Podcasts about international coach federation

Melinda is a teacher and coaching psychologist with 20+ years' experience supporting school staff and leaders. With research in compassion fatigue, burnout, and engagement, she offers evidence-based wellbeing support through coaching, facilitation, and strategic planning. Melinda has worked as a teacher, counsellor, consultant, educator, and general manager. She takes a compassionate, practical approach tailored to each school's context. Melinda is an Associate Certified Coach with the International Coach Federation.

In this compilation, explore transformative insights from eight previous guests who reveal how neuroscience empowers lasting change, self-awareness, and resilience. If you're a coach, wellness professional, or simply fascinated by the science of change, this episode is rich with actionable insights.In each episode of Neuroscience of Coaching, host Dr. Irena O'Brien explains the science-based insights behind a particular concept and interviews a coach to discuss how these apply in the real world. Just as she does in her professional programs, Irena “un-complicates” neuroscience and teaches practical, evidence-based tools and strategies that listeners can use in their coaching practices.Contents:00:00 — Intro about this special compilation episode01:08 — Lion Goodman on how “the predictive brain” forms our current reality06:15 — Deborah Ross and Kay Adams on the transformative experience of journal therapy12:00 — Ally Machate on the universal fear of rejection when publishing our writing18:51 — Dr. Eugene Choi on the state of flow and how we spend too much time in our survival mind23:10 — Caroline Leroux on coaching for compassion versus coaching for compliance27:55 — Renaye Thornborrow on teaching mindset skills to children through story-based coaching32:32 — Dr. Natalie Green on how childhood trauma manifests in adulthoodGuest Bios:Lion Goodman is a Professional Certified Coach and the CEO of the Clear Beliefs Institute.Deborah Ross and Kay Adams are journal-therapy pioneers and experts and the co-authors of Your Brain on Ink.Ally Machete is a book-publishing coach and  the founder and CEO of The Writer's Ally.Dr. Eugene Choi is a neuroscience-based coach who teaches executive leaders how to achieve and sustain peak performance in high-stress, high-stakes, and high-change environments.Caroline Leroux is a member of the International Coach Federation and is an instructor with Dr. Irena's Neuroscience School.Renaye Thornborrow is leading a worldwide mission to bring life coaching and mindset skills training to children through her company, Adventures in Wisdom.Dr. Natalie Green is a trauma-breakthrough coach, bestselling author, and host of the podcast Growing Tall Poppies.Host Bio:Dr. Irena O'Brien teaches coaches and care professionals how to achieve better results for their clients through neuroscience.She is the founder of Neuroscience School, which helps practitioners understand and apply insights from cutting-edge neuroscience research. She loves seeing her students gain confidence in their ability to evaluate neuroscience findings and use them successfully in their own practices. Her Certificate Program in Neuroscience is certified by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) for Continuing Coaching Education credit.Dr. O'Brien has studied neuroscience for 25 years and holds a Ph.D. in the field from the Université du Quebec à Montréal (UQAM), where she did brain-imaging studies. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Centre for Language, Mind, and Brain at McGill University.Resources mentioned in this episode:MiraseeDr. Irena O'Brien's website: The Neuroscience SchoolCredits:Host: Dr. Irena O'BrienProducer and Editor: Andrew ChapmanExecutive Producer: Danny InyMusic Soundscape: Chad Michael SnavelyMaking our hosts sound great: Home Brew AudioMusic credits:Track Title: Sneaker SmeakerArtist: Avocado JunkieWriter: Sander KalmeijerPublisher: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONTrack Title: Coo CoosArtist: Dresden, The FlamingoWriter: Matthew WigtonPublisher: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONTrack Title: In This LightArtist: Sounds Like SanderWriter: Sander KalmeijerPublisher: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONSpecial effects credits:24990513_birds-chirping_by_promission used with permission of the author and under license by AudioJungle/Envato Market.To catch the great episodes coming up on Neuroscience of Coaching, please follow us on Mirasee FM's YouTube channelor your favorite podcast player. And if you enjoyed the show, please leave us a comment or a starred review. It's the best way to help us get these ideas to more people.Episode transcript: How Can Brain Science Elevate Coaching from Insight to Action? coming soon.

Claire Steichen founded Clear Strategy Coaching in 2008 to help ambitious mid-career professionals reach their goals, authentically and without burn-out. Claire is the author of “Confidence at Work: The High Achiever's Guide to Navigating Uncertainty”. Using her I to the 4th Power methodology, Claire has trained hundreds of mid-level and senior professionals to build career on their terms. Before becoming a coach, Claire spent two decades in Beauty at L'Oreal, Parfums Christian Dior, and Givaudan.  Since founding Clear Strategy Coaching, her corporate clients have included L'Oreal, Visa, American Express, ESPN, Firmenich, International Flavors & Fragrances, and Omnicom. Claire received her certification through Coach Training Institute and is a Certified Professional Coach with the International Coach Federation.On this episode of the CoLab podcast, Madelyn Ulrich sits down with Claire Steichen, founder of Clear Strategy Coaching, to talk about bouncing back from career setbacks, trusting your intuition, and celebrating small wins. From L'Oréal to launching her own practice, Claire shares the real story behind building confidence and resilience in leadership.

Dr. Lynn Hellerstein of Vision Beyond Sight speaks with Pamela Stambaugh, MBA, International Coach Federation certified executive coach, certified woman owned business, to talk about her vision for what leadership needs to bring, with the need for hope and authenticity being as significant as it is among younger members of the workforce today. Authenticity is all about being vulnerable and the willingness to not be right. Hope is about finding it within yourself and inspiring others to recognize it. Pam presents her 52-week Success Accelerators program for middle market companies, aimed to make effective and inspiring leaders, not just managers. Pam also touches on how to use AI for factual research, and the importance of free speech and honoring other people's opinions and views. Dr. Lynn Hellerstein, Developmental Optometrist, co-owner of Hellerstein & Brenner Vision Center, P.C., award-winning author and international speaker, holds powerful and inspiring conversations with her guests in the areas of health, wellness, education, sports and psychology. They share their inspirational stories of healing and transformation through their vision expansion. Vision Beyond Sight Podcast will help you see with clarity, gain courage and confidence. Welcome to Vision Beyond Sight! Also available on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Audible and Stitcher.

Dr. Laura welcomes Hillary Rideout and Steve Brierley to Where Work Meets Life™ to talk about inspiring better humans and their new book on the subject. Hillary and Steve previously collaborated on “Being a Better Human Teenager” and that book and its reception led to their new follow-up book, “Inspiring Better Humans”. Dr. Laura explores why Steve and Hillary are drawn to inspiring young people, their thoughts on making a difference, and how having a purpose can change lives.Steve and Hillary work together in the Better Human Group, a project that fuelled their first book, and one of the discoveries they share is that a common factor among the profiled teenagers was very involved parents. They discuss how having a purpose and believing in the ability to offer something to the world positively impacts everyone, not just teenagers. The message in their books resonates with teens and parents alike and has inspired purposeful action in classrooms, which is part of the solution to combating mental illness in young people. Dr. Laura's conversation with Steve and Hillary opens a window into the lives of extraordinary teens and caring parents and how any one of us can tap into our ability to change the world for the better.“These kids truly felt like they could have an impact on the world. And they did. And that was very motivating to the kids in the class who were reading the stories and then actually creating their own plan to do something similar” Hillary Rideout“To me, the message is very clear. And I think it is that when you do something to help somebody, you also help yourself. And for me, if we can get this message out to others, I think it would be just an incredible impact.” Steve BrierleyAbout Steve Brierley:Over the past 20 years, Steve has held progressive positions in corporate training, talent management and executive leadership development in corporate and post-secondary sectors.While working in California, Steve was the General Manager of a multi-national corporate training organization that focused on delivering IT skills and leadership development for Fortune 100 organizations and government agencies.After four years in the USA, Steve returned to Canada and joined SAIT's corporate training department in the role of Corporate Learning Advisor, followed by the role of Director of Executive Education at the University of Alberta School of Business. He then joined the energy sector as Group Lead, Corporate Training & Talent Management at Encana Inc., followed by Director of Executive Development & Talent Management at Enbridge, Steve then joined Canadian Tire as Associate Vice President of Talent Management. In his last corporate role, Steve was Vice President of Leadership Assessment and Development at Gallagher. Currently, Steve teaches Leadership at SAIT in the BBA, BA and diploma programs. Also, he provides talent management and leadership consulting to corporations and non-profit organizations across Canada.As a lifelong learner, Steve obtained a Master of Arts in Leadership from Royal Roads University and is a Certified Executive Coach from the Royal Roads University graduate program and PCC accredited from the International Coach Federation.  In his spare time, Steve enjoys writing and publishing books. He released his first book, Being a Better Human Being at Work in 2020, his second book Being a Better Human Teenager in 2021 and his third book, Inspiring Better Humans will be coming out in fall 2024. Steve seeks adventure on his motorcycle, on the slopes or in the mountains.  Steve's motto is Live on Purpose!Steve Brierley on LinkedInAbout Hillary Rideout:Hillary is a creative writer, designer, publisher, and website builder.As Partner in The Better Human Group - an organization making the world a better place through storytelling and community building - she is a published author and book publisher.As Founder of Inside Out Branding Inc., she thrives on uncovering the essence of individuals and businesses, identifying core values and unique narratives that reflect truth and value. Some call it branding, Hillary calls it pulling their insides out. As Creative Associate with ViTreo Group - a non-profit leadership and development agency - Hillary brings life and attention to the stories and missions that deserve to be told. Hillary also volunteers with BARC's Rescue - a Calgary-based dog rescue organization - lending her graphic design and communications expertise to get homeless dogs into loving, forever homes. She is a University of Calgary alumni and holds several talent management and leadership development certifications - education she employed for 20+ years as she created and managed learning and development programs for leaders in various organizations.Hillary lives near Calgary with her family, including her rescue dog, Roxy. She loves spending time at her family's cabin in the woods and finds joy in the simplest of things - music, quiet mornings, and dog walks.Hillary Rideout on LinkedInWebsite: InsideOutBranding.caResources:Website: BetterHumanGroup.comInstagram: Better Human Group Inc“Inspiring Better Humans” by Hillary Rideout & Steve Brierley“Being a Better Human Teenager” by Steve Brierley, Melissa From, Paul Lamoureux & Hillary Rideout“But She Looks Fine: From Illness to Activism” by Olivia GoodreauLivLyme FoundationHuberman Lab PodcastArmchair Expert PodcastLearn more about Dr. Laura on her website: https://drlaura.liveFor more resources, look into Dr. Laura's organizations: Canada Career CounsellingSynthesis Psychology

Breaking free from the endless cycle of craving—whether through shopping, food, or relationships—Natalie Snooke explores how self-awareness, meditation, and the Enneagram can lead to true inner peace beyond external validation. Natalie Snooke is an experienced life and leadership coach, mindfulness facilitator, humanitarian, yoga and meditation teacher. She is the founder and director of Momentum Coaching & Yoga.  A specialist of the ‘inner life' Natalie has maintained a committed yoga and meditation practice for over 18 years. She has participated in more 10-day Vipassana silent meditation retreats than she can count! Natalie is a Certified Transformational Presence Coach, Certified Enneagram Coach, and member of the International Coach Federation.  Natalie is a Certified Partner at Triple Goal, a global leadership growth company that empowers leaders and teams to master self-awareness, growth mindset and psychological safety. A respected senior yoga teacher, Natalie has served on the Executive Committee of Yoga Australia, the peak professional body of yoga in Australia. She regularly leads international retreats and pilgrimages to India and Bali. Natalie is equally comfortable sitting around the boardroom table with executives, sitting cross-legged on the floor in meditation caves, or at the feet of yoga masters in India. In this episode, we discuss: Craving and Emptiness of the Heart Natalie explores addiction through the lens of emotional longing rather than substances. Early experiences of feeling unseen led to seeking external validation through shopping, overeating, and relationships. Society often overlooks these addictive tendencies in daily life. The Journey to Self-Understanding There was no single epiphany, but rather a series of insights. Transformational moments came from recognising she is more than her wounds. Relationship breakdowns served as significant turning points. Healing Through Yoga and Meditation Self-awareness is key—beyond the body and mind, to the essence of being. True fulfilment comes from stillness, not external achievements. Yoga and meditation are paths to self-realisation, not just stress relief. Once deeply experienced, people naturally want to return to these practices. Breaking Free from Craving Whether it's materialism, relationships, or substance use, the craving never stops. Addiction is often a symptom of forgetting our true nature. Awareness reduces the grip of addiction over time, shifting from an overwhelming force to a subtle presence. The Enneagram as a Tool for Awareness A system for understanding human motivation and patterns. Helps recognize unhelpful tendencies and move toward freedom. Not about being a "better" version of yourself but about true self-acceptance. Self-Compassion & Kindness Many people believe self-discipline requires self-criticism, but this is learned behaviour. Being kind to yourself creates space for growth without judgment. Compassion is contagious—when we practice it, others around us follow. Slowing Down in a Busy World Society pressures us to stay busy, but stillness is essential. Simple steps like removing “I'm busy” from vocabulary can shift mindset. Awareness practices naturally lead to a slower, more intentional life. Self-Regulation & Breathwork Change happens in moments of choice—fall back into old habits or take a new path. Breath is the key to self-regulation, reducing stress, and increasing clarity. Even simple breathwork practices can be enough to create lasting change. Connect with Natalie Website LinkedIn Connect with Kerene Website – Mindful at Work LinkedIn - Kerene Strochnetter Instagram – Kerene_strochnetter Facebook – Mindful at Work

Kirsten has been coaching executives, middle managers and teams for global corporations since 1996. She also designed and delivered large leadership development programs all over the globe. In 2016 she was certified as Master CertifiedCoach. She has coached over 3000 hours as a professional coach and passed the thorough exams of the International Coach Federation. Kirsten is member of the assessor team for the ICF for MCC and PCC certifications. Her Solution Focused expertise comes from training directly with the founders of the approach, Insoo Kim Berg and Steve de Shazer. She was president of SFCT, the association for the quality development of solution focused consulting andtraining and founder and member of the editorial team for “InterAction — the journal of solution focus in organisations.” She is a prolific writer with over 30 articles and two books: “The solution tango” with Louis Cauffman and “Solution Focused Team Coaching“. Kirsten has been running programs to develop professional Solution Focused Coaches since 2008. Her first Accredited Program ran in 2015.In August 2024 her latest book is published: Solution Focused Coaching Supervision. An Essential Guide for Individual, Group, Peer and Team Coaching Supervision.

Hey, team! Bill Storm here with another insightful episode of the Lessons in Leadership podcast. This time, I had the privilege of sitting down with David Langiulli—executive coach, leadership trainer, and fellow practitioner of the art of Jiu-Jitsu. Our conversation was long overdue, and I'm thrilled to share some of the powerful takeaways from our discussion about how the principles of Jiu-Jitsu translate directly into leadership and business.David primarily works with leaders in mid- to large-sized nonprofits, helping them navigate the emotional landscape of leadership. As we explored our shared experiences on the mat and in leadership, we uncovered several universal truths that apply to both.David LangiulliFor over 10+ years as a Certified Executive Coach, David has helped 100s of clients at organizations across North America reduce stress, improve relationships & increase performance. He's also worked with leadership teams, volunteer groups, and boards to build trust, engage in healthy conflict, and create accountability, candor, and integrity. David is a Master's World and Pan-American champion Black belt in Jiu-jitsu. Clients describe him as "gently-fierce" and he uses his JiuJitsu mindset to help them when their lives are turned upside down. Unlike other executive coaches and leadership trainers, his background includes being an entrepreneur, fundraiser, manager, and leader spanning the nonprofit and private sectors. As an author, David has published seven books and guides on leadership and personal development. He holds master's degrees in management and engineering and a bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics. He achieved his Professional Coach Certification through the International Coach Federation. He's a Certified DISC Practitioner as well as a Certified Compassionate Leader and Positive Intelligence Coach.https://davidlangiulli.com/david@davidlangiulli.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/langiulli/

Why do so many men feel like they're dead inside? Modern life is crushing men, disconnecting them from their purpose, their power, and their bodies. In this hard-hitting episode, I sit down with embodiment expert Mark Walsh to explore how men have lost their way—and how they can reclaim their masculine energy, confidence, and sense of meaning.  We dive deep into the impact of modernity on men's mental health, the numbing effects of disembodiment, and the simple but powerful practices that can bring men back to life. If you've ever felt lost, uninspired, or stuck in your head, this episode is a wake-up call you won't want to miss. Mr Embodiment” (Mark Walsh) is the author of The Body in Coaching and Training: An introduction to embodied facilitation, and Embodied Meditation. He hosts The Embodiment Podcast (2 million+ downloads), and led The Embodiment Conference (1000 teachers, 500,000 delegates). Seeing a theme yet?   He founded the Embodied Facilitator Course, and has trained over 2000 embodiment coaches in over 40 other countries (some of which will even let him back in). He recently went out to Ukraine twice during the recent conflict and set up saneukraine.org - a charity now run solely by Ukrainian professional to provide trauma and embodiment training to trainers, therapists and coaching. He gained an honours in psychology (despite been an alcoholic at the time), and has taught widely in the corporate world where he pretended to be a grown up for years, including with blue-chip companies (e.g. Google, Unilever, Shell, Axa, L'Oreal) whom he charged wayyyy too much as they made him wear a suit. He has also upset... sorry, taught... many yogis, NGOs, police officers and several militaries. He has worked in war zones, and entertained over 50,000 children. He has headlined International Coach Federation events, taught at Moscow State University, lived with the circus in Ethiopia, taught celebrities and kissed a princess.    Mark is an aikido black belt, and also has 25 years of experience of other martial arts, with yoga, bodywork, improv comedy, conscious dance and meditation. Embodiment is his obsession, life's work, and frankly at this point he couldn't get a job doing anything else. He dances like your dad at a wedding and….. [text was unfinished]. Key topics include:  ⭐️ Тhe Loss of Meaning In Modern Society  ⭐️ How Materialism Affects Men-Women Roles Today ⭐️ Serving Fame, Materialism and Hedonism Doesn't Serve Us Well ⭐️ Disconnection As A Global Phenomena  ⭐️ The Cognitive Aspect Of Being Embodied  ⭐️ Male Bodies and Female Bodies - Cultural and Historical Differences In Perceptions ⭐️ What Is ‘Corporate Subhumanity' And Why Has It Become A Norm ⭐️ Male Strength - Extending The Definition ⭐️ What Different Embodiment Practices Can We Take Up ⭐️ Overpowering Screens And Weakening Minds Connect With David - The Authentic Man:   Interested In Joining My Men's Community? Fill this in: https://forms.gle/AD83rgWTPzz1KQB77  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theauthenticman_/  Website: https://www.theauthenticman.net/  For Coaching: hello@theauthenticman.net  Newsletter: https://www.theauthenticman.net/home-subscribe  Connect With Mark Walsh:   Website: www.embodimentunlimited.com  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/warkmalsh/   

How do you rethink a career in architecture to get unstuck?Guest:Laura Weiss Founder at Design DiplomacyAs a professional coach, facilitator, mediator, and consultant, Laura Weiss helps creative leaders engage in powerful conversations that drive change.A former licensed architect, Laura spent a decade with the global design firm IDEO as a Practice Director and Associate Partner. An expert in service design, she subsequently assumed leadership roles inside a variety of enterprises seeking to build their own capacity for innovation. Today she leads her own practice Design Diplomacy LLC and is an Adjunct Professor at the California College of the Arts.Laura holds a B.Arch. with honors from Cornell University, an M.Arch. from Yale University, and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. A lifelong learner, Laura has also earned a Professional Certificate in Mediation and Applied Conflict Studies from Champlain College in Burlington, VT, her CPCC (Certified Professional Co-Active Coach) credential through the Coactive Training Institute and is an ACC (Associate Certified Coach) with The International Coach Federation.How do you rethink a career in architecture to get unstuck?Guest:Laura Weiss Founder at Design DiplomacyAs a professional coach, facilitator, mediator, and consultant, Laura Weiss helps creative leaders engage in powerful conversations that drive change.A former licensed architect, Laura spent a decade with the global design firm IDEO as a Practice Director and Associate Partner. An expert in service design, she subsequently assumed leadership roles inside a variety of enterprises seeking to build their own capacity for innovation. Today she leads her own practice Design Diplomacy LLC and is an Adjunct Professor at the California College of the Arts.Laura holds a B.Arch. with honors from Cornell University, an M.Arch. from Yale University, and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. A lifelong learner, Laura has also earned a Professional Certificate in Mediation and Applied Conflict Studies from Champlain College in Burlington, VT, her CPCC (Certified Professional Co-Active Coach) credential through the Coactive Training Institute and is an ACC (Associate Certified Coach) with The International Coach Federation.

Send us a textWe live in a culture that believes anyone beyond midlife is on a slippery slope towards their demise. The truth is, you can harness the authorship of your next chapter to become your best self for the longest time possible and for what matters most.If you both look forward to and live in fear of retirement or know someone approaching this stage, join master coach and gerontologist Barbara Waxman to learn how to harness your wisdom and energy to do this differently, including:Shift from the old-school mindset of retirement-learn, earn, and retire-to embrace what it means to be age-agnostic. Embrace a new language pattern that will enable you to see the possibilities of a life stage that is multi-dimensional and aspirational.  Gain the clarity you need for your next chapter to live authentically and aligned with your core values. Understand the Seven Lifestyle Levers™ that integrate body, mind, and spirit to create alignment between your healthspan (the quality of your years) and your lifespan (the quantity of years).About Barbara Waxman:Barbara Waxman, the founder of The Odyssey Group, is a highly sought-after longevity and leadership advocate, advisor, coach, speaker, and author. Barbara translates cutting-edge research and collective wisdom in ways that enable individuals, groups, media outlets, and others to understand how the dynamics of our aging world impact individuals, communities, companies, and the planet.Barbara's leadership as a gerontologist in the coaching field has culminated in the transformative coaching model Entrepreneurship Turned Inward™ (ETI), the evidence-based Seven Lifestyle Levers Assessment™ and the Longevity Roadmap™.Barbara is an Advisor to the Stanford Center on Longevity, Stanford Lifestyle Medicine and is a faculty member at Chip Conley's Modern Elder Academy. She is the author of two books examining aging, including The Middlescence Manifesto: Igniting the Passion of Midlife and How to Love Your Retirement. She recently authored a chapter on avoiding burnout for healthcare professionals in the book The Successful Health Care Professional's Guide.Barbara holds a master's degree in Gerontology and Public Administration from the University of Southern California, is a Colgate University graduate, and is a Wexner Heritage Foundation Fellow. In addition, she earned her coaching certifications from the International Coach Federation and The Hudson Institute.Get in touch with Barbara Waxman:Buy Barbara's book: https://revolutionizeretirement.com/waxman  Visit Barbara's website: https://barbarawaxman.com/ Take Barbara's 7 Lifestyle Levers Assessment: https://sevenlifestylelevers.com/ What to do next: Click to grab our free guide, 10 Key Issues to Consider as You Explore Your Retirement Transition Please leave a review at Apple Podcasts. Join our Revolutionize Your Retirement group on Facebook.

What if transforming your online course into a certification program could be the game-changer for your business? In this episode, I sit down with Sahara Rose De Vore, the founder of the Travel Coach Network. Sahara shares her inspiring journey of evolving her online course into a globally recognized certification program. With insights into how certifications add credibility, attract serious students, and position you as an industry authority, this episode is a must-listen for course creators looking to scale their businesses. From the challenges of her initial course launch to the strategic decisions that led her to accreditation through the International Coach Federation, Sahara offers a wealth of actionable advice. Whether you're curious about certifications, want to learn how to leverage PR, or are seeking tips on crafting the perfect lead magnet, this episode is packed with strategies to help you grow. Watch the episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/z2mIirzUEys Sahara's Website: https://thetravelcoachnetwork.com/ Sign up for Jacques' Journal: https://www.theonlinecourseguy.com/Apply for Coaching: https://www.theonlinecourseguy.com/coachingWatch the Free Workshop: https://www.theonlinecourseguy.com/workshopFree Kajabi Course and 1 month Trial: http://everyclickkajabi.com/ Free Skool Course and 14 day Trial: https://www.skool.com/refer?ref=c725cf8892fe42c8bb37dd7e5ffc2575Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theonlinecourseguy/Threads: https://www.threads.net/@theonlinecourseguyX: https://twitter.com/onlinecourseguy

Speaking can be a powerful tool for building your coaching business. In this episode, Dale Wilsher shares her inspiring journey from being a single mom speaking in faith-based spaces to earning five figures per keynote. From starting with simple survey cards to leveraging coaching success stories, Dale unpacks the strategies and pivotal moments that transformed her speaking into a thriving coaching business. You'll also discover how to navigate different environments as a faith-based speaker, create signature talks that balance warmth and competence, and turn speaking engagements into coaching clients. Tune in to receive: Insights on combining speaking with coaching to accelerate trust and build your client base. Practical strategies for creating signature talks and using personal stories effectively. Tips for navigating professional spaces while staying true to your values. A process for turning speaking engagements into coaching clients using tools like survey cards and follow-ups. Inspiration from Dale's journey, from faith-based beginnings to keynoting major leadership events. About Dale Wilsher Dale Wilsher is an executive leadership coach and personal development expert, specializing in personality dynamics, authenticity, and mental resilience. She is an award-winning author, certified DISC trainer, and faculty member for the US Chamber of Commerce's Institute of Organizational Management. She holds accreditations from the International Coach Federation as a Professional Certified Coach and is a member of both the National Speakers Association and Forbes Coaches Council. As a keynote speaker, Dale combines her background in sales and science to provide fresh insights into identity and purpose, leveraging the latest findings in positive psychology, leadership, and neuroscience. She helps audiences discover their untapped strengths, core values, and authentic purpose. Dale lives in Boulder, Colorado, with her husband and four daughters. She is on a mission to help people rise to their fullest lives and do their best work. Learn more about Dale's upcoming class, The Inspirational Coach, at www.yourauthenticpersonality.com 

