Girl, Take the Lead!

Irene Sim joins us to discuss some topics I think you’ll find interesting like the power of emotions, new thinking habits, systemic bias and racism, and emotions and ego. Such good stuff!

Irene is the Managing Director of Coaching Alliance Group, an accredited Executive Leadership Coach, Mentor and Facilitator. Her career is amazing. She was the inaugural Chief of Staff at APEC and first Asian woman to be promoted to the Senior Executive Service of the Australian Treasury and the Australian Taxation Office. AND she was the first Asian woman that the Australian Treasury posted overseas diplomatically as the Minister-Counsellor to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.  

Here are the topics we covered in the episode:

3:12 Power of emotions & leadership 7:33 New thinking habits 11:52 Bringing cultures together by removing systemic bias/racism 21:44 The effect of emotions and ego

Here are the three takeaways:

1.   Let's look at emotions look at comfortable or uncomfortable not good or bad. They can be our “north star” guiding us to act in alignment with our deepest values and to be more resilient. Accept them, allow them and then do something constructive with them.

2.   Having an inclusive mindset is about being curious and move away from the assumption that the way I see the world is the only way to see the world.

3.   One habit to break up the “all about me” and the disconnection from the other. We can look at an issue together, rather than making it personal by blaming judging or defending against the other. This allows alignment.

More About Irene: 

Irene coaches women at all stages of their journey to break free from societal biases to set their own terms and to thrive as powerful and authentic leaders on their own terms. Irene also coaches entire organizations on how to provide allyship support to one another, to remove systemic biases.

How to Reach Irene:

www.coachingalliance group.com

In our previous Episode 157 we heard about Mothers’ Day Movement and the African Education Program and I was struck with the fact that $35B is spent on Mother’s Day gifts. How could that be? And what’s the history of the holiday? And where’s the motivation coming from? So I dug into some articles and searched for insights I thought you might find interesting.

Dominika Turkcan, from Mothers’ Day Movement (MDM) returns to join Yo in this episode. The Mothers' Day Movement is an organization that grew out of a column in The New York Times by Nicholas Kristof, where he made the case for moving the apostrophe in Mother’s Day so it honors not just one mother, but underserved mothers everywhere. It advocates shifting a portion of Mother’s Day gift giving to a carefully selected charity each year in honor of a woman or person they love.

Since 2011, the group has raised almost $1,000,000, in maternal health, education, hunger, clean water, and human trafficking, and has been featured in The New York Times, Ms. Magazine, and NPR.

The episode also includes Julie-Anne Savarit-Cosenza, Co-Founder & Executive Director, African Education Program (AEP), MDM’s 2024 beneficiary. AEP unlocks the potential of African youth and adults by building and growing community-led organizations in Zambia and Rwanda. AEP’s flagship Learning & Leadership Center in Kafue, Zambia is a thriving hub where children,

Here are the 3 Takeaways:

1.   For the price of a bouquet of flowers, we can save a life by donating to MDM.

2.   In 2024, AEP will reach over 4,000 children, youth and women: 750 will attend daily programs at the Learning & Leadership Center, 3,000 youth will be reached through our Peer-to-Peer Education Program in local schools, and 300 rural youth will access HIV awareness programming through their Kids to Care Initiative. In addition, one of the extraordinary things that AEP provides Special Education support.

3.    Our donation to MDM can help achieve AEP’s mission and the 750+ children, youth, and women access highly impactful programs and resources at AEP’s flagship Learning & Leadership Center every week.  

We hope you’ll enjoy this episode!

As mentioned in the episode:

This is a shorter episode with Yo Canny building on our previous episode where we explored Amber Ontiveros’ near-death experience. I had so many questions after hearing her story, I knew I wanted to know more so here are some of the ones we explored:

• What are common near-death experiences based on research? BTW you’ll hear me refer to near-death experiences as NDEs.
• What happens in the brain during a NDE?
• What can we learn from experiencers of NDEs?

The expert we’ll cover is Bruce Greyson, MD – professor emeritus of psychiatry and neuro-behavioral sciences at Univ of Virginal School of Medicine. He was the co-founder and president of the International Association for Near-Death Studies and editor of the Journal of Near-Death Studies. A Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, he has received national awards for his medical research.

And he’s written a book which we’ll use to ground us titled: After, A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond, copyright 2021.

As Mentioned:

Ep. 155, Love and Light: Transforming Bias with Amber Ontiveros

Amber Ontiveros, Gen X, joins us to discuss her book ‘Heal The Four Woundings, A Guide to End Discord and Discrimination’. After a life-altering near-death experience, Amber recognized the limitations of traditional racial equity conversations and was inspired to innovate. Amber is an Unconscious Bias coach and has crafted tools grounded in the neuroscience of unconscious bias to heal herself from beliefs that result in discord, discrimination and oppression. Here are the topics we covered in the episode:    2:28 Ambers amazing background  

      15:11 Different kinds of biases and what happens in our brain    

19:18 Dr. Martin Luther King’s quote about love/light 

23:03 The four wounds  

   24:20 Mindfulness listening  

     28:29 Loved Awakening Grace

Here are the three takeaways:

1.   "Everything is not accidental".

