Dream Big and Transform Your Life with Meredith Morse

42. Dream Big and Transform Your Life with Meredith Morse

“Once you’re aware of your limiting beliefs, you can release them and become who you were meant to be.”

—Meredith Morse

Podcast Transcription

Hello, I’m Michael Kurland, CEO and Co-Founder of Branded Group, an award-winning national facility management company that services multi-site commercial properties such as retail, restaurants, healthcare facilities, and educational institutions.

Welcome to the BeBetter podcast! Each week, I interview thought leaders from a variety of industries who will share their stories and the lessons they learned as they strive to be better for their clients, partners, employees, and their community. Are you ready to Be Better?

Michael Kurland (00:03):

All right! Welcome to another episode of the BeBetter podcast. I’m your host, Michael Kurland. Joining me today is Meredith Morse, transformational life coach and holistic health practitioner, and my sister. Welcome to the show, Meredith Morse. How are you doing? What’s going on?

Meredith Morse (00:29):

I’m good. Thank you. I’m very happy and grateful to be here with you. This is very exciting.

Michael Kurland (00:35):

It’s a real thing. We had enough podcasts to get through to you getting on the show, which is awesome. Let’s talk about this transformational life coach, holistic health practitioner. Tell the audience what that is, who you are, and what you do.

Meredith Morse (00:56):

As a transformational life coach, I basically help people achieve their dreams. I help them shift their limiting beliefs, their mindset, get out of their own way. I help them create a vision for life that they would truly love living and then help them take the action steps on how to achieve that life. I’m a holistic health practitioner. I am a licensed massage therapist as well as a Reiki practitioner. All of the healing things. Yes, I am Michael’s sister, although I cannot call him Michael because that really indicated he was getting in trouble. It’s Mikey. I’m Mikey’s sister.

Michael Kurland (01:40):

Yes, this is true. Michael didn’t come along until 7 years ago or when I was in trouble as a child. It was always Mike or Mikey, but that’s for another day or later in the podcast.

Let’s talk about a couple of things here. Transformational life coach, tell me more. I really liked what you said. You hit on something. We had a business coach on a couple of episodes ago and he said the same thing that you just said. I think it’s very important to talk about with the audience, which is limited beliefs. Let’s talk about transformational life coaching and why limited beliefs are such a high-key thing that you focus on.

Meredith Morse (02:25):

I think all coaching actually is mindset coaching. It just depends on what area you want to focus on. As a transformational life coach, we could work on areas of health and wellness, career, time and money, freedom, and love and relationships, but it’s really these limiting beliefs that we hold that keep us stuck.  A big one that mainly a lot of people have is “I’m not worthy” or “I’m not good enough.” “I’m not deserving enough of this,” or their fears hold them back. “I don’t know. I’ve never had my own business” or “I’ve never had a successful relationship” or “I don’t have enough money in my account.” We keep saying these things over and over again and that becomes our truth. As a transformational life coach, we really dig deep into these limiting beliefs that are holding you back, and we try to shift them. We get to the core of them. We make you aware of them. Once you’re aware of them, you can release them. You can accept it. You can release them. You can shift it.

Michael Kurland (03:28):

I really liked what you said about limiting beliefs, but let’s dig a little bit deeper here for one second because it’s kind of the story you’re always telling yourself. “I don’t have enough money. I need a secure job.” Let’s take it one step further because I think that starts at an early age before you even develop your own limiting beliefs. It comes from somewhere, right? Family members, friends, things of that nature. I can attest to when I wanted to start Branded Group, mom said, “Oh, my God. What are you going to do? Move to California? You’re going to start a company? What if you go bankrupt? What if you get in an earthquake? What if you die?” All these crazy thoughts.

Meredith Morse 04:12):

Those are her limiting beliefs.

Michael Kurland (04:18):

I grew up. She was my mom for however many years, for 34 years before I started the company. If I was someone who bought into that rhetoric, that’s how that develops. I could have easily crumpled like a lawn chair and just said, “Mom, you’re right. I should just go get another job and get steady health benefits and a 401k.” Talk a little bit more about that. Is where it develops with your family and friends and things of that nature that you’re brought up with?

