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Women Taking the Lead

The Women Taking the Lead podcast is a resource for women leaders, allies, and organizations looking to promote more women into senior leadership. Episode formats include specific leadership challenges, "on-air" coaching with women leaders, and interviews with internal talent and organizational development leaders. Women Taking the Lead inspires women to overcome self-doubt and lead with confidence, integrity and a sense of humor.
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Now displaying: Page 6
Apr 27, 2020

In September of 2017 I did a few episodes on the Cycle of Change. Given what we are going through currently I think this is a good time for a review.

I was first introduced to the concept of the cycle of change when I was getting certified as a coach through iPEC Coaching. They had a nice analogy of the cycle of change as a card game.

The Cycle of Change

Change occurs in a cycle and we’re always in some part of the cycle of change in every area of our lives. Each part of your life is likely in different parts of the cycle.

Because we tend to interpret different stage of the change cycle as good or bad, we commonly have the experience of feeling like there are always some areas of our life in which we are winning and other areas that feel like we are struggling.

In this episode I’m going to give a brief overview of The Cycle of Change and discuss the overarching phase we are currently going through during the COVID-19 pandemic.

phases

Using the card game analogy for The Cycle of Change there are several phases.

Before you play a card game you have to decide what game you’re going to play. This usually happens as you’ve started to shuffle the cards so this phase is called The Shuffle Phase.

The game is chosen and cards are dealt. During The Deal Phase your mind is considering your resources, the other players, a strategy is chosen and you are formulating a plan.

Then you move into the phase called Play the Game. Obviously, this is the phase of movement and action.

Then the game comes to a close and you are now in The Toss in Phase. During this phase you are absorbing what just happened and either celebrating a victory or considering how you feel about defeat.

Phase 4: Toss In

All things come to an end and typically people are rarely ready for the cycle to end because when you’re in the Playing the Game phase there’s a lot of energy and excitement. At the end, the Toss In, there is loss, grief, confusion or a lack of clarity for what’s next. Whether it is the end of a job role or a relationship, people in this part of the cycle are usually unhappy and cannot see how they will be able to go through it all again.

In this part of The Cycle of Change you will take little action on your own and resist change because of fear and uncertainty, and depending on how the last phase ended, there may be a lack of hope.

In this phase you may also feel victimized and like you don’t have control over your circumstances. You may find yourself being grumpier, ill at ease, and even experiencing pain more.

At the end of the Toss In, there can be an intense state of “hibernation” or “cocooning”. If you’ve read my book, Accomplished, you’ll be very familiar with. This state eventually passes, and if you let yourself just be during this phase you will naturally find yourself getting renewed and re-energized, ready for the next phase.

Does this all sound familiar to what we’ve been going through lately?

When our events were cancelled, when the schools and business establishments were closed, when the Stay at Home orders were issued, we all found ourselves unexpectedly in The Toss In phase. This is why so many of us have been experiencing feelings of grief. We are grieving a way of life that will either take a long time to get back to or may never be the same again.

Here is some guidance for you that may help to ease the discomfort of being in this phase.

Allow yourself to experience all the thoughts and feelings created by loss and uncertainty.

Don’t try to rush through it, or numb the experience, because you feel uncomfortable. It is normal for this phase to feel uncomfortable and unnatural, especially if you are living in a culture that celebrates achievement, productivity, and getting things done.

It’s okay to give in to the need to withdraw for a while because the reflection and contemplation you will do while you are feeling low energy is critical to gaining clarity to go into the next phase.

I also want to underscore that numbing this experience by overindulging in sugar, alcohol, tobacco, Netflix, exercise, etc. will prevent you from doing the deep work that strengthens you and provides clarity for the next stage. I’m not judging having anything in small doses and moderation. It’s using these things to distract yourself from uncomfortable thoughts and feelings that will cause suffering in the long run.

If you’ve ever found yourself stuck in indecision because you just had no clue what you wanted or didn’t want, it was probably because you skipped past the Toss In phase and so never got the information you needed to do the next phase well.

In this stage of grieving you are doing an analysis of what went right and what went wrong while you were in the last Cycle of Change. You are considering your thoughts, feelings, actions and the results you got during that cycle.

Many of us have been looking at the lifestyle we were living in the last few years and questioning if that’s how we want to move forward.

All of this is important information that you need to synthesize, and then integrate, to strengthen you to move forward.

Do the work. And the work looks like being with yourself even if it feels yucky.

It’s okay to vent to release the emotion.

Fear, anxiety, doubt, loss and anger are all normal during this phase. Find people you trust implicitly and make it clear to them you don’t need them to fix you or make you feel better, you just need them to hear you and validate where you are.

Let them know you’ll tell them when you are ready to take some action but until then you need them to respect where you are in the process. It may help to explain to them that this is a grieving process.

Look for the positives.

What is going well? What can you count on? This will give you some foundation to stand on while other things feel like they are coming undone.

Lastly, be good to yourself.

Give yourself some guilt-free space to just be for a while without the need to do, accomplish or achieve anything.

Remember, this too shall pass but don’t force it. Otherwise, you’ll just find your back here again without having made any progress.

If this was helpful to you, I’m going to ask a favor. Please share this episode with a friend or colleague whom you know could benefit from this information. It’s sharing resources that helps us all get through tough times.

I hope this was of value to you and here’s to your success!

Thank You to Our Sponsors!

Zebralove Web SolutionsYour website tells a story about your business! At Zebralove Web Solutions, Milly and her team are going to make sure your website tells the story you want your customers to hear. Connect with Milly at zebralovewebsolutions.com to create the impression you want to make!

Resources

Private Facebook Community: Chat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast!

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to DoingA simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this course is for you!

Apr 13, 2020

If any of you have ever met Amy, you know she is passionate about three things.  Family, Finances, and WINE!  This comes through in all that she does and all that she is.  When asked to describe herself she first and foremost states, “I am a wife, a daughter, and hopefully a good friend, who happens to also be a financial planner.” 

Amy holds a Master’s Degree in financial planning and is a Certified Financial PlannerTM, Enrolled Agent, Certified College Financial Consultant, and a Financial Wellness Coach with over 25 years of financial planning and industry experience.  She is the Founder and owner of Rooted Planning Group, Amy is definitely “doing it her way” and has been recognized by her financial planning colleagues as being a “disrupter,” a title she holds close to her heart and is proud of.

On her website it states, “I love what I do, but I also very much enjoy warmth, good conversation, wine tastings, and volunteering.

In this episode Amy and I discuss...

  • The measures she is taking in the financial upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic
  • The steps you can take to get your healthcare initiatives in order
  • Highlights of the CARES act and what you'll want to pay attention to
  • How Amy is working with her clients to alleviate their fears and plan for the road ahead

Links

Website: www.rootedpg.com

Email: amy@rootedpg.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rootedpg/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rooted-planning-group/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rootedpg/

Thank You to Our Sponsors

Zebralove Web Solutions: Close your online marketing skills gap, learn how to remain relevant in a quickly changing marketplace, and get ongoing support in promoting your businesses online. Stay ahead of the game by signing up for these Digital Marketing Forum. Go to womentakingthelead.com/zebraworkshops to register.

Resources

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this course is for you!

Private Facebook CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast!

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to DoingA simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

Apr 7, 2020

March started off a celebration of Women’s History Month and ended with episodes on how to identify and support leaders who are struggling, especially now that we are in the midst of a pandemic.

Ironically, the focus in March changed the week of the 5-year anniversary episode where I offered some perspectives that will help you to look at things differently so you could release some of the stress that you are likely experiencing.

Changing your perspective, depending on the perspective you choose, can be like releasing a pressure valve.

The next episode, which was the episode before this one, talked about the effects stress has on your system and why you may be finding it hard to function at your very best.

I listed out some symptoms of a leader who is struggling and the mindset of a leader who, while being challenged in a crisis, can continue to function and grow in the face of those challenges.

I know it has not been easy to talk about hard things but the way to the other side is through. We need to acknowledge what we are dealing with before we can get through it.

Common Responses to Stress

Under stress, we typically go into a Fight, Flight or Freeze response. Flight looks like avoiding or running away from a problem. Fight looks like getting defensive or combative. Freeze looks like going still as you take in information and formulate your next move – are you going to Fight or take Flight?

New research is also showing a female response to stress will also include Tend and Befriend. Some of us under stress will have increased nurturing behaviors and seek out social connections.

How many of us in the current crisis have gone on a baking frenzy?

My hand is way up in the air.

How many of us have increased the amount of reach outs to friends, family, and colleagues to reassure them and ourselves that they are thought of and the connection is still there?

Again, my hand is way up in the air.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, it is not business as usual. While you can’t expect that you’ll have the same performance that you had before this crisis there are some gentle things you can do to increase your focus and productivity.

First, you must find calm.

Perhaps not feeling calm all day every day, but injecting calm throughout the day.

When we are stressed, we tend to be very active but not always productive. When we feel stressed, we often also feel time-pressured. We start moving so fast we can get stuck in the weeds, losing sight of the big picture and important details. We start giving unimportant details too much time and attention which results in lots and lots of wasted time. We are also more likely to make mistakes when we are moving too fast and under too much pressure.

The goal is to avoid or, if you are already there, to get out of this frenetic state so you are functioning optimally.

Start with a practice in the morning that helps you calm your racing mind and get clear on what the priority of the day is.

Set timers or put on your daily calendar time blocks to unplug and engage in activities such as meditation, prayer, reading, walking, stretching, yoga, breathing exercises, fun and play. You choose what works best for you.

Those activities will help to take you from feeling energetically stretched and scattered to bringing that energy back in your body and feeling centered.

This level of calm has several benefits. It quiets the chattering, distracting, monkey mind thoughts so you can give whatever you are currently doing your full attention. A state of calm comes with a heightened level of awareness so you are able to see things more clearly.

Additionally, this level of awareness helps you to realize everything will get done in due time. It all gets done one step at a time.

This practice of finding calm will help with the next practice to help you continue to increase your focus and productivity.

Practice being aware of your thoughts and emotions.

Your thoughts and emotions are your signals to your state of being. If you find yourself anything but calm, joyful, or enlivened, you are likely feeling threatened by something and it’s creating fear, however subtle. You may not even recognize the fear.

The emotion of fear gets a bad reputation in our culture because we see it as a weak emotion only felt by those who lack courage. When in reality, courage is the ability to do something that frightens you. An act is not courageous unless the person taking the action is feeling fear but does not let the fear paralyze them.

By definition, fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.

Guess what? The current crisis is threatening to you and to people and things important to you. If you can become aware of your experience and name it you have some power over it.

You can then look more closely at what the fear is and challenge the belief that is causing it. 

I’ll use myself as an example. When I find myself getting wiped out, I notice it’s after spending too much time reading the news online. The numbers and the stories overwhelm me because I feel powerless to stop it or make a difference.

The belief is I am powerless in this situation and am a victim of the circumstances. To challenge this belief so it no longer has power over me, I ask myself, “Is it true that there is nothing I can do that will make a difference?”

The quick realization is that there are many things I can do to make a difference:

  • I can social-distance to prevent myself from getting sick
  • I can produce a podcast to help others get through this crisis
  • I can email, text, or call someone to check in on them
  • I can work on projects I wouldn’t I have time to complete if I was traveling more
  • I can get prepared for when the restrictions are lifted
  • I can donate money to any of the organizations on the frontlines of the pandemic

Name your fear and the belief that is causing it, and then challenge that believe so that you can see that you do have some power and there are some things you can do to control your destiny, however small.

Find a trusted person to talk about your feelings with. It is so powerful to have someone you can go to admit that you are sad, angry, joyful or “meh” without your emotion being judged.

