do. Gratitude improves [00:02:00] sleep by 30%. Now, what does that mean? Sleep more? No, no. What it means is when you're grateful, it's a restful sleep. You don't have those crazy dreams where you're trying to figure all this stuff out because you, go to bed and you're resting at a grateful state.
gratitude is a really great place to be when sleeping. And people who express gratitude have higher retention and engagement with people in their lives. With grandchildren, with people you work with, with the clerk at the grocery store, all of those things.
And the fourth thing is that gratitude actually rewires the brain. And we're gonna talk about that a little bit and we're gonna compound that rewiring thing with the I Am statements.
Personal Stories and Examples of Gratitude
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Lee Gray: So I'm gonna give you some examples of how I've used gratitude in my own life and, and share some things with you. So for example, I was in a conference that, with the coaching firm where I work with action coach, business coaching, and we were in.
Where were we? We were in Texas. We [00:03:00] were in Houston, Texas, and we heard, I heard this speaker come out and honest to goodness, I was not very excited about this speaker, but the first thing he said is, how many of you are here or from the United States, either live in the United States or have a, a license or a Visa or whatever to live in the United States?
Everybody raised their hand and he said, you know, you're the, some of the luckiest people in the world. We think about, we have so many things that we. Take for granted in the United States. And so it's really easy to be grateful living in the United States because we have so, so many things already. So if you think about that, some of the things that we can be grateful for are cars.
Well, here's another thing I think that's kind of interesting, kind of sideways, but think about these kids that can't afford. A new home these days, they still can live in their parents' five bedroom home, but they already have a cell phone and an education resources. So really they have a lot, even though [00:04:00] they don't quote, have a home.
I guess the average age now of getting your first home is something like 42. I don't know if it's that way in every state, but think about the gratitude of even owning a home or living in a house that has multiple bathrooms, multiple garages in some areas of the country. 10 people live in a one room place, so.
We have a lot to be grateful for, just by thinking that. So, as I was listening to the speaker in Houston. Say that I thought, wow, I have myself forgotten to be grateful for some of the things that really are in my life already.
Daily Gratitude Practices
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Lee Gray: So what I've done is I've started a strategy where I. At the end of the day when I lay my head down on the pillow, I'm under the covers.
I say to myself, what are five things I'm grateful for? And it may be I'm grateful for my grandkids. I'm grateful for the weather, I'm grateful for my blanket. I'm grateful that there's rain, that I get to hear outside, or I'm grateful that my car is running. And over the years, this over the last year, and I was doing this gratitude thing [00:05:00] before I, I heard the speaker, but it really reinforced it for me.
The things that I'm grateful for when I become aware of them are so powerful, and
The Impact of Gratitude on Your Second Act
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Lee Gray: I think the important thing to remember as a second act is that. Gratitude is so powerful. It's going to get you through some of the hard times and gratitude about our future is important in your second act. There's a lot of things we can be fearful of, but the gratitude is I am grateful. I have all this experience with people.
I am grateful that I already know Microsoft Office. I'm grateful that I know how to use PowerPoint. I'm grateful that I have a. Reliable vehicle to go to the places where I need to go. And those are things that compound our gratitude and raise our vibration of gratitude. 'cause there is a vibration around that.
I other, the other thing I want you to think about is the [00:06:00] words. Thank you. So when someone is giving you something and you are thankful and thank them for it, that also reignites gratitude. Gratitude for you and gratitude for the person who's receiving your thank you. It's a little thing that you can do.
So think about how many times throughout the day you can say the words, thank you. At the grocery store, at the gas station, someone holds a door open for you. What other things can you say? Thankful. Thank you for even if someone. Takes a call at a customer service line and, and you say, you know what?
Thank you. Thank you for taking the time today to explain that to me. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Is a, is a really great form of gratitude. For gratitude, the five things you're grateful for at the end of the day is really powerful and simple To do, cost nothing, but over time it compounds highly.
The second is to say thank you, and then when someone thanks you to say you are welcome.
I think the most [00:07:00] important thing to remember about gratitude is it can change your story and your second act gratitude can change your story and how the story goes for your second act. And that's important.
Gratitude Activities and Exercises
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Lee Gray: I now wanna shift over and talk to you about something we did just recently with our clients.
