One way is to find the podcast Great Conversations through the itunes store through the itunes interface.  The podcasts are free!  (If you don’t have itunes on your computer, go to apple.com/itunes and download the software for free.)

Another way is to follow the link to this flash player and hear the Bolles/Leider dialogue here.

You’ll find two masters of the subject of life mission or calling having a great conversation about this topic with each other - and if you’re not inspired to either find your mission or live your mission if you already know it, then you may be missing a gene or two!

Enjoy - and if you feel so moved, do join me back here for a dialogue about this subject.

Until next time,

Melanie

P.S.  If you want to listen to the dialogue with Dan Pink (well worth the time) who explores how we need to rethink everything in this 21st Century, follow this link.

We’ve had a friendship for almost two decades, starting when I was a guest on her earlier radio program, Conversations with Jean Feraca.  That very first time I appeared on her program, promoting my first book, Fired for Sucess:  How to Turn Losing Your Job into the Opportunity of a Lifetime! I came away sounding like a brilliant person and I glowed in the aftermath.  My husband who tends to be my most truthful mirror greeted me after that show with a thumbs up.  He was proud and happy for me and was pleased with how articulate I sounded in his opinion.  While he loves me, he’s not apt to heap praise if he doesn’t mean it or see evidence for what he’s saying.

I feel the same level of genius in relationship with so many of my clients - I see the genius in them and they in turn see the genius in me.  It’s a mutual admiration.  In such a climate we both shine.  I have more high quality questions for them and they feel energized and ready to conquer the world.  Their saboteur voices in their heads seem to diminish and they are off to their dream pursuits - career exploration, entrepreneurial development and becoming authors.

In light of my experience with Jean and the exchange I have with so many of my clients, I have been contemplating what are the elements that bring out the genius in all of us?  It’s in there - waiting to be tapped, but it needs a safe and courageous space as a foundation in which to emerge.

For starters, we feel more of our genius when we are not being judged.  That is the beginning place.  That’s not to say everything that comes out of our mouths is brilliant; it just means setting an atmosphere in which we are seen as having something worthwhile to share. 

Next, the other person needs to be encouraging - liking what’s being said and egging the partner on for more.  “Gosh, that’s a great idea, it reminds me of ____”, might be the retort.

Each person builds on what they other is saying and energy grows and grows.

There’s also an expansiveness that makes it seem as time has been still and we have all the time in the world - no rush, just excitement.

I’m sure there are other elements, and I’d like to explore them with you, but for now, start noticing yourself - what are the conditions under which your genius is apt to emerge?  Who are the people around whom you feel the smartest? 

Start noticing this and together we may be able to identify more and more of this. 

Thanks for considering this with me.

Until next time,

Melanie

For Pete sake - I’ve got the credentials, I’ve written two books - when do I get a break from these inner demons who want to play havoc with me?  I think we all get to have these demons - it’s rare that they go entirely away.  It’s what we choose to do with them that’s important.  I’m choosing not to pay attention to them.

I remember one of my mentors, Henry Kimsey-House, co-founder of CTI, telling our leadership group that we all have voices in our heads like the character in the movie A Beautiful Mind.  I might have even written about that here once before.  But like the schizophrenic lead character in that movie, we don’t have to choose to listen to our most debilitating voices.

So much of what we’re up to today tends to kick up the comparison demons.  If we’re job searching, we’re scrutinized and feel like we’re being judged by every Tom, Dick and Harriet who happens to pick up our resume.  If we’re in our own business, it’s our potential customers or clients who do the judging - how do we stack up with the competition we and everyone wants to know.

But frankly, it should be none of our business.  Our business is just being our best selves, following our values and putting our unique qualities, abilities and interests out there in the marketplace.  The more authentic we are, ironically, the greater the chance that someone will like what we’re offering and will agree to try it on for size.

Don’t you agree?