2.   The only way to combat darkness is with light.

3.   The secret is self-love…you can’t give what you don’t have.

As Mentioned:

Today we conclude our conversation with our returning guest, Andrea Mein DeWitt, and we’ll continue to discuss her new workbook, Name Claim & Reframe Workbook, Your Companion Guide to A Well-Lived Life, which you can preorder now and will launch April 30.

In this episode we’ll also get into reframing feedback, accepting a compliment, flying helicopters into stormy weather, and end with some healing words.

Her workbook is the perfect companion to her ‘Name Claim & Reframe’ book which we’ve covered on a previous episode.

I had the opportunity to receive an advance copy and wrote the following book jacket endorsement:

“Andrea provides a gentle path to examining the origin of our core wound beliefs and limited thinking on a deeper level so we can let go of people pleasing and quiet even the loudest inner critic. Her step-by-step process is a masterful blend of transformative insights and practical exercised designed to awaken an inner power that is both empowering and impactful. Can I get an Amen to that?!”

Here are 3 Episode Takeaways from the Series:

1.    The 9 Core Wound Beliefs can help us outline our negative core beliefs and the personality we develop to compensate for those.

2.    The people pleasing inner critic is rooted in fear and is focused on earning love.

3.    We should remember what Andrea’s mom had to say about accepting a complement: “When someone is giving you a compliment, NEVER interrupt.”

As mentioned in the episode:

Andrea DeWitt returns to “Girl, Take the Lead!” Podcast to discuss her new workbook, Name Claim & Reframe Workbook, Your Companion Guide to A Well-Lived Life. Yay!!

This is Part 1 of a 2-Part Series.  

I had the opportunity to receive an advance copy and wrote the following book jacket endorsement:

“Andrea provides a gentle path to examining the origin of our core wound beliefs and limited thinking on a deeper level so we can let go of people pleasing and quiet even the loudest inner critic. Her step-by-step process is a masterful blend of transformative insights and practical exercised designed to awaken an inner power that is both empowering and impactful. Can I get an Amen to that?!”

Here are 3 Episode Takeaways:

1.    The 9 Core Wound Beliefs can help us outline our negative core beliefs and the personality we develop to compensate for those.

2.    The people pleasing inner critic is rooted in fear and is focused on earning love.

3.    We should remember what Andrea’s mom had to say about accepting a complement: “When someone is giving you a compliment, NEVER interrupt.”

As mentioned in the episode:

Today we continue our conversation with Kristine Cherek to discuss her book Tread Loudly. In addition to being an author, Kristine is an attorney, executive, professor and philanthropist. This is Part 2 of 2 and we will continue 'going for it like Elle Woods" by discussing key data & research findings, and Kristine offers advice for younger generations, plus what she’d tell her 20 something self. Be sure to listen to both parts of our interview.

Here are the topics we covered in the series:      Work friends and their importance·         Having it all (not!) and Perfectionism.         Beliefs.      Elle Woods.       Data (The real issue: normalized gender bias).       Quitting is not failure.

Here are the three takeaways:

1.   We can’t have it all and trying to be perfect robs us of our happiness. Others that we think ‘have it all’ really don’t.

2.   We can begin to change our lives by changing a few beliefs within ourselves. Be determined. Be ambitious. Believe in yourself and take chances, just like Elle Woods did!

3.   Quitting is not failure but can be the only way to achieve success in the long term.

As Mentioned:

Kristine Cherek, GenX, joins Yo to discuss her book, Tread Loudly: Call Out the Bullsh*t and Fight for Equality in the Workplace. Kristine Cherek is an attorney, former law professor, writer, and philanthropist.

Kristine began her career practicing commercial real estate law at an international law firm. By the age of 33, she was the general counsel of the nation's largest developer of healthcare facilities. After she left the practice of law, she taught for eight years at a law school in Florida. She now focuses on writing, speaking, and advocating for gender equality in the workplace. Her philanthropic work centers on equity and access in higher education, arts education, food security, and animal welfare. This is Part 1 of a 2-Part series. Here are the topics we covered in the series:  

•  Work friends and their importance. 
• Having it all (not!) and Perfectionism.
• Beliefs.
• Elle Woods. 
• Data (The real issue: normalized gender bias).
• Quitting is not failure.

Here are the three takeaways:

1.   We can’t have it all and trying to be perfect robs us of our happiness. Others that we think ‘have it all’ really don’t.

2.   We can begin to change our lives by changing a few beliefs within ourselves. Be determined. Be ambitious. Believe in yourself and take chances, just like Elle Woods did!

3.   Quitting is not failure but can be the only way to achieve success in the long term.

As Mentioned:

This is a "Girl, Take the Lead!" Sound Bite, which is a shorter episode, building on Ep 149 with Andrea Wilson Woods about her Blue Faery Foundation and the launch of the book she edited, I’d Rather Be Dead than Deaf. We thought you might like to hear some passages from that book to feel inspired during your day.

