Podcast appearances and mentions of karen millsap

Stop & Shift: Take Control of Your ThoughtsWelcome, listeners, to Women Emerging Fearlessly, the podcast dedicated to helping women live with fearless confidence, and to know how amazing they truly are. I’m your host, Janelle Anderson, and in Episode 40 I chat with Karen Millsap, who at 29 hit rock bottom when she lost her husband, her car, her house, and her job, all in one year. It was only when she discovered mental strength training that she was able to piece herself back together. Learning to build a healthy mindset completely changed her life and now she helps her clients (and audiences) do the same.Karen is a growth mindset speaker & coach, and during our conversation we discuss great methods of pulling yourself out of unhealthy cycles so you can conquer both your personal and professional goals.No more living with regret, hopelessness, or overwhelming stress. You have the power to build the life of your dreams — and it all starts with a mindset shift. After listening to this episode, you’ll have the tools to jumpstart your mental strength training, increase self-awareness through conscious thinking, and reframe unproductive thought cycles.Karen has a free download titled, “51 Mental Strength Training Exercises,” that  she has made available to listeners. Just text “Karen” to 66866 to receive an instant download of “51 Mental Strength Training Exercises” with more resources available on her website.Reach Karen: hello@karenmillsap.comWebsite: https://www.karenmillsap.comFacebook: karenmillsapmotivationInstagram & Twitter: @karenmillsapLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/karenallenmillsapLike what you’ve heard? Subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, and please consider leaving a positive review.If you’d like to work with Janelle on becoming fearlessly confident, email her at janelle@emerginglifecoaching.com.Website: www.emerginglifecoaching.comSocial Media:https://www.facebook.com/emerginglifecoachinghttps://twitter.com/nellie_53https://www.pinterest.com/emerginglifecoaching/_created/https://www.linkedin.com/in/emerginglifecoaching/

Today we are talking with Karen Millsap. Karen is a Growth Mindset Expert and TEDx Speaker. She is a corporate trainer and a professional keynote speaker. She has done presentations and on-camera work for over a decade. Welcome to the SubscriptionMaker Podcast. This is your host Zachary Alexander, Enterprise Architect at SubscriptionMaker.net. Please hit the […] The post An Interview with Karen Millsap appeared first on SubscriptionMaker.

Karen is a mindset coach with the power to help you transform the way you think. When we know the voice of God - we are free to care more about what He thinks than what others think.  God calls us to listen to His voice, but often times the enemy wants us to be distracted by the thoughts and voices of others in our lives. The enemy wants you to believe that people are against you, that they think you are a fraud, and he wants to destroy any chance he gets to take you off course. But God! Join us for a deep dive into why we care so much what others think and practical steps to make a change - through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Follow Karen @Karenmillsap and karenmillsap.com

At 29 years old Karen MIllsap received a call that would drop her to her knees, her husband had been shot and killed at his place of business. If that wasn't challenging enough, over the course of the next year she also lost her house, her car and her job. However, this is not a story of defeat, this is a story of rising out of the ashes of devastation and building a new life for herself and her two year old son. Karen Millsap (www.karenmillsap.com)is a fighter. She decided early on that she was not going to let her challenges and setbacks define her for the rest of her life. She decided that she was going to get creative, get resourceful and be persistent in pursuing life for herself and her son. Karen Millsap is now a Mindset Expert and TEDx Speaker who is passionate about teaching individuals the tools and resources to feel better, live better, and achieve their goals with a strong-healthy mindset. On the quest to rebuild her life, she discovered healthy habits and lifestyle changes that helped her find her way back to a whole heart. Now, she shares practical advice and life strategies that provide tangible results and skills to help people push through the everyday challenges we all face in life and work. ​ Karen is the creator of the mental exercise: Stop & Shift. She developed this method to help people jumpstart their mental strength training. It's a simple, yet powerful, technique that explains how to let go of negative thought cycles and move to more productive and positive thinking.

When we think of mental health, we might default to thinking about mental illness ... but there's way more to the conversation. Mindset Expert Karen Millsap teaches us how a positive, growth mindset can help us grow through anything we go through. You don't want to miss this one! Mentions (affiliate links included): Karen's TEDx Talk “Use Your Tragedy to Change the World” - https://bit.ly/3be3Oqb Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert - https://amzn.to/2SKNVRy The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo - https://amzn.to/3ceALnt Connect with Karen Millsap: KarenMillsap.com Instagram - http://instagram.com/karenmillsap YouTube - https://bit.ly/3dphShR Unstuck on Purpose Podcast - https://apple.co/3cdYRPl Connect with me: Develop Your Dream on Instagram - http://instagram.com/developyourdreampodcast Develop Your Dream on Twitter - http://twitter.com/devyourdream --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/developyourdream/support

Three great guests join Suzanne Lynn on this episode. Karen Millsap was a widow and single mom at the age of 29. She talks about how to grow through pain and create a new normal. Dr. Chuck Reinertsen from LifeTime Dental and Your Filthy Mouth talks about snoring and the concerns you may have about it. And Denise Burry of Forward Paths Foundation, Inc. in Leesburg shares about the problem of Florida's youth aging out of foster care and becoming homeless and what their organization is doing about it locally.

Hey guys! We're your hosts, Lize Landis and Karen Millsap! We're so excited to be launching this new podcast and hope you enjoy our coffee convos.

It seemed like an evening like any other for Karen Millsap. She picked up her kids from her husband's CrossFit gym in the evening and headed home to do some work. But a single phone call was all it would take to shatter the illusion of normalcy forever. Amid the chaos on the other end of the phone, Karen was able to make out just one word. “Shot.” By the time she got there it was too late, and Karen found herself widowed at only 29 years old. Karen sits down with Davey to talk about the things she's learned from grief and how she's using her story to help others who find themselves in the same situation. Check out Karen's website Follow Karen on Instragram Buy Man's Search for Meaning

This week's show — January 1, 2020 — is the “Best of 2019” episode. Listen for reflections on decades past and the decade ahead, as well as what I'm looking forward to for the podcast in 2020. Also join me as a share clips from six favorite episodes this year, with guests Austin Shoecraft, Claire Bidwell Smith, Allison Gilbert, Lane Pease, Jessica Maitland Mayo & Micki Burns, and Dr. Lisa Damour. Also mentioned: interviews with Buffy Peters & Sasha Mudlaff, Dr. Justin Yopp, Tembi Locke, Vicki Jay, and Karen Millsap.

Today we wind up our special two-part discussion for the one-year anniversary of the Widowed Parent Podcast. My friend Karen Millsap returns to once again interview me on my own show. I had so much fun talking with her and reflecting on how and why I started the podcast, and also thinking about some of the main lessons I've learned from my guests. Some of the topics we discuss include: Why I decided to start the Widowed Parent Podcast; How I learned what I needed to do to start it; Getting over the question of ‘why me' – why should I start this podcast; What's been the most fun; What's been the hardest; Why I took an August break from producing new episodes; What I've learned from my guests on the podcast; and What I'm looking forward to in the next year. Many thanks to Karen for taking the mic again this week for Part 2 of our discussion, and helping me reflect on my journey through starting the Widowed Parent Podcast. I'm especially glad to be able to look back at some of the key things I've learned from my guests and share them with listeners. I hope you enjoy our discussion.

We're changing things up this week, in honor of the one-year anniversary of the podcast. I've asked my friend Karen Millsap to interview me on my own show. Long time listeners will remember Karen from Episode 14. She's a widowed parent herself, and she is a Mindset Mastery Coach who is passionate about teaching individuals the tools and resources to feel better, live better, and achieve their goals with a healthy mindset. This week – in Part 1 – we talk about my story. I'm always on the other side of the mic, asking the questions, but this week the tables are turned. Karen interviews me, and I share my journey of the past few years with my husband, Dennis, being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and then dying when our kids were 9 and 11. Some topics we discuss include: Our “normal” life before my husband, Dennis, died; His diagnosis with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer; Living through the 8 months he was terminally ill; Parenting our 9 & 11-year-olds through his illness; What the early months of being a widowed parent were like; Starting Megan's Cards for Cancer with my daughter to raise money for brain cancer research; and Looking ahead to Part 2 – next week – with more about how I started the Widowed Parent Podcast, and what I've learned so far from my guests. Many thanks to Karen for taking the mic this week and helping me share my story. I hope you enjoy our discussion.