Until next time,

Melanie

This naturally right brained woman found herself leaning more heavily on her left brain, working the many years she did in the corporate arena.  She’s read Dan Pink’s  A Whole New Mind and realizes that what’s really needed today is a person who uses both sides of the brain.  But many corporations or more specifically people in corporations won’t yet bow to that need.  So many corporate environments are steeped in traditions that keep people chained to processes that go against their own natures.  What’s with this?

When we think of relationships in which one partner gives up his or own nature to exist in a relationship we consider that co-dependence.  It seems to me I remember reading a book many years ago that likened workers in corporations to co-dependent partners.  So that analogy is not surprising.  But if we agree that this arrangement is not healthy in familial relationships, why do we put up with it in a work environment?  Do we have to give up being ourselves to keep our jobs in corporate America?

Obviously not.  This woman turned herself into a pretzel, but lost her job anyway.  So why not just be ourselves in the corporate environment?  If we tend to be right brained, why not show our stripes? 

This whole question reminds me of the first wave of women who entered corporate America in droves, my cohort, the baby boomers.  We had to learn how to dress for success, don that navy blue suit and enjoy the privilege.  We had to make ourselves look like we fit in as much as possible.

But then we forgot who we were (some of us) along the way.  Many in younger generations are not standing for this.  But I must admit: I do still see numbers of people who are continuing to turn themselves into pretzels to stay in corporate America.  And they are not happy about it.

I challenge you to consider this question:  Are you giving up being you to stay put in the work environment you’re in?  Are you satisfied with this arrangement?  If not, what are you going to do about it?

I’d love to help you tackle that question.  The work world needs the real you, not a pseudo you!

Until next time,

Melanie

What can be more inspiring to people serious considering a start up business of their own than to hear how others have done this?  After all, when we begin to let ourselves dream about the possibilities of a business, the glow of creation is often followed by the slam of the gremlin voice telling us how what we were thinking was actually rather ridiculous.  I wrote earlier about the various ways in which this reluctant part of us tries to do us in when we make moves towards something new.

But today I want to talk about the inspiration side of things:  How the actual way in which someone just like us has made the dream in her heart a reality.  After all, if another person has been successful at doing something, it’s an indication that we too can do that act as well.  Interestingly, NLP - neuro-linguistic-programming, a process that allows us to find strategies for success was created from studying the success of outstanding therapists such as Virginia Satir and Fritz Perls.  If a whole industry can grow up around the notion that one person’s success can lead to another’s, surely we can apply this notion to successful entrepreneurship.

One of the amazing issues I uncovered from the women I interviewed while writing Scrappy Startups is that just about every one of them did not think about the money they were going to make when they had successful businesses.  They were more oriented towards the creativity that their business was unleashing in them and the good works they were putting out in the world.  

Don’t get me wrong, these were not saints; they were ordinary human beings who had to make a living, but they found perhaps almost by happenstance, that money was simply the by-product of doing something they could put their heart and soul into.  And with the advent of the Internet and more ways to reach a market, whatever they had created had a better chance of reaching the very people who would want what they were putting out into the world.

The trick for each of them was to find something they really, really, really wanted to do and pursue it with gusto.  How did they find what they really wanted to do?  Some got quiet and listened to their inner nudges, others looked for gaps in their community, still others came upon their venture through the good fortune of being exposed to the opportunity through someone else.  Above all, these entrepreneurs were engaged in their lives, their communities, their needs and those needs of the people around them and from that arose the seeds of their ventures.

I like to call this keeping your antennae up - being almost hypervigilant about what’s around you - intensifying your senses and paying attention, almost as if your life depended on it.

So if you are wondering what you are going to do to fully express yourself in the world, put less attention on the fret that you haven’t found what that is yet and more attention on observing the world around you - look for gaps, look for opportunities, look for inspiration.  Consider what you find yourself complaining that someone should do something about - you may just stumble on your own scrappy startup opportunity - and the world will be better for it.

