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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: August, 2018
Aug 27, 2018

Hello everyone and thank you for joining me for this month-end episode on goals. Can you believe this is the 8th monthly update on goals? We are 2/3 of the way through 2018!

Here in the US we’ve also got Labor Day next week which is our unofficial end to summer. This is also when all the kids go back to school, if they haven’t already.

September is also known as “the other New Year” so this is great time to set new goals or recommit to the goals you’ve been working on.

Times of transition are great times to make changes or start something new. Our brains have an easier time accepting change during transition so take advantage of this if you been meaning to change some habits or take up anything new!

Okay, on to what I’ve been up to in the month of August in regards to my goals. I have four focus areas 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.

With the help of my mastermind group and going through my goals review back in June I have created 4 sub-goals for this goal. 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 and happiness at work. Since setting this sub-goal I have gained two new clients who fall in this category, have one more starting in September and I am having ongoing conversations with 5 other individuals with varying degrees of potential for the immediate future.
  2. Do 10 corporate workshops. I have done 4 thus far this year and at this point have 4 potential workshops coming up but still no movement. I am within a week or two of launching my postal mail campaign to businesses in Maine so I’ll be looking for movement in this area in the next couple of months.
  3. Promote the DIY products that are on the website. I just met with my Virtual Assistant last week to put together a marketing plan and now we are beginning to execute on this plan. Again, I’m hoping to have some more results-driven progress to share with you next month.
  4. Do two more group programs by the end of the year. I’m planning to do a virtual group program in the fall and will also be doing a live workshop that will likely occur late November after Thanksgiving or the first week in December.

Now, June’s Profit and Loss report showed an abysmal net profit of $922.38, way far off from the average $6700/month required to see a net profit of $80,000. However, July’s Profit and Loss report showed a net profit of $5,788.76. Still $1000 away from the $6700 I’m shooting for but I will take it. This is the closest I’ve gotten to goal and I am pleased with the progress.

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.

Two Fridays ago I did 800 burpees in 3:02:31.

The Monday after my 800 burpee workout I also began training with Alex. Alex is the Personal Trainer in my BNI group. He is certified as a Person Trainer and Nutrition Coach and has experience working with endurance athletes. That first workout was eye opening and as Alex put it, “you’re strong enough to do 1000 burpees but you are working way too hard.”

I really haven’t had to change what I’m eating too much but I’ve changed the frequency in which I consume food. I was eating 3 meals and 3 snacks a day (consumed about every 2-3 hours) and now I’m eating 4 meals every 3-5 hours. In one week I’ve already lost .7% body fat and gained .8 lbs. in muscle mass. Not too shabby.

Alex also recommended, in an effort to save my joints from wear and tear, changing up the burpee workout I do once a week. He suggested doing my burpee workout quicker rather than trying to do more burpees.

For instance, last week rather than striving to do 850 burpees I’ll did 500 burpees striving to beat the time of my last 500 burpee workout. This I did. The last time I did 500 burpees was in April and it took me 1:43:49. This time it took me 1:36:15, shaving 7 minutes and 34 seconds off my original time.

Focus are #3 Romantic Partnership

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

I have to laugh a little bit at this goal because while sometimes it is the most enjoyable goal to work towards it also challenges my Type A, need to know, need a plan, need to be in control tendencies. They are getting a workout, for sure.

And they are at odds with the qualities I identified that would take me toward my goal; namely, being aligned, feminine, social, focused, disciplined and committed.

When I feel uncertain and like I don’t have control it takes work for me to feel and exude those qualities.

While being on a dating app can be compared to being on a rollercoaster the experience I had last month has continued. I am making more quality connections and overall enjoying myself more. Every man I’ve had the fortune of getting to know briefly has helped me to be clearer on what I’m looking for at this stage of my life from a romantic partnership.

And oddly enough each month I meet a new man who is closer to what I’m looking for.

That being said I don’t want to sugarcoat this either. I get more feedback and commentary on my burpee goal than any of the others. To most people that is the goal that is the most challenging on my list.

But for me dating is more challenging because there’s only so much I have control over, pretty much just myself: who I’m being, how I show up, how I communicate, my appearance, my boundaries, etc. Nearly every other aspect of dating is out of my control.

Through the dating app I recently met a very handsome man who has intelligence, wit and a similar sense humor – which means in my world he has a great sense of humor. He is very close with his family, devoted to his teenage son and in a profession that contributes to the community. All pluses. All awesome.

The caveat is that we met while he was vacationing in Maine and he lives about 700 miles away. Queue the wah-wah. If we were local to each other this would be a no-brainer but we don’t live local to each other.

The other thing is we have different perspectives on this. I have 7 siblings, 5 of whom have gotten married thus far. Of those 5 marriages 3 of them started as long distance relationships where they didn’t live together until after they were married. And to give you some perspective on the distances, one couple lived in Texas and Florida, another lived in Toronto and Cuba, and the last was Washington State and the Philippines. We’re talking long, long distances.