You might want to check out the video form of this episode to see some of Adrienne’s artwork. You can see a clip here:

Andrea Wilson Woods, Gen X, joins Yo to discuss the book she’s edited: I’d Rather Be Dead than Deaf. The book is the journal of Adrienne Wilson, a teenage artist, poet, and Andrea’s beloved sister. Before her death from liver cancer at the age of fifteen, Adrienne expressed her funny, bright soul in this prolific journal. Her musings on life, relationships, music, love, and the beautiful grime of her adopted hometown of Los Angeles leap off the page; her deep sensitivity and perspective are captured in full-color prints of her award-winning artwork.

We will all relate to their love story!

This is a Sound Bite episode that builds on our previous episode with Bernadette Smith where we talked about Diversity, Equality and Inclusion efforts covering a variety of topics. One of them was about empathy and sincerity.

While we have covered this topic with Brené Brown’s book, Atlas of the Heart, I found another which you might find interesting: David Brooks’ book: How to know a Person – the Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen. And in today’s episode I’ll concentrate on his chapter called the Art of Empathy.

Here are the topics we covered:

• What gets in the way of being empathetic
• The 3 empathetic skills
• Practices to build empathetic talents
• Ways empaths see the world differently

As Mentioned:

David Brooks’ book:

Bernadette Smith, Gen X, joins Yo to talk about her book, 'Inclusive 360: Proven Solutions for an Equitable Organization' and provides rich insights into Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). In addition to being an award-winning author of four books and diversity expert, Bernadette is founder and CEO of Equality Institute. The Equality Institute’s mission is to help organizations fulfill the promise of diversity by embedding equity and inclusion into organizational systems and culture, enhancing outcomes for everyone. Their vision is for a world where every human feels safe to express their authentic selves.
Equality Institute is a certified woman and LGBTQ+-owned business. Here are the topics we covered:      Celebrating Good DEI Vibes      ARC (Ask, Respect, Connect)       Unconscious Bias       Equality & Equity     Power & Privilege         Influence

Here are three takeaways from today’s episode:

1.   DEI should not just live in Human Resources – it needs to live across all functions of an organization.

2.   We can have a genuine feeling of hope about DEI efforts and not be overwhelmed or be fearful – we’re all going to make mistakes and we can learn the most from things that are not working.

3.   It is up to all of us to use our own power, influence, and privilege to lift and help others!

As Mentioned:

This is Part 2 of a 2-Part Series:

Peter Yaholkovsky and his partner in life, Sue Staker, Boomers, join Yo to discuss Peter’s book, Listening for Candor: Building Trust in Relationships that Matter, which illuminates a path for trust conversations by starting with a shared sense of what matters. Peter has an extensive background in the linguistic foundations of trust and communication, having studied and worked with Dr. Fernando Flores since the 1980's and being certified by the Strozzi Institute as a Master Somatic Coach.

Over the past three decades, Peter has coached families and executive teams in building and restoring trust. In addition to being life partners for 25 years, Peter and Sue worked together as part of the Williams Group team to bring trust building skills to wealthy families.

Here are the topics we covered in this 2-part series:       What is candor and how can it build trust with others?

       What is the role that emotionality and intention play in relationships?    How does trust differ in personal and professional settings?    What does power have to do with listening with candor?       What elements need to be present to “save” a relationship and when to let it go?

Here are the three takeaways from the series:

1.   The “truth” of Candor is sincerity about one’s intention and care—about ‘what matters’—a departure from speaking “honestly” or being “right” about the past.

2.   Sincere engagement is to want to understand another more fully.

3.   Vulnerability to a power differential can wreak havoc in conversations when “what matters” is protecting oneself from the risks of engagement.
 

As Mentioned: 

Peter’s book:

Peter Yaholkovsky and his partner in life, Sue Staker, Boomers, join Yo to discuss Peter’s book, Listening for Candor: Building Trust in Relationships that Matter, which illuminates a path for trust conversations by starting with a shared sense of what matters. Peter has an extensive background in the linguistic foundations of trust and communication, having studied and worked with Dr. Fernando Flores since the 1980's and being certified by the Strozzi Institute as a Master Somatic Coach. Over the past three decades, Peter has coached families and executive teams in building and restoring trust. In addition to being life partners for 25 years, Peter and Sue worked together as part of the Williams Group team to bring trust building skills to wealthy families.

Topics covered in this 2-part series:     What is candor and how can it build trust with others?      What is the role that emotionality and intention play in relationships?   How does trust differ in personal and professional settings?     What does power have to do with listening with candor?          What elements need to be present to “save” a relationship and when to let it go?

3 takeaways from the series:

The “truth” of Candor is sincerity about one’s intention and care—about ‘what matters’—a departure from speaking “honestly” or being “right” about the past.

Sincere engagement is to want to understand another more fully.

   Vulnerability to a power differential can wreak havoc in conversations when “what matters” is protecting oneself from the risks of engagement.

As Mentioned:

Peter’s book:

In our previous episode with Julianna Newland we talked about the importance of humor in leadership and I was reminded of our 2nd podcast episode with my sister-in-law, Andrea Canny, and neurohumorist, Karyn Buxman, where we also explored humor in leadership.