Thanks for paying attention here,

Melanie

They turned to the support of their in-house nutritionist, Mary Ann Moylan who guided them to following individualized food programs.  Apparently the food chain smartly engages an in-house nutritionist to help shoppers with their healthy purchases.  What a smart idea!  What a good example of thinking out of the box since nutritionist are generally employed by hospitals and health institutions, not supermarkets.

Who knows who first came up with this idea.  Did the supermarket recruit the nutritionist or did the nutritionist make a pitch to the supermarket to hire her?

Regardless, this is a great example of someone creatively applying her skills in an uncommon work environment.  If we could all think more broadly and more creatively, we may find more options for us to explore whenever we are looking for more meaningful work.

What are five different unconventional spots for you to find work in?  How might you approach these environments to consider hiring you?

If you’d like to brainstorm with me about this idea, do email me at melanie@startingfreshcoaching.com and I’ll be happy to offer you a complimentary session to start the ball rolling with you!

Think creatively!

Until next time,

Melanie

Today I realized that I might simply organize this blog according to my model of Dream, Courage, Action and explain more about myself and how I operate as a coach along the way.  Sometimes I’ll be writing about the dream, sometimes about the courage it takes to make it happen and sometimes about the action.  And for good measure, I’ll include notions about beliefs, strategies and allies as well as values, interests, passions and strengths - all part of my model for assisting people to move into their lives of full self expression.

Today I want to talk about the courage part of my model.  I’ve been collecting names for the part of ourselves that hold us back from what we want - and I thought I’d share with you that collection.  When we name this, it has less hold on us.

There’s a part of ourselves that keep us back, even during those times that we want to move forward.  It’s a part of ourselves that has a good enough intention - to protect ourselves, but the impact is that it keeps us from what we want to create in our lives.

I’ve been struck recently by all the different names we can call this part that gets in our way.  In my coach training through CTI, we started off calling this the gremlin, but more recently have found the term saboteur more universally understood.  This is the inner voice that inhibits us, gets in our way, whispers in our ear and brings fear into the equation especially when we start something new.

My gremlin/saboteur is having a field day with me as I write this blog entry.  It’s telling me things like, “This is a waste of your time!  Nobody is going to read this.  You have more important things to be doing with your time.  Remember your to do list?”  I’m doing my best to ignore my gremlin/saboteur right now. 

One of my clients told me that his dating coach told him to call the voice that inhibits him from doing what he needs to do to reach out to potential dates his inner duck.  The instruction is to ‘Shut the duck up!’   I really like that!  It’s so irreverant!

Other names for this inner off-track-putting voice are monkey mind, little rascal, inner boss and ego.   My husband introduced me to another term that’s used inside prisons in violence prevention groups — inner hit man.

Whatever you call the voice that gets on your case and plays havoc with your life, just know that it is not YOU.   You don’t have to put up with its nastiness.  You can ask it to speak to you more politely.  And you don’t have to let it derail your plans for your work/life.  It can have its say, but not its way.  YOU get to determine the course of your life.

It’s comforting to know you’re not alone in hearing this inner challenging voice.  I remember my leader/mentor Henry Kimsey-House making the connection between the inner voice we all have and the voices the character in the movie A Beautiful Mind  had to contend with  - schizophrenics hear voices - and so do we all!

So spend some time deciding what you want to call your derailing inner voice and then disable it from having sway over you.  Recognize you are more than this voice!

Until next time,

Melanie

I am also feeling a sense of true relief because the manuscript for my new book, Scrappy Startups:  How 15 Ordinary Women Turned Their Unique Ideas into Profitable Business is well in the hands of my publisher, Praeger, and is being tenderly cared for by a copy editor, whom I will meet sometime in the next four to six weeks.

Writing a book is truly a lot like giving birth.  Yet in the later, the labor lasts for many months, rather for many hours!  But in each case, I must say, it’s a labor of love.

I look forward to sharing more about my book in coming posts.

For now, I want to share with you my excitement about a book I’m reading and listening to (I love reading and listening to books at the same time - it’s a profound experience.)

