Career/Business

I was inspired to post this picture of me with my big 80’s hairstyle (look for it at the bottom of this post) after seeing Jennifer Valentyne’s 80’s hair picture on Instagram. (You rocked it Jenn!)

Big hair blowing in the wind aside, did you notice the caption of the article?

“13-year-old pulled friend from frozen Lake Simcoe”

Yup, that was me! I fell through the ice when I was 13 years old.

I had been playing on the ice of Lake Simcoe with two friends. I became bored and wandered off by myself. In an attempt to cure… Read More

We’re in a storm the likes of which most of us have never seen before.

Storms are very normal in life. Storms happen in relationships, they happen in finances, and they happen with health.

Yet, the storm we are facing right now – this pandemic – could be called the “perfect storm” in that it’s impacting all areas of life in every part of the world.

In my online conversation last night, Doug Schneider said:

“While storms are very normal, what happens when we’re not used to going through them is we can begin to catastrophize.… Read More

Working from home is a new “normal” for many people.

At first glance, working from home can seem like a luxury. Yet, it’s certainly no picnic and being productive is easier said than done.

As a professional speaker and author, I’ve worked remotely for more than 20 years. Based on my experience, and what I’ve learned from others, I’ve found there are key things that need to be managed, avoided, and created in order to make working from home a success:… Read More

How afraid should people be in the midst of this pandemic?

In an interview on W5 last night, renowned Epidemiologist, Dr. Bruce Aylward, from the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) in Geneva, Switzerland said,

“We are watching an outbreak evolve so people should be concerned, they should be informed, they should be doing the right things and managing it; but, panicking is definitely not going to help.

You panic when you’re on a sinking boat in the middle of the ocean with no lifeboat and you can’t swim. This isn’t that situation.

We know… Read More

Take a look at the picture at the bottom of this post . . .

Notice how by “stepping away,” others are protected too?

Sometimes, by stepping away, you protect yourself – AND – your integrity, your values, your health, your wealth, your family, your business, and more!

Stepping away isn’t always easy. Yet, when you look at the big picture of the consequences of staying put—and the benefits of leaving that something behind—it gives you the strength to take those first steps . . .

. . . and those first few steps can seem the most challenging.

Is there something—or… Read More

Can you guess which questions I’m most frequently asked through social media and after speaking engagements? Well, here they are:

How do you get your teeth so white? How did you become a professional speaker? How old are you? How did you get your books published? Are you always this positive?

I’m answering these questions here for two reasons: One, maybe you’ve wanted to ask me one, some, or all of these questions because you’re curious . . . in which case I’m happy to appease your curiosity! Two, maybe you’ve wanted to ask me one, some, or all of… Read More

The company was about to spend millions of dollars on a product training program when in reality, product training wasn’t even the real problem!

In his book The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure, Grant Cardone writes about an experience in which his company was hired to conduct a “mystery shop” campaign for an international company to identify where the breakdowns in the sales process were occurring.

He writes: “We were trying to collect information on where the franchises needed the most help. We visited more than 500 locations to see what percentage of time the… Read More

“Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” If you have children, you likely have first-hand experience with just how impatient they can be when it comes to traveling. Or perhaps you can remember the impatience you felt as a child during a long trip. Now that you’re all grown up, the big question is: Are you still impatient on the journey?

Many of us have carried this “destination impatience” forward into adulthood. When we’re in school, we can’t wait to graduate. When we graduate, we can’t wait to work. When we work, we can’t wait to work somewhere else, find… Read More

 To overcome the fear of making mistakes, aim for success, not perfection.

Is the fear of making a mistake preventing you from taking action? If so, the way to move beyond this fear and gain the courage to follow through on your action plan is to aim for success, not perfection. As a “recovering” perfectionist, I understand that if you have perfectionistic tendencies, you may equate success with perfection. After all, if you make a mistake, it means you have failed, right? Wrong. A mistake is not a failure. A mistake is simply the outcome of an action.… Read More

In his book For One More Day, Mitch Albom writes, “I met a man once who did a lot of mountain climbing. I asked him which was harder, ascending or descending? He said without a doubt descending, because ascending you were so focused on reaching the top, you avoided mistakes. ‘The backside of a mountain is a fight against human nature,’ he said. ‘You have to care as much about yourself on the way down as you did on the way up.’” That’s good advice to remember.

It’s easy to value, accept, and care about yourself “on the way up,”… Read More