In my paradigm distance is a challenge but not an obstacle. My handsome new friend, however, does not have the same paradigm as I so he is taking some time to mull it over and decide if he believes long-distance relationships are possible and if this is worth a try.

And I, little Miss Type A, am practicing patience in the face of the unknown, uncertainty, no decision, no plan, and no deadline.

I’ll end with this coach-like thought because in my heart of hearts I am a coach. This is an amazing opportunity to have a mirror held up for me to see how much my need to be in control and to have all the answers holds me back and keeps me from being at my best. Luckily I sorted my way through and am feeling more peaceful than I was at first.

Focus area #4 Live Events

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

This goal is on the back-burner as I am focusing on the mail campaign that is coming up and then I’ll be working on the virtual group program which will start in October.

I am committed to doing a workshop in the Portland area the last week of November or first week of December and I will keep you posted on how that is coming about.

How are your goals coming along? If you’re not 100% happy with your goals or your progress I’m going to suggest doing my goals mini-course. You can find out more about it at womentakingthelead.com/goals. And as a thank you for being a listener of this podcast you can use coupon code goals10 to get $10 off.

Update on my Mom

I shared in the last month-end episode that my Mom had been diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer. She had the surgery to remove the cancer and take lymph nodes to rule out stage 2 breast cancer.

Overall she is recovering very well from her surgery. Everything has been routine thus far and she didn’t need to take anything to manage pain afterward, not even an Advil. But this is also a woman who delivered 6 of 8 children via natural child birth.

However, they did find cancer in one of the lymph nodes taken and so her diagnosis has been changed to stage 2 breast cancer. Also, her hormone test indicated she has an aggressive form of cancer so she will be taking Herceptin, will have chemo followed by radiation treatments.

My entire family is rallying to keep everyone updated, update plans for the holidays, and we are choosing treatment dates to keep my Mom company while she gets the Herceptin and chemo treatments.

I asked my Mom if she wanted to share anything and she wanted you to know that prayer is important. She is counting on it like medicine so please continue to keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

She also wanted to thank family and friends who have been important and have provided tremendous support.

I asked her last week how she was doing and she said that while this is upsetting overall she feels relaxed because she is getting so much support and being well taken care of.

I wish for all of us that no matter what life throws at us that we can stay relaxed through it all because we are so supported by those around us.

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

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 13, 2018

I've been administering the Energy Leadership Self-Assessment tool I use with my clients more often lately and because I tend to work with perfectionists and "recovering perfectionists" quite a bit there's something that has been coming up quite often: the fear of failure.

Perfectionists HATE failure and will employ nearly any strategy to avoid it. The strategy can range from not trying at all to running yourself into the ground to ensure success. But if you avoid trying at all you also keep yourself from some of the sweetest moments life has to offer. According to Robert F. Kennedy, “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”

And if you are sacrificing your health and well-being to avoid failure you won't be in a state in which you can appreciate your success once you've achieved it. I know this feeling myself and many of my clients know it too. The empty feeling you have when you've achieved something big and you don't feel anything. You are so tired, you are so done that you don't want congratulations, awards or a pat on the back - you just want to crash because your body is shutting down.

I'm going to throw you for a loop because I'm going to declare that there is nothing wrong with failure. In fact, it's a good thing. Here we go...

What’s Your Concept of Failure?

Many of us are taught from a young age that failure is “bad”, and perhaps it’s this early conditioning that causes us to make an enemy of failure once we grow up. Some people cringe even thinking about it, others try hard to avoid it, and virtually all of us question ourselves when we do something that’s perceived as a failure.

On top of that, failure is often more public than success – or so we perceive it to be. After all, the failures of public figures – large and small – make dramatic media headlines. And as we all know, drama sells so their failures get more play than their successes. Yet, whether we like it or not, failure is a part of the journey to achieving our goals.

You, like many of my clients, may have a tendency to beat yourself up over past failures - some may have even occurred decades ago. A sudden flash of a memory has your body cringing even though there's nothing in your immediate environment that you have to protect yourself against. That's how powerful those memories can be. And to make sure you never make that mistake again you castigate yourself - for what, the hundredth time? - for having been so naive, stupid, blind, arrogant...you name it!

You think by mentally beating yourself up you're helping to make sure you never make the same mistake again. But the truth is you won't the same mistake again and all you're doing is hurting your self-image and undermining your confidence. There's a better way!

Gain Wisdom by Learning from Failure

If you’re willing to change how you perceive failure, you might just change your life. Renegotiate your concept of failure by considering four of its benefits:

One: Failure is a catalyst for change.