Now, all that being said, this exercise isn’t to push you through the emotion so you can move on as quickly as possible. Do this exercise gently and know it’s okay to sit with the emotion for a while before you take a closer look at it.

The next practice I recommend to increase your focus and productivity is to…

Accept help if it is offered.

For some (or many) of you, this is really hard to do because you’re accustomed to being the person who is on top of things and gives off the impression of having it all handled. Some leaders even feel threatened by this.

But if you want to have more focus and be more productive, you’re going to have to make this a team effort.

Let’s face it, during a crisis it must be a team effort so let your team shine.

Be open to new ideas and ways of doing things. You show you’re open by listening, asking questions, showing appreciation for an idea (even if the idea isn’t going to work acknowledge the person for speaking up and bringing the idea to you).

I started with accepting help if it’s offered because the next one can be even more challenging for over achievers.

Reach out for help

Lay your cards out on the table. Make and a list of what needs to get done and ask your team and your colleagues for help. If you have a team, make them a part of the process of identifying everything that needs to get done and ask if they are willing and able to take on some tasks.

I’m hearing stories of teams shuffling tasks around so the tasks are being done by the person it makes sense to be doing it.

For some of you, you need to step away from daily operations for chunks of time to attend webinars on the changes in your industry. You need to rely on your teams even more right now.

You may be quarantined or sick. You’re going to need to rely on your friends, family and local community to get groceries, medications and other supplies.

Now is not the time to let the identity of being the superhero get in the way of the greater good, and your own good.

Believe it or not, there are people right now who are dying to be more helpful.

Helping others gives us a sense of meaning and purpose. If you don’t give others a chance to be helpful you are blocking an opportunity for them to find meaning in this crisis and to also show how capable and caring they really are.

If you struggle with any of these recommendations to help you increase your focus and productivity (finding calm, self-awareness, accepting help and asking for help) I’m going to invite you to take the Energy Leadership Assessment as the solution to that problem.

Forbes magazine listed the Energy Leadership Assessment as One of the Top 11 Assessments Every Executive Should Take.

The reason for that is, quoting right from the article, “The Energy Leadership Index Assessment provides a unique lens on self-awareness and emotional intelligence, two key ingredients for any leader. Situational awareness of yourself and others is critical for a leader to respond appropriately to the people in their charge. Understanding where you are at any moment and how you respond to stress can make all the difference.”

The knowledge you gain from taking the assessment allows you to continue to grow and develop as a strong, compassionate, effective leader.

If you would like to explore the Energy Leadership Assessment you can go to womentakingthelead.com/assessment to find out more and purchase it if that feels right for you at this time.

I would love to work with you.

Again, for those of you in leadership, I thank you for your contribution. We need self-aware, skilled leaders more than ever.

I hope this was of value to you and here’s to your success!

Resources

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this course is for you!

Private Facebook CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast!

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to DoingA simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

Mar 30, 2020

The last episode of Women Taking the Lead was a celebration of 5 years of the Women Taking the Lead podcast and, in that episode, I also covered some ways to begin to relieve the stress you are likely experiencing because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

You are dealing with the work and lifestyle changes, as well as the uncertainty around your future health and finances.

It’s a lot.

It’s a lot, and for some of you, you need to face that fact that you’re not going to have the same level of focus and productivity. Not without making some changes.

Stress weighs on you and, from what I’ve seen and talked about with my clients, most of the stress you experience goes unacknowledged.

Try this stress test

Time yourself walking or running a half a mile. Once you are finished, note your time and take your pulse. Notice the pace of your breath and how much you are sweating. On a scale of 1-10, how do you feel after doing that half mile? Note how long it takes for your heart rate and breathing to return to normal.

Now pick up a 15-pound weight and time yourself repeating whatever you just completed, the half mile walk or run. Once you are finished, note your time and take your pulse. Notice the pace of your breath and how much you are sweating. On a scale of 1-10, how do you feel this time? Note how long it takes for your heart rate and breathing to return to normal.

The difference between the first and second half mile walk/run is the impact COVID-19 is having on you. It is like carrying around an extra 15 pounds on your shoulders.

And yet, if you’re like a lot of leaders I’ve been talking to lately, you’re aghast at how tired and unfocused you are about midway through the day.

It’s no wonder, you’re carry extra weight around with you, all day!

But what if you’ve been training and conditioning yourself to carry around an extra 15 pounds all day, even if you didn’t have to?

That’s what people who want to stay in peak physical shape do? They educate, develop and train themselves to endure more physical stress than they would experience on a day-to-day basis. As a result, when they are required to do more physical labor they perform and recover more quickly than those who have not been training.

The same goes for mental and emotional stress. If you have been educating, training and developing yourself to handle more stress than you would typically encounter on a day-to-day basis, when something like a pandemic comes your way, you are better able to handle it.  

Crisis Leadership Assessment

I’m now going to focus on leaders and the conditioning of leaders. There’s a lot you can learn from this current crisis to improve your leadership skills and the skills of those that you lead as well.

I want you to ask yourself honestly, how prepared were you to handle this crisis?

For those of you who lead leaders, how prepared were your leaders to handle this crisis?

I hope once you’ve gotten past survival and recovery modes you and your organization take the opportunity to analyze the performance of your leadership and identify where the gaps are, so you can identify who needs more training and coaching.

This is not to come from a place of judgment, we’ve all had our own leadership missteps as we were developing as leaders. The information I’m about to give is to make it easier to identify those who may be crying for help but can’t bring themselves to speak the words. That person might be you or someone you know.

Here are some of the symptoms of a leader who is not prepared for a current crisis.

They stopped communicating.

  • They ignored messages they found too overwhelming to deal with and only responded when prompted a second or third time.
  • They also may not be responding because everything feels urgent and they are unable to rank what needs to be done in order of importance. Most leaders ready for a crisis will typically have a template response such as, “I have received your email and I am currently working on a plan to respond to our current situation. I will have more information for you by X, Y, Z.” This at least let’s the sender know their email was received, and is important if not the priority.
  • They cancel or postpone important meetings rather than see the meeting as an opportunity to take the pulse of their people or to get everyone on the same page. A leader ready for a crisis knows the purpose and the structure of the meeting may change but it’s still important to connect with and reassure their people that steps are being taken to (assess the situation, come up with solutions, create a plan, or execute the plan).

Their communications became unclear.

  • One message says we’re meeting at this time, another message says something different.
  • Procedures have been updated several times but not everyone has the latest version.
  • After reading this leader’s email you’re still not certain what’s going on.
  • They contradict themselves in the same conversation because they can’t keep their thoughts straight.

They are disorganized.

  • They can’t find the email, the printout, or the glasses that are on their head
  • They have an agenda but the meeting goes off the rails because they can’t stay focused.
  • They start a conversation with, “Why were we meeting?” or, “What was I going to say to you?”

They are unprepared.

  • It becomes apparent by what they are saying and doing that they didn’t do the research, didn’t read the email, or didn’t read the manual.
  • There is no agenda for the meeting and it becomes clear they are “winging it”.

They began making a lot of excuses.

  • They know they are not fulfilling their role; it may be that they cannot fulfill their role for whatever reason, however, instead of owning it and seeking help they offer excuses for why it’s not their fault.

Explanations vs. Excuses

This is a good segue to distinguish between an explanation and an excuse.  

An explanation is an accounting to make something clear. When a leader is providing an explanation, they are taking accountability and ownership.

Taking accountability and ownership is not the same as taking blame. Typically, in this type of conversation there is a discussion of how to prevent the same thing from happening in the future, or if it cannot be prevented, how a similar situation will be handled in the future. A well-trained leader does not take things personally, they take responsibility or ownership of the solution.

An excuse may look similar to an explanation because it also assigns a reason, but when someone is making an excuse, they are not taking ownership of the problem or the solution. You will know what you are getting is an excuse when the individual refuses to own the problem or the solution. There is an attitude of, “it’s not my fault, there’s nothing I can do.”  

Here’s what it sounds like in real life:

Two people are late for a meeting both sighting traffic on the highway as the reason.

The person giving an excuse might say, “Sorry I’m late, the highway was backed up. Traffic” There might be a sigh, eye roll, or shoulder shrug.

The person giving an explanation might say, “Sorry I’m, the highway was backed up. In the future I’m going to leave 15 minutes early to make sure I’m on time.”

A well-trained, conditioned leader does not assign blame, they own where they have power and they take responsibility for it.

Mentality of a well-trained leader

In full disclosure, I’m not sitting here sparkling clean saying to myself, “Boy, these other people need to pull it together.” In the past couple of weeks, I’ve had my moments too.

I almost went into leading a meeting without a very clear agenda that had a purpose and expected outcomes. Another gracious and well-trained leader gave me some very kind counsel and direction, we put the missing pieces in place and the meeting well.

In my own training as a leader I’ve learned to let go of my ego and accept help when help is offered and is needed. In that situation, I clearly needed support and I am so grateful for it.

If you’ve developed your leadership skills and mindset, you’re likely feeling the change in your routine and recognizing these are extraordinary times, priorities need to shift and there’s a lot of work to do, but for the most part you are on top of thing and getting a lot done.

I will say before I sign off, these are extraordinary times. Be kind to yourself if you have found yourself not fully prepared to deal with everything that started coming at you recently.

Take on the mentality of a well-trained, conditioned leader. They would acknowledge that extraordinary events combined with a lack of preparation have given them their current results and state of being. Then they would ask, what can I do to prepare should this happen again? What was missing? What needs to change? Who can help me?

In next week’s episode I’m going to talk about some of those things and we are going to kick off with self-awareness; your self-awareness as a person and as a leader. How I create that with my clients is the Energy Leadership Assessment. If you would like to explore the Energy Leadership Assessment you can go to womentakingthelead.com/assessment to find out more and purchase it if that feels right for you at this time.

For those of you in leadership, I thank you for your contribution. We need well-trained leaders more than ever.

I hope this was of value to you and here’s to your success!

Women Taking the Lead Resources

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to Doing: A simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this course is for you!

Private Facebook CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast!
Mar 25, 2020

This episode is a celebration albeit a somber celebration. At the time of the release of this episode on March 25, 2020 we are 14 days into the Coronavirus or COVID-19 being declared a pandemic.

The information we are getting from the news is startling, especially as we are all coming to grips with the fact that this isn’t going to pass in just 2-4 weeks, like we may have originally hoped.

Things are very uncertain but we cannot stop doing the very things that continue to develop us and remind us of our humanity and our connection to one another.

Let’s do some celebrating, then I’ve got some information that may help you get through the coming months.

The Celebration

The Women Taking the Lead podcast is 5 years old! The official launch date of Women Taking the Lead was March, 25 2015.

Here are some numbers for you.

Most podcast don’t go beyond 10 episodes and it’s uncommon to make it to 100 episodes. This episode is the 385th episode of Women Taking the Lead.

There have been over 687,000 downloads in 176 different countries. We are only 313,000 away from hitting one million downloads.  

Those numbers are amazing and I want to be clear that what this represents to me is community. And you, my community, while you have been listening to this podcast and sharing your thoughts and ideas, I‘ve been listening to you. Many of the best ideas I’ve gotten for this podcast and my business have come from you. I cannot thank you enough.

Thank you for your feedback, thank you for sharing this podcast with your friends, family and colleagues and thank you for listening!

The Elephant in the Room

While I will continue to celebrate and feel all the good feelings that come with hitting this milestone, it would not be an episode of Women Taking the Lead if I didn’t address the elephant in the room

You are under a lot of stress right now and could probably use some support. Being a high achiever, that’s probably hard for you to come to grips with – unless you’ve already had a meltdown. In which case, you can no longer hide or deny you need help.

