Barry Gottlieb on Dogs and the Power of Attitudes
Vonda and Lori pick up right where last week's conversation with business coach Barry Gottlieb left off — and this half goes deeper. Both hosts have been attending Barry's 30-minute SAF webinars on mental wellness, and they've noticed something: each week the audience grows, and more businesses are shutting down for half an hour so whole teams can watch together. After hearing this episode, you'll understand why. It contains one number every shop owner should memorize, one habit that costs nothing, and one story about a dog that left both hosts in tears.
The three mentors who shaped him
Asked to name the most influential people in his life, Barry starts with his parents as a pair: a master-sergeant father with an eighth-grade education and "a PhD in street smarts," and a mother who supplied all the love to balance all the discipline. Second, his graduate school professors at the College of Education, who opened his mind to thinkers like Ram Dass. Third, Wayne Dyer — the psychologist-turned-author whose cassette tapes Barry discovered in 1978, sparking a lifetime of collecting mentors like Denis Waitley, Harvey Mackay and Buck Rogers. His point for today's listener: you now have access to every mentor, living or past, largely for free. "We get to choose — do we want to spend our time putting something good in, or not?"
There's also a delightful detour: Barry's uncle was Joey Bishop of the Rat Pack, which meant his father's Miami Beach nightclub hosted Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and Nat King Cole. Barry's mother would dress the boys up to see the performers — Nat King Cole was his favorite.
The story of Dante
At 25, Barry was teaching at the University of Florida, a nine-year martial arts student and one of the top racquetball players in the state — and he was diagnosed with metastasized melanoma and given three to six months to live. His answer to the oncologist became his philosophy: "I am just going to live every freaking day to the very best that I can." Friends at the medical school tried experimental chemo and immunotherapy, and the treatments were brutal.
Then, one day, his beloved Great Dane, Dante — a dog who never left the fenced yard — disappeared, wandered to the highway, and was killed. That night Barry raged at God: dying of cancer, and now this. At eight the next morning, his doctor called, voice cracking. Specialists in Philadelphia had reviewed his blood work and slides and couldn't find cancer anywhere. He was cancer free. When Barry called his father with the news — good and bad — his father told a story Barry had never heard: he'd lost his own dog to an accident during his Army years, and his Romanian mother had written him that in their village, they believed a dog that close to you will give its life for you. Believe it or don't, Barry says — but there hasn't been a morning since that he hasn't woken up and given thanks for another day. That's where the title of his book TGIT — Thank God It's Today comes from.
85 percent of success is attitude
Vonda, deep into Barry's business book Brilliant on the Basics, asks the question every burned-out owner needs answered: what do you do when your attitude has gone sour and the passion is missing? Barry starts with the research: 85 percent of your success in getting, keeping and advancing in a job is attitude. Burnout, he says, is usually "stinking thinking" — a focus on the negative that requires a deliberate "checkup from the neck up." His prescription:
- Take a break, then deliberately rebuild joy into your days.
- Name the feeling — say it or journal it ("I'm feeling anxious"), identify what's causing it, then choose action steps.
- Feed your mind: he points to Mel Robbins' The Five Second Rule and Jen Sincero's You Are a Badass on audio, and notes Robbins built her comeback from her own rock bottom — free daily advice is right there on social media.
- Get a mentor or coach. Every peak performer — violinists, Navy SEALs, athletes — has one.
- Above all: "The solution to changing your attitude is gratitude." Write "I am grateful for..." and list a few things; your attitude will follow.
At Continental Farms, a sign by the front door read: Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching? Employees having an off day were walked to the sign and sent out for a lap. Everything, Barry insists, is a choice — victim or victor.
Knowledge isn't power unless you apply it
Barry's books are built as short, standalone chapters — the hosts lovingly call them perfect bathroom books, and Barry agrees — each ending with actionable steps. That's deliberate: he loved The Secret's positivity but it never said what to do. "Knowledge isn't power unless you apply it consistently," he says — you can't do curls once a month and expect great arms. There's also a newer edition, TGIT 2.0: A Manual for Life, with 51 bite-sized chapters. And yes — Lori got brave and asked him to come back. He said absolutely.
Key takeaways
- Attitude accounts for 85 percent of job success — and unlike aptitude, it's a daily choice.
- Gratitude is the fastest attitude reset there is: write down what you're grateful for the moment you feel the funk.
- Every peak performer has mentors and coaches; yours can be free, on audio, starting tomorrow's commute.
- Name your feelings, find the cause, choose an action — self-awareness is the first step out of a slump.
- Reading isn't enough; apply what you learn in small, consistent steps.
- As Barry signs off: every single day is a gift — the quality of your life is your gift to yourself.