Here are some of the topics we covered in Ep 2:

• The science of laughter and what happens in the brain
• Humor Theory
• Benefits of humor in enhancing approachability, trust, health and wellbeing.
• Humor used as a tool or weapon
• Promoting good leadership with humor
• Appropriate use of humor when there are power differentials involved
• Generational differences in humor perception

Julianna Newland, boomer, joins Yo to talk about her book, All Up In Your Bizness.

Julianna is an accomplished author and communication expert whose journey through the realm of words and public affairs has shaped her unique perspective. Raised in the vibrant city of Indianapolis, Indiana, Julianna's earlier educational foundation was laid under the guidance of nuns. Her intellectual curiosity led her to the University of Indianapolis, where she pursued a dual major in English and political science. This academic fusion served as the launch pad for a remarkable career that has spanned over three decades.

Julianna's professional path took her through various influential roles, including a substantial tenure with a Fortune 500 company, service within state government, contributions to two nonprofit organizations, and active participation in a prominent trade association.

Throughout her diverse career, Julianna's unique blend of writing acumen and expertise in public affairs, government relations, lobbying, and fundraising consistently set her apart. Here are the topics we covered:      Book interviews, a creative muse, and cocktail configurations.     The importance of humor in any situation.

Feedback from book readers.

The ‘Good Ole Boys Club’.

Women helping women.

Here are the three takeaways from today’s episode:

1.   A sense of humor is needed to neutralize stress and manage our business.

2.   Mentor and work friends are important resources.

3.   As women advance up the ladder, it’s imperative to help the next women up.

As Mentioned:

In this “Girl, Take the Lead!” Sound Bite, we continued to explore the field of energy by continuing to dig into the book, 'Becoming Supernatural’ by Dr. Joe Dispenza,

Here are the three takeaways from today’s episode:

1.   The Power of Mental Rehearsals: Dr. Joe Dispenza emphasizes the importance of mental rehearsals as a tool for personal transformation and manifestation. By vividly imagining desired outcomes with clarity, detail, and emotion, individuals can reprogram their subconscious minds and align their thoughts, emotions, and beliefs with their goals.

2.   Embracing Oneness and Non-Duality: The script highlights Dr. Dispenza's discussion of oneness and non-duality, where individuals realize their interconnectedness with everything in the universe. This concept involves transcending conventional perceptions of reality and recognizing the profound connection between mind, body, and the larger universe.

3.   The Importance of Changing Energy and State of Being: Dr. Dispenza stresses the significance of changing one's energy and state of being to create a different future. This involves shifting from unconscious states of mind and body to consciously demonstrating peace, love, gratitude, and kindness throughout the day. By doing so, individuals can contribute to their personal evolution and the collective consciousness.

As Mentioned:

In this “Girl, Take the Lead!” Sound Bite, we continued to explore the field of energy by digging into the book, 'Becoming Supernatural’ by Dr. Joe Dispenza,

Here are the three takeaways from today’s episode:

1.   Embracing Multidisciplinary Knowledge: Dr. Dispenza's work draws from diverse scientific fields such as epigenetics, molecular biology, neurocardiology, and quantum physics. By synthesizing insights from these disciplines, he offers a holistic understanding of human potential and empowerment, transcending traditional boundaries between scientific thinking and human experience.

2.   Becoming Supernatural: The concept of "becoming supernatural" involves transcending the limitations of the physical world by tapping into the innate potential of the human mind and consciousness. Through practices like meditation, mindfulness, and aligning with the quantum field, individuals can access higher states of consciousness and influence their reality.

3.   Clear Intention and Elevated Emotion: Dr. Dispenza emphasizes the importance of combining clear intention with elevated emotion as a powerful tool for manifesting desired outcomes. Clear intention involves having a specific goal in mind, while elevated emotions such as love, joy, and gratitude align with higher frequencies of the universe. By aligning intention and emotion, individuals can create a coherent state of being conducive to manifesting their desires and shaping their reality.

As Mentioned:

This is a “Girl, Take the Lead!” Sound Bite which builds off our previous episode with Brandy Mabra who provided us the basics about the 7 levels of Energetic Leadership. This episode digs into the book, Energy Leadership, The 7 Level Framework for Mastery in Life and Business by Bruce D Schenider, the founder of iPEC, a coach-training school. Yo also offers the results of her own energy leadership assessment.

Here are the areas covered in the episode:

• A deeper dive into the 7 levels.
• Everyone has Level 1 (victim).
• A review of the 5 energetic principles.
• Seeing energy levels as choices and opportunities.