I want to offer you some support by giving you some tips on dealing with the uncertainty and the changes that you are taking on to keep our most vulnerable loved ones safe.

We joke, and I’ve seen several memes on social media, about all we have to do is stay home. And yes, what we need to do or not do is easy to understand and execute but it is going to take a toll on you.

And for those of you who are leaders, it’s going to be even more important for you to take care of yourself, because you need to continue to show up and communicate with your people. They need your direction, your empathy and your steadfastness now more than ever. You must, you must, you must take care of yourself and your mindset to deliver on this.

The thing that steals most of your focus and energy is the mental stress of being out of a normal routine, and dealing with uncertainty and bad news.

How you mitigate stress is by changing your perspective, or the focus of your attention.

If you are struggling with all the uncertainty and have not yet read Viktor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning, now is the time to do it. You don’t have to walk into a store or wait for a delivery. You can download it on your Kindle reader or buy the audiobook.

If you have read Man’s Search for Meaning now may be the time to review it.

Man’s Search for Meaning is Viktor Frankl’s memoirs of his life during the Holocaust. He had survived, having spent three years in four different concentration camps. He noticed that those who were most likely to survive were those who could find some meaning in the experience.

Frankl believes meaning can be found through creativity and work, human interaction and experiences, and the manner in which we respond to suffering. Many survivors of the holocaust had coped with their experience by reminding themselves they didn’t want to disappoint relatives who were dead or separated from them, by helping others or, as Viktor Frankl did, to try to find the beauty in his environment.

If you feel guilty because you are trying to find positives in the devastation, I want you to let the guilt go because, it’s okay to do that. It’s what is getting you through this and it’s a good thing. I know you also see the reality; you’re not ignoring it. What you are doing is preventing yourself from being mentally and emotionally disabled by it.

You won’t be good to anyone if you are constantly watching the news, getting overwhelmed by all you see, and becoming too fatigued to cope.

It feels like doom and gloom but we are also seeing and hearing about people who are stepping up to help their neighbors and communities to address the challenges. I’ve seen businesses come up with creative ways to stay open and continue to provide services. I think this is why Kitty O’Meara’s poem has struck a chord with so many of us. It’s unlikely you haven’t read it somewhere by now but for those of you who haven’t heard this poem yet…

And the People Stayed Home

By Kitty O'Meara

And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.

And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.

And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.

It’s okay to recognize the positives. This is how we take advantage of opportunities. Adopting a woe-is-me attitude so as to not offend other people will not help anyone. Be sensitive to what other people are going through and recognize there are good things happening all over the world and you can be a part of it.

I am continuing to get new clients. I have passed 3 referrals to other business owners in the past few days that will turn into business. Yes, we are already seeing an economic downturn and it will have consequences but we will get through this and we will recover. We’ll do this together.

When things are turbulent, having a coach can make a difference. There’s no shame in getting extra support and accountability so that you are thriving in such a difficult time. I’m seeing too many leaders who are struggling, not asking for help, and it’s having a detrimental effect on those around them. Don’t hesitate to reach out to me if this sounds like a good option for you. I’m here to support you if you want the support.

In times like these, when so many things feel out of our control, and they are, I lean into the Serenity Prayer. Stress comes when we either deny the power we have in a situation, and render ourselves victims to our circumstances, or we try to assert power we don’t have, which only causes us frustration.

To bottom-line it, stress will typically come from one of two things:

  1. We fool ourselves into thinking we have no control in certain situations when we do. We always have control over our attitude, our actions, and our voice.
  2. Or, we try to control things we have no control over – like other people’s attitudes, actions, or words.

In the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, you can follow the CDC guidelines on hygiene and social distancing. You can shop for your elderly or medically vulnerable neighbors. You can buy gift cards from your local establishments. You can reach out to family and friends to see how they are doing. You can think about developing new streams of income. You can get 30 minutes of exercise in each day. The list could go on and on. Find what you have control over and take action. That will relieve stress and refuel your energy stores.

Alternatively, let go of trying to control things you don’t have control over. You can make sure the people you know are informed on proper protocols, and pass along tips for self-care, but you can’t force them to adopt them. And let me be clear, if you are getting upset it is because you are frustrated that you cannot control their behavior. What you can do is bless them, pray for them, and do what you need to do to take care of yourself. As long as you have done what is in your power to do, for your own sanity you need to make peace with the rest.

Here’s the Serenity Prayer to help you with that.

Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;

Enjoying one moment at a time;

Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;

Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;

Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;

That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him

Forever in the next. Amen.

I’m struck by the line in that prayer that reads, “Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it.”

Now, it is my own belief that the world is not sinful, it is mistaken – but let’s not get tripped up by that word. If you read the line without the word “sinful” it reads:

Taking, as He did, this world as it is, not as I would have it.”

The world is what it is. This is the world we’ve got. Railing against the fact that it should be different doesn’t do you any good. Taking action to make positive changes, that is completely in your power. But you have to first accept that the world is the way it is before you can make a meaningful difference. That means first seeing things factually, unemotionally, and without judgment.

The world is neither good nor bad, right nor wrong. It is what it is.

Now, from this non-judgmental perspective ask yourself, “What would I like to infuse into the world?”

At the end of each episode I send you off with a Marianne Williamson quote with a little jingle playing in the background. Today it feels appropriate to just read it for you now.

Our Deepest Fear

By Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness
That most frightens us.

We ask ourselves
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small
Does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine,
As children do.
We were born to make manifest
The glory of God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us;
It's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we're liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

Thank you for making this 5-year journey so joyful and memorable. We are in this together. Here’s to Our success!

Cheers!

Women Taking the Lead Resources

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to Doing: A simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this course is for you!

Private Facebook CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast!
Mar 16, 2020

Roze Merditaj is the Founder and CEO of Real Women Collective Action (RWCA). She has over 10 years banking experience and over 8 years running small businesses. Her career in banking has involved many roles and responsibilities that she used every day to help and develop those around her. While in these roles she completed a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Business all the while raising her children as a single mom.

Roze was born and raised in Kosovo, Yugoslavia. There, she felt the deprivation of limited life choices for women and being considered a second-class citizen. Years later, having overcome many struggles, being a resource and creating a path for women is one her main passions in life.

She mentors and coaches youth groups on financial management in Suffolk, Newport News, and Hampton, Virginia; and volunteers with Habitat for Humanity, the Food Bank, Goodwill, and various shelters throughout the year. She believes anyone can achieve great success, with hard work, dedication, and focus.

In this episode Roze and I discuss...

  • The current number of women in senior leadership in the United States
  • How networking is helping Roze achieve her vision
  • The curriculum in a cutting-edge leadership development program
  • The importance of partnership and community as you develop yourself as a leader
  • The importance of starting by doing good work in your local community

Links

Website: www.rwcanow.org

RWCA Leadership Development Program: www.rwcanow.org/our-programs

Facebook: www.facebook.com/rwcanow.org

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/roze-merditaj-b341b7129

Instagram: www.instagram.com/rwca_now

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Resources

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this course is for you!

Private Facebook CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast!

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to DoingA simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

Mar 9, 2020

Megan Jo Wilson is the Founder and Ringleader of Rockstar Camp for Women based in Portland, Maine. In the last year and a half, she has graduated over 50 women (and 10 brave men) through her experiential Feminist Leadership Camp which gives Women the tools they need to sing on stage in a spotlight with a live band and a live audience for one night. 

As they take these empowering tools off the stage and into their businesses, they expand their impact AND their income, and have a damn good time doing it. 

She has been a Certified Co-Active Coach and Business Mentor for 16 years, she is a Certified Sound Healer, and the author of two Bestselling Business-Books: “Who The Fuck Am I to Be a Coach?!” and “Who the Fuck Am I to Be a Rockstar?!” 

Her BIG-SUPER-NOVA-MISSION is to redirect Financial Wealth, Power, and Influence into the hands of modern-day Healers and Magic-Makers. 

 

In this episode Megan Jo and I discuss...

Rockstar Camp for Women teaches Women Leaders to be more Visible… Why do you think that’s challenging for Women, and why is Visibility so important?

You get Women who have no musical training to sing on stage with a live band and audience - why is the concert so important to this experience and what is your secret?!

You also say that this is a Feminist Leadership Development program - what is the role of The Feminine in your work and how does that make it different from other programs?

What are some of the results that you have seen after Women get on stage with Rockstar Camp?

 

Links

You can find Megan Jo and Rockstar Bootcamp here...

Website: www.meganjowilson.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/meganjowilson

Instagram: www.instagram.com/meganjowilson

Rockstar Showcase:  https://www.portlandhouseofmusic.com/event/megan-jo-wilsons-rockstar-showcase-6

 

Thank You to Our Sponsors

Zebralove Web Solutions: Close your online marketing skills gap, learn how to remain relevant in a quickly changing marketplace, and get ongoing support in promoting your businesses online. Stay ahead of the game by signing up for these Digital Marketing Forum. Go to womentakingthelead.com/zebraworkshops to register.

 

Resources

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this course is for you!

Private Facebook CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast!

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to DoingA simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

Mar 2, 2020

Allyson Scammell is a master certified coach, EFT practitioner, and intuitive consultant. Her mission is to help soul-guided women entrepreneurs who are fed up with their efforts exceeding their income, to grow in life and business, using their own unique genius and soul's internal guidance system.

Allyson was born and raised on a cattle ranch in South Dakota and spent her days dreaming of traveling the world. Immediately upon graduating college, she joined the Peace Corps and served for two years in a village in the Danube Delta. After earning a Master in International Affairs from Columbia University, she went on to work for 17 years in international development and humanitarian affairs at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

At some point in those 17 years, she received a higher calling to leave that work and do something entrepreneurial in greater alignment to her soul’s purpose. Not sure what that was, she went on a journey to discover how she was truly meant to serve the world and found her answer as a coach and mentor to soul-led women.

Allyson is a proud mama to three VIPs. She has lived in 10 countries, loves adventure travel, and dreams of one day owning a buffalo farm.

In this episode Allyson and I...

Do something completely different! In this episode Allyson takes me through a soul-guided meditation that you can follow along with. Allyson discusses:

  • What a soul-guided meditation is what answers you can potentially receive from this practice
  • The four intuitive gifts and how to identify your dominant gift
  • How to vision the future you most want to experience and manifest that vision
  • How to recognize when your thinking mind or ego is getting in the way and how to easefully release it

Links

You can find Allynson here...

Website: www.allysonscammell.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/shegrowsnation

Closed FB group: www.facebook.com/groups/shegrowsnation/

Download 3 FREE soul-guided meditations:  https://mailchi.mp/0e8f34543c30/meditation

Thank You to Our Sponsors

Zebralove Web Solutions: Close your online marketing skills gap, learn how to remain relevant in a quickly changing marketplace, and get ongoing support in promoting your businesses online. Stay ahead of the game by signing up for these Digital Marketing Forum. Go to womentakingthelead.com/zebraworkshops to register.

Resources

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this course is for you!

Private Facebook CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast!

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to DoingA simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

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Feb 3, 2020

This episode is Part 2 in a conversation I began with Mary-Theresa Tringale about her 7-step process to creating successful events.

Mary-Theresa Tringale, currently a resident of Portland, Maine and working full-time as the Manager of Events and Sponsorships at WinterKids, also runs her own business as an Events Strategist & Producer helping entrepreneurs and organizations plan their first live events the right way.

A myriad of careers across the country have helped bring M-T to where she is now. These included: Director of Catering for a Best of Boston Restaurant, Women’s Day Magazine Sales Assistant and Integrated Marketing Manager and Events Specialist for Men’s Journal in NYC , and Marketing Manager of Advertising at Portland Press Herald.