Think of failure as the result of an experiment. You tried something out and it didn't go as expected. This is your chance to assess what happened, face the facts, and creatively plan how you’ll move ahead. After all, it took Edison around 10,000 attempts to invent a light bulb. If you give up too soon, you won’t be able to leverage the failure to your advantage. I've been struggling to achieve my monthly profitability goal and that struggle has been energizing for my business. I've made a lot of changes due to the wake-up call of these failures and there are some exciting things starting to happen as a result of those changes. More to come in the month-end episode!

Two: Failure = freedom?

You bet it does! Failure does one thing well – it shows us that we’re not invincible. Be willing to own your failure. Doing so will help you release the belief that you “must” be perfect – and that’s a pretty freeing feeling.

If you can change your expectations that it has to be dead-on on the first try you will give yourself the space to play, be creative and test what's possible. This is the part of the reason children learn so fast. It's not just because their brains have plasticity. Adult brains have plasticity too. Young children aren't afraid to mess up. They do it all the time and so they are more open to trying something, taking risks and hitting that button. It's the reason why they figure out how to use your smart phone faster than you do. You're afraid you'll blow it up; they're not.

Three: You learn who your friends are.

Failure brings clarity on many levels, and as anyone who’s failed before knows, you’ll quickly discover who your friends really are. True friends will stick by you when the going gets rough. If you have a "ride or die" friend, that friend who will stick by you whether you're on top of the world or hitting rock bottom, then you are truly blessed.

Your failure can be a great way to thin the heard so you are focusing your precious time and energy on those who are truly there because they love and believe in you. There are always people in our lives that we generously give to whether they have the capacity to give back or not, but at least you'll know who is who and you won't rely on someone in a time of need who will suddenly have no time for you.

Four: You can bounce back, better than ever.

Failure is possibly your #1 opportunity to build resilience like never before. This key trait of successful people is all about recovering quickly from what shuts you down and what set you off.

One of the strategies I use to recover quickly from a failure is to have a sense of humor. Although I take my work seriously and I have some big goals to change the world, I don't take myself too seriously. Or, at least I strive not take myself too seriously. My inner critic has an insidious way of working it's way into my internal dialogue at times.

Look for the ridiculous and absurd in a situation and have a good laugh. If this is hard for you make a point to watch some comedies with friends. It has been proven that we find things to be funnier and laugh more when it's a shared experience.

One of my favorite movies of all time is Elf with Will Ferrell and Zoe Deschanel. The lines, "Son of a nutcracker!", "He's an angry elf" and "Does somebody need a hug?" get me every time and I quote them often.

I'll leave you with this quote by Henry Ward Beecher. "A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road."

I'll be back in a couple weeks for the month-end episode on goals update.

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!

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 6, 2018

Randi Levin, founder & CEO, Randi Levin Coaching – is a nationally recognized transitional life strategist, Fortune 500 keynote, author, & reinvention expert. Randi supports women in becoming legends in their own lives through redefining legacy as a power tool for change and redirection TODAY. You may have seen her featured in Thrive Global, HuffPost, Better After 50, Reader’s Digest, Working Mother Magazine, American Express Open Forum, or The WSJ. Randi is also contributing author in Get RESULTS!

Playing Small Moment

Randi was convinced that she had to choose one thing or another in life. She thought her kids would be her legacy, until she realized that her legacy wasn’t just what she was leaving behind, but what she could create in the current moment. Once Randi embraced the use of and instead of or, her life changed.

Style of Leadership

Randi leads by example. Once she commits to something, she is all in, and wants others to do the same.

What Are You Excited About?

Randi is thrilled to be hosting her first retreat in April 2019 that will take 10 women on a personal and cultural journey in Italy.

Current Business Challenge

Randi will be downsizing her home and relocating. She plans to document this journey to provide relatable content for her audience that may help someone in the same situation.

Leadership Practice

When Randi was just starting out, she was told to “Just start.” So, she goes through life saying yes now, and figuring out all the details later. Randi believes there is no one right way, but you have to take that path forward to the thing you want without overthinking it.

Advice For Younger Self

Randi would tell her younger self, “Believe in yourself.” Success is a three letter word, and that word is now. You’ve got this. If this doesn’t work out, there will be something else, but don’t hold yourself. Be curious about the things you most want.

Inspirational Quote

“We tend to think of our legacy as something we leave behind at the end of our lives, but what would you do differently today if you believed that you had the choice to carve out exactly what you wanted that legacy to be in real time? Manifest that concept and magically you do have that choice. You are your own GPS in your life. Start by having a voice. Say yes by listening to that voice. What’s next? Now is your new next.”

Links

Website: https://randilevincoaching.com/
Email: randi@randilevincoaching.com
Free giveaway: https://randilevincoaching.com/balance
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RandiLevinCoaching
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/randilevincoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/randiclevin/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/randilevincoach
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9GYtxz1RRqAl5g39kuXJ-Q

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 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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