Meredith Morse (04:55):

Absolutely. I think there’s pivotal moments in our lives where we have these experiences, and we might not even realize it that something happened. We’re taught that something’s wrong or we don’t belong or we’re not good enough. We might not even know it. I can share my own personal awareness of that and it’s going tie into our family.

Michael Kurland (05:20):

We’re here to get vulnerable. Share your story.

Meredith Morse (05:23):

For me, in coming to an awareness of the last few years, we had a father who was kind of absent. He was always on the road and he was working hard. He wasn’t really home a lot with us. When he would come home, we would get so excited home. “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! You’re home!” I remember there was one moment where we were trying to get his attention, and he picked me up. He said, “Hey, Mere.” He gave me a hug and then he, not tossed me aside, but said, “Here, Mel. Here’s your kid. Here, mom.” In that moment, I felt, “I’m not good enough for my dad’s love” or “What did I do wrong? I’m so excited to see my dad, and he’s not as excited to see me.” Obviously, this wasn’t a conscious thing that I was aware of at 5 years old but, internalizing it, I’ve taken this with me for 40 years now, thinking I’m not good enough. I have this life where I was always trying to be a people pleaser, and I was so anxious. I was living this job, and I had a steady job with great benefits, just like you said, but it wasn’t fulfilling. I was trapped behind a desk. I knew there was something more for me. I had a failed marriage and toxic relationships with men. I kept moving. I had enough money in my bank account to pay my bills, but never got ahead. The story was:  Why me? Why am I not good enough? Why does this always happen to me? Victim mentality. Everywhere I went, it was the same story. I must’ve moved 10 times [Laughs].

Michael Kurland (07:08):

You’ve lived in more states than me. And countries.

Meredith Morse (07:11):

I was thinking things would change, and they never did. Everywhere. Everywhere I went, it was the same poop all over again.

Michael Kurland (07:20):

You can say shit.

Meredith Morse (07:20):

Okay. Can I cuss? I cuss like a sailor. Finally, when I got to Florida, I had this huge breakdown. Another toxic relationship that was really the breaking open point of me. I could barely get out of bed, really dissatisfied in life. I finally made the decision. I wanted something different. I wanted to change. I wanted a different life. Actually, the story plays out where I was sitting at my desk at work, and you had sent me an email. It came in at the perfect time. It was almost divine timing. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. You forwarded me an email about a coaching program. I don’t know if you remember this.

Michael Kurland (08:08):

Nope. [Laughs]

Meredith Morse (08:09):

You said, “Hey, sis. I really think you should look into this.” I said, “What the crap is life coaching? What does that even mean? Is somebody just going to be a cheerleader in my corner? That’s kind of silly.” Something inside me said, “This seems like it’s your moment. It’s your time. You got to do something different. You’ve got to get out of this.” I clicked the button and I enrolled. It was an 8-week program, and literally a month or 2 after I completed that, I adopted my rescue dog, Murphy. I landed a promotion, and I moved to Colorado. My whole world changed from that point. It was a snowball effect of coaching and healing and becoming who I was always meant to be in this world, which was the life coach and the holistic health practitioner and pushing past those limiting beliefs of “I’m not worthy enough of this. I’m, I’m too scared to do this. Nobody cares. Nobody wants to hear my story. It doesn’t matter.” All of these bullshit things that I was telling myself over and over again finally came to the surface, and I was able to process them with the help of coaching, with the help of holistic healing myself, transforming my own freaking life. [Laughs]

Michael Kurland (09:32):

Thank God I sent you that email.

Meredith Morse (09:37):

[Laughs] I wasn’t even sure if you remember that because it was such a turning point when you said, “Hey. I saw this. You should do it.”

Michael Kurland (09:47):

Yay me 7, 8 years ago, whatever that was. That’s awesome. I’m glad you did that. You’ve grown a lot since you moved from Florida, for sure. Seeing you in Colorado, you’re definitely a mountain person. You’re a mountain woman.