Gail Sussman-Miller founded Inspired Choice in 2001. She took the title of Chief Obstacle Buster which describes her perfectly. Gail lived her entire life in Chicago Illinois until she and her husband moved to Sarasota Florida in 2019. While Gail grew up thinking she should be a teacher along the way she decided she did not wish to teach youngsters. She recognized that her talents were put to better use teaching and coaching adults. She makes it quite clear that she has fun and great joy working with adults. She will say that some people want to be coached and some who think coaching for them is not necessary. I would say that Gail urges people to approach the coaching experience with an open mind. She is, as you will hear, quite successful at her work. About the Guest: Gail Sussman-Miller, Chief Obstacle Buster at Inspired Choice, helps women leaders leverage, rather than squelch, feminine power and abilities they don't realize they possess, so they live their most authentic, joy-filled life. She is an expert at guiding women to deliberately choose their thoughts and beliefs to design desired experiences and results. Gail's techniques shape new perspectives that reduce stress, discomfort and procrastination which increases decisive action, inner peace and resilience amidst the uncertainty of life. The bottom line is increased freedom and more joy! Clients find Gail's perspective-shifting techniques, practical tactical action steps, and spiritually-inspired wisdom indispensable. Her rare gift, shared by 7% of leaders assessed, is she senses and sees things few people see, speaks that truth and offers actionable ways for participants to thrive and fulfill their soul's desires. The biggest demand and focus of Gail's coaching is strengthening the efficacy and collaboration in challenging conversations and relationships by combining truth, authenticity, and vulnerability. Professional background. Gail has been teaching executives and women at all levels to turn obstacles into opportunities since 2001 as a coach, facilitator, speaker, and trainer. She received her training as a professional coach at the Coaches Training Institute (CTI) in 2001. Gail is certified in the EQi-2.0 emotional intelligence assessment by MHS, a well-known publisher of psychological assessments. Prior to founding Inspired Choice, Gail delivered computer job training for visually-impaired adults and spent 13 years at Andersen Consulting (Accenture) in Marketing, Knowledge Management and Technology Coaching. After a lifetime in Chicago, Gail made Sarasota, Florida her home in 2019. www.inspiredchoice.com Ways to connect with Gail: Gail@inspiredchoice.com www.inspiredchoice.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/gailsussmanmillerr https://www.facebook.com/GailSussmanMiller/ About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Well, a pleasant hello to you. Wherever you happen to be today, you are listening to unstoppable mindset, and my name is Michael Hingson. You can call me Mike if you want. It's okay as well. I am the host of unstoppable mindset, and today we get to chat with Gail Sussman-Miller, who is are you ready? Here it comes, Chief obstacle. Buster, I love that, and she is the chief obstacle Buster at inspired choice, which is an organization that she founded. She has been a coach for, wow, 23 years. You started in 2001 I think you said, And so anyway, this will be a fun conversation. She's got lots to talk to us about, and we've been talking for the last few minutes about how to talk about some of the visual stuff to an audience that isn't necessarily going to see it. And that isn't because the people who aren't going to see it are blind. It's because they're not watching this, but listening to it on a podcast site, so you guys get to experience things the way some of the rest of us do. But anyway, Gail, welcome to unstoppable mindset. We're really glad you're here.   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 02:32 Thanks, Michael. I'm honored to be here, and I've had fun getting to know you as we get ready for this. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 02:39 well, and it's been good to get to know you and get a chance to really chat. Let's start, if we could by maybe you telling us sort of a little bit about the early Gale, growing up and some of that stuff, always a good way to start right. That could take an hour, but I'll leave it up to you. It reminds   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 02:54 me of the movie, I think was called the jerk that Stephen Martin was in, and he starts out saying, I was born a poor, black child. Started with his anyway, so I grew   Michael Hingson ** 03:10 up. I was born, I was born modest, some people have said, but it wore off. But anyway, you were born in Chicago, and I was born in Chicago.   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 03:20 Yeah, I grew up on north side, so yes, I'm a Cubs fan.   Michael Hingson ** 03:25 I was south side, and I still love the Cubs, Hopelessly Devoted   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 03:29 and lived my entire life actually in the city limits. Sometimes people say they're from Chicago to give people a reference, and they really live in the suburbs. So I loved, I would say all Yes, actually, all my residences were within two miles of Lake Michigan, and I love being near water. So grew up. I'm the the eldest of two girls, and close to my cousins, really great, close family. And then I went to college at Northern Illinois University, got a degree in teaching elementary and special ed at a time when there was a surplus of teachers, and I wasn't sure I wanted to do it as a career. And then I learned later in life that I love teaching, but actually prefer teaching adults. So it's been an interesting evolution of I would say most of my jobs were just good enough. I was one of millions who believed you live for Fridays and work is something you do to make money because you have to. And it wasn't until I was in my 40s that I found my ideal dream. Work, which is coaching and speaking and teaching, and I came home to a profession that I thought was just for me. It was perfect. It was great. And in the last five years, almost five years, we've been in Sarasota, Florida, made some permanent move and happy ever since, so   Michael Hingson ** 05:26 until you were in your 40s, were you teaching school or what were you doing? No,   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 05:30 I never became a teacher. It just wasn't. I didn't enjoy my student teaching. I did enjoy trying to parole and contain and control 2025 kids. I love children, so that was why I thought, Well, it's interesting. When I went to college, I had no strong calling for a profession, so I enrolled in teaching as the Lacher of evils, if you will. It just was like, well, compared to being a scientist, computer engineer, or you name it, this, I like kids and I like teaching, I just didn't like the combination.   Michael Hingson ** 06:15 So what did you do for jobs?   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 06:20 Oh, we'll see if I can remember, there was a period of time where I worked for an educational publisher, because I thought, Okay, I have a teaching degree. Maybe this will be interesting. It was not. I spent some time even working as a temp because I was good at computers and word processing, as it was called in the day. Yes, and it's so funny, Michael, I actually need my resume in front of me to tell you things in sequence. But the funny thing was, each thing led to something else. I think of my life as walking through a doorway and then going down a hall with lots of doorways, and then I choose another doorway, and that leads to another hall with doorways, and that's how I wound up where I am. So at one point, I think it might have been after the education publisher. There were, there were literally, I'm I'm being this is proof how meaningless some of my jobs were. But I did spend four years in Chicago at the chicago lighthouse at the time, called Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired. I think they've changed their name now, and I taught transcription skills and typing to adults who then went on to get jobs and get placed. And that was the most gratifying thing I did, and that's where I realized I much prefer teaching adults   Michael Hingson ** 08:01 you created a an interesting analogy, one that I subscribe to a lot. I think that each of us go through life making choices, and if you really sit down and think about it, you can trace your life back to and through the choices that you make. So you did a variety of things, and you discovered something with each choice and each thing that you went off and did, I can trace my life back because of the choices that I made. And I also studied teaching. I got a secondary teaching credential. And I actually thought of teaching, but then an opportunity to take a job in technology, actually working with Dr Ray Kurzweil and the National Federation of the Blind, with the development of the Kurzweil Reading Machine came along, and that led to working for Ray, and I was going to do human factors and continuing to do some of the work I did when we were all originally developing the first machine. But then after about eight months, I was confronted with a choice of either leaving the company or going into sales. And I decided, I love to tell people I lowered my standards from science and went into sales, which is not true, but I didn't lower my standards, as it turns out. But what I what I discovered, and I always liked teaching, I always liked explaining, and what I discovered was that the best salespeople are teachers. They're counselors. They really are involved in understanding what a customer's needs are, and then teaching that customer about how to get those results, hopefully with their products, I've had some situations where the product that we had wasn't the right solution, and of course, from. One standpoint that's an ethical issue to deal with. Do I say it's our product won't work, or do I still try to sell it? My belief has always been, you take the ethical choice and I are a few times where we specifically said our product won't work, but here's what will but whenever that occurred, we developed a level of trust that then led to other opportunities later on, but teaching people and really advising and counseling was something that I enjoyed, but I but I hear what you're saying about teaching adults. The question I would ask you is there are a lot of people who say that adults tend to be locked in and are much harder to teach than children. What do you think about   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 10:44 that? Oh, wow. I don't think that's ever it's funny in a way. I don't think that's ever crossed my mind.   Michael Hingson ** 10:54 It's like teaching language. You know, children learn language and additional languages.   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 11:00 Yeah, I would agree there. What I mean by that is, and what I thought you were going to ask me, so maybe I'll answer it anyway, is what I liked more about working with adults, and I like being able to hold the adult accountable and responsible for their learning and for asking questions, for speaking up, all of that. It depends, I suppose, if the adult, if the person I'm working with, wants to be in the training slash coaching learning situation or not are very there was only one period of time as a contractor where I was matched with people without my meeting them or knowing them. Normally, my clients come to me and then I get to we see if we have a fit in both ways. So there were a few times where people were assigned to me and didn't necessarily want to have coaching. But what I'm a master at is helping people look at their perspectives and shift them for their greater good. So it almost always worked out that I could say or get to help them see this is going to benefit you, whether you ask for it or not. And let's figure out what it is you would most like to get out of it. Yeah? So enlisting, yeah, enlisting them, engaging them. And then I, I don't think it's ever been a challenge. In my opinion,   Michael Hingson ** 12:36 my wife was a teacher for a number of years, and she liked teaching third graders more than older kids, because she said a lot of the older kids had already developed their attitudes, whether taught by their parents or whatever, and developed habits that weren't necessarily positive. And as a result, it was harder to work with them than it was to work with third graders, because third graders were at an age where she could get them to to think and to focus, and was able to get them to look at and hopefully learn the things that she was trying to Teach, whereas older kids she felt didn't do that nearly as well. So that was an interesting observation that she had. And eventually she she left teaching because, well, here's a story. She was going to do a Valentine's Day party for her class, and she made a deal with the students. The parents were going to bring goodies and they were going to come and all that in the park. That. And the party was supposed to start at two o'clock, and she made a deal with her students, and I don't know whether it was that morning or before, but she said, we'll start the party when you all get your work done. Okay? And everybody agreed. Well, at two o'clock, kids had been goofing off and so on, so the party didn't start. The parents had to wait outside, and it was like about 20 minutes late for the party to start. The kids finally finished the stuff they were supposed to do, and one parent pitched a real hissy fit and had her well, took her to the principal's office. The principal called her in and said, what's going on? The parents are not happy with what you did that day. And Karen brought the students in, who were the children of the parents, and the parents complained that she was too hard on the students and all that. And so Karen then said, Okay, kids, what was the arrangement that we had? And they all said we were supposed to get our work done before the party could start. Why didn't we start the party on time? We didn't get stuff done and that was it. You know, the principal told the parents, go away, go away. It is accountability. And Karen. Is really always great at accountability, and I love the concept of accountability, and when you're creating teams and so on, the most basic fundamental is all about being able to hold each other accountable. And you don't do it because it's a personal thing, or you have an ax to grind, it's because the whole team agrees that those are things that everyone can do. So I agree with you, accountability is important. That's great.   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 15:29 I also think that if motivation is important, so your wife used the party as a motivator, and with adults, if they really want to change their results, then this is and I don't, I don't dictate how to do it as much as help them figure out how they're going to do it,   Michael Hingson ** 15:52 absolutely, absolutely. So   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 15:56 it's fun. It's fun. I have a blast, and some people are a term coaches use is coachable. Some people are more coachable than others. And usually I can kind of assess that early on. And sometimes it's we go as far as they're willing to go. They may also not be emotionally ready to go any further   Michael Hingson ** 16:22 well. So in 2001 you discovered that you really wanted to teach adults more, and you started your organization. And so inspired, choice came to be. Tell us more about that and what it is and how it's evolved over the years.   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 16:43 So I'm actually it's kind of funny. I was I got married in 2000 came back from my honeymoon to find out I'd been laid off. I spent 13 years at Anderson Consulting, which became Accenture, just as I was leaving, and I, I don't even remember, I think I had seven different jobs in 13 years. They there was a lot of shifting, and one or two I enjoyed the most because they had a lot of teaching. So I enrolled in a couple of programs. Chicagoans will recognize this name, maybe, you know it the Discovery Center was on Lincoln Avenue. We've hired that so I took a class that introduced coaching there. And I said, this is interesting. I'm actually still friends with a couple people that were in that classroom, and then I went to a two day conference held by the local Chicago chapter of the International Coach Federation. And then I was hooked, totally hooked. So after being laid off, I spent some time looking for a job, and then I asked my husband if it was okay with him if I decided to pursue this training and then career and coaching. And he said, Sure. So that's where it started, and in 1997 I'm rewinding just a little, I did a two and a half day women's personal growth weekend, and started to do the deepest personal growth work I'd done, I would say, in my life, I'd done therapy for years, but didn't find it as effective as this. Two and a half days really moved the needle. And one of the women who was staffing that weekend, I saw her at a local event for that organization, and I mentioned I was unhappy about a few things. She said, Well, I think I can help you. And I hired her. Lo and behold, she was a coach. I didn't even know it, and it was immensely helpful to me. That's how I really got familiar with coaching. And then the two day, two and a half day weekend, and then all of that. So that's when I realized it was like a career design just for me. No one else was perfect. It was my orientation. Was not telling people what to do, it was helping them empower themselves and realize their best way. So I started my business very slowly. I didn't know anything about being a business person. I had no clue I was the least bit entrepreneurial, and it evolved slowly, but in the beginning, I kind of like thinking of as a sandwich on the bottom layer. The first piece of bread was about seven years working with women who were in the. Own businesses, helping them realize and find their best marketing method. I just love thinking about marketing, and then that led me to develop a workshop of my own called How to love networking, which most people do not love. It used metaphors, taking what they love to do most in their life, like, let's say cooking or knitting or travel, and how to network the way they do that activity they love. That led to my being discovered by a senior executive organization helping people network. So they asked if I would lead their Chicago meetings, and I did for about seven and a half years. That shifted me and put me in front of senior executives who were looking for jobs, and I taught networking and help them present themselves well within the meeting. And many of them needed additional help, so I was hired into that kind of coaching. And my whole career, my whole business shifted from helping women on marketing to helping executives with their job search, which is, by the way, still marketing.   Michael Hingson ** 21:22 It is, how? How do you teach networking? What? What is that?   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 21:28 I'll answer that in a minute, but my brain needs to finish this one. Okay, okay, brain, go ahead. My brain will be busy working on it. After about seven years of teaching these executives, helping them in their job search and promoting themselves and networking, I came back to working with women, and that's what I've been doing, working with women leaders on how to be a more empowered, truthful, authentic and vulnerable leader. So that just had to bring you up to the present. So how do you teach networking? It was helping to debunk what networking is, and I like to define networking as simply connecting with like minded people for the greater good. It's all about connection. What do you have in common? How getting curious? I mean that one of the basic concerns people had was always walking into a room like a networking event, and maybe there's 10 people, there could be 40 people. How do I start a conversation? How do I describe myself? And people being very attached to the outcome, I have to meet someone who's going to be helpful to me. I worked with some people who wanted to literally walk in the room, grab the microphone and say, I'm a tech engineer. Can anyone hire me? Like, Oh my gosh, that is not going to get you there, no, but very, you know, end result oriented. So it had a lot to do with understanding human nature, how to have these conversations, how to describe themselves well and talk about the outcomes they deliver, and to be of service help others. First things you've heard before, but it was usually getting at what their obstacle was. What was their obstacle to the process,   Michael Hingson ** 23:29 makes sense, and and it and it is always a challenge. If let's take your example. I'm a tech guy who will hire me, shows in so many ways, probably what that person isn't looking at and needs to look at, and certainly could use a lot of teaching and coaching. The question is, of course, would they be interested in doing it? And that's, that's, of course, what you address and what you deal with. Some people are coachable, and some people aren't, and some people will be once they discover what being coachable is all about.   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 24:15 Yeah, then a case like that, sometimes it's people that kind of urge, like, you know, I don't want to make small talk. I always say, Well, then don't make small talk. Make big talk. Ask important questions. Don't talk about the weather or how good the weenies are wrapped in the in the dough and the hors d'oeuvres. But they are impatient, perhaps because they're desperate, because they're afraid. I always wind up on the emotional undertones of what is going on. How long have you been in job search? Have you been turned down a lot what's going on? How confident are you? How well can you talk about what you do? Well. How well do you do in relationships having nothing to do with job search? What you know, are you good listener? All those things. So it's, I would say it's interesting about job search that at some level, people might not be at their best depending on how comfortable they are with the process, because it is not linear,   Michael Hingson ** 25:27 yeah, and even if you're turned down for a job, do you ask? Why? You know? Are you willing to learn? And again, some people are and some people aren't. Right, right when I talk, when I talk with people about being as when I talk with people about being a speaker and and even sometimes they say we're considering you. And then if they come back and they say we went a different direction, I will ask why. I'd love to learn a little bit more. I don't, I'm not quite that blunt. I'll say something like, I'd like to learn a little bit more about what the process was and what led you to the choice that you made. If you would please take the time to let me know. And again, it's, it's a it's a process. I haven't generally heard that. Oh, you're not a good speaker, or whatever. And I suppose some people might not want to say, but usually it's we had somebody who went a different wanted us to go a different direction, or, I mean, any number of things, or we changed our mind about the theme for the event, which has happened more than once any number of things. And so you you take every, every opportunity, and you learn what you can.   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 26:50 That makes sense. Yeah, yeah. It eventually. What led me at some point, I think the pretty sure the people were under and their fear and working with that, I think that some point that may have been what helped me decide to move on and instead of and practice what I preach. Really am I coaching this target audience out of passion, and I was starting to lose my passion. And I said, you know, I've been feeling a hankering to go back to working with women, and as I did the work on myself, this is not a surprise, but I was doing a lot of work on myself. To stand in my power more to really tune into my feminine energy and to spirituality. And it was all guiding me to say, you're not following your heart and soul passion. And then that led me right back to where I started, and working with women. There you go on on deeper issues. So it's been wonderful,   Michael Hingson ** 28:09 by the way. What kind of work does your husband do?   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 28:14 Oh, well, it's really interesting. He might have lost track how many years, but he's about a 45 year stock trader, and started out on the Chicago Board of Trade floor. Then around the time I met him, he, as they call it, went upstairs, became an upstairs trader, electronic only, and now, for maybe the last eight years, nine years, he's teaching traders and investors how to read the cycles in the stock market chart analysis and some emotional issues for traders. Traders psychology. And he created a membership for people that want to get involved at a deeper level or a lighter level. And he does training videos. He does. He's actually got a live show that he does once a month, and it's all about education and analysis, some really technical but this gorgeous, beautiful charting that he that he invented, of looking at where the rhythms are. I could go on and on about this, but I think that's probably all your listeners want to hear, because it gets great, really technical. And for those who are a little geeky, if you have ever heard of the Fibonacci formula, even the market follows Fibonacci cycles. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 29:52 the reason I asked the question was you said earlier, when you decided to start your business, you asked him, and he said, Yes, and that. Immediately made me wonder, what kind of a guy is he that he was willing to be open, and clearly, he's an intelligent person. He observes a lot, and so it makes perfect sense that that he would be the kind of person who would support and agree with decisions that you could make and do make, and the fact that the two of you communicated about it is, I think, the most telling thing. It's great when a couple shares and essentially really decides together.   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 30:36 Well, I can't wait to tell him what calls over. He's uh, currently relaxing by the pool after his Friday, his Friday live show. But the interesting thing, or, or, and the three, the two and a half day training I told you that I did in 97 he did the men's version, which is a little more popular. It's called a little has more notoriety. It's called new Warrior, and he did that in like three months before I met him, and that changed his life. So, communication skills, self awareness, taking responsibility, all of that, that was what drew me to him and that, and we've been growing those skills ever since, no taking responsibility if you get triggered, and not blaming the other person. Yeah, understanding a lot of emotional intelligence, a ton of emotional intelligence. In fact, we both got certified in a tool published by MHS, and it's a emotional intelligence assessment.   Michael Hingson ** 31:46 Well, you've been coaching for a while, needless to say, 23 years. What are the most common issues that women leaders ask for support on?   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 32:01 There's usually one common thread, and it's about, how do I have this conversation? I need to tell this employee they're not doing well, but I don't want to hurt their feelings. I'm not getting along well. Things are not going smoothly with one of my direct reports. I don't know how to approach that. Or there I have some clients who are in a male dominated industry and a male dominated firm, and they may be the only woman in the room. How do I dan in my power express myself and communicate where very often, male and female communications can be different. So how to how to tell, have the conversations, how to tell the truth, what they think is the truth, without worrying about hurting people's feelings or having a lot of fear come up and how how to move through the discomfort. It might be speaking up more than they're used to. It might be saying no, it might be setting some limits and being honest with some risk. So it's almost all connected, but those are usually the general themes,   Michael Hingson ** 33:29 yeah, and it's unfortunate that there have to be risks just to being able to speak up where as if it were just men in the room, probably the same issue wouldn't be there, but we're still way too patriarchal, I think, in a lot of ways, and that tends to be a problem. I love it when people are willing to speak up and be open. I think it's it's so important to do that.   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 33:57 Well, I can tell you that while I was still coaching on job search, most of my clients were men, and they had plenty of fear about speaking up plenty it is really not so gender biased, especially networking or interviewing, or how am I going to answer that question, or all of this strategizing. Well, if they say this, then I'll say that. Or instead of what I have come to learn to not only do but to enjoy, is to just be be in the moment. Yeah? Like I often joke, I like being put on the spot. Yeah, I mean, you asked you, and I talked about some things we might talk about today, but I'm ready for you to ask me anything, and I think that's exciting. And if I don't know the answer, I'll say so, but, but I've learned to love honesty in that kind of Troy. And that's what I help my clients do, yeah, and I can think of, oh, sorry, let me just finish this one, thinking of this one client, he wanted to get promoted. He liked his company a lot. He was doing well, and he was going to go to this meeting where they're going to be all appears of his, and then the next level up of management, and he was making himself a little nuts preparing, like I said, if they go on this topic, I've got my notes, and if they go to this topic, I've got my notes. And I helped him to see how he could he didn't need he was over, preparing, spending a lot of time that he didn't need to. And this concept of showing up, show up, be present, answer the questions from what you know, and the words don't matter as much as the energy. It's about saying what you feel and what you believe and say that proudly. So he started doing that, and he couldn't believe the shift. And there's a there's a woman. Her name is nalima bat. I've heard her speak, and she has a meditation that helps get to the point of saying there's nothing to defend, there's nothing to promote, and there's nothing to fear. God practically just want to sigh at that, yeah, oh, that's so reassuring. And then you just show up because you're you've got the ability you know you you're ready. You're always ready.   Michael Hingson ** 36:43 We just don't always think we are, because we overthink things. You know, the biggest problem with fear is we focus so much on the what ifs and that we create our own fear, rather than, as you just said, really living in the moment and and using the knowledge that you have, trusting your your gut or your brain, and, yeah, speaking up and doing the things that you know, really that you should do. And the reality is, you do know what you should do, but we are so focused so often on what if that we've lost a lot of those skills. They're there to be redeveloped. And I wrote a book that's going to be well, it'll be out in August of 2024 it's called Live like a guide dog, true stories from a blind man and his dogs about being brave, overcoming adversity and walking in faith. And the idea is to help people learn how to control fear. It isn't to be fearless, because fearless is a very powerful thing, but you don't need to let fear overwhelm you. You need to use it in a positive way. And one of the things that I learned and talk about in the book is that living in the moment is one of the most powerful things that we can do. That isn't to say you don't develop strategies and spend some time strategizing, but if you do it to the point where you drive yourself crazy and you don't really listen to yourself, that's a problem.   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 38:21 You used a really important word there trust and we have this is a topic that I'm warning you. Michael could go pretty deep, so I'm going to try to stay at the top, because it can. It's so enmeshed, I have come to appreciate that as humans, we have to, let's call it two minds. We have our ego, fear driven mind that, from our cave days, is there to protect us. That's the the ancient reptilian part of our brain that's there to make sure that we have our fight, flight or freeze response if we see a big wooly mammoth today, our fears are very different, but we're not worried about a lion or a tiger around every corner, so we have this protective, fear driven way of thinking that you can also refer to as ego. That is the what if negative and I need to be careful. What if I don't get promoted? What if someone thinks this? What if a lot of women worry? What if I sound too outspoken? We've got all that worry side, and that's one mind. The other is love driven, and it is for many people. It is about faith. It is about beliefs that there is the. Our powers greater than us, and that it isn't what one side, the ego, human protective side, is very tied to body identification with the eyes, ears, nose and touch, all of that what we hear the other side is spirit identification, and and that there, there's magic in the world. There's mystery, yeah, and it is not 100% all up to you. People will feel your energy. There are, there's, whatever you want to call it for you, divine, the universe, spirit. There are other forces at work, and that that's where, if we can trust that it doesn't all rest on our shoulders, not all within our control, either, but we, one side is powerless. This side, to me, is where you have your power. I need to do my best, and I can show up.   Michael Hingson ** 41:00 We don't always have control over what happens, but we always have control over how we deal with what happens, and that's the part that we have to make, the choice to address. And the example I always give with that is the World Trade Center. We had no control over it, and I no one's convinced me yet that we could have figured it out, but each and every one of us moves forward from the World Trade Center, and we have the choice to make of how we deal with what happened that day. We can hate love, we can use it as a way to move forward and help others and ourselves and so many different things that we have a choice to do. Well,   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 41:45 I hope so here do, yeah, yeah, big time.   Michael Hingson ** 41:50 And I think it's the important thing that we we need to do. Let me ask you this question. You have a tool that you use to help men and women improve their results. And do you want to talk about that some?   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 42:04 Yeah, and it's all about what you were just talking about. It's all about perspective and it all and the power of our thoughts. So very typically, when I work with people, I'm sure you see this, and the people you talk to, people want to change their results. So they say, Well, if I want a better career, I want this, or I want that, I need to change my actions, my behavior. And usually that's where it stops. Is okay. Want a job, I'm going to go look for a job. I'm going to do this, do that, do these steps. I want to get promoted. I'm going to start showing up like this or that, and then it sometimes doesn't work, or they're too afraid, so they do some shortcuts, or they aren't showing up fully in their strength and their ability and their power. So what I help people realize is before you go take those changed actions to get new results, there's something that happens before the action, and that is, you look at choices options, you think about your options first, and then you choose one or two, and you do those actions before the choices, even before you look at a list of choices, there's an emotion or a feeling. If your job search is motivated by fear, then your options that you look at might be somewhat desperation driven, and then your behavior, and then the results you get. If we I'll stick with job search as the example. What triggered those emotions? Where do those come from? So even before the emotion, there's some kind of a belief, and before the belief we have thoughts, and I like to kind of put those in the same bucket, thoughts that we hold on to long enough become beliefs we can have fleeting thoughts, like I think I can fly, but then when we we look at what we believe. So there's often a trigger at the beginning of the whole process. I need a job. I've just been laid off, and the thought or belief is this is a tough market. No one's going to want to hire me. I didn't get enough to a high enough level, or my resume is not going to be impressive. That creates the emotion of fear. Fear leads to limited options, like, I'm not even ready to talk about my skills. I'll just go apply online. That's it. I'll send out like 50 resumes online. Online is never the best way to find a job, and it's usually. Maybe 20% of the best strategy. So we look online, and then the result is, that's our action. The result is, maybe we get called for one or two interviews. So now we're annoyed This isn't going well, that thought, that belief now starts a whole nother chain reaction. This isn't going well. I'm never going to find a job more anger and frustration and fear, and we make new choices, take more action, and the results may not change. So what you can do with this is interrupt the whole flow and choose a different thought, a different belief. And one possibility for this kind of a person would be, I've had a reasonably good career. I have a lot of skills, maybe if I ask for some help, I can present myself in a different way, or I'm really focusing too much on the negative, and a new belief might be if I tell my story in a more positive way, and if I can calm myself down, I know I'm hireable. I know I can do well, and that would bring a new emotion of some positivity, some maybe even a little spark of joy, some contentment. I don't know if we could go all the way to happy and we look at making different choices. Who can I ask? Who do I think describes themselves really well? Who has a lot of confidence? Maybe a good friend of mine can help me, and we look at a bunch of choices. I've heard that networking is more important than looking online, but I don't, I don't think I can network well. Who do I know that networks well, and then we take different action, like maybe talking to one of those friends, or working with a job search office or a coach, and we get different results, and that then feeds the formula again. Then we're like, okay, that worked. I'm on the right track. I got more interviews. I'm hireable, and it keeps circulating and circulating.   Michael Hingson ** 47:28 Yeah, and the example you just gave, the reality is, all too often we talk ourselves into a bad situation or a not positive situation, because we do the what ifs and we don't look at options. And I think it's so important to think about the more positive things. And the reality is, Gandhi put it very well when he said interdependence is an ought to and ought to be as much the ideal of man as a self sufficiency. And the point is, is so true that we're all part of the same world. We're all part of the same process, and the more we work together, and the Learn More we learn to work together, the better it will be. Yes,   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 48:17 and interestingly, maybe building on your What if concept, there's, there's a, there's a game I sometimes play with people, if you can picture like the chair you're sitting in is, is center center point. What if negative moves to your left every time you answer? Well, what if I don't get a job? Well, what if I go hungry? What if I'm broke? What if, and you keep moving left, left, left, further, or you can come back to center and move to the right, well, what if I get some help, and that leads to a job? And what if this, and what if this going positive, and you just notice where, where are you in the center? And the minute you go, what if, positive two or three steps, but you have a negative thought, it takes you back to the center. So it's just a way of paying attention. Am I? Am I going up with my What if, or in this case, to to the right, or am I going? What if negative they can go either way,   Michael Hingson ** 49:26 well. And the issue is, you take two or three steps to the right or movements to the right, and then a negative thought comes along again. You have the choice and the control of how you deal with that negative thought of that as a negative thought, I'm not going to let that control my life. It might be good point. Glad you brought that up negative mind, but that's not going to help me progress, and that. That's the part that I think a lot of people don't learn how to deal with very well. We're way too negative oriented in our world. It seems, sometimes seems to me,   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 50:12 Well, it's interesting, because that's the human protective ego side bringing up the fear based thought, like, Ooh, wait a minute, you're feeling a little too cocky so you could get hurt. Let me throw a monkey wrench in here. Well, what if? And then here comes the negative thought. And we really those thoughts are so powerful, they influence not just our emotions and choices and action and results, but they they influence what what we believe, and we actually vibrate that to other people. I'm sure you know our listeners and and you have walked into a room and said something with with other people, and you just feel something in the air someone's like, did you just walk in after an argument two people had or something doesn't feel right. We really do vibe off each other. And using continuing to use the job search metaphor, depending on how you come in the room to meet someone that wants to have a conversation with you, you set the tone you really we have that power. It's takes a lot of practice, though, to catch like you said, Oh, thanks, negative mind, because it is worth thinking. It is trying to protect you, and especially your very young child. All our coping mechanisms, we taught, we were taught them or developed them, and it's gotten us this far, but it may not be serving you anymore, or   Michael Hingson ** 51:54 you you haven't learned how to put a barrier or a stop to those things, and that's the the part that's missing. Can you give us an example? Tell us a story about someone who you've helped with, with the whole process and what happened?   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 52:12 Well, this is kind of fun, and this has happened a couple times. To tell you about I'm trying to decide which story to tell you, because I'm also thinking about protecting confidentiality. So maybe this is a little easier one. So I have a client who, right now is actually a month from today, is her 65th birthday, and she's thinking was came to me thinking about retiring. She She and I worked together, I don't know, maybe 10 years ago, and she came back, and she was in a lot of either or thinking, so I'd like to make a decision, and may 12, be retired, but I still really love what I do. She's a musician, and I know she would enjoy my telling her story, and I still get a lot of pleasure out of it, but I don't want to work so many hours. She's used to kind of just saying yes to every gig that comes along, sure I'll play for you. Sure, sure. So part of our work was about what is your desired outcome? What do you really want? Do you want to stop working and cook and visit with people and go on trips? No, I really still like working, but I don't really trust myself to not work all the time. So we wound up shifting using a similar thought formula. Her current belief was it's either work or play. That was it. So that led to feeling overwhelmed and afraid, and that led to her making choices to postpone it, which is really a choice. She didn't take action. And the result is, well, I'm getting even closer to that 65th birthday, and I have no decision. And we shifted to the concept of what about work and play, that there were way to set ways to set limits. We came up with some criteria, all based on joy. Which gigs bring you the most joy? Oh, well, that's easy. I get to play this instrument, not that one within 25 miles of my home, for people that I really like, Okay, now we have, like, a thought filter, a choice filter for choice filter, right, right. It has to meet this criteria, this one and this one. Oh, but then I'll hurt the feelings of people I say no to we worked on that. Well. Now. I just talked to her yesterday, she said no to like, two or three gigs. Said yes to six. She's working fewer hours, and now she's exploring, what do I want to do with my time off? She's never taken much time off, and now it's just plugging in some time for my husband, some time for learning new recipes, some time for practicing my instrument, and now she trusts herself to only say yes to the gigs that bring joy. And   Michael Hingson ** 55:32 why did she say no? Why did she say no to some   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 55:38 they they were on holidays, which she's used to sacrificing holidays. And she said, Nope, I want Easter with my husband and my family. I'm saying no,   Michael Hingson ** 55:50 that's my point. Yeah, and yeah. And it was limits. It   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 55:54 was setting limits. Maybe she'd worked with them before and they didn't pay on time, or it was out of her driving limit, or something about it, there's no one else in the room with her making the decision. Something about it didn't feel right, like it's just trusting instinct, but there were some clear cut yeses and clear cut nos instead of I need to please everyone, so I have to say, yes, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 56:26 which is so cool.   56:28 Yes, it's so fun. Well, what's   Michael Hingson ** 56:30 the best way that people can explore working with you?   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 56:33 Well, I think that when we share this video and the audit the recording, that folks will have my email but let me give it to you now. Yes, please. My email address is Gail, G, A, I, L, at, inspired choice.com, that's I n, s, p, i, R, E, D, C, H, O, i, c, e.com, you can also call me good old telephone, 773-477-4012, still have my Chicago area code. There you go. And my website, if you want to learn more, is www, dot inspired, choice.com,   Michael Hingson ** 57:20 and through the website, and I would assume that through the website, they also can contact you. There's contact information on the site and so on.   57:28 Cool.   Michael Hingson ** 57:31 Well, this, I think, has been a lot of fun to do, and I think it's so important that people learn that they can discover better how to make choices, and that you're out there to help. And I still love chief obstacle. Buster, I think that's such a great title.   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 57:52 And Michael, I just want to add that I'm happy to always set up a zoom and meet with people and explore the possibilities and see it has to be a good fit on both sides and like, am I even someone who is coachable, or is this something that would even work for me? So that's always the first step.   Michael Hingson ** 58:16 Exploration is always a good thing. Yeah. Well, I want to thank you for being here, and I want to thank you all for listening and watching us today. I hope that this has been informative and useful and helpful, and that you will take advantage of the services and skills that Gail has to offer and that you'll reach out to her. I want to thank you for listening, and as always, really appreciate all that you're doing with unstoppable mindset and attending our different episodes. I'd love to hear from you. You can reach me by email at Michael H i, at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, I, B, e.com, or go to our podcast page, www dot Michael hingson.com/podcast, Michael hingson is m, I C, H, A, E, L, H, I N, G, s, o, n.com/podcast, wherever you're listening, please give us a five star rating. Really would love to get that. It really is one of the wonderful things. When people give us a rating, we hope it'll be five star. But whatever you rate us, please review and we'd love to hear your thoughts and your comments. If you know of anyone else who ought to be a guest on unstoppable mindset, please encourage them to reach out, or you reach out and introduce us. Love it. Gail, you as well. If you know anyone else who ought to be a guest, please let us know. Thank you today. Michael, well, I want to thank you again, and we really appreciate you being here. Thanks very much for all of your time. Thanks.   **Michael Hingson ** 59:54 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

Sylvia Becker-Hill is a true Renaissance woman, 9 times published bestselling author, and a seasoned edutainer who has empowered thousands of corporate executives, women leaders, and entrepreneurs around the world since 1997.In 2002, she became the first German coach to earn the coveted title of Professional Certified Coach from the International Coach Federation, establishing herself as a pioneer in the coaching world.Her impressive educational background boasts two university degrees, while her portfolio showcases over 30 certifications in various change modalities, including her accreditation as one of the world's first 10 Certified Master Neuroplasticians in 2023.Sylvia‘s mission is to empower you with all the knowledge, tools, and lasting transformation you need to “FLIP” everything that bothers, hurts, or blocks you from living your desires and dreams into unquestionable Freedom, unconditional Love, envisioned Identity, and impactful Power.Are you ready to discover the joy of feeling unabashedly alive and powerful?

