Podcasts about what karen

Here are some of the things that came up in our discussion: Content warnings: Adult themes, mature language, suicide, “content” Bo Burnham: Inside On Netflix On Spotify Who is Bo Burnham:  Wikipedia entry  YouTube channel Left Brain Right Brain animatic Lola Sebastian Lolita Podcast (not for kids but very good) What Karen means by “Simon Sinek energy” Jeffrey Bezos in almost-space Trunk tunes Callback to parasocial relationships episode Look Who's Inside Again reminds Karen of Ben Spencer's Willow Tree (didn't mention it but thought of it afterwards) If you want to skip our discussion of suicide, it's from 57:56 to 1:04:17  #BellLetsTalk Pop Culture Happy Hour on Inside Brave New World and soma The Edmonton Fringe is coming back! Many thanks to our sponsors:  Business Council of Alberta ATB Cares That's a Thing?! is a proud member of the Alberta Podcast Network — Locally grown. Community-supported.You can follow us in all the places, and most of them let you rate and review, too, which would be lovely.Questions? Comments? Email us at thatsathingyeg@gmail.com or tweet at us: @thatsathingyeg.Do you want a That's a Thing?! button? Send us your address by Twitter DM or email and we will send you one. Many thanks to Transistor for hosting our show. Our theme music is Ragtime Dance by Scott Joplin, from Free Music Archive.

Money Grit Karen McCall discussed her financial recovery and developing a healthy relationship with money.   Take away: We have to take care of our needs to really heal and to have a better life.   Action step: Take a piece of paper and draw a line in the middle. Write needs on one side and wants on the other side. Then go through every category of your life.   Money Learnings: Karen didn't learn much from school and parents about money. Her guardians at the time she was still young never talked about money.    Bio: Karen McCall went from dodging IRS calls to helping thousands of people get out of debt and build a life and business they love. Karen is the founder of the Financial Recovery Institute and World Class Money Coach Training  and now, at age 77, she is the creator of the money management program MoneyGrit™.    Karen has spent the last 33years working with small business owners and she's seen many struggle with self-employment. She has worked with hundreds of solopreneurs and small business owners to help them build lucrative, successful businesses that are not only profitable, but feed their soul.   Highlights from this episode: Link to episode page   Karen shared her life pivot on her financial situation What Karen did differently to have a better life Financial recovery and developing a healthy relationship with money Karen talks about what inspired her to write her book The two motivators: pain and pleasure Several reasons why people are going into debt Karen talks about the Debt Pyramid What it means to have a more purposeful and meaningful life Links:    https://www.financialrecovery.com/    Https://www.moneygrit.com  Social Profiles:   https://www.facebook.com/karen.mccall.77  https://www.instagram.com/financialrecoveryinstitute/   Richer Soul Life Beyond Money. You got rich, now what? Let's talk about your journey to more a purposeful, intentional, amazing life. Where are you going to go and how are you going to get there? Let's figure that out together. At the core is the financial well being to be able to do what you want, when you want, how you want. It's about personal freedom!   Thanks for listening!   Show Sponsor: http://profitcomesfirst.com/   Schedule your free no obligation call: https://bookme.name/rockyl/lite/intro-appointment-15-minutes   If you like the show please leave a review on iTunes: http://bit.do/richersoul https://www.facebook.com/richersoul http://richersoul.com/ rocky@richersoul.com   Some music provided by Junan from Junan Podcast   Any financial advice is for educational purposes only and you should consult with an expert for your specific needs.  

Karen Clements believes that “being in healthcare is a lifelong learning event,” and we couldn't agree more. On the show today, Karen shares with us some of the most important lessons she has learned over the years, in the diverse range of settings she has worked in, including the army and a psychiatric hospital. Karen has received a number of well-deserved awards for her services, but she won't take the credit herself and attributes much of her success to the teams she has been surrounded by. Pride, compassion, and resiliency are the three core pillars on which Karen builds her life, and she explains how she lives these out, and how she helps her team members get through challenging times. Karen has a wealth of valuable knowledge to share about ways of improving communication channels between nurses and management, working with multigenerational teams, and how to deal with the curveballs that life will inevitably throw at all of us at some point. Karen also shares her thoughts on what she thinks the future of nursing will look like, and the main thing she wishes she could change in the healthcare industry. Karen's passion for her work is undeniable, and the world is lucky to have her as a CareHero. Key Points From This Episode:Why Karen would choose flying as her superpower. Karen's early introduction to the world of nursing. The trajectory of Karen's nursing career, from the army to her current position at Dartmouth-Hitchcock.  What Karen's job entails, and what she loves the most about it.Advice that Karen gives to the new graduates who come to work at her hospital.The succession plan for nurses that exists at Karen's hospital. Karen's journey of continuous learning. Accreditation that Karen's hospital received during the week this podcast was recorded. How Karen's time in the army equipped her for all the jobs she has held since then. A person who has had a hugely positive influence on Karen's life.Ways that you can improve your communication with management. Value that is being brought to the hospital by the millennial nurse mentor that Karen consults with.Lessons that Karen learned from working at a psychiatric hospital. Don't be afraid of the curveballs; what this means to Karen and why it is the best advice she has ever been given.Karen explains the action she took which led to her receiving an Above and Beyond Award.Ways that nurses make memorable differences in patients' lives. Pride, compassion, resiliency; the core pillars that Karen lives by. How Karen looks after her own mental health, and the mental health of her team. Karen shares her thoughts about the future of nursing. The biggest challenge that Karen sees in the healthcare sector. Links Mentioned in Today's Episode:LinkedInDartmouth-HitchcockThe Dartmouth Institute | For Health Policy & Clinical PracticeDAISY FoundationHealth Leaders Media ArticleUniversity of MaineHusson UniversityFACHE | American College of Healthcare Executives

"Original Money Coach" Karen McCall shares her path from having a terrible relationship with money to helping thousands of people get out of debt and build a life they love. Guest Biography Karen McCall went from dodging IRS calls to helping thousands of people get out of debt and build a life and business they love. Before Karen McCall became a money coaching industry expert, trainer, author, speaker and software developer, she was dodging calls from the IRS. She was scared to death and unsure of the way forward. Karen is the founder of the Financial Recovery Institute and the creator of the money management program MoneyGrit™. With more than 30 years of experience in the money coaching industry, Karen is a leader in the industry and many regard her as the “original money coach”. In this time, Karen has worked with hundreds of solopreneurs and small business owners to help them build lucrative, successful businesses that are not only profitable but feed their soul. In this episode, you'll learn: How Karen went from feeling scared to death about money to mastering her relationships with money. What role emotion plays in money management. What Karen wants her legacy to be. Show notes: http://www.inspiredmoney.fm/186 Find more from our guest: www.financialrecovery.com www.moneygrit.com Facebook Instagram Mentioned in the episode: Possibility Thinking - Robert Harold Schuller Books: Financial Recovery: Developing a Healthy Relationship with Money by Karen McCall Money Tip of the Week A tip for improving your relationship with money Thanks for Listening! To share your thoughts: Leave a note in the comment section below. Share this show on Twitter or Facebook. Join us at the Inspired Money Makers groups at facebook and LinkedIn To help out the show: Leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser.com, or wherever you listen. Your ratings and reviews really help, and I read each one. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts. Special thanks to Jim Kimo West for the music.

