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Valerie Tremblay is a dynamic speaker, executive coach, and facilitator with over 25 years of experience guiding leaders through complexity, building resilience, and thriving in a rapidly changing world. With a proven track record as a former Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) at billion-dollar corporations, she brings deep insight into leading through uncertainty, cultivating high-performance cultures, and driving meaningful transformation.

 

In this episode, Jason and Valerie discuss:

  • Maintaining an optimistic mindset during life’s volatility
  • Personal resilience through major life challenges and loss
  • Process of navigating and adapting to change effectively
  • Finding freedom in letting go of physical attachments
  • Building psychological safety and resilience amid rapid transformations like AI

Key Takeaways:

  • Cultivating resilience and a high-performing mindset is not just beneficial but essential for leading through uncertainty and enacting meaningful change.
  • Personal hardships like divorce, relocation, and the loss of possessions are reframed not as defeats but as catalysts for growth, showcasing resilience as a mindset rooted in optimism and adaptability.
  • Rather than resisting disruption, a methodical approach to change is embraced—acknowledging emotions, shifting perspectives, and advancing through small, intentional steps that foster momentum.
  • In choosing to detach from material possessions after a natural disaster, an unexpected liberation is uncovered, reinforcing the psychological strength found in minimalism and emotional clarity.
  • With AI and rapid transformation shaping the future, success hinges on staying anchored in possibilities, leaning into relationships, and remaining open to evolving through each wave of change.

 


“Sometimes life throws you off course—not because you’ve failed, but because that path wasn’t meant for you. It’s frustrating—your time, energy, and heart were all in it. But shifts happen. And suddenly, you’re somewhere else entirely. The key? Keep your mind in believing places.”

 - Valerie Tremblay

Connect with Valerie Tremblay:

Connect with Steve and Jason:

 

Listen to the podcast here:

 

 

Valerie Tremblay - Keep Your Mind in Believing Places

Hello and welcome everybody to this episode of The Insight Interviews. This is your host, Jason Abell, and boy oh boy, do I have a treat for us today. This is a guest where, when her name ran across my desk, I was like, of course we've already interviewed her, and then I looked, and I looked, and I'm like, okay, this is just silliness. We haven't interviewed her, and we need to get her on the podcast post haste, like, right away. So, I reached out to her, and here we are. None other than Val Tremblay. Listen to who Val is. Some of you that are listening, this name is going to be familiar to you, but for those of you that are not familiar with Val, she is a world traveler, she's a dynamic speaker, she's an executive coach, one of the best facilitators that I've ever run across, and I'll tell you why in a minute, and she's been doing this for a quarter of a century. She specializes in helping people build resilience and thrive in an ever-evolving world. She's had leadership positions at billion-dollar corporations, including positions such as Chief Human Resource Officer. She understands firsthand the challenges of leading through uncertainty, fostering high performing cultures and driving meaningful transformation. Val, welcome to the show.

Hi, Jason.

I am going to ask you a question, and you've listened to the podcast, so you know what my first question is, and there's so much that I've learned from you over the years. But right now, before we get into anything, I want to ask you, who or what are you most grateful for this morning?

I thought about that, you know, because I, of course, your first instinct is to say, my health, my family, my kids. And what I want to tell you is I am grateful for the ability to keep my thoughts in believing places.

Okay, maybe we're gonna have a 30-minute discussion about your answer now. Please tell me more about that answer.

Well, you know, mindset is everything in what we do, and we live in a VUCA world. People have heard that so much, and I think that lately I've realized that no matter what's happening, I'm able to keep my thinking and believing places of optimism, places of hope, places of agency, and it's a learned skill. I think a lot of people struggle with that, and it's been a life's work for me to try and do that well. And I wake up every day despite all the VUCA in the world, and I think to myself, wow, I am able to keep my thoughts and believing places these days. So yes, of course, I'm grateful for my family and my health and my friends and all that, but that's what came to mind.

We're going to get right into some of your most current events, because I have a feeling, you know, you've been coaching on things like EQ and resilience and culture for, we just said, over 25 years, but the last year with natural disasters and other you know, things you've had to practice what you help others practice, right? And so would you just tell people a little bit about some of your life experiences recently? And then we'll get into all kinds of other things, but when I got a text from you the other day, I was like, Oh, boy. Okay, so tell us what's been going on with you lately?