I probably would have heard about this book some months down the road, but I love the way I discovered it - it was what I think of as a synchronistic event!

My husband, Gary, is a avid Yankee fan, having been born and bred in the Bronx, NY.  He’s spending every Sunday (and many other days) watching his beloved Yankees from the comfort of our home, thanks to a special cable subscription.  His love affair with baseball frees me up to focus on whatever makes my heart sing.  Mostly it’s been writing my book as well as tending to the details of my career coaching business.

A couple of Sundays ago, I happened into the room where he was flipping between the Yankee game and C-Span’s book TV.  Fortunately, Gary was on the Book TV channel when I entered the room.  I lingered to hear what was being said and was intrigued to hear author Jeff Jarvis talk about a new model of business that Google had created.  He was lamenting that government should take note of Google, rather than impose tons of regulation.  My ears perked.  His book, What Would Google Do? was where he laid out his thinking.  I also learned that he writes a blog, Buzz Machine.

As is often the case when I’m excited about something, I’ve been recommending this book to everyone who comes across my path, friends and clients alike.  The more I get into the book, the happier I am with the recommendation.  What Jeff Jarvis is doing is laying out just how different Google is from other companies and how it is a pathfinder for a new day of openness and commerce and abundance.  So many of the values I hear about are values I share, yet how Google is doing business is indeed turning traditional models on its ear.

I don’t think I could be articulate enough now to spell out what the book is truly about at this point, but I will point you to something Jarvis alerted me to that I wasn’t aware existed.  It is a list of ten truths that Google lists on its Web site:  Google’s Philosophy.  It’s truly worth a read.

As I write, I hear my husband watching a game in the other room.  Must be a good game because he’s not flipping the dial to Book TV.   Guess I’ll have to pull up their schedule and see for myself if there’s something worthwhile to watch today!

Bye for now,

Melanie

Now I’m back to having some time for myself (not much I must admit) when I’m not coaching, training new coaches, building my business or writing my book.  One of the people I just interviewed for my book was Susan Bratton, founder of Personal Life Media.  I found her and her podcast network in the most round about way.  And I credit this find to my good fortune of ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, being a person of great curiosity.  My curiosity never disappoints me - I must admit.  My mother told me that I used to fall asleep standing up with my eyes open so I wouldn’t miss anything!

Getting back to this podcast network I found - I was fiddling around on youtube one day and put in Byron Katie’s name - I love her process which she calls The Work and I wanted to see if there were any fresh videos of her doing her process with someone who was suffering from their thinking processes.  What I found was an audio program with some still photos that someone had posted.  On this program Katie and her husband Stephen Mitchell were being interviewed by a guy named Duncan Campbell on a program called Living Dialogues.  I liked the way in which this interview engaged with them and so I started looking for more information about this podcaster.

I found Duncan Campbell’s show through the itunes store and then started listening to his program.  I started counting it among my favorites.  He’s had some of the very same guests I’ve heard on Kelly Howell’s Theatre of the Mind, but tends to jump into the fray with his guests rather than interview them.  Some might find this troubling - they might want to hear from the guests, but I actually found this an interesting process - that together with his guests, Duncan really gets to the depth of issues.

Then my curiosity took me to look at the network on which Living Dialogues rests - and lo and behold - there’s a continuously growing group of unique programming on it.

I was intrigued that the founder of Personal Life Media, Susan Bratton set out originally to create a podcast, but then challenged herself for thinking so small and decided to start a podcast network!  I liked her style and thought she’d make a great interview for my forthcoming book, Scrappy Startups about female entrepreneurs.

So as my style, I picked up the phone and called the number listed on the the Personal Life Media Web site.  And who should answer, but Susan Bratton’s husband, Tim.  He was quite engaging and quite willing to help me reach his wife.  I learned that they had actually partnered together in this venture, with his being more the technical guy and her taking on the programming and the advertising generation for the network.  What a lovely man - so ready to engage with me and be helpful.  He suggested I email Susan with a request for an interview and he promised to pass along the information that we had talked.