Exploring societal despair, evolutionary psychology, and cultural mindsets, Dr. Eve Agee and Dr. Irena O'Brien discuss how wellness professionals can foster more optimism. Learn how to combat negative biases and cultivate a hopeful future by leveraging purpose, positive action, and community.In each episode of Neuroscience of Coaching, host Dr. Irena O'Brien explains the science-based insights behind a particular concept and interviews a coach to discuss how these apply in the real world. Just as she does in her professional programs, Irena “un-complicates” neuroscience and teaches practical, evidence-based tools and strategies that listeners can use in their coaching practices.“And what I discovered with coaching is, it actually draws a lot from cultural anthropology theory about how we view the world and how our beliefs really shape our experience.”— Dr. Eve AgeeGuest Bio:A leader in the field of coaching and best-selling author, Dr. Eve Agee empowers others from a place of deep authenticity and integrity. A highly respected mentor and teacher, Eve is the founder of the Transform Coaching Academy, rated as one of the top coaching certification programs in the world.Featured in Apple News as the top Female Mindset and High-Performance coach, Eve has been a successful coach for 24 years. For the last 14 years, Eve has trained hundreds of successful coaches from around the world and her coach certification program is accredited by the International Coach Federation.Eve brings a holistic, spiritual approach to coach training that honors each individual and has helped thousands of people transform their lives for the better and get exceptional results through her work, which has been featured on NBC, ABC, BBC, iTV, Apple News, Google News, and NPR. An anthropologist with extensive expertise in shamanism, breathwork, and holistic healing, Eve has also worked at the White House, taught at the University of Virginia, and served as a Fellow at the Carter G. Woodson Institute of African-American and African Studies.She has won numerous awards and grants for her women's empowerment research in the US and West Africa. Eve is committed to training people to be confident, talented coaches so they can embody their purpose with abundance and joy.She believes skilled coaches will play an integral part in creating an abundant, sustainable future for all. It's her mission to help those who feel called to become successful certified coaches thrive financially while empowering others.Host Bio:Dr. Irena O'Brien teaches coaches and care professionals how to achieve better results for their clients through neuroscience.She is the founder of Neuroscience School, which helps practitioners understand and apply insights from cutting-edge neuroscience research. She loves seeing her students gain confidence in their ability to evaluate neuroscience findings and use them successfully in their own practices. Her Certificate Program in Neuroscience is certified by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) for Continuing Coaching Education credit.Dr. O'Brien has studied neuroscience for 25 years and holds a Ph.D. in the field from the Université du Quebec à Montréal (UQAM), where she did brain-imaging studies. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Centre for Language, Mind, and Brain at McGill University.Resources mentioned in this episode:MiraseeDr. Irena O'Brien's website: The Neuroscience SchoolDr. Eve Agee's website: Transform Coaching Academy and EveAgee.comMan's Search for Meaning (book) by Viktor Frankl: https://a.co/d/0pURUZ3Credits:Host: Dr. Irena O'BrienProducer: Andrew ChapmanAudio Editor: Marvin del RosarioExecutive Producer: Danny InyMusic Soundscape: Chad Michael SnavelyMaking our hosts sound great: Home Brew AudioMusic credits:Track Title: Sneaker SmeakerArtist: Avocado JunkieWriter: Sander KalmeijerPublisher: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONTrack Title: Coo CoosArtist: Dresden, The FlamingoWriter: Matthew WigtonPublisher: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONTrack Title: In This LightArtist: Sounds Like SanderWriter: Sander KalmeijerPublisher: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONSpecial effects credits:24990513_birds-chirping_by_promission used with permission of the author and under license by AudioJungle/Envato Market.To catch the great episodes coming up on Neuroscience of Coaching, please follow us on Mirasee FM's YouTube channelor your favorite podcast player. And if you enjoyed the show, please leave us a comment or a starred review. It's the best way to help us get these ideas to more people.Episode transcript: Managing Societal Despair: Coaching for a Brighter Future (Dr. Eve Agee) coming soon.

It's our mid-season finale! In this episode, Stuart Elliott sits down with DN Prasad, Executive Coach, transformational HR Leader and founder of Noetic Step to discuss his career. Originally from Bangalore, Prasad's journey is one of intentionality, growth, and impact. Over his impressive career—including 12 years at Google—he has shaped cultures, built high-performing teams, and led transformative initiatives across India, the US, and Singapore.Prasad shares the defining moments that underpin his career, from building Google India's employment brand to stepping into global roles that stretched his leadership style. He reflects on what it means to work across borders, emphasisng the importance of embracing diverse cultures, intellectual curiosity, and humility.He also dives into the challenges of leading through transformation, the lessons he's learned in both private and public sectors, and the intentional approach leaders must take to seek inspiration from those around them. For aspiring HR professionals, Prasad offers timeless advice: explore, challenge yourself, embrace overseas opportunities, and never stop learning.D N Prasad is an Executive Coach (PCC, International Coach Federation) and a transformational HR Leader with expertise in leading scaled transformation, building and scaling Organisations & functions (in-country, region and global) and shaping & nurturing cultures and careers. Prasad was conferred as a Master Professional by the Institute of Human Resource Professionals (IHRP).  DNP, as he is known in professional circles, has held several regional and global Executive roles through his career spanning quarter of a century; in private and Public Service, across India, US and Singapore, and in organisations including Infosys, Google and GovTech (Singapore). He also founded Noetic Step, an Executive Coaching and Talent Advisory practice, in 2018.  DNP is the current President of Singapore Human Resources Institute (SHRI) and a member of The Professional Practices Committee for IHRP, Singapore. He is an Independent Advisor at GoSports Foundation, India and also an invited member of the Forbes Coaches Council.  Key Timestamps: 01:25 - Intro into D N Prasad04:49 - The defining moments underpinning D N Prasad's career 06:36 - D N Prasad's role at Google 11:57 - The positive impact of working abroad 16:13 - How D N Prasad's experiences have shaped his leadership style 21:52 - Public vs Private sector 31:10 - D N Prasad's toughest work engagements 37:39 - Advice to aspiring HR professionals You can listen to and download HR Insights from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and other popular podcast apps. Please subscribe so the latest episodes are directly available! You can also join our HR Community and follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram. Thank you for listening and please do review and rate us wherever you listen!

Dive into the transformative world of brain-based coaching as Caroline Leroux unpacks the neuroscience behind it. With a focus on compassion, empathy, and emotional intelligence, discover practical strategies to foster sustainable change, motivate clients, and create a supportive coaching culture.In each episode of Neuroscience of Coaching, host Dr. Irena O'Brien explains the science-based insights behind a particular concept and interviews a coach to discuss how these apply in the real world. Just as she does in her professional programs, Irena “un-complicates” neuroscience and teaches practical, evidence-based tools and strategies that listeners can use in their coaching practices.“We're not fake cheerleaders. It's important to understand resistance and shame and the role they play in a change process.”  — Caroline LerouxGuest Bio:Caroline Leroux is a member of the International Coach Federation and holds the designation of Professional and Personal Certified Coach from Concordia University. She is completing a Master of Arts degree in Human Systems Intervention from Concordia University. Caroline has been EQ-I 2.0/EQ 360 Certified by the Emotional Intelligence Training Company (EITC) since 2015 and conducts debriefs of EQ-I 2.0 results in French and English on behalf of the EITC, as well as making presentations.Caroline is the co-owner of a business that provides sports medicine services and employs physicians, therapists, osteopaths, and other health care professionals.For 12 years Caroline has worked with non-profit organizations in Africa and Panama. Her work with EITC also includes providing EQ-I 2.0 debriefs and coaching to Canadian government consular staff living and working abroad for Global Affairs Canada.On a personal note, Caroline has raised four happy young adults who are contributing members of society, and she is active in her community in various volunteer roles.Host Bio:Dr. Irena O'Brien teaches coaches and care professionals how to achieve better results for their clients through neuroscience.She is the founder of Neuroscience School, which helps practitioners understand and apply insights from cutting-edge neuroscience research. She loves seeing her students gain confidence in their ability to evaluate neuroscience findings and use them successfully in their own practices. Her Certificate Program in Neuroscience is certified by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) for Continuing Coaching Education credit.Dr. O'Brien has studied neuroscience for 25 years and holds a Ph.D. in the field from the Université du Quebec à Montréal (UQAM), where she did brain-imaging studies. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Centre for Language, Mind, and Brain at McGill University.Resources mentioned in this episode:MiraseeDr. Irena O'Brien's website: The Neuroscience SchoolCaroline's Neuroscience School profile: NeuroscienceSchool.com/about-us/Caroline's email: LerouxBoulay@gmail.comPeter Senge's Ladder of InferenceImmunity to Change (book) by Robert KeganCredits:Host: Dr. Irena O'BrienProducer: Andrew ChapmanAudio Editor: Marvin del RosarioExecutive Producer: Danny InyMusic Soundscape: Chad Michael SnavelyMaking our hosts sound great: Home Brew AudioMusic credits:Track Title: Sneaker SmeakerArtist: Avocado JunkieWriter: Sander KalmeijerPublisher: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONTrack Title: Coo CoosArtist: Dresden, The FlamingoWriter: Matthew WigtonPublisher: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONTrack Title: In This LightArtist: Sounds Like SanderWriter: Sander KalmeijerPublisher: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONSpecial effects credits:24990513_birds-chirping_by_promission used with permission of the author and under license by AudioJungle/Envato Market.To catch the great episodes coming up on Neuroscience of Coaching, please follow us on Mirasee FM's YouTube channelor your favorite podcast player. And if you enjoyed the show, please leave us a comment or a starred review. It's the best way to help us get these ideas to more people.Episode transcript: Unlocking Compassionate Coaching with Brain-Based Strategies (Caroline Leroux)  coming soon.

In this episode of The Purpose Show, I'm chatting with Jen Lawrence about how women can reclaim their identity and prioritize self-care, especially as they navigate midlife. Jen shares powerful insights from her upcoming book, The Selfish Season, and we talk about why it's so important to let go of societal pressures and focus on building your self-worth. We dive into setting boundaries, embracing self-discovery over seeking external validation, and handling challenges in dating and the workplace. Jen and I also discuss how parenting evolves as your kids grow, and why emotional resilience and joy are key to thriving. This episode is all about embracing who you truly are, practicing self-love, and living authentically. Jen Lawrence is the Co-Founder of Selfish Company Inc. She's a Certified Master Life Coach, Certified Career and Business Coach, and a member of the International Coach Federation, specializing in helping midlife women get unstuck and create a life they love. She teaches The Art & Science of Success course at the University of Toronto. She's the co-author of The Selfish Season and is building a community for positive, motivated midlife women seeking to finally put themselves at the top of the to-do list and build happier and more empowered lives. My links here:https://alliecasazza.com/tpslinks  Instagram @selfishcompanyinc http://selfishcompanyinc.com/ Chapters 00:00 Introduction to the Purpose Show Podcast 08:05 Navigating Midlife Challenges and Identity 16:08 Breaking Free from Societal Programming 24:01 The Ongoing Journey of Parenting 32:38 Embracing Joy as an Act of Defiance 39:57 Finding Your True Self and Living Authentically

Sylvia Becker-Hill is a true Renaissance woman, a nine-time bestselling author, and a seasoned educator who has empowered thousands of corporate executives, women leaders, and entrepreneurs around the world since 1997.In 2002, she became the first German coach to earn the coveted title of Professional Certified Coach from the International Coach Federation, establishing herself as a pioneer in the coaching world.Her impressive educational background boasts two university degrees, while her portfolio showcases over 30 certifications in various change modalities, including her accreditation as one of the world's first 10 Certified Master Neuroplasticians in 2023.Sylvia‘s mission is to empower you with all the knowledge, tools, and lasting transformation you need to “FLIP” everything that bothers, hurts, or blocks you from living your desires and dreams into unquestionable Freedom, unconditional Love, envisioned Identity, and impactful Power.Are you ready to discover the joy of feeling unabashedly alive and powerful?

When you read about our guest this time, Lisa Kohn, the first thing you read is “The best seats Lisa ever had at Madison Square Garden were at her mother's wedding, and the best cocaine she ever had was from her father's friend, the judge.” Lisa's mother's wedding was a group affair with 4,000 marriages taking place. It wasn't nearly as romantic as one might think as you will discover. You will also get to read about her childhood drug use caused by her father in The Village in New York City. More important, you get to travel with me on Lisa's journey as she eventually overcomes these and other challenges.   Lisa did get to attend college and obtain a degree in Psychology and later an MBA in business.   Lisa's journey has been a hard and long one, but you will see just how unstoppable Lisa became and is today. She started her leadership consulting and life coaching business, Chatworth Consulting Group, in 1995. The business has thrived and grown.   Lisa shares with us her thoughts on life and how easy it can be for all of us to fall into traps that can take our lives in what she would call bad directions and down not good rabbit holes. This episode contains a lot of relevant content we all can use. I hope you enjoy it and, of course, feel free to reach out to Lisa.       About the Guest:   Lisa Kohn is a transformational keynote speaker, leadership consultant, executive coach, and award-winning author of The Power of Thoughtful Leadership and to the moon and back: a childhood under the influence, a memoir that chronicles her childhood growing up in the Unification Church (the Moonies) with her mom and a life of “sex, drugs, and squalor” in New York City's East Village with her dad.   Lisa's unique background has given her a perspective on life, people, and leadership, as well as an expansive array of tools, mind-shifts, and best practices she's found and created, that help her clients find their own paths to powerful, authentic, Thoughtful leadership. With over 25 years of experience supporting senior leaders in areas such as leadership, managing change, interpersonal and team dynamics, strategy, well-being, and life-fulfillment, Lisa partners with her clients as they not only uncover core issues to implement real changes in themselves and their organizations, but also successfully address their own inner challenges and effectively connect with others to ensure the changes stick.   Lisa has been described as “leading with love,” and she's honored to teach C-suite leaders of not-for-profits and Fortune 50 organizations about the compelling impact of self-compassion, self-love, fun, delight, and Thoughtful Leadership – being more present, intentional, and authentic. She works with organizations across a broad range of industries, in companies such as New York City Department of Education, GroupM/WPP, Verizon, World Wrestling Entertainment, American Civil Liberties Union, and Comcast. Lisa brings insight to clients that transforms the way organizations develop and manage their people and the way leaders lead their people and live their lives.   Lisa earned her BA in psychology from Cornell University and her MBA from Columbia University's Executive Program. She has taught as an adjunct professor at Columbia University and New York University's Stern School of Business and has been featured in publications addressing topics on leadership, communication, effective teaming, authenticity, selfcare, and, of course, healing from trauma. She has been awarded the designation of Professional Certified Coach by the International Coach Federation. Lisa is an Accredited Facilitator for Everything DiSC®, The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team™, The Leadership Circle™, and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®.   Lisa lives in Pennsylvania but will always tell you that she is “from New York.” Ways to connect with Lisa:   Instagram and X @lisakohnwrites LinkedIn  https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisakohnccg/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/lisakohnwrites My websites are www.lisakohnwrites.com and www.chatsworthconsulting.com       About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/   https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Well, hi, once again, you are listening to another episode of unstoppable mindset, and today, we get to speak with Lisa Kohn, who is the founder of the Chatsworth Consulting Group. She leads with love. Many people say she deals with nonprofits, C suite, people and others, and dealing with business coaching, life coaching, and I'm not going to tell you anymore, because she's going to spend the next hour telling us all about it. So Lisa, welcome to unstoppable mindset. We are really glad you're here.   Lisa Kohn ** 01:55 I'm thrilled to be here. Thank you for having me, Michael,   Michael Hingson ** 01:58 now I do have to tell everyone. I'm going to tell on you that we were talking before we started this. Lisa's had to postpone a couple times because she had a concussion, which in in a way, relates to skiing. And having never skied myself, I love to spread the rumor that the trees are out to get us all the time. So one of these days I'll probably ski but but in the meanwhile, my brother in law is as a great skier, and was a certified mountain ski guide for years, and I always tell him that the trees are out to get us, and he can not convince me otherwise, no matter what he says. And he says, No, it's really you the skier. And I said, That's what you say. So you know, that's my conspiracy theory of the day,   Lisa Kohn ** 02:37 but I will tend to believe it, because not this concussion, but the last concussion I did, ski into a tree, and I don't know how. I really don't know how. So I am convinced maybe to come out to get me. That makes sense. See,   Michael Hingson ** 02:51 there you go. I rest my case. Everyone. You're welcome to let us know what you think, but it is fun to tease about it. My brother in law used to take tours to France, and was, as I said, a certified mountain ski guide, and has done it for years in the winter in Ketchum, Idaho, where he lives, it is all about skiing first foremost and always, and everything else comes second. So that's fine. Well, Lisa, why don't we start by you telling us a little about the early Lisa, I love to start that way. Learn a little bit about you growing up and all that stuff and going to college or whatever you did and anything like that that you want to tell   Lisa Kohn ** 03:31 us. Well, I will do that. It's it's not the simplest story. So I'll give you the overview and the highlights, and then we can move on or go deeper, or whatever works for you. So I love lines, right? I have a line that describes my childhood. I say the best seats I ever had at Madison Square Garden were at my mother's wedding because my mom got married in 1982 with 4074 other people in a mass wedding. I was raised Unification Church, the Moonies. I was raised in a cult. So that's that's my life with my mom. And on the other hand, the best cocaine I ever had was for my father's friend, the judge. Because my dad, I lived with my dad and my dad. Life with my dad was, as I like to say, sex, drugs and squalor in New York City's East Village in the 1970s so I am, I am like this true child of the 60s and 70s, because both my parents were involved in the, you know, the hippie culture and then the cult culture of that era. So very short. You know, very long story, very short. After that synopsis, my parents got married way too young. Had my brother had me split up. We lived with my mom for a number of years, and when I was in third grade, we were about to we lived on the East Coast. Of America. We lived in Jersey, and we were about to move drive across country to California to move on to a commune. And my grandmother, my mom's mom, got sick with cancer, and so instead we moved, instead of cross country, moved across state and moved in with my grandparents and lived there. My grandmother died. My mom stayed with we stayed with my grandfather. My mom was taking care of the house and of him. And in 1974 my mom went to hear, actually, the person she with whom she said, hitchhik, cross country with every year, called her and said, You have to go hear Reverend Moon speak. And my mom went to hear Reverend Moon speak and came back a changed person, just enthralled with what she'd heard. And not much happened. And then a couple months later, members of the Unification Church convinced my mom to go up for a weekend workshop, and my mom went away for the weekend and came back and went back up for a week and came back and went back up and basically spent the summer being indoctrinated into the unification Church's ideology. And then, you know, somewhere that summer, my mom took us, my brother, I have an older brother, took my brother, and I have with her, and we the estates called barrytown, New York. We pull up to this estate. This this huge building. It used to be a Christian brother school, and we go down into the gymnasium, and all the women, the sisters, are sitting on the floor on the right side of the room, and all the brothers, the men, are sitting on the floor on the left side of the room. And with moments Moon Reverend Sam young moon walks in and begins speaking with his interpreter, and that was it. I had a Messiah, and we were Moonies, and again, synopsized down. Within about six months, my mom sat my brother and I down and said, kids, I really feel called to be more involved. What should I do? And we said, you should leave. And so she left, and we were with my grandfather, and I was in sixth grade and running the household. And then my grandfather, due to a variety of different things, was put in the hospital on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and we got shuffled around for a little while. And finally, my father came to get us, and we moved in with him in New York City, disease village, the life of sex, drugs and scholar, and live this dual life of like living the outside world with Satan and believing in a Messiah and a puritanical cult. And that continued for a number of years, until I can go into the details at some point. But through this whole soap opera experience, I started to eventually question. And we were literally taught if that, if we ever questioned, it was Satan inside of us, but I fully questioned and pulled away, and over the space of many years, kind of left it all behind. And yeah, went to college. I was, you know, I started questioning in my last year of high school, and then I went up to college. I was at Cornell University, and, you know, it's surrounded with gorges, and nearly jumped off the bridge into the gorge as I kind of self destructed having when I left the church. And, you know, went on to get worse and worse and worse in kind of my own psyche, until I really crashed and burned, and someone pointed me in the direction of getting help in the mid to late 80s, and it's been a journey ever since. So there, that's the that's the 10 minute version of, you know, what's in my memoir?   Michael Hingson ** 08:14 What a story. What's your memoir called   Lisa Kohn ** 08:18 to the moon and back the influence, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 08:21 yeah. So what about your brother?   Lisa Kohn ** 08:22 My brother? My brother, uh, he so I, my brother likes to say, I never actually left, I just slowly drifted away. And that was, you know, from like 1980 through 1985 my brother, who's a year and a half older than me, a year ahead of me, in school, he, when he was in college, he was in a place that was truly surrounded with with there were Moonies there who knew him. So he could not leave. But as soon as he got out of college, he went to Drew University. He literally sat my mom down and said, That's it. I'm out. So he he announced being out. I still haven't told anyone I'm out. And he is, you know. So he's also happy and thriving. And he lives in New York City, you know, very eager to get out of the city. I got out of the city years ago. Yeah. So we're still, well, there's a lot Go ahead. Go ahead. No, go ahead. No. He's the only person who experienced the weird dichotomy going back and forth between these two crazy worlds that I did. So, yeah, we're very close.   Michael Hingson ** 09:18 There's, there's a lot to be said for the city, and there's a lot that the city can contribute. But on the other hand, there are so many other parts of the country. I met a woman when my wife and I moved back to New Jersey, I stayed at an apartment for a while in Linden. I'm sorry, no, where was it? Not Lyndon, well, anyway, it was north of Springfield in New Jersey, and this woman, well, we met her because we were staying at a Holiday Inn in Springfield at the time, and she was one of the people who worked there. And she also. Then came to help me in just making sure my apartment was good and clean until Karen moved back and we had our house, and one of the things that we learned from her was that her whole life, she lived in the Springfield area and had never been to New York City, less than 40 miles away.   Lisa Kohn ** 10:20 Yeah, people   Michael Hingson ** 10:21 are afraid of it. Yeah, there's elizabeth new jersey, where I lived until Karen came back, and then we we had started and built a house in Westfield. But I'm always amazed, and I know of people who live in the city who have never been out.   10:35 That is true as well. Yes, and there's   Michael Hingson ** 10:38 so much more to the world, and I just love the fact that I've had the opportunity as a speaker to travel all over this country and enjoy going and meeting new people and seeing new places and seeing so many different aspects of our whole US culture. It's great,   Lisa Kohn ** 10:55 absolutely true. There's so much to be said for a lot of different places and and I will always be a New Yorker at heart.   Michael Hingson ** 11:01 Well, there you go. There you go. And there's nothing wrong with being a New Yorker at heart. No, I was born in Chicago, but I grew up being a Californian and and I am, and I'm a Dodger fan, but you know, there you go. Of course, there are those who say that the Dodgers, one day will move back to New York,   Lisa Kohn ** 11:19 back to Brooklyn. We'll   Michael Hingson ** 11:20 see what happens. Yeah, hasn't happened yet. So what did you major in college?   Lisa Kohn ** 11:26 I was a psychology major.   Michael Hingson ** 11:27 Ah, okay, so now, where do you live?   Lisa Kohn ** 11:31 I live in Wayne, Pennsylvania, outside of,   Michael Hingson ** 11:34 okay, I know where that is. So that's, that's pretty cool. So you, you certainly had a life that has had a lot of experiences. And I would think that you probably would agree that, yes, there were a lot of things that weren't necessarily great, but they taught you a lot, and it certainly helps you to be able to step back and think about all that and put it in perspective   Lisa Kohn ** 12:01 that is true, you know, I am. It's not quite the point you're making. But alongside that, similar to that, you know, when, again, when the memoir came out, people started reaching out to me. And some, you know, late teenager, young adult, I don't really remember, the age, Stranger reached out to me and was kind of giving me the lowdown of a situation, which was, you know, hard, lot of trauma, a lot of lot of tough stuff. And I said, What I often say is, like, I wouldn't wish difficulties and struggles or trauma on anyone, sure, but I do know that when you get through, you know, if you can get through, when you can get through, you have an appreciation of life that people who haven't experienced hardship don't really have so, like, I can look outside, I mean, I love the little gold finches. I can look outside and see a little yellow bird, or actually have about 40 in the house at this point, because people keep sending them to me, right? And I am just filled with joy because I've learned, like, I know how, how low can go. And so even just just okay is really great at times. So so it's a similar thing to what you said, right? You have a perspective. You have a you have, you know, coping mechanisms, some that are wonderful and some that are you really could let go of and be done with. But yeah, I do. I feel like I have more of an appreciation for life and joy and love than some people have who haven't had to go through things.   Michael Hingson ** 13:25 I spoke to a life coach on the podcast a couple of days ago, actually. And one of the things that she said, and it's really kind of what you're saying, is that the fact is, she's much better at what she does because she has had a number of life experiences and things happen in her life, and if she hadn't done some of the things that she did and experienced some of the things that she experienced, she would never have been able to be nearly as effective as she is,   Lisa Kohn ** 14:02 yeah, you know, before my memoir was published in 2018 I generally never brought up my background in my work, because it, once you say cult, it literally, it sucks the energy out of the room like nothing else matters when you say I was raised in A cult and but once it came out, and if you Google me, you know, before I walk in a room, if you look me up, you know my story, because I'm very public with it at this point, I now get to use it in all of my work, and I get to use what I've experienced, and the multitude of tools and practices and mindsets and positive psychology and neuroplasticity and mindfulness and all of the things I have learned over the years to be okay and to thrive. I get to use it in in like in the most corporate work I do, I'm still bringing up, you know, teaching people. To take care of themselves and love themselves and love themselves first. Most, you know, always, like, is tattooed on my arm, like, really, to change their perspective of themselves, to start and off in the world. So yeah, if I, if I hadn't gone through what I gone through, I wouldn't be who I am, and I wouldn't get to share some of the things I get to share. So yeah, that's and that's why I do it. If sharing my story helps other people, then it's all worthwhile. And yeah, that's why I do it.   Michael Hingson ** 15:26 And I I hear that very well. And going back to what we were discussing the other day, Mary Beth and I, she starts her story by saying she took her first drink at the age of 11, and she decided that she liked the taste of alcohol and was an alcohol for alcoholic, or was a drunk for many years. And actually she's near 50, and she only quit four and a half years ago, she became, she became a life coach six years ago, although she was always interested in helping people, but she began to make that her business, and did so six years ago, and she is very clear that having adopted that philosophy and process and undertaking that career, even though it was much later in life, the bottom line is that it did lead to her finally recognizing that she shouldn't drink, and that's not a good thing, and she has not had a drink in four and a half years. Good for her. That's so it is all about what you experience and what you choose to do with it. So I hear you, you know, I   Lisa Kohn ** 16:33 hear her. Yeah, last so this is 2024, so two years ago, what you experienced, I was diagnosed by cancer, and you never think you're going to be one of the people who have cancer, until they say cancer to you, and you're thinking, aren't you talking to the person behind me? And I heard, you know, when I was going through the process and going through chemo, which I do not recommend to anyone, unless you absolutely have to do it, I heard a saying from a dialectical behavioral therapy, therapist who did pass from cancer, but the saying was, I will take more from cancer than cancer takes for me. And that, that that just carried me through, right? And I you can look at that with everything, like all the all the different things we experience, I will. I remember when I was first diagnosed, a practitioner said to me, why do you think you got sick? As in, like, what hadn't I healed that caused the cancer? And I, I stopped going to that practitioner, and I very clearly, I've looked at this and I thought, it's never going to help me to think, what did I do wrong, that I had cancer, that I got cancer, I got sick, but it will help me to say I did get sick. And what do I want to learn from that, and how do I want to change and shift and grow from that? So exactly right,   Michael Hingson ** 17:45 yeah, and like I always say to people, I'm my own best teacher. I've dropped saying I'm my own worst critic, because such a negative thing, and you don't necessarily have something to criticize, but I'm my own best teacher. I can look at anything I do and go, can I improve on it? How can I improve on it? And adopting the mindset that takes that approach really makes us stronger?   Lisa Kohn ** 18:11 Yes, it's called a growth mindset, right? And when we have a growth mindset, when we know that we can grow, when we know that we can learn, when we and yeah, when we stop being so hard on ourselves, like so many of us are,   Michael Hingson ** 18:23 yeah, and we learned that, and that's unfortunate that that's what we're taught, and it's so hard to break that cycle, but if you can, you're all the better for it,   Lisa Kohn ** 18:33 absolutely and to, you know, I'm, I mean, I teach this stuff. I've been teaching this stuff for a long time. I've been using it for decades, and just today, I was watching my mind go down a rabbit hole of some negative thinking and thinking and thinking that wasn't going to help me and also. And I pause. I'm like, I was driving. I'm like, I put my hand on my leg. I'm like, Lisa, you're right here. You're right now. You're in the car. Look the sky. Pay attention to the road. You don't have to think that right now. You can just be in this present moment and feel better and poof, like magic, the crazy thinking stops, and you're like, Oh yeah, it's actually okay. I don't have to worry about that right now. But, um, yeah, our brains, our brains, we have that, like we have a negativity bias. Our brains are trained, have evolved to, like, look for danger. Focus on danger. Really think about the bad. Play it over and over. See it bigger than it is. Never look at the good. We're as Rick Hansen likes to say, Velcro for the bad and Teflon for the good. But we have a choice to shift that. So I feel like I'm preaching. Sorry, but I get excited about   Michael Hingson ** 19:34 it is it is perfectly okay to preach, and it is all about choice, as I tell people all the time, we had no control over the World Trade Center happening. No one's ever convinced me that we could have really foreseen it and not have it happen. But what we all, each and every person in the world, has a choice about, is how we deal with what happened at the World Trade Center, absolutely and how. We move forward or choose not to. And I've seen all sides of that. I've seen people who talk about the conspiracy of the World Trade Center. It really didn't happen. The government did it in so many different things. And I met one guy who had been a firefighter, and he decided to change careers and become a police officer because he wanted to go kill terrorists who were trying to deal with our country would not be the reason I would choose to go to often be a police officer. He did it because his brother was killed in the World Trade Center. But still, there were so many more positive reasons to do it, but that was his goal at the time, and I don't know, having never seen him since, whether that has changed, but it is still just always a matter of we can choose, and do have the right to choose. God gives us that right. That's why we have free will to choose how we want to deal with things or not.   Lisa Kohn ** 20:55 It is what it is, and what will I do with it, and how will I be with it? And yeah, yeah, and I can accept it, and then what do I want to do about it? Yeah? Yeah. All true. All true.   Michael Hingson ** 21:06 So what did you do after college? So you got a degree in psychology, so I got a degree in psychology, started to psychoanalyze gold finches, but, okay,   Lisa Kohn ** 21:15 you started to psycholize goldfinches. I just love my gold finches. Yeah, it's funny because when I when I was when I was writing the book, and there was a in my town, there's a author who lives here, kind of took me under her wing, and at one point she turned to me, she said, Do you realize, like, everything you experienced as a child and then you majored in psychology, and like, yeah, never dawned on me that I needed to cycle analyze myself, but I did. I got out of Cornell, and on the personal side. I very soon got engaged to someone who my dad, at that point, owned a restaurant, a French restaurant, and I got engaged as someone who worked for him and drank with him, and drank a heck of a lot, and was very not nice when he drank. And you know someone your cousin lovingly pointed me in the direction of the direction of the 12 step programs and to Alan on the 12 step program. For those of us with our arms, class Brown, the alcoholic and I crawled into my first meeting practically on my hands and knees, thinking like, tell me if he's an alcoholic, there's no way I would ever be with an alcoholic. I'm too smart for that, only to realize that there were tons of reasons why I would be and so that's that started my healing growth trajectory and journey. And on the professional side, I did a six month stint in direct mail, back when there was direct mail, a direct mail company, and then a six month stint in address, you know, do in advertising, the advertising agency, and then after that, got a job doing entertainment advertising for a small division of gray advertising, which I dearly, dearly loved. It was fun, it was exciting, it was a lot of good things, but I ended up getting I was running the Good Morning America account, and I ended up there wasn't enough work to fill me, but my boss wouldn't take me off the account because the client adored me, so they didn't want to move me. So I got really, really bored, and I decided to go to business school. And I somehow convinced my boss to convince his boss, the head of the whole agency, to send me to Columbia's Executive MBA Program, which you had to be sponsored by your A by your company, and they had to pay for part of it. And that just wasn't, didn't happen in the advertising world. I remember one of my professors once said, You're they eat, they're young in your industry, don't they like you. Just you did not, and they did not invest in you, but they did. They invested in me, and I went, I got my MBA in Columbia's Executive MBA Program, and there, found the disciplines where I now work in leadership and organizational behavior and organizational development, and began to have confidence in my own voice, business wise, and what I knew, and this is maybe why they don't invest you. I got out of the program, and within not too many months, quit, and I went to work, actually, for a large not for profit fundraising organization, which, you know, because I was like, I'm good, I'm smart, I'm going to go do good for the world. And I ended up in a job where, once again, I just it didn't engage me enough. And I literally had a boss who liked to fight with me, because he thought I was good at fighting, and I was just really not happy. And so then in 1995 I, you know, talked to a couple of so long ago, in 1995 I was talking to a couple of my professors saying, you know, I want to do leadership, and can I be a consultant? And they said, Yeah, go ahead, you can do it. And gave me a few gigs to start. And I, I was three months pregnant with my first child, and I hung out a shingle with Chatsworth Consulting Group and started doing leadership, not actually knowing what that was, and do it, a lot of training and different, different jobs. So I actually, I was, like, hugely pregnant, and I was, I almost. Took a job teaching computer skills for American Express at a very low rate, because I was just I was like, I say, I'm a consultant, but I'm not actually doing anything. And I luckily didn't take that job, that gig. And soon thereafter, I started getting different projects from former professors, and I've been doing and growing the business ever since, and of the 1998 I think I was in front of a client doing, you know, teaching leadership skills or doing some sort of program, and the head of the head of the agency, came over to me and said, I want to be you. Do you coach? And I said, Yeah, I coach. And I went and got coach. I got certified as a coach in the late 90s, before anyone was coaching. And yeah, I've been doing it ever since. And I say, you know, when I am not working, I never want to work, and when I am working, I never want to stop. So I'm that was actually true. That's true since I got sick. So I'm either certifiable or I figured something out. I happen to love what I do. I happen to get to make a difference in people's lives. And yeah, that's, that's my those are my stories   Michael Hingson ** 26:02 where the name Chatsworth consulting came from. Yeah, so   Lisa Kohn ** 26:06 when I founded the company, that is a good question. The funny thing is, when I founded the company, every good name I thought of was already taken, which is actually good, because the what I do and how I do it has so evolved over the years, over the decades, but I lived on Chatsworth Avenue. That's where I lived at the time. And what makes it extra special is, at that point, my you know, someone I met, I literally met my business partner on our first day going to Columbia's executive program. We met on the subway because I introduced myself to her, and she lived in the same building as I did on Chatsworth Avenue. She wasn't my partner at the time, and then number of years later, she said, Can I join you? And so she joined me in 2002 but so now it has even more meaning, because we were both Chatsworth, but it just it was the street on which I lived, because I couldn't come up with any other names, and I didn't want to say Lisa Conan associates. So that's it.   Michael Hingson ** 26:55 Hey, man, that works.   Lisa Kohn ** 26:56 Hey, what else   Michael Hingson ** 26:57 you said? You said you're the guy you were engaged to, drink. Is he still your, your your husband? No,   Lisa Kohn ** 27:03 I managed. Wondered about that. Yeah, no. You know, I was a I can tell you I was sitting in an Al Anon meeting. You know, I postponed the wedding, but I was still sticking it out. And I was sobbing my way through some lunchtime meeting in St Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. And someone came over to me at the end of the meeting, and he said, you know, there are no victims, there are only volunteers. And I was like, Oh, I don't actually have to do this. And so, you know, when you're raised like I was, if I start talking about religious trauma and extremist thinking I was raised, I literally we were raised to live for the sake of others, to sacrifice everything for God and our True Parents, Reverend and Mrs. Moon, and saving the world. And that if we didn't, if we didn't, you know, live to the expectations we were supposed to, we would break God's heart. So I was raised to be a heavenly soldier. You know, when again, my mom left, and, you know, I couldn't cry, I couldn't miss her, couldn't be sad, couldn't be mad. It was all for God. So I just learned that I would do no matter what. And I till this day, I say, if you put something in front of me, I will do it. I will do it extremely well, even if it takes me down in the process, which isn't as true, because I've learned a lot since I got sick. But that used to be me, and so I was engaged to this man, and it was miserable, but I was gonna like, I have Al Anon. I can marry him. I can do it. And when this person came up to me and said, there are no victims, only volunteers, it's kind of was like crack that said you can do it. I just said this to a client the other day, you can do it, but just because you can do it, it doesn't mean you have to do it, or you should do it, and at luckily, at 24 I was able to say, I deserve a life that's easier and has more happiness than choosing to be with someone who was he was just really, he was really mean when he drank. So, so no, I didn't marry him. I didn't marry him. Think, you know I, you know people look at my life and it's like I, I've skirted disaster. I am, I am lucky. I have a steel rod for a spine. I don't know. I, you know, got out of the church. I almost jumped off a bridge, but I didn't I, you know, I became anorexic. And I can tell you, I am not heavy now, and I was almost 30 pounds less, you know, I was 82 pounds. I'm not tall, but I was really quits growing at 82 pounds. But then I started eating again. When I started doing cocaine with my dad, I did a heck of a lot of cocaine, and all of a sudden, every day, I was doing it. And then I just stopped doing that. And then I got into really more and more destructive and mildly or abusive relationships, and I stopped doing that. So I've, I've, I've managed to, like, avoid disaster numerous times. I'm incredibly lucky. So, yeah, well,   Michael Hingson ** 29:47 and your mind has, uh, has helped you progress from all this. So did you, did you ever find someone and get married, or have a husband, or any of that kind of stuff   Lisa Kohn ** 29:56 I did. I found someone, I my one of my best friends from high. School, set me up with one of his best friends from college as a joke, and we've been married 30 years. Where are you kids? Oh, yeah, we have two kids. So yeah, that's cool. Yeah, yeah. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 30:12 congratulations. Well, thank   Lisa Kohn ** 30:13 you very much.   Michael Hingson ** 30:14 I met my wife a friend introduced us, and he was actually my friend was dating this person, sort of even though he was married, and she said, you said you were gonna leave her, and he didn't, but he was, he was the kind of guy that always had a girl in every port. Well anyway, he introduced her, this, this lady to me. And 11 months or 10 months later, we were married, and it took for 40 years until she passed away in November of 2022 and yeah, as I tell people, she's monitoring me somewhere, I am absolutely certain, and if I misbehave, I'm going to hear about it, so I have to continue to be a good kid.   Lisa Kohn ** 30:55 There you go. Well, I   Michael Hingson ** 30:56 gotta do Yeah, you know, but I've got 40 years of memories, and can't beat that, yeah, yeah,   Lisa Kohn ** 31:02 that's good. I'm glad you did. Yeah. So   Michael Hingson ** 31:05 you you formed Chatsworth, which is really pretty cool. I'm curious, though. So you didn't really have when you were growing up, at least early on, as much say about it, why do people join cults? Yes,   Lisa Kohn ** 31:20 yes. Why do people join cults? They're in the wrong place at the wrong time. So I used to say everyone is susceptible to extremist thinking. I was not everybody believes that, but I do believe it to be true. I was once corrected and someone said, unless you're a a sociopath, a psychopath, or already in a cult, you're susceptible. Or as there's two cult anti cult activists who were in Nixie and the sex cult a couple years ago, and what they say is, if you think you're not susceptible, you're even more susceptible. Why? Why? Because, as human beings, we crave purpose, certainty and community and having a messiah, believing anything that extremely is absolute certainty, it is, let me tell you, it is the most powerful drug to know that you have the truth, like the Absolute Truth, you have purpose. You know why you're here. You know what you need to do. There's not Sunday, Sunday night, Monday morning, blues, because you have a purpose for your life, and as long as you don't leave or disobey, you have absolute community. So it's you know. As humans, we want to know. We want to understand, right? We make up theories and reasons in our brains, even people who say they don't, they do right? Our brains crave it. And so as you know, I heard someone say a long time ago, I repeat, all it takes is being in the wrong place at the wrong time, being the wrong person and being in the wrong state of mind, where you're just going to be a little bit open to something, and you're susceptible. And so the ones that are really successful, they know how to work with the brain to keep you in so again, as I said, we were literally taught that if you ever question anything, it's Satan. So as soon as you start to think for yourself, you you know, you do a 21 minute prayer, you fast for three days, you take a cold shower, you're being invaded by Satan, so you're afraid to think. And when you know when they're when they were first bringing people in to my cult, right? They would, one of the things they did so you would go to, they would get you away to, you know, a workshop. They would keep you not give you enough to eat, not give you enough sleep, keep you surrounded by people so you don't have time to think. And they would give you all the teachings. And then at night, they would say, just write one thing you agree with. Write it down in this journal, just one thing. And so you just want them to shut up. So you write one thing. And then you look back three days later, and your brain goes, Oh, I wrote that down. I must have believed it. So you like your brain. They work with the ways your brain wants to believe something, to get you to believe something. And as well, I don't know if you want me to curse, so I won't curse, but I'm going to quote mark Vicente on the vow, which is also about the the next scene cult. He says, No one joins a cult. They really they join a really good idea, and then they realize they were messed with because they join one human kind, under God, they join, you know, self exactly, actualization. They join some positive idea, and only exactly what they think is positive, or what's sold as a positive idea. And by the time you look back your brain, your brain wants to you. We want to think that we know what we're doing. So our brain starts to convince ourselves that we knew what we were doing, like it's just our brains crave, and you work with it, you can, you can get people to believe anything. You can get people to believe anything. It's the   Michael Hingson ** 34:58 same. I hear you. It's just. Same thing as just there's so many conspiracy theorists today, yes, and it's the same exact sort of thing. They get you to believe it. They make it sound plausible. There's a woman who is a physicist who has written a book about why the World Trade Center wasn't something that was caused by terrorists or anything like that. It was really the US government, because the the amount of of ground shaking when the buildings collapsed wasn't appropriate, and all sorts of things she brings into it. And she she says it in a very convincing way, unless you look deeper, unless you know what to look for, and but, but she talks about it, and the bottom line is that it wasn't a conspiracy. And my immediate response whenever anyone says that it is and talks about what she talks about, is, I just say the difference is, I was there. I know, yeah, yeah. And you can say what you like, but I know, yeah, and, and I think that it's, it's the usual thing some people say, you know, figures can lie, and liars can figure, and it's very unfortunate that that some people just have to fulfill their lives by by doing some of these things, rather than using that knowledge and using their skills in a much more positive way. So yeah, cults, conspiracies, it's all sort of the same thing, isn't   Lisa Kohn ** 36:26 it? It's all extremist belief is extremist belief is extremist belief. And once you believe, once you believe this person's conspiracy theory, then it you can believe the next things they say, like you, you, you keep going like Moon would preach things and do the opposite, and then say was providential, that God told me how to do the opposite, and then you believe. Because, again, we want to believe what we already believe. I was just ot occupational therapy for my concussion this morning, and I was just saying to the occupational therapists, right? We have a we have so many biases in our brain. I love the brain, and we have a bias that tells us we're not biased. So I have a bias that says I'm not biased. I know how objective I am. I'm careful and I'm reflective, but the rest of you are biased, but I'm not biased. So one of our biases is that we're not biased, right? And so once you believe it's you know, people saying, How could people do X, Y and Z, and how can they believe that? And I'm like, once you've chosen to believe, or you've been forced to believe, or you've been tricked to believe, you keep believing, and to break that belief is dangerous. I mean, it's just hard to leave extreme believing is extremely hard. It really is, and   Michael Hingson ** 37:37 it's dangerous because somebody told you it wasn't you believe it,   Lisa Kohn ** 37:40 yes, exactly, exactly yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 37:44 which is so unfortunate, but just so unfortunate, yeah, but it is, it is what we face. It's   Lisa Kohn ** 37:50 human nature. So how do we what do we do about it? Yeah, exactly, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 37:53 which is always that Yes. So with your life and all that is has happened, What messages do you want to share with people? What do you want people ultimately to know and to take away from today?   Lisa Kohn ** 38:07 Well, I will always start with extremist. Situations exist, and we're all susceptible. They're there. They're intoxicating. They're, you know, a slippery slope. And so beware. And there's places to learn. And if you are, I always say, if you are in what you think might be a cult of any sort, there is help. When I left, I never knew there was help. I never knew there was a community. There is a community. There are a lot of online places and therapists to go to. So   Michael Hingson ** 38:32 that's grown a lot over the years, hasn't it? Oh, it's   Lisa Kohn ** 38:35 grown so much. I did not know. Yeah, I did not know was there at all. When I left, I left cold turkey, when my book came out in 2018 I found the cult survivor community, and my mind blew open. It's, it's definitely grown. Awareness of it, concept of religious trauma, has grown, like a lot. It's, there's, there's so much more awareness of it now in so many places to get help. The other thing I would say, I always say, if you think you're damaged or there's no hope, you are not damaged, and there is hope. There is always hope. I, you know, when I in my memoir, my my older child read my memoir, and she got to the part where I wrote about meeting their father, and it said something like, I shared my stories and my demons, and I was afraid he would not, you know, he would be able to stay because of how damaged I was, and my kids said, Wait, what's this? And I just look at I think, well, that's, I literally believe that for a very long time, but there was something wrong with me, and there is hope, and you are not damaged. There are, I call them the lies in my head. There are lies. There are lies that were put in my head intentionally to control me, and there are ways many of us have been taught, like you said, to think poorly of ourselves. So there's hope, and there's a way out of that. And I truly believe that, you know, we all need a lot more self love and self care. I do have tattooed on my arm first most, always to remind myself to love myself first most and always, um. Them, because I just think as a, you know, they do call me I lead with love. They call me love embodied when I took my positive psychology course. But really, we, all, many of us, need a huge dose of self compassion, self love, self care, kindness and gentleness, first to ourselves and then to the rest of the world. So those are, those are probably the you know, and whether it's in like, individually, or in an organization or in an offer, profit, like all of that, it is true, we're human, and we make mistakes, but there's an opportunity to really connect on a deeper, truer level, and there's an opportunity to to, it's called Post Traumatic Growth, right to heal from the trauma and heal from the things that have happened to us. And I know there are people with a lot harder stories than mine, and they're people who have gone through things like I have, and there's always, there's always a way to get help and reach out. So yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 40:53 tell me about, if you would, your journey in Chatsworth consulting. You teach leadership, you teach people to lead, and you you go to leaders and or they come to you. And how do you how do you help them? Tell us a little bit more about all of that, if you would.   Lisa Kohn ** 41:09 So we do a couple of different things. We do executive coaching, one on one coaching, you know, again, one client came up to me and said, do you coach? And I said, Yeah. And I got trained to be a coach back in the late 90s. I was in Al Anon at the time, and I realized it's kind of like being a sponsor only professionally. So it's our coaching is really it's based on a lot of self awareness, self knowledge. We do a incredible there's an incredible online 360 we use with people called the leadership circle profile, which helps us not only look at what like what I'm doing that's working and not but a lot of my thought patterns and beliefs and where they come from. So they call them, you know, they call them the Protect, control and wow, comply behaviors. That's the concussion kicking in. And I call them fight, fight and freeze. But like looking at the ways I coped in the world that get in my way. So we work with leaders, one on one. I'm trying to help them see what they're doing that's effective, what they're thinking that's effective, how they're connecting with other people. That's effective, and what's not we do. We work with a lot of in tech teams, leadership teams, executive teams, helping them have the hard conversations, the strategic conversations, the emotional conversations. You know, we are all human, and we all have triggers, and we all get upset, and we all have agendas, and we all have so much that gets in the way of actually just connecting, one on one with each other. So I get to sit with a group of people and help them find ways to connect more effectively and to more really, more vulnerably, more authentically, you know. And I also, I teach all the general management and leadership skills, you know, connecting with others and giving feedback and authentic leadership and all of that stuff. But truly, what ignites me in the work we do now is really kind of the feel. It's kind of like systems thinking, right? What are the systems within our organization that are operating? Then, how do you look at it, and how do you shift them to be more positive? And what are the systems that's that are operating within me, the belief systems, the you know, the ways I was trained to act, whom to act, and how do I keep the good and shift the ones that are getting in my way. So I am very lucky to do the work I do. I feel very lucky to do it   Michael Hingson ** 43:25 and that, you know, that's great, and it's great to have that kind of attitude and to bring that kind of philosophy to it. What are some of the patterns that you see that a lot of leaders and so on bring to you and want fixed, or that you discover that they need to deal with. I mean, they're, they're probably a few at least, that you see a lot.   Lisa Kohn ** 43:48 So yeah, I would say, well, one thing that I see so often, right, human nature? So you do a 360 or you gather feedback for someone, and all they focuses on is the constructive feedback. All they focus on is what's wrong, looking for the problem. Again, that's the negativity bias in our head, and a lot of other things. But one thing that comes off so clear is, in general, almost all the time, right people, if they're good at something, that thing that they star a star at, that thing that is like second nature to them, the thing that people so admire about them, they think it's not a big deal anybody could do that, and the thing that they are that isn't their greatest skill, that's the thing they think that's important. And it's it just, I see it over Yeah? People, my clients, be like, Well, yeah, anybody can do that? I'm like, no, nobody does that. Like you do that. Like you do that, you do that in a different way. So it's, you know, I just see that over and over and over. I see so many people like and you talk about leadership, right? So we, we so often in the business world, we promote people for being really good at what they do. And being good at what you do as an individual contributor is very. Very different than actually being able to manage other people or lead other people. And so to a lot of leaders just have a hard time getting out of the details, getting out of the weeds, actually delegating, actually letting go. We we coach our leaders to be dispensable. Our clients not said that to one client. She said, indispensable. And I said, No, dispensable. And she she literally started to cry. She said, Lisa, I spent my whole career trying to be incredibly indispensable. And she was a senior, senior leader at a major Fortune 50 company. She was powerful, she was amazing, but it gets in your way, right? We coach our clients to you know you have to be so dispensable that the people who work with you can do your job so you can go do the bigger, better stuff, more like the next stuff you need to do. Yeah, so it's, it's really, and then, you know, so many of us, right, have, unfortunately, so many people have some sort of trauma in their background. And even people who don't have major trauma in their background have had hardships or whatever, and so it's really people get so caught in their own thinking that they can't even realize that it's their own thinking in their way. So I, you know, I learned to say for my own learning and growth, right? When my brain does its wonky, silly things, it says, I've learned to say, that's the cult talking like, that's the cult. That's the cult. That's what I was trained to believe. That's not true. That's the cult. And I heard a class I'm like, take the word out cult and put in alcoholic father, you know, narcissistic first boss, you know, you know, I had a client who no harm, no blame to her parents. She had immigrant parents. They both ran, they both worked three jobs in order to support the family. And so she was taking care of her siblings when she was six. Six, she was caring for other kids, right? So she was able to say, that's that's that. And my brain, like the helping people being able to see, you know, we're so close to our brains that we don't see the kind of loopy things that we do and why we do it, but helping clients see those loopy things, right? And two, again, honestly, I spent a lot of time with seniors, senior executives, talking about self care, self compassion, being kinder to yourself, that kind of stuff.   Michael Hingson ** 47:15 So that woman, who was six taking care of siblings, did she ever get to the point where she could say things like, I really learned a lot, or I value that experience because it helped me in this way or that way,   Lisa Kohn ** 47:32 absolutely, absolutely. And she but, and she also got to the point where she can say, I don't have to keep doing that. I don't have to keep sacrificing myself for everybody else, right? I can, you know, I can self selfishly in quotes, in air quotes, right? I can selfishly go home earlier, at the end of the day, and actually take care of my body, because I'm about to have a baby, you know, yeah, it was so so yes and right? It's not about Yeah, it is yes. And not about like, this is awful and it's all bad. It's it is what it is. It made me who I am, and how do I want to choose to be to go forward with it?   Michael Hingson ** 48:07 I was very fortunate when I started in sales. I took a Dale Carnegie sales course. The company I was working for sent me to it, because either I went from the job I was doing for them into sales, or I had to leave the company, and I, at the time, didn't want to go look for another job, especially as a blind person, with an unemployment rate among employable blind people in the 70% range, that's a real challenge. So I went into sales and took this course. And I don't even know where it came from or when I first started doing it, but one of the things that I learned as I became a manager and started hiring people and working with people, was to say, you have skills. I have skills, and my job is not to boss you around. If I'm hiring you, I'm hiring you because you convinced me that you can do the job that I'm hiring you to do, but at the same time, what I need to do is to work with you to figure out how I can enhance what you do, because my job as your boss is to enhance what you do and to make you success, or help make you more successful. But we have to do that together now, the people who really got that were successful and, and we found that there are a lot of ways that we could blend our skills together. The people who didn't get it and didn't want to do it ended up not working for the company very long. Yeah, but it was because they weren't successful, they weren't able to sell and, and I know that I have some skills that a lot of other people don't have, but it's my life upbringing, and it's my environment that taught me those things. So that's fine. It isn't to say that other people couldn't get them, and a few people would ask me from time to time, how do you do that? And we talk. It, and they got better at it too, which is fine,   Lisa Kohn ** 50:02 yeah, yeah. I mean, that is, that's brilliant, right? But not every manager, not every leader gets that or knows that. So that's your role, is to enhance them, and your role is also to kind of block and tackle, right? What's getting in their way that you can what are the obstacles you can remove, what are the bridges you can build for them to go forward? But yeah, so often again, we get promoted. We get promoted for doing something well, and then we think everybody should do it our way. And it's a huge learning to realize you can do it your way, and as long as it's successful, that's great, as opposed to trying to force other people to do it my way. But I quote, I love tower Brock. Tower Brock's a mindfulness a teacher, and the quote I saw recently was, the world is divided between people who think they're right. Exactly yeah, right. We are going around thinking we're pretty right and what we're doing and yeah. So yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 50:56 The other part about that, and the approach that I took, was that I was always so amazed, impressed and pleased when I was able to work with people who, as I said, Got it how much I learned, and I learned some of their skills, which helped me do my job even better, and We had a lot of fun doing it. I   Lisa Kohn ** 51:23 my clients, yeah, my clients as I hope they think they learn from me, yeah, and have a lot of fun doing it exactly. People together can be it's just a generative, beautiful process when you let it be absolutely   Michael Hingson ** 51:37 Well, I think that it's, it's important to do that. And as I tell people, if I'm not learning at least as much on this podcast and all the things that I get to do and interacting with people, if I'm not learning at least as much as other people, then I'm not doing my job very well. It's fun to learn, and it's fun to be open to exploring new ideas. And I sit back at the end of the day and think about them, think about what I like and don't like, but I base that on everything that I've heard, not only from a particular guest on a particular day, but everyone. So it's it's such a fun learning experience, I can't complain a bit.   Lisa Kohn ** 52:18 Yeah, that's good. Yeah, life. Life can be, life can be truly joyful when you are open to learning and seeing new things. Absolutely true.   Michael Hingson ** 52:25 So what do you love most about being a leadership consultant and an executive coach, you clearly sound like you're having fun.   Lisa Kohn ** 52:32 I definitely have fun, and fun is hugely important. Um, you know When? When? When you see a difference in your clients, when they get something that they needed to get, or they understand, or they move ahead in a way that they hadn't, or when they're, you know, finally standing up for themselves, or finally taking time for themselves, or finally, you know, working better with it, like when they're finally doing those things they set out to do, it is it? Is it is such a gift, right? It is such a gift. And similarly, you know, when you when we're working within tech teams, and you see them connect in ways they haven't connected, or move organization forward, or the team forward, or we were just working with a we're working with one client where there's a department in this organization, and the three areas in the that department are kind of at war with each other. And when you can get them in a room where they can actually start, you know, hearing each other and listening to each other and finding ways to move together forward, it's an organization that does a heck of a lot of good in the world, so they're going to be more effective on what they're doing, even more good is going to be done in the world. So it's, it's very ratifying to be able to be someone who can, I'm told, I inspire people, but I support people. But it's, it's very it's such a gift to be able to give people something that helps them feel better and therefore live and lead better. So   Michael Hingson ** 54:02 yeah, and what? And when you see the results of that, when you actually see them putting into practice the kinds of things that you talk about, and maybe they take it in a different direction than you originally thought. But of course, seeds get planted, where they get planted, and so it's the ultimate results that really count. But by the same token, when you start to see that happening, that has to be a wonderful feeling to experience,   Lisa Kohn ** 54:30 hugely gratifying. And it's the concussion brain kicking in, because I know there's an example just recently where a client told me of a conversation they had or something that happened. And we have a we have a whole conversation about how you realized six months ago, when I first met you, you never would have done it in that way. You never would have shown up in the way. But I can't remember what it was, but it did happen recently, but it's my short term memory that's the most messed up right now, but we'll get there.   Michael Hingson ** 54:55 Well, yeah, as I said, You just never know about seeds. And I've I've told. The story a couple times on the podcast, when I was doing student teaching in at University High School in Irvine, and I was in the teaching program, teacher credentialing program at UC Irvine, I taught high school freshman algebra is one of the two courses I taught. And there was a young man in this course. His name was Marty. He was from the eighth grade, but was very bright, and so he was accelerated for this class and a couple of things to go to a high school algebra class. And we were in class one day, and he asked a question, and it was a very easy question, and I didn't know the answer. Now, mind you, I didn't have a concussed brain. I just didn't know the answer. And immediately I thought, don't try to blow smoke with this kid. Tell him you don't know. So I said, Marty, I gotta tell you I should know the answer. I don't, but I'm gonna go find out, and I will tell you tomorrow. Okay? And he said, Yeah. So the next day, I came into class, and one of the things I love to do as a student, teacher, well as a teacher in general, if we back in those days, we use chalkboards, since I don't write, well, I would always have one of the students come up and be the official writer for the day. Everyone wanted to be the teacher's writer on the board on any given day. Well, I I came in, and I decided, because he hadn't done it for a while, that I'd have Marty come up and write when we started class. And I said, Marty, I got the answer. And he said, I do too. I said, Great, you're the Blackboard writer of the day. Come up and show us. Well, he had it right, and I had it right. So that was a good thing. But 10 years later, Oh, well. So the next thing that happened is, right after class, my master teacher, Jerry Redman, came up, and he said, you know, you absolutely did it the right way. Don't ever try to blow smoke with these kids. They'll see through it every time. Well, 10 years later, we were my wife and I at the Orange County Fair, and this guy comes up, and in this deep voice, he goes, Mr. Hingson, do you remember me? Well, if you didn't sound at all like Marty, and I said, well, not sure. Who are you? Said, I'm Marty. I was in your class 10 years ago, and I remember the algebra thing, you know, you never know where seeds are going to be planted. But that stuck with him all these years. And I didn't, I didn't think about it other than I was glad that Jerry Redman told me I did it the right way, but it was so wonderful to hear that he remembered it. So if I had any effect on him, so much the better.   Lisa Kohn ** 57:32 Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.   Michael Hingson ** 57:35 So what did you learn from cancer? What did I learn from other than, chemo is a pain. Chemo   Lisa Kohn ** 57:41 is not fun. I learned. I learned to slow down even more, like that, that again, the the amount My brother used to call me the little engine that will, no matter what you know, and I've learned to, and maybe this does, doesn't sound positive to people, but to go slower, to be gentler, to do less, to lower, you know, the push that was still in me. I mean, push is good, but too much pushes, too much of anything, is not good. I learned to appreciate life even more, nothing like a cancer diagnosis to kind of make you do that li

In this episode of The Psychedelic Podcast, Paul F. Austin welcomes Dave Schoof, a master certified coach and international leadership consultant. Find full show notes and links here: https://thethirdwave.co/podcast/episode-272?ref=278 Dave shares his journey from working in intelligence to becoming a leadership coach, and how he eventually incorporated psychedelics into his practice. He discusses the power of integral theory in organizational development, the importance of emergence and unfolding in leadership, and how psychedelics can catalyze personal growth and leadership transformation. Dave also reflects on his experience in the Psychedelic Coaching Institute's Practitioner Training Program, and offers insights on the future of leadership in our complex world. Dave Schoof is an international leadership consultant specializing in helping leaders and teams build on their capabilities and move to the next level of performance and effectiveness. With over 25 years of experience across corporate, non-profit, and government sectors, Dave works with clients globally. He is a master-certified coach from the International Coach Federation and Integral Coaching Canada. Dave's background includes a 20-year career in the intelligence community. A long-time meditator, he enjoys finding practical ways to operationalize wisdom from various traditions into his work with leaders. Dave lives near Lausanne, Switzerland, where he enjoys hiking and photography. Highlights: Dave's journey to Switzerland Dave's background in intelligence and transition to leadership coaching The development and impact of integral theory How psychedelics found Dave and their potential for leadership development The importance of nervous system regulation and safety in psychedelic experiences Dave's transformative experience at the Brave Earth retreat The evolving landscape of psychedelic acceptance in leadership circles The need for a new paradigm of leadership in the face of global challenges Episode Links: Dave on LinkedIn The Psychedelic Coaching Institute's Practitioner Training Program    

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In this episode of The Love Cast with Jamal podcast, I have a profound conversation with Katherine Lazaruk about her work as an expert in presence, and her work as a conscious image consultant. Katherine also talks about how her body naturally healed from a significant lung tumor by getting into alignment with her core desires professionally. (It's an amazing story)     Katherine comes from a performance and education background with Bachelors' Degrees in Music and Education from the University of British Columbia. Before starting her business in 2007, she divided her time between singing in the opera, teaching music to primary school students and even did a stint in corporate training at one of the Big 5 accounting firms. Katherine holds certificates in Image Consulting and Advanced Image Consulting from the International Image Institute (Ontario, Canada), as well as her second level international designation (Certified Image Professional) with the Association of Image Consultants International (AICI) and two coaching certifications, Certified Leadership Coach (CLC) with Essential Impact and Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coach Federation. She helps professional women and men learn to walk, talk, act and look like leaders.