She is the creator of the first Varsity Maine Awards in 2016, as well as played a crucial role as a founding member and now Past - President in development of the iconic The Maine Women’s Conference, the first of its kind in Maine.

She loves to guide transformative coaches or organizations with specific initiatives through the experience of creating an event that will be transformative (for your business, community, audience, clientele) and impactful and reaches people around the world.

In this episode Mary and I discuss...

  • Team: understanding what kind of support you have that you don't have to pay for and the kind of support you will need to pay for. Ask for and allow yourself to receive support so your best can come forth!
  • Budget: Your budget starts with your original vision. What in your vision is going to cost money? It finishes with how much money you actually made what you actually spent money on so if you do your event again you have information on which to make decisions.
  • The many different ways you can bring income in around your event.
  • Timeline: based on your mission, vision, budget and event date. Start with the end in mind, the date you've confirmed with your venue and work your way back to today.

Links

Want to consult with Mary to then take it from there and/or hand over the execution of the event to your team? Mary offers virtual and in-person intensive to guide you through all the steps so you have the knowledge and the plan to lead yourself and your team through all the stages of planning and delivering an amazing experience to your community. Find out more here: https://www.marytheresatringale.com/intensive

Work with Mary to craft a personalized Mission Statement [Special discount for Women Taking the Lead listeners!]:  www.marytheresatringale.com/wtlmission

You can also find her on...

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marytheresa.tringale

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marytheresatringale

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mary.theresa.tringale

Thank You to Our Sponsors

Zebralove Web Solutions: Close your online marketing skills gap, learn how to remain relevant in a quickly changing marketplace, and get ongoing support in promoting your businesses online. Stay ahead of the game by signing up for these Digital Marketing Forum. Go to womentakingthelead.com/zebraworkshops to register.

Resources

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this course is for you!

Private Facebook CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast!

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to DoingA simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

Jan 6, 2020

Mary-Theresa Tringale Currently a resident of Portland, ME and working full-time as the Manager of Events and Sponsorships at WinterKids, M-T also runs her own business as a Events Strategist & Producer helping entrepreneurs and organizations plan their first live events the right way.

A myriad of careers across the country have helped bring M-T to where she is now. These included: Director of Catering for a Best of Boston Restaurant, Women’s Day Magazine Sales Assistant and Integrated Marketing Manager and Events Specialist for Men’s Journal in NYC , and Marketing Manager of Advertising at Portland press Herald.

She is the creator of the first Varsity Maine Awards in 2016, as well as played a crucial role as a founding member and now Past - President in development of the iconic The Maine Women’s Conference, the first of its kind in Maine.

She loves to guide transformative coaches or organizations with specific initiatives through the experience of creating an event that will be transformative (for your business, community, audience, clientele) and impactful and reaches people around the world.

In this episode Mary and I discuss...

  • The steps you must take to build a strong foundation for your live event
  • The process that will give you all the information that will make it easy for you to market your event
  • How to align the content of your event with your business/organizational goals so you get a strong return on investment
  • How to prevent surprises that can prevent you and your audience from enjoying the experience or gaining value during your event

Links

Work with Mary to craft a personalized Mission Statement [Special discount for Women Taking the Lead listeners!]:

www.marytheresatringale.com/wtlmission

You can also find her...

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marytheresa.tringale

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marytheresatringale/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mary.theresa.tringale/

 

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Zebralove Web Solutions: Close your online marketing skills gap, learn how to remain relevant in a quickly changing marketplace, and get ongoing support in promoting your businesses online. Stay ahead of the game by signing up for these Digital Marketing Forum. Go to womentakingthelead.com/zebraworkshops to register.

 

Resources

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this course is for you!

Private Facebook CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast!

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to DoingA simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

Dec 2, 2019

For this post, I’m going to focus on some best practices for delivering workshops you’ve been hired to deliver for an organization or group. I promised to get this episode out to you when I did the original episode on workshops in October and here it is!

These are best practices I’ve developed over time because they made sense or I suffered the consequences of not doing them and thus learned a valuable lesson.

Practice is the operative word. Some of these I’ve adopted so recently that I will at times forget them. This is why I’ve created a checklist that I use and you can download and keep handy for when you’re engaged to do your next workshop. You can access the checklist at the bottom of this post.

Let’s break this down in stages from when you are first contacted to what you can do in the days after you’ve delivered the workshop.

Workshop discovery phase: from first communication to proposal submission

Be professional and timely in all your communications with your contact for the organization. This impacts your credibility. You always want to make a good impression and protect your reputation as a professional. Give them reasons to rehire you and also promote you to other people they know who could potentially hire you.

Provide any materials and resources on you and your business (CV, resume, brochures, web pages, LinkedIn profile) that will help them find out more about you. Likely, by the time you’ve been contacted they’ve already done their homework but making the offer to provide more information doesn’t hurt and may actually boost the likelihood that you get hired. They may not have seen your slick brochure.

Schedule a meeting to discuss and uncover what all their needs are. You are an expert at what you do and you may see solutions and opportunities that the person or people working for the organization have not seen yet. It’s not uncommon that I might be contacted to deliver a team building workshop and I ultimately recommend they do my workshop on Your Stress Personalities instead. Don’t be afraid to recommend different or additional work that you can do for them if it’s in their best interest.

Find out the number of participants who will be doing the workshop. For maximum effectiveness and engagement, I typically do not do workshops with any more than 20 people so I may need to do the same workshop for an organization more than once to accommodate the number of people they want to participate in the workshop.

Find out the location where you’ll be delivering the workshop. It may be at their local office or you may need travel. If you need to travel a distance to deliver the workshop, that may incur added costs for gas, tolls, hotel stays and meals while you are traveling. Make sure there is an agreement on who is covering these costs along with how they will be covered. I’ve had some organizations take care of all of that ahead of time and others that asked me to submit receipts after the workshop was done and I had returned home. Traveling gets pricey so make sure this is clear before you commit.

Inquire if they will need you to do additional tasks before or after you deliver the workshop. Depending on the time or complexity of the task it may incur an additional cost.

Find out who is expected to print the materials, and provide flip charts, markers, or anything else you are going to need to do your thing. If they have that all covered, great! If not, add it as a line item to your proposal. Printing and flipcharts are not cheap. You don’t want to find out you didn’t make much money for the time invested because the materials ate up your compensation.

Find out who is providing the food and beverages. Food and beverages are a must! Workshops go much more smoothly when beverages and snacks are provided. If it’s a full-day workshop, are participants expected to bring a lunch or is that being catered and by whom? Be clear if you are the one bringing these items in and add it as a line item to the proposal. More often than not this is being taken care of beautifully by the organization but don’t assume it is.

After you’ve done the needs assessment put together a proposal that outlines what you will provide along with the cost. Be sure to include what the organization is providing so you have it recorded on a document that a representative from the organization is signing.

If a couple days have gone by and you haven’t gotten an acknowledgment of the email, send a polite follow-up inquiring if they saw it. Sometimes people are so busy they open your email quickly, close it, and then get pulled in too many different directions. Sometimes your email ends up in Spam and sometimes it’s not a priority for the receiving party. However, it becomes more important once you’ve followed up and you’re in their inbox once again. Again, continue to be profession, supportive, and timely on your end. Your reputation is everything and how you conduct yourself is what your reputation is built on. I love the memes you see on social media that say something to the effect of, “Always be kind because you don’t know what the other person is going through.” This rule of thumb makes it so much easier to maintain your professionalism even if the other person is dropping the ball or not communicating well.

After you’ve gotten the answer to your proposal

If you hear back from the organization and it’s a “No” you’ll probably hear something like:

“We decided to go in a different direction”. Thank them for their time and end things on a positive high note so if that “other direction” should not work out, now or in the future, they think of you and how great and professional you were receiving their “no”. I’ll tell you, there have been service providers I’ve had to say “no” to after considering hiring them who were cutting and unprofessional in their parting communication. Even when I had the budget to hire them later, I didn’t go back to them. They aren’t the kind of people I want to do business with. They have already given me the impression they would not value me or treat me well.

“Staffing changes have changed our needs”. Ask about their changing needs to see if you meet those new needs. If so, give some bullet points on how you can help and see if the proposal can be modified to meet their changed needs.

You may also hear, “we just don’t have the money in our budget at this time”. Ask what their budget is and offer to scale your services to meet their needs within their budget. Note, I’m not saying give a discount or give away part of your services for free. I’m saying, offer to scale down what you will provide so that it can come within their budget.

If you hear back from the organization and it’s a “Yes” express your gratitude to that connection and to the universe.

Find out who your contact will be for coordinating the logistics. It often is not the decision maker or the person who you’ve been working with in the discovery phase.

  • Who is booking the location, the hotel and your travel, if necessary?
  • Who will need to get your workbook and slides, if they want your slides pre-loaded on their computer?
  • Who is coordinating the A/V for the room?
  • Who is coordinating the food and beverages?
  • Who is communicating with the participants?
  • Are you sending pre-work? When do they need all of this?

If you’re lucky it’s all one person and you can filter everything through them but it may be multiple people.

Who are your participants? Can you get information on the participants in advance? If this is something you require you will have already asked this in the discovery phase.

Ask if they will be conducting a satisfaction survey immediately after the workshop. If so, can you get access to that information for your own development. If not, can you bring your own survey to have the participants fill out.

If you are playing an audio or video make sure the room has a sound system or bring speakers that hook up to your computer or the computer being provided, if that’s the case. I bought Logitech speakers that were not cost prohibitive so do a little research and make sure you have speakers on hand if you need them.

Most locations have a projector. I have yet to do a workshop where I need to have my own projector and if push came to shove, most of my workshops don’t need slides. They’re a nice to have, not a need to have.

Make sure you are prepared to the point that you will have fun doing the workshop rather than stressing out about whether or not you’re ready. This includes creating a flexible timeline that includes everything contained in the workshop.

Design your workshop based on the time of day. Generally, workshop participants are more focused and engaged in the morning. They get lively mid-morning and have a dip as they are starting to get hungry before lunch. Right before and right after lunch you and your participants will be happiest if they are moving around, engaged in partner or group work, and don’t have to just sit and listen. They may get another boost after they’re done digesting their food but near the end of the day, they’ve given it their all, had a great time doing it, but they need to switch gears. I find group reflection work right before lunch and in the last 30-minutes of the workshop (if it’s an afternoon or all-day workshop) goes beautifully. It also helps the participants retain what they’ve learned.

Practices for the day of the workshop you are paid to deliver

Arrive early because there’s a lot of boxes to check before the first participant arrives and you want to be there well before any participants arrive.

You need to meet your contact, get yourself set up, make sure the A/V equipment is working properly, that the room is configured in a way that suits your goals, lighting is sufficient, the air conditioning is working properly, workbooks are passed out, name tags or name cards are ready to be filled out.

Make sure you have your beverages and snacks ready and in easy reach. Make sure snacks and refreshments are available for the participants.

A note on your snacks, I would keep caffeine and sugar to a minimum. You get an immediate energy boost but then you’re dealing with a crash an hour or so later. And if you keep putting caffeine and sugar in your body to keep your energy up, you’ll pay a big price at the end of the day. Everyone’s body is different so you need to figure out your nutritional needs but if energy crashes or body aches are something you’ve dealt with, try it out to see if it makes a difference.

Take pictures of the room as “before” pictures. You can use these on social media to promote your services. I only mention the company I’m working with on social media if I’ve gotten explicit permission to do so. I may take pictures during the workshop but it will usually be from the back of the room and I don’t post pictures of the participants faces to use in my promotion.  

Lastly, make sure you are ready to greet your participants with a smile as they walk through the door.