Meredith Morse 10:10):

Mountain mama. Dog mama. [Laughs]

Michael Kurland (10:10):

Mountain mama. Dog mama. I’m glad you got out of Florida. Let’s just leave it at that.

Meredith Morse (10:20):

Yes.

Michael Kurland (10:20):

Let’s talk about one other thing because you brought it up with limiting beliefs and other people’s fears. How do you feel about positive affirmations? What’s your thought process on that? Is that something that you incorporate with your life coaching?

Meredith Morse (10:37):

Absolutely. At first, I felt it was a little hokey. “I’m saying this to myself. What does it really mean?” What we don’t understand is that when we say these things out loud, even if we don’t believe them, our spirit selves, we are embodying it. We hear this. The more repetition you do, the more it is that it will come to be, to transform these beliefs. You can write them out. You can journal. You can do gratitude journaling. You can listen to meditations on affirmations, but really what you want to pick is the one that’s going to resonate with you. So not just, “I’m so happy today and I’m just Miss positivity or I’m the best.” What is it that’s keeping you stuck? “I’m scared of moving forward. I’m fearful of getting into a relationship.” I can change that into a “I’m a confident woman. I excel in all of my relationships. I have beautiful relationships.” That’s going to make you embody it even more when you can believe what it is you’re trying to transform and not just these, “I’m love. I’m peace. I’m light.” Although, those do work, too. [Laughs]

Michael Kurland (12:00):

That’s why I brought it up. You talked about changing the limiting beliefs, but you also have to change the rhetoric. You have to change the rhetoric that you tell yourself. Be repetitive and outwardly saying it or inwardly saying it, or however you decide to do is a very important step in the transformation. You’re the transformational life coach, so I would want to get your take on it.

Meredith Morse (12:28):

Definitely changing the rhetoric. I’m not sure if those beliefs don’t 100% go away. They’re really stuck deep down in there, but the minute we can become aware of them, that’s when we can change it. If we’re not even aware that we’re saying this to ourselves, then how are you ever going to transform? It comes to the point of, “Why does it stop?” The limiting belief, like the story of the victim story. “Why does this always happen to me?” The minute you become aware that that’s your limiting belief, that’s your story. You can say, “Nope. I don’t believe that anymore. Not today. We’re going to have something, an affirmation or something else we can put in its place and then it becomes easier.” As you go forward, it might not go away all together but when it does arise, you’ll know in that minute. “Nope. That’s my bullshit story. Bye!” [Laughs]

Michael Kurland (13:26):

No, it’s true. We talk a lot on this show about victim or victor. If you want to be a victim, you can certainly. This world is full of them. If you want to change your life for the better… Everyone knows my story. I got divorced, and I got fired at the end of 2013. I could have just folded up shop. I could have gotten that job mom wanted me to get with a 401k and a decent salary. I could have kept my little house in Lake Grove, NY, and I’d be a totally different person right now. I’d be living that limited belief life. I was 50 pounds heavier than I am now. I would have been probably even heavier because I probably would have just kept going down that road. I really think you’ve got to change the rhetoric. You got to become the victor. There’s no room for victims in your headspace.

Meredith Morse (14:26):

I don’t think people realize just how powerful they truly are. When they give away their power and the victim mentality, they absolutely have the power to change that. I think that’s where transformational coaching comes. We are this guide. We are this mentor that walks with you on your journey to remind you constantly, you are the one who can make these changes. You have this inside of you. It’s not out there. It’s completely internal.

Michael Kurland (14:55):

Completely internal. You’re the only one that believes your own bullshit. Your own bullshit is like concrete in your head. In reality, sometimes it’s just saying it out loud to get it off your chest. You realize how ridiculous some of your own bullshit is. At least for me. I will sell myself. I can’t practice guitar. I’m never going to be good at guitar. “Why am I even going to pick this up?” Then I sit down, I had my buddy over last week, and we did a jam session, which consisted of him jamming and me being terrible because I hadn’t practiced. I had told myself, “I’m never going to be good at the guitar.” Now, I can play. I went from knowing how to play one song not very well to knowing how to play two songs not very well. Look at that! Progress.