Welcome to the 81st Episode of the #100MasterCoaches Show. In this episode, Mel interviews Wai K. Leong, MCC from Malaysia. Wai K was the first Malaysian coach to receive his Master Certified Coach credential from the International Coach Federation in 2012. He brings with him over 30 years of leadership experience with 15 years at the senior management level of public-listed companies. His key focus is helping leaders in organizations enhance their leadership capabilities through coaching and skills training. He has authored 3 books on leadership and coaching, Empowering Asian Mindsets Through Coaching, Powerful Performance Coaching Tips & SHIFT- Masterful Coaching. As a learning specialist, his approach is based on adult learning principles and his clients describe his positivity and patience as his core strength, providing ample space for them to reflect, explore, and discover their strengths and capabilities. Want to become an ICF Certified and Credentialed Coach like Wai K? We invite you to begin your journey here at Catalyst Coach. www.catalystcoach.live.

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What does a beautiful life mean to you? In this podcast episode, Laurel Boivin interviews Jon Hand about his beautiful life and inner work journey. Their conversation covers the characteristics of a beautiful life, including selflessness, generosity, forgiveness, trust, curiosity, and investing in enduring things like relationships and self-awareness. They also discuss the importance of inner work in healing, self-discovery, and personal growth and share their personal experiences and commitment to inner work. 1:45 Laurel introduces Jon Hand. 4:43 Laurel invites Jon to share what he considers beautiful about his life or a beautiful life. 6:21 Jon shares what a beautiful life means to him. 12:09 Laurel and Jon talk about inner work. 13:40 Jon explains that the good, true, and beautiful are where we find the greatest joy, meaning, purpose, and satisfaction. 16:53 Jon talks about inviting healing and the hard work of facing yourself. 20:25 Laurel and Jon discuss hiding parts of yourself and doing the work to come out of hiding. 23:07 Jon explains the problem with hiding. 25:31 Jon shares the opportunities for awakening he experienced in his 30s. 33:35 Jon talks about gifts and the shadow side of gifts. 40:36 Jon shares the changes he's experienced since he began doing inner work. 46:52 Jon stresses the need for patience and deep compassion for yourself and the process while doing inner work. Host/Cohost/Guest Info Guiding others to become effective leaders of their own lives, Laurel Holland, has been on a journey of awakening and transformation throughout her life. Writing about inner work, Laurel has authored four books, including Crossroads and Love's 8 Laws. Her books, Live Your Inner Power, the Journal, and Courageous Woman, introduce, share, and explore the eight foundational practices for creating transformation from the inside out. Through her books, programs, and innovative talks, Laurel's great desire is to lift others up and courageously step into the life they came here to live. Laurel Boivin, life coach and founder of Flux+Flow Professional Coaching, helps high-performing professionals increase self-awareness and shift perspective to improve performance, increase personal contribution, and experience greater fulfillment and purpose. Laurel began coaching after a 30-year corporate career. A Reiki master and yoga practitioner, collector of sea glass and antiques, she lives in New Hampshire and summers in Maine. Jon Hand, PCC, MDiv, is a leadership coach, leadership development consultant, and entrepreneur. Over the past 25 years Jon has been in faith based, non-profit, and business leadership roles. Jon's specializes in a form of leadership development called Soul Coaching that guides leaders to deepen their soul and expand their skills. Jon specializes in the S.P.I.R.E (Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, Relational, Emotional) model of coaching to help leaders integrate 5 aspects of their being to transform how they live and lead. Jon takes leaders on a unique year-long Soul Coaching journey that blends neuroscience, leadership skills, relational and emotional intelligence, and soul formation to help leaders lead from their own transformation. Jon's vision is to develop thousands of non-anxiously wise, people-focused, risk-taking leaders who inspire greatness in the people they love and places they lead. Jon also runs Transformational Coaching, a leadership development school that trains leaders to integrate coaching skills and approaches into their leadership skillset. Jon is a PCC Level Coach and Mentor Coach / Trainer with the International Coach Federation. Visit https://www.transformationalcoaching.me/ to learn more about Jon and the work he does. Questions for Jon Hand can be sent to jon@transformationalcoaching.me. Send questions to Laurel Boivin at laurel@fluxflowcoaching.com and to Laurel Holland at laurel@liveyourinnerpower.com. The link to our private Facebook group is https//www.facebook.com/groups/beautifulworkbeautifullife.

A few months ago, I was invited to be a guest on a podcast hosted by my guest this time, Will Polston. I told Will at the time, of course, that I would be happy to appear, but that I also wanted to have him as a guest on Unstoppable Mindset. And here we are. Will started his career as a broker. Actually, he always wanted to make lots of money. As a child, long before he became a broker, he was living out his entrepreneur life selling things as a child. He was successful. He was successful as a broker as well, but he felt that something was missing in his life. It wasn't until he attended a Tony Robins event in England that he realized that there really was more to life than money. Will changed direction after the Robins event. For several years now Will has dedicated his life to helping others transform their lives. Will tells us all about his journey in this episode and along the way he offers good insights and thoughts about adopting a mindset that offers a better and less fearful existence. About the Guest: Will Polston is a best-selling author, entrepreneur and one of the UK's leading business strategists & performance coaches. Will works with ambitious people, rapidly transforming their lives by empowering them to solve their biggest challenges and holding them accountable on their journey towards their dream life. Wills achieved “traditional success” with a career as a broker, despite this he found himself feeling unfulfilled. It was only when a surprising turn of events led him to a personal development seminar, that he finally gained the clarity that deep down, his belief that “money equals happiness” was not true and what he really wanted to do was empower others to achieve their dreams. From that day onwards Will has dedicated his life to studying the art and science of behavioural change and performance coaching. Using a powerful combination of techniques across multiple disciplines, Will helps give people a unique insight into their behaviour, providing proven strategies that transform their lives. In 2023 Will's first book was released ‘North Star Thinking: Master Your Mindset and Live a Life You Love' and became a #1 Amazon best seller. As an entrepreneur himself, Will understands the struggles and challenges, highs and lows of being in business. His humble approach and unique coaching style puts everything on the table, making people feel comfortable digging deep into the depth of their vulnerabilities. Not only is he a Certified Master Coach, NLP Master Practitioner, Member of the International Coach Federation, and International Speaker but he's spoken at TEDx, blogged for The Huffington Post, been a finalist for ‘Coach of the Year' at the Association of Professional Coaches, Trainers, and Consultants, been awarded the prestigious ‘Expert Coach of Excellence' accreditation, been a finalist for ‘Best Business Enabler' at The National Entrepreneur Awards two years in a row and won the ‘Best Business Enabler' awards at the Business Champion Awards in 2023. Whatever you want to achieve in life or business, Will really understands what it takes to help you master your mindset and live a life you love. Ways to connect with Wallace: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/willpolston/ Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/will.polston Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/willpolstonmih/ Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/makeithappencommunity/ Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/WillPolstonMakeItHappen TEDx talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEHlSiFxmBI&t Website: willpolston.com Podcast: https://link.chtbl.com/mihwwp Book: http://northstarthinking.com/ About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Well, hi, wherever you happen to be, and welcome to unstoppable mindset. Today, we are going to have a chance to chat with someone that I met a little while ago, because he runs a podcast and invited me to come on, which we did, and it'll be out in the in a fairly short time. He is Will Polston, and will is a best selling author, an entrepreneur and a leading business strategist and coach in the United Kingdom. So we're really wow, that's a lot, a lot of things to live up to, so I got to be careful in what I say. But anyway, will welcome to unstoppable mindset. We're glad you're here.   Will Polston ** 02:07 Thank you for having me. I'm grateful to be here. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 02:12 I look forward to having a lot of fun. Why don't we start as I love to do? Why don't you tell me something about the early will, growing up and all that? Wow, the I know that that could take an hour, right?   Will Polston ** 02:25 We've got a long time. Yeah, something I've never said on a podcast, and I think this is really interesting, was that many years ago. So when I was a real when I was really young, I that we, there's a TV program that's over here called Fireman Sam, and I always wanted to be a finance when I was, like, four or five years old, I was forever dressed up in a fireman's outfit. Then I got a little bit older, and then I wanted to be an architect and and then I went on to be a paperboy. And I see why. I thought that was really interesting when I first realized that was because fireman was about fireman. It was about helping people. An architect was about designing things, and being a paperboy, was sharing information, and now I work as a coach. I think it's a combination of all those things. I help people design that design their life. I help them and I share information so but no, the that's kind of the that's something that was the case for me years ago. But there's an extended version, I suppose of what actually happened, which led me to to do what I do now, which, if you want me to share, I'm happy to, but,   Michael Hingson ** 03:25 Oh, you're welcome to.   Will Polston ** 03:27 So the short version is I grew up with a belief that money would happiness, and I went off on a tangent to make as much money as I could, as early as I could. And then it was and I become pretty good at that. And then it was 11 years ago I have what I call my lightning moment where I realized my real driver was nothing to do with money. Never really about money. It would too what to do with my dad and how my dad hadn't achieved certain things he was capable of, and the impact that had on him and my mum and me and my family, and I vowed I don't want anyone else to have to go through the pain that he went through, and we went through as a result, and from that moment on, I've just been obsessed with anything to do with human awareness, human potential, human potential and human behavior, to enable people to do exactly that, achieve what it is they're capable of, and benefit not only them, but their family, their friends, their community, society, humanity and the universe, which as a result of having an unstoppable   Michael Hingson ** 04:22 mindset, when you talk about the pain that he had, what what do you mean by that?   Will Polston ** 04:29 So the slightly more detailed version is my dad worked in London, and he hated his job, so he would get up at five o'clock in the morning, come home at seven, eight o'clock at night, and he'd bring the stress and frustration of work home with him. And I don't know if people listening to this can relate to this, but he had so much tension that when he would walk into the house, he could physically feel it. He was in it, okay? Head of it, head of it for a stock brokerage. And, yeah, that was a. And yeah, stressful for him back then, but I've always got two very wealthy uncles, one's a billionaire, one's a multi millionaire. And dad always used to say they just got lucky. That was his excuse. They got lucky. They got lucky. And what's interesting is, is even back then, I was at 1011, years old, I used to think that's all. I can't believe it's just luck. And even now, I don't believe in luck, but yeah, he used to say that. And one day I came home from school, and my dad had to quit his job to set up a business with one of my uncles. But that, long story short, that never got started. My dad fell into a depression, slept in a separate room. My mom curtain shut all day, didn't leave the house. All the stereotypical stuff, and what I observed as a 10 year old. 11 year old was there was Uncle Mark. He was a billionaire. He was really happy. My Uncle Steve, he was a multi millionaire. He was really happy. Then there was my dad, when he worked in London, all right, he was stressed and whatnot, but he had money. And there was now he had to work for months on end. He had no money and and that was what I witnessed. I witnessed the depression, the feelings of depression, the stress and all of that. That was the pain, essentially.   Michael Hingson ** 06:05 What? Why did he hate his job?   Will Polston ** 06:09 Well, I think it's, it's an interesting one, isn't it? What? Whether it was he hate where he hated it or not, whether he just didn't have the skills to handle the stress. So I think that for a lot of people, why is you can look at some one person doing one thing, and it's so easy for them and so difficult for somebody else, and they get stressed, yeah, yeah. I think it's having a skill set to be able to do what was required. Maybe it's that, but he likes computers. He's always liked computers, but maybe it was just not in the way we've been done.   Michael Hingson ** 06:51 Yeah, now, is he still with us? Yeah, is he working now or   Will Polston ** 06:58 he's working now? And yeah, he's, he's probably happier than he's ever been. I was gonna ask that, yeah, yeah, in a much better place.   Michael Hingson ** 07:05 What does he do now?   Will Polston ** 07:07 He's involved with architectural glazing, of all things. So he, he basically prints these stickers that go on windows that are required in construction, so that people don't walk into glass doors and whatnot.   Michael Hingson ** 07:24 Well, that won't help me, but that's okay. But well, you know, so obviously all that had an impact on you. And so what? What was it that finally made you realize that, well, one you didn't want to live that that kind of life, but that you really recognized that there's a whole lot more to life than than money, and there is something to be said for having peace of mind.   Will Polston ** 07:55 Well, what happened is, there's a chat that you may have heard of called Tony Robbins. He's from your side of the pond, and I was at one of his events, and he shared what's known as the Thanksgiving story, and it was like the perfect metaphor for my life. And it made me realize, wow, if, if that experience was able to shape that man that is in that man being Tony, to do everything he's done and the way he's helped people, then maybe that's, that's what it is for me too, you know, it's, it's that it's that catalyst to change and do things, and that was that moment.   Michael Hingson ** 08:30 So up until that time, what were you doing? So, yeah, I assume you went to college and so on.   Will Polston ** 08:36 No, not at all. No. I mean, I was just obsessed with making money, frankly, because we didn't have money, so I did anything that we could do to make money. So I was even when I was 1211, years old, I was buying stuff off the internet and selling it at school, and buying sweets and selling at school and and then i was running multiple paper rounds. And then I wanted to I was really when I was making lots of money as a teenager, I got quite into fashion, and I was buying clothes and whatnot. And then I decided, well, actually, what I want to do is own, my own designer clothes shop. So that was kind of what I thought I wanted to do. From about 14 years old, started working in a designer clothes shop, and this, this was sort of real high end designer clothes. And after a while, I thought, I mean, I own my own shop. And then I kind of had a moment where I realized actually that probably wouldn't be possible for me. I need to do something else. Now, a lot of the clientele of this shop basically fit into one of four categories. They were either professional footballers, property developers, stock brokers or drug dealers. So I just thought, right, well, I need to become one of them. I need to become one of them for what one can it be? And the first one I ruled out was being a professional footballer, because I'm rubbish at football. I'd play rugby all my life, but never football. The second one I ruled out was being a property developer because I didn't have loads of money to. Sell up properties, I was left with two options, become a stockbroker or or become a drug dealer. And to I would imagine, to my mother's delight, I didn't choose the drug dealer option, and I decided to start working in in financial services and and did that for many years. And what happened was, because at the time, my belief was money called happiness, the I was doing whatever I could to try and make more money. And that's where I stumbled across personal development. The more personal development I did, the more money I made. And that went on for some years, until I ended up at the Tony Robbins event. And that was when I had the, what I call my lightning moment,   Michael Hingson ** 10:41 what, what got you to go to the Tony Robbins event? Because that certainly is a whole lot different than the mindset that you clearly had been living with.   Will Polston ** 10:50 It was a friend, actually, a friend said to me, I'm thinking of going along to this event with this, this big American guy called Tony Robbins. Would you be up for coming? And I sort of checked him out, checked out few videos, and said, Sure, I'm up for that. That looks like that'll be looks like that'll be good.   Michael Hingson ** 11:07 And so you went, and the world changed,   Will Polston ** 11:11 yeah, and life was never the same again.   Michael Hingson ** 11:13 So what did you do?   Will Polston ** 11:17 Well, so this, this is where the story unfolds. So I did eventually leave the city and I set up a renewable energy business. So I set up that renewable energy business, we were growing rapidly. I mean, we went from a standing start to 85 staff within 18 months, growing, growing, growth, growing. I mean, government changed legislation, and it pretty much killed that business overnight. And it was when I was away on holiday. So I took the holiday with my ex girlfriend, girlfriend at the time, and just to have a bit of a break and work out what we were going to do next and what was going to happen. And it was when I was away on a holiday. It was a funny sort of event. So I'm a big believer that there are no coincidences, only for synchronicities. And my girlfriend, at the time, she was a dentist or dental nurse, should I say, and she's like, well, we're going to go on holiday. You need to go and get your teeth cleaned by the hygienist. So we went to the hygienist, and unfortunately, she clipped my gum with the tool that she was using, and it got infected two days before the holiday. She said, Well, I'm really sorry. You need to go on these particular antibiotics, and you're not going to be able to drink alcohol. Now I don't drink alcohol. Now I haven't drunk alcohol for coming up to probably six years. But back then, I was a big drinker. I was a big ginger drinker and and I was like, I can't believe you, I'm about to go to the land of tequila. We were going to Mexico, and I'm not going to I'm not going to be able to drink. This is crazy. So we ended up going on holiday, and I didn't drink, but we went to this, this, this night time entertainment venue called Coco bongos. And it's kind of like a cross between a circus, a West End Show and a musical, all mixed in together. There's midget sprying from the ceiling and drag ax and all sorts of stuff going on. And my girlfriend, at the time, was throwing back tequila like it was nobody's business anyway, early hours of the morning, I carry her over my shoulder, I put her to bed, and I wake up in the morning and she's got her head down the toilet and will. I can't go out in the pool, so I said, Well, look, my holiday, I haven't drunk a holiday. I'm definitely going to the pool. And I went to the pool with a book, and the book that I went with was a book called The Hero by Rhonda, Byrne. Anyway, I'm reading through the book, and it gets to a particular part of the book where Rhonda talks about a guy called masting Kip. Masting Kip used to have a like, maybe he still does have a website called the daily love and he used to post, uh, motivational quotes on Twitter every day. And one day he got retweeted by Kim Kardashian. And then he went from 1000 followers to 10,000 followers overnight. And I just started crying, because in that moment, what happened, Michael was I realized that I'd left London because I didn't want to chase the money I'd set up this year in your will and your business, and then all I was still doing was chasing the money. And the thing what I really wanted to do, the thing that was in my heart, was helping people in the form of coaching them and working with them in some capacity like that. And I kept saying, well, I'll do it when I'm successful. When I'm successful, I call it when men syndrome, you know, people get so caught up with when this happens, then I'll do that. And and I just decided what I need to do is just come home and start. And I can start by putting a motivational quote on Twitter every day and on social media. So I did. I started putting a motivational quote on Twitter and on Facebook and the platforms. I did one every day for a week. And I thought, will you idiot. Some people don't go on social media in the morning. You should put one in the afternoon as well. So I did that. A week after that, I set up my own website. A week after that, I wrote my first blog. Three months after that, I had 10,000 strong social media followings, so I. A very long winded way of sort of sharing how I then made that transition from leaving London and then ended up finally pursuing what it was that I wanted   Michael Hingson ** 15:08 to do. And how long ago was that? Nine years. Okay, so you you finally really got to the point where you didn't worry as much about money, which, which certainly was a challenge to get to, but, but you you thought about it and, and I guess one of the questions that I have is, what, what made you really think about the fact that money didn't need to be the only thing that drove you. Did you do a lot of introspection in your life at night? Or did you think about it? Or did did it just sort of happen? Or what   Will Polston ** 15:50 it was that it was the moment, it was the driver at the Tony Robbins event. So that lightning moment, as I referred to it, it just opened everything up. And I was like, No, my drive for money was actually linked to the fact that my dad didn't do certain things and we couldn't do certain things. So I thought, well, rather than me trying to just treat the symptom, which is just to pay for the things that dad couldn't sort for us, what about if he had been empowered? What if there'd been somebody that could have given him the mindset that he so that he could have done work that he loved. What if somebody gave him an abundance mindset so he didn't live in scarcity? What if there was somebody that could have been there for him so that he could have learned to handle his anger and it not impact the family in the way that it did? So everything that I do really now is kind of aimed at trying to help people that were once like my dad. What   Michael Hingson ** 16:47 happened along the way that caused you to really go into to coaching as such? What What made you think about that as what you wanted to do, as opposed to thinking about the fact that you're only successful if you make money, and that that spiral just wasn't going anywhere. Well, if I, if I make more, if I do this, then I'll be successful. And what? What caused you to really well, I guess the Tony Robbins thing caused you to change that. But what made you decide to go into coaching, and how does that equate with the idea of success that you had?   Will Polston ** 17:27 So in the moment, the Tony Robbins moment, I just instantly thought, No, my what I want to do is I want to I want to become the world's best life coach. That's what I said back then. But actually I then realized later on, I that that's what I said, but that's not what I meant. What I actually meant was that I just wanted to work with lots of people and lots of people and help them achieve their potential, so that that was what it was about. And I then saw, because I was literally standing in front of the guy, that, well, he's doing this. This is what he does for a living. So essentially, I modeled him and then I went on and trained in a whole array of different different mediums and modalities and and one of the things that I'd realized in my whole life that enabled me to have a sort of a decent amount of success, financial success, even at a young age as a teenager, was what I'd been doing my Whole life without knowing what it was called, was modeling other people. So I was essentially modeling Tony. I saw what he was doing. I saw that he could help he'd help me, and I wanted to look at doing things in a similar way. And that was what, yeah, what that came from.   Michael Hingson ** 18:38 And we've ever come to the conclusion, though, that ultimately you can model people only so much or so long, and that ultimately you have to to do what, what you do, and maybe then people will will, although that's not a desire, necessarily, but then people will model you   Will Polston ** 18:54 absolutely. Yeah, I believe that every single one of us on this planet, or 8 billion of us, or however many it is, have a completely unique fingerprint. Our fingerprints completely unique. But what also is that's completely unique to us as individuals is our own genius, and our own genius is derived from our values. And every single person the planet has a completely unique set of values, and they're unique in the sense that of the hierarchy that they're in. And it's it's from this when, when we live in alignment with our values, we operate from inspiration, versus when we operate from somebody else's values, we operate and we require motivation. And one of the ways that I'll know if people are living their values with somebody else's from the language they're using, so if they use, using. So if they're using language like I need to, I ought to. I should. I have to. It's an indication they live in somebody else's values. When they're saying things that I love to, I desire, I choose to, they're living their own values. And if you take the word inspiration, inspiration in spirit, what's another word for spirit? Energy? You're in your energy, and a lot of people think they burn out because they're working too hard. They don't they burn out because they're living somebody else's values. And that's now what I do myself, and what I help people do is identify what is their own unique hierarchy of values so they can live that and turn that into a mission that then becomes what I call their North Star, that they live and work towards every single day, that enables them to wake up every day and feel more fulfilled and grow and contribute in the areas that are most meaningful to them.   Michael Hingson ** 20:34 So you are. You have written a book. I have indeed, if you would tell us about that   Will Polston ** 20:41 absolutely, always   Michael Hingson ** 20:42 good to write a book. I say   Will Polston ** 20:45 the book's called North Star thinking, master your mindset and live a life you love.   Michael Hingson ** 20:52 Wow. What a title. Thank you. And so is it? Is it published? Is it out? It's   Will Polston ** 21:00 out. It's out. It's available. We get it in on Amazon and Waterstones, Barnes and Noble. It's on Audible as well, so it can be listened to on Spotify Premium, yeah, so pretty much anywhere where you you would normally get your books.   Michael Hingson ** 21:18 So what? How long has it been out?   Will Polston ** 21:21 It came out last year. Okay,   Michael Hingson ** 21:24 so what was the inspiration for writing it? What? What caused you to decide that you wanted to write a book to share your knowledge that way? Well,   Will Polston ** 21:33 there's a there's a few things, I suppose. One of them was, it was a book that I read that that was the, the first personal development book that I ever read, which was such a great catalyst for me, and I thought, well, there's a lot of stuff that I've done, and there's one of the things Michael that I've tried to do over the years is I've learned and consumed a huge amount of different resources and modalities, and I've got my own spin on things. One of the things that I try and do is take complex stuff and simplify it. So I took a range of different things, and there's four main pillars to the book. So Northside thinking is about essentially getting people to have a mission in life. That's the equivalent of trying to empty the sea with a spoon. It's a mission in life that you continue to work towards, that you're fulfilled, that fulfills you every single day you're working towards it, but the essence of the book is sort of North Star thinking, which is all around goal, setting and purpose. Then it's around master your time, which is around essentially well time. Then there's cultivating an attitude of gratitude and evolving your thinking, so using your thinking to gain different perspectives and the smart way to do that, and then finally, habit creation. So they're the four main pillars of the book, and I think that the most people, if they can nail those four things, they've got the clarity of where they're going. They're taking the intelligent action in the sense that they are mastering their time. They're evolving their thinking, and they're doing things not just in terms of action, actual external action, but internal action. And then finally, they're creating the habits that create the lasting change then then that puts a lot of people in good split.   Michael Hingson ** 23:14 Why do you call it North Star thinking?   Will Polston ** 23:17 Well, there's a famous story you've probably heard of. It involves a baby born in a stable a couple of 1000 years ago, and there were three men, supposedly wise, all carrying presents. And they they followed the North Star, and they followed the North Star, and they found this baby. Now, when I was reflecting on that story, I thought, well, that's really interesting. They never actually went to the North Star, or at least they didn't in the story that I heard. And it dawned on me that these the in their story, they use the North Star they got to their goal. But so many people in life, what happens is they they fall into what I call when, then syndrome, as I mentioned before, which is they set their sights on a goal, they achieve the goal, and then they just set another goal, and then they might achieve that goal, and then they achieve that. So they set another goal and they achieve that. And after they've done that four or five times, if they're short term goals, they find themselves actually becoming really quite unfulfilled. Like, wow, they keep doing all these short term goals, and I'm just unfulfilled. It's because they're generally attached a feeling of happiness or fulfillment or accomplishment to having got the goal. But the problem is, is that whenever you set a goal, if you've got that way of thinking all the time that the goal hasn't been achieved, then you're perceived to you're perceiving that you're not where you want to be, as opposed to so you so most people are focusing on the gap rather than the gain of the progress that they're making. So this way, it enables people to over, sort of stop that way of short term thinking. I think of it like a pinball, you know, they're from one side of the table to the left, never really progressing forward. And then they can just, they can. Focus on this overarching piece, and it enables people to become a lot more fulfilled and energized and accomplished as a result.   Michael Hingson ** 25:09 Well, yeah, and you know, there, there is nothing wrong with setting goals and achieving a goal and going on. But you also kind of have to look at the overall Where do you want to, where do you want to end up at some point? And maybe you don't, what do you what do you think about that? Do you really want to have an ultimate goal? And you short goals to get there, or is that going too far?   Will Polston ** 25:35 Absolutely. That's the whole part of the process. So I call that a component the North Star trajectory. So we start with where we are. We create the ultimate goal. That's the guiding light, and then we just reverse engineer that 10, year five, year 20. Year 10, year five, year three, year one, year 90, day 30 day we break the whole thing down. But of course, if you can imagine it, it's it's far wiser. If you're here now and the North Stars directly in front of you, it's far wiser to go in a dead straight line? Now, look, I'm a realist. It's never a dead straight line. But if you jump in an aircraft to fly from London to New York or from New York to London, the pilot knows where he's going. He's going to set a trajectory. Now, sure, he may have to alter because of the wind, the weather, the flock of birds, or whatever it is that's coming towards them, but they're still going to follow that trajectory. Rather than go, Hey, we're just going to take off south of London, and then we're just going to kind of make it up as we go along. That's not going to be very good in terms of fuel efficiency. It's going to take far longer to get there. It can actually be lot more dangerous, because you might end up being somewhere where you run out of fuel, or run out of energy and you can't carry on. So it's far wiser to do exactly what you've said, which is kind of know where you're going long term, but then break that down so you've got the milestones to work towards.   Michael Hingson ** 26:53 You talk about aligning your decisions with values and purpose. I'm assuming you do that in the book. And what, what does alvat really mean when you talk about aligning your your decisions? I'm assuming in part, that that means that you do have values. You do have the things that you are made up from, and you really need to make your decisions go along with those, or you change your values and purpose? Yeah,   Will Polston ** 27:27 yeah, absolutely. So it's about congruence. You know, it's about congruence. So for example, if somebody's goal is, I'm just going to use a very apt one at this time of year, if somebody's goal is that they want to lose weight, and they want to lose weight and they want to get fitter, then a decision and action in terms of what they want to eat, if that's their goal and that's what they really want, then it's probably not going to be best that they have McDonald's breakfast for breakfast, they have Burger King for lunch and and Domino's pizza for dinner, that making those food decisions would be, one would argue, would be incongruent with somebody's health and fitness goals if they were to eat lat every day, if their goal is that they want to lose weight body fat and get fitter over The course of a four to six week period,   Michael Hingson ** 28:23 I was watching something on the news. I think just last week over here, we have Costco. Do you have Costco in London? We do, yeah. And somebody went into Costco and spent a whole week only eating Costco hot dog meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and actually lost a little bit of weight, but he only did it for a week. Was inexpensive, but yeah, I gotta believe that that's not something I would want to do. Yeah, for sure, there is something to be said for trying to align your eating habits with giving you the maximum amount of energy and eating healthy. But people do strange things sometimes, you know, it got him on the news. So, whatever. Well, well, what about you know, you so your idea of success has changed over time. What do you define success as today? What does it mean to be successful?   Will Polston ** 29:18 Well, it's a really great question, and I've even contemplated even changing that in recent weeks, because so I will say that for me, my definition of success is people being doing and having what they desire. You know that for me, and of course, success is subjective, so people being doing and having what they desire is completely unique to them. But then I was re listening to something called The Strangest Secret by old Nightingale a couple of weeks ago. I've listened to it many, many times before, but it shared his definition of success, which I really, really like, which is success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal, and that that I really like, and I think it's very aligned. With the whole concept of more Star thinking, because if somebody is, somebody is a success because they're doing the work. So rather than having the end part, which is the having in be do and have they are doing the work. And I really like that, because when we're when we're taking on work, whatever that might be, whether it's health goals, relationship goals, business goals, financial goals, is that compounding can can often have a big impact. Now, Albert Einstein called compounding the eighth wonder of the world, and there's a huge amount of work that has to go into building the foundation. You look at houses that get built, you know, if you've got a new house that's being built for six months, there might look like it's just a building site, but there's all of the infrastructure that's going in, the sewage and the the water pipes and all those things. And then one day, all of a sudden, almost out of nowhere, you're going six months, nine months of it looking like a building site, look like they're not doing anything, and then the space of, like, three days, three weeks, a whole house has been built. Well, it all been happening the whole time, but it just looked slower, and then you only see the end goal part, and that, that's the thing, I think, is really important. There's so many people in today's day and age due to, I guess, social media having an impact, and so many of us want an instant gratification is that they get frustrated with the process, and it's so it's easier now than ever to compare your Chapter Two to somebody else's chapter 20, and that's what happens so often.   Michael Hingson ** 31:37 Yeah, and it's so interesting to hear people talk about success, and to just ask people about it, and they talk about, well, I gotta make a lot of money. I've got to be independently wealthy, and things like that. And I admit some of that would be nice, but it's not the ultimate thing that's going to make me happy, at least, I think, for me, and I think about the things that you've been saying for the last half hour, I grew up wanting to teach, and I always thought I wanted to be a teacher, and then along the way, I got very interested in science, so I wanted to be a physics teacher. Well, as things settled down and progressed, I ended up not being a physics teacher. But I do believe that in a lot of ways, there's no question that, that I get the opportunity to teach as a salesperson. For many years, I learned from the Dale Carnegie sales course that the best salespeople are really counselors. They're teachers. They guide people to look at products. And I'm not above telling somebody that a product I'm selling may not fit their specific need, but if I'm honest enough to do that, I believe that comes back to affect me in a very positive way. And there are several instances where I and my staff would tell people our product isn't going to work for you, but then later we get a call from the company saying, you know, we really like what you had to say. We've got another project, and we really appreciate all you taught us. We know your product will work. Just give us price, and we'll order it right today. I'm not sure that'll happen today in the world where we're so stuck in doing things by committee, but it works 20 years ago, 25 years ago?   Will Polston ** 33:23 Yeah, yeah. I think there's, there's a there's a lot to be said. I mean, sales, when I think, let's face it, sales, there's nothing that's ever really been accomplished at great scale without salespeople. And yeah, salespeople get a bad rap in a lot of instances, but if they've got integrity, then then they can do a lot of good for a lot of people.   Michael Hingson ** 33:51 Yeah, well, there is the other side of it, and sometimes salespeople deserve a bad rap for what they do and they don't really understand the true science and art that sales is and what it gives you the opportunity to do. But when, when it's done well, and it's done right, it really will make, and does make a big difference in the lives of so many people, because you provide what it is that somebody needs. And you know, you do that, and that's a wonderful tribute to accomplishment, which is also part of success. Yeah, you get paid and all that, and that's great, but there's a whole lot more to it than just money. Yeah, for sure, I do like money. I think there's a lot of merit to having that. That's okay. But by the same token, it's not the only thing in the world, but it's part of what we have to deal with. So you talk about resilience, tell me a little bit more about your thoughts about resilience, and how that plays into the book and and how it plays into you and your life. So   Will Polston ** 34:57 I have a an. An interesting stance on resilience. So first of all, I think that anybody that has an ability to go through tough times, when, when they when they have to resilience is a phenomenal attribute to have. I really, really do. My concern that I see now is that people are aware of resilience, almost like a badge. And it's a bit like, busy, you know, people were busy like a badge. I'm so busy, like thinking it's a good thing. They're proud of it. Or I'm so resilient, you know, I've handled this and this and this, and it's the whole like, what would you rather? Would you rather work smarter? Would you rather work hard? Would you rather not have to be resilient because you were wise enough to overcome the challenge before it happened? Now knowing me wrong, having certain skill sets to be resilient is so important. I've had some really challenging times in my life, but I'm a big believer that if something is chronically happening, so it's happening and over and over and over again, and you're constantly having to find yourself being resilient if it's the same problem showing up, then let's just treat the cause so the symptoms go so you don't have to be resilient in if it's if it's the same problem coming up over and over again. But yeah, look, I think resilience is a combination of a mindset. I also think it's a combination of a skill set that enables people to deal with various things. And a huge amount of that mindset is down to perspective, whether somebody believes that something is happening to them, either the victim, or whether they believe it's happening for them. And I think that the moment you change your perspective on life, that this life isn't happening to me. It's happening for me, and it's not in the way, it's on the way that can completely alter your life by having that perspective, and in the same way that the moment you change your I've got twos to I get to life changes. It does. There are people, there are people today that haven't had the privilege of experiencing today because they didn't wake up this morning. Yet. There's still people that have woken up and went, Oh, I've got to go to work today. Oh, I've got to do this. But there are people that would have done anything to have had today to be able to do that. And I think sometimes we all get can get carried away with, with not, not sort of maximizing the things that we can get grateful for, especially the privileges that we have on a daily basis. I   Michael Hingson ** 37:37 have had jobs in my life that I didn't really like for one reason or another, and when things got to the point where it seemed like it was intolerable, then I had to make some choices and decisions about whether to stay or go find another job, which could be difficult for blind people, especially because the unemployment rate is so high, because People think we can't work, but I would very have been very blessed to be able to find jobs, but I think that's in part because my choice was to live life and get to live life and not have to live life, which is what you're saying. And so when there got to be enough of a challenge, then my job was to go deal with it. And I think that's part of the whole issue of resilience. We really get ourselves locked into a mindset so much as a as a people, that we don't look for options, we don't look for opportunities, and sometimes we don't look for the good parts of a job that we have.   Will Polston ** 38:44 Yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely.   Michael Hingson ** 38:46 And that's that's also part of what we have to do. And I think that we all can make life better for ourselves. I remember after September 11 and everything that happened that day, within a very short time, like just a few days, we were getting a lot of requests for interviews, and my wife and I talked about it, and she said, Do you really want to do these interviews? And I said, here's my thought, if I can help people move on from September 11, if I can teach people about blindness and guide dogs, and if I can help people see, maybe things in a different sense, then maybe it's worth doing. And we agreed, and it had to be both of us agreeing that we would do that. And then people started calling and saying, Would you come and talk to us? And as I love to tell people, I made the decision that selling computer hardware wasn't nearly as much fun and wasn't as rewarding as selling life and philosophy. And I and I think that now, what 22 and a half years later, I still believe that, I think that it's so very important that we, we. Look at outlooks, and I've I've learned a lot. I've got to the opportunity with this podcast to learn so much in talking to people. It's such a blessing to hear from so many people and be able to synthesize all the things that they say. It's really a lot of fun. Yeah, absolutely you know that firsthand. Absolutely I do. Indeed. I'm sorry I   Will Polston ** 40:23 do indeed. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 40:25 Tell me your thoughts about self respect, reflection and introspection and so on. You know, from my perspective, I think it's important that we take time every day to do that. Tell me what your thoughts are about that   Will Polston ** 40:38 I can. Couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more. I have a practice that I use on a daily basis, and old journal. So old journal what time I wake up, I'll journal how I feel when I wake up, and anything obvious that I might think of why I feel that way. So if I've woken up like a really groggy it's like, Well, it's because you went to bed late last night, or you'd eaten loads of sugar, or whatever it might be. Then I'll write out 10 things I'm grateful for, and what I do when I'm doing the 10 things I'm grateful I actually think of the previous 24 hours, and I look from a couple of each of these areas. So I think of the people that I'm grateful for, and I think of the experiences that I had. Then I think of my belongings. What belongings am I grateful for? Example, my I'm grateful for my laptop because it enabled me to do this interview with you, Michael, as an example. Then I think of the these. These are the two areas are the big ones, which is expectations and privileges. So what my expectations? Well, I had an expectation that the internet was going to work today for me to be able to do this interview, but I'm glad that it worked a privilege that I've got, a privilege that I've got today. Right now, as I sit in this house, it's warm, you know, I've got heating. I'm privileged. There are people right now that are sleeping out on the streets. There are people that have not got heating. So, yeah, there's a whole array of different things that I look at and reflect on daily basis to keep me focused on what's going well. Because no matter what's going on in my day, no matter how bad it is, there are always at least 10 things that I can find to be able to count my blessings, that count my blessings and where focus goes, energy flows. So I'm constantly giving myself the reinforcement that there's some great stuff going on to keep me in a great state and keep that level of perspective. So   Michael Hingson ** 42:29 you know, you you bring up things like the fact that there are people in the world who are cold, who don't have a lot of heat, and so on, but you also know that you alone aren't going to solve all those problems, and but I assume that you think about it and it kind of kind of weighs on you. How do you how do you really address that, because you can't solve everybody's problems? What? What do you do without sounding cold, if you will, or unfeeling, to deal with that?   Will Polston ** 43:01 Um, there's, there's a great story. And it was a man who was walking along a beach. I'm going to paraphrase it slightly, but he was walking along a beach, and as he was walking down the beach, he saw a small there was, he saw a small boy, and as he got closer, he saw the small boy was was throwing starfish back into the sea, and there were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of these starfish all washed up on the ocean. And the man said to the little boy, what are you doing? He said, Well, I'm throwing the starfish back in the sea. Said, there's so many of them, you can't make a difference. And he picked up another starfish and he threw it into the scene. Said, Well, I made a difference to that one. And I think that people in general are doing the best they can with the resources they have. And yeah, sure, there's lots of things I would love to be able to do more of, but when I sit back and I reflect at the end of the day, did I do the best I could with the resources I had? And if I can honestly answer yes to that, then I'm okay with that.   Michael Hingson ** 44:09 And that's the real key. Is that, are you doing the best that you can do? And if you think about that every day, and then you think about, what else can I do to make the best better, if anything. And you can either say, Well, I can do this, or I really am doing the best that I can do. That's as good as it gets. But the key is to really look at it and to think about it and to consciously make that decision, which is something that all too often we just don't do. Collectively, we don't really take that step back, or too many of us don't, don't take that step back. How do we teach people to be more introspective in their lives? A   Will Polston ** 44:50 daily reflection exercise, I think, is a good one. Just even asking that question, Did I do the best I can with the resources I had today? And. And I also think, I mean, this is, this is really getting on my soapbox, is that I think a huge part of this comes down to how we've been conditioned from schooling, because we are graded in school on achievement, not effort. So for example, if you had an a star student that gets a B because they didn't put any effort in. But then you have a D grade student who does everything they can, and they get to they may get a D. Why is the person that got a B still classes better? Quote, unquote. So I think that if we condition people on effort, and we train people and educated people on the effort that they put in, then even asking that simple question, did I do everything I could? Was there any more that I possibly could have done? If the answer is yes, then great, do that thing. If the answer is no, then great, be at peace with whatever the outcome is. And   Michael Hingson ** 45:56 that's really it. And we each have to answer that for ourselves. I love to say, I used to say I'm my own worst critic when I always love to talk about the fact that when I give a speech, I record it and I go listen to it. And I used to say, I do that because I'm my own worst critic. And I realized last year, actually wrong way to put it, wrong way to think about it. And I've realized that the best thing for me to say is I'm my own best teacher, because ultimately, only I can teach me to do stuff, but it's so much more positive. And it also makes it a lot easier to go listen to the speeches and so on that I record, because I know that if there's something to learn, I'll pick it up. Absolutely,   Will Polston ** 46:36 yeah, for sure. And also, I would argue that a critique generally is going to look at the what the negative stuff is, but a teacher is going to acknowledge the things that work well and the things that could be improved. So that's that subtle nuance can make such a difference.   Michael Hingson ** 46:54 Yeah, we often just talk about failure, and I, I'm not of the opinion that failure is a good word anyway, I do think that failure is an opportunity to do better. Alright, so it didn't go right today. Why? And what do we do to address it in the future? Not it's a failure. I screwed up, and that's all there is to it. Yeah. Does that make sense?   Will Polston ** 47:20 Yeah? Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah. Failure definitely is. Well, the biggest thing with failure is that people make it an identity, don't they rather, okay, yeah, I failed. It didn't work out. What I've learned and, and, but people, they found, they go, Well, I have that failure with too much powerful words the English language I am yet, what I think people are better to do is sort of think more like a scientist. Because what a scientist do? They do experiments and they go, right, well, I've experimented with this. I don't go, Oh no, my experiment failed. They go, Oh, that's interesting. That one didn't work. Let's try this this time. Yeah, so if we took more of a scientific approach and it was everything as an experiment, then we would look at it in a very different line.   Michael Hingson ** 48:08 And the experiment didn't necessarily fail. It well, it didn't fail. It really is an issue of what went wrong in terms of what were my assumptions? What do I need to change? Absolutely,   Will Polston ** 48:21 it's the whole famous Thomas Edison quote, isn't it? I I've never failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that didn't work, or whatever, whatever it is,   Michael Hingson ** 48:30 right? You were talking before about how people just always do the same thing over and over again, which goes back to Einstein's, if we believe that definition of insanity, which is you expect something different, even though you do the same thing every time. Yeah, and it just isn't that way. We have to hold more than anything else, it seems to me, we have to hold ourselves accountable for what we do, and we should always deal with accountability. I've been a great believer in teamwork, and even in a team where you have a number of people, it's the greatest value if the team members feel empowered to be able to hold each other accountable for whatever their commitments are, whatever they contribute to the team. There's nothing wrong with accountability. Yeah, absolutely, yeah and and especially within ourselves, we need to hold ourselves accountable to ourselves, and we need to define that and think about it so that we do the right things to improve.   49:36 Completely agree.   Michael Hingson ** 49:39 So how have you approached, especially since you started being an entrepreneur and a coach and so on. How do you approach the whole idea of goal setting and what people should do for creating goals?   Will Polston ** 49:50 So I believe that the most effective thing that people can do is they create their North Star, which is identifying this mission in life. That's the equivalent of from empty the spoon is the one. Thing they drive towards, strive towards, every single day. Then they reverse engineer it so 20, year 10, year five, year three, year one, year 90, day 30, day goals. So then they've got that full milestone that, for me, is what I found to be the most effective way of doing it that gives people clarity and confidence and what it is that they're working towards.   Michael Hingson ** 50:22 Well, yeah, goal setting is such a ubiquitous, ambiguous thing sometimes, well, I gotta set different goals. Well, really, what does that really mean? And all too often, again, we really don't understand what the nature of goal setting is about, and it is   Will Polston ** 50:44 go ahead. I can say, ultimately, any goal that anyone ever sets is to do one thing, change the way they feel. That's it. Ultimately, any goal is about people wanting to change the way they feel. Now, what's great is that you have an ability to really do that in any given moment. But that's the first thing. The second thing was that one of the most amazing things about setting goals, well, set goals is the person you become as a result of working towards it.   Michael Hingson ** 51:23 Interesting way to put it, and i i By that, I accept that, because ultimately, when you set a goal and you achieve it, there, there are feelings that go along with it. There are things that affect you, and that's the way it should be. How about self limiting beliefs? We all often limit our own selves because we think we can't do something or that this is impossible to do. But you know, self limiting beliefs, it seems to me, is is a whole concept that we need to to address and change our own thinking about because it is, it is what limits us, it is what holds us back all too often, absolutely,   Will Polston ** 52:09 yeah, um, well, first of all, a belief is just a feeling of certainty about what something means. And if you take the word belief, you know there's another big word that sits inside it, which is lie, and most beliefs are liars. And what's happened is that people have created the reinforcement to a belief which is their their way, their their evidence, if you like, of why that belief is so. And what it sometimes takes is a different perspective to see that that isn't the case. So the way that we do that is by introducing doubt. And that's the beauty of working with a coach when you've got these beliefs. Because some people don't even realize that they're limiting them. They don't see it. They physically can't see it in the same way that, I think of like the fish doesn't see the water. They're just in the water. And it's the same when it when it comes to these things. So you can't see the whole picture when you're in the frame. And one of the the key metrics of identifying well, have I got limiting beliefs and whatnot? Is a from Yes, the language you use. But also, are we actually achieving what it is that we want to be achieving, what it is that we want to be working towards? So if we're not, and we're coming up with all the reasons or excuses as to why that isn't done, then that's a way of uncovering what some of those limiting beliefs are as well.   Michael Hingson ** 53:29 Yeah, and I had never actually heard that, but I love it. Belief has lie in it, and that makes a lot of sense. And we we need to always examine our beliefs and our perceptions. I know I talk a lot to various people about blindness, and the society we live in has such limiting beliefs about what a blind person can and can't do, and that results, in large part, to the unemployment rate of between 65 and 70% of employable blind people in this country because not that they are not able to or that they're unable to do things, but people think they are. And so we never get the opportunity when we have to ourselves push through that. And it does start with us to recognize all right, so I don't see, but the problem is that sighted people do see, and then there are a lot of challenges with eyesight. But you know, the the bottom line is that we we shouldn't buy into the beliefs that that tend to try to limit us. Either,   Will Polston ** 54:40 absolutely not   Michael Hingson ** 54:42 you. You talk about gratitude, and I think that's an extremely important thing. I believe we all ought to be a whole lot more grateful and live a life of gratitude. Tell me more about that.   Will Polston ** 54:55 Yeah. So for me, gratitude is something that most of us have been brought. Up, and when you think of the word, what's the word gratitude that people associate most of the time, well, they're going to say thank you. You know, you guys on the other side of the pond, you of course, have Thanksgiving every year, an opportunity to give thanks. But where most people get gratitude wrong is they only ever think about being grateful for what's going well, they don't find the blessings when things aren't going so obviously, the famous Yin Yang symbol. So you got the little black.in the white side and the white.in the black side. And it's about creating balance and seeing that in any given moment no matter what's happening. It's perfect, but it's having an ability to see the divine perfection in any given moment, no matter how bad we may perceive it in the initial stages. And that's the part where gratitude really becomes powerful, because most people, they live in a state of either moving away from something out of desperation or moving towards something in sorts of pain or pleasure. You know, it's that's kind of how they're operating. And both of those are essentially lower forms of lower level living. Essentially you're moving pain and pleasure. Pain and Pleasure is born out of the amygdala, the reptilian part of the brain, whereas what we can do is we can use our higher level thinking. We can use our prefrontal cortex, which is the thinking part of the brain, where we can create perspective, where we can choose to see a different side, and that can bring us back into balance. And that's that's really where, that's really where we can find gratitude. In fact, there's a part of the brain called the corpus callosum. It sits in between the left and right hand it right and left hand hemispheres of the brain, and what they do is they balance out the brain the left and right hand hemispheres. Now the when it's doing that, and it's creating that balance in the brain, it's it's creating equilibrium. And the Latin translation of Corpus Callison means human tough, and that's what gratitude does. It enables you to become a tough human when you can see the good and the bad and the bad and the good. Because let's face it, nothing is good and nothing is bad. Nothing is hot, nothing is cold, nothing is positive and nothing is negative. It's all a matter of perspective, and when we can choose to see that, we can completely alter how we feel about any situation, no matter how bad.   Michael Hingson ** 57:32 What do you teach people about dealing with fear? Fear is something that's all around us, and everybody talks so much about being afraid, and I know a lot of that has to do with not stepping out of or stepping out of your comfort zone and being afraid to do it. But tell me a little bit about fear and your thoughts about that.   Will Polston ** 57:51 Yeah, look, let's face it, fear is there to serve a purpose, and I don't think fear is all bad. You know, so many people put fear in this category is, oh, you should never be fear. You should net. You should be completely fearless, and whatever, sometimes fear is there to serve us. You know, otherwise we would have it, would have we would evolved out of it, and we haven't, because fear is basically what's kept the human race alive for however many 1000s of years. So I don't think fear is all bad, but I do think we're wise to question it from time to time. And there will be times when we are fearing things because we again, we're in our amygdala. We're not using the rational part of the brain to think. And that that a lot of that can come down to people getting caught up in the possibility of something. So I talk about the distinction between possibility and probability. And a lot of people might get fearful, because they fear something that could possibly happen. Well, yeah, it might possibly happen, but there's a big difference between the possibility of it happening the probability of it happening and and when you make that distinction, you open them, you open your mind up to be able to look at other things. And   Michael Hingson ** 59:06 usually what we're afraid of that might happen doesn't, and when it doesn't, and that's the big problem, is that we create a lot of our own fears. And the fact is, I think we can learn to control fear and use fear in the very positive sense that you just talked about, because all too often we just let fear, as I put it, blind us or paralyze us, and we can't decide we can't move forward. But the reality is, we can learn to move forward and use that fear in a very positive way, if we would absolutely so it's it is part of the challenge that we face. But I believe that the fear is something that that God gave us, that we need to learn to use and not fear, which goes back to Franklin Roosevelt. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. What a very profound statement i.   Will Polston ** 1:00:00 Yeah, absolutely.   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:01 Well, I want to thank you for being here. We've been doing this an hour. Can you believe   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:05 it? Wow, time flies when you're having fun. I know this   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:09 has been great, and I really appreciate you being here with us. And I want to thank you for it all. Um, if people want to reach out and contact you and maybe use your coaching services and so one, how do they do that?   Will Polston ** 1:00:23 I mean, if you Google me or look on social media anywhere, Will Polston, that's, that's kind of the best place. You know, on Google or social media anywhere, feel free, please, please do reach out if you found this. Because   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:32 Will Palston, Will Polston is spelled   Will Polston ** 1:00:36 W,

Today on The Egg Whisperer Show, I'm delighted to be joined by Rosanne Austin.  She is the author of two best selling books: "Am I the Reason I'm not Getting Pregnant?," and "Are We the Reason We're Not Getting Pregnant?". She is the creator of "The Fearlessly Fertile" method which has helped thousands of women become pregnant. She's also a certified coach through the International Coach Federation, and member of the California State Bar. She was a fertility patient before she became a coach, going through 7 years of treatment before giving birth to her son at age 43. We are going to talk about what it means to become "Fearlessly Fertile," which is also the name of her podcast. We are diving into the mind-body connection, how it works, and how fertility patients can change their mindset. Plus, she is sharing three steps to reduce stress while you are on your fertility journey. Thank you for joining me, Rosanne! You can find Rosanne's website here: https://www.frommaybetobaby.com/ Listen on Dr. Aimee's website. Do you have questions about IVF?Click here to join Dr. Aimee for The IVF Class. The next live class call is on Monday, October 16, 2024 at 4pm PST, where Dr. Aimee will explain IVF and there will be time to ask her your questions live on Zoom. Checkout the podcast Subscribe to the newsletter to get updates Dr. Aimee Eyvazzadeh is one of America's most well known fertility doctors. Her success rate at baby-making is what gives future parents hope when all hope is lost. She pioneered the TUSHY Method and BALLS Method to decrease your time to pregnancy. Learn more about the TUSHY Method and find a wealth of fertility resources at www.draimee.org.

