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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: November, 2017
Nov 30, 2017

Nicole Boucher is a Project Manager who helps small business owners be more productive and strategic with their time so they can grow their businesses with less overwhelm. She loves the business side of business—strategy, spreadsheets, and systems—and her clients love feeling the weight lifting off their shoulders with the support of a true brand partner.

Nicole and I discussed:

  • Working on doing the things we do for others, for ourselves.
  • Cookie Cutter businesses.
  • Inner turmoil as a working mother.
  • Being afraid to offset the current life balance.
  • Altering client relationships as the business evolves.
  • 2018 business plans.

Links

www.nboucher.com

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 in the community!

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.

The Accomplished Community: A community of entrepreneurial Type A women uniting to achieve their biggest goals with confidence, integrity and a sense of humor.

Subscribe to Women Taking the Lead

If you enjoyed this episode subscribe in iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Google Play Music or iHeart Radio and never miss out on inspiration and community!

Nov 27, 2017

 

Elizabeth Ross Holmstrom is the Founder and President of BreakTogether. Elizabeth founded BreakTogether to improve health and work in office/tech environments. With twenty years of health and wellness design experience, most recently as VP with a national bank and 26,000 employees, she’s witnessed the power of mindfulness. We’ve spent decades creating new ways to connect 24/7, leading to significant increases in stress-related illnesses. Her proven methods help people work better in 2-10 minutes a day, unplugged. When she isn’t practicing, she may be mountain biking on the nearest wooded trail and singing along the way.

Click to tweet: .@BreakTogetherME is sharing her story to inspire you on Women Taking the Lead https://womentakingthelead.com/243 #inspiration

Playing Small Moment

Several years ago, Elizabeth was given the opportunity to manage a new program that lead 70 different work groups. On one of their monthly calls, someone on the client team berated members of her team over something insignificant and Elizabeth had to change conversation topics. After the group call was over, she took a walk to calm down before meeting with this person one-on-one. During their call, Elizabeth stood up for herself, despite her fears, and ended up forming a very good working relationship with that person.

Style of Leadership

Elizabeth searches for strengths in others. She feels it is always best to work on the things you are good at, and collaborate with others on the things you aren’t good at.

What Are You Excited About?

Elizabeth is thrilled about her new website updates. Now that she has a clearer product and a clearer path to describe, she is excited her website will reflect that.

Current Business Challenge

Elizabeth struggles prioritizing her to-do list. She needs to focus on important tasks and not get sucked into other things when she logs on.

Leadership Practice

Elizabeth is compassionate and always strives to listen and understand where people are coming from so she can better serve them.

Advice For Younger Self

“Trust your intuitions.”

Inspirational Quote

“There’s no such thing as a weird human being, its just that some people might require more understanding than others.”  ~Tom Robbins

Links

Website: http://www.breaktogether.net
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethrossholmstrom/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BreakTogetherME
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BreakTogether/
Email: Elizabeth@breaktogether.net
Office: 207-370-9055

Thank You to Our Sponsors

Zola Registry: Zola is an all-in-one wedding registry that will do anything for love. Register for the things that you need and want, as well as experiences, cash funds, and honeymoon funds – all in one place! Choose products from their beautifully curated assortment in the Zola store, and ask for contributions towards your honeymoon…or anything at all! To sign up and get a $50 credit towards your registry, click here.

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 CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women in the community!

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.

The Accomplished Community: A community of entrepreneurial Type A women uniting to achieve their biggest goals with confidence, integrity and a sense of humor.

Subscribe to Women Taking the Lead

If you enjoyed this episode subscribe in iTunes, Stitcher RadioGoogle Play Music or iHeart Radio and never miss out on inspiration and community!

Nov 23, 2017

As of the date this episode was released it is Thanksgiving Day here in the US. It is always a good time to be thankful for all the blessings in our lives. It’s too easy to focus on what’s missing and what’s not going right and that creates a very unpleasant experience. Taking the time to reflect on what we have and what’s going right creates a peaceful and grateful state of mind that can help us to stay calm and in action. If you have not yet added a gratitude practice in your daily routing I’m going to highly recommend it.