Meredith Morse (15:52):

It’s better than me. I got like 2-3 chords.

Michael Kurland (15:55):

You’re the piano person. You’ve mastered that. Let’s talk about this: What do you do to take care of yourself? You’re talking about being a holistic health practitioner and a transformational life coach. All this stuff. All in one big bundle. How does Meredith take care of herself on a daily basis or a weekly? Probably a little bit of both. Let’s talk about your daily regimen, your weekly regimen, to stay mentally sharp and focused.

Meredith Morse (16:26):

Daily, I practice daily meditation. I learned transcendental meditation about 2-1/2 years ago and I haven’t skipped a day since. Twenty minutes in the morning. Twenty minutes in the evening. This literally saved my life, just developing a consistent meditation practice because it allowed me to get quiet, to really calm, to de-stress, to listen to those internal voices that were screaming at me to be able to shift them. I have my pup, so I get to take him for a walk every day and get out and move. We love to hike here in Colorado. I practice at home yoga daily, and there’s a lot of breath work incorporated with that, too. I didn’t even know what breath work was for a while. I’m breathing. I’m alive. Honestly, we don’t even realize how much we’re not breathing during the day. This breath from the nose and the neck and our shoulders are up. We’re not really belly breathing and getting calm and still. I do that, and I do read. Since I’m a holistic health practitioner, I believe in all of that. I’ve done massages and Reiki and breath working coaching.

Michael Kurland (17:52):

Let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about Reiki. What is Reiki? I am going to be honest with you. I know that you are a Reiki practitioner, but I don’t really know what it is. Talk about it.

Meredith Morse (18:06):

It’s the Japanese form of energy balancing. In our bodies, we have 7 chakras or energy points. These points of energy can oftentimes get stuck, or energy builds up and it’s not flowing properly. As a Reiki practitioner, we use our hands and we put our hands over the spot or over the chakra or hover above. We’re attuned. We get training as a Reiki practitioner, and we let the energy flow and balance the chakras.

Michael Kurland (18:42):

How does that work with massage? Are they hand-in-hand? Do you do them simultaneously? Can you do them simultaneously?

Meredith Morse 18:52):

You can. I don’t. Consciously, I don’t. I offer massage, whether the Reiki comes out during my massage, that’s another story. It probably does. I do have separate Reiki sessions and separate massage sessions. Probably going forward, I can offer both consciously to clients who want to experience it. When I get Reiki done on me, I’m dead tired after. I just want to go home and nap. Other people feel energized. Other people feel more clear. Whatever your experience is, it’s totally individual for everybody. I don’t know what you would feel when you get it done.

Michael Kurland (19:38):

I’ve never done Reiki, but I’ve been having acupuncture performed on me on a weekly basis for probably the last 4 months. I can tell you, it’s somewhat similar to what you’re saying with Reiki, but it’s Chinese.

Meredith Morse (20:02):

Do they have the meridians?

Michael Kurland (20:02):

Yeah. They try and get the energy to flow. Exactly what you just said. To keep it flowing in the right direction. When I leave, I am usually dead tired. For the audience out there, maybe you don’t know this but my sister and I both are also very in tune with the world, nature.

Meredith Morse  (20:28):

You can say it!

Michael Kurland (20:31):

We’re in tune with spirituality. That’s the word. I am a very vivid dreamer. Meredith, talk about that.

Meredith Morse 20:44):

I see people’s energies.

Michael Kurland (20:44):

Yes. It’s a family trait, and you guys can all think we’re crazy. That’s fine. I definitely can sense vibes. I’ve traveled a lot. When I stay at a hotel, I can tell if a hotel is haunted or not just by sleeping there. I don’t ask. I’m the guy that doesn’t want to know. I always know. We’ll leave it at that.

Meredith Morse (21:08):

I’m the curious kitty. I’m like, “Where’s the ghost?” I want to see them.

Michael Kurland (21:09):

You sent me that picture from a ghost tour in Colorado with the ghost in it. I said, “I don’t ever want to go there.” Enough of that.

Let’s talk about your resources you use to improve. What have you done to get your life here? You said you were in a bad place. You moved around. You tried to outrun a lot of stuff when you were telling your story, Now, besides taking this life coaching class, what do you do now? What resources have you done

Meredith Morse  (21:47):

I participate in my own life coaching. I did therapy for a while. I’ve read books that have absolutely changed my life. The first one that got me going was  Jen Sincero’s  You are a Badass.  I think you actually gave that to me.

Michael Kurland (22:06):

I did.

Meredith Morse (22:07):

That one really was the catalyst for me to get over my shit and move forward.

Michael Kurland (22:13):

Her writing styles is in such a way that it’s very easy to consume. It’s not for everybody.

Meredith Morse (22:23):

I love how she calls you out. [Laughs] I do daily meditation. I use an app, and I’ve done a lot of classes on it. I love listening to David Ji and his style of meditation. He uses mantras. He was a student of Deepak Chopra. I think he currently works at the Chopra Institute. He is just an amazing soul. I love his stuff. I keep moving forward with him every day. I’ve really gone further into reading about Buddhist tradition and compassion. I’m just finishing up When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron in teaching you how to really just sit with whatever arises in your life, instead of trying to block it out, numb it out, drink it out, smoke it out, whatever your go-to is for not dealing with something. It’s welcoming those bad feelings as emotions and being present with it. Once we do that, once we allow it, kind of just dissipates. You know the saying ‘what we resist, persists?’ It’s absolutely true. When you try to force it away, it’s going to come screaming at you in different ways until you acknowledge it.

Michael Kurland (23:44):

Take the power away from it. I was listening to this podcast, and it was a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote that said… I’m going to mess it up. It was something like, “The day we take away the power from the fear is the day that fear dies.” That’s definitely not what he said, but it’s a lot along those lines. As soon as you face your fears, the fear dies. That’s really honestly true. It’s kind of why I jumped out of a plane because I was said, “I don’t want to die, but I’m going to jump out of this plane and not die.

Meredith Morse (24:25):

My other, I would say honestly, not to like blow smoke up your ass, but you’re my big brother. You’ve been the greatest resource in my life. You’ve basically been my life coach.

Michael Kurland (24:38):

I did not pay you to say this. Nobody needs to know that.

[Both Laugh]

Meredith Morse  (24:41):

I know. It’s true. True story. We’ve grown so close as adults that I’ve come to you in moments of despair. I remember calling you at like two o’clock in the morning one night, just bawling my eyes out. You’ve always been there. You’ve always might have had tough love. “Suck it up, Meredith!” You never really had a really great delivery.

Michael Kurland (25:07):

Still don’t.

Meredith Morse (25:11):

Still don’t. I always knew I could turn to you, and we’ve worked together on business coaching. That was something I was completely unfamiliar with, and you’ve really helped and guided me on my journey of having my business.

Michael Kurland (25:24):

That was really nice. I appreciate that. Thanks. It’s been fun. Mom and Grandpa always said, “You guys will be best friends. Stop fighting. You guys will be best friends when you get older.” They were right. That was good.

Another book, I think that, especially talking about what we’re talking about today with life coaching and transformation was Broken Open by Elizabeth Lesser. It was a really impactful book in my life when I went through the divorce and the firing because I was, kind of what you just said about the Buddhist tradition of sitting with things coming at you. I had these two really, really big life changes that some would take as negative. I had to still deal with them, even though I wasn’t a victim. You still don’t walk away from a divorce and a job that you were at for 7 years and get terminated. You don’t walk away and say, “I’m fine. Everything’s cool.” No, there was therapy involved.