Before you fully dive in, introduce yourself and go over the logistics. People are more relaxed when they know exactly what to expect and have a sense of their environment.

If you are meeting at a location the participants are not familiar with, tell them where the bathroom is. Tell them what time the breaks and meals are roughly going to be, and what time you’ll be ending. Give them a sense of the kinds of activities they’ll be engaging in so they can mentally prepare for them.

Do an activity to warm the group up. If time is tight have each person introduce themselves and identify something they are looking to gain from the workshop, or share something they struggle with in regard to the topic of the workshop. This serves to also give you an even better sense of who is in the room and what they need from you.

Use the timeline you created in advance even if things aren’t going exactly according to plan. I am nearly always running tight on time so the timeline helps me to be nimble if I need to allow more time for this or take out that based on who is in the room and what their immediate needs are. Be structured but also be ready to be flexible.

Read the room!

Pay attention to the overall energy of the room to sense if you need to calm the group down or get them re-energized. You can turn a writing exercise into a group activity on the fly, or take an unscheduled break. I’m not opposed to having everyone stand, stretch and take some deep breaths if I think that will do the trick.

Also, be sure everyone has a chance to speak and get their questions answered. If someone is dominating the conversation you need to manage them so others don’t shut down or get resentful.

If someone seems withdrawn find an opportunity to check in with them on the next break. Don’t take it personally or make it mean anything until you know exactly what’s going on. Sometimes the content of the workshop triggers an old wound or provides a revelation that causes someone to go into a reflective mode on the spot. As long as they are getting what they need there’s nothing wrong.

Have fun! As I mentioned in the last episode on workshops released October of 2019, to deliver high-quality workshops you have to love it. Let your love for what you are doing come through! Your participants, unless they are just determined to have a bad time, will find your enjoyment contagious. This also means you’re likely more yourself than you would be otherwise and this also allows the participants to make a human connection with you. When that happens, they are more open to learning and being in a discovery process with you, and that means they will gain more value from the content you are delivering.

Before you finish up have the participants complete a feedback form or survey to get feedback on the different aspects of the workshop. This is worth its weight in gold. Sometimes it’s hard to read critical feedback but I know I make the biggest leaps in my own development as a workshop facilitator when I get critical feedback. This is one of the ways we get to mastery.

Thank the participants wholeheartedly for their time and contributions to the workshop. They may have been told they had to be there but that doesn’t take away from the attention and effort they put in to participate.

If okayed by the organization you may offer your contact information and handles on social media platforms to the participants so they can reach out to you if they would like to, follow you, get to know you better, or inquire into your products and services. 

Lastly, freebies that require an opt-in email. Typically, if I’m getting paid by an organization to deliver a workshop it’s not appropriate to ask their employees or members for their email addresses in exchange for a freebie. I’m either giving it to them or I’m not. I may say something like, if x, y, z, is something you’re working on I have a downloadable on my homepage if that interests you.

However, if you’re going to send them to a specific page that will require their email or a coupon code, ask for explicit permission from the organization before creating any slides or materials that reference this. Again, this is your professional relationship you’re playing with.

All that being said, by this point you are probably both physically tired but soulfully energized from the experience. Let’s get into best practices after the workshop.

Best practices for after the workshop you are hired to deliver

I leave it all out on the field when I’m delivering workshops. The participants get my best and that has an effect on my physical and mental bandwidth.

If I’m delivering a workshop in the morning, I keep my afternoon clear of anything that would require me to be at optimal. Instead, I will typically clean out easy emails and messages, and respond to comments and questions that come through social media platforms. I will also do rudimentary tasks like bookkeeping or entering the information from business cards I’ve collected recently into my Google Contacts.

If it’s an all-day workshop I’m wiped out at the end of the day so it will be an evening in. Be mindful of what you need to recover and do what you can to take care of yourself.

Within a day or two send a thank you to the person or people at the organization you had contact with, whether it’s the decision maker, the committee, or the coordinator. Let them know it was a positive experience for you, if that’s true, and that you are grateful to have had the opportunity to serve them.

[This is a new practice I’m taking on], in that communication offer to do a follow up meeting to see if the workshop did its job and to see if there are other services or workshops you can provide to continue to serve them.

If you are still listening at this point, I’m assuming you either get hired to deliver workshops or you’ve attended workshops that someone was hired to deliver. Let me know if I missed anything. What would you add to this list of best practices to make the workshop more effective or an even better experience?

Here is the checklist of these best practices which you can use the next time an organization reaches out to you to see what you would charge to deliver a workshop for them.

As always, I hope this was of value to you and here’s to your success!

Thank you to Our Sponsors

TextExpander lets you instantly insert snippets of text from a repository of emails, boilerplate and other content, as you type – using a quick search or abbreviation. Go to https://textexpander.com/podcast and select Women Taking the Lead from the dropdown list for 20% off your first year!

Zebralove Web Solutions: Close your online marketing skills gap, learn how to remain relevant in a quickly changing marketplace, and get ongoing support in promoting your businesses online. Stay ahead of the game by signing up for these Digital Marketing Forum. Go to womentakingthelead.com/zebraworkshops to register.

Women Taking the Lead Resources

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to Doing: A simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this course is for you!

Nov 4, 2019

Dr Tarryn MacCarthy is a Business Owner, Orthodontist, and Empowerer of women and men. She is the leader of her family, her team, and her community. She speaks to the strength of acknowledging our core values and honoring authenticity. Her goal is to empower leaders like you to live your very best lives.

In this episode Tarryn and I discuss...

  • Why it’s so important to examine, challenge, identify and live by your Core Values to find satisfaction and success in your business, career and family.
  • The tendencies that will have you compromise your values and take you away from being your best and achieving your goals
  • The need to redefine work/life balance and recognizing it’s not a one-size-fits-all.
  • How self-evaluation is the beginning to all of this but low self-worth can sabotage this exploration because you many not think yourself worthy of taking the time to give yourself special attention.
  • That taking care of ourselves is initially a brave thing and becomes a gift to others.

Links

Embrace the Lead on Facebook

Embrace the Lead on Instagram

Thank You to Our Sponsors

TextExpander lets you instantly insert snippets of text from a repository of emails, boilerplate and other content, as you type – using a quick search or abbreviation. Go to https://textexpander.com/podcast and select Women Taking the Lead from the drop-down list for 20% off your first year!

Zebralove Web Solutions: Close your online marketing skills gap, learn how to remain relevant in a quickly changing marketplace, and get ongoing support in promoting your businesses online. Stay ahead of the game by signing up for these Digital Marketing Forum. Go to womentakingthelead.com/zebraworkshops to register.

Resources

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this course is for you!

Private Facebook CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast!

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to DoingA simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

Oct 7, 2019

Hello everyone and thank you for joining me!

It is a sunny and crisp October day here in Maine and I hope you are enjoying the current season you are in wherever you are in the world.

I had an opportunity recently to deliver a couple of full day workshops for a local organization and I was struck again by how much I love delivering workshops.

High-quality workshops are a fantastic way to deliver training in a way that allows the participant to start playing or grappling with the concepts you’re teaching.

The workshop format is ideal when you’re working with a group that will benefit from learning side by side, such as a team from the same company.

The workshop format is also ideal when the group would benefit from learning from each other. This could be a mix of people from different industries, backgrounds, level of experience, etc. The workshop can act as a conduit to exchange knowledge and provide feedback.

Workshops are one of my favorite ways to teach because the attendees get involved and start making the content meaningful for them. I will often turn a presentation into a workshop and it is always well-received.

When I think of workshops, I think interactive and engaged: workbooks, or worksheets, paired sharing, small group exercises, and whole group discussions.

In fact, as the person leading the workshop, the more I can minimize my time talking and maximize the time the participants are talking, the better.

Public versus Private Workshops

I’ve been asked to do workshops for organizations and I’ve also organized workshops for the public. Both of these can be gratifying and they each have their pros and cons.

When an organization asks you to do a workshop, they are going to take care of most of the logistics, marketing, and other communications. They are also going to pay you an agreed upon amount of money so even if some people need to back out, you don’t have to issue refunds. This situation takes a lot of work off your plate but you don’t have a lot of control either. You may not have any say in the location, the skill or knowledge level of the participants, choices for refreshments, etc.

The one thing you do want to make non-negotiable, if this applies to the workshop you are doing, is the limit to the number of participants in the workshop. Much like a classroom there is ideal ratio of facilitators to participants for maximum learning and engagement and that number will usually fluctuate between 16-20 participants to one facilitator. It all depends on the content of the workshop and the skill level of the participants with the particular topic you are addressing. You don’t want to set yourself up for a situation that could be frustrating and disappointing for both the participants and for yourself.

For an organization there’s also more work leading up to being asked to do the workshop. There’s likely been networking, an exploratory meeting to assess the specific needs, proposal writing and negotiation of the fine details before you even know you’re doing the workshop for sure. And there’s no guarantee you’ll get to deliver the workshop. All your effort may be for naught if they determine that now isn’t the right time or you are not the exact fit they are looking for.

You can usually earn more money doing workshops for organizations but also consider the amount of time you’ll invest before you get paid to deliver the workshop.

Now, if you are going to do a workshop yourself that is open to the public, you have much greater control over all the details of your event. You get to pick the location, the food and beverage choices; you can set criteria around who can attend based on skill level, and you have much more control over the date and time.

However, the marketing, sales, communications, and all the minute details are on you or a person you are paying to take on these tasks.

It’s not unheard of for someone to register and pay for you event only to realize they have a conflict and cannot attend. Know that they will likely ask for a refund even if you have clearly communicated a no-refund policy.

Also keep in mind, if your workshop doesn’t sell out in advance, you will be continuing to put time, energy and possibly money, into marketing your workshop and doing sales calls right up until the day before the workshop, or whenever your hard stop is.

You have much more control in this scenario but you also have a lot more work or have to pay someone to take on that work.

To be honest, I love both types of workshops. I love the whole process of getting to know an organization, their people, and their needs. I love being able to arrive with the majority of the details taken care of. I can then focus on giving the best I have to give.

I also love offering what I have to give to those who are working for themselves, or whose organizations don’t offer the type of training that I do. Even though it’s more work and often doesn’t pay as much as delivering a workshop for an organization, I find it to be incredibly gratifying.

If you’ve been delivering workshops in either scenario you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Qualities that will Serve You in Delivering Workshops

To truly deliver a high-quality workshop you have to love it. Don’t get me wrong, there are components of the process that are not my favorite, like getting into the nitty-gritty of the timeline, but overall you need to have a passion for teaching and learning, and you have to be a bit of a performer.

Depending on the length of your workshop you may need to keep the energy of the room within a range that is conducive for learning. To do that, you need to keep the attention of the attendees on the topic at hand. I’m not saying you have to do a song and dance and some cartwheels to keep everyone focused on the matter at hand, but you do need to be interesting, engaging and bit entertaining.

There’s no getting this perfect. There are going to be times of the day when it’s easier to do than others and there are going to be some topics that are more challenging for some of your participants and their natural inclination will be to check out.

You need to know how to read the room and meet the needs that are before you. This may mean going back to the drawing board on a particular segment of your workshop to work on making it easier to digest or injecting more humor into it to keep everyone interested. It may mean taking an unscheduled break so everyone can stand, stretch, move around or refill their beverages.

Also, your own enthusiasm for teaching and the learning environment will infuse your participants with energy. If you’re having a good time, they are more likely to have a good time. People can tell if you’re having a good time or not and they use this to determine whether or not they are having a good time. Your enthusiasm and enjoyment may not win over ALL participants but you will win over most.

Now, private workshops may have one or two participants who didn’t want to be there and don’t initially see the value. But if you are good at your craft, and you don’t take their attitude personally, they will usually walk away saying they did pick up one or two new things that will be valuable to them.