On today's episode of The Wholesome Fertility Podcast, I welcome back Rosanne Austin @rosanneaustinfertility. Rosanne has been on my podcast before, so if you want to hear her backstory, you can check out our first conversation on Episode 216. In our conversation, Rosanne shared her Fearlessly Fertile Live World Tour and her upcoming book, The Feminine Fertility Cure. She shares her motivation for going on the tour and the impact it has had on women. Rosanne explains the importance of reconnecting with femininity for fertility and discusses the historical context of the masculinization of women.Her book aims to educate women about the masculine and feminine energies and how they relate to fertility. The conversation explores the paradigm of progress and success that has been ingrained in society, emphasizing the importance of education, financial independence, and career achievements. It discusses how this paradigm has influenced women's choices and perceptions of femininity. The conversation also highlights the need for women to reconnect with their feminine nature and desires, and how this can positively impact fertility. It addresses the societal pressure on women to conform to a masculine ideal and the negative impact it has had on women's happiness and fertility rates. Rosanne shares practical steps for women to tap into their feminine power and improve their fertility.     Takeaways The Fearlessly Fertile Live World Tour allowed Rosanne Austin to connect with women in person and witness the impact of her work. The book, The Feminine Fertility Cure, explores the historical context of the masculinization of women and educates women about the importance of reclaiming their feminine nature for fertility. Reconnecting with femininity is crucial for fertility. Feminism should be about equal rights for men and women, including the right for women to choose to stay feminine. The paradigm of progress and success has influenced women's choices and perceptions of femininity. Reconnecting with feminine nature and desires can positively impact fertility. Societal pressure to conform to a masculine ideal has negatively affected women's happiness and fertility rates.     Guest Bio:    Rosanne Austin, JD, PCC, received her coaching training from the honored Coaches Training Institute in San Rafael, California. She is certified by and a member of the International Coach Federation, which is the leader in professional training, standards, and ethics for coaching professionals. Rosanne is also a proud member of California State Bar. She received her Juris Doctorate from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, where she was on the Dean's List and received the Witkin Award in Expert and Scientific Evidence. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from San Francisco State University, graduating Summa Cum Laude.   Rosanne's professional background has given her the honor and opportunity to directly impact thousands of people's lives, at a time when they were vulnerable, fearful, heartbroken, and at a crossroads.   Rosanne is the author of 3 bestselling books and her work has been featured on leading podcasts such as The Doctor Mom Podcast, Infertility in the City, The Wholesome Fertility Podcast, Infertile AF, Finding Fertility, The Hormone Puzzle Podcast, The Egg Whisperer Show. She has also had leading fertility experts such as Dr. Zaher Merhi, Dr. Aimee Eyvazzadeh, Dr. Robert Kiltz, and Dr. Christiane Northrup on her top 1% Fearlessly Fertile Podcast.   When she is not writing, mentoring, speaking, teaching, leading her transformational events and programs, or loving on her husband and son, Rosanne gives back by serving organizations committed to providing resources to survivors of Human Trafficking and for the protection of abused/abandoned dogs and cats.   https://www.frommaybetobaby.com https://www.instagram.com/rosanneaustinfertility/       For more information about Michelle, visit: www.michelleoravitz.com   Check out Michelle's latest book here: https://www.michelleoravitz.com/thewayoffertility   The Wholesome FertilityFacebook group is where you can find free resources and support: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2149554308396504/   Instagram: @thewholesomelotusfertility   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewholesomelotus/     Transcript:     Michelle (00:00) Welcome back to the podcast, Rosanne.   Rosanne Austin (00:03) Thanks for having me, Michelle! Such a good place to be!   Michelle (00:07) Yes, so excited to have you back. know I love you if I have you this many times back to the podcast. So I want to talk about your upcoming book that is coming out, The Feminine Fertility Cure. But I also want to talk about maybe before that, your tour that you just   Rosanne Austin (00:20) Yes.   Michelle (00:29) had but are continuing soon.   Rosanne Austin (00:31) Yes. Yeah. Well, so this so we started this year in March. We started the Fearlessly Fertile Live World Tour, which is kind of hilarious because I I was thinking to myself it was last October when this idea came to mind. So October 2023. And then we start all of the stuff that goes into it by January 2024. So I'm a pretty quick mover.   like, want to make a decision. let's just go on a world tour. And it was funny because the thought behind all this leading up to the book and everything else that I'm doing right now was a desire to really connect, to connect with the women who love the work that I do or who are curious or maybe just starting their fertility journey. But I was pretty sick of sitting behind my computer.   Michelle (01:00) You are, man.   Rosanne Austin (01:28) and being just disconnected, right? Like you and I both know because we're cool and we do this work is that we know we're energetically we're connected, but I think there's something dramatically different and rich and really colorful and just super interesting about connecting with people in person.   Michelle (01:28) Hmm.   Rosanne Austin (01:51) And so I just said, fuck it, let's go do this. And I'm like, I don't know how to do it world tour, but I do know how to travel. So the team and I just sat down together and kind of mapped out the cities where we thought we could have the most impact. And we just started traveling. So it's not like I had any experience prior to actually doing it, but I think doing it is the best possible teacher. So we started on the West coast of the United States. We did San Francisco, LA.   San Diego, and then we went on to the East Coast where we did DC, New York, New York City, and then we went up to Buffalo, because interestingly enough, I have a sizable audience in Buffalo, New York, and then we went to Toronto and Montreal. And all of those locations were just fantastic, just getting to hug my ladies, hold their babies, and really see the   fruit of what I put out in the world, but more importantly, how women take that message, apply it to their own lives, and are creating these insane results. So it was from the East Coast. We came home to Texas for a couple weeks and then got back out on the road and we started in Europe in May. So we did, my gosh, it feels like.   It was just a few weeks ago, it feels like, you know, we got back on June 3rd, but we were in Florence, Paris, London, Manchester, Birmingham, and we're in Edinburgh. And then it, yeah, it was like, boom, boom, boom, boom. tell ya. But it was great, you know, when we were filming the whole thing, our intention is to complete a documentary.   Michelle (03:33) That's awesome.   Rosanne Austin (03:43) on the work that I do and the impact and all of that good stuff to really inspire women to look beyond their current circumstances and stay focused on their vision for their lives because I met so many women along the way, some women that I had never met, some women who I just read the book or some women who were just listening to the podcast that were creating such crazy results.   And it's hard to wrap your head around. So that was also like, that was part of the intention was to get back into the trenches, but it was also to see and assess for myself what the impact could be so that I could get better at what I do. So I can really see, you know, how can I take this to the next level? How can I serve at a higher level or what the vision might be? So it's been wild. It's been really crazy. And actually,   Michelle (04:17) and then.   Rosanne Austin (04:38) At the time of this recording in a couple of weeks, I'll be in Chicago. And then we have a few dates in here in Texas. And then January, we're looking at New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, or Dubai. So it's a legit world tour. Yeah.   Michelle (04:52) love that. my god, that is just so freaking, And I love your dedication. I know you talk about like hundreds of thousands of women that you're gonna like help them conceive. I don't know if it already happened. I don't like at this point. But I know that you really have such a passion about spreading this message and empowering so many women, so many couples and   How did you decide on the locations, first of all? Did you do it based on like a survey of some people like knowing where they live or the audience?   Rosanne Austin (05:27) Well, you know, it was kind of, it was sort of both where I'm like, I'm looking at, okay, what are the major metropolitan areas? And so it wasn't like, it was strategic from that point, but it also had to be cities I was interested in going to. Like if I'm not interested, I don't go. And if I'm not interested, my energy's low, I can't, you know, because the energy in the room.   Michelle (05:40) Yeah.   I can't imagine your energy being low because I feel like you're so aligned you would never do anything that wouldn't be.   Rosanne Austin (05:52) Yeah, well, I mean, but that's kind of part of it is that, you know, but the energy like that that I was getting from being in all of these different places. And it was because I consciously chose them and was excited about them. And the women showed up like it was it was really cool. It was really, really cool to see and to watch that growth and and really   Michelle (06:09) Amazing.   Rosanne Austin (06:22) You know, because it's kind of funny because I still see myself as you know that former prosecutor with this just this idea. But it you know, so many years later, it's not just an idea. It's an actual movement. It's a phenomenon. So it was exciting and it was such a gift. It was very humbling. I would say is another thing that came up. It was very humbling to see how when women make a decision and how when women are really committed to the dream.   Michelle (06:36) Mm -hmm.   Rosanne Austin (06:51) that they can make anything happen. I mean, I sat there with women who had been told so many different times and in so many different ways that having a baby was impossible. I mean, women who had stillbirths, women who had devastating losses, second trimester losses that were in the room holding babies. I mean, it was breathtaking. And I don't think I have fully processed it, like, because I'm always on the go. I'm always like,   Michelle (07:07) Okay.   Wow.   Rosanne Austin (07:21) kind of moving through to the next project. But it was, you know, when I have quiet moments, which I do have, but when I sit and really think of the enormity of it, it's extremely humbling and it's a real testament to the human spirit. I mean, that's, I mean, the reason why I do this work is, you know, one, I find it exciting and I love learning. I'm a perpetual student. I love keeping my edge sharp.   Michelle (07:38) I love that.   Rosanne Austin (07:48) But it's also like, I really love watching these women wake up to their own power, because that's at the essence of what I do.   Michelle (07:56) Oof.   I love that. I love that. And I think that that's why I love you so much. I truly do because I feel I could really relate to that because it's just it's freaking amazing. There's nothing like it because people do have power. I think that seeing people not know that they have that is painful. And you want to make sure that everybody that you really come into contact realizes just how powerful they are.   So I'm sure based on what you're telling me that you have some incredible stories. So if anything jumps out, I would love to hear about it.   Rosanne Austin (08:37) Yeah, yeah, no, I mean, but we share that commonality in the work that we do is that it is the essence of what we're doing is trying to well, and I only try to wake up people that want to be awake. So much like you. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Much like you is that when the student is ready, the teacher appears. And that's what we're there to do based on our expertise, our training, our background, our commitment.   Michelle (08:51) Mm -hmm. You have to. You can't. You can't force it.   Rosanne Austin (09:07) we come in and we say, hey, there is another way. And let me show you this modality. And you know, because that's, people have to understand that fertility is like a mosaic. They are all these different pieces. And no matter how you arrange those pieces, you are always the foundation. You are always the glue that keeps everything together. So when you are not aligned or when you have a belief system that keeps you stuck repeating old patterns, then,   It doesn't matter. It's funny, we were talking about this earlier, but you can't out supplement, you can't out yoga, you cannot out treat a belief that says you can't have what you want or you're not worthy of what you want. Or that you have no power, essentially. I mean, because it's all lies. I mean, think about what we were talking about before about the energy in our bodies, the meridians, all these things. When we were talking about your book, like,   Michelle (09:56) Yeah.   Rosanne Austin (10:05) It is the essence of saying you have the power. So anything that separates you from that reality is no good. So this work is really about coming back to understanding that you are the foundation. Once you have that foundation and then you add the beauty of what you do or the beauty of what other people do and medicine and all these other things, you can get to a place where...   Michelle (10:09) Yeah.   Rosanne Austin (10:31) you realize that you're making these things that you want, you're making them your reality. Baby, home, car, profession, all of these things that come together to create a really full life. So it's, yeah, it's pretty cool. It's pretty cool shit.   Michelle (10:46) I just had a vision in my head as you were telling me that of like a computer. You can have like state of the art parts and everything put together, but if the program is not installed, that is going to help you get from A to Z.   Rosanne Austin (11:01) Yeah, no, that's a beautiful metaphor. That's like the perfect metaphor. I'm gonna borrow that. I'm gonna borrow it. I'm gonna say thank you, Michelle Orovitz for this amazing visual here because it fucking makes sense. Yeah.   Michelle (11:06) Take it, take it, it's a gift. Yes. Yeah.   And physical parts itself is doing all the things, out supplementing and all of that for sure. And so let's talk, I'm very excited to talk about this, the feminine fertility cure. tell us everything.   Rosanne Austin (11:29) Duh.   okay. So this this book is many, many years in the making. So and it actually Yes, yes, yes. Well, and it was funny because I actually can thank Chinese medicine for this because when I was on my own journey, I had no idea I was stuck in my masculine or my yang as you would say it. And   Michelle (11:38) Those are always the best ones.   Rosanne Austin (12:00) I thought I was kind of a weirdo. I just thought, you know what, I got this problem. Like I'm not able to receive, on the exterior, I'm, you know, yeah, I'm feminine. I wear makeup, I got cute clothes, I get my nails done and all that. I had all the physical outward trappings of femininity, but my energy was decidedly masculine. Now I was starting to ask questions about why that was.   At first I thought, well, it's just my profession. As a prosecutor, it's decidedly masculine profession. You have to armor up. You're going into a courtroom, possibly with a homicidal maniac or a serial rapist. You gotta have your armor up. But what I found out is that the armor was never coming off. And as I started, when I got on my journey and then I started teaching other women what I had learned and then I left my work as a prosecutor,   and really went full throttle into what I do, I started seeing a pattern that a lot of other women I was serving also had this problem with a disconnection to their femininity. And I observed it for a while and I'm like, okay, let me just take note of this. Let me just take note. And...   Michelle (13:12) Yeah.   Rosanne Austin (13:19) I was like, well, there's something to this, you know, this idea of conceiving is all about receiving. And if we're stuck in our masculine and disconnected from our feminine, how the hell are we ever gonna receive from our partner and conceive? So I really started to take note. And because I serve such lovably type A recovering control, freaky professional women, you know, at the top of their game who are primarily in more   Michelle (13:32) Yeah.   Rosanne Austin (13:49) masculine professions, it, so many of us get stuck and I'm like, well, how the fuck do we get unstuck? And then I started to work through that. I looked at what I was doing. How was I reconnecting with my feminine? And I'm like, okay, so let me take what I learned, start teaching it. Let me start studying more. Let me explore more of this feminine. So when I started incorporating this kind of work into what I was doing, I saw the results skyrocket.   Michelle (13:56) Mm -hmm.   Mmm.   Rosanne Austin (14:18) within women to help them reconnect to the feminine. But what was more interesting and the questions that I started answering with this book, The Feminine Fertility Cure, was where the hell did this start? Because you don't just have a couple generations of women completely disconnected to their feminine. Where did this start? So I started doing research, and this is where it gets super interesting. I'm like,   Michelle (14:40) Hmm.   Rosanne Austin (14:46) If you look, and I only speak about the United States because that's where I live, that's what I know, that's a culture I was raised in. But if you look at what has happened to women ever since the women's movement, it's actually quite shocking. And through the research and watching it myself and being caught up in it myself, we really got this message that   since the women's movement in the 1960s, I use in my book, the Kennedy administration as kind of this line of demarcation that post the Kennedy administration in the United States, there was a concerted effort to masculinize women, to take us away from our feminine nature. And we were sold, well, I don't really call it sold, I call it a fucking scam. In my book, we were scammed out of our femininity because what we were told is that, yeah, get out in the workplace, you know,   get yourself out of the shackles of domesticity and you're gonna be free. But what was really happening was a systematic masculinization. So we were taken away from our feminine nature and told that you have to work hard, you have to dress like a man, you have to pack up your emotions, you have to conform, separate yourself from your spirituality.   Michelle (15:48) Okay.   Rosanne Austin (16:08) and femininity is weak, we started to see all of these things that if you wanted to be a successful woman who represents progress, be more like a man. And the data's undeniable. It's undeniable. Like, because you think about it, and of course, I went into a profession that, as like I said before, as a prosecutor is very masculine. There's nothing feminine about anything that you're doing there.   And when you spend long enough in that masculine mode, you get disconnected from the feminine. You don't even know what it is. Like, you'd be surprised, Michelle, how many physicians, surgeons, lawyers, engineers that I work with, like when I say the feminine, there's like this giant question mark over their head, like what? You know, but when you look at some of the propaganda that we were fed as   Michelle (16:45) Hmm.   Rosanne Austin (17:05) you know, anyone born post Kennedy administration. The idea was, is that in order for you to be free and to have progress, you got to go into life in a certain way and it's decidedly masculine. So what this book is about is educating women about basically how that happened, educating about what the masculine is, what the feminine is, how it directly connects to fertility because   Michelle (17:34) Yeah.   Rosanne Austin (17:34) I don't care what anyone says. Having a baby is the most fucking feminine thing you will ever do. And this is why trying to do it from young in your terms or like a man in mine, I watch women try to get pregnant like a man all the time and men don't get pregnant, okay? We as women do. And when you're trying to do a decidedly feminine thing like a man, you find yourself with problems. And another thing about   Michelle (17:47) Mm -hmm.   Rosanne Austin (18:04) The masculine, which, and I've got nothing on the masculine. I've got no complaint because the masculine and the feminine work synergistically. You and I know this. One is not better than the other. That's not what I'm saying here. But what this work is about and what I get into in this book is really encouraging women to reclaim. It is all about reclamation. Reclaim your feminine nature because   Michelle (18:26) Yeah.   Right.   Rosanne Austin (18:31) It's from the feminine that you are going to heal what ails you when it comes to your fertility. Because when you think about the masculine, it's go, go, go, do, do, do, you are not enough, you just work harder, do more, be more perfect and this will happen. The feminine, I mean think about what the feminine stands for. It's the spiritual, it's the nurturing, it's the fertility.   Michelle (18:58) creative.   Rosanne Austin (19:00) Yeah, it's the creative, it's the surrendered, it's the open, it's the receptive, all of those things. I mean, those are some important things when you're trying to conceive. But when we're stuck in man mode, we are completely cut off from that. And then we keep beating our head up against the wall trying to figure out why I have so much inflammation. Why do I have all this stuck energy? Why do I feel like nothing's moving? It's because you're stuck in man mode.   and I want to say this because some, you know, this, I want to be super clear, like this book is not political at all. Some will probably read this book and accuse me of being anti -feminist, but I come from the perspective, I look at feminism as in a very legalistic way, that men and women have equal rights. That's it. That's it. Any, for me, anything beyond that?   starts to get far afield, people abuse it, all this other stuff. So I come from the perspective that, you know, because around that time people will say, well, you don't think that was a good time because this is when, you know, feminism rose up. Well, yeah, and so did a lot of other things. Okay. So I'm looking at this strictly from when we look at feminism and believing that men and women have equal rights under the law. And we say that a woman   deserves to have a right to choose in just about everything in her life and that also includes staying feminine, right? Because the messaging that we got was the only way to be successful is to act more like a man. Think about this, Michelle. So I'm 50 and I do not recall ever hearing messaging that staying home and having babies and being in a relationship was a legitimate option.   Michelle (20:35) Is it?   Rosanne Austin (20:51) The only thing I ever heard was leave the house, never depend on a man, get an education, make a bunch of money and be untouchable, right? That was the paradigm of progress.   Michelle (20:56) Mm -hmm.   You see it everywhere. You see it on TV shows, on movies, like everywhere, everywhere.   Rosanne Austin (21:05) Yeah, that was the paradigm of progress and success. And think about it, I remember, and this is like, this just shows how deep the programming is. I remember a girl in my high school class who wanted to get married and have babies. And I remember thinking, poor thing, that's a life thrown away.   Like how anti -woman is that shit? I mean, that's how deep the programming was. And I thought I was the quote unquote feminist back then. Like not respecting that woman's desire and her otherwise legitimate choice to live her life with traditional feminine pursuits, right? And the whole point of this is not to say it's bad to have a profession or it's bad to stay at home. It's none of that.   It's a masculine paradigm that tries to force us into choosing. Rather than saying, okay, we as creative, resourceful, and whole women get to move through those things. You know, like you might do time as a prosecutor, you might do time as a physician, and then decide that your soul is saying, I really want to go home, I want to get pregnant, I want to have babies and chickens and a garden. Like that's legit.   Michelle (22:01) Right, yeah, good point.   Rosanne Austin (22:27) But yet that, you know, so much of the messaging up to this point has been, that is the lesser choice. Like the feminine is the lesser choice or the feminine is the weak. And so everything that I'm talking about in this book is saying, look sister, your fertility and your issues with fertility right now are a wake -up call. It's a wake -up call to come home to the fucking feminine because...   Your femininity, your feminine is your fertility superpower.   Michelle (22:58) love that. my God. So many things come to mind. And I'm thinking about the Yin and the Yang. Like imagine the Yin and the Yang start arguing with each other or like fighting like each other's nature. Well, you should be like this. You should know like everything in nature has the Yin and the Yang. They need to be there. They need to be there. Otherwise, this is what my professor told me when we first learned about it. Like when Yin and Yang separate, there is death because we need the Yin and Yang for vitality.   Rosanne Austin (23:23) Mmm!   that's so good.   Michelle (23:26) So we need that and it's like really to kind of bring it to that and I am going to talk science right now because in so there's been a couple of studies that I saw about having sex outside of the fertile window. When women are more sexually active, which they naturally would be if they felt connected with their partner. It's just like a natural tendency. But what happens physiologically?   is when they are more sexually active, unprotected, even outside of the fertile window into the luteal phase, you know what happens? A woman's immune system starts to change from what it was before. And what happens is the immune system starts to bring its arms down a little bit more. It starts to become more receptive, more calm. It lowers itself. It stops being in such a fight mode, ready to attack.   And design. When it does that, when it knows, okay, I'm in receptive mode here, we're having more sex, I'm getting familiar with the sperm, I allow it in so that this isn't an invader. I'm receiving, inviting, allowing. So this is literally like what you're telling me here.   immune systems don't do that because they don't receive they they're putting out it's a different energy it's a different flow it's a different direction.   Rosanne Austin (24:48) Mmmmm   Yeah. that's so beautiful. I love that you shared that because, you know, it's a really warped thing that we have gotten into as women. And when you think about it, it really is insidious.   Like why, I mean, we even see this today because we were talking about, like if we look at the women's movement from the 1960s, like the intention was good, of course. We want women to have equal rights under the law as men. That's obvious, that's basic, it's a human right. But when you look at how that got warped and then it's like, okay, well, if you really wanna be free, get out of the house, do all this stuff, start acting like a man, you know, we even see images in media.   Michelle (25:25) Mm -hmm.   Rosanne Austin (25:41) and film and all this other stuff of women being, you know, having sex like men, which is wildly unnatural. Like that's not our natural state as women to be like predators in that sense, you know? Yeah.   Michelle (25:56) we have more oxytocin and it actually is meant to connect us more to one person.   Rosanne Austin (26:03) Right, right, right. And then, you know, we see this ripple effect that it's had and we look at since about 1970, and women will have to take a look at the book to get the dates right. I have so many dates and numbers, you know, stuck in my head from having done the research, but it was around 1970 that we started to track women's happiness on a consistent basis. So we have data going back to   Michelle (26:19) Yeah.   Rosanne Austin (26:32) approximately from 1970 to about 2006, that tracks with not only did the birth rate go down, because we have things like, you know, no fault divorce, we have the advent of birth control, abortion being legal, all of these things, these new cultural things that happen, that as women left the home, pursued education, made more money, had fewer children,   there's actually an inverse relationship. So the more educated a woman became and pursued those more masculine results, the less happy she became. And I believe the number is 35%. happiness has dropped by 35%, the more educated that we became and the more separated from the home. Now what's funny is this research that came out of the Wharton School of Business showing that like is the   Michelle (27:16) wow.   Rosanne Austin (27:31) antithesis of what we were sold about the women's movement, that we would be happier when the data shows quite opposite. And then you look at the issues that we have today with dismal and terrifying birth rates. We went from one in eight couples struggling with fertility to one in five.   Michelle (27:50) Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. That's crazy. Yeah.   Rosanne Austin (27:54) I think the average woman today, I think the number was hovering about 1 .7 children per woman. That's not even sustainable population growth at this point. So there are so many things that, and there's so many things that go into it. I'm not just saying that it's because we all become masculine. There's also plastics in our food. There's also glyphosate and rampant, overuse of medications and all kinds of   Michelle (28:06) Mm -hmm.   Mm -hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah.   Rosanne Austin (28:23) you know, fluoride in the water. I'm gonna put my tin foil hat on right now, people can see it. But it's actually not, yeah, I mean, there's just so much stuff that has changed, but you can't deny that our attitudes have changed. And you know, women are having babies later. And I think that's a beautiful thing, but it also is indicative of a systemic cultural shift to say that, well, you don't have babies until...   Michelle (28:29) The radiation, everything.   Rosanne Austin (28:50) You've made this much money, you've had this much education, you've done X, Y, Z, you've published this number of papers. It's, in a sense, like, I really feel like women have been conditioned away from having the highest degree of choice. And it's heartbreaking. And then when women finally are in their 40s and they're trying to have babies, they go into the fertility world hearing that the window is closed.   Michelle (29:18) Mm -hmm. Right. Right.   Rosanne Austin (29:18) and too bad for you. So it's like, it's like you can, you find yourself getting to this place where you're saying, well, is this all there is? Because having babies is not just a fleeting desire, it's a longing. And if it was made, let's just say like it's a passe idea to be at home, have babies and pursue a happy home life.   If that was just passe and everyone's beyond it, tell me why the fertility industry is a multi -billion dollar industry. People still want it. This is why you have women getting to 45, meeting the right partner, and then longing to have a baby because it's innate in us. It's innate. It's fascinating. It's super, yeah.   Michelle (29:55) Yeah.   Yeah.   Mm -hmm. Yeah. Yeah.   It is fascinating. And the fact that you're really looking at the research and you actually have numbers and percentages, that is what is so cool about this. And I think also, you know, all the messages that we get, you know, you're too old, but did you know, do you know what the highest, the Guinness Book of World Records, highest naturally conceived and birthed child, highest age?   Rosanne Austin (30:35) No, what maybe in the 60s?   Michelle (30:37) You're going to love this and you could use this. Use this all you want. And I know you will because it's so freaking good. 58. 58. And it's a woman from the UK, Dawn Brooks, I believe was her name, and from the UK of all places where there's a lot of deficiency in vitamin D. But yeah, yeah, she did. And then I think about, actually, I remember Tori Quisling had mentioned   Rosanne Austin (30:46) I love it.   Michelle (31:02) She didn't mention the name, but she had mentioned how one person breaks the record and then other people hear about that and then all of a sudden they're breaking the record. And that really goes to the Roger Bannister effect where they said, there's no way you could break that four minute mile and then one person breaks it and then four others do within a couple of weeks from that.   Rosanne Austin (31:15) Mmm.   But yeah, but that's also like a scriptural reality too. I mean, you look at ancient books, you hear about women being fertile at times, whether people choose to interpret that as a metaphor or not is their business. But you hear about women being able to do miraculous things very late, allegedly in life. And so this is why I wanted to write the book because I find that when women tap back into their femininity,   Michelle (31:28) Mm -hmm.   Mm -hmm.   Mm -hmm. Yeah.   Rosanne Austin (31:53) They tap back into the love of self. They tap back into self -care. They tap back into their truest desires. They speak them, they rest. Instead of doing what they should do, they do what they desire to do. It drops the level of stress and puts them in a more receptive yin mode. And then we see women, I mean, I've seen this in my own practice. You see women who were given single digit odds.   Michelle (32:01) Mm -hmm.   Mm -hmm.   Love that.   Rosanne Austin (32:22) going and getting pregnant with ease when they go, they tap back into their nature. You know, it's just, it's fascinating. So like I had a woman that was in my program who was 52. And what was interesting about her was that she had this longing. She had this longing. She had, you know, she was a successful business owner. She was like, I just don't feel like my life is complete.   Michelle (32:27) Thank you.   Rosanne Austin (32:50) I am intended to be a mother. I'm intended to be a mother now. And she pursued this child. And now her son's like probably a year and a half old now. Like it's just fascinating. And what it required for her to get there was tapping back into that feminine desire. So my objective in this book is to educate women about what the feminine is, show them how it has been.   programmed out of us and ultimately what to do to reclaim it. Because we see that once you improve your self care, the stress level goes down, the data shows consistently that when cortisol levels are high, it takes longer for women to get pregnant and it negatively impacts results in controlled environments like IVF. Like they've seen this. They've even tested hair samples.   women with the highest concentrations of cortisol have the biggest struggles. And it's just wild. And so when you think about this from a mindset perspective, and you think about the very masculine messages women have gotten about what success means, it's like when you change your mind about what success looks like, and you start looking at it from a feminine perspective, then you can start changing the game.   and you can heal yourself, you can heal your fertility, and you'll do that through a more open mind, more receptive, look at different opportunities and different things that come up. So it just gives us the ability to tap into our innate feminine nature so we can do the innately feminine fucking thing that we're trying to do. So yeah, so that's the essence of what the book is about. And...   Michelle (34:36) Yeah.   Rosanne Austin (34:42) Women can find the book anywhere the books are sold and it'll be out August 2nd.   Michelle (34:50) I love that. And so question, as far as momentum goes, because I know that when we're in a path, we're on a path and we just keep going, going, going and say we're like on a masculine path or we've been conditioned, I find that it's just like you start to take a momentum and it's very hard to switch gears and shift back, even if it is our nature. So just if anybody's listening, what are some of your thoughts or anything you want to share about like really   getting to that place of switching gears.   Rosanne Austin (35:22) Okay, one of the greatest ways to switch gears is to look at your fucking results. If you do not like your results, you have to have the humility and the open heartedness to say, what I am doing is not working. And to say that from a loving perspective. Like I don't look at things not working or mistakes or things that have happened in a negative way, right? They're just new.   Michelle (35:34) Mm -hmm.   misalignment.   Rosanne Austin (35:46) Yeah, and it's just, it's more nudges in the right direction. So if you don't like the result that you're getting, then you have to ask yourself, what isn't lined up here? What can I do better from a loving perspective, from the perspective of commitment to what I say I want? And one of the first steps is how connected am I to my feminine? Or what is my thought process? What are my thoughts telling me?   you know, are my thoughts sounding more like a man, like, mm, you know, wagging the finger saying, you're not enough, this is stupid, why are you doing this? It's decidedly more masculine, right? When we're in our feminine, there's gonna be nurturing that's saying, hey, hey, babe, you know what, this isn't working. Let's look at something, some other options, right? It's decidedly different in energy. So number one, if you wanna switch gears, look at your result. From a completely dispassionate place, just say, hey,   is what I'm doing working and if it is not, what can I do differently? That's like the first step is that level of awareness. And then the second step would be to decide to be different. Now I know that that may sound vague, but in some ways it kind of is because for everyone the pursuit is gonna be different. What do I need to do different is gonna look different for everybody. I come from the perspective that it all starts with us.   It all starts with the mind because when your mind is lined up, then you'll do the right physical things. You'll pursue different things like your work. You'll pursue different avenues and a constellation of new opportunities will show up because you were different. So number one, look at the result. Number two, give yourself the opportunity like, hey, what can I do differently here? Truly from a place of, hey, I'm super committed to what I want.   and I wanna get there. So if I can love myself enough through this process and give myself plenty of runway to try things, it's more likely that I'm gonna get there than if I keep my narrow vision that there's only one way to get there. Because the feminine is all about the meandering. It's all about the exploration. And...   Michelle (37:59) Yeah.   Rosanne Austin (38:02) You know, if it was as simple, Michelle, as a sperm and an egg coming together, then not one of us would suffer on this journey. But we know that, you know, everybody's different and the journey is nonlinear. So it's like, open yourself up, try something new. Try the feminine fertility here. See if that works for you. Because I've seen women around the world tap into this power and create insane results. And it's my sincere hope that women listening will do the same.   Michelle (38:15) Right.   I really think that you're doing the right thing for your purpose. Like I really do. I feel like you are truly activated and doing your purpose and working your purpose because I feel like you're really making so many transformations happen. And I see it. I mean, it's literally happening around the world and it is a movement and this is why I love you so much. And I could keep talking to you for hours. I know you have to go.   I would love it if you just tell people how they can find you. Otherwise, I know the book's gonna be everywhere. Books are sold, right?   Rosanne Austin (39:07) Yeah, yeah. Well, I love you too, Michelle. And I really appreciate the support that you give to my work. And we're such a great pair because our work is so synergistic. And it's just fantastic. And I'm really honored to share that with your audience. And here's the thing. I like to encourage women, look, trust yourself. Trust yourself.   You have this ability to do this and there's nothing to be afraid of when it comes to the feminine. The feminine is your fertility superpower and the feminine is not just pink and sparkly shit. It's going to be expressed in your own unique way. And the sooner you make up with her, the sooner that you make her okay to be back in the room, she's gonna be your BFF. She is your fertility BFF and she's gonna show you the way.   Michelle (39:51) I love that.   Rosanne Austin (40:00) So I'm really excited to get this out in the world. I really hope women receive it with the love that it was written. And yeah, thanks for having me on. Thank you for sharing this.   Michelle (40:06) Beautiful.   thank you so much for coming on. It was awesome.   Rosanne Austin (40:13) Thanks, Michelle, bye!  

I love the term change readiness and how Stefanie Krievins describes it. Stefanie is the president of The Change Architects, a boutique integration firm dedicated to driving transformation and upskilling in mid-market and enterprise organizations. Because change is now the oxygen we breathe and plans don't equal action, she designs programs for continuous learning and organizational capabilities, especially with IT teams. This framework is The Change Architecture. She's also the host of the Hot Mess Hotline, a podcast for ambitious leaders who want to drive impactful change. Founded in 2014, The Change Architects is a small but powerful team of IT, learning and development, HR, and coaching experts. They've worked with companies and teams with 5 to 50,000 employees across all sectors. She received her coach training in solution-focused methodology from Erickson International and is a member of the International Coach Federation. She also holds a master's and an undergraduate degree from Indiana University. Episode Insight: Accountability creates freedom. When we promise and deliver, we clear mental space and gain the power to focus on what truly matters. Background: In this episode of Reflect Forward, I interview Stefanie Crevins, president of The Change Architects. We discuss the importance of change readiness within organizations, particularly in mid-market and enterprise sectors. Stefanie explains how her framework, Change Architecture, helps companies create cohesive and adaptable strategies. The conversation touches on the challenges of change management, the significance of upskilling, and the role of leadership in fostering accountability. She also shares insights on how leaders can engage and motivate employees, maintain integrity, and effectively delegate tasks without micromanaging. The episode underscores the need for visionary thinking and strategic focus to navigate the rapid pace of technological advancements and organizational shifts. I hope you enjoy it! How to find Stefanie Website: https://thechangearchitects.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefkrievins/ Please consider ordering my book, The Ownership Mindset, on Amazon or Barnes and Noble Follow me on Instagram or LinkedIn. Subscribe to my podcast Reflect Forward on iTunes Or check out my new YouTube Channel, where you can watch full-length episodes of Advice From a CEO! And if you are looking for a keynote speaker or a podcast guest, click here to book a meeting with me to discuss what you are looking for!

In the hero's journey, the hero or heroine is called to adventure. Often in the form of a quest, a challenge, or an adversity.And often in unexpected ways.One of the things that's interesting about the heroes journey is that shortly after the call a helper enters the picture.A mentor, sage, guide, or a coach who helps the hero to navigate the adventure,as they strengthen themselves and ultimately transform in ways that allow them to meet their life from a wiser, more skillful, and often more responsive place. Today, we're bringing you the next episode in this new adventure on the Courageous Life - inspiring stories from everyday heroes and the helpers who walk beside them. I am thrilled to share another beautiful helpers conversation, with Liliana Öğün.Liliana is an Executive & Career Coach with more than 20 years of experience in leadership coaching, career coaching, and communication consulting. She holds a Master Certified Coach credential from the International Coach Federation. And since 2010 has been helping leaders across the globe enhance their productivity while maintaining work-life balance. Through coaching, she empowers her clients to raise their awareness and take personal accountability, leading to transformative changes in their careers and lives. For more on Liliana please visit surfingchange.comToday, we'll explore some of Liliana's journey:Including a personal story of her parents loss of one of their children, and how she and her sister navigated the experience together.  What she learned, and how the adversity shaped how she approaches her work today. Liliana will share more about how she “walks beside” her clients. Including meeting them with curiosity, unconditional positive regard, and challenging them to realize their potential.She'll offer tools and practices that have helped her clients to deepen awareness, and transform their relationship to themselves, and others. This conversation was beautiful.  Liliana showed again and again how she embodies the qualities she speaks of, and if you're looking for practical takeaways, you'll find she offers those as well.I hope you enjoy the time with her as much as I did. Did you find this conversation inspiring? Here are other episodes we think you'll love:Building a future starts with feeling seen with Hayley PhilanderEmbracing the journey from 'doing' to 'being' with Amy Dong Enjoying the show? Please rate it wherever you listen to your podcasts.   Thanks for listening!Support the Show.

In this special episode of Mastering Life's Adventures, as promised during her 100th episode, Dr. Judith returns with a guest to reflect on the evolution of her podcast. Colleen Matschi, PCC, an executive and career coach, joins her. She and three other dear colleagues have journeyed with Dr. Judith through her progress and growth as the host of Mastering Life's Adventures: Being Your Best Self Through Soul Evolution.Colleen shares her insightful observations and key takeaways from the episodes she has listened to, underscoring the profound impact the podcast has had on her. In one of the recent episodes, she had the profound realization that "I deserve goodness because God loves me." This realization, she acknowledges, is a common struggle many might have in recognizing God's love for oneself. Dr. Judith talks about the journey of hosting a podcast, describing it as a labor of love and desiring to contribute to the world. She speaks about her mission to plant seeds of wisdom regarding the soul's quest for oneness with Christ, the Creator, and how this quest manifests in everyday life and its adventures. Dr. Judith reveals her inspiration for the podcast, her process for selecting topics, and the key phrases and acronyms she develops to enhance her understanding of the soul and life's purpose. One of the central themes she emphasizes is the concept of the "100 Shades of Love," which encapsulates the ongoing lessons all souls are learning through our sojourn on planet Earth. About Our GuestColleen Matschi is a passionate coach who partners with individuals aged 5 to 75, empowering them to discover and embrace their sense of belonging to self, clearing the mental obstacles, igniting their energy, and building a strong sense of self-worth, setting the stage for them to become leaders in achieving their next transformation, goals and dreams. Colleen holds an MBA in Leadership, is a Professional Certified Holistic Coach (PCC) certified through the International Coach Federation, is a Certified Prosci Change Management Practitioner, and is a Certified Self Esteem Elevation Coach. You may contact her directly at valueu2@gmail.com.

I am upping the ante on REAL conversations as I sit down with my close friends, Jill Osur and Lisa Orrell.  Jill and Lisa's not-so-random meeting led to a partnership that's as dynamic as it is loving. Their relationship teaches and challenges me and our open-hearted talks underscore the power of honest friendships - the kind in which we can show up authentically while paving the way to a more equitable world.We unpack my once narrow, and sadly, homophobic perspective and how it has expanded in large part due to conversations with LGBTQ+ friends and loved ones. This conversation offers further proof that our lived experience and personal story can change minds when we share our truest selves with others. I also love our discussion on the gift of Gen Z - the next wave of  humans who are pretty perplexed by older generations' use of societal labels and our tendency toward categorizing human souls. Guests Bios:Jill's Bio:A former UC Berkeley softball player, Jill Osur still draws on her athletic background to hone her leadership style and overcome obstacles. Deeply moved to elevate women and inspire meaningful change, her values have guided her career—first as a savvy political fundraiser, then in marketing with Special Olympics Northern California & Nevada, and now, as an entrepreneur. Jill has helped launch numerous consumer product companies and ventures focused on “doing well by doing good.” Previously the co-founder and director of California-based winery group, and in the wine industry since 2014, Jill founded a digital winery, Teneral Cellars, in 2020. Teneral Cellars is driven by Jill's belief that wine can be a conduit for change; a force for gender equity and social justice within the wine industry and our culture at large.  Teneral Cellars was named “Hot Brands of 2022” by Wine Business Monthly.Jill is a captivating public speaker who helps female executives and entrepreneurs learn how to strengthen their leadership by tapping into the “head, heart, and gut.” As said by one attendee, Jill “puts a firecracker in the room” with her energizing, moving presence. A champion of female power, Jill coaches audiences and clients to embrace their brilliance, leverage full capacity thinking, and show up in alignment with their authentic selves. She recently took the stage with her 2024 TEDxFolsom talk entitled, "How Impactful Leaders Use Three Brains"Jill is a member of the Governor's Entrepreneurship and Economic Mobility Taskforce, Women Presidents' Organization, 2023 Tory Burch Foundation Fellow, was a founding board member of the John F. Kennedy University Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership, and is a current advisory board member for Enterprising Women, Women Business Collaborative, and board member of Hilinski's Hope Foundation, which provides integrative mental wellness programs for student athletes.Awards• 2023 Honoree, 100 Women to KNOW in America• 2023 Winner, NAWBO Sacramento OWL Awards – Woman Innovator• 2022 Winner, Leadership California's Legacy of Leadership - Corporate Leader Award• 2022 Winner, of the Athletes' Voices “Turn Up The Mic” Award for Excellence in Collaboration presented by ESPN• 2022 Winner, Stevie Awards For Women in Business - Gold Medal - Best Female Entrepreneur – Consumer Products –10 or Less Employees, Silver Medal - Social Change Maker of the Year – Women and Bronze Medal - Women Helping Women - Social Change 3.• 2021 Winner, Women Presidents' Organization: Adrienne Hall Award for Breaking Down BarriersWebsite: https://www.teneralcellars.comInstagram link: https://www.instagram.com/jillosur/Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/teneralcellarsLinkedin link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillosur/ Lisa's Bio:Lisa Orrell, CPC, is known globally as “The Chief of Change”, and she was recently named to the 2024 “World's Top 30 Leadership Speakers & Experts” list published by the international research organization, Global Gurus.As a renowned expert, she's passionate about empowering, educating, and inspiring all members of today's workforce to be exceptional Leaders…often through the unique lens of Personal Branding and a focus on Mental Health.But her charter isn't just about helping them make positive changes within themselves! It's also about making a positive impact on workplace culture…because when you have more effective Leaders, you have happier employees.Lisa has been booked for Keynotes and Training Programs by countless well-known organizations, such as: Pfizer, Salesforce, Wyndham Worldwide Resorts, eBay, Wells Fargo, Johnson & Johnson, Pepsi, PayPal, USC, Blue Cross/BlueShield, Paul Mitchell, State University of New York, SHRM, and the National Diversity Council. Lisa was even hired by the Government of Brunei to be the Keynote Speaker (IN Brunei) at their first-ever Women in Leadership Conference!In addition to being a Speaker, Trainer, and Award-winning Author, Lisa is also a Certified Leadership & Success Coach who works with individuals and employee groups. She received her certification through an intensive one-year training program accredited by the International Coach Federation.Her four popular business books on Amazon include: “Your Employee Brand is in Your Hands”; “Millennials into Leadership”; “Millennials Incorporated”; and “Boomers into Business”. Each of Lisa's books are filled with useful tactics, tips, and strategies, so they are often ordered in bulk by organizations for their Learning & Development Programs.And, based on her expertise and notoriety, Lisa has been interviewed by, or written articles for, many media outlets and research firms, including (partial list): ABC, NPR, NBC, MSNBC, CBS, The NY Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Human Resource Executive, Diversity Business, Essence, HR.com, Monster.com, Recruiter.com, CollegeRecruiter.com, and CareerBuilder.com.Website: https://www.theorrellgroup.comInstagram link: https://www.instagram.com/thelisaorrell/Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/lisa.orrellLinkedin link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisaorrell/  About Jen Oliver:I pursue and create environments where we converse on the REAL stuff that changes us. I'm designed to bring others on my personal journey with honest admissions to help us all transform - that's my sweetspot and I speak, lead, and write from that space.REAL conversations stir deeper connection and community - to explore ways that you can work with me, go to:email: jen@REALjenoliver.compodcast website: ListenForREAL.comwebsite: REALJenOliver.comLinkedIn:@realjenoliverInstagram: @realjenoliverFacebook: @realjenoliverIf you believe conversations like these belong in the world, please subscribe, rate & review this podcast - and even better, share it with someone else as a REAL conversation starter. Subscribe to all things Jen at REALJenOliver.

