Next time you are late to meet someone or late to a meeting, instead of "Sorry I'm late" say "thank you for waiting" instead. "Sorry" puts people in a defensive state and zaps the energy, while "thank you" puts people at ease with gratitude and brings a sense of positive energy. 

Another tip is to contact the person you are meeting the second you know you will be late. Update him or her on the new ETA and say "I acknowledge I'm late and I'm committed to being on time." This shows responsibility and action being taken on your part. 

Lastly, did you know optimistic people tend to run late? Studies show optimistic people think they can cram more into their schedule than actually fits, making them perpetually late! If that's you, just remember to say "thank you" instead of "I'm sorry" next time! 

Tracy Cousineau isn't your average success story. She moved out of her parents’ home when she was 16 and has been an entrepreneur ever since. After a difficult marriage and divorce, she wound up a single mom who had to hide financial difficulties from her children. Eventually, she changed her mindset and discovered her past did not define her future.

Now she is a powerhouse real estate entrepreneur and business coach. She is co-founder of the #1 real estate team in the Atlanta metro area, ranked as the #12 fastest growing company in Georgia by INC Magazine and a coach of real estate agents across the country. 

Tracy shares her story of overcoming struggles as a child and adult, and how she has used mindset to not only do well but actually THRIVE during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Tracy is also the author of "The Million Dollar Trap" which brings together the life lessons she's learned through her time in real estate and in life. She wants to help women who feel stuck and sometimes just need some hope and some support to get them back on their feet.

If you are looking for good news stories, positivity, and inspiring content in ten minutes or less, you in are the right place! Here's a look at the headlines in this week's podcast:

10-Year-old Boy Using His Birthday Metal Detector for the first time Unearths Centuries-Old Sword

Gardener Breaks Record for Growing Britain’s Largest Tomato With Help of Pantyhose

Northern California Highway Repaved Using 150,000 Plastic Bottles

2000-Year-Old Redwoods Survive Devasting Fire (Contrary to Widespread Rumors)

Lesbian Penguins Welcome Their First Baby in Spain

88-year-old Holocaust Survivor Awarded Diploma She Always Dreamed Of  

DMV Messes Up License and Sends Woman Picture of Empty Chair Instead of Her Face 

If you are looking for uplifting, positive content, and good news stories, you in are the right place! Here's a look at the headlines in this week's podcast:

Woman Takes Dishwashing Job to See Her Husband in Nursing Home 

Starbucks Barista Gets $100,000 in Tips after "Karen" Shamed him on Social Media 

California Condors Coming back from Brink of Extinction 

Students Urge School Bus Driver to Become History Teacher 

First Woman Becomes Army Green Beret

Women African Safari Guides are Breaking Down Barries for other Women

Great Way to Workout Outside for Free with a Personal Trainer in Your Ear 

Hi! I’m back after supporting the blackout last week and back with positive news coming out of a pretty intense time. It's the week of June 9th, 2020. 

We need to start with the story of Antonio Gwynn Jr. He's a high school senior who spent 10 hours cleaning up after a BLM protest and was rewarded with a Mustang convertible and college scholarship! 

Other headlines this week include:

A 97-year-old Auschwitz survivor showed up to support the Black Lives Matter protest

A tattooed White supremacist joins the Black Lives Matter protest in support

Zappos has a new hotline where you can ask them anything! Literally anything! 

New Zealand eradicates the Coronavirus 

Hi! Welcome to this week’s episode of all the good, happy, and inspiring stories.

The Afghan Dreamers, an all-girls high school robotics team in Afghanistan is using MIT's open-source ventilator design to make ventilators that could cost only a couple hundred dollars. There are 200 ventilators in all of Afghanistan. The girls are using car parts from Toyota Corolla's found at marketplaces because they can't order the needed parts online or find them in stores. This team is resourceful and amazing!

In Santa Cruz, CA, a hospital received a generous donation of $1 million from an anonymous donor who asked for the money to be split between all hospital employees. People who work there full-time will get $800 per month and part-time staff $600.⁠ This includes doctors, nurses and staff who clean the floors, deliver supplies, fix machines, and everything in between.

Cutest story of the week -  IKEA has published a set of how-to guides for the perfect family activity: building blanket forts. Like every other set of IKEA furniture, there is some assembly required—but the Swedish company made sure to include illustrated instructions for each of their designs which are made using household items like a pillow, chair, standing lamps, laundry pins and blankets. You can learn how to make a tent, a castle, a fortress and three other designs.

Here’s a fun story - a peacock found roaming the streets in Boston was able to be safely returned to the zoo it left when a police officer downloaded a mating call app on his phone to lure it to safety.

In product news, Crayola is releasing Colors of the World crayons to advance inclusion within creativity and impact how kids express themselves. The crayons reflect 32 different skin tones are the packs get released in July.

Lastly I want to highlight a really cool product that is made by a non-profit in Uganda. Bead For Life is providing thousands of women the opportunity to start businesses, put food on the table, send their children to school and lift themselves and their families out of poverty by empowering them to make necklaces out of recycled paper. 

I hope you enjoyed the dose of positivity! Feel free to rate, review and share this episode with anyone who would enjoy it! 

 

Here are the uplifting, inspiring, good, and positive news stories of the week in 10 minutes or less. 

If you found $135,000 in cash in a bag by the ATM, what would you do? A teen in New Mexico is being rewarded for returning all of it! 

The oldest woman in Spain at 113-year-old beats COVID-19. She says, “I have done nothing but live.”

NYC has gone 58 days without a pedestrian death - longest since record-keeping. 

From New Zealand to Hawaii and Montana - In those three locations there have been no new cases of COVID-19 reported.

Pedigree - the dog food company is teaming up with shelters to do dog adoptions via Zoom (and pays for the adoption!) The website to learn more is meetyournewdog.com

And finally, Disney is fast-tracking a filmed stage production of Hamilton to Disney+  on July 3rd, a whole 15 months before they planned to release it! For those of us who are broadway buffs (and especially me since I still haven't been able to see Hamilton on stage), this is incredibly exciting news! 

Keep me posted on the exciting news in your world! Any and all positivity is so needed right now. Much love! Your host, Deanne. 

After 8 weeks of sheltering in place, I think a lot of us are hitting a wall. So let’s dive into the positive, uplifting, happier news stories of the week and see if maybe we can feel better in 10 minutes or less. Here we go.

1- In Colorado, a man has won the lottery twice in one day after playing the same numbers for 30 years. Colorado Lottery officials identified 'Joe B' as the winner of two $1 million Powerball prizes in Pueblo on March 25

2- Scientists in Senegal Have Developed A $1 COVID-19 Testing Kit And Plan To Export Millions To African Countries

3- In a very poor part of Tijuana, Mexico a ten-year-old boy put a sign outside his home along with his stuffed animals saying he was selling them in order to buy food to help his mom. The community answered his call but instead of taking his stuffed animals, they filled their front yard with food and more toys for his collection.

4- Over in the UK, a charity that trains medical detection dogs that in the past have successfully detected malaria and cancer,  are now being trained to sniff out the coronavirus. Medical Detection Dogs - the charity behind this - is accepting donations and you can learn all about their dogs on social media too!

5 -Also in the UK, the race for a vaccine continues and they are saying they will know by July whether their Covid-19 vaccine is effective!

6- The spread of Covid-19 in Denmark has not accelerated since the country began a gradual loosening of restrictions in mid-April

7- Here in the U.S. - Gilead's experimental drug remdesivir may be the first effective coronavirus treatment, shorting the duration of illness in the sickest of patients. More data is needed but the nation's top infectious disease experts seem hopeful.

8- If you are near Vista, CA, come pick up a growler of kombucha or cold brew for FREE Saturday, May 9th between 11am-1pm. We're doing it because we, unfortunately, have some kegs that are getting close to their best buy dates and we refuse to pour it down the drain. We’d rather people enjoy it! Secondly, we think everyone deserves a kickback right now. Reserve yours at www.orderkombucha.com

9 - Starting 8pm EST Friday, May 1, go to the website Unite.Us, to watch 24 hours of live streaming inspiration from thought leaders like Oprah and Deepak as well as celebrities. Jump on to feel united and inspired. 

Have a good weekend and try to get outside in nature if you can!

Here are the uplifting, inspiring, good, and positive news stories of the week in 10 minutes or less.

Starting in Illinois where a gym owner gave out $40,000 worth of gym equipment to members to use at home, free of charge.

According to CNN, owner Drew didn't want his clients to give up on their fitness goals during the pandemic, So, he told members to come to pick up equipment from his gym -- and take it with them.

About 80 members of Be Strong Gym took Drew up on his offer, checking out barbells, weights, exercise bikes, rowers, and mats. Drew was thrilled to see the gym cleared out in 2 hours.

In Denmark, The LEGO Group reworked some of their machinery to make more than 13,000 plastic face masks per day. Good News Network says the masks will be distributed to hospitals and medical facilities across the country.

LEGO also announced this week that they would be donating 500,000 brick sets to children in need during the coronavirus outbreak. The company did not specify how the sets would be distributed, but they did ask their social media fans to show additional support to the NHS by building a LEGO brick rainbow in solidarity.

