"Rock Star Mum" We explore our very special guest's rock star adventure as she proves to the world that it's never too late to follow a dream.

This podcast episode was aired last September 10, 2018.

"Nutrition Edition" Believe in the mind/body connection? Our guest shares her own path to conquering nutritional challenges and honoring her values to pursue her passion and find her purpose.

This podcast episode was aired last August 27, 2018.

From cheffing to fishmongering, Martin Bosley has realigned what he does to reflect not just his talent for cooking, but also his values. After a very public business failure, now his social conscience drives his professional choices. The reward? He's found happiness again.

This podcast episode was aired on November 26, 2018.

My Dad has a rather wild imagination. When I was a kid, he used to make up bedtime stories to tell me - about a “fairy god leg” that floated around granting wishes.

Memorable. I’ll grant you that.

Memorable is what you want when you want to get a message to “stick”. So, when I was preparing a speech to present at a recent conference, I just couldn’t help myself. The topic was something that’s been a recent theme in my own life: uncertainty. My Dad and I had been talking about “going with the flow” - and that’s when he mentioned a dream he’d had.

I should have known better than to ask.

He dreamed about a juicy, perfectly browned, succulent pot roast - you know the kind that just flakes apart? So tender, you don’t even need to cut? Only he was the pot roast. And he was floating down a stream.

Yup.

And in the dream, when he struggled against the current - fought where it was trying to take him - you...

When I was a young television anchor working in a small market in Northern Michigan, a well known New York talent agency offered me “representation”.  And no, this is not a humble-brag, so keep reading… (I’ll also explain the picture above at the very end.)

I was actually pretty surprised. What were they doing trolling around tiny towns’ tv stations? “Looking for talent we can grow into larger markets” was the answer.

The thing was, I wasn’t interested. Not then, at least. I knew I still had skills to hone and frankly loved living in the area (if you haven’t been to Traverse City, Michigan, you are missing out on some of the most beautiful real estate in the United States).

So, I asked the agent “Why would I want to give a cut of my salary to someone who really can’t help me right now?”.

He had a ready answer: when it came time to renew my contract, he could negotiate a better deal than I would have...

The Dictionary.com definition of confidence is:

“1. full trust; belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliability of a person or thing:

We have every confidence in their ability to succeed.

2. belief in oneself and one's powers or abilities; self-confidence; self-reliance; assurance:

His lack of confidence defeated him.”

Note how the definition of confidence includes the danger of not having it: defeat in the face of challenge.

To be able to “go confidently in the direction of your dreams” as  Henry David Thoreau said, you need to have a clear idea of what makes you strong and the strength of mind to overcome internal and external obstacles that undermine confidence: your own fears and  insecurities and external criticism and challenges. 

Step One: Own Your Strength

When you can see and embrace your innate talents, and the skills you’ve learned - through life experience as well as what you’ve learned in the classroom - you...

Doubting our abilities can stop us in our tracks. We can all probably pinpoint a time when we've given up on something, out of fear, and ended up missing out. This can be especially debilitating for women.

Co-authors of the book, The Confidence Gap, The Science and Art of Self-Assurance – What Women Should Know, Katty Kay and Claire Shipman, revealed that  confidence struggles particularly damage women’s careers.

A chronic lack of confidence among women leads them continually to underestimate their abilities, fail to put themselves forward for promotion, and predict they won’t perform well when faced with challenges - far more so than their male counterparts.

In one example, a study by Hewlett-Packard found women only considered going for that promotion when they were 100% confident they fulfilled all job requirements. Men were happy to apply with only 60% of the requirements fulfilled.

Even the expected income of graduate students differed, with women...

We are wired to judge a book by its cover. First impressions stick.

A University of York study found that we sift through available information as quickly as .033 seconds of seeing another person’s face,  making on-the-spot evaluations of a mind-boggling range of really important things like their trustworthiness, status and attractiveness.

Think about the “swipe right” Tinder generation, and you know this makes sense. We may live in a selfie-saturated culture, but it’s based on human nature.

And changing first impressions takes real time and effort.

Most research shows you need to have 4-7 interactions for up to 40 minutes, in different contexts, to recalibrate what you think of another person - including giving a person another chance if he or she didn’t leave a positive impression at first glance.

That’s time and effort that many of us, from potential employers to potential mates, don’t often have to invest.

So, how do you make a...