As Mentioned:

Brandy Mabra (MHA, ELI-MP, CPC), Gen X, joins Yo to talk about leadership and leadership energy. Brandy is the CEO of Savvy Clover Coaching & Consulting and a CEO Coach for private practice owners in healthcare. Brandy has 15+ years of business management and leadership experience working in diverse business climates and has turned hot mess practices into well-oiled and profitable machines. She has spent her career building, growing and leading multi-million dollar practices and now uses her skill set to help other women private practice owners to scale their practices for growth, sustainability and profit. Topics we covered: Transparency, Authenticity, & Leadership

• Energy Leadership Basics
• Teams & Contagious Energy
• Women’s Common Energy Mindset
• Generational Energy Differences
• Practices to Shift Our Energy Patterns

Three takeaways:

1.   Our perceptions inform how we see leaders and how leaders see themselves. To see this we can ask ourselves why and how am I perceiving this a particular way. This makes us responsible for ourselves and gives us control on how we respond.

2.   Energy can be contagious and there are two ways we respond: under stress and under normal conditions.

3.   There are 7 levels of energy and each had both advantages and disadvantages.

Levels: #1 Victim, #2 Anger, #3 Fine, #4 Caring, #5 Opportunity, #6 Visionary, #7 Oneness.

As Mentioned:

 You can learn more about the ELI assessment tool to see what energy you are here: https://www.energyleadership.com/assessment

More About Brandy: 

She is the founder of Private Practice CEO™ - the CEO school for private practice owners - which empowers her clients to own their CEO status as the leader of their business so they can have a practice with streamline operations and an engaged team that can run without them. Brandy loves to travel and spend time with her family. She believes you cannot build a business on fumes and CEO breaks are required.

Brandy’s Offers:

This is a “Girl, Take the Lead!” Sound Bite which builds off our previous episode with Lata Hamilton, Change Management Expert.  Lata inspired us to adapt to the future which will be filled with tons of change. In this episode we’ll explore the question: “How can we help ourselves keep open to learning” with the help of Adam Grant’s book, Think Again. Adam Grant is an organizational psychologist and professor at The Wharton School, his books have sold millions of copies and he has two podcasts, ReThinking and WorkLife, a link to his podcasts is below.

As Mentioned:

Lata Hamilton, Millennial, joins Yo to talk about changing careers with confidence and reflecting who you are. Lata is a Change Leadership and Confidence expert, and the creator of the “Leading Successful Change” program.

Together, Lata and Yo, explore these topics:        Changing the way we work  Carving our own path   Doing the role not the title       Fractional leadership    Fear and change      AI’s impact in the future and developing our core confidence to change

Here are the three takeaways from today’s episode:

1.   Change is inevitable and we can be flexible and resilient by knowing who we are, the value that we bring, and our worth.

2.   We need to plan for the future like looking at how AI will change our work. 

3.   Creating a new persona that’s not attached to our titles can help us use influence versus authority. 

As Mentioned:

This is a short episode with Yo Canny building on our previous episode where we explored creative brilliance with Lane Gardner. She encouraged us to use our creative energy for healing and in this episode will cover the following questions:
     What is creativity?        Is there such a thing as “naturally creative”? What happens in the brain?       What steps are involved?

The episode includes insights from James Clear and Brené Brown who have a lot to say about creativity.

Enjoy!

As Mentioned:

This episode continues our conversation about Friendships started in Ep 131 with NoorJehan Tourte and continued for the next 2 episodes. This episode explores why friendships end and how we can cope with their loss.

Here are the three takeaways from today’s episode:

1.    When friendships end there can be potential pain and shame, especially when there is a lack of clarity or closure.

2.    Open communication can help maintain friendships and we can address changes in communication patterns, express concerns, and be willing to have difficult conversations can potentially save a friendship. The idea that "friendships heal by making the unsaid said" underscores the importance of discussing issues rather than silently withdrawing.

3.    We need to normalize ending friendships as an aspect of life allow ourselves to experience and express a range of emotions, including grief and we need to exam our own contributions to friendship dynamics.

As Mentioned

This episode is a Girl Take the Lead Sound Bite, a short episode which may be a bit more about a topic we’ve covered like our episode today or a quick inspiration.

In our past few episodes we’ve covered friendships – some values we care about and some lovely unexpected magic we find in work friends.

Here are the three takeaways from today’s episode:

1.    We all approach friendships from a different aspects but they generally fall into 3 groups: Integrity, Caring, Congeniality

2.    One other aspect that can keep us connected to others is our shared history with them.

3.    I think that gratitude, appreciation, and thankfulness has to be present to maintain the friendship.  

As Mentioned

Celebrate Brave Podcast with Nicole Trick Steinbach:

This episode continues our conversation about Friendships started in Ep 131 with NoorJehan Tourte which got us started with her terrific episode: True to you: embracing authenticity in friendships. Some great questions emerged like the one we’ll cover today: What is it about work friends that make them so special?

Here are the three takeaways from today’s episode:

1.    Work friendships and their impact on mental wellness are often over-looked. Research indicates that having a best friend at work can lead to higher job satisfaction and a more meaningful connection to the workplace. And a heck of a lot more fun!

2.    The evolving attitudes towards friendships, especially among younger generations like Gen Z and millennials, challenge traditional relationship hierarchies. They are prioritizing friendships over romance!

3.    The traditional networking model may note resonate with everyone but by questioning and examining our beliefs, we can potentially find a more authentic approach to building meaningful professional connections.

