Hi Reader,

Do you have a Friday night ritual?

The thing about rituals of any kind is that they become a committed event. We put them on our calendars. We don't let anything stand in their way (usually).

This week on episode 302, Meri Stockwell shares how her Friday night ritual prepares her for her accompanying ritual on Saturday morning. She calls it Sunrise Saturday.

Each Friday night, she confers with CC, her Chief Cultural Officer, on a topic for her water-side video recording the next morning.

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CC is her Cavapoo.

It turns out that CC has a lot to share. Her gift is inspiring Meri to prepare a thoughtful message for her Sunrise Saturday video recordings.

Meri shares on episode 302, about her journey to these Friday night and Saturday morning rituals, and how they have created a meaningful connection with many including old classmates, neighbors, clients, and complete strangers.

Maybe you'll be inspired to create a new ritual you've been considering.

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In this week's episode 302 the main point is this.

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Did you know that you can watch each week's episode on my YouTube channel? 👇🏼

Each video is produced with visual elements to help bring the story alive beyond the audio. If podcast consumption on YouTube is new to you, give it a try! 😎

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The Coach's Corner Weekly insights and actionable tips from my lens as an executive coach—helping you lead, grow, and thrive.

This AI Compliment Is Costing Your Team Their Credit

Do you judge colleagues by the quality of their PowerPoint presentations, or their spreadsheets?

We’ve all experienced the pressure of producing a presentation for a key stakeholder like a client. You did the research. You prepared the presentation outline. You feel good about the story arc you've developed. You feel good about the impact you’ll have on your audience. You know it's going to resonate.

You get to work designing your presentation in PowerPoint or Keynote or your software of choice. This part is important because you want the presentation to deliver your message after you've worked tirelessly to produce it.
Let's say you used PowerPoint. After an iterative process with your AI tool of choice, you're pleased with the PowerPoint deck.

You feel ready for the client presentation. You're confident because you put in the work.
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You sleep well. The big day has arrived. You deliver the presentation.
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As you confidently expected, your audience loves it because it landed!

Of course, it landed. You planned it meticulously. You knew it would.
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At that moment, you're gloating with fulfillment. All that hard work paid off.

Then, the client's lead person says it. At first, you thought you misheard what they said. But, you heard them correctly.
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The client’s exact words in their flattery were, "Your AI did a great job on this presentation!"

In that moment you felt shattered. All your hard work was reduced to a robot. You received no credit for it. NONE.

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I had a similar experience recently. A colleague and I presented information to a client. We worked hard to prepare a document with just the right information. Yes, we used AI to guide the final document. It was our collective discernment and expertise that drove the quality of the final output.

Yet, the client’s response was, "Your AI did a great job."

If you're a leader, I urge you to be self-aware when meeting with staff in review of their deliverables. Judge the quality of the work, not the technology behind it.

Consider that when a CFO presents a multi-million dollar budget to a board of directors for the next fiscal year, the CFO probably used a spreadsheet to produce the budget. Yet, the Board doesn't say, "That’s a great spreadsheet?"​
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In the context of AI transformation, this is the Human Dividend™.

It's a leader's responsibility to recognize three human capabilities in their team, Discernment, Relational Intelligence, and Purpose-Driven Judgment, and to help their team harness them to produce work worth recognizing.

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The client wasn't wrong to assume we used AI, no different than the Board assumes a CFO used a spreadsheet. They were wrong about where the value came from.

Don't recognize the AI. Recognize, coach, and develop the three human capacities behind it. That's the Human Dividend™.

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You Can Catch This Week's Episode:

Listen on Apple​
Listen on Spotify​
Listen on Overcast​
Listen on our Website​
Watch on YouTube​

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The 42-Minute Walk That Turned Grief Into a Leadership Legacy

Meri Stockwell has coached more than 600 emerging leaders over three decades. But episode 302 isn’t about strategy decks or performance reviews. It’s about grief, a 6 a.m. walking habit, and a Cavapoo who ended up with the unofficial title of Chief Cultural Officer. What started as a way to overcome the loss of two dogs in two years turned into a weekly video series, a softer leadership style, and a reminder that legacy isn’t only what you plan. Sometimes it’s a leash, a sunrise, and a promise you keep to yourself every morning.

Who This Is For

• Leaders who think legacy only comes from titles, milestones, or grand plans

• Anyone moving through grief and looking for a structure, not just advice, to help them process it

• People curious how one small daily habit can rebuild confidence, health, and connection

• Coaches and executives wondering whether a softer leadership style can also be a stronger one

• Listeners who enjoy an unconventional creator's story, this one involves a dog with an executive title

Five Key Takeaways

1. After losing her two dogs, Sierra and Pebbles, within about two years of each other, Meri added the dates together, landed on 42, and committed to walking at least 42 minutes every morning at 6 a.m. as a way to move through grief rather than around it.
2. The walk led her to a Cavapoo she calls CC, after basketball player Caitlin Clark, whose presence softened how Meri shows up on camera and how she leads and coaches.
3. What started as a private ritual became Sunrise Saturday, a weekly video series filmed along Florida’s Gulf Coast, where CC delivers three tips a week and always gets the last word.
4. The series built real community. Meri hears from high school classmates, neighbors, and strangers who recognize her and CC, with some videos reaching thousands of views.
5. Meri connects the ritual to all five fulfillment pillars: health (26 pounds lost and more consistency), mental fitness (staying present instead of stuck in grief), relationships (old friendships resurfacing and new ones forming), career (a more human coaching style), and legacy (built daily, not just planned for someday).

Meri's story illustrates how grief evolved into a weekly ritual, and why the parts of leadership we soften are often the ones people remember most.

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The Human Dividend™ White Paper

Stay fulfilled,
Bernie Borges
Founder: The Fulfilled@Work Academy™
Host, Life Fulfilled Podcast

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