Denice Hinden is the founder of Managance Coaching. Denice's mission is guiding the experience and performance of senior leaders in nonprofit organizations and professional associations to more fulfillment and reward. Her clients are primarily executives, senior leaders, middle managers, and emerging leaders who work for social justice through developing affordable housing or supporting individuals with developmental disabilities to live meaningful lives as independently as possible. When these leaders fully tap into their change agent strengths, their organizations and teams elevate their mission delivery. Denice catalyzes healthy, positive leadership mindsets and organizational cultures with neuroscience-based coaching techniques, inclusive leadership practices, and transforming conversations. Before consulting and coaching, Denice had an impactful 17-year career in nonprofit and public management, serving as program associate to executive director in children, youth, family service, and community development organizations. She enjoys living in Southern California with her business partner and husband, Larry, and their fur babies, Mercury and Blu Moon. Denice is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, Nova Southeastern University, and Florida International University where she earned her Ph.D., She is a Master Certified Coach through the International Coach Federation. -- Critical Mass Business Talk Show is Orange County, CA's longest-running business talk show, focused on offering value and insight to middle-market business leaders in the OC and beyond. Hosted by Ric Franzi, business partner at REF Orange County. Learn more about Ric at www.ricfranzi.com. 

Welcome to the Financial Freedom & Wealth Trailblazers Podcast! In this episode, we dive into practical strategies, inspiring stories, and expert insights to help you accelerate your leadership journey and sustain your success at the top. Katherine comes from a performance and education background with bachelor's degrees in music and education from the University of British Columbia. Katherine holds certificates in Image Consulting and Advanced Image Consulting from the International Image Institute (Ontario, Canada), as well as her second level international designation (Certified Image Professional) with the Association of Image Consultants International (AICI) and two coaching certifications, Certified Leadership Coach (CLC) with Essential Impact and Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coach Federation. She helps professional women and men learn to walk, talk, act and look like leaders. With the creation of customized educational programs, she brings over twenty years of instructional development and corporate training experience to bear when teaching women and champions of women to leverage their professional presence to achieve their goals. With an additional thirty-five years of performance experience, she helps leaders with everything from how they look to how they have tough conversations. She is a sought-after keynote speaker on topics related to leadership and presence, offering engaging and effective presentations for groups. Connect with Katherine here: https://www.instagram.com/katherinelazaruk/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinelazaruk/ http://lzrkconsulting.com Grab the freebie here: https://lzrkconsulting.com/get-the-book/ =================================== If you enjoyed this episode, remember to hit the like button and subscribe. Then share this episode with your friends. Thanks for watching the Financial Freedom & Wealth Trailblazers Podcast. This podcast is part of the Digital Trailblazer family of podcasts. To learn more about Digital Trailblazer and what we do to help entrepreneurs, go to DigitalTrailblazer.com. Are you a coach, consultant, expert, or online course creator? Then we'd love to invite you to our FREE Facebook Group where you can learn the best strategies to land more high-ticket clients and customers.  Request to join here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/profitablecoursecreators QUICK LINKS:  APPLY TO BE FEATURED: https://app.digitaltrailblazer.com/podcast-guest-application GET MORE CLIENTS: https://app.digitaltrailblazer.com/client-acquisition-accelerator-pdf DIGITAL TRAILBLAZER: https://digitaltrailblazer.com/ JOIN OUR FREE FACEBOOK GROUP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/profitablecoursecreators

Welcome back to the Healthy Mouth Movement podcast! Today, I am thrilled to have Sylvia Becker Hill as our guest. Sylvia is a remarkable Renaissance woman, a 12-time published bestselling author, and a seasoned edutainer who has empowered thousands of corporate executives, women leaders, and entrepreneurs worldwide since 1997. In 2022, Sylvia became the first German coach to earn the prestigious title of Professional Certified Coach from the International Coach Federation. With over 30 certifications in various change modalities and a remarkable background, Sylvia is truly an industry-shaping pioneer. Her mission is to empower individuals to transform their lives, and today, she shares her incredible journey and insights with us. Key Takeaways:-Sylvia's Accomplishments: Sylvia Becker Hill is a highly accomplished author, edutainer, and coach with a mission to empower others.-Professional Journey: Sylvia has been empowering individuals since 1997 and earned the title of Professional Certified Coach in 2022.-Educational Background: Sylvia holds two university degrees and over 30 certifications in various change modalities.-FLIP Framework: Sylvia introduces her FLIP framework, which stands for Freedom, Love, Identity, and Power, to help individuals transform challenges into positive outcomes.-Intuition and Body Wisdom: Sylvia emphasizes the importance of trusting intuition and the wisdom of the body for sustainable transformation.-Personal Transformation: Sylvia shares her personal journey of transformation and healing, including a near-death experience that led to profound changes in her life and work. Resources Mentioned:https://www.amazon.ca/Body-Keeps-Score-Healing-Trauma/dp/0670785938https://compassionandchoices.org/plan-a-life-you-love/ Book a consultation today:I am always here to help answer any question and schedule a 15 minute call with me. If I can not help, I can get you to a provider that can.https://shereewertz.com/15-min

On this episode we have Stefanie Krievins on the podcast as we delve into the art and science of leading impactful change within your organization. Whether you're aiming to initiate a cultural shift, implement new processes, or foster innovation, effective leadership is crucial. Our guest Stefanie shares practical strategies and real-world examples to inspire and guide you through the complexities of organizational change. Tune in to gain insights on building consensus, overcoming resistance, and leveraging your team's strengths to drive lasting, positive transformations. Whether you're a seasoned executive or an emerging leader, this episode offers invaluable advice on navigating change management with confidence and achieving meaningful results.About Stefanie KrievinsStefanie Krievins (pronounced Kr-evans, like Evans) is the president of The Change Architects, a boutique integration firm dedicated to driving transformation and upskilling in the mid-market. Because change is now the oxygen we breathe, she designs programs for continuous learning and organizational capabilities, especially with IT teams. This framework is The Change Architecture. She's also the host of the Hot Mess Hotline, a podcast for ambitious leaders who want to drive impactful change. Founded in 2014, The Change Architects is a small and mighty team full of IT, learning and development, HR, and coaching experts. They've worked with companies and teams from 5 to 50,000 employees across all sectors. Her coach training is in solution-focused methodology from Erickson International and she's a member of the International Coach Federation. She also holds a master's degree and undergrad from Indiana University.CONNECT WITH TC ADVISORY GROUP:Website: https://tcadvisorygroup.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tcadvisorygroup1Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetcadvisorygroup/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tc-advisory-group1/FOLLOW THE EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP PODCAST ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/theexecutiveleadershippodcast/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theexecutiveleadershippodcast/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/the-executive-leadership-podcast/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Please welcome Dr. Brett Blair to the Clocking Out podcast. Dr. Brett Blair is the founder and president of Best Life Global, LLC. Best Life Global provides business and personal growth coaching and training services. Brett has published three books, Born - Love - Die, From Autopilot to Authentic, and Living at the Summit. Brett is also the architect and lead instructor for the Best Life Masterclass, a mixture of teaching, coaching, and mastermind. Delivered in an online, intimate group setting specifically designed to get you “unstuck” and help you live your “Best Life." The program is built on two decades of learning and experience neatly packaged into 12 practical lessons.Brett is a keynote speaker on a variety of subjects relative to flourishing and peak performance and the founder of the Best Life Movement, a non-profit organization aimed at helping people live their unique best lives.Brett is also a founding partner of Sanford Rose Associates, an executive search firm based in Brighton, MI., and is a Principal with the Brentwood Advisory Group based in Chicago, IL. Originally from Blue Springs, MO., Brett attended the University of Missouri, where he earned his BS-Industrial Engineering degree. He also holds an MBA-Finance from Tennessee State University and studied at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan. Brett has also completed a Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, with an emphasis on applied positive psychology. Prior to founding Best Life Global, Brett was employed with 3M Corporation and Alcoa in a variety of executive leadership positions.Brett is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, the International Coach Federation, RTP Angel Fund, and is Past President of the Rotary Club of Research Triangle Park, NC. Brett lives in Holly Springs, NC, and is active with his church, with local non-profit organizations, enjoys long-distance running, snow skiing, and travel.Listen as Brett shares his background, career path, and pivotal “clocking out” moments.  ResourcesVisit Brett's website at brettblairphd.comConnect with Brett on LinkedInOrder Born - Love - Die Visit careerminds.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, X, & YoutubeVisit Raymond's website or follow him on socials: LinkedIn, Instagram, Tiktok, X, & YoutubeOrder Clocking Out: A Stress-Free Guide to Career Transitions 

In this episode, Adam interviews Tom Henschel, a seasoned coach with over 34 years of experience. Tom transitioned from a successful acting career to coaching, focusing primarily on Fortune 500 executives, rising women leaders, and disruptive executives. Tom dives into how to build a referral-based business and leverage your network without heavy outbound marketing. Tune in to hear his valuable insights on creating a self-sustaining coaching practice and the importance of nurturing professional relationships.For more than thirty years, senior leaders at Amazon, Disney, Dole, HP, KONE, Netflix, Toyota, Warner Bros., and dozens of other companies have received coaching from Tom Henschel. He has helped leaders get promotions, deepen their workplace relationships, and improve how they're perceived in the workplace.Tom has a unique ability to listen deeply to his clients. This ability allowed him to create a unique podcast, *The Look & Sound of Leadership*. For fifteen years, listeners have expressed gratitude for the coaching they receive from the show. The audience has pushed it into the top 1% of the world's more-than-three million podcasts. Tom is proud of the deep relationships he's built with other coaches. He's a founding coach at Corporate Coaching International and a senior coach with Aria Consulting, Arden Coaching, and Volition Enterprises.Trained as a classical actor at The Juilliard School, Tom made his living as an actor in more than 100 plays and episodes of TV. He was also an award-winning director in theatre. His shows won 13 awards from Los Angeles critics, including five for him as Best Director.Tom is honored to donate coaching to many non-profit organizations. He provides coaching for the Women's Impact Alliance, focusing on emerging female global leaders, and Women in Animation, supporting women around the world in the enormous animation industry. He is a passionate Board Member at Children's Community School, a haven of progressive education in Los Angeles. He gives back to his local chapter of the International Coach Federation, leading a “special interest group” of coaches, six times a year, exploring issues related to executive coaching. Those six days are some of his favorites on the calendar.His most favorite day of the year is in spring. A late-in-life accidental gardener, Tom has created inspiring gardens of California native plants. Yearly, he is part of a county-wide tour where hundreds of people come to visit his gardens. He raises corn snakes and zebra finches. But most important of all his accomplishments, he raised two daughters for whom he has the deepest love.Key Topics Discussed:Transitioning from acting to coachingBuilding a referral-based businessCoaching Fortune 500 ExecutivesOvercoming people-pleasing tendenciesImportance of networking for growthTimestamps:03:45 Actor transitions from a successful acting career to coaching.11:52 A board member conceals true profession from a colleague.13:04 Intuitive skills are valued.18:34 Opportunities arise from consistent in-person networking.20:02 Learning to stop people pleasing and speak up as a coach.To learn more check out Essential Communications.

Welcome to Episode 74 of the Sustainable Clinical Medicine Podcast! In today's episode, Dr. Sarah Smith sits down with the esteemed Karl Pister, president and founder of The Coaching Group, to discuss the challenges and strategies for creating a sustainable and well-balanced clinical practice. Mr. Pister draws on his 25 years of experience in healthcare and leadership development to emphasize the importance of emotional intelligence, effective team dynamics, and the impact of leadership on organizational success. Here are 3 key takeaways from this episode: Dedicate Time for Administrative Tasks: Mr. Pister emphasized the importance of setting aside time for administrative responsibilities and creating boundaries to avoid overextension and burnout. Focus on Emotional Intelligence and Leadership: We delved into the 6 pillars of emotional intelligence and the impact of a leader's demeanor on team dynamics. Karl highlighted the significance of humility, recognition, and treating all staff as leaders. Empower Your Team: Mr. Pister stressed the need for physicians to focus on their core expertise and empower staff to handle other tasks, promoting a well-running enterprise and enhancing team morale. Karl Pister Bio: Karl Pister is the founder and president of The Coaching Group, Inc. Karl has extensive experience in coaching, training, and individual and marital counseling, having worked in these fields for over 34 years. He has focused the majority of his coaching since 2008 on the healthcare sector, specializing in work with physicians, nurses, and healthcare executives with hospitals and clinics nationally. He is certified by the International Coach Federation and the John Maxwell Team. He is also the host of The Healthcare Leadership Excellence podcast. This podcast was created to share valuable insights around leadership, communication, emotional intelligence and conflict resolution. Karl Pister, with over 30 years of coaching experience, is a passionate advocate of excellent and influential leadership. In each episode, Karl discusses real-life leadership challenges through the lenses of outstanding healthcare professionals. He is committed to empowering every healthcare leader lead with integrity, excellence, and inspiration. -------------- Would you like to view a transcript of this episode? Click here **** Charting Champions is a premiere, lifetime access Physician only program that is helping Physicians get home with today's work done. All the proven tools, support and community you need to create time for your life outside of medicine. Learn more at https://www.chartingcoach.ca **** Enjoying this podcast? Please share it with someone who would benefit. Also, don't forget to hit “follow” so you get all the new episodes as soon as they are released. **** Come hang out with me on Facebook or Instagram. Follow me @chartingcoach to get more practical tools to help you create sustainable clinical medicine in your life. **** Questions? Comments? Want to share how this podcast has helped you? Shoot me an email at admin@reachcareercoaching.ca. I would love to hear from you.

In the most recent solo episode, I shared that a few changes are coming to the format of the STaR Coach Show, all of which are designed to enhance and improve the value to our audience. You'll start to see some of those in today's interview with Annie Gelfand, the co-creator and host of the Essence of Mastery Summit. She shares how the path of coaching mastery has the secret sauce it takes to help us be better human beings. If we want to change the world, we have to continue to grow in our coaching mastery! Join us to learn more!Annie Gelfand is a Master Certified Coach (credentialed by the International Coach Federation), Advanced Certified Mentor Coach, and MCC Assessor. Coaching since 1997, she founded the Wisdom Foundation, a humanitarian, philanthropic, community-based, not-for-profit service, as well as Radical Wisdom and Reach Coaching Mastery. A corporate “survivor,” Annie has an MBA, is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach, Organizational and Relationship Systems and Teams Coach, and holds multiple holistic certifications. She is an avid lover of all things natural and nature, including pickleball, kayaking, swimming, biking, hiking, gardening, ping pong, and chess. Show Highlights:Coaches care deeply and want to make an impact in the world.Running a coaching business requires business savvy around accounting, marketing, sales, etc.The feeling is magic!The #1 problem for MCC applicants? Not doing their inner workAlignment eliminates static noise and confusion about our purpose.The trap we fall into when we compare ourselves to others. Show your gifts to the world!“You can't be a secret and a success at the same time!”How to identify and celebrate with your support communityDo the inner work and find your blind spots.It's NOT about the money!Masterful coaches are transparent, curious, confident, and unique.Resources:Connect with Annie Gelfand: Website, LinkedIn, and FacebookCheck out the 2024 Essence of Mastery Summit and use code “Meg” for $498 off the full summit price. (You can get 39 ICF CCEUs for $947!)Work with Meg! A few spots remain for the Fall STaR Coach Show Mentor Program! Visit the STaR Coach Show YouTube Channel!Explore past episodes and other resources at www.STaRcoachshow.com. Explore the STaR Coach Community and see what's available there for you!

It's time to check back in with one of my favorite guys doing men's work - Alex Terranova. Alex just published a book of the top 100 things he's learned in doing over 500 podcasts and was kind enough to include me in it!  But the book barely gets a mention as there are so may other things to discuss. How does a “recovering asshole” come to be a reputed men's coach and Coach of the Year? How do we evolve as men? What are Alex's men's retreats like? Is there one best version of masculinity towards which we are all striving?About My Esteemed Guest and Good Friend:Alex Terranova is an Executive and Leadership Coach, Performance and Success Alchemist, and Sacred Guide for men. Alex's training and essence are steeped in ontological principles, which focus on the nature of being and reality, ancient rituals that promote personal growth and transformation, integrity that underpins all his actions, and somatic practices that involve the integration of mind and body for holistic healing and expansion. With a commitment to love and support and a willingness to tell the hard truth, Alex Terranova fearlessly guides individuals and organizations to transcend mental barriers and unlock their boundless potential. His transformative coaching has led to tangible results, such as businesses growing from 6 to 7 figures, healed relationships, improved parenting, reduced employee turnover, and enhanced happiness, peace, job satisfaction, relationships, and overall life fulfillment.Alex's coaching is a unique blend of integrity, boldness, trust, and love. His expertise spans a wide spectrum, from Business Coaching for owners and leaders striving to grow sales and scale their companies to Mindset and Performance Coaching for athletes seeking high level results to Leadership Coaching for those aiming to elevate every aspect of their lives. His clients share a common desire to grow, improve, succeed, and deepen their relationships. Alex's unique approach, grounded in integrity, boldness, trust, and love, empowers his clients to thrive in all aspects of their lives. Alex's journey towards mastery began in 2015 when he was certified by the esteemed Accomplishment Coaching. His relentless pursuit of excellence led him to earn his PCC, Professional Certified Coach Certification from the International Coach Federation, and his MPM, Mental Performance Mastery Certification from Top Mental & Peak Performance Coach Brian Cain. He has trained and worked with Shamans, Indigenous Leaders, and Psychological and Spiritual Leaders from Eastern and Western Traditions. Recognized by Yahoo Finance as 'The Anti-Excuses Coach,' and MSN, who called the Alchemy of Men Retreat "Best Retreats for Men 2024,"  Alex Terranova is a trusted authority in his field. Through one-on-one and Corporate Coaching, as well as leading Retreats, he has transformed the lives of hundreds of people. He has also trained over 100 other coaches, led men's groups, hosted a top 2% podcast, authored best-selling books, and spoken internationally.Where to reach Alex Terranova: AlexTerranovaCoaching.comFor more on Alex's upcoming Men's Retreats:AlchemyOfMenRetreat.com

"It truly is a matter of exploring, discovery, knowing your boundaries - to gradually get there. The key is to keep your eye on the North Star - what is it that makes you come alive?” In this personal conversation from Raman's other podcast “Learnings from Leaders” - Raman chats with Bernice Ang, an Executive Coach who helps senior leaders design a purpose-centered personal brand, enabling them to integrate their work and personal lives so they can thrive, not just survive. Bernice started her career in Brand Management in P&G Asia Pacific. From there, she took on several Global Marketing leadership roles in the US with Coca-Cola, Pepsico, and Mars-Wrigley. Five years ago, Bernice left her corporate career to pursue her dream of becoming an Executive Coach. Today, Bernice is among the top 4% of professional coaches who holds a Master Certified Coach designation, the highest credential awarded by the International Coach Federation. Bernice also helped co-found the P&G Alumni Network Coaching program, ringing together Professionally certified Executive Coaches with proven track records. You'll enjoy this candid and very personal conversation about IKIGAI - the Japanese concept which encourages people to discover what truly matters to them - to live a life filled with purpose and joy. LEARN MORE berniceang.com/ coaching.pgalums.com pgalums.com/podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"It truly is a matter of exploring, discovery, knowing your boundaries - to gradually get there. The key is to keep your eye on the North Star - what is it that makes you come alive?” Bernice Ang is an Executive Coach who helps senior leaders design a purpose-centered personal brand, enabling them to integrate their work and personal lives so they can thrive, not just survive. Bernice started her career in Brand Management in P&G Asia Pacific. From there, she took on several Global Marketing leadership roles in the US with Coca-Cola, Pepsico, and Mars-Wrigley. Five years ago, Bernice left her corporate career to pursue her dream of becoming an Executive Coach. Today, she is among the top 4% of professional coaches who holds a Master Certified Coach designation, the highest credential awarded by the International Coach Federation. Bernice also helped co-found the P&G Alumni Network Coaching program, ringing together Professionally certified Executive Coaches with proven track records. You'll enjoy this candid and very personal conversation about IKIGAI - the Japanese concept which encourages people to discover what truly matters to them - to live a life filled with purpose and joy. This is a continuation of our series with P&G Alumni Coaching where leading Alumni will dive deep on relevant topics. Just as professional athletes have a coach to help them perform at their best, coaching can help you thrive in career and life life, through powerful questioning, exploration, and action planning. P&G Alums can learn more and sign up for their first free first session @ coaching.pgalums.com.

On today's episode we are talking about how your meetings might be killing your company.Stefanie Krievins, President of The Change Architects since 2014, thrives on dynamic change. Rejecting stagnant plans, she champions continuous learning and organizational strategies, fostering workplace innovation and joy. Her brainchild, The Change Architecture Framework, guides companies through transformation, emerging stronger. Stefanie, an Indiana University alumna, holds a Master's and undergrad degree. Certified as a solution-focused coach by Erickson International and a member of the International Coach Federation, she's renowned for her disruptive approach. A self-proclaimed Pro Troublemaker, Stefanie challenges leaders to embrace discomfort and drive impactful change. As host of the "Hot Mess Hotline" podcast, she offers a platform for ambitious leaders seeking genuine transformation.                 Episode Highlights:Schedule virtual coffee breaks or informal chat sessions for team members to engage in casual conversation and foster rapport.Utilize collaboration tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams to facilitate spontaneous communication and open channels for discussion.Emphasize the need for meetings to deliver substantial value, measured against the collective cost of attendees, and encouraging self-reflection on meeting participation and leadership behaviors.Encourage transparency and knowledge sharing by documenting work and sharing updates regularly using shared documents, wikis, or project management tools.Recognize the importance of physical gatherings for building relationships and facilitating informal learning and idea exchange.Promote cross-team communication by creating opportunities for serendipitous interactions and idea exchange, even in a remote work environment.Start meetings with informal icebreakers or personal check-ins to foster rapport and create a sense of community among team members.Top 3 Takeaways for the Audience:Say no to more meetings: Challenge the status quo by being selective about attending or scheduling meetings, prioritizing those where you can contribute value.Commit to active participation and leadership: Take ownership of meetings by actively engaging, sharing ideas, and fostering an environment of open communication and honesty.Focus on building trust and psychological safety: Recognize the importance of creating an environment where team members feel comfortable expressing their thoughts and opinions, ultimately contributing to organizational success.How to Connect with Stefanie & The Change Architects: www.thechangearchitects.com

On this week's episode of Six-Figure Certified, Liv Chapman sits down with IGC Graduate and Six-Figure Certified Coach, Laura Weldy. A high-achieving, feisty, unapologetic champion for women and their ability to rule the world, Laura entered the world of coaching a decade ago after answering an Ad on Monster.com to start as Liv's assistant, and work her way through IGC. From student to trainer, and mentor coach, Laura knows her stuff when it comes to quality coaching and what it looks like. Laura has her bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota, Morris in Sociology and Gender, Women's, and Sexuality studies. She's completed more than 125 hours of official coach training and is certified through the International Coach Federation. Laura has completed 600+ hours of high level one on one coaching with clients over the past 4 years in addition to numerous in person events. Laura has spent the past 6 years doing professional public speaking to thousands of audience members, and creating massive growth within her own coaching business. She's managed international teams and worked with top companies under immense pressure. These days, she is one of the most highly sought after coaches in Nashville, L.A., and across the US, certified by and partnering with the International Coach Federation as a voice for millennial leaders. This episode dives deep into additional options that come OUTSIDE of running a coaching business -- which Laura specializes in -- and will help get the wheels turning on what else you can do with your Coach Certification, especially if you have years' worth of experience as an expert in a different field of work. QUOTEABLES: "There's this growing opportunity for people to say 'I get this certification, I can use it in the future as an entrepreneur if that's what I want.' But in the meantime, it adds so much value to them professionally." ACTION ITEMS: 1. Check out Laura's previous podcast episode here to learn more about her story. 2. Brainstorm the ways getting certified as a Life Coach can open new doors in your career (professionally, as a business owner or both!) 3. Need help with expanding your vision on your business or career? Book a Six Figure Strategy call with our team to help you get on your custom path of alignment. FREE IGC RESOURCES: SCALE YOUR SKILLS: Want to learn more about our upcoming April 23rd event "Scale Your Skills" and how you can scale your skills in your coaching business? ⁠Book a FREE Business Strategy Session here.⁠ ⁠HOW TO RUN A COACHING SESSION⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ AND ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠SAMPLE LIFE COACHING SESSION IN 7 MINUTES: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Team IGC guides you through running your first coaching session from start to finish, and then gives you an example in under 7 minutes on how to apply all of the steps to ensure your guiding your clients to accomplishing their goals. PAPERBELL: Want to run your Coaching Business without a hitch? Get Paperbell for FREE using the link here to get paid faster and set up your coaching business efficiently. (https://bit.ly/igcpaperbell) CONNECT: CONNECT WITH LAURA: @⁠lauraweldy ⁠Follow Laura on Instagram⁠ | ⁠Check out Laura Weldy's Website Here CONNECT WITH OLIVIA: ⁠@thelivchapman⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Olivia on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Work with Olivia: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.innerglowcircle.com/liv⁠⁠⁠ CONNECT WITH IGC: Find your purpose, live it, and get paid with Inner Glow Circle, an ICF Accredited life coach school for women, by women: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠innerglowcircle.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To find out more about IGC's financing options, email: finance@innerglowcircle.com Like what you're hearing? Connect with us on social media! IG | @innerglowcircle -⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ instagram.com/innerglowcircle⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ FB |  @innerglowcircle -⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ facebook.com/innerglowcircle⁠⁠ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sixfigurecertified/message

⁠Shirin⁠ is a dedicated teacher, facilitator, and guide specializing in mindfulness and mindset. She has been featured as a wellness expert on the Today Show, The New York Times, Shape, and Cosmopolitan Magazine. After a decade as an award-winning opera singer, performing at prestigious venues like the Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall, Shirin was burnt out and unhappy. This experience taught her that true fulfillment comes from within, not from external achievements. Through the practices of mindset and mindfulness, Shirin rediscovered her joy, resilience, and motivation. Now, as a coach, she helps others achieve both inner and outer fulfillment as they pursue their goals. She believes that we all have the power to heal, teach, and lead ourselves, and her mission is to empower women to reconnect with their inner wisdom. Shirin is certified by the International Coach Federation and integrates her background in meditation, spirituality, and the arts into her holistic approach to transformation. She has even developed her own coach certification program ⁠Wholehearted Life Coaching Certification: A decolonized approach to heart-centered coaching.⁠ A captivating speaker, she has presented at various events, including ALT Summit, Ignite Women Summit, Well Summit, Heal Haus, and the Assemblage. Additionally, she is the co-founder of The Glow Up and Brown Girl Brunch and hosts two podcasts, Wholehearted Coaching: The Podcast and Two Girls Talking Shit. ___________ Work with me, your host,  here: ⁠Thelovelyalea.com⁠  Get my free MAGIC MENTOR guide at ⁠thelovelyalea.com⁠ Become a Patreon Member to get behind the scenes, extra content, and workshops.⁠patreon.com/thelovelyalea⁠ Follow me on Instagram ⁠instagram.com/thelovelyalea⁠ ( Remember I will never DM you for readings - watch out for Scammers ! ) Check out my workshops at ⁠Spiritualshitschool.com⁠ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thelovelyalea/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thelovelyalea/support

In this episode of the Growing Your Firm podcast, host David Cristello welcomes John Seiffer, a seasoned business owner and remote CEO, to discuss the concept of Output Thinking and its application in team management. John, a business coach and former president of the International Coach Federation, shares insights on how to make managing teams easier by focusing on visible, measurable outputs. The conversation touches on culture, values, and attitudes in a unique way, offering valuable perspectives for the audience. Tune in to learn how Output Thinking can transform the way you lead your team and firm. The listener will learn about the concepts of culture, values, and attitudes, and how to apply them to make managing a team easier. The importance of defining outputs for employees, creating processes, and investing in employee happiness will also be discussed.

Sahara Rose De Vore is the CEO and Founder of The Travel Coach Network, a global community where they train, educate, and certify travel coaches through the world's first and only International Coach Federation accredited certification program. Sahara is a published author, global speaker, TEDx speaker, and has been in over 175+ media outlets for her travel and business expertise including Forbes, Travel Weekly, Conde Nast Traveler, and CNN Travel. Sahara was also named one of 2023's Most Influential Women in Travel by TravelPulse and will be appearing on Season 8 of Project Pitch It!Here's where to find more:Website: https://thetravelcoachnetwork.comwebsite: https://sahararosetravels.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/sahararosethetravelcoachInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetravelcoachnetworkLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sahara-rose-de-vore-4b8bb394Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaharaRoseTheTravelCoachFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/theTravelCoachNetworkTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sahararosethetravelcoachYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thetravelcoachnetworkPodcast: https://anchor.fm/thetravelcoachnetwork___________________________________________________________Welcome to The Unforget Yourself Show where we use the power of woo and the proof of science to help you identify your blind spots, and get over your own bullshit so that you can do the fucking thing you ACTUALLY want to do!We're Mark and Katie, the founders of Unforget Yourself and the creators of the Unforget Yourself System and on this podcast, we're here to share REAL conversations about what goes on inside the heart and minds of those brave and crazy enough to start their own business. From the accidental entrepreneur to the laser-focused CEO, we find out how they got to where they are today, not by hearing the go-to story of their success, but talking about how we all have our own BS to deal with and it's through facing ourselves that we find a way to do the fucking thing.Along the way, we hope to show you that YOU are the most important asset in your business (and your life - duh!). Being a business owner is tough! With vulnerability and humor, we get to the real story behind their success and show you that you're not alone._____________________Find all our links to all the things like the socials, how to work with us and how to apply to be on the podcast here: https://linktr.ee/unforgetyourself