Ah, where to start. You know, you ask me that question, and part of me says to myself, I think everybody has a story that would break your heart or just break you, and I'm not unique by any means. I think the volume of things that have happened to me just, you know, you coach on resilience, and you have to practice what you preach in some ways. Let's see. In the last three years, I've become an empty nester, and for those of you who have gone through that journey and know what it's like not to get to make pancakes on Sunday morning and the chauffeuring and whatnot. So, all my three of my kids are grown and flown, and it coincided with my husband and I deciding to go our separate ways, and a move from the West Coast to the East Coast for me, and a new starter, a fresh start in a new community. And last September, the nice little beach bungalow where I lived on St Pete Beach was taken by hurricane Helena. And so, the latest and greatest thing that I've had to navigate is losing all of my possessions. I like little sound bites and the one that I held on to when that happened was, the more stuff you own, the more stuff owns you. And so, when it happened, I just thought, okay, I need to just reframe here. I don't have any belongings anymore, but here's what I still have, and navigate from there. So, in the last 18 months, I want to say those are three or four of the major life events, and there's been many more, as we've talked about, and being able to keep your thoughts in believing places is quite important when you're faced with challenges. So, thanks for asking. But it's all good.

It's all good. Tell me just, just so the people that are you know on their run as they're listening to this, or on their commute, and I don't want to spend a lot of time here but just tell us about the actual day that the hurricane came and what that was like. Because for those of you that don't normally come face to face with the natural disasters, it's just a thing. And lately, in our world and in our country, it's been a thing. Just tell us about that day a little bit, and then I promise we'll move on.

I heard when I moved out here, because I had never lived in the place of hurricanes before, that a hurricane is like being stalked by a turtle. And so, I thought that was really funny, because, you know it's coming, you just don't know how long it's going to be. So, like everyone, I evacuated because I was told to, although I had made dinner plans with some friends. I had invited some friends for dinner, and one of them called to cancel and said they were going to do hurricane prep, and we all sat there going, well, what are we supposed to do exactly? We're not sure. And so, she sent us a list of things to consider, and I was like, if there's going to be this much water, it should be fine. So, you don't expect six feet of swell churning all of your belongings like in a washing machine. And it took a couple of days before we would roulette back into the area. And I remember standing outside, the air thick with salt and debris, staring at what used to be my cozy little beach bungalow and all of my belongings, books, clothes, photos, everything was gone, just like that. Everything I had rebuilt, because I had just left the west coast the year before had been swept away, you know. And you stand there, and you say, okay, I have a choice right now. I can break down and start raging at the unfairness of it all, or just recognize that the storm had come, whether I liked it or not, and I couldn't change that, but what I could change what was happened next. And so, I just thought, okay, I'm glad, first of all, this didn't happen when I had three kids at home, and I had to figure out school because my community was absolutely devastated. And then I’m glad that I have means, because I can help other people out. I'm okay. I still have my health, my job, my dreams, my family, my friends, everything that truly matters. And then I thought, what opportunities does this present? So, where else can I explore? And that was it. It was like a five-minute pivot. And then I went on.

So there’s a great segue. The five-minute pivot. So, for so many other people, that's not a five-minute pivot. And just to give people a little bit of a history of how I know Val to begin with, years and years ago, when Steve Scanlon and I started a coaching company, we quickly realized that all of our coaching skills were just kind of like school of hard knocks, stuff. Like, we didn't have any real down, like, how about we learn more tools and skills and different things? And we said, well, I don't know the coaching industry has a certification, so maybe that would be a good idea. And so, we enrolled in a class that was phenomenal, and lo and behold, you were at the front of the room facilitating. And I remember Steve and I in the back of the room, and we're like, she should be one of our coaches, but that probably would never happen, because she's so darn good. And we learned so much from you. It was weeks and weeks and weeks, and some of it was in person, and some of it was virtual, and it was just so darn good and lo and behold, you did end up helping us with some coaching activities, which has been a joy, and we've gotten know you really well, but Val is a just a master facilitator of coaching techniques. Like I said at the top of the show, she is an executive coach for many really important people around. You've coached me without maybe officially coaching me, but just by observation, and some of the questions that you ask have been really good. Anyways, that's a segue to say your five-minute pivot there, let's just get down and dirty here, Val. When you are helping others go through a business transition or a business blow up, or maybe it is something personal, like some of your things were personal, what are things that people should be thinking about and asking themselves? I don't know. Where do you want to go with helping people with resiliency when they need it? Because there'll be times where they need it.

Yeah, what a great coaching question as well, Jason.

I learned from the best, by the way.

I don't know, I'm thinking that was like almost a decade ago. Could it be? I remember exactly where we were and you and Steve being there, and how wowed I was by your presence and your participation, and how grateful I felt that I had the opportunity, and then just the way things evolved as they were meant to of course. Martha Beck is one of my favorite authors, to answer your question, if you’ve ever read any of her books. She was a Harvard doctorate who was in the wrong life for her for many years, and she was Oprah's life coach and in O magazine for a long time.

I knew I knew that name. Okay, yep.

I always, always followed her work, and she just released a book, and there's a quote from it that that I just I'm hanging on to, which is, “how can we exist as a continuous response to what's happening to us?” Because I think that, as you and I have talked about the neuroscience, our brains are prediction machines, knowing what's going to come next, having certainty or the ability to predict outcomes makes us feel safe, right? So, when disconnecting in our brains, it feels unsafe, and we work and work and work at trying to make it make sense.

Yeah.

You've heard me say human beings are meaning making machines, and our favorite sport is jumping to conclusions. I really believe that. So, insert change or everything feels uncertain, and it's really uncomfortable for the brain. We think people resist change, but really what they're resisting is the outcome they fear. And there's an opportunity to break down what's happening in order to make sense of it in real time. And one of the frameworks, if you would, that I've been working with is one that I call the four res, but the first and very important step is to recognize what's happening. You know how we say acceptance is the first step, right? So, I lost my home in a hurricane. That's what happened, right? Let me just recognize that it is and it's gonna come with certain emotions. So, in helping clients deal with change, especially change that they didn't plan for, I mean, it's one thing when you decide that you want to quit your job and move to Italy and eat pasta for a year. That kind of change isn't the type of change that scares us. It's the change where we didn't plan for it, we didn't ask for it, everything that's happening in the corporate world today, sometimes we're a little blindsided, so how do we pivot? And I think it starts with recognition. First of all, people have emotional responses to situations, and those are absolutely valid. Making people feel heard, listening, creating the conditions for them to feel safe expressing themselves is super important. And then, you know, asking open ended questions, which is what we do. Like, how do you understand this change and what it might mean for you? Getting them to think a little bit. Once you've recognized the storm you're in, because I'm still thinking about that, what comes next, right? And then, as you and I do, helping people reframe. This isn't the end of your story. It's a new chapter. And so, what if, instead of seeing change as a full stop, we saw it as a plot twist that moves the story forward. And, you know, again, I get a little triggered by the silver lining concept, because it's easy to do, like, years later, but when you're in the midst of a change, sometimes there is no silver lining. Like it's difficult and there's a turning point. And I don't want to talk think through opportunities, I just want to think through what's possible from this point forward. And then I would think a little recalibrating. You're not stuck, your genre just changed. You know when you're reading a great book, but suddenly it shifts? And you’re like, oh, I thought this was a mystery, but now I'm in like a game of thrones type of genre. It’s like an unexpected turn. What is it now? And so, thinking about how to adapt, obviously, and then we talk about this in the training we did together. I'm sure you coach through it. What's that one recognition, that one little step, it doesn't have to be the full one thing, but one thing you can do to move the story forward, to turn the page, to try and take some action. So, you and I once talked about the fact that I was theory agnostic. I remember one time you asked me, did you write a book, Val? And I said no, because when I coach I I'm a bit of a learning junky, and I like to learn everything else that everyone is doing and then use the techniques that my clients need. I kind of like that framework to help people think through change that they didn't expect.

What's that one little step thing that, as I learned several things from you that I use regularly, that one I use almost every day, if not on myself or my clients. So many times clients, and this correlates to what you're talking about, as far as resilience, with the recognition, reframing, adapting, this idea of, sometimes people want to go, I'm a couch potato but I want to run a marathon. Okay, cool. What's one small little step that you're not taking now that we can take in that direction, and then we start stacking those small steps. And before you know it, three months later, six months later, whatever, you look in your rearview mirror, you're like, oh my gosh, all those small little steps added up and you're at a different place. And so, yeah, that small little step question is a good one. What's one little thing I can do right now is so darn good. You said something when you were talking about the day of the hurricane. You had this moment, and you had this quote where, what did you say? The more stuff you have, the more stuff has you? Or something like that. Talk a little bit more about that, because, boy, am I in the midst of coaching a lot of people where there's just a lot of stuff. So, I don't know. Talk more about that. I mean, I'm shaking my head to that quote, but could you just expand on that a little bit?

The more stuff you own, the more stuff owns you. Jason, it was so literal. I actually meant, like, physical stuff. Like the more couches and the more furniture, and the more things I have, the more blocked I am. So long as you're going to lose everything, you might as well see it as a blank slate. You know, it wasn't even the financial or the costly stuff. It was books, and it was, although the seven years of accounting paperwork, ugh. But it was the books, and it was the journals, and it was all those things that you can't really replace, but you feel a lot lighter when you're not tied to physical belongings, or at least that is my experience of it. I bought myself a really nice suitcase, and I lived out of it for four months afterwards. And I'm kind of chuckling, because, as you and I've been talking, I'm waiting for furniture delivery. It’s good to feel grounded, but I think it's just a good reminder that you're not taking it with you at the end of the road anyway, so, what matters most, right? What matters most? And for me, it was the realization that it's really not stuff, and it was a good opportunity to just pivot.

Yeah, yeah. So good. Well, speaking of pivoting, right now, I know you're always reading new books. In fact, before we started recording you, you mentioned some things that you're looking at and reading. For you, I know you said a good portion of the time you're traveling around as you're doing in person workshops still, and helping executives and helping other coaches like myself, learn the craft and hone their craft. Right now, what types of things as you're observing not only the coaching industry, but just business in general, the industry? We live in a changing world right now in 2025. What types of things are you seeing out there from your vantage point that you're excited about these days?

Have you ever seen the words opportunity is nowhere, all meshed together. Opportunity is nowhere, and then you read it again, and it actually reads opportunity is now here.

Oh.

I know. I love that since, like, you know the how your chosen perspective changes, everything, I see a lot of extremely fast change that people weren't expecting, you know? And it's just, oh my gosh, complex change happening at a faster rate than ever before. And I think organizations need their employees to embrace and adopt change quickly to remain in business. But often there's that resistance response, because, as we've talked about, uncertainty can trigger fear. So how do employers get their employees on board with change when action has to precede motivation? Sometimes?

Yes.

And you know, like a new boss or restructuring a new system. it feels like the minute you have some certainty, you're rerouted to a destination that you have. I think the only way to navigate that is to, again, I’ll quote Martha Beck, “exist as a continuous response to what's happening.”. It requires this mindset of being able to say, okay, I don't have all the answers, I'm not going to have all the answers, and I still need to be able to function. So, there's a couple of things required. The first is psychological safety. People need to feel safe that it's okay to pivot, even though they're being rewarded to do one thing, because pivot, to me, is just a corporate way of saying your life's about to get really uncomfortable.

Yes, true.

I'm gonna keep things the way they were. So, you know, you think about, I hadn't even caught up on AI that I started hearing about agentic AI. I don't even know if I'm pronouncing it right. It's things that we haven't even considered and sometimes, because of the way our brains are, we get stuck in seeing the limitations, whereas the necessary mindset shift is we have to be able to look at the opportunities, because navigating the opaque is becoming what we need to do to thrive.

Yeah. Oh, man. And so, as I listen to that, I just I have more questions. And again, I'm shaking my head, okay, yeah, sure. Psychological safety, you're right. Ai. I downloaded ChatGPT and then there's all these other things that I'm hearing about. I'm like, oh my gosh, what's happening here? And trying to keep up, so like, what you said about the word pivot is just another way of saying our lives are going to get crazy. If there are the executives that are listening to us right now, if they're like, okay, resilience, and this person not only teaches it, but they had to live it, and I just heard an example of how they literally lived it in the last year or so, I know we don't like to give advice when we're coaches. There was one exercise that we did where we weren't allowed to give any advice at all, and the way that you framed that exercise, it was really trying. And as coaches, we were just asked to ask more creative questions and different things. And I'm asking you to give advice here, as you see the executives and the different things that the people in industry are dealing with these days, if you could put up a billboard somewhere or just say, hey, look at this, or pay attention to this, what might that be right now, Val?

You know, can I just say something before that? It's the que-gesstions. Remember that expression? It's really funny. It's us trying to give advice as coaches.

Instead of saying, talk to this person.

Exactly, exactly. Thank you for giving me permission to do that, because it's not something that we're trained to do, right? And you know why? 86 billion neurons in your brain, the chances of me understanding your context and your reality the way you do is impossible. And so, I think what people give advice, another one of my favorite sayings is, you know, is ideas are like children. We like our own the best, right? Somebody gives you advice, and it goes in one ear and out the other, whereas if you come up with it, if you have the insight, then you're more likely to act on it than if somebody else tells you what to do.

So well said.

Yeah, full circle for me, and you asked me the question, I'll tell you, the first thing that popped into my mind. My billboard would be, keep your mind in believing places. I'm going to go back,.

Full circle.

Life is going to happen, and I really firmly believe that if you're thrown in a direction that's not meant for you, things are going to happen to take you off course. And in the moment, you're not going to feel like it's the right thing to do, because you will have put effort and energy and everything into going that direction. Shift happens. And then all of a sudden, you're somewhere else, and if you can't keep your mind in believing places, and you go down that deep, dark hole of, why is this happening to me, notice the victim tone, rather than, hmm, I wonder why this is happening to me, And then get to a place of, oh my gosh, why is this happening to me, right?

Oh golly. So, so darn good. Val, on your website, I noticed there was a lot about asking better questions and questions leading to certain things, and so, yeah, thank you for that answer. And that may even be the title of this podcast episode is keep your mind in believing places. You tied that up well. You talked about it at the top, you talked about it at the end. I feel like we could do not only round two, but round three of this. And so, you very well may see an invite from me later on to do more episodes, because I just feel like there's more there.

And you just gave me an insight. Can I share it?

Please, come on.

So, thank you for that gift. The insight I had as you were just saying what you were saying. You remember that whole concept of in group, out group, friend or foe, until we have something in common with someone or a common role, we categorize it as universal, to categorize how we categorize as individual?

Sure.

Here's how I keep my mind in believing places, and it's the whole relatedness. I look at all the people that I know, and I'm thinking about this conversation and how I believe in humanity and the fact that we're going to be able to figure this out. I mean, I just had this amazing conversation with you today, and like the world is full of people that want to be in service of it. So, how do we just leverage those relationships in a way that just makes us all get better and able to keep our mind in believing places? So, thank you for giving me the opportunity to have that insight with you today.

You're so darn good. Oh my gosh. I'm leaving feeling better than when we came into the conversation. And thank you for that gift. Val, I know we need to end here pretty quickly. People are probably going to want to find you as a result of this conversation. How do people find you?

LinkedIn. Valerie Trombley, the accents French Canadian. You've heard me say put the emphasis on the wrong syllable. V Tremblay on LinkedIn. VTremblay.com is my website. Yeah. ValTremblay@Outlook.com. Any way.

Oh, perfect. Val, thank you so much for your insights. You created a bunch for me. I wrote a page of notes, but I think people are going to have their own insights as a result of this, but selfishly, I just appreciate spending time with you. Thank you so much,

Grateful for you, Jason.

So many insights from Val Tremblay. This whole thing about keep your mind and believing places. She started off with that, she ended with that, and then she really underlined it for me when she said, I believe in humanity, and then she expanded upon that. That is something I'm going to write on my wall right now. I believe in humanity. And there's just some depth there that I want to dig into for myself. That’s my insight. And I couldn't help but write down when she said, shift happens, which I really appreciated, that change is fast. Opportunity is everywhere. Like lots of insights that I had, and I so appreciated my time with Val, but as we say at the end of every episode of The Insight Interviews, it doesn't much matter what me as the host, what my insights were but what really matters, dear listeners, is what insights did you have?

                                                                                                             ---

Thanks for reading. If you got any value at all from this episode, a little nugget all the way up to some big, huge insight, please do us a solid by subscribing, recommending, rating, and reviewing us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or Google. That stuff matters to us, and it allows us to continue interviewing more awesome people.


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