Mental health awareness has grown more than ever today. But managers, employers, and leaders still have a long way to go in helping their employees get the support they need to deal with mental illness especially in the workplace. How do we help our people feel better and live better? How do we shift their thoughts to make positive choices at work and in life? Join me today as I talk to Karen Millsap on how you can strengthen your mind, change your thoughts, make positive choices and walk a purposeful path so that you can help your employees do the same. Karen is the The Grief Consultant and CEO of Egency, a firm that helps organizations create a human-centric culture with compassion and empathy. She was a former guest on the podcast where she shared how she turned her pain into a purpose to help others. In this episode, Karen is back to share her wisdom on how we can train our brain to stay focused, aware and calm so we can live a better life. She also talks about the STOP & SHIFT models, what is it, and how she applies it to others to change their thoughts and strengthen their mental wellbeing! In this episode, you will learn about: Why you need to help yourself before you can start helping other people How to have a healthy mindset Silencing negative thoughts that are eating away at you The STOP & SHIFT models and how to put them into practice Strengthening your awareness practice Separating yourself from your thoughts to effectively choose what response to give Why society is more open to talking about mental health now 51 Mental Strength Exercises The 5 Day Digital Detox Training your brain  Karen’s thoughts on people who tend to carry around the weight of other people’s issues What did you think of this episode? Give us a 5-star rating and write a review on Apple Podcasts, or take our survey. Contact Brandon: Email Brandon.Laws@xeniumhr.com or connect on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram Learn more about Xenium HR at xeniumhr.com Follow Xenium on Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn. More about Karen Karen Millsap, also known as, The Grief Consultant, began her career in human resources and talent acquisition where she leads countless training, new process, and change initiatives. At a young age, she suddenly became a widow when her husband was tragically murdered which completely changed the trajectory of her life. After experiencing a domino effect of other losses, she became acutely aware of the overall lack of support in our society for grieving people. We are all connected through our struggles, from the death of loved ones to life-altering illnesses, divorce, even job loss. This realization ignited Karen's desire to turn her pain into purpose and pay it forward to help others.   Karen’s work has been featured in SHRM Magazine, on Good Morning Washington, MSNBC, and many others! She is a TEDx keynote speaker who inspires audiences to embrace compassion and empathy to help alleviate other’s suffering by becoming advocates for their own adversaries.  This experience opens minds and hearts to revive connectivity.   She received her undergraduate degree in Communication from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She is also a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist through the Grief Recovery Institute in Los Angeles, California. Connect with Karen Karenmillsap | website Instagram LinkedIn Facebook   Resources mentioned in this episode: Free Download: Get 51 exercises to start building a healthier mindset today The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael A. Singer Thrive Global Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Walker PhD, Matthew Transform Your Workplace: How Compassion Can Change Your Culture 5 Healthy Morning Habits

Karen Millsap is a Resilience & Mindset Coach who is passionate about teaching individuals the tools + resources to feel better, live better, and achieve their goals with a healthy mindset. She began her career in human resources and talent acquisition where she led countless training, new process, and change initiatives. However, at a young age, she suddenly became a widow when her husband was tragically murdered. On the quest to rebuild her life, she discovered healthy habits and lifestyle changes that helped her find her way back to a whole heart. Now, she shares practical advice and life strategies that provide tangible results and skills to help people push through the everyday challenges we all face in life and work. Karen is the Founder of The Groflo a community that shares mental + emotional health tips and positive lifestyle inspiration. She’s also the CEO (Chief Empathy Officer) of Egency, a consulting firm that provides leadership training to help organizations create a human-centric culture with compassion and empathy. Karen's client list includes NBC’s Golf Channel, Hubspot, Universal Orlando Parks & Resorts, Sprint and many more! Her work has been featured in Forbes, SHRM Magazine, on Good Morning America, MSNBC, and many others! She's also a regular contributor to Arianna Huffington's THRIVE Global community. Karen received her undergraduate degree in Communication from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She is also a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist through the Grief Recovery Institute in Los Angeles, California. Key Points from the Episode with Karen Millsap: Karen is a resilience and mindset coach, and everything she teaches came from the things she used in her own journey. Everything boils down to the power of choice for her, and how we all have this great power. We can either be a monster and do great evil, or make the choice to use our power for good. She clarified the difference between choice and control – we cannot control everything, but our choice is about how we respond to what we face. She learned this lesson the hard when when she lost her husband when she was 29. “Lost” isn’t quite the right word for it, though. Her husband had just opened a cross-fit gym, and was at work one afternoon while Karen had their son while she worked from home. While on a call for work, she kept getting a call from a member of their gym. She finally took the call, and was not expecting what she heard. On the other end of the call was screaming and chaos, and one word Karen could make out, “Shot.” On her way to the gym, Karen had a thought of why she wasn’t meeting her husband at the hospital. Wouldn’t he be rushed there if he had been shot? She soon found out why – her husband’s life couldn’t be saved and he had already died. The first year was so difficult, it was hard enough just to get out of bed each day, let alone care for their son or work. On that day her husband had been shot, the police informed her that she would have to call someone to clean up the scene, which is mind-blowing. Her pastor immediately said she shouldn’t worry about it and he would take care of it. That act of support was so crucial in helping her see that there is still good. It also showed Karen the difference between empathy and compassion. Empathy is understanding or comprehension, while compassion is about stepping in and trying to do something for the person to help take some of their pain. As she started to go back to work, she saw how the ability to have the conversation about how we put our arms around each other and have the permission to be human, we’ll all be more productive, loyal and healthier humans. We talked about Google’s Project Aristotle, which looked at the difference between high and low performing teams, and found that the driver is empathy. The way we get better at taking care of others is We taking care of ourselves better. Resilience and mindset translates to so many situations where we have to serve others because, as Karen says, “When we are all our best selves, we are all winning.” We touched on helping a child through grief, something Karen had to deal with in supporting her son after he lost his father. She found that she could only help him by working through her own grief. The tools she used, the way she handled it – all of that translated to her ability and toolkit to help him. We talked about whether you can cry in front of your children in a situation like this, and she learned that he needed to learn that it’s ok to show your emotions. Honor your emotions to choose how to move forward. We talked a lot about Karen’s feeling of shame of her grief or her fear of being a burden to her family, who had their own grief to deal with. The more we suppress how we’re feeling, the more likely our pain is going to manifest in unhealthy ways. By default, in so many situations, we tend to go to a negative space, including negative self-talk. Part of this is driven by how asking for help is seen as a sign of weakness. If we show empathy, people will see it as safer to ask for help. Asking for also increases trust, so the impact to an organization (or group or family) of empathy, honesty about the need for help and less negative (or more positive) self-talk is more trust. We talked about forgive and what it really is, and whether you truly need to forgive. Karen sees forgiveness as a choice rather than a feeling, and she found herself not interested in feeling forgiveness for this man who took her husband’s life. As she struggled with the idea of forgiveness, she saw the movie, The Shack, which is based on a book people told her to read that she never did. It helped her understand the state people are in when they do heinous things, which opened up a kind of compassion in her she hadn’t been able to feel. And even though she didn’t want to feel it, she couldn’t help it. It showed her about acceptance, which is more about recognizing the starting point you are at now rather than dwelling on where you were. For Karen, while forgiveness is an act of compassion for the other person, it is also an act of compassion for you. You may struggle with the balance of those two things, which can make it hard to feel true forgiveness. Karen created the methodology she calls “Stop & Shift” STOP: Silence Thoughts On Purpose - you can disconnect yourself from the thoughts swarming in your mind so you can bring yourself to present SHIFT: See Hope, Intentions, Facts & new Thoughts - at any point in any situation, you can look at one of these three things to find new thoughts. Links: Website: http://www.karenmillsap.com Facebook: facebook.com/karenmillsapmotivation Twitter: twitter.com/stopandshift LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/karenmillsap_motivationalspeaker/about/ Subscribe to The Do a Day Podcast     Keep Growing with Do a Day Get the book in print, Kindle, iBooks, Audiobook and more - even get a personally-signed copy from Bryan Falchuk Get started on your journey to Better with the Big Goal Exercise Work with Bryan as your coach, or hire him to speak at your next event

Karen Millsap's story of resilience and determination to live life fully despite the unthinkable tragedy she endured is incredibly inspiring. She is a true light and example to us all as she learned to heal from her own pain and has since dedicated her life's work to helping others grow and flow with life's ups and downs.In this interview with Karen, she helps us better understand how we can best show up for those around us who are grieving, how we can turn pain into power for the good, and how we can use our own tragedies or setbacks to make a difference in the world. Listen as Christy and Karen have a real and honest conversation about learning to flow with life and how to show up for each other when we need it the most. Visit the links mentioned in this episode:Karen's Website: https://www.karenmillsap.com/Supportal: https://www.meetsupportal.com/Karen's Ted Talk: https://youtu.be/BypYSAzxyyYFor more information about the host, Christy McCaffrey, visit:https://www.christymccaffrey.com

This episode starts out in a dark moment and grows from there. Karen talks about how she took the worst point in her life and used it to make the change she needed. We talk about fears; we talk about choices. We cover a lot of ground, so pull up a chair and listen up!

Life can serve up some powerful punches that can seem incredibly cruel and unfair while in the throes of wrestling with them. Often, hardship is a tremendous opportunity in disguise to discover just who and what we can become in life. It's so important to remember that we always have the freedom to choose our attitudinal stance to whatever pummeling life serves up. We can see ourselves as hopeless victims of an unfair fate. Or we can reach down deep into our core while focusing on serving others as we dig out way out, which is the route Karen Millsap took. She is a beautiful example of a person transformed through her response to gut-wrenching hardship who now lives a meaningful life of passion and purpose helping others heal and enjoy greater well-being.

Life can serve up some powerful punches that can seem incredibly cruel and unfair while in the throes of wrestling with them. Often, hardship is a tremendous opportunity in disguise to discover just who and what we can become in life. It's so important to remember that we always have the freedom to choose our attitudinal stance to whatever pummeling life serves up. We can see ourselves as hopeless victims of an unfair fate. Or we can reach down deep into our core while focusing on serving others as we dig out way out, which is the route Karen Millsap took. She is a beautiful example of a person transformed through her response to gut-wrenching hardship who now lives a meaningful life of passion and purpose helping others heal and enjoy greater well-being.

Life can serve up some powerful punches that can seem incredibly cruel and unfair while in the throes of wrestling with them. Often, hardship is a tremendous opportunity in disguise to discover just who and what we can become in life. It's so important to remember that we always have the freedom to choose our attitudinal stance to whatever pummeling life serves up. We can see ourselves as hopeless victims of an unfair fate. Or we can reach down deep into our core while focusing on serving others as we dig out way out, which is the route Karen Millsap took. She is a beautiful example of a person transformed through her response to gut-wrenching hardship who now lives a meaningful life of passion and purpose helping others heal and enjoy greater well-being.

Karen Millsap is a TEDx speaker, Founder of The Groflo community and the CEO - which stands for "Chief Empathy Officer" of Egency. At only 29 years old, her life was suddenly flipped upside down... she became a widow when her husband, Richard, was tragically murdered. On the quest to rebuild her life, she discovered simple habits and lifestyle changes that helped her find her way back to a whole heart. Self-care essentially saved her life. This realization sparked a deep desire to share everything she has learned and spread light to anyone who needs help navigating tough situations.   In this episode we talked about her relationship with her husband, his murder, finding joy again, grieving in the work place, and grief dreams of her husband and uncle.   You can find more about Karen here https://www.karenmillsap.com/

Positive Phil Podcast is a daily podcast hosted by Positive Phil. Our popular growing podcast currently airs on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spreaker, Soundcloud, on our official website, RSS feeds globally, and many more digital platforms!If you are looking for another way to stay motivated in life, be sure to subscribe to our episodes.www.positivephil.comwww.positivephil.com/aboutwww.positivestocks.comwww.podcastconnector.com

Positive Phil Podcast is a daily podcast hosted by Positive Phil. Our popular growing podcast currently airs on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spreaker, Soundcloud, on our official website, RSS feeds globally, and many more digital platforms!If you are looking for another way to stay motivated in life, be sure to subscribe to our episodes.www.positivephil.comwww.positivephil.com/aboutwww.positivestocks.comwww.podcastconnector.com

Karen’s world was ripped apart when her husband & father of her son was shot in his cross fit gym. Karen Millsap, began her career in human resources and talent acquisition where she lead countless training, new process, and change initiatives. At a young age, she suddenly became a widow when her husband was tragically murdered which completely changed the trajectory of her life. After experiencing a domino effect of other losses, she became acutely aware of the overall lack of support in our society for grieving people. We are all connected through our struggles, from the death of loved ones, to life-altering illnesses, divorce, even job loss. This realization ignited Karen's desire to turn her pain into purpose and pay it forward to help others.  Karen's work has been featured in SHRM Magazine, on Good Morning Washington, MSNBC, and many others! She's also a regular contributor to Arianna Huffington's THRIVE Global community. Karen is a TEDx keynote speaker who inspires audiences to embrace compassion and empathy to help alleviate other’s suffering by becoming advocates for their own adversaries.  Karen is the CEO (Chief Empathy Officer) of Egency, a firm that helps organizations create a human-centric culture with compassion and empathy. She's also the author of the upcoming book, Now What? and founder of Well Now Global Retreats. We talk: The shock of loss How to build your life from total chaos Building purpose from your pain The tactics for moving forward from any hardship A moving, thought-provoking and insightful talk. You can find out more about Karen at: https://www.karenmillsap.com

Karen Millsap is the founder of the community, Groflo. At only 29 years old, she suddenly became a widow when her husband, Richard, was tragically killed. On her journey of healing, she discovered immensely effective habits and lifestyle changes that helped her find her way back to a whole heart. Karen is also the Founder & CEO of Egency, a training firm that helps organizations create a human-centric culture with compassion and empathy. Her client list includes NBC's Golf Channel, Sprint, Universal Studio Resorts and many more! Karen's work has been featured in Forbes, on Good Morning Washington, MSNBC, and a variety of podcasts. She's also a regular contributor to Arianna Huffington's THRIVE Global community. Listen & Subscribe on: iTunes / Stitcher / Podbean / Overcast / Spotify Contact Info Company: Groflo Website: www.karenmillsap.com FB: https://www.facebook.com/karenmillsapmotivation/ Instagram: @The.Groflo https://www.instagram.com/the.groflo/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenallenmillsap Most Influential Person Eckhart Tolle www.EckhartTolle.com Effect on Emotions I've been able to control my emotions instead of being controlled by them. There were certainly those days when the tears were rolling and the anger was on a hundred and I could have made some bad decisions. But I remember specifically saying, ‘no, that's not me, those are my emotions and I don't have to own them.' Thoughts on Breathing Breathing is absolutely part of my mindfulness. At night when grief was thick, it was hard to fall asleep and I learned this technique of inhaling on one, exhaling on two, counting to ten and then starting back on one. That really helped me to fall asleep. It also helps my son. Sometimes our minds are just busy and it's not always busy with grief, but that is where I learned that technique. Suggested Resources Book: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck Book: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle App: Headspace https://www.headspace.com/headspace-meditation-app Free Gift Thinking of launching your own podcast? You’ll need a host; a place to upload your episodes. Podbean is awesome. Podbean is built specifically for podcasters, been around for 10 years and the pricing is super competitive. It’s $9 a month, no matter how much content you upload and they have great stats as well. You can help support Mindfulness Mode AND get a month of free hosting with my affiliate link. Go to www.Podbean.com/PodbeanMM

We chat with Karen Millsap, a grief consultant who's husband was killed when she was 29 with a 2 yr old son. She experienced the unimaginable, and turned tragedy into a higher calling to help others deal with loss and grief. Her life work is now to teach empathy and how to live a life with more abundance and joy. Visit her website at www.karenmillsap.com Follow her on Instagram @karen.millsap & the.groflo Email us at themimosamamas@gmail.com we'd love to hear your feedback! Follow us on Insta @mimosamamas Tweet us @mimosa_mamas

We chat with Karen Millsap, a grief consultant who's husband was killed when she was 29 with a 2 yr old son. She experienced the unimaginable, and turned tragedy into a higher calling to help others deal with loss and grief. Her life work is now to teach empathy and how to live a life with more abundance and joy. Visit her website at www.karenmillsap.com Follow her on Instagram @karen.millsap & the.groflo Email us at themimosamamas@gmail.com we'd love to hear your feedback! Follow us on Insta @mimosamamas Tweet us @mimosa_mamas

How will you let your tragedies define you? Unquestionably, Karen Millsap let her story pave a path of greatness. After her husband was tragically and unexpectedly murdered, Millsap decided she would become a stronger individual from it. As the current CEO and founder of Egency, a”people-first” organization, Millsap believes that sharing her habit and lifestyle changes during her time of grief helps others manage their healing. Furthermore, Millsap demonstrates the exact kind of servant leadership we love: a true zeal for compassion, empathy, and taking care of your people personally and professionally.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/aserversjourney?fan_landing=true)

Karen Millsap, the CEO (Chief Empathy Officer) of Egency and Founder of The Groflo, began her career in human resources and talent acquisition where she led countless training, new process, and change initiatives. At a young age, she suddenly became a widow when her husband was tragically murdered which completely changed the trajectory of her life. After experiencing a domino effect of other losses, she became acutely aware of the overall lack of support in our society for grieving people. We are all connected through our struggles, from the death of loved ones, to life-altering illnesses, divorce, even job loss. This realization ignited Karen's desire to turn her pain into purpose and pay it forward to help others. Egency is a leadership development and training firm that helps organizations create a human-centric culture with compassion and empathy. The Groflo is a community that shares mental + emotional growth tips and positive lifestyle inspiration.   Karen's client list includes NBC’s Golf Channel, Hubspot, Universal Studio Resorts, Sprint and many more! Her work has been featured in Forbes, SHRM Magazine, on Good Morning America, MSNBC, and many others! She's also a regular contributor to Arianna Huffington's THRIVE Global community.  Karen is a TEDx keynote speaker who inspires audiences to embrace compassion and empathy to help alleviate other’s suffering by becoming advocates for their own adversaries. She received her undergraduate degree in Communication from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She is also a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist through the Grief Recovery Institute in Los Angeles, California. Questions Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey? Could you share with us a little bit about empathy? Where does compassion come from? Does compassion come innately? A taboo topic that is found in Jamaica is incest and abuse. When I hear people talk, especially when you're talking to young girls to help them to move from that trauma and that experience because it's something that stays with you for life, how do you respond to them in terms of, you made it through, everything's going to be okay. Do you think that traits of empathy and compassion are required more than the traits of technical competencies of doing the job because those things had to build had to build the relationship? Could you share with us how do you stay motivated every day? What's the one online resource tool, website or app that you couldn't absolutely live without in your business or life? Could you share with us any books that have had the greatest or biggest impact on you? What’s one thing that’s going on in your life right now that you are really excited about – either something that you’re working on to develop yourself or people? Where can our listeners find you online? What’s one quote or saying that during times of adversity you tend to revert to that quote or saying to help you to refocus or recenter so that you can move forward?   Highlights Yanique mentioned, I first phoned Karen on Good Morning America when Robin Roberts was interviewing her a couple of weeks back. And I was so impressed that we actually have people out there that are called Grief Consultants. And it was amazing to hear that she was using her pain, she's channeled it into good to go into organizations and train leaders on how to effectively communicate with their team members and build better teams. Karen shared that unfortunately, this knowledge and this passion came from the tragedy when her husband Richard was killed and at the time she was working in Human Resources and recruiting for a national home building company. So, her background up to that point had been in HR but touched in different pieces of recruiting and training and leadership development and all of that good stuff. So, after her husband passed, when she transitioned back to the workplace, she found that there was just this huge disconnect between the expectations of corporate America and humans, what we are capable of doing and how we process in the midst of such a delicate time. And so, when she experienced this firsthand, her immediate response was, “How can I use this to help other people?”Now, part of it was helping individuals because we definitely need help in navigating grief. It's such a complex journey and it doesn't look the same for everybody, but we also need help interacting with people who are going through their own grief journey. And so, that's where her heart was initially led, although there were one off individuals, who she was helping along the way, she really honed in on creating workshops or training and leadership development tools that would help people to manage grief in the workplace. So, her company, they develop The Four Pillars of Practical Empathy and those are Awareness, Communication, Support, and Productivity. And so, as she started down that journey of talking about grief in the workplace, there was a lot of resistance as you can imagine. First of all, people don't want to admit that there's this elephant in the room, everybody is going through something, grief is a universal human experience. The biggest myth about grief is that we think it only occurs because of a death, but it actually comes from different losses or changes. It could be from becoming a caregiver to an elderly parent or finding out that somebody in your family or even yourself is diagnosed with a terminal illness, there's so many different things. But again, it comes because of a change or a loss when we expect things to be different or better or more and it just doesn't turn out that way. So, as she started to just kind of break down all of these barriers and these myths that are surrounded with grief, again, corporate America was not really receptive because by saying you want grief training would be admitting that you have a problem because brief is kind of looked at it as a problem. And so, she recognized this resistance and most of what she was teaching was really surrounded around compassion and empathy in the workplace. So, she decided to just adjust slightly and instead of leading with the problem, she led now with the solution which is compassion and empathy. And as she was pulling different resources and research articles and studies and all of this that just helps us to create a basic framework for human interaction in the workplace. As she was pulling that, she recognizes, well, it still touches on grief in the workplace because if we are operating with compassion and empathy on a day to day basis, that's mastery preparation for the time of crisis. We're already connecting in this space that's just really vulnerable, we've established trust and respect through kindness, so when somebody does hit a tough life situation, which inevitably happens to all of us, then at least your work family is prepared to walk through those tough times with you and handle that because you guys have already established this kind of workplace. So, it's been a journey to get to this point but she’s super grateful that she learned all that she did throughout this journey because it's helped her to serve her clients at a whole new level, not just the basic leadership development, it really is taking it up a notch. Yanique shared, I like the fact that you've mentioned that you started to lead with the solution, and you focus on empathy and compassion. And one of the things that we have identified in the whole client or customer experiences, people are driven by how they feel, their emotions play an integral part. I think even more than the intellectual because the emotion drives how the intellectual will respond.  Yanique shared, I personally think that it's not something that you're born with, it's a learnt behavior and it's all dependent on how you're socialized, what you're exposed to, the behaviors that you see, both from your environment that you're in as well as maybe even from things that you're exposed to are stimulated by like the television or even social media. But not everybody knows how to be empathetic. When asked about empathy, Karen shared yes and no to Yanique’s statement. Yes, it is something that can be learned, but no, it's not something that people are only inheriting that ability through a learned environment. That's not the case. People are born with empathy. There are people who are born with a lack of empathy. As a matter of fact, there's a chemical in the front part of our brain, in our amygdala that triggers our emotions and so you could live and be raised in a very compassionate home, but you were born kind of without feelings, you don't get too riled round up but that doesn't mean that you didn't have an environment that included feelings and emotions and conversations around that, it really is how we're born. But even if people are born without or with a lack of, maybe they don't have a lot of empathy, you still can adopt behaviors and skills and habits that bring empathy into conversations and interactions so that way the person who you are interacting with feels valued. And so, empathy is really being able to feel and understand another person's emotions and respond with care. So again, that feeling part may not be natural for some people, but you can try to understand where they're coming from and respond in an empathic way. So that's how it looks and so as it pertains to their customer experience, you may not be able to completely resonate with where this customer is coming from. And she gave you an example, it's a personal example. She bought a new car at the end of last year and the sales team, they weren't that great but she needed to get out of her car, it had 140,000 miles on it, it was just not safe anymore. Karen said she was kind of in a rush to get into the car and didn't do her due diligence on a few things that she noticed within 24 hours of driving off the lot. So, she immediately contacted the sales team, they were not very responsive. So, then she looked online for customer service team, they were not very responsive. So, being the person that she, she’s just saying, well this isn't okay. So, she’s going to do her due diligence. She contacted the corporate office to say, “Listen, there are a couple of defects and this is actually not safe. So, I just purchased this car and we need to figure out a resolution.”Now up the chain of command, the customer service sucked, it was terrible. And she was telling them like the rear-view camera is not working, that is a safety issue. If she runs over a kid, do you think they're going to say, “Oops, that's our bad, we should have responded quickly to that email.”No, she’s going to be the one who is dealing with the legal ramifications. So, she’s pushing forward and say, no, this is not okay. She felt like there was a disconnect between kind of the first level of customer service and then once you get to the executive office, once she got to the executive office and there was an individual who was assigned to work with her, he followed up, he was patient on the phone, he made sure that the service manager they got her in touch with was timely in his response. He kept Karen in the loop, even if there was going to be a waiting period, he communicated that to her and what he did that was different than the first level of customer service was he empathized with the fact that we have a single mom here who has made a very large investment and she’s not saying she got anything fancy, but when you purchase a car, lease a car, that's an investment, you are putting your credit on the line and all of that. So, it's not something to be taken lightly and so because of his understanding of where she was coming from and her position and her worry and concern, he made sure that he saw it all the way through. Where on the front end, that didn't happen. Now what did he do differently than the first people who may be answered a call or answered an email? He didn't do much in the practical sense, except for the fact that he took his time to patiently understand where she was coming from and communicate in a way that made her feel like she was being heard, that her purchase was valued, her position as a customer was valued and he wanted to make sure that we found a resolution, he responded with care. So, it didn't take him much, but just the way that he was on top of it made a world of difference because she was ready to just blast this company, don't ever buy from them and that's not her character. But she felt like they did not care that we had such a major issue and it was only because, and she told him on their last call, she said, “It is only because of you and how you resolved this, that I feel satisfied.”The first three months of this process, which she didn't mention, it took a long time to get to that point, but the first three months was treacherous and because of this one person who showed compassion, who interacted with empathy and who made sure that a resolution was done in a caring way, she felt like, “Okay, I'm okay. I could come back and buy another car from them.”She knows that sounds bad because it was such a crazy, but he did resolve it with empathy.   Yanique stated, so it's more about listening to what the person is saying to you, understanding where they're coming from and why this is a pain point for them. And as you said, responding in a way that, “Oh well, no big deal.”Instead in a way that, “I understand where you're coming from and what can we do to make it better?” Because it would seem from the first level of customer service that they were more concerned about making the sale and less about providing after sales support to you. Karen agreed and stated that it doesn't take a lot of time, it doesn't even take a lot of effort, you are on the exact same call with the exact same person and literally your tone can change, and your active listening skills can change the trajectory of that outcome. You just have to decide while you were in the midst of that, “How am I going to show up for this person? Am I going to be caring or am I going to be short and curt? Am I going to listen or am I just thinking about the next thing that I need to get done? Or Am I be grudgingly going through the motions?”Either way you have a choice and the energy level is the same. Karen shared that she believes that the major difference between empathy and compassion is one word, Action. We are meant to put compassion into action, it's how you are showing up for people, whether you're showing up for a colleague who's going through something that's difficult or the way, for example, this gentleman responded to her. He made sure that he was calling every four days with an update to let her know what was going on because she was really left in the dark and that was frustrating. So, compassion is what you put into action. Empathy really is kind of the starting point, like she said, being able to feel and understand and then choosing to respond in a certain way but that response is your compassion. Now, one thing that she’s done through agencies, they created a Compassion Action Plan. And what it does is it addresses, if you know somebody who has experienced in the organization, who's experienced a major loss, and they just touched on five because this is usually an activity that they do in workshops but for this eBook, what they did was, they just put five in there. And so, divorce, I'm becoming a caregiver, death, we identified those and how can you put compassion into action?So, if you just thought about it for a second and you thought about, okay, I know a colleague lost their spouse, what is a way that I can show up for them? What would be one or two ideas that come to your mind? Yanique shared, so they've lost a family member and seeing that I experienced at similar situation last year, what I looked for in people who showed compassion were people who came, they were just there, they were there to support me, it’s simple things like just coming over and sitting and talking just to have the companionship at that point in time because you don't want it to be alone because it's an experience of trauma and being alone, your mind wanders all over the place and you feel more lonely. So, you kind of just want somebody to be there and you want them to know that you want them to be there without you having to tell them, I want you to be there. Karen agreed and stated that she’s going to ask Yanique for another example but pausing there for a second. That is another example of how it does not take much for you to just show up for somebody, does it? She remembered at my husband's funeral, Karen looked, and she saw at least 20 people from her office who were there, and that just made her feel so supported because you're right. When we go through a major loss like that, somebody close to us, somebody within our inner family, our intermediate family, then we usually go to this place of isolation in our minds because you get on this emotional rollercoaster and there's so many complex feelings, it's hard to keep up with those thoughts. So, you really feel emotionally and mentally drained and so when you have people around you, as you mentioned, they help you to stay connected to life, so you're not just completely caught up in your head, you're not isolating yourself and end up on this negative thought cycle and start spiraling downward but you have somebody who's just present. And she had somebody, her name was Jamie, she actually mentioned her in her Ted Talk because she mean this, she would just show up and just lay on the floor with her or lay in her bed or they would like walk around Target, she is one of her closest friends and she told Karen later after hearing Karen’s Ted Talk, so this was four years after this happened, but she said, “I admitted to my husband almost every night when I came home. I don't know if I'm doing enough, I don't know what else I'm supposed to do.”So, for four years as she is relishing this friendship and it anchored in her mind is something to teach other people, just show up. She didn't even realize that it had made an impact on her healing journey, it made a huge impact. So, you're right, she always tells people, we all need a Jamie. So that's good. So, the first thing is show up, be present but what's something else that you can do for a colleague? Yanique shared that when she lost her dad last year, it was also important, and I guess that would link back to being present. To assist me with anything, low hanging fruits that would distract me or make me feel not supported. Karen shared that the difference there is, is that what they did was they stepped in to respond to your basic needs because it could have been like handling bills, it could have been like handling other logistics that when you're in that mental fog, you don't really have the capacity to do so. And so, if you have people who you trust, who are near you, this could be different for colleagues. For colleagues showing up and responding to basic needs is like making sure you have food. Creating a food calendar or just saying, “Hey, it's okay if you need to take longer than five days.”because usually that's the bereavement period, it’s like five days for somebody in your intermediate family but they can say, “You know what? I know you have this project going on, I'll help you with that. What's your client's name? Let me step in, just give me a couple of details and I'll go into the system and I'll figure out the rest. But you don't worry about it.”That's responding to a basic need that's helping them to keep their life afloat and that is putting compassion into action. When asked if compassion come innately, Karen stated that in our world, in our society, it's just awkward. Grief is just awkward, and some people feel like, “Oh, I don't know if I'll say the right thing. I don't know if I have enough time to be there.”We come up with all of these different barriers in our mind and the difference between holding onto those barriers and acting like Jamie will say as a reference point is she just leaned in without knowing if what she was doing was enough, but her heart just led her to do that. What happens is we stop our heart from responding naturally because then our mind starts to take over to think that we need to say the right thing, we have to be perfect on how we show up, what if it's not enough? Our heart and mind starts to battle. But you're right, it is an innate response. It's just our mind can start to suppress that response because we start to feel awkward and that's her mission is to make grief less awkward, let's talk about it. Let's talk about all of this because again, it is a universal human experience, we are all going to go through it. Karen thinks if we have these conversations, for example, Yanique having her on the podcast again, thank you because it's helping to reach different people and to open up a different mindset so we can respond differently. Because right now, we're perpetuating suppression and isolation and that's what's making our journeys unhealthy. If we just opened our heart up to respond in a natural way, that doesn't look perfect and here's an example. If somebody at work tells you, “I just found out that my spouse has cancer, or I have cancer.”Instead of not knowing what to say and then not saying anything, which is actually worse. If somebody didn't acknowledge or say it’s the first time seeing them that Richard had died, she felt like, “Well wow, that was kind of a big deal. Like we're not going to say anything about it.”We don't have to go down the rabbit hole. But anyhow, if somebody shares some tragic news with you, you can say this, you can say, “I am so sorry that you're going through this. We don't know what is going to happen at the end of the day, but I know you are strong. I know that you have this light inside of you that you can just push through and I'm here with you, like anything that you need work related, if you just need to take a walk, if you need to get out of the office or if he just needed somebody to talk to for a few minutes, just know that you're not alone.”That's not giving false hope, that's not saying everything's going to be great or just pray on it, it's not giving any of that. It's just saying, “I'm meeting you where you are and yeah, this is hard. This suck, but you're not alone.”That is enough. Yanique asked, what do you think about situations when someone shares with you for example, that they had a tragedy and they’re going through grief like a death for example. And the person responds and says, I know exactly what you're going through because I find that grief is different for everyone and you may lose someone, and you respond in a different way. It impacts you in a different way and I may lose someone, and it may not impact me in that way, or it might impact me worse or less. Do you think it's a safe to say, I know exactly what you're going through? How do you know?  Karen shared that she thinks that this is another uncomfortable yet common response because it's true, it's a common response only because people feel uncomfortable and they're just kind of like, “Ah, what do I say?”And it just comes out so naturally and that's not really what they mean. They're not saying, I know exactly what you're going through because somebody has said that to her and she’s like, “Oh, your husband's been murdered. I didn't know that that happened to you.” And not to even downplay it, because some people will compare losses, they'll say, “Oh, well I went through a divorce and so I know how that feels.”Again, no, you don't know how it feels, but their heart is in the right place. So, the first thing she would say is if you're on the receiving end of that comment is to give that person a little bit of grace because at least they're trying to be there. Do not take offense to that and kind of see through their words to see their heart and their intentions and their heart and their intentions is to comfort you in the moment. But Karen’s advice to the person who wants to say that and guess what? Karen has said that to people before in a different light. And before all of this happened, before she became more aware of some of the myths that we use to comfort people. But if you are about to say that, hold your tongue real quick and then just think about saying something along these lines. Again, “I don't know what you're going through, but I went through a situation and I know that pain is real. I know that those hard times can come in waves. I know that sometimes it can just feel really consuming and so if you feel anything that is just so painful and it feels hard for you to manage, you can come talk to me. I don't know what you're going through, but I know what pain feels like and I'm willing to just be here for you.”  