Meredith Morse (26:42):

One thing we should mention right now is that we speak movie quotes. [Laughs]

Michael Kurland (26:46):

Yes, my sister and I also have the same sense of humor, and this is mom’s fault. This consists of every Saturday Night Live movie ever from probably the eighties till now. My mother, she wouldn’t let us watch scary, gory movies as kids. I can’t watch them now because I’m scared of them, but she would let us watch every ridiculous comedy. I remember going to the theater to see Naked Gun with her. If you get my mom laughing, she’s the loudest person in the room. She was definitely the loudest person in the theater, but that’s a whole another story.

Before we move on to that, let’s talk about this. What difference are you looking to make? You just helped write a book that’s getting published. I want to talk about that. Let’s get into that.

Meredith Morse (27:45):

I think I’ve always been a helper and healer. My background is in counseling psychology. I did a lot of career coaching for a while. Or career counseling, I should say. Educational counseling. I’m really just hoping to inspire and help other people realize that they can transform their lives, too. That they can live better. They can live with more joy and ease. They don’t have to stay stuck where they are.

I felt crazy. We talk about creating visions and dreams. I had this vision of sharing my story authentically and vulnerably, and I was really scared to do it for the longest time. Only a few people knew. Back last winter, one of our fellow life coaches came up with this idea of creating a book and wanting 52 life coaches to author a short story and tell their story to inspire others. I said, “Holy shit, man. This is the chance.” I clicked the button again and I said, “I’m doing it. I don’t know what’s going to come out of it, but here we go.” I authored one of the short stories and the book actually comes out tomorrow.

Michael Kurland (29:06):

Which is June 16th.

Meredith Morse (29:09):

June 16th. It’s called Short, Sweet, and Sacred.  It’s 52 inspirational stories from life coaches. They just want to share their message. It’s like a daily dose of inspiration.

Michael Kurland (29:25):

That’s awesome. It’s called Short, Sweet, and Sacred, and it comes out tomorrow on Amazon. Who is the author of Short, Sweet, and Sacred? Who will be the main author if you want to look it up?

Meredith Morse (29:39):

Erin Bloom Davenport is the main author.

Michael Kurland (29:44):

Cool. I have homework to do tomorrow. [Meredith laughs] I’m proud of you, though. That’s awesome. Good for you. Mom was also the writer. Real quick. Let’s do some fun stuff here. Let’s do this first and foremost because I know you’ve got these questions here, but let’s actually tell your favorite story of us growing up. What’s a favorite memory?

Meredith Morse (30:10):

My favorite story? Oh, gosh.

Michael Kurland (30:13):

One your favorite stories. It doesn’t have to be the favorite. One of your favorites.

Meredith Morse (30:20):

I was completely dying when I listened to the one with you and mom about the ear piercing because I totally forgot about that. I’m going to tell this story because everybody needs to hear this and hilarious laugh when it comes out of his mouth.

Michael Kurland (30:35):

Oh, man. I don’t even know what you’re going to say. I’m kind of nervous.

Meredith Morse (30:39):

This isn’t my favorite story, but it’s my favorite story now because of the reaction that Mike gives me. There was a moment in time when we were younger and we had to wash dishes. One washes and one dries after dinner.

Michael Kurland (30:52):

Every single night. I want to give the audience a little background. We had this colonial house in Norwalk, Connecticut. It was built in like 1915. It was mostly my dad. My dad did not believe in home improvement at all. The countertops were straight from the fifties. Everything was from the fifties, even in the eighties and nineties. This thing was so outdated. Tell the story.

Meredith Morse (31:27):

Good, old Pine Hill.

Michael Kurland (31:29):

No dishwasher.

Meredith Morse (31:30):

Mike and I pretty much hated each other growing up. We bickered constantly. We fought. We were so close in age. I’m sure we finished our dishes. Mom and grandpa were nowhere to be found. Mike said, “I’m going to make you a concoction.” [Both laugh] I said, “What?” He takes this glass. He was just awful with what he did. He filled it up with water. He put in this 20-year-old, stale bouillon cube.

Michael Kurland (32:07):

I think that thing is still buried.

Meredith Morse (32:11):

Cayenne Pepper. Any spice you could find. Spice rack.