He followed through and so did I - and true to form, Susan was ready and willing to interview with me.  What a delight she was.  I can’t wait to tell the world more in my book about her story.  As a parting gift when we spoke, she offered to introduce me to the guy who is hosting a podcast on coaching on her network, Robert Harrison.

So I decided I might want to hear what Harrison’s podcast sounded like and what his focus is.  I decided to take my dog Grace for a walk today and listen to the podcast.  Which I did - actually, I just returned.

And boy, I wonder what I got myself into!  Harrison had as his guest a guy who was talking about the energy benefits of raw food - someone named David Wolfe.  I just started to check out one of David’s Web sites, Sun Food.  I was really taken on this show about hearing about the benefits of getting into raw foods - and I’m seriously considering dusting off my juicer and finding the green food that’s been in my closet for some time.  Now I have some real context around the benefits of this food that my chiropractor said some time ago that would be good for me.

I can’t believe that my curiosity about Byron Katie led me through all of these steps back to my own kitchen!  Who would have thought it!  And people wonder about me - they wonder about all the resources I seem to collect - it’s just that one thing leads to another.  Doesn’t it for everyone?

I connected the dots also - how with my strength (see Now Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham) of input being all about being a lover of collecting things - I’ve collected Web sites, books and now podcasts - anything to inspire everyone I know into positive action in their lives - living the life they want to live.

Martha encouraged me to turn my blog into a mini digest about what I’ve been listening to on podcasts lately.  What’s positive in podcast land.  Actually, she said if I didn’t do this she would - gosh - that got me going!  So dear reader - for the time being - please come visit here to learn about what I’ve been listening to lately - and be ready to be inspired!

Ok, you know this is funny - I just reread my earlier entries on this blog - and both of them are about podcasts - disguised about something else - but about podcasts none the less.  What a hoot!

So Martha - thanks - I’ve been doing this all along and I haven’t realized it - this blog is all about the positive podcast -  move in a little closer so I can share with you!  Oh and I will also share books, articles - audios - whatever else can inspire you into action into your best life - but for now, it’s about podcasts.

My new favorite podcast is “Learn from my Life”  - you can visit these great new finds at learnfrommylife.com - if you visit their site, you’ll find these young guys are up to more than podcasting - that’s just the beginning - they’re about moving great ideas around the planet - creating community around that!

One of the joys of tuning into a podcast that has been going on for a while before you get there is that you can listen to what’s been going on with the podcast before you arrived - tons of programming.

The two most significant podcasts these guys have been doing lately are with Dan Pink and Daryn Kagan.  Truly two great examples of learning from someone’s life.

Dan Pink used to be chief speech writer for Al Gore when Gore was VP.  Pink had to reinvent himself and reinvent himself he did.  His first venture was to align himself with Fast Company magazine.  Then he wrote Free Agent Nation, A Whole New Mind and now The Adventures of Johnny Bunko:  The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need.  I’ve been a Pink fan for a long time, recommending his books to clients - especially A Whole New Mind.  But I found his appearance on the learnfrommylife podcast to be a great venue for him to shine in.  He literally told the audience his story - warts and all - and we can all certainly learn from that!

The other learnfrommylife podcast that really jazzed me was an interview with Daryn Kagan, former newscaster with CNN - she was with them for 12 years before they didn’t renew her contract.  She says while that was a bummer, it allowed her to really see what she wanted to do with her life.  And what she has become is a positive newscaster!  She’s created her own platform on her own Web site - darynkagan.com where she collects inspirational stories and invites participants to post stories she should explore.

She uses primitive equipment such as having her interviewees supply their own video feed - but it seems to be working for her - she solicits her own advertisers and she’s doing a great job of inspiring people through books, Webcasts and other means of broadcasting her interviews.

Do yourselves a favor - check out learnfrommylife podcast - and let me know what you think?  How has this podcast been helpful to you in getting on with what you want to do with your life?  How does it positively inspire YOU?