I, personally, do not deliver any content that I don’t believe in or believe will be of value to anyone who attends my workshops. So, when someone arrives thinking they are wasting their time and they give me the opportunity to change that perspective, I feel so gratified. I’m not going to lie; it gives me a natural high.

Alright, we covered the difference between private and public workshops and the qualities that will make for a high-quality workshop. In the next episode I’m going into some best practices for planning and preparing your workshops.

If you’ve been doing workshops, I’d love to hear from you. What have your experiences been?

The workshops I do regularly are listed at womentakingthelead.com/workshops. If you have a need, whether your inquiring for an organization or you’re doing some research for yourself, I’d love to hear from you. 

As always, I hope this was of value to you and here’s to your success!

Sep 2, 2019

Jill Salzman is currently growing her third entrepreneurial venture, The Founding Moms, where she helps mom entrepreneurs build better businesses. 

A graduate of Brown University and law school, she started a music management firm and then launched and sold a baby jewelry company before creating her current venture.

She’s the author of  The Best Business Book In The World and the best-seller, Found It: A Field Guide for Mom EntrepreneursJill is a co-host of Inc. Magazine’s top-rated entertaining business podcast, Breaking Down Your Business, gave her own TED talk on 11/11/11, was dubbed a “mommy mogul” by CNNMoney, a “ Cool Mom Entrepreneur We Love” by MSN Live, and she was recently named one of the Top 50 Women to Watch In Tech as well as a Top 100 Champion Small Business Influencer after Forbes’ named The Founding Moms one of the Top 10 Websites For Entrepreneurs. 

She’s shared the speaker stage with Richard Branson, Sheryl Sandberg, Daymond John, Marilu Henner, and Desmond Tutu and she regularly appears on ABC7’s Windy City Live TV show.

In her spare time, Jill enjoys kloofing, baking, and erasing her daughters’ crayon artwork from the kitchen walls.

In this episode Jill and I discuss...

  • How much simpler life becomes when you do the bold and daring 
  • How she's running her third business spending as much time as she can NOT overdoing it and overachieving and making sure things are perfect

  • Her book, The Best Business Book In The World* (*according to my mom)

  • That you are not alone, that there is a community out there to support you (like The Founding Moms!) and that you should go find one.

Links

The Founding Moms

Instagram

Facebook

Twitter

Breaking Down Your Business Podcast 

Thank You to Our Sponsors

TextExpander lets you instantly insert snippets of text from a repository of emails, boilerplate and other content, as you type – using a quick search or abbreviation. Go to https://textexpander.com/podcast and select Women Taking the Lead from the drop-down list for 20% off your first year!

Zebralove Web Solutions: Close your online marketing skills gap, learn how to remain relevant in a quickly changing marketplace, and get ongoing support in promoting your businesses online. Stay ahead of the game by signing up for these Digital Marketing Forum. Go to womentakingthelead.com/zebraworkshops to register.

Resources

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this course is for you!

Private Facebook CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast!

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to DoingA simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

Aug 5, 2019

Equal parts teacher, connecter, and founder, Darrah Brustein stands for entrepreneurial empowerment.

In the fall of 2018, Darrah launched "Life by Design, Not by Default" sharing stories with visionaries like Deepak Chopra, Adam Grant and Jen Sincero in a 45-speaker online summit reaching over 7,000 people.

For the past 10 years, she founded and scaled two businesses in tandem: a networking events company serving 30,000+ people and a payment processing company spanning 38 states.

A prolific writer and interviewer, Darrah's thought leadership articles on lifestyle design have been read by over 1 million people across Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Thrive Global.

Her motivating motto "build a life of your own design, a career to fund it, and a network to support it" has inspired thousands to reach higher and dream bigger. She was even named “#1 to follow” by BossBabes. Most recently, Darrah launched the video series “Diving Deep With Deepak & Darrah” to make deep topics relatable and translatable into your life.

In this episode Darrah and I discuss...

  • What to do when you sense it's time for a change.
  • How to genuinely build a network that will happily work for you.
  • Relationship building tools to achieve the success you're hoping to (and how to connect with anyone you want to meet).
  • Action steps to take you from an ordinary existence to living the life of your dreams.

Links

Website: Darrah.co

Instagram: @Darrahb

Thank You to Our Sponsors

TextExpander lets you instantly insert snippets of text from a repository of emails, boilerplate and other content, as you type – using a quick search or abbreviation. Go to https://textexpander.com/podcast and select Women Taking the Lead from the drop-down list for 20% off your first year!

Zebralove Web Solutions: Close your online marketing skills gap, learn how to remain relevant in a quickly changing marketplace, and get ongoing support in promoting your businesses online. Stay ahead of the game by signing up for these Digital Marketing Forum. Go to womentakingthelead.com/zebraworkshops to register.

Resources

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this course is for you!

Private Facebook CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast!

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to DoingA simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

Jul 1, 2019

Founder and CEO of “Sales Maven”, an organization dedicated to authentic selling, Nikki Rausch has the unique ability to transform the misunderstood process of “selling”.

With 24+ years of experience selling to such prestigious organizations as The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Hewlett-Packard, and NASA, Nikki shattered sales records in many industries, receiving multiple “top producer” awards along the way.

Today, entrepreneurs and small business owners from a wide range of disciplines hire Nikki to show them how to sell successfully and authentically, without being pushy or “salesy.”

An engaging and sought-after speaker, she shares the secrets of her sales success through illuminating keynote addresses and business-changing workshops. Her robust Sales Maven Society, a membership program, ignites game-changing outcomes for clients.

Nikki’s books are available at Amazon. “Buying Signals: How to Spot the Green Light & Increase Your Sales” and “Six-Word Lessons on Influencing with Grace”

Free Gift: Closing The Sale eBook, www.yoursalesmaven.com/ebook

Do you struggle with the sales process?

Do you get turned off by the sales conversation when you are talking to a prospective client?

Are you wondering why you are not closing more sales even though you know you are offering an incredibly valuable product or service?

If so, this episode is for you!

In this episode Nikki and I discuss...

  • How someone can build rapport with a prospect that has a very different style than theirs.
  • What the difference is between a Sales Funnel and The Selling Staircase.
  • What The Selling Staircase is and why it's vital not to skip a step
  • What the most commonly missed step in the Selling Staircase is and what should someone say when they’re on this step.
  • A state that you can bring about that will create an amazing experience for you and your prospective clients.

Links

Free Gift: Closing The Sale eBook, www.yoursalesmaven.com/ebook

Website: www.yoursalesmaven.com

Thank You to Our Sponsors

TextExpander lets you instantly insert snippets of text from a repository of emails, boilerplate and other content, as you type – using a quick search or abbreviation. Go to https://textexpander.com/podcast and select Women Taking the Lead from the drop-down list for 20% off your first year!

Zebralove Web Solutions: Close your online marketing skills gap, learn how to remain relevant in a quickly changing marketplace, and get ongoing support in promoting your businesses online. Stay ahead of the game by signing up for these Digital Marketing Forum. Go to womentakingthelead.com/zebraworkshops to register.

Resources

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this course is for you!

Private Facebook CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast!

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to DoingA simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

Jun 3, 2019

Bobbi Palmer, founder of Date Like a Grownup, is an internationally recognized expert who teaches over-40 women how to finally find peaceful, passionate, grownup love.

Bobbi has lived your story. She worked her butt off to figure out ‘the love thing’ and became a first-time bride at age 47. Joyfully married since 2006, she walks her talk every day and, with compassion and a side of sass, she helps women do what she did.

If you’re frustrated and confused about dating, Bobbi wants you to know that there is absolutely nothing wrong with you. No one ever taught you how to date like a grownup, right?? There are just some things you don't yet know.

Bobbi has been featured on The Today Show, Huffington Post, NPR, Women’s World magazine, Match.com, eHarmony.com, AARP and numerous other TV, radio and print outlets. Want dating help that actually makes sense? Find her recipe for grownup dating at www.datelikeagrownup.com/blog

Bobbi and I discuss...

Why men do this or don't do that can be confounding to women. Whether he's a colleague, client, boss, lover, brother or father...men can be your pain in the butt and rival...or they can be your joy and strongest supporter.

In this episode you’ll learn surprising things about men that are sure to get you what you want and need while strengthening the relationship and leaving him smiling!  (Yes. These can all co-exist.)

Some things you’ll learn:

  • The 3 principles to date like a grown-up
  • The biggest mistake women make with men that can destroy any relationships.
  • 3 ways men are scientifically different than women and the communication hacks that will bridge the gap.
  • The One Simple Thing you can do to earn trust and create a bond with any man. (This is going to be a huge surprise!)

Links

Website: https://datelikeagrownup.com
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/DateLikeaGrownup/

Thank You to Our Sponsors

TextExpander lets you instantly insert snippets of text from a repository of emails, boilerplate and other content, as you type – using a quick search or abbreviation. Go to https://textexpander.com/podcast and select Women Taking the Lead from the drop-down list for 20% off your first year!

Zebralove Web Solutions: Close your online marketing skills gap, learn how to remain relevant in a quickly changing marketplace, and get ongoing support in promoting your businesses online. Stay ahead of the game by signing up for these Digital Marketing Forum. Go to womentakingthelead.com/zebraworkshops to register.

Resources

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this course is for you!

Private Facebook CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast!

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to DoingA simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

May 6, 2019

Allison is a financial coach in Portland, Maine.  She's been a CPA for more than twenty years, first working in forensic accounting, and then tax preparation.  Her experience in preparing people's taxes really demonstrated for her the lack of basic financial literacy and discomfort around money many people have.  She realized her calling was to educate people about financial literacy, and in the fall of 2015 she started her financial coaching business so that she could sit down with people on an individual basis to help them make informed and purposeful decisions that support their financial goals.

Allison lives just outside of Portland with her husband and four children.  She spends her free time hiking, kayaking, paddle boarding, snowshoeing, doing yoga, and voraciously reading.

Allison and I discussed:

    • A new program she is currently developing for a younger demographic
    • The fear that has been keeping her from taking actions that will launch this program
    • Tapping into one's resources and not going it alone
    • The power in even taking simple action to move forward
  •  

Links

Website: https://allisonbishop.com/
LinkedIn – Alisson V. Bishop
Facebook – Allison V. Bishop, CPA - Financial Coach

Thank You to Our Sponsors

TextExpander lets you instantly insert snippets of text from a repository of emails, boilerplate and other content, as you type – using a quick search or abbreviation. Go to https://textexpander.com/podcast and select Women Taking the Lead from the drop-down list for 20% off your first year!

Zebralove Web Solutions: Close your online marketing skills gap, learn how to remain relevant in a quickly changing marketplace, and get ongoing support in promoting your businesses online. Stay ahead of the game by signing up for these Digital Marketing Forum. Go to womentakingthelead.com/zebraworkshops to register.

Resources

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this course is for you!

Private Facebook CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast!

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to DoingA simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

Apr 15, 2019

Hello everyone and thank you for joining me!

Today I am continuing the conversation I started in the last episode on the various levels of leadership as related to the workplace. This is such an important topic because there are nuances to leadership that you may not be aware of and continuous growth and improvement are required if you want to make the impact you dream about.

Your awareness of the different levels of leadership and what’s required at each level will affect your ability to get promoted and your ability to be successful after you’ve been promoted.

I was promoted five times within 6 years and I learned a lot about how and what I needed to develop within myself and some of it was baptism by fire because of the pace I was promoted at. It pains me to see others struggle unaware that if they took a different approach to their role as a leader they would get much better results, experience less frustration and they wouldn’t have to work so hard to get those results.