Michael Kurland (32:16):

My mom had a Lazy Susan spice rack, which she never used because one of my mom’s not greatest qualities was her cooking. [Laughs] She had this spice rack with all these spices that had to be 20 years old. I think a little dash of everything went into this cup.

Meredith Morse (32:35):

It was so disgusting and it was warm water. On top of it, the icing on the cake, Mike took dish soap suds and put it on top. He said, “Mere, c’mon. You got to drink it. You got to drink it.” I said, “No! Mom” He would say, “Mom! Meredith!” Stupid shit that we would do. Finally, I was forced to drink it.

Michael Kurland (33:04):

Only a sip. Let’s be clear. Only a sip. I will blame Nickelodeon for that because we used to watch that show You Can’t Do That on Television. They used to do like ridiculous things on that show. Right after that, they had Double Dare and it was all about running through slime.

Meredith Morse (33:25):

It’s not my favorite moment with you but when we tell the story now, your reaction and your laughter, knowing you did that.

Michael Kurland (33:33):

Audience, I wasn’t terrible but that definitely happened.

Meredith Morse (33:41):

He was toughening me up for the world.

Michael Kurland (33:44):

I also have, to this day, still a very, very bad undiagnosed case of ADHD. I couldn’t sit still then and I still can’t sit still now. I refuse to take drugs to numb it out and calm it down. Do you want to play this game here? Do you want to play, “How well do you know your siblings?”

Meredith Morse (34:08):

Sure.

Michael Kurland (34:08):

Let’s play this game real quick. You’re going to ask me this or am I going to ask you this?

Meredith Morse (34:16):

I think we’re going to just ask the question and we have to guess each other’s answer.

Michael Kurland (34:20):

What was your favorite food growing up? This is easy. Yours was spaghetti. You literally ate spaghetti every night. I also think in retrospect because mom’s cooking was so bad that you thought it was the only thing that she couldn’t mess up. That’s definitely your favorite food growing up.

Meredith Morse (34:41):

I want to say for you it was frozen pizza.

Michael Kurland (34:44):

Totally. Still, when I see those at the Dollar Store now, which I haven’t been to in a long time, but I still get a little reminiscent. Ok. One for one each. What was your favorite movie? I know what this one is, but you go first.

Meredith Morse (35:03):

This is easy for you, but I actually don’t know this.

Michael Kurland (35:07):

What was my favorite movie? Go. Guess.

Meredith Morse (35:12):

Growing up?

Michael Kurland (35:12):

Yeah.

Meredith Morse  (35:15):

ET. [Laughs]

Michael Kurland (35:15):

No. Absolutely not. I would think my favorite movie growing up because I’ll still watch it anytime it comes on…

Meredith Morse (35:23):

Police Academy.

Michael Kurland (35:23):

No, that was another one. Die Hard was my favorite movie. Growing up. I would watch Die Hard all the time. Audience, ready? I already know the answer to Meredith’s favorite movie. It was Dirty Dancing. [Meredith laughs] The reason I know it was Dirty Dancing was because we had a VHS, and we had a tape of Dirty Dancing. Literally, we would get home from school. We only had one TV in the house and we only had one VHS. We get home from elementary school and it was a race to this television. He-Man came on at 3 p.m. and then Transformers was on at 3:30 p.m., and I got to watch that. Then Meredith would literally put on Dirty Dancing and I’d have to sit there for 2 hours and watch that nobody put baby in a corner. I actually hate that movie. Anytime it’s on, I want to turn it off. I love Patrick Swayze, but I hate Dirty Dancing because of you.

Meredith Morse (36:17):

Ask my college roommates, that was always on.

Michael Kurland (36:22):

So, it went on for 20 years?

Meredith Morse (36:27):

Oh, yeah.

Michael Kurland (36:27):

Sorry, Keene State University. Who is your favorite Mets player? I know who yours was.

Meredith Morse (36:36):

I think I know who yours was.

Michael Kurland (36:36):

Who was mine?

Meredith Morse (36:38):

I want to say it was Howard Johnson.