One thing I am incredibly grateful for this week is all the changes that have been happening to my website. More changes are going to roll out over time but for now womentakingthelead.com definitely has a new look and feel to it. I would love for you to check it out and let me know what you think. Many of the best ideas for my business including the website, this podcast, and the services I provide have come from my clients and community. Sometimes we’re too close to something to see the obvious so I am grateful for any feedback I can get; positive, negative or neutral.

This episode is the fourth and last episode in a series based on one of the most impactful books I have ever read, The Four Agreements, and an event that I attended in Portland, Maine. The speakers at the event I attended were don Miguel Ruiz Sr., who is the author of The Four Agreements, and his sons don Miguel Ruiz, Jr. and don Jose Ruiz.

In this series I’m sharing with you the notes I took that evening and some of my thoughts around the material. The agreements I’ve covered in the first three episodes where Be Impeccable with Your Word, Always Do Your Best and Don’t Take Anything Personally. I’ve introduced each agreement in the order in which they were presented at the event.

There was one agreement left as don Jose Ruiz came to the stage, Don’t Make Assumptions. And again a twist on how to apply this agreement to your life was presented.

From the book The Four Agreements the guidance for Don’t Make Assumptions reads, “Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.”

When I read The Four Agreements 20 years ago I read this agreement as relating mostly to not making assumptions about other people. However, don Jose Ruiz focused mostly on not making assumptions about yourself. I went back to the book to see if this was a completely new twist and discovered it was not.

Be open to avoid making assumptions. Open your heart.

Remember who you are. You are a temple of love.

You can overcome anything, including yourself.

You are here to love unconditionally and that includes yourself.

If you are not happy with yourself how can you be happy with another?

You are the love of your own life. Love yourself so you can love another.

Be skeptical of the negativity you direct at yourself: that you are not perfect, that you are not enough and that you cannot change.

Respect and love yourself. What do you love about your temple?

We assume people see things the way we do and so when they do not say and do what we think they should be saying and doing we assume it’s for a negative reason.

This is why we struggle with being ourselves. We are such a harsh critic of ourselves we assume if others knew “the real” us they would judge us as harshly as we judge ourselves. In this way we project our view of the world onto other, thus completely misunderstanding the other person and internally or externally attacking the other person for intentions they do not have.

To stop this vicious cycle we have to (one) change the way we treat ourselves. Again, you are the love of your own life. Love yourself so you can love others. And (two) ask other people what their view is, what their intentions are.

We are wired to need to understand, to have the answer to questions that float through our mind. If we do not seek the truth we will make stuff up to have any answer even if it is incorrect. This causes so much suffering.

That is why with the one agreement to Don’t Make Assumptions you can completely transform your life.

Can you imagine how this one agreement could change who you are as a leader and as a business owner?

By not making assumptions you are less like to take things personally and be hurt by others words or actions. Making assumptions is the breeding ground for taking things personally. It’s a one-two punch.

Take some time today to imagine what life would be like if you were no longer emotionally derailed by other people; if, rather than need to expend energy on managing your emotions, you could calmly and directly ask questions to get the heart of the situation.

How much more could you accomplish in a day, a week or a year? It will blow your mind if you take some time to think about it.

And if this is something you struggle with reach out to me. This is part of the work I do with my clients. With the process I take them through they get so much energy back that they in turn use to hit their goals and create even better ones. Don’t go it alone if you don’t have to.

CTA: Before I wrap this up I want to invite you to go to womentakingthelead.com take a look around at the site and give me your feedback you can reach me at Jodi at womentakingthelead.com or message me on any social media platform. I am eager to hear what you think and I don’t take anything personally; it’s all valuable information to me.

As always, 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 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.

The Accomplished Community: A community of entrepreneurial Type A women uniting to achieve their biggest goals with confidence, integrity and a sense of humor.

Nov 20, 2017

You might mistake my guest today for Superwoman and if you do, you won't be alone. But Alissa believes YOU have Superpowers too! Alissa Daire Nelson is regularly featured on television news segments, inside major blogs and publications, and on podcasts from all over the globe. She's an accomplished Success Coach, Speaker, host of the Maximize Your Strengths podcast, as well as published Author of the hot new book; From Frustrated to Frickin' Awesome: 4 Steps to Achieve the Success You're Wired For. But more than anything else she's an exceedingly proud wife and mother of two, who loves helping others discover how to make their businesses and relationships thrive in harmony.

Click to tweet: .@daire2succeed is sharing her story to inspire you on Women Taking the Lead https://womentakingthelead.com/242 #inspiration

Playing Small Moment

Alissa was working as a dietician, and going after her second degree, while drowning in unhappiness. She believed if she kept doing more, she would achieve more, which would lead to happiness. Alissa started drinking and one night found herself behind the wheel, intoxicated. That moment was Alissa’s lowest point. She was living someone else’s life, doing what she thought she should have been doing. Now, Alissa is cautious about her “shoulds” and focuses more on the things she has accomplished.

Style of Leadership

Alissa is a visionary. She can help paint the bigger picture and look beyond the next step so her clients can find hope. Though she creates the plan, she looks to those around her for accountability and support to get the stuff done.

What Are You Excited About?

Alissa is working on a brand new podcast and membership site that she is thrilled about. Her new podcast, The Freaking Awesome Entrepreneur, will go beyond her current podcast, Maximize Your Strengths, and incorporate more of herself into the show.

Current Business Challenge

Alissa struggles to manage all of the details for her current projects without letting things fall between the cracks.

Leadership Practice

Alissa trusts in people that are better at things than she is.

Advice For Younger Self

“You are enough exactly how you are.”

Inspirational Quote

“Life doesn’t happen to you, it happens for you.”

Links

Website: http://daire2succeed.com/
Freebie: http://daire2succeed.com/takingthelead
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DaireSuccessCoaching/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/daire2succeed
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dairesuccesscoaching

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 CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women in the community!

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.

The Accomplished Community: A community of entrepreneurial Type A women uniting to achieve their biggest goals with confidence, integrity and a sense of humor.

Subscribe to Women Taking the Lead

If you enjoyed this episode subscribe in iTunes, Stitcher RadioGoogle Play Music or iHeart Radio and never miss out on inspiration and community!

Nov 13, 2017

Anne L’Heureux is a Spartan SGX Coach and Registered Dietitian Nutritionist.  Anne works with clients on and off the race course to perform at their best and nourish the body. Anne believes that the lessons learned in obstacle racing can be applied to everyday life to overcome physical, mental, and emotional challenges. Through fitness and nutrition, Anne believes our true Beast is hiding inside, waiting to be unleashed.

Anne has been featured in Maine Women’s Magazine, FitMaine.com, and has been recognized as Today’s Dietitian Magazine’s “Dietitian of the Week”.

She was a 2016 Spartan Elite Points Series Leader and the 2017 Killington Beast winner. Anne coaches OCR Athletes dedicated to fueling for performance as well as taking care of the one body that we get. She believes that overcoming challenges in life starts by placing focus on a strong body and mind.

Click to tweet: .@AnneLHeureux3 is sharing her story to inspire you on Women Taking the Lead https://womentakingthelead.com/241 #inspiration

Playing Small Moment

Anne was very shy her whole life, up until her sixth week of bootcamp. Joining the Navy and going to bootcamp is tough, but going in shy and without a friend, was even tougher. Until one day a switch when off and she just started doing it. “You don’t have to do it well, you just have to do it.”

Style of Leadership

Anne had been trying to lead people to proper nutrition by supplying them with a plethora of information, but people can find information on their own. She had to change her ways and work on empowering them to want to make a difference.

What Are You Excited About?

Anne is currently developing a platform to reach more people. In order to be successful, you have to bring value and build a community. Anne wants to be able to reach more people and bring value, without making people pay too much.

Current Business Challenge

Anne’s biggest challenge as business expands and picks up is making sure she is bringing value but also understanding the value that she brings. She doesn’t want money to be an obstacle, but at the same time when you’re running a business, it’s about money.

Leadership Practice

You have to live it. Through living it, Anne knows how to approach the person.

Advice For Younger Self

“Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Nothing happens in your comfort zone.”

Inspirational Quote

“Do and believe that which leads you to your goals.” ~Tom Bilyeu

Links

New website! https://www.fueltrainovercome.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anne_lheureuxocrsgx/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SPartanSGXBFD/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnneLHeureux3

Thank You to Our Sponsors

ThirdLove: Tired of compromising comfort, ThirdLove® set out to create a better bra. Armed with research and a lot of opinions, they scrapped the standard bra cup size molds—literally broke them!—and developed their own half-cup sizes based on real women’s measurements. Check out ThirdLove today!

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 CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women in the community!

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.

The Accomplished Community: A community of entrepreneurial Type A women uniting to achieve their biggest goals with confidence, integrity and a sense of humor.

Subscribe to Women Taking the Lead

If you enjoyed this episode subscribe in iTunes, Stitcher RadioGoogle Play Music or iHeart Radio and never miss out on inspiration and community!

Nov 9, 2017

There has been some excitement around here but of a different flavor than last week. I recorded last week’s episode on Sunday, October 29th and there was a rain and wind storm hit the coast of Maine that evening. On Monday morning at 5:15 my power went out.

Luckily Monday the 30th was a relatively mild day for this time of year being about 60 degrees. But as I checked in with the website that was tracking the number of households without power the number kept rising throughout the day. Soon the website would show about 400,000 households without power. This was not going to be a quick recovery.

I was also fortunate to have a friend text me that afternoon asking if I had power and to come stay at her house until the power came back. I do not like to be cold and the idea of sleeping in my place which probably would have dropped down into the 40s and 50s over the next several days did not appeal to me.

While my home did not have power until late Wednesday evening I was blessed to be staying somewhere with heat, electricity and Wi-Fi. There was some low-grade stress due to the uncertainty of the situation and being out of my normal routine but it was nothing and I got to spend more quality time with my friend and her team as they set up a satellite office around her kitchen table.

I shared in my newsletter a perspective that helped me to focus on the benefits of the situation rather than the inconveniences. Rather than wallowing in how much I did not want to be without power, which represents the perspective of “Why is this happening to me?” I wondered instead, “Why is this happening for me?”

Beginning to wonder from that perspective I was able to see some benefits of having the power go out that I had not been able to see before.

I wonder how often we fail to see the benefits of things not going according to plan. I’ll be pondering this more because things rarely go according to plan.

The Anniversary of Accomplished

On a lighter note, this week marks the first anniversary of the publishing of my book Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to Doing. It went live in Amazon on November 8, 2016. The Kindle version alone got over 1600 downloads that first week making it an Amazon Bestseller. It also hit #1 in four different categories: Business Life, Motivational Business Management, Business Motivation and Self-Improvement, and Personal Transformation.

To celebrate this occasion I have reduced the price of the Kindle version from $7.95 to .99 cents for one week. If you are hearing this episode in real time, and you don’t have your Kindle version of Accomplished yet you can grab it for .99 cents until November 14, 2017.

Thank you to those who have already read Accomplished and thank you to those of you who are going to get it now. I just received and email from someone a few days ago who said they read it in a day. It’s an easy read and if it speaks to you, you’re probably going to have a hard time putting it down.

A Better Life through the Four Agreements

In the last two 100% Jodi episodes I began a series based on one of the most impactful books I have ever read, The Four Agreements. The agreements covered in the first two episodes where Be Impeccable with Your Word and Always Do Your Best.

When people ask what book I would recommend to others The Four Agreements is the book I recommend most. The reason for this is I believe the biggest thing holding us back in our lives and in our businesses is our stress reactions. Our stress reactions are created by our perception of self, others and the world at large.

Quite simply, the teachings in The Four Agreements enable you to change your perception so you don’t get stressed out by what’s happening. Because you don’t get stressed out and thus shut down, overreact or pretend things are okay when they are not, you can bring forth your highest self in any situation.

The Four Agreements are powerful because they are simple. I recently had the pleasure of attending an event in Portland, Maine titled The Four Agreements for a Better Life. The speakers were don Miguel Ruiz Sr., who is the author of The Four Agreements, and his sons don Miguel Ruiz, Jr. and don Jose Ruiz.

In this series I’m sharing with you the notes I took that evening and some of my thoughts around the material.

This is part three in this series. In part one, I shared don Miguel Ruiz, Sr.’s perspective on the agreement, Be Impeccable with Your Word and in part two don Miguel Ruiz Jr.’s perspective on Always Do Your Best.

That evening Don Miguel Ruiz, Jr. continued his presentation to quickly talk about another agreement, Don’t Take Anything Personally.

Don't Take Anything Personally

From the book The Four Agreements the overview for Don’t Take Anything Personally reads, “Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.”

And these are the notes taken from the talk that evening:

Don’t assume responsibility for other’s actions.

Taking things personally is another form of conditional love.

When people are mean to you they are asking for your help.

Don Miguel, Jr. told a story of travelling with his father for some speaking engagements. On one particular evening they did their event and arrived back at their hotel and looked around for a place to eat.

Don Miguel Jr. shared that when he looked into the lounge and the restaurant area he noticed everyone in there was impeccably dressed and he didn’t want to go in there until he had a chance to get more dressed up. So he suggested to his father they freshen up and meet back in the lobby. His father agreed and they went to their own rooms to change.

Don Miguel, Jr., all dressed up, came back down to the lobby to wait for his father. When the elevator doors opened Don Miguel Sr. comes out wearing his pajamas, a bathrobe and slippers. Don Miguel Jr. was mortified but tried to play it cool as they went into the restaurant, passed all the people dressed to the nines, and were seated. His father seeing his discomfort asked him what was wrong. Don Miguel Jr. denied any discomfort until finally he blurted out his mortification that his father would come down to the restaurant dressed as he was.

Don Miguel Sr. replied, “Do you disrespect me so much that you don’t think I can pay the consequences of my own actions; that you think you have to pay them for me.”

In that moment Don Miguel Jr. realized what his father was doing had nothing to do with him personally and yet he was taking it on as if it was.

How many times do we cringe or feel disappointed because a family member or close friend, or anyone, is behaving in a way that we would not choose to behave. And even though it has nothing to do with us we feel embarrassed or guilty on their behalf. We may even go so far as to apologize on their behalf as if we have the right to do so.

His last message was that if you have ever done this forgive yourself for ever saying yes to conditional love.

To Sum it Up…

That’s the end of my notes on this agreement from that evening though I’ve had time to ponder this agreement since then. First I want to acknowledge that these agreements are simple but they are not easy. Without training and diligence we can easily slip into the old automatic ways of thinking and responding. We are ego-centric beings and we have a hard time separating what someone else does from ourselves.

I’ve had my own experiences within the last 24 hours in which more than one person failed to do what I had requested and I took it personally. I made it mean they didn’t appreciate or respect me; then I didn’t, then I did again, then I let go again, and later I remembered I was still waiting for what I requested and I got annoyed again. That’s what it can look like and I’m hoping your chuckling about this because we all do it.

Reminders are important when we are taking on new perspectives and ways of being and responding. Until it becomes a habit, plant a sticky note on your mirror or monitor, or as a backdrop on your computer to remind you that what other people do has nothing to do with you; it only has anything to do with them.

This reminder, especially in the past 24 hours has helped me to have compassion for the people I’ve been thinking of. I remind myself I have no idea what’s going on for them in their world. With that thought I can stay calm and a little detached from what’s happening and check in with them without any hard feelings.

I’m going to encourage you to take this on at least for today and see what happens. Set up reminders so you don’t forget. Your mission is don’t take anything personally. What others say and do has nothing to do with you.

I’m just asking you to commit for one day to see how it goes. If you are so moved reach out to me and let me know how it went.

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to Doing

Just a reminder, until November 14, 2017 you can get the Kindle version of Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to Doing for .99 cents on Amazon.com. If you type accomplished or Jodi Flynn in the Amazon search bar the book will be at or near the top of the list.

As always, I hope this and everything I’m sharing is 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 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.

The Accomplished Community: A community of entrepreneurial Type A women uniting to achieve their biggest goals with confidence, integrity and a sense of humor.

Nov 6, 2017

As a tech translator, Lynette Delane embodies an intrinsic ability to save business owners time, and therefore money. It’s like her magic trick. Her purpose is to deliver back to her clients the all-elusive “spare” time so they can use it to do what they love. She puts her principles into practice in her own business – Kits and Bits – founded with the desire to create a work/life balance and prove to her clients it can be done!

Click to tweet: .@kitsandbitsoz is sharing her story to inspire you on Women Taking the Lead https://womentakingthelead.com/240 #inspiration

Playing Small Moment

Being the youngest of 9, Lynette constantly worried about what other people thought. Formal qualifications became a hurdle for Lynette. She watched her friends get their degrees and she started to doubt her own abilities because she lacked that piece of paper. Her biggest strength wasn’t that piece of paper, though, it was her ability to do things differently and learn as she went along.

Style of Leadership

Lynette leads by example and would never ask someone to do something she hasn’t done herself.

What Are You Excited About?

Lynette trains businesses in software in ways that will be most beneficial for their company. Her newest program focuses on Microsoft Office, and teaching people the exact skills they need to be more efficient.

Current Business Challenge

Lynette struggles with visibility, alongside the fact that most people believe they know everything there is to know about Microsoft Office. In reality, Microsoft Office isn’t usually utilized to its full potential. So, getting people to see her and understand how much they really do need her is something that challenges Lynette.

Leadership Practice

Understanding the process is key to Lynette being a better leader. Lynette also believes that having empathy for the effects of her trainings, especially in tech, is absolutely necessary.

Advice For Younger Self

“You do not need that paper, just get on with it!”

Inspirational Quote

“Let go of who you think you’re supposed to be and embrace who you are.” ~Brene Brown

Links

Website: http://kitsandbits.com.au/
Facebook: http://bit.ly/kitsandbitsonFB
Youtube: http://bit.ly/kitsandbitsonyoutube
Google+: http://bit.ly/kitsandbitsongoogleplus
Twitter: http://bit.ly/kitsandbitsontwitter
https://twitter.com/kitsandbitsoz
LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/kitsandbitsonLinkedIn
Instagram: http://bit.ly/kitsandbitsonInstagram
Pinterest: http://bit.ly/kitsandbitsonPinterest

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 CommunityChat, share and collaborate with other women in the community!

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.

The Accomplished Community: A community of entrepreneurial Type A women uniting to achieve their biggest goals with confidence, integrity and a sense of humor.

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Nov 2, 2017

There are some exciting things going on behind the scenes here. I mentioned the upcoming changes to my website in last week’s 100% Jodi. There are other changes I’m planning for this podcast, The Accomplished Membership Community and in the coaching services I provide. Some of the changes are subtle, some not so subtle and I will let you all know when the changes are real and you can actually look at them or experience them.

Suffice to say for now, the experience I’m having working with a digital strategist, the feedback I’m getting from all of you, and the experience I’m having doing A Course in Miracles, and the complimentary books I’m reading, are leading me in some exciting new directions.

I want to read to you an excerpt from one of those complimentary books I’m reading, The Law of Divine Compensation by Marianne Williamson.

“Your energy, your attitude, your positivity, your words, your ability to listen to others and truly dwell in the present; all those things make you a person others want to be with, want to work with, want to share ideas with. That energy is the spiritual basis for wealth creation.”What Marianne is talking about is self-leadership and this is the core of the business and leadership coaching I do. In fact, the starting point in working with me is taking the Energy Leadership Assessment.

The Energy Leadership Assessment captures your energy, your attitude, your positivity, your ability to listen to others and truly dwell in the present. It’s not a critique; it’s a snap shot to give you an idea of where you are starting from and where you can go.

And you’re not left there. In the debriefing of your results I am giving you practices and perspectives that will help you to increase your energy, positivity and abilities so you can be without a doubt the person others want to follow, want to work with, want to collaborate with, etc.

If you are interested in taking the Energy Leadership Assessment go to womentakingthelead.com/assessment to find out more and purchase your assessment so you can start getting the results you want to see.

The Four Agreements for a Better Life

In last week's 100% Jodi episode I introduced doing a series of episodes based on one of the most impactful books I have ever read, The Four Agreements.

Last May I published a 100% Jodi episode titled, 9 Places I Found What I (Didn't Realize) I Needed. In that episode I shared 9 books that came into my life and changed it for the better.

When people ask what book I would recommend to others The Four Agreements is the book I recommend most. The reason for this is I believe the biggest thing holding us back in our lives and in our businesses is our stress reactions. Our stress reactions are created by our perception of self, others and the world at large.

Quite simply, the teachings in The Four Agreements enable you to change your perception so you don’t get stressed out by what’s happening. Because you don’t get stressed out and thus shut down, overreact or pretend things are okay when they are not, you can bring forth your highest self in any situation.

The Four Agreements are powerful because they are simple. I recently had the pleasure of attending an event in Portland, Maine titled The Four Agreements for a Better Life. The speakers were don Miguel Ruiz, who is the author of The Four Agreements, and his sons don Miguel Ruiz, Jr. and don Jose Ruiz.

In this series I’m sharing with you the notes I took that evening and some of my thoughts around the material.

This is part two in this series. Last week I covered the opening of the evening in which don Miguel Ruiz, Sr. declared the most important agreement is Be Impeccable with Your Word.

I’ve been hearing from some of you that this talk provided a spin on this agreement that you had not considered before so if you personally did not catch that episode be sure to go back and give it a listen.

Always Do Your Best

Next to the stage that evening was don Miguel Ruiz, Jr. and he covered the agreement, Always Do Your Best. Here are my notes as I wrote them.

Always do your best is the expression of unconditional love. It is living your life fully. Love yourself, love your body, and love your mind. Take care of yourself for your fullest expression of love.

Conditional love is the enemy of freedom. In fact, as don Miguel Jr. explained it, conditional love is the weapon used for domestication, or controlling the will of another human being.

Control of another is a form of disrespect that begins with creating self-doubt in another. Self-doubt then allows the perpetrator to exert their will and subjugate the other.

There are rewards and punishments in the process of domestication. The rewards feel like acceptance, feel like love and the punishment feels like rejection, a lack of love.

Looking at yourself in the mirror and judging yourself is the ultimate form of Domestication.

Couples also try to domesticate each other to fit their own image of love.

Bring Awareness to Your Automatic Ways of Being

Taking the four agreements and making each one a means by which to judge yourself and others is domestication. Judgment takes a pure teaching or wisdom and corrupts it.

In a moment of clarity when we see what we have done we can make a choice to change for ourselves.

To unlearn our domestication we need bring awareness to our automatic ways of being, our automatic “yeses” and “nos.”

Being skeptical introduces reason and prevents the automatic “yes’ or “no.”

Putting your beliefs up for scrutiny (skepticism) will allow you to make a new choice.

What has someone else said that has stuck with you?

Chances are they said it once or a few time but you have been repeating it to yourself ever since, thus being complicit in your own domestication.

As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

Forgive yourself for being complicit in your own domestication.

Be skeptical of negativity. Be skeptical of your own negativity.

To Sum it Up…

That’s the end of my notes and I have to share when don Miguel Ruiz, Jr. introduced skepticism…let’s just say I was a little surprised. I was skeptical of being skeptical which is making me laugh a little bit now.

However, what I’ve come to realize is doses of skepticism allow you to bring more awareness to the forefront. Rather than knee-jerk reacting into a verbal response or a behavior we can take a step back and consider the options.

I’ve come to realize there are very few things that need to be rushed. Yet, we often rush to try to fit more into our lives only to realize most of the things we’re rushing to fit in are things we don’t want or need in the first place.

In fact, rushing will cause us to overlook important details that we will have to take the time to fix or make amends for later.

Always do your best is the expression of unconditional love. It is living your life fully. Love yourself, love your body, and love your mind. Take care of yourself for your fullest expression of love.

Energy Leadership Assessment

I’m bringing this back around to the Energy Leadership Assessment because it goes hand-in-hand with don Miguel Jr.’s coverage of “always do your best”. His coverage had at its core bringing awareness to your automatic ways of being. That is exactly what the Energy Leadership Assessment does. It allows you to see what your knee-jerk reactions to stress are so you choose a different response if you want to and get a different result.

It’s a quick and dirty way to get at the heart of what has been keeping you from accomplishing the goals you long for.

If you are interested in taking the Energy Leadership Assessment go to womentakingthelead.com/assessment to find out more and purchase your assessment so you can start getting the results you want to see.

As always, 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!

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