One of the things we know is. Writing a gratitude is, is huge. And if you can take the time to do a writing journal, I, I'm all for it. I would not recommend that in this podcast. I'll tell you why. It isn't something I'm gonna commit to. If you're the kind of person who likes to, you know, write and can write those daily gratitudes, that's very powerful and it becomes a book over time.
The other thing that can be done is, and we did this in our Coaching session with all of our clients a couple of weeks ago. And for those of you who don't, who don't see the screen, who are just listening to this podcast, we gave everyone a gratitude jar. It's literally a gratitude jar, and it says 2026 gratitude.
Mine says 2026 Gratitudes Lee. And then we gave them [00:08:00] 52 little pieces of paper and the pieces of paper say what I'm grateful for this week, and then why is it important to me? Throw that in the jar and then at the end of the year, just pull 'em out. And read each one of them one by one. It is the most powerful activity that you can do.
To raise your gratitude vibration, something I recommend. It's easy to do. You can do it as a family. You can do it by yourself. I like the idea of two people putting their gratitudes in every week and then just randomly pulling them out and reading them. You may not even know who was grateful for what, and I guarantee you, you forget 75 to 85% of all the things you were grateful for throughout the year.
So reading them helps to reinforce the gratitude.
Introduction to I Am Statements
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Lee Gray: Now I wanna shift into I am statements, which I mentioned at the beginning of the podcast. So as you're entering your second act, wherever you are in your second act, whether you're just thinking about it or you're in stage one, wherever you are, the [00:09:00] I am statements are powerful.
When I first started my coaching journey, they had us do this activity. I'm not all into stuff like that necessarily. I have definitely, it has definitely worked for me now and I know it is scientific as well as spiritual and emotional. But what they had us do for I ams is they had us write our 21 I am statements about our future.
So the way that worked for me, I wrote, I have 15 clients that I'm helping to achieve ama amazing goals. I am physically fit, I am the author of a bestselling book and all of the things, every single thing that I wrote, I didn't at the time believe them, but our exercise was to write the 21 I ams and then say them morning and night.
I am helping 15 clients have an amazing business. I am the author of a bestselling book. I Am Physically Fit, all of the things that I wanted to [00:10:00] have in my future that I currently didn't have. And I thought, well, that'll take three decades for it to happen. And every single thing has happened. So when you think about being grateful, you can start your gratitude before you even have it.
What I mean by that is in the I Am statements, I am grateful for all the business that's coming my way. I am grateful for all the engagements that people are calling me about. I'm grateful for all of the networking events that I'm attending. These can be I am statements, so they're future and they're also.
In the form of an I Am statement, even though there maybe not currently happening to you. So you say it in the form of I am. I am in the process of, or I am meeting new clients every single day who want what I have to offer and believe in what I have.
Combining Gratitude and I Am Statements
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Lee Gray: Circling back to gratitude and I ams. If you are grateful, if you are in the [00:11:00] process of becoming through your I AM statements and in your daily gratitudes, if you are grateful, there is no way to be fearful. You can switch back and forth, but you cannot be afraid and grateful at the same time. And fear is powerful.
It's a powerful feeling. Remember, it's a feeling, and so is gratitude. So we're replacing fear, we're replacing scarcity. We're replacing things that don't serve us well in our second act with gratitude.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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Lee Gray: So I'm leaving you with this every single day. At the end of the day, when you lay your head down on that pillow, what are the five things?
You're grateful for and writing down your I Am statements, what I am in one year from today. In my second act, I am successful. In my second act, I am helping people achieve, fill in the blank. In my second act [00:12:00] I am making, I am so proud of how I feel in my second act. My family is so excited to see me happy in my second act.
That's the action items. Simple, absolutely powerful. Yes, 100% powerful. So I leave you with gratitude and your I Am statements today. I will tell you what I feel like expressing what I feel like expressing after sharing this with you all today. Is that I am grateful that each and every one of you is here.
Each and every one of you is listening. Each and every one of you has made it to the end, which I'm really grateful for, I am in the process of becoming a podcast that is listened and is helping thousands and hundreds of thousands. I am in the process and I am grateful. What do you feel like expressing?
[00:13:00]