Michael Kurland (36:40):

Yeah, Ho Jo. I love Keith Hernandez, too, but Ho Jo is good. Yours was Gary Carter. I got to tell this story, too. This one is funny. So SNY is the Mets baseball station that came out… They took over the Mets broadcast probably 10-15 years ago. They were playing repeat games. Maybe it was longer. I don’t know. Whenever they bought it, but they were playing repeat games. There was this game from the eighties and it had Gary Carter on the field. I said, “Mere, look! Gary Carter came out of retirement, and he’s playing with the Mets right now!” [Both laugh] She said, “Really? Oh, my God!”  I got her with that one. We are also a prankster family.

Meredith Morse (37:24):

You were so mean to me.

Michael Kurland (37:24):

Yeah. We were a prankster family. We still prank each other.

Meredith Morse (37:31):

That’s so exciting.

Michael Kurland (37:31):

Who was your favorite eighties hair band?

Meredith Morse (37:33):

There’s so many. For you? I am going to say Guns and Roses.

Michael Kurland (37:40):

Yeah, it was. If I could play guitar like Slash. Your favorite eighties hair band? I don’t know. Debbie Gibson?

Meredith Morse (37:50):

That not an eighties hair band!

Michael Kurland (37:54):

She had terrible hair, right? You want headbanger stuff?

Meredith Morse (37:57):

Yeah. Eighties rock. C’mon.

Michael Kurland (38:01):

Poison?

Meredith Morse (38:04):

So close. They were pretty good. Mine was Bon Jovi.

Michael Kurland (38:07):

Fair enough. Our eighties household was filled with lots of terrible eighties hair band music. We were children of MTV.

Meredith Morse (38:17):

We were. [Laughs]

Michael Kurland (38:17):

Favorite book as a kid. Your favorite book as a kid? You read, The Babysitters Club. You read every single one of those.

Meredith Morse (38:33):

Yeah, but that wasn’t my favorite book.

Michael Kurland (38:35):

Charlotte’s Web?

Meredith Morse (38:38):

Yes!

Michael Kurland (38:38):

There you go.

Meredith Morse (38:42):

Every night.

Michael Kurland (38:43):

I don’t even know what my favorite book is. I hated reading as a kid.

Meredith Morse (38:46):

I would have said Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends.

Michael Kurland (38:50):

I think it was more like the sports page of the Norwalk Hour every day. [Both laugh] This has been fun, sis. I’m really happy you came on. I hope the audience enjoyed our little back and forth here. Thank you for playing the sibling game and telling the stories. Now, the audience can know that we are crazy because we both are spiritual and believe in ghosts. Thank you for not telling the other stories about ghosts and growing up. I appreciate that. We’ll save those for another day. If the audience wants to get ahold of you for transformational life coaching or holistic health partitioning, Reiki, and massage, how can they do so?

Meredith Morse (39:34):

My website is meredithmorse.com. You can email me at coach@meredithmorse.com. I am in Colorado Springs, but I do coaching virtual. I do use Zoom if you’re not in the local area. If you are here in Colorado, you can find me for massage and Reiki. I do offer free clarity calls. If you just want to take a step forward and you don’t know where to start and you just want to talk, I offer that as well. You can find the link on the website to schedule one of those.

Michael Kurland (40:12):

That’s meredithmorse.com. I just want to spell that because also growing up, people do not know how to spell your name. [Both laugh] It’s been awesome having you on the show and thank you so much. Looking forward to the book and what was the book’s name again?

Meredith Morse (40:33):

Short, Sweet and Sacred.

Michael Kurland (40:35):

Audience, get that book tomorrow. Audience, until next time.

Thank you for tuning in! I hope that today’s episode inspired you to become a purpose-driven leader in your career or your community. There is no doubt that when we lead with purpose, we can change lives. If you enjoyed today’s show, I’d be grateful if you would take a moment to rate us on your preferred listening platform.

To learn more Branded Group’s “Be Better” experience and how we provide industry-leading on-demand California based facilities management, visit us at www.branded-group.com. Be sure to follow us on social media and you can also reach out to me directly on LinkedIn. Until next time, Be Better.