Episode 51: Renee Giarrusso – How a Gift Mindset lifts people and culture

In this episode, I sit down with Renee Giarrusso – a highly sought-after communication, leadership and mindset expert, four-time international award-winning author, speaker, educator and coach. Renee works with organisations and leaders to elevate communication, collaboration and culture, with one clear purpose: to make workplaces exceptional places to work.

Together, Renee and I dive deep into one of her most powerful frameworks: The Gift Mindset – a concept that asks us to stop, reflect and look for the “gift” in every experience, challenge and change.

💡 In This Episode You’ll Learn:

✨ What inspired The Gift Mindset

Renee shares how a personal loss at a young age sparked a lifelong approach: turning events into experiences, wounds into scars, and challenges into opportunities for growth, insight and connection.

✨ The 12 Gifts that shape purposeful living

Renee explores key gifts – including optimism, curiosity, courage, connection, growth, forgiveness and re-energising – and how these human skills help leaders create more conscious, connected and resilient workplaces.

✨ Why optimism and realism must coexist

True leadership isn’t surface positivity. Renee explains how grounded optimism fuels resilience, momentum and culture – and how leaders can cultivate it authentically.

✨ Courage, comfort zones & the stretch zone

Renee unpacks how courage expands through action, how to move beyond the “safe zone,” and why courage is built through small steps that compound over time.

✨ The human skills AI will never replace

Connection, curiosity, empathy and emotional intelligence – why these skills matter now more than ever and how leaders can intentionally build them.

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