I’ve heard too many of you reporting struggles that were due to not knowing how you needed to shift your leadership as you rose through the ranks. I’m going to go through some common leadership levels and talk about the skills and mindsets you need to take on if you want to achieve them and be successful in that position once you get there.

In the last episode we talked about the Entry Level Leader/Individual contributor and the Frontline people leader. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to that episode go back and listen to Levels of Leadership Part I.

In this episode I’m going to talk about another two levels of leadership: leading other leaders and leading volunteers.

Thank you to Our Sponsors

TextExpander lets you instantly insert snippets of text from a repository of emails, boilerplate and other content, as you type – using a quick search or abbreviation. Go to https://textexpander.com/podcast and select Women Taking the Lead from the dropdown list for 20% off your first year!

Zebralove Web Solutions: Close your online marketing skills gap, learn how to remain relevant in a quickly changing marketplace, and get ongoing support in promoting your businesses online. Stay ahead of the game by signing up for these Digital Marketing Forum. Go to womentakingthelead.com/zebraworkshops to register.

Women Taking the Lead Resources

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to DoingA simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this course is for you!

Private Facebook CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast!

Mar 27, 2019

Hello everyone and thank you for joining me!

Today I want to start a conversation with you about something that is near and dear to my heart, the various levels of leadership as related to the workplace. This is such an important topic and even if you have career growth and promotions on your mind you may not be aware of all the nuances of taking on a higher level of leadership.

This can impact your ability to get promoted and your ability to be successful after you’ve been promoted.

I was promoted five times within 6 years and I learned a lot about what I needed to develop within myself and how to do it, and some of it was baptism by fire because of the pace I was promoted at.

I’ve been thinking about doing an episode on this topic for some time but recent experiences have made the delivery of this information more urgent. What I find is that if something is coming up for my clients and the people I’m casually chatting with day-by-day it’s likely also a big topic for you as well.

I’ve heard too many of you reporting struggles that were due to not knowing how you needed to shift your leadership as you rose through the ranks. I’m going to go through some common leadership levels between this episode and the next, and I’m going to talk about the skills and mindsets you need to take on if you want to achieve higher levels of leadership and be successful in that position once you get there.

In this episode I’m going to start at the beginning with the first two levels of leadership.

Women Taking the Lead Resources

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to DoingA simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this course is for you!

Private Facebook CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast!

Feb 27, 2019

Recently I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Mark Taylor of the Education on Fire podcast network for his Learning on Fire podcast. One of the questions he asked me was in regard to advice I would give to my younger self.

I gave a concise answer on his show but his question got my mind going and before I knew it I was opening a word document to capture all the things I wish I knew, and understood, and lived when I was younger.

What stood out for me, and I shared this on the Learning on Fire podcast, is that this is the same advice I would give myself today because these are things I know but need to be reminded of because I can fall back into my old patterns.

The mind has a negativity bias. To rewire the brain we have to consciously put our ah-ha moments into practice and set reminders.

I’m sharing these with you just in case you want or need reminding as well.

Here’s what I would say to you and my younger self…

Lastly…

You don’t need to do more to achieve your goals and be more successful, you need to do less.

It's about changing your mindset around "work" so that instead of taking massive action that produces a few results you are taking key actions effectively to produce greater results.

For instance, would you rather make 100 cold calls to set up two meeting with prospective clients or would you like to have an enjoyable coffee date with two connectors in your network who could introduce you to four prospective clients.

Making 100 cold calls will certainly yield you some results but you're going to burn a lot of time and energy to yield those results.

This example applies across the board in your life: in many areas of your work, health, finances, relationships - you name it!

You think you need to work really hard to get what you want. It's not true.

This is precisely what my Accomplished Coaching System is based on.

The process I take you through, starting with the Energy Leadership Assessment, gives you the awareness to identify all the areas where you are working too hard with little result. You then have the ability to make changes, internally and externally, to free up your time and energy all while gaining greater results.

It is why I am so in love with the work that I do.

If you’d like to get to know yourself better and find out where and why you are working so hard with little effort go to womentakingthelead.com/assessment/ to get started.

There is tons more I’d love to chat with you and my younger self about but I’m going to leave it here for now.

I hope this was of value to you and here’s to your success!

Thank you to Our Sponsors

TextExpander lets you instantly insert snippets of text from a repository of emails, boilerplate and other content, as you type – using a quick search or abbreviation. Go to https://textexpander.com/podcast and select Women Taking the Lead from the dropdown list for 20% off your first year!

Zebralove Web SolutionsYour website tells a story about your business! At Zebralove Web Solutions, Milly and her team are going to make sure your website tells the story you want your customers to hear. Connect with Milly at zebralovewebsolutions.com to create the impression you want to make!

Women Taking the Lead Resources

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to DoingA simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this course is for you!

Private Facebook CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast!

Feb 4, 2019

Hello everyone and thank you for joining me today. This episode is coming out a bit later than I promised. The reason for that is that I have been battling with myself about what I want to share with you, how much I want to share and how I want to share what’s in my head.

I finished up last year feeling like I was going through the motions. I gave you my last update on my 2018 goals but I wrapped that episode knowing I could have said so much more about my experiences in the last year.

I will say the appreciation you all showed me in spite of that feeling overwhelmed me to the point of tears. I felt such gratitude for all of you and especially to those of you who commented and sent messages. You touched my heart and called me to step up and be the leader that I am.

Appreciation Makes All the Difference

Here are some of the comments that were posted on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram:

"It's been awesome to follow your journey the past couple months, Jodi! Congratulations on all your success so far, and keep it up!" ~ Maddie Purcell, Founder of Fyood Kitchen and Experience Maine

"Hi Jodi, your year-end post is articulate, inspiring and relatable. Good job letting go of the pull ups!  You set aggressive business goals and your progress was amazing! Keep up the momentum and thanks for sharing!" ~ Holly M. Smevog, Talent Development ✻ Performance Assessments ✻ Career Coaching at Drake Inglesi Milardo, Inc.

"I started to listen to this episode yesterday, and immediately stopped and went back to all your previous updates - thank you for being so open, honest and vulnerable! I was going to make goals for myself anyway, but you inspired me to do it today (even though my kids are running around me in circles)." ~ Allison Bishop, Financial Coach

"I just want to say thank you for being a leader to all of us. Your podcast is the one I turn to when I am facing struggles and I truly appreciate you!!!! Here’s to making 2019 one for the books!" ~ Katie Robins, Mommy. Wife. Motivator. Beauty Enthusiast

This feedback hit me and I was humbled by it because of a tendency that is typical of overachievers: that mindset of, “It’s not good enough. It doesn’t matter how much you did, ultimately you failed because you are not good enough.” 

Although I’ve come a long way to ignore these messages and see them for what they are – my inner critic wanting me to play it safe – these messages can blindside me if I’m not taking good care of myself or not being aware of what is going on.

December was in fact quite hectic and had some twists and turns and I allowed myself to become depleted and that was all my inner critic needed to step up and take the microphone so to speak. It’s laughable now as I look back on it but at the time it was no fun.  

However, when I started reading some of the feedback on the episode it snapped me out of it, so THANK YOU to those of you who without knowing it got me out of the spiral my inner critic was sending me into.

Message on Failure

This whole experience had me wondering how you ended the year. Did you accomplish all your goals, did you accomplish none of your goals, or did you have a mix of success and failure like me?

Were you peacefully accepting of your results, did you whoop it up to celebrate, or did you beat yourself up for not checking off all the boxes.

Personally, I celebrate you for what you achieved, for the work you put in; for the battles you may have had with yourself to overcome self-doubt or a lack of motivation, to ask for help when needed, and for sacrificing short-term pleasures for long-term satisfaction and fulfillment.

I want to celebrate you for what you did not achieve. I want to honor you for being “in the arena” as the Theodore Roosevelt quote goes, for facing your demons, for getting back up time and again only to end the year short of goal.

I honor you for looking failure in the face and my hope is it has not changed how you see yourself, unless it is to recognize how strong and powerful you are in the face of failure.

There is nothing you are missing internally. You may need to line things up externally but you already have within you all you need to be successful. Your task is to find out how to draw it out of you; how to peel back the layers of “who you are not” so you can finally see clearly who you really are and let yourself, your true self, play in the world.

Our Work Continues...

In the episode I'm outlining what's coming in 2019

Tools that will Enhance Your Success

The other thing that helped me last year with my health and fitness goal that has already helped me to drop my holiday weight and a little bit more is my spiritual practice.

Doing A Course in Miracles for the past nearly year and half has helped me to find more peace in my day. And when I have more peace I also have fewer cravings and more discipline. Given that, my spiritual practice will be something that will be contributing to my health and wellness goal.

A spiritual practice, whatever that looks like for you, and getting help from others is something I would absolutely recommend for you if you are struggling with achieving your goals.

I would also recommend gaining more awareness of yourself, how you interact with others, and what you believe about the world and what’s possible for you. To this end I’m going to recommend, if you haven’t already, doing the Energy Leadership Assessment.

This attitudinal self-assessment is where I start all of my clients because it brings them bulls-eye to exactly what is keeping them from achieving what they want to achieve and having the life they want to have.

Whether it’s having enjoyable personal and work relationships, having the energy and focus to make progress in their business or career, or having the freedom to go after something they’ve always wanted but didn’t think they could have.

This new sense of freedom has allowed many of my clients to stop tolerating what’s not working in their life and to start making the changes required to have the life that they want.

What I want to underscore is the awareness you gain from this process makes it easier to make these changes.

It’s not that you suddenly have the ability to muscle through making changes; you suddenly don’t need to muscle through because you no longer experience what keeps you from taking decisive action. Those things may include fear, anxiety, burden, dread, exhaustion, confusion, self-doubt, etc.

With a new awareness of who you really are and what shapes your experiences, those debilitating feelings fade away and in their place is a quiet certainty of what you want.

The Energy Leadership Assessment will help you gain your personal power to direct your own life and confidence to make your moves. As one client put it, “I finally got permission from the only person I needed permission from: me.”

Many of my clients say that this process was the turning point for them. They can see a clear difference in their experience of life before and after the assessment.

If you have been at a loss for why you are not satisfied with your life or work, or if you have been dreaming about a life you know can be yours but you’re struggling to make it a reality, the Energy Leadership Assessment will get at the heart of what’s keeping you from it.

Let me assure you, the success and satisfaction you are looking for comes much more easily once you know what’s preventing you from having it.

I invite you to go to womentakingthelead.com/assessment to take the first step. As I learned last year, success comes when you stop trying to figure it out all on your own and accept some help. I would love to help you.

As I bring this episode to a close I want to let you know I will be scaling back a bit more on new content for the podcast. I am committed to immersing myself in the writing of my second book and I need to allow some space for that.

However, I will be releasing episodes occasionally so if you want to be certain that you get those episodes when they are released be sure to subscribe to the Women Taking the Lead podcast if you haven’t already.

Also, I’ll be sharing snippets from the book, as well as leadership tips, tools and practices with my email list so if you’d like those particular updates be sure to opt-in to the newsletter.

I’ll leave you by repeating Katie Robins’ message, Here’s to making 2019 one for the books!"

As always, I hope this was of value to you and here’s to your success!

Thank You to Our Sponsors!

ButcherBox delivers healthy 100% grass-fed and grass-finished beef, free-range organic chicken, and heritage breed pork directly to your door. For FREE Bacon and $20 off your first box, go to ButcherBox.com/lead and enter lead as the promotional code at checkout.

Zebralove Web SolutionsYour website tells a story about your business! At Zebralove Web Solutions, Milly and her team are going to make sure your website tells the story you want your customers to hear. Connect with Milly at zebralovewebsolutions.com to create the impression you want to make!