It's authentic in the sense that she can relate to your pain even though she hasn’t experienced the same loss. And here's the thing, two siblings could lose the same parent and feel completely different about it. So, imagine the differences of somebody who says, “Oh, I went through a divorce too.”or “Yeah, I also had a miscarriage.”or “Oh, when my mom was sick.”We compare them but there's so many different factors that make that situation so different and unique, but at least being able to relate through the pain, Karen thinks that's the authentic place to be. Karen shared that there are pains like that where, for example, she has a friend and her parents were not kind growing up, they just weren't, and she doesn't have a relationship with them now. Now she doesn’t know that she's experienced any kind of sexual abuse. She knows that has had happened in her family, but it did not happen to her. However, the abandonment of your parents and them not wanting to be with you, it's a pain that stays with you through adulthood. A physical kind of trauma is also something that stays with you through adulthood and sometimes you have to see your abuser. And so, it's like how do you live in that space? So, what she encourages people to do is to create healthy boundaries, they can't always be physical. A lot of times they have to be mental and emotional.So, the person again who is hearing something like that, they're on the receiving end of that comment, you have to create an emotional and mental boundary just knowing that whatever they're saying to me, if it is not resonating with my heart, with pure comfort and peace and, and even empathy, than I'm not going to receive that, you choose if you're going to receive their words are not. Now for the person who is trying to comfort or build them up because a lot of times they're thinking if you've been a victim, what I need to do is pour into you that you are strong, pour into you that you have gotten over it, kind of build up your confidence and resilience but again, sometimes we just fumble over those words and so instead of saying something that is diminishing their past, meet them where they are. Again, the same starting,  “I can't imagine what you have gone through, but I see who you are today and I see that you are a fighter, I see that you are a survivor and even if those pains are still being held with you, which I'm sure that they are, I can only imagine that they are. There is something in you that is not giving up and I admire that in you.” That is truth. That is absolute truth. It does not diminish the pain that they have experienced, but it is uplifting them to say, I have seen that you did not give up. And I applaud you for that. But it is okay if you're still feeling and battling all of the wounds, the emotional wounds and mental wounds that you carry with you, but it's still, it uplifts them and it builds them up and that's at the end of the day, what we should be doing for each other is to build one another up so we feel safe, so we feel protected. When asked about traits of empathy and compassion that leaders should have in order to build a team. Karen agreed and shared that one of her favorite Richard Branson quotes is, “When you take care of your people, your people will take care of your business.”And that is the absolute truth. A lot of times leaders are driven by the numbers and the data, but you have to remember there are people behind those numbers and that data it didn’t just magically appear, this is coming from somebody’s knowledge capacity, their relationship building, their goal setting. There are people who are driving these numbers and so you have to get to the source of your success, the source of your success is your people and how you treat people is how they produce at work. Now, a lot of times people, Karen kind of hears two things most often. One is, leader say, “I want to be a better leader, I want to connect with my people, I want to help them in a different way. Basically, build up their personal success but I don't know how.”And that's because we have to kind of get past that old adage of leave your personal stuff at the door and so, she thinks that again, leaders want to, but we are shifting society and we're shifting how we show up at work. So, that's why it's such a great time to really live out her passion because people are more receptive to this message and they need just some structure, some framework behind it. That's the first thing, but then the other thing is there are leaders who are naturally showing up with kindness and they are seeing just amazing, powerful results. An example of this is, uh, one of her clients from Sprint, this gentleman is the general manager of one of their four business units, and they have been the number one team for the last 15 years straight. Fifteen years they have consistently outperformed the rest of the company and when she met him, she asked him to come onto her podcast, Invest Humanand she said, we just need to talk about what this is and he said, one word, “Kindness.”It is all about how you treat your people. Now when she goes into organizations, she breaks this down through like communication, interactions, conflict resolution, like how do we bring it into that. But it really all has to do with kindness because when you treat people well, then employees become more enthusiastic about their work and if they are enthusiastic about their work, what happens to their performance, it improves. What happens to the customer experience because of the person that they're interacting with. It’s like again a no brainer, it should be a no brainer, but she thinks what the shift that's happening is that people just kind of need permission and they need that framework because for so long we've lived in this space of kind of being robotic at work and only expecting or evaluating someone's performance and not opening up the experience, the actual employee experience. Yanique shared that the interpersonal skills, the soft skills, showing kindness and ensuring that you exercise empathy and compassion, those are definitely characteristics and traits that as a leader will take you much further than any technical competence. Karen stated that that is such a good question – how she stays motivated daily. She doesn’t live in a constant state of motivation. She has learned through different personality tests and stuff, she does have a natural personality that is drawn to the silver lining. So, she doesn’t stay in a dark place for too long. However, and when you've experienced this kind of tragedy, you can't help but to be in a dark space for a while. So, what she learned during that time, her most trying times so far in her life, it's absolutely critical for us to build a foundation of healthy habits so that we can navigate any hard time when it comes. Life isn't fair so you're not going to go just through one thing, it's not a one and done. And there are every day stressors that we have to work through, relationships, traffic, personalities that are not meshing. There's just so many different stressors that can make us feel weary and burnt out. So, it's not that you can live in this constant state of up because what goes up must come down, but you have to learn to find that balance when you do come down and how do you take care of yourself. So, for Karen, whenever she’s going through a challenging time, smaller or large, it's just a matter of tapping into those habits that she established when she was in the midst of her darkest hours with grief and she wasn't intentional then, she was very set on her why, her why was her son. She knew that she wanted to be a good mom for him and didn't want to be living in this state of like brokenness and in this victim mindset, like it wouldn't have been healthy for him in the long run. And so, as she focused on him, then she started to create these healthy habits that just made a huge impact on her total wellbeing. So, when you are feeling down, take a break, that's okay. Go for a walk, do a breathing exercise. There’re so many different habits on your mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical wellbeing that once you know what those habits are, then you can tap into them regardless of the low that you're feeling because they are tried and true. They helped you in a dark, dark place or they help you in a, I'm frustrated and burnt out place as well.   When asked about an online app or tool that she couldn’t live without, Karen stated that she thinks she would have to answer two ways. One is she really strive for strong organizational skills. She has very strong organizational skills, but she does that because she has a bad memory. She’s just going to be vulnerable here for a second, but Karen recognizes that her mind being an entrepreneur, being a single mom, having experienced trauma, she just has a bad memory and so she compensates by having really strong organizational skills. And one of the tools that she loves is Google Keep, it helps her because it just allows her to brain dump and when she is able to brain dump all of the different distractions that come into her mind, she’s creating that space of mental clarity so that she can stay focused on her priorities. So, Google Keep has been really helpful. But there was also an app that helped her early on in my grief with mindfulness and meditation and that was called Headspace, and she just signed up for the free version because she wanted to see what it was about, and it helped her because a lot of times we get into negative thoughts cycles at night before we're going to sleep. Our mind is just racing and then we start feeling like, I don't have enough time. What do I do tomorrow? Did I not do this today? And so that on top of any kind of trauma that you may be working through, Headspace taught a breathing pattern that she was even able to teach to her son, that at night if she can't fall asleep, it works wonders. And so it's really simple, it's just a matter of counting your breaths when you inhale and exhale, when you inhale, you count one when you exhale, two inhale again, three and so on up to 10, you don't change your breathing pattern, you're not, you don't have to take long, deep breaths, but when you get to 10 you start back at one and there's something about that Karen said she could do that three, maybe four times at the most, and then she pass out, she’s knocked out. It's taught her such a powerful breathing technique that she shares that with almost anybody she interacts with because she thinks we're all a victim of those nighttime blues when it's kind of hard to fall asleep.  Yanique then stated, that seems to be a popular app. I've actually downloaded it on my phone, but I haven't clicked on it because things have been so busy. But I had a guest that was on our podcast and maybe two, three weeks ago and that was one of his recommendations. I find it interesting that shortly after, I'm getting the same recommendation, so that app must be really good. So, I think today I'm going to make sure I click on the app since it's on the phone and I haven't actually used it yet to see what it's all about. I have no problems falling asleep though but sometimes I do get distracted, like I'm doing something, and I start thinking about something else and I jump from one thing to the next. So, if Headspace can help me to refocus at times, that would be wonderful. Karen stated that she thinks that it definitely, what she liked about it most was in the free version, it teaches you where some people just embark on this meditation journey and you're like, “Ah, how do I do this? I'm falling asleep. No, wait, I can't stop these thoughts.”There are so many barriers and she liked how in the free version it actually teaches you some of the techniques that are helpful. Karen was asked about books that have had the biggest impact and she stated that there is a lot. She shared that she was not a reader until she was 30 years old. She hated reading growing up but after her husband died, she became obsessed with reading about heaven because she just needed that confirmation that he was okay, and she would see him again. And that's what kind of got her down this journey. So, she’ll say the two, there really are so many but to that she thinks made such a huge impact one was Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck. It teaches you how you can change your mindset from being a victim or living in a fixed mindset to having a growth mindset. And again, it gives applicable takeaways on how you can teach even children, how you can teach, whether you're a teacher, a parent, a coach, it just helps in that state, how you can also use it in the workplace. So, Mindset by Carol Dweck was amazing. And then also it's kind of a tie between these two, Life's Golden Ticket: A Story about Second Chances by Brendon Burchardbecause it's a fiction book, but it gives you this visualization of you having a choice and kind of revisiting different people or moments in your past that have led you up to where you are today and accept where you are today so that you can move forward. And then the other one is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, which she knows is a lot of people's favorites, but it's one of hers particularly because it was suggested to her probably almost three years ago now, but she just read it at the end of last year and she believes in just divine timing and at the time it came to her life, she wasn't ready to read it, but when she read it, it was exactly the time that she was supposed to just digest that. So, it's a great book again for people who are just wondering, “Man, does all of this mean something? How do I know I'm headed down the right path.”So, that's why she loves that book so much.   Karen shared that she’s super excited about launching her new group coaching program. She’s going to be doing a group coaching and it is called, “Soul Care Coaching with Karen”and so she wants to create a network, this specific offer is for women, but she wanted to create a network for women where they are able to just grow, they are able to find healing and just become the best version of their self. And so, just sharing herself and stories but also sharing other coaches along the way. So, she’s really excited about that. But then she also launched her first eCourse, Heal Forwardand that's for anybody who has experienced a major loss or a hardship or they're just feeling depleted in life and they want to heal and move forward. It's a six-week series that just gives a whole bunch of selfcare habits and tips, worksheets, videos, all that good stuff. It loads you up so that you can build that foundation that she talked about of healthy habits. So, she’s excited about those two. The eCourse just launched and the coaching will launch in March 2019.   Karenshared listeners can find her at – www.karenmillsap.com  Karen shared that regarding quotes or sayings that she tends to revert to, that ironically, it's like a little plaque that she found and it's on her desk as she’s looking at it right now. It is her favorite, it says, “Everything's going to be all right. Yep even that one thing.”Bob Marley said that. But she likes how it says, “Yep”, even that one thing because it's like yeah, you can get really stuck on something, it's like no, no, no, everything is going to be okay. Even that one thing, and she loves her some Bob Marley, so it resonated right away. Links Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck Life’s Golden Ticket: A Story about Second Chances by Brendon Burchard The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho  

“I realized that I wanted to use my pain for purpose. The first thing was, ‘I'm not going to be defeated by this. Caleb's not going to lose both of his parents.' But then I think as I started to work through and surrender to the journey and say, ‘Well, okay, but how can I use this?,' because then it would actually honor my husband's life and his death wouldn't be in vain.” -Karen Millsap   I'm so excited to bring you my discussion with Karen Millsap this week. I mean, you've got to love someone with a TEDx talk called “Use your tragedy to change the world,” right? Karen's husband Richard was murdered when she was just 29 years old. Her son was 2. After seeing her dreams shattered, and spending the first year in a fog, she realized that she had the power of choice…the power to decide that she was not going to let her life be destroyed by her husband's death. She also realized that how she handled her husband's death would have a direct impact on her son's life and character. Karen and I talked about so many fascinating topics, including: Getting herself out of the victim mindset and the “pity party”; The four pillars of practical empathy; The HEAL method; Teaching your kids how to use confidence checkpoints Transitioning back to work after loss Using her experience to help others How in the midst of losing everything she found herself; and Her plans to help her son turn his pain into purpose as he gets older I hope you enjoy my discussion with Karen Millsap.

Karen MIllsap reminds us that exercising empathy at work not only leads to a more successful business, but sustains a culture of kindness that real businesses crave. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/aserversjourney?fan_landing=true)

(From Karen's website: egencysolutions.com) Karen, also known as, The Grief Consultant, began her career in human resources and talent acquisition where she acquired strong training skillsets from her experience leading organizations through re-org, developing and executing new standard procedures, and rolling out companywide initiatives. ​Karen received her undergraduate degree in Communication from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She is also a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist through the Grief Recovery Institute in Los Angeles, California.  Karen has many titles but I got to know her as a mighty women of God and true Proverbs 31 lady! Today, Karen talks to us about her journey and what tools we have to be victorious over fear and anxiety. You can also visit Karen to learn more at karenmillsap.com  Karen, we thank you for sharing your heart and testimony with us!  

"Work satisfaction can either lead to a healthier or unhealthier you." Join us in this throwback episode to take a look back on what motivated Rocky to create A Server's Journey. To this end, Rocky and Larry take us from our first podcast on April 26th all the way through some of our favorite highlights with esteemed guests. From Patrick Lencioni's best-selling books to Karen Millsap's remarkable journey, this episode celebrates the wealth of knowledge A Server's Journey compiles in one place. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/aserversjourney?fan_landing=true)

How will you let your tragedies define you? Karen Millsap shares her healing journey after her husband was tragically and unexpectedly murdered. As the current CEO and founder of Egency, a training firm focused on creating a "people-first" mindset in organizations, Millsap believes that sharing her habit and lifestyle changes during her time of grief is key to helping others manage their healing. With a true zeal for compassion, empathy, and taking care of your people personally and professionally, Millsap demonstrates the exact kind of servant leadership we love. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/aserversjourney?fan_landing=true)

Karen Millsap, also known as, The Grief Consultant, began her career in human resources and talent acquisition where she lead countless training, new process, and change initiatives.  At a young age, she suddenly became a widow when her husband was tragically murdered which completely changed the trajectory of her life.  After experiencing a domino effect of other losses, she became acutely aware of the overall lack of support in the society for grieving people.  Karen is a TEDx keynote speaker who inspires audiences to embrace compassion and empathy to help alleviate other's suffering by becoming advocates for their own adversaries.   Karen's website: www.karenmillsap.com  Books recommended by Karen: The Alchemist- Paulo Coelho Designing Your Life-Bill Burnett/Dave Evans