As Mentioned

NoorJehan Tourte, Millennial, joins Yo to talk about friendship, love, and values.

About NoorJehan:

After unexpectedly making it to the semi-finals of the 2022 Sports Illustrated Swim Search Competition, she has made it her mission to get women excited about the prospect of falling on their faces, over and over, if it means they are making their one life on this earth count. She believed that becoming a Sports Illustrated model would represent the culmination of a lifetime spent searching for her true identity, but the experience helped her realize that her childhood dream was not only to be a cover model, but also a role model, one who empowers ladies to show the world every side, from every angle, unapologetically. Amidst the multitude of societal pressures put on women to conform, she wants to reassure her fellow females that living the life you painstakingly cultivated for yourself is worth even the worst of days, the worst of moments. Because wouldn’t you rather stumble living life, than squander it standing still?

Here are 3 takeaways from today’s episode:

1.    Values play a role in friendships and perhaps the most important are authenticity and having a “judgement-free” zone.

2.    Broken trust is perhaps the key reason friendships end.

3.    The emotion of empathy may be a lot easier to say than to really practice..

Mentioned in the Episode:

Michele Phillips, Boomer, joins Yo to discuss her book, Happiness is a Habit.

Michele is President of Key Performance, boasts a triumphant 23-year entrepreneurial voyage that has etched an enduring mark on the corporate world. Her acclaimed book 'Happiness is a Habit' - Simple Daily Rituals That Increase Energy, Improve Well-being, and Add Joy to Every Day still ranks on Amazon today, almost 10 years after it was published by Cedar Fort Publishing in 2013. Beyond titles, Michele's power lies in personal connections. A corporate workshop leader and private coach, she defies categorization, bridging personal and corporate spheres.

Here are 3 takeaways from today’s episode:

1.    Happier people don’t have perfect lives, they just have better coping skills.

2.    Instead of looking at our resolutions, we should look at our habits because they run our lives.

3.    Happiness has less to do with what is going on in our external world and more to do with what is going on with us internally.

Mentioned in the Episode:

So today we celebrate: “Girl, Take the Lead!” is two years old today!! And we’ll explore the question: why it’s so hard to celebrate our accomplishments? And we’ll call on some big guns, Mel Robbins and Brené Brown, to help understand ourselves more when it comes to this question.

Mentioned in the Episode:

This episode pulls together a couple themes we’ve had this month: change and making things easier. We dig into Mike Dooley’s book, Manifesting Change, It Couldn’t be Easier.

Here are 3 takeaways from today’s episode:

1.    Manifesting change can be easy – key is to know our end result and then moving in its general direction.

2.    And all you high achievers listening, avoid the "cursed hows" (where individuals become overly focused on the specific details of how their goals will be achieved). Time to trust the universe.

3.    Imagination is a tool toward making our dreams come true and a practice of visualizing is a way to exercise our imagination.

Mentioned in the Episode:

This is a Girl Take the Lead Sound Bite which is a short episode which may be a bit more about a topic we’ve covered like our episode today or a quick inspiration. This episode builds on Tara Mohr’s book, Playing Big, which we covered in our previous episode.

Here are 3 takeaways from today’s episode:

1.    As women transition from student mode to career they need the ability to improvise, challenge authority, trust they already know and make their work visible.

2.    Knowing your personal brand can help us know our value and build our confidence.

3.    Probably the hardest thing for us in Playing Big, is making our work known and building awareness of it. We can practice doing this and if you need someone to share your successes with, I’m here. Just email me and I’ll hold the space for you.

Mentioned in the Episode:

This episode is for anyone that wants to speak up, create and lead and as Tara Mohr says it’s Playing Big, the title of her book which was named a best book of the year by Apple’s iBooks.

For the past couple episodes we’ve been looking at play and leadership what also comes to mind for me is that leadership needs to be easy And it just so happens that Susie Moore has a book on this very topic. So for our first book of 2024 we’ll be covering Let It Be Easy…almost sounds like a prayer, no?

A little about Susie Moore – she’s a life coach and advice columnist for some of the world’s biggest media outlets and she has a podcast. She was a sales director and advisor for Silicon Valley and NY start-ups. She is a native of England, and now lives and works in Miami.

In her introduction Susie says “…the core purpose of your life is to enjoy it and one of the first distinctions she brings up is our ability to overcomplicate things – anyone else ever do that?

Here are 3 takeaways from today’s episode: 

1.    Asking ourselves, How Can I make this easier for myself?, can truly help us stop stressing and start living!

2.    In addition to Susie’s book, we can look at starting habits and looking at workflow to live easier.

3.    We are the ones who get in our own way – whether it’s perfectionism, taking things personally, or holding a resentment – they keep us playing smaller and living a way more complicated life. Let’s choose easier when we can.

Mentioned in the Episode:

In Ep 123 we put forward some questions that Brené Brown offered us that I had to research. She called it Wholehearted adult play. And I was really struck by this: Play? Do I play? Do I play enough? What is play anyway? I was kind of terrified I wasn’t fun or playing in my life!