On this special bonus episode of We Chat Divorce, we are welcoming not just one but TWO AMAZING guests, Casey Shevin and Sonia Queralt, Co-founders of Divorceify.  Sonia is a divorce litigator, divorce coach, and divorce survivor. She now dedicates her career to helping people going through divorce focus on building their future. She became a programmer and co-founded Divorceify to help people demystify the complexities of the divorce process. Casey is also a divorce litigator turned divorce mediator turned divorce innovator. Casey earned her bachelor’s degree at Smith College and studied law at Georgetown University, where she was recognized for excellence in clinical fieldwork in family law. Casey is admitted to practice law in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. So, let’s get to it…. Today we are chatting about Four Early Divorce Mistakes and How to Avoid Them – Failing to Confront Indecision Failing to Get Organized Choosing the Wrong Divorce Process Hiring the Wrong Help As companies founded by divorce professionals, My Divorce Solution, and Divorceify have quite a bit in common, beginning with our commitment to the people we serve. This partnership combines an innovative flat-rate financial foundation – The MDS Financial Portrait – with Divorceify’s roadmap that includes a customized action plan, an education, access to reliable resources, and vetted local professionals selected specifically for you. Together, we will make the divorce experience clearer and more manageable. We are thrilled to partner with Divorceify and support all the amazing work they’re doing to positively impact how people get divorced.  Learn More >> If you have questions for us or a topic you’d like us to cover, contact us at hello@mydivorcesolution.com or visit MyDivorceSolution.com  ----more---- The We Chat Divorce podcast (hereinafter referred to as the “WCD”) represents the opinions of Catherine Shanahan, Karen Chellew, and their guests to the show. WCD should not be considered professional or legal advice. The content here is for informational purposes only. Views and opinions expressed on WCD are our own and do not represent that of our places of work. WCD should not be used in any legal capacity whatsoever.  Listeners should contact their attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular legal matter. No listener should act or refrain from acting on the basis of information on WCD without first seeking legal advice from counsel in the relevant jurisdiction. No guarantee is given regarding the accuracy of any statements or opinions made on WCD. Unless specifically stated otherwise, Catherine Shanahan and Karen Chellew do not endorse, approve, recommend, or certify any information, product, process, service, or organization presented or mentioned on WCD, and information from this podcast should not be referenced in any way to imply such approval or endorsement. The third-party materials or content of any third-party site referenced on WCD do not necessarily reflect the opinions, standards or policies of Catherine Shanahan or Karen Chellew. WCD, CATHERINE SHANAHAN, AND KAREN CHELLEW EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR OTHER DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF ANY INDIVIDUAL'S USE OF, REFERENCE TO, RELIANCE ON, OR INABILITY TO USE, THIS PODCAST OR THE INFORMATION PRESENTED IN THIS PODCAST. ----more---- Transcript: Karen Chellew: Welcome to We Chat Divorce, Catherine and I are so excited to introduce you to Sonia and Casey, two of the founding partners of Divorceify. Today we're going to talk about the four early divorce mistakes and how to avoid them. But first, let me introduce you to our guests. Sonia is a divorce litigator, a divorce coach, and a divorce survivor. She now dedicated her career to helping people going through divorce, focus on building their future. She became a programmer and co-founded Divorceify to help people demystify the complexities of the divorce process. Casey is also a divorce litigator, turned divorce mediator, turned divorce innovator. Casey earned her bachelor's degree at Smith College and studied law at Georgetown University, where she was recognized for her excellence in clinical field work and family law. Casey is admitted to practice law in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Thanks for being here, Sonia and Casey were so excited had this conversation with you. Casey Shevin: Thank you for having us. Karen Chellew: Of course. Casey, do you want to start off by telling us a little bit about Divorceify? Casey Shevin: I would love to. So as we just mentioned Karen, I started out my career in family law as a litigator, which mean for those people who are listening and are not totally sure what litigation means, that basically means that you take your divorce to court. So you ask a judge to set a schedule where you're making regular court appearances, and although most people assume that ends in a full-blown trial, 95% of cases actually settle. So most of the time I was helping people try to settle out of court. But with the watchful eye of a judge setting the schedule for every step of the process. What I found in litigation was that that wasn't the best fit for me as a way to serve my clients. And so, I was always trying to get people to settle rather than fight for every penny they could get, because I felt like there was a real value in shortening the duration of the divorce and kind of salvaging whatever co-parenting relationship my client had to their soon to be ex spouse going forward. Casey Shevin: So I ended up leaving litigation and forming my own practice in mediation. And around that time, I was looking for other people who were finding themselves unsatisfied with the divorce status quo. And that's when I met Sonia and our third co-founder Tali. All three of us are attorneys and working moms, and we all wanted to find a way to help people avoid some of the earliest divorce mistakes. So what I found in mediation is that people would start in litigation, they'd spend tens of thousands of dollars, they'd have tons of headache. Their stress level would be through the roof, and they would find that they were fighting over things that really either didn't matter to them. They felt like their money was being spent inefficiently, or it was just ratcheting up the conflict level in their household to like an unsustainable point. Casey Shevin: And they felt like there was no end in sight for the litigation. So when they found out about mediation they would come to my office, they would have a couple sessions, they would really get down to the root of whatever was left in front of them to decide. And they'd be like, if we had known about mediation earlier, we could have saved ourselves so much time, so much money and so much conflict in our household. So that was a real light bulb moment for me in terms of thinking, wow, people need a place to go for divorce orientation and education. So that they can really get their divorce started on the right foot. And Sonia was at the time... And I'm going to let her speak for herself in a second, but Sonia was actually thinking the same thing. She was seeing it from a different perspective which I'm sure she'll share, but she was out there thinking the same thing, which is that people need a one-stop shop for orientation and education. And that's where Divorceify was really born. Casey Shevin: So when you come to Divorceify's site, you do a pretty simple intake as a client. We ask you natural language questions, you answer them, it takes five to 10 minutes. And then at the end, we spit out what we call DivorceGPS, which kind of directs you to what we think are the best process options for you, because there's more than one way to get a divorce agreement. And we also direct you to the types of professional help that can help you get to the finish line efficiently and holistically. And so it's not just attorneys, it's also financial advisors and mental health professionals and parenting coaches and mediators, et cetera. So we're really excited about it. We think it's a great place for people to start their divorce process and really learn about the options out there and really figure out what's the best fit for them. Karen Chellew: Love that. Sonia do you want to add... Oh, go ahead, Catherine. Catherine Shanahan: Sorry. It is exciting because I want to hear Sonia side first before I say anything more, I guess, but it's exciting for people to have a place to go because there are so many options and a lot of times the only options available to you are the options of your friends and family members who have gone through the process and everyone's financial situation is different. But before we expand on that I didn't mean to interject there Sonia. So tell us a little bit about you and how you jumped into the Divorceify process? Sonia Q: Thank you, and that's okay. So I also was a divorce litigator. I litigated divorces in Boston, Massachusetts. I did a lot of high-end, high-conflict divorces, I was in court a ton. And really also in my own personal life my marriage was imploding. So I was able to advocate for my clients, I couldn't advocate for myself. And so, what really solidified that I needed to sort of help people through the divorce process in a different way was I was involved in a three year divorce trial. So two high-end executives spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, liquidated assets, children went into regression behaviors. And basically we ended up having to settle because in Massachusetts there's a mandatory retirement age for judges. So the judge was about to retire and he looked at us after three and said "You guys are either going to have to settle or you're going to have to start over." Well, what ended up happening was we ended up settling with the very first proposal that I had drafted to the other side three years prior. Sonia Q: Done, no more, no thank you. So with that my personal life was kind of crazy, and I decided that I needed to walk away from litigation. And part of that was based on what Casey said, that education orientation piece, I kept finding that clients were coming to me and they were making three critical mistakes. Number one, starting off on the wrong process. Why, exactly Karen and Catherine, what you said that they're responding to their divorce and their marriage, how their best friend did their neighbor. Everybody's got a divorce war story, but that's a problem, it's their own, it's not yours. And number two, that clients really don't realize divorce is much more than a legal problem. So if you don't address all of the pieces of your divorce with the right experts and professionals, you're not able to get through the process in the healthiest way possible. Sonia Q: Number three, which we're going to talk about is clients really felt disempowered. They didn't realize that during the waiting period there are things you can do to empower yourself and prepare. All of those things together with my own thing going on, I decided to walk away from litigation. I packed up my car with only my belongings, and I left the marital home. Before doing that as a divorce litigator, everybody kind of looked at me and said, "You do this all the time. You know exactly how to do this. It's going to be nice and easy or divorce is simple." And I thought, yikes, it a lot different. [crosstalk 00:08:45] And it became really critical for me to surround myself with the right team of professionals that really understood what I needed, what my non-negotiables were, and to educate me on what I was choosing to walk away from. Sonia Q: Only then could I make a well-informed decision? And so my decision became my non-negotiable, my happiness, I was stuck in a miserable marriage for way too many years. And the other thing that I did was I walked away from everything. I left equity on the table. I left a lot of things, but I didn't knowingly and having brought in the right professionals to help me understand what that meant for my future and for next steps. So with all of that Divorceify was born. Karen Chellew: I love it. And your third partner Tali, she's also an attorney. Do you want to just give a little bit about her? Casey Shevin: Sure. At the time we met Tali, she was working with judges for the court system. So she really saw the burden of over litigated two cases on the court system. Part of the reason litigation moves so slowly is the court system is overwhelmed by the number of people coming to it for help, when realistically a lot of those cases don't need to be in active litigation. It's very common to feel like you need the help of a lawyer. You shouldn't necessarily expect that you're going to understand the legal ins and outs of your case, but hiring a lawyer doesn't mean you're going to go to litigation. So Tali really saw that from the court's perspective of how beneficial it would be to head people off before they really even stepped foot in the courtroom and get them to other alternatives. So Tali actually took some time off from the law to learn to code, and so she's like our tech co-founder. And she's just been really awesome in coordinating all the various tech aspects. Casey Shevin: And like really what Divorceify is. It's a multidisciplinary marketplace of services where you can come and we all love a curated shopping experience these days. I don't want to sort through every option on Amazon. I don't want to sort through every option on Netflix, I want them to already know what's the best fit for me. So that's really what Divorceify offers like a tech and innovation enabled way to get your divorce started on the right foot. Sonia Q: That makes me think of TJ Maxx. Maxx seems always fine to say deal. But for me, I have to walk in and only see their front circular, whatever you call them through all the whole deals going on there. Casey Shevin: [crosstalk 00:11:35] multiples of options. I just want to know like what's in my style, directing me to the things I know I like. Karen Chellew: Right. Catherine Shanahan: So if you're listening to this, the big takeaway I'm hearing right now is three litigating attorneys ran for the hills. They knew that there was a better way to do this. Then they set out to set up Divorceify a great marketplace for people to find a better way to do it. So I'm really glad that we met you all and that we're partnering to make it even stronger. Casey Shevin: Yes. Catherine Shanahan: For people gaining financial clarity so that they know where to turn and where to go. Karen Chellew: Absolutely. So let's talk about some early mistakes people make when entering the divorce process or even thinking the divorce process. So the first one is failing to confront and decision. Casey Shevin: Yeah. So Sonia mentioned a few things that like we do focus on Divorceify, but what we think are like the four earliest mistakes that you can make is, like you said, the first one is failing to confront indecision. The second one is failing to get organized. The third one is choosing the wrong divorce process, and the fourth one is hiring the wrong help. So we'll start with the confronting indecision. So you don't wake up one morning and know for sure that you need to get a divorce. It's not like a light bulb moment that happens for most people. Most people it's a gradual thing. You're like, "Is this marriage working? I don't think it is. Is there a way to make it better? Maybe we'll try that. Am I done? What would divorce be like? Is that what I want?" Casey Shevin: The period of indecision lasts a really long time for most people. And it's a huge decision to make, so that makes perfect sense. I want to normalize that because that makes perfect sense. That being said, the longer you spend mired in indecision and without doing anything to help yourself get past it, the more likely you are to make a mistake that costs you money. So how can you confront indecision and why does starting your divorce before you've really made a decision cost you money? Sonia and I have both dealt with clients who started their divorce, not really sure that they wanted a divorce, and that costs you money because you're just ping ponging back and forth between, do I want to do this or do I want to stay in my marriage? And you're spending money with attorneys, maybe you're shopping around, maybe you've picked one. And this attorney is like, "Can I send that first letter? And can we put together a financial statement? Like, what are we doing?" And every time they're contacting you to try to prod you along, they're charging you legal fees. Karen Chellew: I'm going to add to that, Casey. Casey Shevin: Yeah. Karen Chellew: Because I just had a situation this week where we had clients who I guess were in indecision. And they didn't realize that once you hire an attorney and once you filed that complaint, and once someone sends over that discovery, all of a sudden you're mandated by court deadlines. I think that a lot of people have no idea about that. They think, okay, I'm going to file, then I can think some more. Well, now, you're in the midst of deadlines that your attorney has no choice, but which to respond to. Or their license is at risk, or you're going to get a sanctions motion against you. So I think to that point a lot of people are unsure, but they don't even know that filing a divorce actually is a commitment. It's not an exploratory decision. Catherine Shanahan: Well, you say that people don't just wake up and want to get a divorce the next day. But I know that there's a lot of people out there myself included, who said once my youngest kid graduates from high school, I'm getting out. So there was all those years of waiting, but then the time comes and now you're sitting there thinking, well, do I want to do this or do I not want to do this? And it's because they don't have financial clarity they're afraid to be alone. Or they just don't know what their life will look like after divorce. So when you Karen and I worked really hard on our process of the Financial Portraits, because how do we know what attorney to send them to, or what therapists that they need? If they don't know what their financial situation looks like. Catherine Shanahan: So it always amazes me when somebody comes in and they start doing their portrait and they realize that their inheritance is not marital because they never co-mingled it. And they say, "Oh my gosh, I only stayed because my mom would have died if my husband got any of that money. So I just stayed. If I know he's not going to get it, then I'm going." And the other women who say, I'm going to say mostly women, but there's certainly men also that say the same thing. "Wait, the pension is marital, I get half of that. He always told me, I'll never get that, what will I live on?" So it's really transforming when we're working with our clients and they realize that this is a marital asset, this is not a marital asset. And here's what your life will look like after working on their budgeting. Because then they can make the smart decision whether they stay or go. Karen Chellew: And Sonia, I think you make the point often that you, while you knew the litigation process, you needed support in the emotional process. And we fully believe that physically, financially and emotionally, all of those areas need to be in alignment for you to make really good, clear decisions for yourself. And some people are going to have strengths in places other people do not. But to your point of having a team and that fund of resources where they're all committed to the same cause, which is you is extraordinarily beneficial. Sonia Q: It is, and I think that you just addressed another piece of it. One of the things that... Casey and I are attorneys, our focus was on substantive legal issues. That is where we had our highest value for our clients. So then as a professional in the divorce field, you also have to learn to stay in your lane and respect it. That's what you do. That's what you know, that's a wonderful thing, but then you pull in your colleagues. Then you pull in the other professionals to help that client through, so there's that piece of it. And the other piece is exactly what you said, Karen, most all divorces have the divorce aspect legal issues, whether it's a settlement or you are in the court system or whatever that process is, and the financial piece. Most of them also have a parenting. The finances and the legal process and making it happen are two parts of every divorce. Sonia Q: And if you don't have the right information about the types of ways that you can get divorced, and what your Financial Portrait picture looks like now, what it will look like. And if you don't have that information, there's no way that you can make the best decision for your family. So you need the two pieces, which is why Casey and I are so pumped to be partnering up with My Divorce Solution. Because you guys have the financial piece and we are not financial professionals, but we know it's important and clients need it. I needed it. Divorce is much more than a legal problem. Karen Chellew: And so is mediation. Catherine Shanahan: And what's really great about your process is that yes, you need an attorney we can say, or yes, you have these financial concerns, but when we can vet them... No not vet them, but send them back to you, you can vet out the professionals. So it's really nice bet that we can transition our clients through your process to find the attorney when they need the attorney. Because sometimes in the middle of doing their Financial Portrait, they need an attorney. We're not attorneys, we don't give legal advice, we give financial opinions and financial advice, but to be able to say, go to Divorceify, here's the scenario. And here's the type of professional you need, you've done the hard work for them by vetting out that professional. So that's really so empowering that many people don't have. They just don't know how to find someone for them. Even though they could find the process, they can't find the right professional for them. And you often do that. Casey Shevin: What I wanted to point out is that the vast majority of people who come to our website and use our predictive technology to get recommendations, it's like over 75% of them are just thinking about divorce. Of those people many of them know they want to get a divorce, but they don't know how to get started. And then about a third of those people are just not even totally sure they're ready. They're still in this exploratory phase. What Karen mentioned earlier, I just want to go back to that quickly, which is that when you file something with the court to say that, I think I want to get a divorce. Yeah, it's true. You can withdraw that, you can take that off the table. Of course, you've spent money preparing it. You've now notified your spouse, you want to get a divorce? The ball is rolling. So you've started something by doing that. Casey Shevin: But it also does give you financial protection, like filing something with the court. So the time you spend before you file anything with the court can be a time in which financial stuff goes down that you learn about later. If you and your spouse are actively talking about divorce, the word divorce is going back and forth all the time, people start doing what attorneys called divorce planning. They start moving money around, they start thinking about what would come after this marriage. And there's many cases that came to our office where we would finally be doing financial discovery, we have started the divorce, we're pulling finances, we're putting together what the marital estate looks like. And we find out that the other spouse pulled $50,000 out of retirement in six months before the divorce was filed. Casey Shevin: And you can't get that money back that money's gone now. So you may be can recoup it through a judge. You might not be able to, it depends on the state you're in. And that's a really important thing to think about, like the longer you spend spinning your wheels on, are we going to get a divorce, are we not? Things might be happening that you don't know about. So how can you move past that period of indecision? And like we said, it's not just a legal decision, it's a financial decision, it's an emotional decision. So we have number of professionals in our network that can help you make those decisions. So one way to do it is a type of therapy called discernment counseling. And it's something that you do with your partner. And many people are resistant to couples counseling, especially when they're on the edge of a divorce. Casey Shevin: I don't want to be brought into this room and beat up by a counselor, we never tried marital counseling before. Now when we're like, at the very end, we're going to try it like that doesn't make any sense. But the truth is discernment. Counseling is different. It's a goal oriented process with a set number of sessions. And the goal of the process is to decide, are we in or are we out? And once you make that decision together and you're on the same page about whether you want the divorce or not, you can move forward really efficiently and with a lot of honesty and with like a lot of resolution on the emotional piece. You can also just have an initial consultation with an attorney where you're asking them a lot of really important legal questions and like, what would happen if I decided to file, would we have to go to court right away? What could be happening if I choose not to file? What might it look like for my kids, if I got a divorce? Casey Shevin: You can get some of those initial questions answered without really committing to that attorney or to filing something. So getting an initial consultation is a great way to move past indecision. And then finally the financial piece, a lot of are just really terrified. They can't afford to get divorced, not just the legal fees, but like what does splitting our assets look like? What does splitting our debts look like? Can we refinance this house? Can we afford it to buy two new houses? Were our kids live? So getting the financial piece together and, or understanding what your finances might look like after divorce is a really important way to move past indecision. And that's something we love about My Divorce Solution is that you guys really help people understand what the various outcomes might look like. Karen Chellew: Absolutely, to your point a lot of times when you said they're exploring, and they're in indecision, couples want to work it out more than they want to fight. So they're more willing to engage in honest or more honest financial discussions, than they will be willing to engage once they've engaged with attorneys. Because as an attorney, it's your job to protect your client. So by default it becomes a little- Sonia Q: I like that honest or more honest. So if you are listening ask yourself will you be honest or more honest? Karen Chellew: How much honesty will I get here. Casey Shevin: Right. Totally. Sonia Q: Love that go ahead. Karen Chellew: I thought that you would like that. But what trying to express is as an attorney, it is your job or an attorney's job to protect the client. So in doing so there's some level of adversity created by default. And then I also help people try to understand that even in mediation, mediators, they don't give advice or that's not their role. So I think a lot of people going into mediation saying the mediator is going to help me understand, well, only to a point. Because again, their role is to facilitate conversation. So having the financial clarity of knowing what you have, what's going to look at like what your options are, how much money do I spend a month now and how much money will I have later. Generically speaking, it's such good foundational information to help you make a decision. Do I stay, or do I go? Casey Shevin: Yes. And I think that what we're starting to get into is the second mistake that people make, which is failing to get organized. So there is a huge value to getting organized before you hit the starting line of your divorce. So before you're filing something in court or before you're like really starting to pay attorneys, large sums of money every month to start negotiating for you. The most valuable thing you can do for yourself is to prepare, and what does that mean? So part of that is getting emotionally ready and like, Sonia can speak to that probably even better than I can. But I would say that a big part of it is getting your financial documents organized because really divorce is ultimately the dissolution of a business partnership. When you get married, the state gives you certain rights and responsibilities and that's the contract of marriage. Casey Shevin: And when you get divorced, the state has to go in and look at what rights and how do those rights and responsibilities get dealt with during the marriage. So what did they accumulate together that they're not both now legally entitled to, and what are their responsibilities to each other now that they're getting divorced? Is somebody expected by the States to support the other person financially, for a period of time to help them get back on their feet as a single person. That's like spousal support. You have children together, there's a lot of financial responsibility there through child support. So before you ask the state to go in and make decisions about your rights and responsibilities, dissolving your finances, splitting things up, you need to really have all your ducks in a row as to what are the assets and debts that we're going to be asking the court to divide. Casey Shevin: If you're prepped well for that, then that process that when the court says here's all the different pieces of paperwork you need to produce, or if you're in an out of court divorce process, your attorneys are still going to say, you can't get the court to approve a divorce settlement, unless you have had full financial disclosure. And you're willing to sign a contract that says I have received full financial disclosure, and I'm confident that I understand every asset and debt in this marriage. And I'm confident that it's getting split up in a fair way that I can agree to. My Divorce Solution, financial prep, and the reason we're partnering with you guys to send clients to you is that we really feel like it is the comprehensive preparation that clients need. Right? Karen Chellew: Absolutely. Catherine Shanahan: Well, before even knowing what you want and what you have, if you're out there and you're thinking, how the hell do I do that? All you need to do is don't overlook an opportunity to gather some information that you may not have access to after it's announced that you want a divorce. So if you're out there and you see a statement, but you have no idea what it is, it's okay, you don't need to know what anything means at this point. If it has numbers on it, you gather it. Don't make the mistake of missing the opportunity to gather some information. Just a couple of weeks ago, I heard someone say, "Oh my gosh, I left the house, and I had my hands on the document and now I don't and he won't give them to me. Catherine Shanahan: So make a copy of anything that you have so that we can organize you. We will let you know what's missing. We'll make sure you have the financial clarity when you go through our process, but right now, take the opportunity to gather as much information as you can, whether you understand it or not. It doesn't matter to us. Karen Chellew: If it has numbers on it, make a copy. Casey Shevin: That's very good advice. Catherine Shanahan: Exactly. Karen Chellew: Just to elaborate a little bit on that there have been some couples or some people who come through the process and when they get financially organized and clear, they understand that their relationship issues were more financial. And once they had the clarity, they were willing to work on their marriage again. Now that percentage is very small, but it definitely exists. And so, again, making sure what you're doing so that you don't have regrets later. It's just really important. Catherine Shanahan: That reminds me of something Karen with a client not too long ago. And it was actually the male. He is getting his Financial Portrait and they're going to therapy at the same time. And he said, "I don't know if I want a divorce or not." And I said to him in his review, "It's great, you're taking care of this because you'll know what it will look like if you stay married or if you stay divorced. But the most important piece to this is you're really giving yourself and your wife, the opportunity for you to emotionally work on your marriage because you already have it settled." So the financial piece is not coming into your therapy session. It's just staying on should we stay connected and together because we really do love each other emotionally not, we don't love each other financially because some people can't overcome that in therapy. And that's why therapy sometimes probably doesn't work. Karen Chellew: Yeah. Sonia, you were going to say something. Sonia Q: Yeah. I think one of the other things not to overlook is preparation saves you time and money. So walking into your attorney's office, well-prepared with the Financial Portrait, with documents that you have captured and sitting down there will save money because the attorneys not having to talk to you for a... Usually it's for several sessions about what documents to start to collect, and we don't have to do that. You're coming in and you're ready. And then we can focus on what we need to focus on. Whether it's a pickle, the right process, looking at all of the options, et cetera, children, custody, whatever that looks like, but it really does save time and money. And I think that's something that at least what I would tell clients all the time is coming to me with a stack of papers and documents and just throwing them down at my desk and being like, "I know there's suspicious behavior here. My spouse is hiding money in an account." It's like speaking Chinese. And this is why, one, I don't know your family. Karen Chellew: Two you don't speak Chinese. Sonia Q: Yes, I don't. And number one, they don't know your family. Number two, I have no idea the patterns of behavior that your spouse has or does not have when it comes to money, taking out money for a certain ATMs et cetera. I would always say to clients, pull the documents, and when you have a moment of clarity in your mind, because that's also something, the emotional piece is heavy. And some days you can't either look at or think anything divorced and that's okay. But those moments you can sit down look through it, flag things for your attorney. So that when you're sitting down, it's not just this massive pile of just statements. We were looking at hundreds of thousands of pages of statements all the time. You've actually created your story, what you think that is. And really that is powerful because that's also empowering for you as you're getting through it. And every little step of preparation is a drop in the sort of empowerment bucket. So that's a big piece. Get prepared, get organized, it'll save you money and your attorney will love you. [inaudible 00:33:51] Karen Chellew: That's so awesome. And you always have the spouse that has the spreadsheet. Usually one or the other has to spreadsheet [inaudible 00:34:01] And they for sure know what it is and it's a no brainer. And I can't think of any time that spreadsheet has really laid out the marital assets and the components of the marital assets and what it's going to mean to divide those marital assets. So while from like a straight line of... That's probably the wrong math word, Catherine, but from just a very linear perspective, the spreadsheet may be a good place to start. But it's only a drop in the bucket to the information that you need to know and understand how it plays into dividing assets, in family law situations. Casey Shevin: I mean, look, getting a divorce, like really sucks. It is one of the most stressful things you can go through in your entire life. 85% of the clients who come to our website say that the stress of their divorce is interrupting their day to day functioning. You might be at work, but your head might be somewhere totally different, most days that you're at work because you are so crushed by the stress of what is about to happen to your life. So at Divorceify we're thinking about how do we get people to start their divorce on the right foot and have the best divorce possible. But what we're thinking about is the cost of your divorce, the tone of your divorce and how long it takes to get a divorce. So look, you can have millions of dollars, but do you want to give that money to your divorce attorney? Or do you want to spend it and leave it for your children? Spend it on yourself, leave it for your children. We would so much rather have you do that. Casey Shevin: Even if you have the means to litigate your divorce for years and payer your payer attorneys, hundreds of thousands of dollars. But that's not true for most people. Most people don't have that kind of money, and they really are worried about how much their divorce is going to cost. So in either situation, you want to be thinking about how to be efficient. There's no reason to fork all that money over to your divorce attorneys. Karen Chellew: Right. Casey Shevin: The second thing is the tone of your divorce really sets the tone for your family going forward. Most people who are getting a divorce have kids together, whether or not those kids are adults or young children, you are going to have to be in the same room with your ex at some point in the future. Whether it's a college graduation, a wedding your kid's kindergarten performance at the end of the year, whatever it is, you're probably going to have to be in a room with this person, and you don't want that to be toxic for everybody in your family. So we think about how do we keep the conflict level as low as possible without making you a doormat. Karen Chellew: Right. Casey Shevin: The other thing is the duration of your divorce. Like it is very common for people to spend six months to a year, debating back and forth, do I even want a divorce? That alone is painful. Once you've decided that you want to get one, you don't want to spend another one to three years getting divorced. You want that to be as short, a duration as possible without it feeling like you're on some like hyper speed stress train. So we really think about how do we keep the cost down? How do we keep the tone controlled? How do we shorten the duration of your divorce? And good preparation will influence all three of those things. And I think part of it is knowing you want a divorce, and that this is the right decision for you. And taking the steps that you can take to get past in decision. Be sure about it when you start it. And then getting really well-organized and prepped and having some vision of what it might look like after divorce, that really will help you go into it in a calmer mindset, spend less money with your professionals. Casey Shevin: And some people might think like, well is getting a Financial Portrait really necessary. Isn't that something my attorney's going to help me with anyway? Sure, it might feel like an additional cost at the beginning, but trust me, when I tell you that paying for good financial analysis at the beginning is going to save you money throughout. And you're much likelier to be happy with your settlement at the end of it. So, I mean, I think that that's a huge cost saver and time saver and conflict saver, because also your attorney who your spouse will probably hate is not going to be the one being like, "Well, what we have to do with this asset is X," they're going to already have an analysis that was done by financial professionals. That tax affects everything that shows why this is a great scenario for everybody, that's really what you want. Karen Chellew: And so, I think that goes into our next segment of choosing the wrong divorce process. The third early mistake. Casey Shevin: Yeah. So we think there are basically four main ways to get divorced, there's a few outliers otherwise, but we've talked about litigation. So using the court to set your schedule and going for a judge the other option is really out of court negotiation. So you hire attorneys and you tell your attorneys before we file something at court, we really want to keep this out of court as much as possible. And you have- Catherine Shanahan: Wait a minute, can I stop you there for a second, Sonia? I just can't even imagine going through what you went through. And then the judge tells you "I'm out of here. You need to decide this." So when you mentioned the litigation process, I mean, I never think a judge should decide what the fate of your family is. I just can't get that out of my head, going through all that money, all that time, you being a professional, knowing the process, and then it's out of your hands. And the judge says, "Sorry, see you later." I mean, so if you're listening to this, we all know that litigation, if voidable which it is for 85 or 90% of the cases avoid it, that must've been so traumatic that process. Sonia Q: And I think the other piece is, speaking of the emotional piece, if you want to punish your spouse, you for sure need to get in touch with a mental health professional because using the court system to punish your spouse is the biggest mistake that you can make for your family, for your finances and for your children. And so, I'm going to say it again, if you're thinking that way now is the time to start doing your homework on a mental health professional that you can afford that you enjoy talking to because you need to talk yourself out of that. Catherine Shanahan: That's great a great point. That's another way of doing that. Karen Chellew: It's a great way to punish yourself. Sonia Q: Exactly, and at the end of the day, what Casey was saying is that if you're going to do that through the court system, you're setting the stage for an adversarial hostile co-parenting relationship, which by the way is for life, so good luck. It is absolutely unnecessary. And I can very much understand those moments of absolute rage because your spouse is pushing the right buttons because you've been married, they know which buttons to push, to get the best reaction out of you. I understand, take a breath, whatever you need to do, but do not use the court system to punish the other spouse. Karen Chellew: Right. Casey Shevin: The other thing to think about with courts is judges are there to protect people when they need to be protected. So if there's abuse in your marriage, whether it's financial abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, that's a great case to take to litigation because the court will see through that bullshit, and they will do what they have to do to protect you and your family. But that being said, because the court is really designed for those cases. And really those are the pieces that the judge and their staff want to focus on. If you're arguing over accounts and who gets this account and who gets that account and who gets this vacation house and who gets that vacation house and who gets this collection of collectibles versus that collection of collectibles. The judge's not super excited about your case and being the ones who decide what they think to rational people with the help of attorneys should be able to decide on their own. Casey Shevin: And so, we have seen that number of cases that get all the way up to the line where they have two or three assets or two or three maybe items or debt that they can't figure out, who's going to be responsible for. Who's going to take. And there's like maybe a difference of some amount of money between what this side will accept and what that side will accept. We have seen a number of times where the judges called their attorneys back into their back room, and they're like, "Look, this is probably what I'm going to decide. So you need to just go out there and save the court's time and tell your clients that because you don't want to have a three-day trial on this. And when we could be helping families that like really need our help." Casey Shevin: That's very disheartening as an attorney too, is like, you've been fighting for your client for however many months or years. They've paid you thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars for their day in court. And then the judge is like, "Yeah, I'm just going to save you guys a lot of time and tell you that this is what's probably going to happen. So go settle this." And then hour later, your attorneys have hand written a settlement and sent it back to the judge to approve. Sonia Q: [crosstalk 00:43:36] That's a whole other podcast that I love, but let's go on to the other way, even getting divorced because that's a great topic, I could go on a whole day [crosstalk 00:43:50] Casey Shevin: That litigation is to be avoided if you can. And the next way to get divorced is, you both hire attorneys or financial advisors and whomever else you want, but you tell these professionals, we want to settle out of court and you let them do the heavy lifting on going back and forth and trading proposals, but really like their job is to settle it out of court. The third way is mediation, and usually that's the two of you, you and your spouse, and a neutral third party in a room that person might be an attorney, they might be a mental health professional, they might have a financial background, but their job is not to decide what's going to happen there. They're helping the two of you reach a decision by providing information along the way and helping you guys reach, a compromise. Casey Shevin: And then the fourth way is like a do it yourself process. And there's a few different ways to do a do it yourself process, but there are some companies that are now offering online divorces, where they have the forms available, you and your spouse just really fill in what you want the court to do. That's becoming more popular. And it's understandable why like the cost is a lot lower, the timeframe can be much shorter. And it's empowering to do something on your own. That being said, there's a very narrow window of families where they get the outcome that feels fair at the end of that process. And part of that is like divorce is really complex. It's a complex legal problem, it's a complex financial problem, it's a complex emotional problem. The idea that you could do it all on your own, probably not fair to most people. Casey Shevin: So what we say is that's like a good fit for divorces where the conflict is very low, there aren't any children, you haven't been married that long, and you really don't have that much to divide between you. Sometimes attorneys call those divorces like a walk away. You're both just walk away what's within your name, you split down the middle of whatever's in your joint names. And there are young couples that are totally willing to do that. And if you're one of those, then do it yourself process might be right for you. Otherwise, you probably are going to need some help. Karen Chellew: Yeah. Catherine Shanahan: So in any of these processes, Divorceify I can help direct the client to the right process and the right professional, correct? Casey Shevin: Exactly. Sonia Q: And what Divorceify also does is it also highlights the pros and cons to each process because there's also the collaborative process. And there's been a big collaborative movement. And the reality is that many clients do not know that in the collaborative movement, there are several professionals that sit down at a table for a certain set of sessions to get you to a settlement. However, you do sign a contract in the beginning that if you do not settle the case, or both parties come to an agreement you're starting again, so- Karen Chellew: New professionals. Sonia Q: Correct. So in order to pick the right process you also need to understand what does this process entail? What makes sense, what doesn't. And what the pros and cons to each are. And so Divorceify does that in our DivorceGPS, you will not just get the recommendation, but you will also understand the other ways to get divorced and the pros and cons to each. Because there's a little FYI. So you might think, oh, things are bad right now. We just have to litigate. We can't communicate, I don't trust him or her et cetera. And you think, all right, this is the only way, well, next week when the temperature's been turned down a little bit, you never know, and perhaps then the lines of communication open. So wait a second. Suddenly mediation can be on the table. There's other options. So things can change, but you need know what each decision entails. Karen Chellew: Yeah. I liked my little tour through Divorceify, I did the test tour. And I really appreciated the fact that it did a great job of explaining the different types of how you can approach the divorce process, but specific to whatever scenario, I set my situation out to be, it told me the pros and cons of because you have this, or you have these assets, you're going to need this. And because of this, you're a candidate for this, but you could consider this, but it may or may not work for you. And I found that to be very helpful and I can see how that could be extremely helpful for someone to have all of these considerations as it relates to their divorce journey. It was good. Casey Shevin: Yeah. And, I think that there's ways to overdo it, like to go to litigation when you don't really need litigation, but there's also ways to under do it. So doing a DIY divorce and then getting your settlements approved by the court and then finding out years later that you could have been entitled to more money. That's one of the ways people really underdo it. Another way is like I just want this to be over. I just want this to be better for my kids. I'll do whatever it takes to get to the finish line because I'm so stressed out by this. So I'll do mediation because that's what my spouse wants to do. So I'm just going to do it. And then you get in the mediation room and your spouse's like steamrolling you. And you're like, well whatever, like, it's fine. Casey Shevin: Sonia is somebody who has said, like I left money on the table and I walked away and that was the right choice for her. But it was a totally informed decision that she made. And I think the key is just make sure you're confident in the process that you're using. Make sure you're confident that you're getting all the information that you understand, the decisions being reached. And that you feel confident, you understand how it will affect your financial future, because you can do mediation, you can reach agreements on almost everything and then have some things that you don't agree to, that you then take to attorneys to resolve. You can do a hybrid model between different processes, you don't have to just choose one and stick with it. Casey Shevin: And it's really important if you feel like you're in the middle of mediation or in the middle of litigation or trying to do DIY and you're muddling through, and you're just not confident. Like you can go back to us, use our predictive technology and get a new recommendation, or just look back at the options that we recommended in the beginning. And think maybe I could default to a different process and end it in a better way. Karen Chellew: I so agree. And I do not want to close out this podcast without addressing the concierge service, which I believe is kind of the glue that holds your divorce together, going through the Divorceify process. So Sonia, do you want to talk a little bit about that as we close out you? Sonia Q: So I think that people going through divorce, you need somebody in your corner. You need somebody to be able to meet you wherever you are in the process, whatever that day holds for you. There were days I couldn't get up and shower and that was all right, just let yourself be. So in order to really help people wherever they are in the process or in the beginning stages, we have a concierge service. What do we do? Well, it depends on what you need. So it's very easy, you get to talk right now, the concierge service is myself and Casey. You get to talk to one of us, you get to tell us, or you get referred by your team of professionals that feel that you need a little extra, either hand-holding support orientation, strategy sessions. Sonia Q: So what we really do is you would come in, you would talk to Casey or myself for 30 minutes. We would get an idea of what your situation is, what you need. And then we put the steps in place to get you there. Whether it means more education, whether it's helping to get prepared, whether it's starting to have conversations that you need to have with professionals, let's say a parenting coordinator, and you're thinking, I don't even know where to start with the parenting plan we'll help you. If you need to be connected to the right professionals, we'll help you. If you need a venting session, because things are heavy and you have nowhere else to turn, we're listening. So whatever that person needs, we help them get there. And we give homework. Not tough homework, we're not bringing you back to school. Catherine Shanahan: I just wanted to say you lost me at homework. Sonia Q: I know. Listen we all need a little bit of homework [inaudible 00:52:36] therapist on the phone. That's what it is, a little bit of possibility that you can really count on. And Casey and I offer a level of experience that not many other services provide, because we've been there. We're attorneys, we get it, we've seen it, I had felt it. So our goal is to really get that person through the concierge service to their next step. In the easiest, most efficient way possible for them. Karen Chellew: I love it. Casey Shevin: Our partnership with My Divorce Solution, the way that that kind of works is you might be a client of My Divorce Solution already. And then you get your Financial Portrait and your to do's and it's like, oh great, now I know where I'm at, but I have all these to do's to do. And now I have to figure out how I'm going to get divorced and who I'm going to hire to help me with that. That's a point at which you might be referred to our service by Karen and Catherine, and we can help pick up where they left off. Another way that you might find our partnership working together is you might through a process. Do DivorceGPS, get our predictions, and then get an email from us where we are kind of nudging you to go get a Financial Portrait done, because we think that that's a really important step in the preparation process. Casey Shevin: And so you might start with MDS and come to us, or you might start with us and then go to be referred to MDS and just know that like we are working in partnership with them to really get clients prepared as best they can. And then our concierge service can really layer on top of the Financial Portrait to really help you get in the right hands to take you to the finish line. So hiring the right help whether it's a therapist, a parenting expert, a attorney, a mediator, or whatever you decide is the process that you want to be using. And we can help you make that decision as well, we'll help you get the right help to get you to the finish line. Casey Shevin: And when you're hiring an attorney, it's not just where they went to school, how many years they've been in practice and how much they cost that matters. It's also, are you comfortable talking to this person? Do you feel like they understand your goals? Are they really going to support your process the best you can? So we think about personality fit as well, not just like the credentials on paper, and that's a way that we can be helpful is help you really think through holistically, who do you need to be working with? So at that point, we've got our concierge can really be helpful. Sonia Q: I just wish I go through my divorce again, to have a concierge service. Karen Chellew: I know. [inaudible 00:55:16] Go ahead Sonia Q: Really quickly for anyone listening, because I don't know if we've made this clear. To use the divorce certified DivorceGPS it is free. Karen Chellew: Totally free. Sonia Q: Absolutely free. You can come back like Casey was talking about. If things have changed in your process or things have changed in general. You can come back and do another one and it's still free, 15 more and they're all free. Everything always has strings attached. There are no strings attached here. So just come in and just walk away with something that is completely free and gives you a starting point that you can trust. Catherine Shanahan: Yeah. So if you're hearing anything and you're sitting at home and you feel like you have no place to go and no one to talk to, you don't have to make the decision to get divorced today. You don't have to decide what's going to happen for your rest of your life, but you can go on to Divorceify's website and get a free GPS or some options and that are available to you. So don't sit there and be sad because that really makes me sad, do something for yourself. And if it's just getting information, then good for you get that information that you need. Karen Chellew: Absolutely. And so on that note, while we could continue talking for hours, I'm sure. This concludes this episode of the four early mistakes and how to avoid them in the divorce process. Thank you Sonia and Casey for a great conversation, and we look forward to the next one. Casey Shevin: Thank you. And for your listeners, thank you for joining and we wish you the best next chapter possible. Sonia Q: That's right.  

While walking back to her university dorm building, Karen was assaulted at knife point. She managed to escape, physically unharmed. However, the assault traumatized Karen. She experienced periods of peace and power, but her life unravelled again, when her marriage was dying, she experienced financial loss and her mother was slipping into dementia. These additional sources of trauma caused her to slip back into anxiety and PTSD. Writing about it required her to excavate and evaluate her feelings. What Karen discovered in the process was life altering and she came to learn a lot about herself. Today, she is a lot kinder to herself and has established better coping mechanisms. Karen shares these powerful nuggets of life wisdom: - be kind to yourself - be mindful of the story you're telling yourself internally - adjust your self talk to something more gentle - make necessary life adjustments - ask for help - seek therapy http://stefanokaren.com  https://soundcloud.com/rarebirdlit/sets/karen-stefano  tags: Karen, Stefano, writer, author, What, A, Body, Remembers, radio, show, podcast, story, stories, that, empower, empowering, empowerment, inspire, inspiring, inspiration, encourage, encouraging, encouragement, hope, light, podcast, Sean https://storiesthatempower.com  

In this podcast episode, Heather interviews Karen Erren, President and CEO at Feeding Westchester. As a leader of a non-profit food distribution service, Karen is familiar with showing care to others, but that doesn’t mean she was always a perfectly caring leader. What Karen shows in her conversation with Heather is the effort that leaders have to put in to be there for their teams, especially during these trying times. Karen exemplifies being a caring leader by taking her place among her people, not above them. She meets them where they are each day, and expresses the importance of genuine and transparent vulnerability. Takeaways: Have high expectations for yourself and your team. The best thing you can do for someone is to believe in them. Stretch yourself, innovate, and fail. See yourself clearly, and the way others experience you. Be a part of your team every day. Be genuine and transparent. Share as much as you’re willing and say, but I’m here to work with you now.  

Most of us have been there at one time in our life, working retail, and in walks a Karen. She doesn't like you, she wants everything for free, and will ask to speak to your manager on a moments notice. On this week's episode of the Rol n' Rock cast, Roland, Rocky, and Rene delve into their past retail experiences to bring you stories of their Retail Hell, and a few funny ones as well. What Karen experiences have you guys had? Leave your stories in the comments below or message us directly at podcast@rolnrock.com. Visit www.rolnrock.com to see all our episodes of the Rol n' Rock cast and some side vids as well, or check any of your friendly neighborhood podcasting locations (apple, google, Spotify. etc) to listen to our audio version of our cast as well. #Karen #Retailhell #Podcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rolnrock/message

"I had this moment of really enjoying the launching of ideas within existing structures " -Karen Holst I'm excited to have Karen Holst with me today. She is an entrepreneur turned intrapreneur and helps companies drive product innovation as a product strategy leader. Karen has deep expertise in human-centered design strategies, creative problem-solving, and product innovation. She worked on Ex-IDEO led innovation at Autodesk, for the CA Dept. of Education and is the co-founder of MyEdu. She currently teaches at LinkedIn Learning, and most recently, we co-authored the book Start Within: How to Sell Your Idea, Overcome Roadblocks and Love Your Job. If there was one thing she could change about meetings, it would be "that everybody comes in with an understanding of the goal,” Karen says. “I think that sounds so simple, but I think that having the same meeting over and over again and feel like you're not moving the ball any further down the field is one of the most frustrating experiences." In today’s episode, we talk about how you can energize the life of your job and the work you are doing. This is advice Karen also gives for using our book, Start Within, and how it can help you at any part of your growth journey. Listen in to find out how you can use an anthropologist's view of running a meeting, how to focus on the one element that can make the most significant impact for leading a meeting, and how to shift your expectations to fit another company’s culture meeting process.   Show Highlights [01:15] Karen’s genesis story. [03:58] How egos can get in the way of meeting productivity. [06:04] How to dive into Start Within. [10:12] Understanding meeting culture for the purpose of co-creation. [16:08] Removing the lense of how to lead a meeting “the right way”. [19:25] Running meetings how your boss expects them to be run. [21:54] Go beyond the cookie cutter approach to meetings to create your own leadership style. [24:50] What Karen learned about meetings during her first start up. [26:55] Being interested equates to asking questions and discovering purpose. [29:55] Tactics Karen has seen groups implement to get unstuck with their vision. [34:52] Other books suggestions to move your vision forward. Links and Resources Karen on LinkedIn Get a Copy of Start Within About the Guest Karen Holst is a product leader with deep expertise in human-centered design strategies, creative problem-solving, and product innovation. She has taken her career from a business strategy and entrepreneurship to strategic partnerships and market communications. Karen loves to create technology with a broader impact. She is a leader in her work, co-founding a startup and launching a new technology within a government agency.  About Voltage Control Voltage Control is a facilitation agency that helps teams work better together with custom-designed meetings and workshops, both in-person and virtual. Our master facilitators offer trusted guidance and custom coaching to companies who want to transform ineffective meetings, reignite stalled projects, and cut through assumptions. Based in Austin, Voltage Control designs and leads public and private workshops that range from small meetings to large conference-style gatherings.  Share An Episode of Control The Room Apple Podcasts Spotify Android Stitcher Engage Control The Room Voltage Control on the Web Contact Voltage Control   Intro: Welcome to the Control the Room Podcast, a series devoted to the exploration of meeting culture and uncovering cures for the common meeting. Some meetings have tight control, and others are loose. To control the room means achieving outcomes while striking a balance between imposing and removing structure, asserting and distributing power, leaning in and leaning out, all in the service of having a truly magical meeting. Douglas: Today, I'm with Karen Holst, entrepreneur turned intrapreneur. She co-founded an education-tech startup in Austin, Texas, and later went on to join IDEO, and then, led innovation at Autodesk. She's currently teaching at LinkedIn Learning, and most recently, coauthored the book Start Within: How to Sell Your Idea, Overcome Roadblocks, and Love Your Job. Welcome to the show, Karen. Karen: Hi. Thank you. Douglas: So, Karen, I'd love to start with a little bit about how you got started. Karen: Sure. So I, my junior year in college, had met two guys at my rival university. I went to the University of Texas, and they went to Texas A&M. I’d heard about a company that they were thinking about starting. And I just had—I was brimming with ideas on what I could do to make this happen. And I approached them and said they needed to bring me on board. And we just clicked, and I became a co-founder, and we launched the company. We, then, grew it through multiple rounds of funding and then ended up seeing a successful exit. So my first job was really a job I created. And then from that point on, saw that over and over throughout my career. Joined the California Department of Education and helping lead educational technology within the state, and that was really about bringing new tools and services into the classroom and figuring out how to make that process more smooth and get through the red tape. After that, joined IDEO and helped them launch IDEO U, which is an online-learning platform, teaching design thinking and creative problem solving. And had this moment of really enjoying the launching of ideas within existing structures, that being an entrepreneur, I thought I needed to own the idea, but it shifted. I could own the idea anywhere that I work. So then I was able to just go follow the shiny problems. Later joined Autodesk in their media and entertainment space and helping them innovate, and gotten to do lots of projects within corporations, nonprofits, government agencies since then. And that all led to writing the book, Start Within. Douglas: Exciting. So if you could change one thing about most meetings, what would it be? Karen: That everybody comes in with an understanding of the goal. I think that sounds so simple, but just having the same meeting over and over and feeling like you're not moving the ball any further down the field is one of the most frustrating experiences. Douglas: Yeah. And I think that aligns with quite a few of our meeting mantras and philosophies about meetings. And two that come to mind is this idea of never starting without a clear purpose. So purpose and goal are at least cousins. And then, also, you talked about how this Groundhog Day kind of feeling, just like the meetings just kind of repeating themselves. And I think, often not being clear on if we're ideating or making a decision, and if we’re making a decision, what's the process by which we're going to make that decision? Karen: Yeah. And I feel like people get in the way of the goals. So even when they're well communicated in advance and alignment, egos can get in the way, where either people are just really married to their ideas and wanting that to try to drive the meeting around that notion, or they're just blindly and accidentally, perhaps, getting in the way of progress because they're just stuck in the ego side of things. Douglas: Yeah. And I didn't intend on it, but the Groundhog Day analogy came out, and we talk about that in the book, this notion of, is everything kind of repeating itself? Are you just kind of stuck in the hamster wheel of the day to day and feeling just inundated with monotony? And so maybe let’s talk a little bit about that feeling and how the book can kind of help guide you out of that feeling in that situation. Karen: Yeah. So as humans, we are wired to innovate. We're wired to see creativity and make the mundane not mundane. And you think about while we're recording this, it's during the COVID pandemic, and we're seeing this everywhere. People are taking up new hobbies. My toddler son is asking me to read the kids’ books in different voices or to change the ending of the book, just because we're so bored of everyday feeling like the day before. And if we're wired for that, what's holding us back from actually doing that? And I think meetings, being such a big part of our work, are a key place to really energize the life and job and work that you're doing. And a lot of what we talk about in the book is to find that purpose and breathe new life into your job so that you love it, so that you feel passionate about it. So there's lots of steps in that process in how to make that happen throughout the book. Douglas: And when you think about all the steps and someone wanting to just get started, in your perspective, is it just to pick up the book and jumping into the first chapter, or is it more of a choose-your-own adventure, where it’s like, this might apply more to me? Maybe help guide the reader, the doer, into how they might dive in. Karen: Yeah. That's a great, great analogy, the choose your adventure. I say it’s more like that. The process and work of bringing an idea forward is not linear, so there's different places that you're going to start from, and that you're going to get stuck and need assistance. The book reads that way. You can just jump in where you need to. And then I say proceed with caution, because as humans, we're also wired to kind of go after the things that we're most comfortable. And that's okay to start where you're comfortable, but not to ignore the places where we need to grow. So as an example, I think about the structure of the book. It's set up in three sections: get ready, get set, and go. And I am a “go” gal through and through. I want to start prototyping and experimenting my way forward. And it takes discipline to do the work of the “get ready” and “get set.” And if I pick up the book as a lay reader, I might just dive right into the “go” because that's where I want to get started. But that's a place that I'm already pretty skilled at, and where I would really benefit is perhaps starting there, but then making sure that I'm going back through the other sections and phases of this work and building those muscles as well. So it's very similar to working out, you know? We feel great when we do that same elliptical machine or whatever, weights that we're into, but when we challenge ourselves to do a new machine or new exercise, our muscles start to learn new ways of working. Douglas: Yeah. I love that analogy of kind of cross training. It's incredible. And I often like to think about the maturity of a project. And so if we're two years into something, the book might mean something different to us than if we're about to start something or we’ve been afraid to start something. So I like the fact that can really help folks no matter where they are in the journey. Karen: Yeah. That's so true. I was talking to someone about this. And in the book we talk about when you're doing a new idea and trying to push something forward, that there's this, for every 80 hours of work that you put towards your project, there's two hours of work in communicating that with your team and bringing along stakeholders. And I've gotten pushback from people that said, “Wow, that's a lot of communication that you're spending time on,” and then others saying, “That is totally not enough to bring stakeholders along.” And I think that rule of thumb can be shifted based on where you're at in the project and trying to make new things happen, and that context is important as you go through this work, right? You’re going to have a playbook through things like Start Within, and then you have to intuit what is and isn't working, and then, kind of fine tune things beyond that. Douglas: Yeah. Also, think about—was it Malcolm Gladwell that said 10,000 hours of anything will make you an expert? And there have been people that have pushed back on that concept, like, “Well, if you're doing it wrong for 10,000 hours, you’re just going to become an expert in doing it wrong.” And I like to think that this book has provided folks with some real tactical and very actionable advice to where, as you're getting your reps in, you can start to tweak the way you go about it. Karen: Yeah, absolutely. To that point of the 10,000 hours, it's definitely about the practice of doing the work, and it's also letting go of the idea that this is only for the charismatic, extroverted people, that the one that you see standing out there and getting to do new things, it does not have to be exclusive to certain types of people. It can be learned. Douglas: Yeah, I love the idea that we can put it into practice, and we can hone that skill—to bring back the fitness analogy—we can strengthen those muscles. Karen: Right. Right. Douglas: So, you've had experience at small companies and big companies, public and private, even consulting and in-house. I’m really curious. With your vantage point across all these different types of companies, what are some of the differences that you've seen as far as meeting cultures and ability to co-create and collaborate? Just what kind of patterns have you noticed? Karen: Yes. I love that idea of a meeting culture, because going in, understanding that and even using that term for yourself really allows you to then go in with the anthropologist view of, like, here's how it's done, and where can I find opportunities of changing that and making it better? So every company I've ever worked with—nonprofit, large, big, small—have different ways of doing their work, right? The informal and written rules of how meetings should run, it changes based on team, it changes based on who's running it. But the theme at the bottom of all that is you're having these meetings in expectation that it will lead to something. So if you can take a step back and look at how meetings are being run and how efficiently and quickly you're able to go out and do the work post meetings, then you have the opportunity to reflect and say, “Where are there opportunities to make the improvements?” I think the most stark difference was at the California Department of Education. So I was coming from a startup, where we're doing scrum, we're doing standup, we're doing lots of fast-moving meetings. And then at the California Department of Education, they weren't. And it wasn't a criticism; it was a different way of thinking, a different framework, that when I went in, felt so uncomfortable. I was like, “Hey, when are we going to start picking up the pace and start taking action?” And if I went in there and behaved like that, like a cowboy here to change things up, it would have really turned people off. I needed to learn how they did things to then be able to create the right changes and grow together. It allowed me to be more thoughtful in my approach. It also allowed the team to evolve in how we did our meetings. Douglas: Yeah. And that's something we've talked about extensively, and I think it's a really keen insight that people really need to consider, which is you can change the process. You can change the method. You can change the corporate goals and objectives. But if you seek to do those things, that's going to be really difficult to also push your idea. In fact, the method, the process, and the goals and objectives, those are two separate things that are best done in isolation. If you're trying to change all that at the same time, you're going to be fighting an uphill battle. It's hard enough to make any change, much less just blowing a bunch on at the same time. Karen: Imagine going into a room, and you look at a person who is writing with their right hand, and you say, “All right, switch. Switch to your left hand. And I want you to close your eyes. And instead of writing in English, write in a different language.” That would just overload the person. How do I think about all three of these things you're trying to get me to do? And in pushing an idea forward within an organization, whether that's improving meeting outcomes all the way to launching a new idea, if you're trying to bend and shape things in multiple areas, you're just going to overload the humans that you're trying to bring along in this. So it's really about focusing in on the thing that can have the biggest impact, and then you can go back and after having made that change and seeing the change in place, reapply and do different layers of changes. Douglas: That's right. I'd even take the analogy one step further, which is, if they're doing all those things, and then we're also trying to tell them, “Let's actually write some different things on the wall. Let’s bring on a whole new concept and put that up there,” you can see how it just starts to get absurd. And yeah, that's a trap that a lot of people fall into because when—it's almost like, well, we've got the patient open; let's go ahead and make all these changes. Like, we're operating on their lungs; let's work on their heart, too. It’s maybe not the best decision. Karen: Right. Yeah, I mean, meetings, it is such a part of our work and the culture of where we work that at the very root could be the cause of dysfunction in what's going on. So I love that being in a place of leaning in and trying to improve. Douglas: So let's also take a step back and think about—I love this notion that you talked about, being an anthropologist. And in the book we talk about this element of house rules and understanding how things work at your organization so you can navigate it better. Then, we were just discussing this need to clarify and understand, are we changing the process, or are we pushing some other idea forward? And I think that metaphor of the anthropologist is really powerful because we at Voltage Control do a lot of work where we're were analyzing the meeting systems or helping people understand it, and what does that culture look like, and what sort of systems are going to support a culture that we are aspiring to be, to have? instead of just kind of going full force into the change. Like, really thinking about, do we need to be that anthropologist, or are we actually going in to make change? And so if we're in that mode of anthropologist, what sorts of things do we need to do? How might we put that anthropologist hat on and be really successful at understanding what's in front of us and how we might take advantage of it or how we might just respond to those understanding? Karen: So in doing this work, it's very hard, but you have to take out your experience elsewhere. So typically, when I coach people through trying to do this kind of work, there’s an urge to think back to where you saw it working. Like, great meetings, so we want to do it like that. I came from Amazon. We did it like this, and it was great. We got really far, and we were able to make changes and go out, do quickly. That doesn't mean it's going to work somewhere else, so you have to remove that lens of what I've seen is the right way, and I'm going to figure out how to force that fit, that puzzle piece. Instead, being an anthropologist is really trying to just open up and learn. So it's not directing learning. It's not that one person’s going to teach you, so you want to lean in on that person. It's really just trying to open the aperture and figure out where are there these aha moments on what is and isn't working? And, you know, just going back to the root of that word. If you are going into a village, you wouldn't go into a remote village and expect to be able to instill your values and how you do things and expect this group of people that have a completely different background to take that on. Instead, you're going in to learn from them and build something together. And I think that's hard to do. So it's starting with that beginner’s mindset. Douglas: We also talk about cross examining the silos and then questions that get to real learning. And I think that questions can be really powerful, and listening and observing, as kind of the anthropologist hat that you kind of speak of. And my perspective, if you can get down to actual first principles and understand what are people already upset about, if there are things about the meeting systems or the methods and the process that your organization is using that everyone's already disgruntled about, then that's low-hanging fruit to go after. But you can't learn that stuff unless you get curious and start to examine the silos and start to listen and learn. And to me, I think that's a real powerful opportunity. I'm just curious to hear if you have anything to add there. Karen: Yeah. I think the other opportunity in all this, if you're going in with this mindset, it allows you to make changes without authority. So even if you're not the person who's running the meetings, you can affect how they're run and how effective they are over time. Now, certainly it might be easier if you're the person of authority to do this work, but it's not a barrier to making things change and happen. You can lead by example. And this all starts with learning and listening and figuring it out as you go forward. But I think that is one of the biggest barriers to this kind of work. And making change within an organization is the belief that if you don't have a title or permission, then you’re just kind of an active participant that has to go along with the way things are. Douglas: Mm, yeah, that’s an interesting meeting dynamic, too. Like, if the meetings are set up such that there are active participants and not-so-active participants, the distribution of control and influence and participation can be quite skewed. I'm just curious if you’ve experienced that, and what thoughts you might have to offer there. Karen: Yeah, of course. I mean, whenever you're not in charge and someone else is, it might be a meeting you called, but your boss or leadership come into the room as well, that shifts everything. You look at them, and they have an understanding of how the meeting should go, and you report to them, so there's an understanding that you will run the meeting the way they expect it. So you kind of have to shift your own expectations and your own approaches to fit what they believe is the right way forward, even if it isn't sometimes. And so all of that just points to these baby steps, these baby experiments, that can get you closer to making those changes if you don't have the authority to make it happen, and even when you do, that there's, again, ego in the room or belief systems in the room that there's a way to do it. The little experiments, the small steps, are what can lead to big change over time. Douglas: You know, it's funny that you say that because it reminds me of times as a leader when my intention was to coach and to show alternative ways of doing things, but I basically just created a little mini-me versions of me, and that can be difficult to notice sometimes. And so we talk a lot about how the book was really inspired by this idea that so many innovation books are focused on the leader and innovation culture and this kind of top-down, like, how are we to shift the organization? And our belief was the best way to shift an organization is a direction from leadership, but empowering the doers to go do the work. And so we really wanted to have a manual for the doer. Now, even though it's a manual for the doer, this is a great tool for the leader because they can take this book and give it out to their folks and use it as a guide for them to be a better coach. And as I've thought about my coaching, even sometimes the best intentions can backfire, and just really paying attention, that have I created a mold of myself that needs to be broken so that they’re free to go about doing things the way they would do them so that we have true diversity? Karen: Yes. I advise startups, and I just had a session this week with a startup that is in the educational technology space. And so it was one that I was really well versed, but also a few years removed. And he wanted to talk about some of the approaches to funding, and then later, marketing that we did. And I went into some coaching lessons, and then I paused and said, “You're in a different time and different products. So here's what we did. Now I’m going to start asking you questions that are kind of the extreme other sides to this. Don't just follow the cookie cutter of what I just shared with you. What are ways that you're going to be different?” And I think if you intuit your way that you're creating many yous—which is a great eye opening, like, how do I not do that? because we just don't want a world full of people like ourselves—a lot of that is because we've got experience in what does and doesn't work for ourselves, and so we reflect that on others. But if we can pause on that and say, “What did and didn't work on me might be in opposition to the person I'm talking to,” can we just reframe the question to say, “How might we…” and then don't lead it towards your solution. Instead, think about these might be the ideas that do work for them, or what worked for me is not going to work for them. Douglas: There’s another really beautiful way to approach that, which is just being appreciative. Karen: Right. Douglas: Recognizing and being appreciative of everyone's input and contributions. And sociologists have a term called positive deviance, and basically, it sounds almost like deviant, but it's really about making sure that we look at those positive differences. Like, what are those deltas that are positive. So when things have been working well, what were we doing? And often, I think it's easy to look at, “Well, when I did it this way, I got this positive outcome.” Having that dialog with others can be really powerful and really kind of lifting them up on a pedestal, and then it kind of relinquishes that burden to feel like, “Hey, here's this process that I need to burden you with.” Karen: I love that. Yeah, that word needs to be rebranded so that people will be more open to it. But yeah, I think there's opportunities to reflect on what does and doesn't work and how that reflects on yourself and the people around you. So, again, it's not the cookie-cutter answer and formula that works for me will work for these other people, but instead, it's framing it in questions to allow them to explore that on their own. Douglas: Yeah. I love this. I’d already written down questions and underlined it because I wanted to come back to that because you were starting to give some advice to your mentee, and then you stopped yourself and said, “Well, let me ask some questions.” And I think that is the hallmark of a really great leader and a great facilitator is to ask really incredible questions. And I think this advice—it just dawned on me—can apply to not only the leaders—because it's very clear, like, “Hey, leaders, ask more-provocative questions of your people,”—and for the doers, it can be equally as powerful, because if your boss, if your leader, is not asking you tough questions and they're doing nothing but giving you advice or criticizing, perhaps you can prompt them to ask you questions. Karen: Ooh, I love that. Yeah, get them curious. So, in my startup days, there were really tough meetings with our board, with our investors, and I learned early in my career how to handle those types of meetings. And then later, I started working at IDEO and had a meeting with Tim Brown and other people that were—I'm doing air quotes—"invested in our idea” because we're launching this idea within the company. And so I was ready for what questions I would hear based on that experience of these tough investors and what they asked me in my years prior. And Tim Brown and the leaders there asked such thoughtful questions that floored me, and it really shifted my thinking in how to do this work. I thought it had to be bottom-line growth. And there's other questions around this kind of work and pushing ideas forward that are far more thoughtful around the humans you're building it for that will lead to growth and business strategy. So it's not leaving it up on the table. But instead, it's more thoughtful and deeper than that. And I think when we have productive meetings and great purpose in our work and what we're doing, at the root of it, somebody was asking very thoughtful questions. And you can choose to be that person. And if you are that person, I think, to your point, you can get others around you very curious. Like, it's contagious. When you're being a thoughtful person and really trying to understand things, you'll start to see that shift among others as well. Douglas: You know, I think that, especially in your LinkedIn Learning course, and a good chunk of our listeners are product people, and I once heard this really profound description of a great product person. And it was that a product person is interested, not interesting, meaning that if you come to a conversation and you try to be interesting, then you're going to share a lot of things. You're going to talk a lot. You’re going to tell stories. You’re going to try to be cool and hip and, like, “Oh, I know this. I know that.” Whereas if you're interested and you're curious, you’ll ask lots of questions. You discover all the pertinent things. That always just really stuck with me is that even if I'm in the room with someone who is intimidating and I feel like I need to impress, the best way to impress them is to ask them great questions. Karen: So, I went to a Super Bowl party. I was living in Canada, and it was at my neighbor's house. And they're not really into American football. It was just something to do on a Sunday. And in the room was a former astronaut and minister, I believe, of transportation—I'm sorry, I don't know his title—who has one of the most fascinating backgrounds. And he asked me—I couldn't get to questions about his background and what he did. He wanted to know more about startups and the book I was writing. And we get about an hour in. I'm like, “Okay, can we talk about what it's like to be an astronaut?” And I just remember leaving there, thinking he was so gifted in exploring the world around him. And it made complete sense that he had gotten to the point that he had in his career, but that he could have very well have been a person that was full of himself and talking about all the important things he's done. And instead, he wanted to learn about me. Douglas: That's the hallmark of an amazing person. And that's cool that you got to witness that, especially with someone who has already made such great accomplishments, because sometimes those traits, that innate curiosity can wane with popularity and accolades. So it's always amazing when I find someone that's had some amount of fame and notoriety and they've held on to that, because it's a gift, and it's pretty rare. Karen: I think they're also gifted at finding time and space for allowing those conversations. So, on the other end of the spectrum, a CEO or someone very busy and important can brush you off and make you feel unimportant and not be listening to your answers or not even interested in having the conversation in the first place. And when you are tight on resource for time, that can change who you are, and you have to find opportunities to still be productive, but also learning and listening from each other. Douglas: Yep. That aligns with one of my philosophies, which is that when you create space, that's when innovation can rush in. If you're constantly whizzing and whirring to and fro the next thing and pressing the buttons, there's really no opportunity for change or new things to develop. Karen: Yep. If you think about it in meditation or yoga, it's the space between breaths. We're doing this work of breathing and being thoughtful, and then it's in between those moments that you have these eye-opening, kind of out-of-body experiences. Douglas: So, I’m going to shift gears a little bit here and just talk about tactics. So really curious about what you've seen teams use to get unstuck and start building on their vision. Karen: So, we recently talked to a woman within a software company, and they're a very large company and been around for many years. And she was really excited about bringing back to her product teams our chapter in work around busting assumptions. And that was so refreshing. You know, this is a company that has figured out a way forward. They can continue to build and move beyond doing things the way they had been. But instead, she and the organization realized they needed to reflect on what's holding back their ideas, what's holding things from becoming something bigger, and how they're holding back innovation. And I think that's an exercise we could do with our teams—get out of the rut of what things should look like and have looked like, and how you might do things differently. In thinking about assumptions, there's this onion of layers, right? At the very core is the assumptions that you hold on to. And then as you build out, it's the assumptions of the team, of the organization. And then you go all the way out to the world that we live within. And if you can think about each of those layers and how they're blocking you from change, from seeing things, from understanding each other, then that can unlock you, the team, and how you work together, the work that you're doing. There's so many—it's exponential levels on ways of thinking. And it's a great framework for just moving forward and doing things differently. Douglas: It makes me think that earlier we were talking about meeting systems and meeting culture, and when and why we meet, and what's the goal, and what's the purpose. And so often meetings are just called to discuss something or make some quick decision. I get really excited when people start to open the aperture and to think about, “What if we meet to talk about our assumptions?” or “How about we make a team charter?” so these more kind of meta conversations about the team, the way we work, and things that might be getting in our way, because those types of things can have really profound ripple effects versus just being so into the tactical, like, moving things forward or, heaven forbid, a status report. And so this idea of coming together around assumptions, even applying some of the tools in the book that are designed for an individual, just kind of repurposing that for the team. Karen: Yes. Going back deeper into the tactical and beyond assumptions, one of my favorite exercises in the book that you can do solo or that you could bring to a team and do together is “No, because. Maybe if. Then, what?” And you start with these three columns of “No, because. Maybe if. Then, what?” And you think about something that's blocking you and your team from moving forward on something, and you just brainstorm all the “no, becauses.” No, because we don’t have the resources. No, because… You capture each one of those on a Post-it Note. And then you pause and you go into the next column, “Maybe if.” So, no, because we don't have the resources. Maybe if we prototype this smaller, that didn't require as much resources. Or maybe if we found funding outside of our organization. Or maybe if… You go through that same exercise for each “no, because,” and you start to brainstorm the “maybe ifs.” You can take a step back, and when you're doing this by yourself, kind of circle where there's heat, or if you're doing this with the team, you could do voting, but moving beyond and really counter attacking the “no, because” with a “then, what?” You know, what are the small experiments that you could be doing to get past this roadblock, if you could pass the barrier that is seemingly holding everybody back? And doing this work over and over with different people in teams, you see this very simple exercise open up people's thinking and to, “All right. I tangibly have something to go after.” This feels so much better than the crossed arms, and “This is hard,” and the roadblock being right in front of them. Douglas: It's really cool. And I'm excited because we're working on some templates on MURAL. They'll be launched. And if someone's listening to this in the future, I would say just go and check out the MURAL templates, because they're probably ready at that point. Karen: Yep. Start within. Douglas: The other thing I was thinking about was this notion of unlearning and constantly be curious and open to reinventing ourselves. And I think that kind of aligns with a lot of the stuff we've been talking about today, whether it's creating that space as a leader or coming together as a team to look at these assumptions, and just making sure that we've got some time reserved to just allow some of that stuff to happen and being curious about what we might not realize about the world or about our idea or about our team. I guess I'm curious to hear of what else folks should be thinking about in that regard. Karen: So I do have on my reading list Barry O'Reilly's book Unlearn, and so I haven’t read it. I'm going to stop with that because I think that is so hard to do. Even when you say it, you think, “Okay, I've accepted that I'm going to let go of my assumptions and try to lean in and unlearn some of the bad habits, or maybe good habits, so I can find new ways of doing things.” We are, again, we are wired to take the inputs that we've had over our lifetime and have that help us move forward. And it is not always obvious where those are, how they're holding you back, or how they might be helping you, too. So that's a book I want to lean into this year and see if that's a place of exploration. But where I try to do that is stepping back and creating different roles for myself. So when we talk about this in the book, if you're a person who is very positive, a “yes, and,” and trying to push things forward, could you go into a meeting before it even starts, say, “I'm going to be the naysayer. I'm going to poke holes in some of these ideas. And you, person over there, you're going to be the positive person.” Or we have different roles, and maybe we're shifting what we typically lean into and think about things differently. And how would that dynamic change the meeting? It's not meant to be comical and necessarily a strange meeting that is just run amuck and feels like a comedy show because you're trying to be a naysayer and you just aren't. It's really just about trying to turn your brain into thinking one way, into thinking a different way, and how that helps lead the team in a different direction. Douglas: I love this idea of examining the roles, and even shifting them and trying on different roles, and I think, not to overload the term role, but role playing can be really a phenomenal way to have a new lens into the world, and also, certainly will disrupt how your teammates think. And we also have talked about the idea of taxonomy, and so how can even the words that we use to talk about meetings can have an impact? So, for instance—the problem is that we just gravitate to using the word meeting, and it's just what we naturally do. And so it doesn't matter if we're assembling 20 people to talk about how well the product went or it’s just two of us having a quick chat about what we're going to have for lunch; we call it a meeting. And I think that is a disservice because it doesn't allow for a clear understanding of the purpose. And that's something we kind of started off with when I asked what was the one thing you would change about meetings is about, you said we need to be more clear about the goals. And so I really love this concept of shifting the roles, examining what those roles are, and trying new things on, because that can really align with us understanding our purpose and even pursuing our purpose more deeply. Karen: Yes. And that jargon, again, comes back to the meeting culture. So you say meeting. It means one thing at one company; it means another at another. And I saw this happen with calling it brainstorm. So doing a brainstorm from one company where we're standing up, we're active, we're putting Post-it Notes up. There's lots of conversations happening, lots of ideation. And then you go to another company that doesn't brainstorm that way. They do have brainstorm meetings. You go into it, and people are sitting, they’re taking notes on their little notepad, and it can be frustrating if that's not—it was frustrating to me. I was like, “Why aren’t we all standing up and talking?” And to them, they're like, “Why are you trying to force this other way of doing a brainstorm?” So I think the terms also have different meaning within teams across an organization and certainly within an organization. Douglas: So, Karen, in closing, what would you like to leave with our listeners? Karen: I think what's key in this moment, whenever you're listening—if it's recent to when it's posted, it's around the COVID pandemic, and we're working from home, and things are very confusing. Or we're beyond that—there's going to be these times of uncertainty and wanting to hold back on changing things within our team, our organization because we're waiting for things to smooth out. And this opportunity for while things are uncomfortable and uncertain to be when you make the changes and be thoughtful on how big those changes are and how you move forward into them, but that's really what Start Within is all about, and the importance of finding in yourself, that you can affect the change and with the right playbook and tools in hand, you can see it through. Douglas: Karen, I wanted to double stitch on something you said there, which was, we are living through an unprecedented time right now, and I just wanted to say that I've been grateful to have you as a copilot through some of this, especially as we've looked at inspecting and exploring our own white privilege together, what that means for speaking out around the book and the work that we're doing and supporting others who are struggling through this and needing the help, and how can we be better allies. So I just want to express a little gratitude on the air that it's been phenomenal to work through these challenges with you. Karen: Yes. I echo that as well. It's uncomfortable and challenging, for lack of better words. And just finding other people that are struggling through this is—finding your community and knowing that you're not alone and doing this kind of work is so important. Douglas: So, Karen, in closing, how can folks find you and find out more about the book? Karen: Sure. I'm on LinkedIn, very active there. So, Karen Holst. You can find me. We also have, for the book, the website is start-within.com. You can find it on Amazon to purchase it. And yeah, we have lots of conversations with people that are trying to affect change and bring new ideas forward within organizations. So love connecting with people on that front. Douglas: It’s been great having you, Karen. Karen: Thank you, again. Outro: Thanks for joining me for another episode of Control the Room. Don't forget to subscribe to receive updates when new episodes are released. If you want more, head over to our blog, where I post weekly articles and resource

Links mentioned in this episode (some may be affiliate links):Get all the show notes and links to Karen’s Decluttering Challenge Sprint at littlegreenbow.com/35Find out more about Karen at SlowMotionMama.comClutter Rescue - 5 QUICK steps to declutter your home and get it functioning NOW!Wannabe Minimalist Facebook Group - come join the community filled with amazing people just like you who are on their journey toward minimalism and simplifying.Follow Deanna on PinterestFollow Deanna on InstagramFollow Deanna on Facebook**********************Music:Happy by MBB https://soundcloud.com/mbbofficialCreative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/Happy-MBBMusic promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/g6swHZbWtRc**********************Tried decluttering before, but didn’t get the results you wanted? That was the exact spot today’s guest found herself in - even after she decluttered over 2000 items. But, don't despair! There’s good news.Instead of giving up, she learned she just had to declutter one more place in her home and then it all changed. She finally started feeling lighter and less stressed. Her home became her haven and she finished decluttering each room.So what made the difference? It all came down to one sentence. Honestly, just a few words made all the difference when it came to clearing out her home to pursue the life she wanted.And you can do it too!In this episode of the Wannabe Minimalist Show, I chat with declutterer extraordinaire, Karen Burke, about discovering your purpose, positive mindsets, living a life of adventure, and how a challenge can give you the push you need to change your life. This episode is will help you get past your doubts and realize that the life you envision in your head, may be just around the corner.Karen is a wife, two time boy mom, and former middle school teacher who now works from home as a blogger and course creator. The heart of her work at Slow Motion Mama is to help overwhelmed moms simplify their spaces & style them on a budget. She is dedicated to helping others organize their spaces and find their own unique style so that they can love the home they’re in.If you have struggled with seeing results with decluttering and are about to throw in the towel, or you just want more direction on how to clear out the clutter, this show is for you.This episode of the Wannabe Minimalist Show will help you discover:- How to flip the script when it comes to decluttering. Is it really all about what we take out of our homes?- The ONE sentence Karen asks herself when decluttering anything that changed everything.- Why setting a goal and joining a challenge may be just the thing you need to finally declutter your home.- What Karen suggests you do with expensive items you no longer want that makes it so much easier to let them go.Subscribe & ReviewAre you subscribed to the Wannabe Minimalist Show podcast? If you’re not, I want to encourage you to do that today. I don’t want you to miss an episode. I’m adding a bunch of bonus episodes to the mix and if you’re not subscribed there’s a good chance you’ll miss out on those.And if you enjoyed today’s episode, it would make my day if you left me a review on iTunes too. Those reviews help other people find my podcast and they’re also fun for me to go in and read. Let me know what your favorite part of the podcast is. Thank you!

About Susan: Susan loves sharing self-compassion and dream catching through yoga, coaching, and women’s retreats - things important to her for other women’s happiness and well being. It’s her passion and dharma - to serve other women with her yoga and coaching. She loves to share what she has learned so other women can feel the joy of being their best selves. Key Takeaways: How Susan found her practice About her teacher training in Yoga Nidra Having additional hours of training advantage The body keeping all memories Yoga Nidra addresses everything trapped in the body What Karen does to students with trapped memories and emotions during the practice Getting advantage of having a Yoga Nidra guide What Susan focuses on Using Sankalpa Being honest and authentic Finding your inner sanctuary How Susan brings type A personalities to the mat How Yoga Nidra transformed Susan Susan's first practice Susan's Nidra experience About Yin Yoga Social Media Handles: Instagram: @susanproperyoga Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/susanproperyoga/ Website: http://www.susanproperyoga.com/ GO HERE: Grab the free app -- https://app.lanekennedy.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lanekennedy/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lanekennedy/support

Richard Costello connects with Karen Sweet.Karen Sweet is currently Sr Manager Financial Services - Canadian Real Estate Practice Lead with Accenture. Karen has over 15 years of experience in consulting, asset management and finance and has worked for leading groups including Westfield and Oxford Properties.  Karen is an expert at delivering large-scale technology and innovation transformations within the Commercial Real Estate industry.In this episode Karen discusses the following:What it was like working for WestfieldThe benefits of having a finance and operations backgroundProudest professional momentPassions motivating performanceWhat sets Accenture apartCurrent role, projects and objectivesOpportunities on the horizon for the real estate industry following the recent market disruptionAdvice for anyone starting out in the industryBook recommendations (You look like a thing and I love you – Janelle Shane. Lamb – Christopher Moore. Olive Ketteridge – Elizabeth Strout)Recent purchase that has changed Karen's life (under $100)What Karen would write on a banner

Ready to jumpstart your business for 2020? If so, Leveraging LinkedIn Sales Navigator for your business growth is the perfect place to start!   This week’s episode of Good Girls Get Rich is brought to you by Uplevel Media CEO and LinkedIn expert, Karen Yankovich. In this episode, Karen goes in-depth about the best tool to use on LinkedIn to gain more clients; LinkedIn Sales Navigator.   Karen’s philosophy is “let this be easy”. Growing your business doesn’t have to be a constant stress or pain in the side! In part 1 of the 2 part specials on LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Karen explains 3 ways to simplify your business growth by leveraging LinkedIn Sales Navigator for business growth.   #GoodGirlsGetRich We want to hear your thoughts on this episode! Leave us a message on Speakpipe or email us at info@karenyankovich.com.   About the Episode:   Read the blog and transcript for this episode at karenyankovich.com/104   Episode Spotlights:   Where to find everything for this week’s episode: karenyankovich.com/104 Introduction to today’s topic, LinkedIn Sales Navigator (1:27) What Karen struggles to be positive about these days (3:19) What kind of commit you need to make in your business to be successful (6:06) Places you can attempt to cut back in your business (7:54) Overview of LinkedIn Sales Navigator (9:03) Using Sales Navigator to save contacts and profiles (9:58) How to create notes and tag people through Sales Navigator (15:20) Creating messages to new connections and who’s viewed your profile (19:57) Recap of the top 3 ways to leverage LinkedIn Sales Navigator for Business Growth (23:34) Special free offer for our LinkedIn Profile Challenge (25:42) Resources Mentioned In This Episode:   Join my free Facebook Group if you have any questions about today’s episode  How to use LinkedIn at speaker events Join Karen’s brand new, free challenge at linkedinprofilechallenge.com Karen’s expert LinkedIn services: karenyankovich.com/linkedin-services  Follow me on Instagram for more content Help Us Spread The Word! It would be awesome if you shared the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast with your fellow entrepreneurs on twitter. Click here to tweet some love!   If this episode has taught you just one thing, I would love if you could head on over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW! And if you’re moved to, kindly leave us a rating and review. Maybe you’ll get a shout out on the show!   Ways to Subscribe to Good Girls Get Rich: Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts Click here to subscribe via PlayerFM You can also subscribe via Stitcher Good Girls Get Rich is also on Spotify Take a listen on Podcast Addict

Growing your business doesn’t ALWAYS have to be a struggle and fight. I want to share with you how to grow your business with ease and exactly how I did so too!   This week’s episode of Good Girls Get Rich is brought to you by Uplevel Media CEO and LinkedIn expert, Karen Yankovich. In this episode, Karen reflects on the past 100 episodes and how she niching down and simplifying her business has proven to grow her business exponentially with ease. Karen shares multiple personal accounts on how she got to be where she is at how she grew her business with ease and how you can get started with doing so too!   #GoodGirlsGetRich We want to hear your thoughts on this episode! Leave us a message on Speakpipe or email us at info@karenyankovich.com.   About the Episode: Read the blog for this episode at karenyankovich.com/100 Read the transcript for this episode at karenyankovich.com/100transcript   Episode Spotlights: Where to find everything for this week’s episode: karenyankovich.com/100 Terry’s review of the podcast (1:32) What Karen learned from starting her podcast to now (2:51) How Karen discovered that niching down leads to more success (5:17) What Karen is setting her intentions for in 2020 (10:10) The effects on Karen’s personal life from niching down (16:42) How to get started on simplifying your business with more success (19:42) Make a general business plan for each business (22:57) Figuring out the pricing associated with each task (25:00) Having your business support your ideal and dream life (27:08) What Karen teaches her clients to start this process (28:19) Recap the plan to building your empire with ease (29:33) Karens free tool that can help you dream bigger in 2020 (31:05) Resources Mentioned In This Episode: Get the free download for this episode at karenyankovich.com/100download Share your worksheet in our free Facebook Group and engage directly with Karen Join the waitlist Karen’s brand new, free challenge at linkedinprofilechallenge.com Sign up for She’s Linked Up! The best and most powerful way to own what you’re good at and explode your business using LinkedIn.  Karen’s expert LinkedIn services: karenyankovich.com/linkedin-services  Follow me on Instagram for more content Help Us Spread The Word! It would be awesome if you shared the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast with your fellow entrepreneurs on twitter. Click here to tweet some love!   If this episode has taught you just one thing, I would love if you could head on over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW! And if you’re moved to, kindly leave us a rating and review. Maybe you’ll get a shout out on the show!   Ways to Subscribe to Good Girls Get Rich: Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts Click here to subscribe via PlayerFM You can also subscribe via Stitcher Good Girls Get Rich is also on Spotify Take a listen on Podcast Addict  

For decades, Geisinger Health has been one of the most innovative healthcare systems in the world. It’s efforts are not only admired but also emulated and replicated throughout healthcare systems across the country. It is a literal mecca for healthcare leaders to come visit and learn. I’ve had the good fortune of visiting Geisinger at least four or five times over the past few years, and I will tell you that the initiatives, accomplishments and outcomes become more fascinating with each visit. In this interview, we have the great fortune of learning from Dr. Karen Murphy, Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at Geisinger. Karen brings a tremendous business, policy and innovation background to this role. Before joining Geisinger, she served as Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Health addressing the most significant health issues facing the state, including the opioid epidemic. Dr. Murphy previously served as Director of the ‘State Innovation Models Initiative’ at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services leading a $990 million CMS investment designed to accelerate health care innovation across the United States. Dr. Murphy earned her MBA from Marywood University; her doctorate in business administration from Temple University Fox School of Business; and she also holds a diploma in nursing from the Scranton State Hospital School of Nursing. In this interview you’ll hear Karen’s take on:How Geisinger has defined ‘innovation’, and the significant resources they’ve put into their innovation efforts.The “4 pillars of Innovation” at Geisinger Health, and the specific initiatives within these pillars - including the virtual “Chronic Disease Management Command Center” and their highly successful “Hospital at Home” program.How Geisinger is using artificial intelligence, machine learning and predictive analytics to proactively prevent disease.Why and how Geisginer is making heavy investments in Behavioral Economics and Behavior Change technologies.What Karen believes to be two of the most significant challenges to innovation in healthcare. There are few healthcare organizations across the country that have the long, broad and brilliant track record of healthcare delivery innovation synonymous with Geisinger.  It’s a legacy that is a direct function of the visionary, patient-centered leadership they’ve had - beginning with Dr. Glenn Steele, then Dr. David Feinberg and now Dr. Jaewon Ryu. In this interview Karen Murphy gives us a vivid and comprehensive picture of the innovation landscape at Geisinger. She’s keen to point out that innovation is embedded in the DNA of the organization and exists well beyond the boundaries of the Steele Institute that she leads.  There are numerous lessons to be gleaned from this highly informative dialogue. Karen outlines a highly strategic and practical approach to large-system innovation. In the last few minutes of the interview Karen makes a strong case for why “accelerated innovation” is critical to healthcare these days. She reminds us, first, of the unsustainable costs of our current healthcare system. But she then also points out that while payment reform is critically important, without the advanced clinical models that can deliver value-based care, payment reform and other policy changes will not create the positive outcomes we’re all looking for - from the provider perspective, the payer perspective, and most importantly the patient perspective.  Until Next Time, Be Well.Zeev 

If you're sharing something personal in a presentation or a talk, you know that you should make it a story and include stories in your presentations in general. What about if you're presenting on topics that are more data-driven or research-based? You should definitely include stories as well. My guest in this episode is Karen Corbin, PhD, RD, who's a scientist herself and has a company with a great name called Geeks That Speak® to inspire and empower scientists to become powerful storytellers. Incorporating storytelling into their presentations is crucial, whether they’re presenting at conferences to peers or to the general public.  Stories can help spark curiosity, give context to facts and data, and make the information being presented more memorable. You don’t have to be a scientist to learn a lot in this episode. What Karen and I talk about applies to any topic. This episode is part of our Storytelling series, episodes 137-140.   About My Guest: Karen D. Corbin, PhD, RD is the Owner and Chief Geek of Geeks That Speak® and an Investigator at the AdventHealth Orlando Translational Research Institute for Metabolism and Diabetes. She is an expert in human nutrition and metabolism. Her scientific career is devoted to finding new approaches to prevent and treat diseases like diabetes and fatty liver disease. She is also an expert is scientific storytelling. After spending years traversing the worlds of healthcare and science, she realized that a fundamental gap exists for translating ideas into solutions: the common inability of scientists and other “geeks” to deliver information in a way that is impactful, relevant and inspires action. This led Dr. Corbin to an important conviction: by helping scientists translate complex scientific information in a way that is accessible to a broad range of audiences, she could help advance the innovation that will solve many of society’s most pressing problems So, she created the movement “Geeks That Speak®” to inspire and empower scientists to become powerful storytellers.    About Us: The Speaking Your Brand podcast is hosted by Carol Cox. At Speaking Your Brand, we help women entrepreneurs and professionals create their signature talks and gain more visibility to achieve their goals. Our mission is to get more women in positions of influence and power: on stages, in businesses, on boards, in the media, in politics, and in our communities. Check out our coaching programs at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com.    Links: Show notes at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/138 Connect with Karen on her website at https://www.geeksthatspeak.com/.  New York Times article: “N.I.H. Head Calls for End to All-Male Panels of Scientists.” Join the free Speaking Your Brand community at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/join/ or text the word SPEAKING to 444-999. Sign up for a Strategy Session at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/strategy. Create your signature talk or TEDx talk. Get all the details at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/coaching. Say hi to me on Instagram and Twitter: @CarolMorganCox. Subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave a review!   Related Podcast Episodes: Episode 57: How to Use Simple Story Structure to Create Compelling Content with Carol Cox Episode 61: A Game Changer for Your Business and Presentations: Developing Your Own Framework Episode 76: Why the Stories We Tell Matter with Leena Nasser of The Chopra Institute Episode 113: Storytelling Isn’t Enough – Your Content Needs to be E.P.I.C.

Hello and thank you for checking out this weeks episode with my good friend Karen. I've known this wonderful human for years and thought she would be awesome to have on the podcast to talk about some of her experiences traveling alone and then with family in Europe as well. Karen talks about growing up in a large family with a small income and how she opted for a trip to Europe over a party for her Quinceanera when she turned 18. Not actually thinking much of it, the opportunity randomly presents itself as Karen's mom has a contact in Spain and asks her if she'd like to take a few weeks to leave home alone and visit a place so far from home. What Karen find is a love for adventure, some good friends, and a few things to look out for along the way. This episode is inspiring for those who may be on the fence about traveling alone, male or female, and looking for a bit of insight that I maybe wasn't able to give in some of my previous episodes. Again, thank you for checking in this week. If this is your first time here, consider staying a while and checking out some of the other episodes I have waiting for your listening pleasure. You are sure to pull something of value from them that may help you in seeking your stoke. If you are a returning listener, you are loved beyond measure. Make sure to share this show with your friends and family, and please tag me in it if you do so. Thanks and as always, keep Seeking the Stoke. -Neeks

Karen Lloyd (@archaearama) is an associate professor at the University of Tennessee and lead of the Lloyd Lab. She's a deep subsurface microbiologist investigating novel types of microbes in Earth's deep surface biosphere, collecting them from remote places such as Arctic fjords, volcanoes in Costa Rica and even deep in a mud near the Mariana Trench to explore how these little critters affect the environments on a micro and macro scale. I'm guessing this research will have major impacts on our knowledge of life in extreme conditions and implications for humanity living off Earth, fighting climate change and much more...You can listen right here on iTunesIn today's episode we discuss:* Life under the sea and what we're learning about the tree of life* How some organisms and microbes slow down life and seem to live forever* Why the deep sea is an untapped, unexplored goldmine* What you should know about climate change, ocean currents, and catastrophe* The reason the seas may hold the secret to extraterrestrial life* What Karen thinks about climate change and sustainability* Why CRISPR was in some ways enabled by oceanic research* What it's like to dive deep in a submarine and experience warp drive* The troubling trends of anti-science movement in the US government* Why we know less about our oceans than we do about space* The importance of fundamental research and scienceMake a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support The DisruptorsThe Disruptors is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.Donate  

In this episode, I’ve invited Karen Kenney to share her wisdom as a spiritual mentor, writer, and storyteller about how to get out of your own way and go from feeling victimized in life to feeling empowered. Having overcome great adversity herself after her mother was murdered, she teaches how to shift the narrative of your life story and let go of self-limiting beliefs you can make room for happiness and peace. Karen draws on guidance from her spiritual team and her knowledge as a long-time student of A Course in Miracles to help people find “Fearless Flow” and transition from their story to their glory! More about Karen: Karen Kenney is a writer, speaker, and the founder of Fearless Flow Mentoring. She’s a certified Spiritual Mentor, has been a student & guide of A Course in Miracles for 26+ years and a longtime student of Passage Meditation. She’s also been a certified yoga teacher since 2001 and is a Gateless Writing Teacher. Karen (also known as “KK”) grew up in Lawrence & Boston, MA and is known for her storytelling, her sense of humor and her “down-to-earth” approach to spirituality. Her signature program: "Your Story to Your Glory" helps people let go of their old stories of suffering and victimization - so they can write a new kick-ass story - from an inner place of power, forgiveness, freedom and Spirit. A sought-after expert and Spiritual Thought Leader for Live Events, Podcasts, Coaching Programs and Shows, Karen speaks on stages across the country and leads transformational retreats in the New England area and at the Omega Institute in NY. Karen is the host of podcast & videocast The Karen Kenney Show and is currently at work on her memoir. You can learn more and connect with Karen at: www.karenkenney.com. In this episode, Lisa and Karen share: How Karen shares her story of adversity to help others not feel victimized What Karen has learned from A Course in Miracles that she now teaches to others How our beliefs impact our sense of freedom and safety What it means to live your life in “Fearless Flow” How to draw on the power of a spiritual team and how to build your own How Karen responds to criticism from a place of love (even when it’s hard) The impact that having clear story has on your business and brand How our “individual curriculum” can influence our life’s work Why it’s important to have a dedicated daily spiritual practice     Free Gift:Download Karen’s free gift called “Guide to Building Your Spiritual Team” - www.karenkenney.com/freebie Resources:Easy Legal Steps - download the first book chapter free! Mentions:   Course in Miracles

“The most powerful words in the English language are ‘tell me a story,’” says Pat Conroy. Today’s episode contains two relationship stories that illustrate the power of doing something small that achieves something big. I can’t seem to get the episode from two weeks ago out of my mind, #21, “The Most Important Relationship of all.” The relationship story I talked about certainly is an active part of my life, but it’s the quote of the week that lately seems to be following me around wherever I go, like a needy lap dog. We need to remind each other of our own stories. It comes from page 82 of the book I wrote a few years ago, THEM. I’m seeing the truth of that statement all over again in new ways. I’m realizing how it can go a long way in giving us the relationships we were made for. Keep reading to find out how. If you listened to episode 16, “Two Ways to Care for a Missionary,” You may recall the story of Larry and Jill, who went to Borneo with $75 in their pocket, $100 “promised” monthly support and the rock-solid guarantee from the Lord Jesus ringing in their ears, ‘I will always be with you.’” Yeah, that Larry and Jill, that Jill with her insatiable appetite for ….. ice cubes - her one great weakness. Jill recently wrote to tell Janet and me how honored she felt to be mentioned in that podcast, and also to remind us of another story about our relationship, that I while I remembered it, never really think about it anymore. Here is what she wrote: “One of my favorite memories that illustrates how you two love and care for your missionary friends is ‘The Christmas Story.’ "Larry and I were transitioning from 33 years overseas in Asia to Florida, a central location for our widening international travel and ministries. We were ‘between homes’…OK, basically homeless at that point. And it was just a few weeks before Christmas - my favorite holiday. Which you guys knew. "So when we showed up on your doorstep with our numerous heavy suitcases, you led us downstairs to the beautiful guest suite - complete with a live decorated Christmas tree! I will never forget your thoughtfulness and generosity…just the comforting feeling of being truly welcomed and cared for by friends.” Jill reminded me of my own story, just like the relationship quote from episode 21 encourages us to do. I share it here for three reasons. First, because it reminds me of how many times in relationships, when we do something small for someone it will often yield big results. Small is the new large. To go out and get an extra Christmas trip was really no big deal for us. It was a 2 on our effort meter, but it registered a 10 on their love and appreciation scale. It started with Janet and me thinking about their transition….saying goodbye to 33 years in Asia and moving back to this vastly different culture. Saying goodbye to your home at one end of the world, with no replacement home lined up at the other end. And to do so at Christmas time must have made it all the more difficult. I recount this story because I hope it stimulates you to think of something small you can do to bless others. The second reason I share it, is that by Jill reminding Janet and me of our own story, it encourages me that I am making progress in becoming the person I was made to be. And want to be. It encourages me to think small, to think of small things I can do to bless people. it encourages me to think more of others than I am normally inclined to do, and that I am capable of being more like this than I am normally inclined to behave. A third point to this story is that there is joy in our story being part of the joy in another person’s story. There is joy in knowing that we can bless people in small ways that they may well remember many years later, long after you stop thinking about what you initially did to bless them. You can’t buy this kind of joy! Hopefully it will encourage you to do the same thing, because when you bring joy into another’s life, you often receive joy back in return. Another example of being reminded of my own story occurred earlier this year in January when Janet and I visited my sister Karen in Florida. When you live in Wisconsin it’s a wonderful thing in January to have a sister living in Florida. Because Janet and I started a new decade of life this year, my sister took it upon herself to organize a birthday celebration for the two of us. It was all quite secret up to the last minute. Karen and I are bookends among our siblings. I am the oldest and she is the youngest. Eleven years separate us. Our parents died over 10 years ago, and I feel a bit like the patriarch of the family, and Janet the matriarch. Karen, my sister, and my sister-in-law, took us out for brunch on a Sunday afternoon, where we meet my brother Joe and his kids all married now, with kids of their own. Our daughter Jennifer and her husband Tim also showed up from South Carolina. At the brunch Karen passed out paddles she fashioned with 5 x7 head shot photos of Janet and me, pasted back to back on the end of what looked like a huge tongue depressor a doctor would use on a man the size of Shaquille O’Neal. My photo was taken when I was 13 and had hair, Janet’s was more recent. Everyone started waving the paddles, rotating the photos back and forth. It was great fun. Even the waitress enjoyed it. After we ate we headed to my brother Joe’s new home where they sang “Happy Birthday,” then blew out the candles on the birthday cake. All the traditional stuff you do at a birthday party. What happened next, however, was anything but traditional. Weeks before this birthday get together, Karen wrote to everyone in our family, inviting them to this gathering, but knowing most of them could not make it because of the distance and expense. But she asked for people to send her a favorite memory they have of Janet and me. She got 48 email responses, some people sharing several favorite memories. She then typed those responses on a small folding note cards and had Janet and I read them aloud. [Listen to episode for responses from our own kids, nieces, and my brother and sisters] What Karen did in organizing this event for Janet and me was to remind us of our own stories. Some of these I have no memory of, others I recall fondly. The whole event did three things for me, one was to appreciate even more my younger sister Karen and all the work she did to put this together. Contacting everyone, methodically typing each of their favorite memories onto the note cards, assembling the paddles with our photos. This was all very labor intensive. And there was a fair bit of expense, too. Secondly, it told me that Janet and I made more of an impact on members of my family than I realized. It told me that people noticed and we made a difference in their lives, if nothing more than a found memory. And fond memories are worth something. And finally, and most importantly, what my little sister did was set an example I can follow in my other relationships by reminding my friends of their own story. To remind them of their stories to encourage them and honor them, as Karen did with Janet and me. So here’s to little sisters! Before I close, here’s the he main take-away from today’s episode, our show in a sentence We can be agents of joy when we remind others of how our story is part of their story - because after all, we were made for this. Here’s a way you can respond to today’s show Who is someone you can remind of their own story? It doesn’t need to be a big party like my little sister arranged, although that was really a lot of fun. It can be something as simple as writing a note to share a favorite memory you have of someone. Like our friend Jill did for Janet and me when she told us her favorite Christmas memory with us. Imagine if we all did this, even just once. You were made to do this, you know. I’m going to give it a try myself this week. How about you? Please let me know how this goes for you. Coming up next week We will reflect on some of the listener responses we’ve been getting that will hopefully stimulate your thinking about relationships to make them the best they can be. Relationship Quote of the Week The most powerful words in the English language are "tell me a story,”     - Pat Conroy Closing Remember, you were made for this. Life-giving, fulling relationships. We’re here together to learn how. See you next week. Bye for now. Resources mentioned in today’s show Episode 21 The Most Important Relationship of All THEM - The Richer Life Found in Caring for Others

Karen Greve Young is the Chief Executive Officer of Futurpreneur Canada, Canada’s only national organization dedicated to supporting young entrepreneurs. Futurpreneur’s unique model combines funding, mentorship and start-up programs to fuel the success of thousands of young entrepreneurs in every Canadian province and territory. Karen is an accomplished non-profit leader dedicated to fostering economic and social prosperity through new approaches and partnerships.   How did the birth of Futurpreneur Canada come about?   When Futurpreneur Canada started two decades ago before Karen even lives in Canada, there really wasn't an ecosystem for startup founders. On an event, an entrepreneur started with a blank canvas or a blank landscape without whole lot of support and in response to that a group of Canadians; that was started by a Canadian members of industry and then supported by the federal government, got the idea of providing collateral free low interest loans to entrepreneurs. Futurpreneur realize that money is an important part particularly for young entrepreneur especially if they don’t have other equity and access to funds there business. Another part that is important for Futurpreneur is its mentorship. They also make sure that the entrepreneurs also get a mentor, a guide and the support of an individual to help them on their journey and that has always been part of the motto of Futurpreneur. Futurpreneur financing, mentorship and its tools to help support these entrepreneurs from ages 18 to 39 so that they can use these in order to start their business. It is also the only organization supporting entrepreneurs that does this in every province and territory in Canada. What matters to them is an entrepreneur who is young, has an idea or a business model and can use the mentorship that they provide in order to bring the business idea to reality.   Karen talks about the entrepreneur journey and how they work to support it:   Entrepreneur starts with passion. They start with an idea and goal of what they want to achieve and pretty quickly they realize that they needed fuels (funds) to achieve this to get their ideas down in writing and to plan it out to get the resources they need. And often they need the confidence to actually start.   What excites Karen most about this industry:   "From wannapreneur to entrepreneur"   Entrepreneur is the umbrella term for people starting a business but obviously there are many types of entrepreneurs. What Karen is really excited about as being a part of Futurpreneur is the scope of all the main street businesses in Canada. That means Canadian from smaller towns can come back to their hometown after college and have a vibrant job opportunities just like on the large city without having to go to a large city. It is really important that they focus on opportunities that are broader, rural and urban, and for the whole diverse range of people whether they are doing it part time with the side hustle or full time.   The biggest entrepreneurial mistake that Karen see from time to time:   It takes a certain amount of confidence start a business You need to have confidence to yourself and your business but should not reach arrogance or hubris. As soon as an entrepreneur stops listening to people who disagree with her or with him; that is a recipe for disaster. Having a mentor or advisers or talking to your customers who you know will say something straight given what is not what you want to hear is vital. Karen also shared with us how this situation could lead to becoming a confident blocker. Listen to my episode Ariel Garten from Muse - episode 45 where we dive in through what confident blockers do to you and what you should do to stop it. "Invite people with different opinions"   Marketing/Entrepreneur Tips:   Sometimes we focus too much on the messages that we want to get out that we as humans we put things in what we want to convey rather than what we want them to hear and feel. So always keep your customers in mind and focusing on what's in it for them and what are they looking for from what you are doing and REPEAT, REPEAT, REPEAT. "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago and the second best time is today" – Chinese Proverb   Favorite Habit that made her say wow she was a part of:   Getting out of the field and visiting their team around the country. One specific experience that Karen had was being in Halifax visiting the House of Auto Details which is an auto detailing company; a female founded who has found a gap in the industry and several years later is still going strong. The very next day, she met Nathon Kong is a Montreal-based company creating bespoke custom-tailored suits with the help of a 3D scanner which is made by local artists and some of it are done by patients from the local mental health facilities. "You are trying to embark on a new path there is no better time than now" Personal Habit:   For Karen, it is all about how she starts her day early in the morning and do workouts and journaling and get things done. The last thing that she will do before getting her kids ready is she Muse headband for about 3 to 10 minutes. She uses her Muse headband to meditate, be mindful and set herself up for the day she wants to have. You can listen to Ariel Garten the founder of Muse on episode 41   Resources Recommendation:   MaRS startup library The power of mentors and partnership Tools from Futurpreneur: Business Plan Writer Entrepreneur Pathway Library Inspiring people to follow: Melinda Gates Richard Branson Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures Hot spot: Webber’s on Highway 11, ON Halifax Central Library   About Futurpreneur:   Futurpreneur Canada has been fueling the entrepreneurial passions of Canada’s young enterprise for two decades. We are the only national, non-profit organization that provides financing, mentoring and support tools to aspiring business owners aged 18-39. Our internationally recognized mentoring program hand matches young entrepreneurs with a business expert from a network of more than 2,800 volunteer mentors.   More about Karen:   Prior to joining Futurpreneur in 2018, Karen was the Vice President, Corporate Development & Partnerships at MaRS Discovery District, a global innovation hub based in Toronto. During her seven year tenure, Karen led corporate strategy development, implementation and measurement, managed a global network of innovation partners, and oversaw community engagement including marketing, communications and events. She has previously held finance, management and strategy roles in San Francisco, New York and London, UK, at organizations including Bain & Company, Gap Inc. and the UK’s Institute of Cancer Research. Along the way, she co-authored a book with her mother about their shared experience through her mother’s ovarian cancer journey. Karen holds an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and a BA in Economics from Harvard University.   Connect with Karen:   LinkedIn: Karen Greve Young Website: Futurpreneur.ca Twitter: @Futurpreneur @KarenGreveYoung Facebook: Futurpreneur   Thanks again for tuning in! To help out the show: Please leave an iTunes review or post a comment below. Your help is greatly appreciated. If you know any Canadian Innovators whom you like us to feature, please feel free to email us. Listen to more innovators who are crushing it here. I’m still channeling Gary Vee! Ratings and reviews are my oxygen! Have you seen the new CanInnovate resources & tools page, that provides different offers and discounts. Who doesn’t love to save money? We are a big supporter of Unsplash.com photos. Special thanks to Ian Schneider!

Karen Gordon is the President/CEO of 5 Dynamics. As a high-energy problem solver and tireless worker, Karen thrives on helping companies revolutionize work culture and collaboration. Karen developed a methodology as a groundwork to help people collaborate more efficiently in teamwork. Healthcare dramatically benefits from this approach, helping in forming better teams while finding the strengths of each member, and at the same time, greatly easing teamwork, reducing stress and burnout. Listen to this podcast and find out more about this revolutionary approach that changes the ideology concerning leadership, group work, and efficiency.   Key Takeaways: [:35] Karen Gordon career briefing. [1:35] What is 5 Dynamics? [2:40] Is 5 Dynamics a personality profile? [3:48] What are the different strength areas? [4:43] What is the best-formed team? Blended energies work best. [5.34] Growth mindset. [8:02] Need for more collaboration in teamwork. [9:05] Once you know your strength, how do you integrate this knowledge into your work? [11:03] What Karen learned about herself in the process of helping others. [13:29] Patterns in the data regarding minorities. [16:17] Karen’s mentor as a woman leader — her unstoppable mother. [18:08] Why Healthcare teams can benefit from the 5 Dynamics tool. [19:16] Understanding the strengths of your team members. [19:54] Physicians do not play a team sport — they don´t know how to work with others. [20:50] Healthcare case scenario working with 5D Dynamics. [21:31] No one does it all; we need other people. [22:30] Understanding our energies helps us find the solution to the burnout epidemic. [23:43] Finding the joy in the letting go. [25:34] Not everybody is that self-aware.   Mentioned in this episode: Relational Rounds at Primary Care Progress Primary Care Progress on Twitter 5 Dynamics Get in touch with Karen:  karen@5dynamics.com  

This week's guest is consultant and speaker Karen Martin. Karen shed some light on the importance of individual and organizational clarity in anticipation of her new book, Clarity First. An MP3 version of this episode is available for download here. In this episode you'll learn: Karen's background (2:11) About Karen's upcoming book (4:13) What clarity is (4:55) Why individuals and organizations need clarity (7:12) An example (8:29) The five "buckets" of clarity (9:52) Why clarity is so hard (11:09) The different clarity approaches (13:02) The CLEAR problem-solving method (15:47) Some practical things you can start doing today (19:36) Knowing the score (23:49) Where the lean movement is going (25:40) Who Karen would go back in time to talk to (28:45) The best advice Karen has ever received (30:08) What Karen is most proud of (30:51) Podcast Resources Right Click to Download this Podcast as an MP3 Download a Free Audio Book at Audible.com Karen's Website Karen on LinkedIn The Karen Martin Group on LinkedIn Karen on Twitter Karen on Facebook  Clarity First The Outstanding Organization  The Kaizen Event Planner Subscribe & Never Miss New Episodes! Click to Subscribe in iTunes If you enjoyed this podcast please be sure to subscribe on iTunes. Once you're a subscriber all new episodes will be downloaded to your iTunes account and smartphone. The easiest way for iPhone users to listen to the show is via the free, and incredible, Podcast app. You can download it here. CLICK HERE to subscribe to the Gemba Academy podcast on iTunes. You can also subscribe via Stitcher which is definitely Android friendly. What Do You Think? In what other ways is clarity important?

From "Stuck In Life" To Profitable Forex Trader – Show Notes In episode 120 of the Desire To Trade Podcast, I interview Karen Foo, a Forex trader, motivational speaker, and author. After ranking #1 in a Singapore nationwide Forex trading competition, she came on the podcast to share the lessons she learned prior to becoming a profitable Forex Trader. Topics Covered In This Episode How to manage speaking, trading and building a business 3:00 How Karen got involved in trading while doing an engineering internship 4:20 The kind of work Karen needed to put in to trade successfully 7:00 The lessons Karen Foo learned before becoming profitable 8:20 What Karen tells people who want to make a lot of money trading 10:05 Karen’s preferred trading style and how to find your style 11:55 How Karen manages multiple timeframes 13:05 What a day look like in the life of Karen Foo 13:35 Nick asks: Exercises to work on your trading psychology 15:13 The role of discretion in Karen’s trading 17:10 When in the day does Karen trades 17:45 What Karen is still working on (continuous improvement example) 18:20 How to improve yourself every day 19:30 Mary asks: What it takes to become a highly skilled trader 20:30 Karen’s journaling process and its importance 22:18 What Karen’s trading plan look like 23:18 Why patience leads to consistency & how to make it happen 25:20 More About Karen Foo Karen is actively involved in speaking at various conferences, seminars, expos, workshops, toastmaster clubs and publicly-held events in Singapore and Malaysia. Having overcome numerous setbacks in her life, she has gone on to inspire thousands of youths working executives and leaders of various companies to REALIZE THEIR ABSOLUTE WILDEST DREAMS through her INTERACTIVE, INSPIRING AND ENGAGING TALKS. Being labeled as the “quietest student and underachiever” throughout her life, she went on to win numerous awards in public speaking contests, scholarships and hosting large-scale events as an emcee. She was then featured in various print media for her academic achievements. She has also been invited to speak at an international conference to leaders from Brunei, China, Hong Kong, Laos, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Singapore. Karen has been ranked #1 in a Singapore nationwide Forex trading competition, competing with over 200 traders from NUS, NTU, SIM, and SMU. She was also ranked 10th in a contest organized by FX Street, competing with over 3000 traders from over 20 countries. She has shared the stage with top investment gurus and CEOs at an international expo held at Marina Bay Sands. She is also the contest judge for numerous public speaking contests held around Singapore, ranging from club level to the National level contests. DesireToTRADE Top Resources Desire To TRADE Forex Trader Community (free group!) Complete Price Action Strategy Checklist (free checklist!) One-Page Trading Plan (free template!) DesireToTRADE Academy How To Find Karen Foo? Website Facebook Twitter Youtube What is one thing you are going to implement after listening to this podcast episode? Leave a comment below, or join me in the Facebook group!

There’s something special about finding your passion in life. Voice of the New Orleans Saints Zach Strief announced Feb. 19 he’s leaving the WWL broadcast booth to become the Saints’ assistant offensive line coach, following his passion and returning to the game he loves. Today’s episode of Black and Gold Rush is all about passion. Tampa Bay sports reporter Karen Loftus joins the show to discuss her career, which included a 3-year stop in New Orleans, covering the Bucs’ run to the Super Bowl, and the state of the NFC South. After Tampa Bay dominated Super Bowl LV, the NFC South may no longer be the Saints’ division to lose. A lot will depend on the offseason and NFL Draft, but one thing is certain - Tom Brady is coming back. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS... -Zach Strief’s announcement reminded me why I was inspired to start my podcast -Next week’s episode with Tim Siegel (Team Luke Hope for Minds) will honor Brain Injury Awareness Month -Karen Loftus explains what it’s like being a city’s “good luck charm” -Covering two future Hall of Fame quarterbacks so early in her career -The experience of Super Bowl LV in Tampa -Why the NFC South could be a two-team race in 2021 -What Karen really misses most about living in New Orleans CONNECT WITH US / LINKS MENTIONED: How Zach Strief went from ‘never’ to Saints coaching job, departing WWL Radio ( https://www.nola.com/sports/saints/article_3f26e478-72ce-11eb-b991-475d69692bcb.html ) Saints coaching staff reports: tweet from Jeff Duncan ( https://twitter.com/JeffDuncan_/status/1363163853815701504?s=20 ) Karen Loftus Twitter ( https://twitter.com/WFLAKaren ) Karen Loftus Instagram ( https://www.instagram.com/kcloftus/ ) Rachel Jones Twitter ( https://twitter.com/RachelW504 ) Rachel Jones Instagram ( https://www.instagram.com/rachelw504/ ) SUBSCRIBE, RATE & REVIEW “Black and Gold Rush is awesome and authentic, and I can’t wait for more.”