Karen Millsap, also known as, The Grief Consultant, began her career in human resources and talent acquisition where she lead countless training, new process, and change initiatives. At a young age, she suddenly became a widow when her husband tragically died which completely changed the trajectory of her life. After experiencing a domino effect of other losses, she became acutely aware of the overall lack of support in our society for grieving people. We are all connected through our struggles, from the death of loved ones, to life-altering illnesses, divorce, even job loss. This realization ignited Karen's desire to turn her pain into purpose and pay it forward to help others. Karen's work has been featured in SHRM Magazine, on Good Morning Washington, MSNBC, and many others! She's also a regular contributor to Arianna Huffington's THRIVE Global community.  Karen is a TEDx keynote speaker who inspires audiences to embrace compassion and empathy to help alleviate other’s suffering by becoming advocates for their own adversaries. As the CEO (Chief Empathy Officer) of Egency, Karen’s training firm helps organizations create a human-centric culture with compassion and empathy. She's also the founder of Well Now Global Retreats. Karen received her BA in Communication from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She is also a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist through the Grief Recovery Institute in Los Angeles, California. Connect with Karen: Resources Mentioned:  

https://www.karenmillsap.com    To our GML listening family! You will be so blessed with this podcast and discussion. We may think we are loving yourselves but we all need the right tools. I'm encouraging every listener to do what I did: get on board with Heal Forward. If you want to finally find peace and healing you will want to sign up for this amazing program. Click here to learn more  https://www.karenmillsap.com/healforward    About Karen Karen Millsap, also known as, The Grief Consultant, began her career in human resources and talent acquisition where she lead countless training, new process, and change initiatives. At a young age, she suddenly became a widow when her husband was tragically murdered which completely changed the trajectory of her life. After experiencing a domino effect of other losses, she became acutely aware of the overall lack of support in our society for grieving people. We are all connected through our struggles, from the death of loved ones, to life-altering illnesses, divorce, even job loss. This realization ignited Karen's desire to turn her pain into purpose and pay it forward to help others.  Karen's work has been featured in SHRM Magazine, on Good Morning Washington, MSNBC, and many others! She's also a regular contributor to Arianna Huffington's THRIVE Global community.  Karen is a TEDx keynote speaker who inspires audiences to embrace compassion and empathy to help alleviate other’s suffering by becoming advocates for their own adversaries.  ​ Karen is the CEO (Chief Empathy Officer) of Egency, a firm that helps organizations create a human-centric culture with compassion and empathy. She's also the author of the upcoming book, Now What? and founder of Well Now Global Retreats. ​Karen received her undergraduate degree in Communication from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She is also a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist through the Grief Recovery Institute in Los Angeles, California. 

Finding your authentic voice. Ryan Foland speaks with Karen Millsap, the CEO (Chief Empathy Officer) of Egency, a firm that helps organizations create a human-centric workforce. After experiencing a domino effect of losses, she became acutely aware of the overall lack of support in our society for grieving people. This realization ignited Karen's desire to turn her pain into purpose and pay it forward to help others. Ryan and Karen Millsap sail through this interview, covering a range of topics, from how to talk about grief, the importance of remember the reason you started speaking, and how to turn “free” speaking opportunities into paid ones. Listen to this podcast to find out: - A handful of great hacks for getting paid bookings [spoiler: keynote or bust]. - The difference having your heart in the right place can make on your speaking career. - Why you should never say “no” to a speaking opportunity. - Why you need to find your authentic voice and use it to make an impact. -How to inexpensively build your own digital media kit, and how it can get you hired.

We know empathy is important in relationships, but what about at work? Karen Millsap, CEO of Egency and TEDx speaker, joins us to share her story and how she's using empathy to improve workplace culture. After losing her husband in a terrible tragedy, Karen realized how little support our society offers for grieving people. We'll cover pivotal moments of her experience, how to best help our colleagues after trauma and how empathy and compassion can change the workplace for the better. How to Support this Show: Subscribe on your favorite podcast app (iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, etc.) Review us on iTunes Take our survey and we'll enter you in a drawing for a free book Follow Xenium HR (@XeniumHR) and Brandon Laws (@BrandonLaws) on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram Learn more about Xenium HR at xeniumhr.com   SPECIAL OFFER: e-learning courses at Xenium - www.xeniumhr.com/courses - promo code "POD" for 10% off all courses. About Karen Millsap:  Karen Millsap, also known as, The Grief Consultant, began her career in human resources and talent acquisition where she lead countless training, new process, and change initiatives. At a young age, she suddenly became a widow when her husband was tragically murdered which completely changed the trajectory of her life. After experiencing a domino effect of other losses, she became acutely aware of the overall lack of support in our society for grieving people. We are all connected through our struggles, from the death of loved ones, to life-altering illnesses, divorce, even job loss. This realization ignited Karen's desire to turn her pain into purpose and pay it forward to help others.   Karen's work has been featured in SHRM Magazine, on Good Morning Washington, MSNBC, and many others! She is a TEDx keynote speaker who inspires audiences to embrace compassion and empathy to help alleviate other's suffering by becoming advocates for their own adversaries.  This experience opens minds and hearts to revive connectivity.   Karen is the CEO (Chief Empathy Officer) of Egency, a firm that helps organizations create a human-centric culture with compassion and empathy. She's also the author of the upcoming book, Now What? and founder of Well Now Global Retreats.  ​Karen received her undergraduate degree in Communication from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She is also a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist through the Grief Recovery Institute in Los Angeles, California.  Connect with Karen Millsap on LinkedIn Resources Mentioned: Karen's Tedx Talk Option B

Karen Millsap became a widow at 29 when her husband was tragically murdered while teaching his CrossFit class. After losing most of her support network and experiencing a domino effect of other losses, Karen recognized the overall lack of assistance in our society for grieving people. This realization ignited Karen’s desire to launch The Grief Consultant, a company that offers leadership development workshops and strategic reinforcement programs targeting emotionalawareness. Grief is ever present across the nation and around the world, from the death of loved ones, to life-altering illnesses, divorce - even job loss. In addition to the workshops offered through her company, Karen speaks at conferences nationwide and hosts community events to teach how everyone can put compassion into action - and why it’s important we don’t stand idle in the face of each other's struggles. She has designed practical tools that, when combined with her inspirational story and magnetic personality, fortify unity and uplift humanity. Karen has been featured on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Good Morning Washington and various news outlets. She's also been featured by SHRM Magazine and is a regular contributor to the international online magazine, Richtopia.

Four years ago, Karen Millsap’s husband was shot and killed in the gym they co-owned. There was no warning. No response manual. What followed was a time of immense hardship, struggle, and reinvention. Karen joins us to talk about the importance of creating a psychologically safe work environment and the importance of building a culture of empathy and compassion. She offers ways you can ready your company to respond to even the toughest of life experiences.

This idea of empathy and sharing our stories, especially our deep and vulnerable ones, has been coming up a lot for me lately, from panel discussions on politics and social media I’ve participated in to podcasts I’ve been on talking about the power of public speaking to build trust and empathy. Empathy is defined as the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. I would add to that not just feelings, but their life situation and what brought them to where they are today. My guest today is Karen Millsap, the founder of The Grief Consultant, which helps organizations implement practical empathy in the workplace to strengthen engagement and improve overall performance. In this episode, we talk about: Why Karen started her company The impact of vulnerability in sharing your story What kinds of speaking engagements Karen has done and how she’s used them to build her business and network How Karen has gotten speaking engagements Her new podcast Invest Human and how she sees it aligning with her business goals What it’s like to be a woman in her field What she wants to be known for Karen also founded Well Now Global Retreats, wellness-inspired retreats to help you navigate complex or suppressed emotional baggage and also teach you how to implement simple healthy habits that will change, and can often save, your life. Karen has a book coming out soon called “Now What?”, in which Karen shares her journey of healing and personal development and gives you guidance on how to pick yourself up, grow through any hardship, and ultimately unleash the best version of yourself. Links: Karen’s website = http://www.karenmillsap.com/ Karen’s podcast Invest Human = https://www.investhuman.co/ Karen’s book = http://www.karenmillsap.com/nowwhat Sheryl Sandberg article = http://time.com/sheryl-sandberg-option-b/ Main Street Vegan podcast I was recently on = http://mainstreetvegan.net/msv-show-notes-april-19-2017-romance-vegans-speaking-cause/ Join the free Speaking Your Brand community at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/join/. Say hi to me on Twitter @CarolMorganCox Subscribe to the podcast, so you don’t miss out on future episodes!

Learn about the hosts and their mission to reignite the appreciation for the human element of work. Who are Dr. Charlene Rousseau, Karen Millsap & Melissa Powell? What is this podcast all about?