So I found there’s an actual National Institute for Play (NIFP) which is a non-profit public benefit corporation dedicated to advancing society’s understanding and application of play — a long-ignored biological capability that can lead to healthier, happier lives.

I also think that the best bosses I ever had were very playful. One of them was so good at it, she did a side gig as a stand-up comic and was quite good! Corporate life gave her lots of great material.

Mentioned in the Episode:

NIFP:

We all know the beginning of a new year can offer us all a reset button, a time to look back and be hopeful about going forward. We’ve done some episodes about this over the past 2 years and give a quick summary in this episode of what we learned from them. We’ve also introduced some new sources to help ground our conversation, including some generational statistics to help us see where we’re headed going forward.  

Yo offers her intentions based on a simple question that Mel Robbins offered: what can we continue, stop, and start for 2024?

Mentioned in the Episode:

The end of a year is always a good time to reflect back on the year and celebrate our accomplishments. This episode captures the amazing women leaders who stood out in 2023. A lot of the foundation for the episode came from a Forbes article I found (link below) and the inspiration from our Six Peas in a Pod group which is all about supporting each other in our podcasting and business. Links for them are also below.

Mentioned in the Episode:

Forbes Article

 In Ep 120, we asked the question as we look at the holidays as a time for giving, why not give to yourself? In that episode we spotlighted authors we’d talked with on the show. In today’s episode, I’ll give you my top 12 books everyone should have in their library. We researched these books which provided us some juicy stuff we hope you found interesting.

Books covered in the episode (links to book and episode):

As we look at the holidays as a time for giving, why not give to yourself? Over the past couple years we’ve had some fabulous authors and covered some of the top books on the market, all with the goal of learning more about ourselves.  

Digging into books and researching important themes has been a key element of our podcast hoping to save you time and mine the books for the juicy stuff you’d find interesting. Since launching we’ve discussed 62 books! That’s a boat load of books!! That empty book case is now full!!

We saw 5 themes we’ve covered with these amazing women authors:

1. So let’s look at the Leadership Skills:

This episode puts several of our past episodes together and they feature Brene Brown, Terri Cole, Emily & Amelia Nagoski, Jay Shetty, Dr. Ilene Cohen, and my friends, Sheila, Toni & Cynde. We’ve got some real badasses in the house!!

Let’s break the overdoing cycle!

Mentioned in the Episode:

With Giving Tuesday around the corner, we wanted to spotlight some of organizations we’ve had on our podcast which you may want to consider for your giving. If you’re inclined to give to them, you’ll find all links to their donation pages below.

Mentioned in the Episode: 

With the holidays around the corner this episode with Yo is inspired by some of her learning about gratitude while podcasting. And whenever she wants to learn more about an emotion, she always goes to Brené Brown and her book, Atlas of the Heart. Brené wrote in that book that the expert on gratitude was Robert Emmons, a professor at UC Davis and one of the leading scholars in positive psychology movement. So she'll dig in and offer you her insights into his book, Thanks! His work on gratitude has been feature in the Washington Post, NY Times, Time, Newsweek, and other mainstream media.

3 Takeaways:

1.   These are the components of gratitude: Something external triggers the feeling; Our brain processes the trigger in a significant way with a physiological response – example being an expressive component like a smile

2.   The research is there – gratitude brings us so many benefits - to our health, social interactions, and wellbeing. Practicing gratitude makes us happier.  

3.   We are offered 10 techniques to approaching gratitude which can help us get in touch with the capability to open the door to appreciation for the gifts we are given!

Mentioned in the Episode:

This is Part 2 of a 2 part series with our guest, Uri Talmor (Gen X) and Kiki Canny returned to join our discussion about Internal Family Systems (IFS) based on the book, No Bad Parts, by Richard Schwartz, PhD. As we noted in Part 1, Kiki had recommended the book and as we read it, we realized it would be great to have an expert on the subject and Uri was that expert.

In Part 1, Uri, Kiki and I talked about what IFS was and the elements of the different roles within our parts.  Uri explained why IFS works so well, and the benefits of the method.

We sure hope you enjoy the listen as much as you did Part 1!

3 Takeaways:

1.   The “being born good in the world” belief can be looked at best from a Polyvagal Theory perspective. A link is below to learn more.

2.   We are such complex beings and we make judgements of others when we’re trying to control and by staying curious it can help us avoid labeling others.

3.   IFS helps us reorganize our psyche. All three of us totally recommend the book, No Bad Parts. Try the audio to get his voice on the meditations.

Mentioned in the Episode:

Uri Talmor (Gen X) joins Kiki (GenZ) and Yo (Boomer) to talk about Internal Family Systems (IFS). Uri has been a psychotherapist since 2004 and has been using Internal Family Systems or IFS since 2003 in his practice. The goal of IFS therapy is to help people identify and accept the different parts of themselves and heal the parts that are wounded. Kiki had recommended the book, No Bad Parts, by Richard Schwartz, PhD, for the podcast and Uri has graciously shared his expertise.

This recording was so juicy we had to break it into 2 parts so be sure to listen to both to get all the aspects of this model.