Turns out baking during a crisis can reduce stress and provide much-needed comfort. CNN reports Mental health professionals say a productive, rewarding activity like baking can give us a sense of accomplishment, and the steps along the way give us a feeling of order and often make us practice the precious skill of, well, waiting. I think cooking dinners helps too! 

Also, Research from the University of California shows that playing Tetris has a remarkable effect on a person’s mental health and performance and reduces feelings of anxiety.

Lastly, I want to give a huge shout out to Andrew Baduria who is an agent with Allstate. He is our broker at Kombucha On Tap for our insurance for our vehicles. He just donated 40 growlers of kombucha and cold brew coffee to health care workers and first responders. Thank you!!!! If you want to pay it forward like Andrew go to Orderkombucha.com

Also, get insurance through him.  :)

I recorded this episode live during a segment in the Facebook group The Quarantine Network. You may hear the sound of little kids in the background.  It’s Tuesday, April 7th and here are the positive, inspiring and good news stories for this week. Students At MIT Develop A $100 Alternative To $30,000 Ventilator Units—And All They Ask Is To Stay Anonymous In Canada, a 13-year-old scout used his 3d printer to invent “ear guards” to help take the pressure off health care workers’ ears from wearing masks all day. In Detroit, a man named Marshall spent $900 from his savings to buy gas for nurses. In Youngstown, Ohio a man used his company’s bucket truck to visit his 80-year-old mom through the window who lives on the third floor of a nursing home. John Krasinski from The Office is now a legend in the world of positive news. His youtube show called Some Good News released episode number two and it’s full of good news, comedy and the cast of Hamilton singing to a young fan. In Ireland, prime minister Leo Varadkar has re-registered as a medical practitioner and will work one shift a week to help the coronavirus crisis. He worked as a doctor for seven years before leaving the profession to become a politician. A Facebook group called RV’s for MD’s connects healthcare workers with RV’s so they can self isolate while staying near their hospitals. Plug for my company, Kombucha On Tap. We've given out more than 100 gifted growlers of kombucha and cold brew coffee to local health care heroes and first responders. If you want to pay it forward and help it's only $25 and the website is orderkombucha.com.  If you see good news stories, send them my way or tag me on facebook or instagram - just search Deanne Goodman. I hope you feel a little less anxious after hearing those positive stories. Please stay home this week, let’s get past the peak. Sending you good vibes and I’ll be back next week with a new dose of the happier news stories.

After a "purposeful pause," the In Happier News podcast is back by popular demand. Who doesn't need some positive news right now with everything going on with COVID-19?! Here are happier, inspiring stories from around the world in ten minutes or less. 

Today is March 25, 2020: 

1- Oceanside, CA Kitchen Takes Donated Restaurant Food, Volunteer Chefs Turn it into Meals and Volunteers Delivering it to Elderly, Immune-Comprised and Low-Income Families. 

2- Distilleries Making Hand Sanitizer 

3 - Businesses Giving Back During The Coronavirus: 

U-Haul offering 30 days of free storage to college students who are displaced due to the coronavirus outbreak. 

L’oreal is going to produce hand sanitizer. 

Burger King is giving away two free kids' meals with any purchase if you use the Burger King app 

Uber Eats is donating 300,000 meals to first responders and healthcare workers. Woot woot!!!! 

Designer and "Project Runway" winner Christian Siriano’s sewing team is making masks for healthcare workers. 

Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple will be donating "millions" of masks to health workers in the US and Europe. 

Facebook donated 720,000 masks that were leftover from the California wildfires. 

Johnson and Johnson donated  1 million masks, 48,000 bottles of isopropyl alcohol, an electrosurgical generator, and 1,300 packs of Acuvue contact lenses to affected areas in China. 

The owner of the retail store Zara, announced it will donate masks to coronavirus patients and health officials in Spain. The company says it's also looking into converting factories to manufacture hospital gowns. 

4- Venice canals run clear, dolphins appear in Italy’s waterways amid coronavirus lockdown 

5- JOANN Stores are Handing Out Free Fabric Supplies at Curbside to Anyone Sewing Face Masks at Home 

6- How to 3-D print a protective face shield (and then donate it to health care workers) 

If you have a great story to share or feedback, connect at InHappierNews.com. 

About the host: Deanne Goodman is a journalist, mom, speaker and co-founder of Kombucha On Tap. You can follow her on Instagram or Facebook. In Happier News also has it's own Instagram page @inhappiernews where you'll find inspiration and information on the latest episodes.