Resources

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this course is for you!

Private Facebook CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast!

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to DoingA simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

Jan 21, 2019

From co-founding Climate Ride in 2008 and scaling the socially-conscious company to a seven-figure budget, to biking alone across southeast Asia, to coaching entrepreneurs on how to achieve their own lofty goals, Geraldine Carter loves finding practical, efficient solutions to complex challenges. After directly experiencing the value of outside perspective and mentorship, Geraldine began sharing her 10+ years of business experience and mindfulness training through coaching. An ICF accredited Associate Certified Coach, Geraldine takes pride in challenging herself and her clients to reach higher and find bolder ways forward.

More about Geraldine and how she sees herself

Note how much Geraldine has done and accomplished and how difficult it was for her to talk about it.

Where did it all start, specifically where did you get the notion that you could not only think big, but that you actually had it in you to accomplish big things?

Geraldine has been blessed with adventurers in her family that served as role models for her. In her family going on an adventure is as natural as going to grammar school. Also, her curiosity spurs her to see what she is capable of. Lastly, Geraldine isn’t afraid to make a mistake, fail, or make a mess of things.

What have you learned from your travel, business, and physical adventures?

There are painful moments when you go after your big dreams but they don’t last long. What’s important is you have to pay attention to your inner guidance when making big decisions. If it doesn’t feel right it probably isn’t right. Also, it’s important to hyper-focus on what’s important and remove low-value distractions from your schedule.

There is a trifecta of things that are scaring Geraldine right now as she continues to grow her business. Do you share any of these fears?

What does your system contain that you are consistently applying to yourself and sharing with your clients so they can get to where you are in their own development?

I am very aware that I have developed my coaching system for myself. “We teach what we need to learn.” Or rather, we teach what we need to be reminded of. I have a coach-friend who introduced me to the phrase “new level, new devil.” Meaning when you break through obstacles you achieve new levels of consciousness, performance and success. But waiting there to greet you at that next level are the new obstacles you have to overcome of you want to continue to grow and evolve.

Geraldine has a very supportive yet direct approach to help her clients play bigger.

We are all eager to be where you are, playing full out, thinking big, playing big. Describe for us what life is like when we live that experience.

Geraldine acknowledges she is not in this head space all the time but she has the tools to get herself there. Playing big is not a comfortable space but she accepts it and embraces it.

What are your hopes for your podcast, She Thinks Big?

Geraldine’s hopes her podcast is used as a tool by millions of women around the world to help them develop, grow, gain confidence, trust themselves; become the full powerful women they are fully capable of being, so that they can do whatever it is they were put on this planet to do.

What are some of the baby steps we can take right now to get there?

Become aware of your own internal dialogue, how it makes you feel and react, and then develop a dialogue that will help you to get where you want to be.

Want to know more about working with Geraldine?

http://focusedbizcoaching.com/business-coaching/

Or find her episodes here: http://shethinksbigpodcast.com/

Thank You to Our Sponsors!

ButcherBox delivers healthy 100% grass-fed and grass-finished beef, free-range organic chicken, and heritage breed pork directly to your door. For FREE Bacon and $20 off your first box, go to ButcherBox.com/lead and enter lead as the promotional code at checkout.

Zebralove Web SolutionsYour website tells a story about your business! At Zebralove Web Solutions, Milly and her team are going to make sure your website tells the story you want your customers to hear. Connect with Milly at zebralovewebsolutions.com to create the impression you want to make!

Resources

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this course is for you!

Private Facebook CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast!

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to DoingA simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

Jan 14, 2019

Shutting down: Cocooning

Imagine you are going about your day when suddenly, something happens.

No matter what it is, it occurs to you as bad news. In the moment it feels like the worst news. The last thing you needed right now. The straw that broke the camel's back. It could be a change to your carefully laid out plans, an unpleasant conversation, a flat tire, burnt toast...whatever.

It really doesn't matter what it is. What matters is it's something you don't like and you feel like it's out of your control.

And then you feel the energy drain out of your body. You're tired, defeated and you start to wonder why you try so hard. It's already X o'clock in the morning and you feel like you need a nap.

Over-reacting: The Amazon Warrior

Similar to the previous situation something happens but in this instance your alter-ego's faulty radar picks up something different. Rather than sensing a situation where there is nothing you can do you're alter-ego picks up a threat.

That change to your carefully laid out plans, the unpleasant conversation, the flat tire, the burnt toast - they are now perceived as putting something at risk, something important. This creates conflict.

The alter-ego is now charged up and ready to do battle! Rather than turning into the Incredible Hulk (we're women, after all) you become The Amazon Warrior.

Realize that a large percentage of the threats you perceive are just that, perceived threats. They are not real and if you can stay in current reality you can keep yourself from turning into The Amazon Warrior.

If you know one or both of these stress reactions are holding you back in your business or professional life reach out to me. This is how I serve my clients best and when they are able to manage their alter-egos and choose their response consciously they are able to keep stress away and stay focused on their goals.

As always I hope with was of value to you and here's to your success!

Thank you to Our Sponsors

TextExpander lets you instantly insert snippets of text from a repository of emails, boilerplate and other content, as you type – using a quick search or abbreviation. Go to https://textexpander.com/podcast and select Women Taking the Lead from the dropdown list for 20% off your first year!

Zebralove Web SolutionsYour website tells a story about your business! At Zebralove Web Solutions, Milly and her team are going to make sure your website tells the story you want your customers to hear. Connect with Milly at zebralovewebsolutions.com to create the impression you want to make!

Women Taking the Lead Resources

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to DoingA simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this course is for you!

Private Facebook CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast!

 

Dec 31, 2018

Hello everyone and thank you for joining me for this month-end episode on goals. I hope you are enjoying the holidays and have a safe and happy New Year.

The end of November and December were very active. I was surprised at how busy I was with meetings right up to the weekend before Christmas. That is unusual but a good sign that you all are ready to create some big things in 2019.

The Create and Achieve Goals that Are Worthy of You workshop was so much fun and the feedback was incredibly helpful. What was clear was that we needed more time - duly noted!

I also attended and conducted round tables at The Massachusetts Conference for Women. With over 12,000 people in attendance that day it made for a high energy event. As someone put it, “It was overwhelming in all the good ways.”

What was really gratifying for me was, as a speaker, I was invited to have my books sold in the bookstore and they sold out. I can’t tell you how amazed and delighted I was. Many things validated for me that I was with my people. Not just women, but go-getting women who are eager to participate fully in their growth and development.

Now I’m spending some time unplugged with my family and friends. I’m spending some time resting and finalizing my goals for next year and I’ll share more about that in the next episode which will be releasing in a couple weeks.

For now, let’s get caught up on how my 2018 goals landed.

To catch up anyone who is new to the Women Taking the Lead podcast, last December I did a series of episodes to walk everyone through my goal setting process and I used myself as an example to take you through all the steps.

I promised during that time that I would keep you updated on my progress toward my goals in the hope that it would be helpful for you as you work toward accomplishing your goals.

This episode is the progress report on my goals through December.

During the Goal setting series I identified four focus areas that were important to me this year and each area has a specific goal assigned to it.

Focus area #1 Increase profitability in my business

Goal: have a net income (earnings minus expenses) of $80,000 minimum this year.

Because I was struggling a little bit with this goal I also created 4 sub-goals in June. These sub-goals are, by year end:

  1. Have had 12 new Executive Leadership Coaching clients. This is coaching that focuses on leaders within organizations to help them with their performance as well as happiness and fulfillment at work. I had a total of 8 clients who fell into this category and 3 more clients signed on before the end of the year. While I am one client shy of this goal I still feel successful in this area because of the progress I made in such a short time.
  2. Do 10 corporate workshops. I have done 5 this year with one pushed out to January. I am four short of my goal of doing 10 and I’ll be giving this area of my business more love in 2019.
  3. Promote the DIY products that are on the Women Taking the Lead website. This category has not gotten much movement and I mentioned last month that I may have to hire a marketing person to help with this.
  4. Do two more group programs by the end of the year. The virtual program was a non-starter but as I mentioned earlier my goals workshop, Create and Achieve Goals that are Worthy of You was a success and I’ll be looking forward to doing more local workshops in 2019.

November’s Profit and Loss report showed a net profit of $1822.98. I did not meet the average $6800 net profit I’m was looking for each month this year and I’ve been reflecting on this and actively talking to coach colleagues of mine about this concern.

There were some things missing in the attainment of this goal but it was not a lack of effort or activity that was the problem. I worked HARD to achieve this goal and applied many strategies that got some traction, but not enough. There were 3 things missing that got in the way of my achieving this goal.

  1. I was working too hard and not asking for help. Some expert support would have been very helpful, especially when it comes to the marketing of my business.
  2. I focused more on what I could do and not enough on who I was being. Because of some tight deadlines I became focused on getting things done and out rather than taking a step back to get into an experience of being of service and support. This definitely impacted how I was marketing my products and services.
  3. Lastly, and this was an interesting insight, although I know what I do and provide is incredibly valuable, I’m not always present to it when I talk to others or as I’m creating my marketing collateral. One of my mastermind members is often pointing out I don’t get detailed enough about the benefits of my services and as we got deeper into the conversation I got really uncomfortable thinking about changing this mentality and state of being. This definitely needs to change in the New Year.

Focus area #2 Build more strength and endurance

Goal: do 1000 Spartan-regulation burpees in good form within one workout by the end of October. Separately, do an unassisted pull-up before the end of this year.

I accomplished my goal to do 1000 chest-to-ground burpees back in October but I have yet to do the unassisted pull-up.

Although I have continued to do pull-us with a band as a part of my workout I was not driven to accomplish this goal by year-end. I did not have the same drive and passion for the pull-up that I had for the burpees. This tells me that this goal was chosen more for my ego than to be in alignment with living the life I want to live. I’ll continue to incorporate pull-ups in my weekly routine but I’m likely going to let the task of doing the unassisted pull-up go.

Who knows, this may come back sometime in the future and if I happen to hit the goal in the course of getting more fit, I will let you know.

Focus are #3 Romantic Partnership

Goal: Be in a committed monogamous relationship with a man.

Although I did not accomplish this goal this year, working toward this goal definitely got me out of my comfort zone and caused a lot of growth for me.

I am much more aware of what I am looking for in a partner at this stage in my life and just recently I had a huge “ah-ha” seeing myself falling into a now-familiar pattern of settling for something casual, hoping that something will change in the near future. It never does.

Note to self: If they are not in, I’m out!

As my sister reminds me, “stay open, stay available, stay vulnerable. There is someone out there for you.” I believe that, and that it’s only a matter of time and as hard as it can be to remain open, available and vulnerable, that’s what I’m going to do.

I’m going to focus on being me and having fun. That’s actually what my focus for 2019 is going to be. Being me and having fun with everything I do.

Focus area #4 Live Events

Goal: Do a live workshop in the 4th quarter of this year.

Success! I checked this goal off this month and am considering some smaller workshops in the future.

Quick Update on my Mom

My Mom is doing much better now that the chemo is working its way out of her body. She is getting her strength and appetite back. She will be having Lasik surgery on both eyes and once she is healed from that her radiation treatments will begin. Oy!

As always I hope this update was of value to you and here’s to your success!

Thank You to Our Sponsors!

Zebralove Web SolutionsYour website tells a story about your business! At Zebralove Web Solutions, Milly and her team are going to make sure your website tells the story you want your customers to hear. Connect with Milly at zebralovewebsolutions.com to create the impression you want to make!

Resources

Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this online mini-course is for you!

Private Facebook CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast!

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to DoingA simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

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