One of our goals as a podcast is to help us all know ourselves better so we understand our leadership style and how we can hold ourselves back. This discussion is to help you see some of the aspects of who you are, where those tendencies might come from, and how to embrace and have compassion for ourselves, so we can have it for others.

3 Takeaways:

1.   IFS is a method that brings us a way to see ourselves as a complete Self with no bad parts.
 

2.   We can embrace our exiles, fire fighter, and manager – acknowledge and validate them.

3.   The Self is characterized by what IFS calls the 8C's: compassion, curiosity, clarity, creativity, calm, confidence, courage, and connectedness. As opposed to many other models, IFS holds that everyone has access to these qualities at their core.

Mentioned in the Episode:

Christie Garcia (Millennial), Ego Management Expert and seasoned Leadership Coach, joins Yo to discuss living a more fulfilled life through ego-management. Christie shares her process to her clients find their ego behaviors, how they’re triggered, and become more powerful from making choices. Together they talk about confidence, trust, and personal freedom. In past episodes we’ve talked about working with someone with bullying behaviors and Christie provides a perspective on these difficult relationships.   

More About Christie:

Christie Garcia is also a Speaker, Skillful Facilitator, and a distinguished Contributor to Forbes Coaches Council. With a notable career spanning two decades, Christie brings a wealth of expertise in the realms of sales, talent acquisition, leadership development, and Ego Management.

For over a decade, she has worked with leaders from prominent companies and fast-growing startups, including but not limited to, Airbnb, Twitter, Movement For Life, Sunrun, and Oakley. Christie is the visionary Founder of the Mindful Choice Leadership Academy, where she crafts innovative programs that empower individuals and teams to master the art of taming their inner Ego within the dynamic world of business, partnerships, and leadership.

Christie's flagship course, the Mindful Choice Leadership Academy, represents a cutting-edge paradigm shift in personal and professional growth. Her approach is refreshingly modern, and simple. She champions the idea that achieving greatness is within everyone's grasp, if they are willing to understand the role of their Ego.

Christie's mission is to instill authentic confidence in her clients, enabling them to communicate effectively, align with their teams, and achieve their daily tasks and goals with unwavering accountability. All it takes is a conscious choice to be 1% better every day.

3 Episode Takeaways:

1.    We all have elements of the ego (Controller, Protector, and Complier) as laid out by Christie, and our ego behaviors can be triggered by emotions or stress.

2.    Wanting to and becoming more self-aware will help us know the trigger points of our ego unconscious behavior which can help build our confidence.

3.    All of us have difficult people in our lives and becoming owners of our part and speaking up can lead us to be more powerful to change our circumstances.

Ways to reach Christie:

Nicole Trick Steinbach (Millennial) joins Yo to talk about ego bravery. Nicole is the international bravery coach and she's the first to tell you bravery does not come easy to her. She is a former executive in technology and has worked in over 25 countries. Together they explored questions like:

• What is bravery?
• How can we connect with own bravery?
• How can we learn bravery?
• How are failures a stepping stone to building a braver life?

And you’ve got to hear about what the “up the octopus” is all about!

Plus she gives us a different view on the Barbie Movie which we covered in Ep. 95.

3 Takeaways: 

1.   Barbie & Ken could have practiced bravery by apologizing for their actions that hurt others to take personal accountability.

2.   Nicole’s Brave Framework includes 3 aspects: Clarity, Momentum, and Accountability – It’s a skill we can learn and build on.

3.   Failure is a wonderful teacher leading to resilience, more skilled, and more humble. Her quote: “Fall down 17 times get up 18 times”.

There was one other quote which was terrific: “Just send me version zero” which can help us address perfectionism.

Mentioned in the Episode:

Today’s episode is a short Sound Bite episode which builds on our previous 2 episodes about Daniel Pink’s book, The Power of Regret. In this episode we’ll go deeper into the techniques to help prevent regretful situations AND of the 7 he offers, the one that screamed at me was doing a failure resume. Listen in to Yo’s experience in doing one and take a look at the one she created using the link below.  

Mentioned in the Episode: 

Today’s episode is a short Sound Bite episode which builds on our previous episode about Daniel Pink’s book, The Power of Regret. In this episode we’ll go deeper into the steps for reckoning all regrets as well as how to optimize our regrets.

Mentioned in the Episode:

I first heard Daniel Pink on LinkedIn in a webinar and then got his book – What a title: The Power of Regret, right? And when I saw that Brené Brown had praise of the book on the back cover, I was in, and thought you’d like to hear about it, too. She said in her quote that regret was one of the best and toughest teachers in her life…and that it deepened her connection to herself and to others. And that the idea of “no regrets” doesn’t mean living with courage – it means living without reflection.

Let’s explore this emotion together!

3 Takeaways: 

1.   We all have regrets – it’s what makes us human.

2.   There are different ways of dealing with regret but perhaps the most powerful one is to see them as an opportunity to think about what the regret is about? What is the lesson in it?

3.   Of the 4 categories of regrets, the most important may be connection – it’s about love.

Mentioned in the Episode: