Episode 14: My Top 5 Personal Development Reads in 2019

Welcome to the Pursue You Podcast, where we are empowering you to continually reflect, design and pursue who you were created to be so you can give the gift of your best self to your family, community, and business!

I’m going to start today’s episode with a question? What was your favorite book that you read in 2019? What if I asked what was your favorite book of all time? What would your answer be? The reason I want to ask you this is because a few years ago I would have had to think back to college when I was forced to read books, and I would only read the cliff notes version, and after an assignment I’d forget it all. Once I got into business, I read books here and there, but I want to share today how I used to think about reading, because I don’t want you to feel intimidated by a personal reading list and just skip over this episode. I want you to know that reading wasn’t always a natural thing I loved to do. I was too busy. You’re probably feeling the exact same way. As I’m recording this year in 2019, however, I have read more books this year than I have ever read in one year. Reading impacted me in such a positive way this year that I want to inspire you and share with you some books that you may want to check out in 2020.

[4:00] I share how I developed a passion for reading. It all started with listening to podcasts. As I started to enter leadership positions in my real estate team, I started consuming more podcast content, and I discovered book recommendations from my favorite shows and their guest interviews.

[8:30] I share how I was inspired by Chris Suarez to read books on the things I claim to value most. This year was a focus on personal development, so my books are all tailored to that. Don’t worry, I’ll do a separate post on my favorite business development books in the future!

[10:50] Book 1: Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder by Ariana Huffington: Ariana focuses on the third metric of our lives that we need to focus on aside from just pursuing money and power as we seek to create a life of success. She teaches us how to focus on our well-being, wisdom, wonder, and giving, and how all of these together are going to help us become the people we want others to remember when we’re gone.

[15:30] Book 2: Keep Your Love On: Connection, Communication, and Boundaries by Danny Silk: Danny focuses on relationships in his book and especially on teaching us how to recognize whether these relationships allow us to feel confident or are causing us to feel vulnerable. He focuses on three points: connection, communication, and boundaries.

[20:30] Book 3: Today Matters: 12 Daily Practices to Guarantee Tomorrows Success by John Maxwell: If you are looking for a book that is going to spark a fire in you, this is the book to add to your 2020 reading list. John points out that we tend to do three things: over-exaggerate yesterday, overestimate tomorrow, and underestimate today. He then follows with 12 daily practices to make today matter.

[24:30] Book 4: Girl, Stop Apologizing: A Shame-free Plan for Embracing and Achieving Your Goals by Rachel Hollis: Rachel is very inspiring in this book, and it’s a great choice from this list to listen to on Audible. Her book helped me see excuses I needed to let go of, habits I needed to develop, and skills I needed to acquire.

[31:45] Book 5: Marriage Meetings for Lasting Love: 30 Minutes a Week to the Relationship You’ve Always Wanted by Marcia Naomi Berger: I love this book and it’s practical teaching on how to establish marriage meetings with your spouse. Whether you do it weekly or seasonally, I encourage you to take a look at how to set up a meeting with your spouse and have intentional conversations that include appreciate, chores, planning good times, and discussing problems and challenges.

[36:00] I share a few of the other books I read this last year that you might want to check out for your 2020 reading list. I also share about my goal to really make reading the Bible a priority for myself in 2020.

[38:00] I share practical tips on how reading changed my nighttime routine. Instead of screen time before bed, this was a perfect opportunity to read. I’ll take 5 or 10 minutes checking in on social media, and then I’m done, and I allow myself to read before bed to get my mind and soul prepared for sleep.

I recently read a quote from Warren Buffet, “This is how knowledge works, it builds up like compound interest, all of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.”. I have been the busy one. If you had asked me a few years ago what I read, I wouldn’t have been able to answer you. It wasn’t a priority. It can be hard to get started, but maybe one of these books will put you on a path to success this year. It’s easy to make excuses, but I hope that you can find something in your world that ignites your passion for reading. You can take your self and your relationships to the next level through personal development by consuming more of these books. My 2019 is living proof for me, and I hope I can be a spark to get you started or to the next level because investing time into yourself is the best investment you’ll every make.

My 2019 Reading List:

• Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder by Ariana Huffington

• Keep Your Love On: Connection, Communication, and Boundaries by Danny Silk

• Today Matters: 12 Daily Practices to Guarantee Tomorrows Success by John Maxwell

• Girl, Stop Apologizing: A Shame-free Plan for Embracing and Achieving Your Goals by Rachel Hollis

• Marriage Meetings for Lasting Love: 30 Minutes a Week to the Relationship You’ve Always Wanted by Marcia Naomi Berger

• Do Less: A Revolutionary Approach to Time and Energy Management for Ambitious Women by Kate Northrup (hear more about how this book impacted me in Episode 8: Pursue You Picks: Do Less)

• The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream by Paulo Coelho

• Sit, Walk, Stand by Watchman Nee

My 2020 Personal List:

• Lore: Harnessing Your Past to Create Your Future by Jeanette Schneider

Subscribe to the Podcast

I am grateful you were here for today’s episode! To make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast. Click here to subscribe on iTunes.

In order to help others find this podcast and help inspire them, I would love for you to leave a review of the podcast. Share something that motivated you, or something that helped you re-frame the way you approach your life and goals. I’d love to hear how you’re pursuing your best self. Click here to review the show on iTunes. You can go to “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review”. Your comments are greatly appreciated!

More Episodes You’d Be Interested In

• Episode 13: Set Goals You Actually Care About

• Episode 8: Pursue You Picks: Do Less

• Episode 7: Screen Time Hacks

Episode 13: Set Goals You Actually Care About

Welcome to the Pursue You Podcast, where we are empowering you to continually reflect, design and pursue who you were created to be so you can give the gift of your best self to your family, community, and business!

Goals, goals, all types of goals! Any SNL fans out there? I love the skit Back Home Baller and the song “Bowls, bowls, all types of bowls”, and if you haven’t seen it you might want to watch it, but today, we’re not talking about bowls. We’re talking about goals! Like many of my stories, I had one of my most amazing revelations about goals at a retreat I went to in October. This message is applicable any time of year if you are thinking about setting goals, but I wanted to share it now as we’re approaching the beginning of the new year because I know many of you are deep in goal setting mode. Now, I’ve been the person who always knows what the next goal is and I’ve been the person who has no time to even think about setting goals, so whichever one you are right now, I hope this will help change the way you think about goals, and let you see that when you care about the goals it will be much easier to work towards achieving those goals.

Before we start, I’m going to be walking you through a worksheet that will be extremely valuable as you work on your goal setting. If you want to go ahead and download it now, you can do that here.

[3:00] I share the story about the retreat I attended and what happened while I was brainstorming a business plan for Pursue You during a quiet time. The outcome was not at all what I expected, but I asked myself two questions afterward in order to decide if my goals were right or now. I’m going to challenge you to ask these questions when you write down your overall goals for the year. 1. If I accomplish these goals, will I feel happy at the end of the year? Alternatively, 2. If I don’t accomplish these goals, will I feel bummed at the end of the year?

[7:00] What I came to realize after answering these questions was that in order for me to truly be happy, I want to know that I am showing up as the best wife and mom. This was a meaningful goal to me. I knew I could accomplish the business goals, but they weren’t meaningful and that is the mindset we need to change as we set goals. We need to set goals that as we accomplish them, allow us to love who we have become as a result.

[9:40] Hear how I’m turning the tables on you and giving you a road map to setting goals that you actually care about.

[10:50] Reflecting: I challenge you to first start with reflection. Think about your past and how you’ve shown up. What are you most proud of? What would you classify as your top priorities in your life? If I didn’t know your heart and I just looked at your calendar or where your energy is spent, what would I say your priorities are? Is there an area of your life that you feel is lacking?

[12:10] Now that you’ve reflected, it’s time to design. In order to design our goals, I want you to download my free Life GPS worksheet. Goals. Priorities. Strategies.

[15:10] Goal. What is the one thing that if by doing it you will feel fulfilled? This can often be the most difficult part to set, but it needs to be something that’s going to make you feel better about who you’ve become after you’ve been through the process of achieving it.

[16:00] Priorities. To identify your priorities, refer back to your answers to the reflection questions earlier. Do the things you say are priorities actually turn out to be your priorities? Write down at 3-5 priorities that will be placed above anything else and will ultimately help you achieve your overall goal.

[24:00] Strategies.  These are the plan of action. Be sure to set SMART strategies, meaning they are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely. If you’re looking for an example, refer back to my strategy when I wanted to cut down screen time. I talk all about it in Episode 7: Screen Time Hacks.  

Do you see how the Life GPS works together? It’s all about creating goals that you actually care about. You want to be passionate about taking action, and once you do accomplish it you’ll love the person you have become as a result. That’s the whole point of goals. I hope this has helped you see that. I hope this worksheet will allow you to feel better about yourself when you look at your strategies, priorities, and overall goal. Don’t forget to grab the worksheet, download it and set your goals for 2020. Let’s be people that set meaningful goals that will allow you to pursue you so that you can give the gift of your best self to your family, your community, and your business.

Download the Life GPS Worksheet

Subscribe to the Podcast

I am grateful you were here for today’s episode! To make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast. Click here to subscribe on iTunes.

In order to help others find this podcast and help inspire them, I would love for you to leave a review of the podcast. Share something that motivated you, or something that helped you re-frame the way you approach your life and goals. I’d love to hear how you’re pursuing your best self. Click here to review the show on iTunes. You can go to “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review”. Your comments are greatly appreciated!

More Episodes You’d Be Interested In

Episode 7: Screen Time Hacks

Episode 6: Good Enough to Move On

Episode 5: Pursue You Picks: The ONE Thing

Episode 10: The Pruning Challenge

Episode 12: Shifting Your Perspective on Sleep

Welcome to the Pursue You Podcast, where we are empowering you to continually reflect, design and pursue who you were created to be so you can give the gift of your best self to your family, community, and business!

Today I’m talking about that 6 letter “S” word -- SLEEP. And you might be like, “Mandy you’re going to do an entire episode on sleep?”. Well, I’m going to try because I feel like it’s THAT important.

I’ve been on a roller coaster with sleep I would dare to say my entire life, and maybe it’s because I’m getting older (I just celebrated my birthday), or maybe I went through a period of sleep deprivation with two littles; but the more I read, and study, and actually live in a way where I’m conscious of my sleep, I’m still blown away!

Sleep is important. We’ve all heard it, but I wasn’t listening. I never really had it sink in, so that’s what I want to chat about today. I’m going to share tidbits about my sleep journey in hopes that you can hear the importance of sleep in a different way, so it sinks in for you. When I say this is life changing, I’m not exaggerating. I think you’ll understand if you’ve ever been sleep-deprived that it’s also INSANELY real and something I’m finding so many of you in my community struggle with, so yes, I’m spending this entire episode talking about sleep!

Disclaimer: Any time I’m giving my advice or my thoughts, I want you to know it’s coming from personal experience and it’s meant to get you thinking. It’s meant to get you to think about things in a way you hadn’t thought of before, and I hope it encourages you to experiment and try something new until you find what’s best for you.

[4:10] I start by going into our belief around sleep. What is sleep to us? What is its importance? My original mindset was warped from an incredibly young age. I share how everything I did was all in the name of hard work, and that influenced my perspective on sleep, which was that it wasn’t important.

[6:25] I share how this mindset continued into my entrepreneurial days. Occasional breakdowns helped slow me down from time to time, but I felt that hard work was the opposite of being lazy (i.e. sleeping, resting, relaxing). I found pride in being the hardest working person, and I never really felt exhausted, so I didn’t see the problem.

[7:20] I open up about what finally pushed me to see that my body needed sleep. Two back to back pregnancies, both of which gave me crippling morning sickness, helped me to put everything in perspective. I finally came to the realizations that my actions and perspective regarding sleep were influencing other people, not just me.

[13:00] I talk about how even though my perspective on sleep had begun to transform, I didn’t take drastic action until I realized that I was losing control of myself and my emotions. I share the solution that my husband and I came to and how we were finally able to get sleep after having two littles.

[19:30] I talk about the importance of finally being able to understand what my body needed, and to see how giving it the sleep it wanted gave me more energy and motivation than I had had in a long time. I talk about how it related to getting my cycle back after weaning my youngest. To understand more about this, I encourage you to go back to Episode 8: Pursue You Picks – Do Less.

[20:30] Now that I’m one year into my shifting perspective on sleep, I’m sharing some tips for you to maximize your sleep and make sure you’re prioritizing it, no matter what stage of life you’re in.

[21:45] Identify How Much Sleep You Need – Experiment with different hours of sleep. Use Episode 6: Good Enough to Move On to help see the diminishing returns, and to establish the right number of hours of sleep you need.

[23:30] Figure Out When the Sleep Will Happen – In order for you to get up on time, when do you need to be in bed in order to get your ideal number of hours of sleep? Take a look at your next week and your days and look to see if there’s a conflict and see how you can modify that. You may need to add in a nap or push your sleep and wake times back.

[25:10] What Habits Will Support Your Sleep Schedule – If you’re letting other habits steal time from your sleep, think about what will be more beneficial for tomorrow. Is it better to establish a good sleep pattern, or to spend more time watching Netflix?

[26:40] Cut Yourself Some Slack – If you’re in a difficult season, you may not be able to get the sleep you need right now. I challenge you to be mindful about other ways you can give your body what it needs during this season, until you can get the sleep you need.

Remember, prioritizing sleep does not mean that you’re lazy. If you want to take care of the people in you’re world that you want to take care of, you’ve got to get some sleep. I challenge you to look at these four points to make sure that you have a solid relationship with sleep. Now that I’m on the other side, I see so clearly how from high school, to college, and even five years ago, sleep was laziness. Rest was laziness. I never understood sleep for all the it is worth. When I work, I go hard! But I also love going for a walk, listening to podcasts, staying at home alone and journaling. What I used to classify as doing nothing, I now love to do! The progress I have made with sleep and rest, working with it instead of against it, has allowed me to soak so much more out of life. I finally have the ability to give more to the people around me. By shifting your perspective on sleep, and living out these four tactics, it is my prayer you can give your body what it needs to be its best version because we all know when we are at our best, we have so much more to give.

Subscribe to the Podcast

I am grateful you were here for today’s episode! To make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast. Click here to subscribe on iTunes.

In order to help others find this podcast and help inspire them, I would love for you to leave a review of the podcast. Share something that motivated you, or something that helped you re-frame the way you approach your life and goals. I’d love to hear how you’re pursuing your best self. Click here to review the show on iTunes. You can go to “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review”. Your comments are greatly appreciated!

More Episodes You’d Be Interested In

Episode 8: Pursue You Picks - Do Less

Episode 6: Good Enough to Move On

Episode 7: Screen Time Hacks

Episode 11: Using the DISC to Hire with Dr. Ed Gigliotti

Welcome to the Pursue You Podcast, where we are empowering you to continually reflect, design and pursue who you were created to be so you can give the gift of your best self to your family, community, and business!

I can’t thank you all enough for the support of this podcast! It makes my heart soar to hear how it’s impacting your life and business! Your reviews are so helpful to make sure I am providing the valuable content you’re wanting to hear. Leave a review, screen shot this episode, and share it with others!

Today is a really big deal! I love listening to interviews and I love to share and learn from other people who are excelling. When I recorded Episode 3 – Three Reasons You’re Not Making Your First Hire, I got the idea of who my first guest would be, and it was only confirmed when you guys asked for more information on hiring. I knew I had to bring on my husband, Eddie, Ed, Papa, aka Dr. Ed Gigliotti. Before I bring him on to share his favorite hiring tool, I have to share a little about him. He has grown his chiropractic office from the ground up. He knew no one here in Rochester in 2013, and today, he's one of the top chiropractors in the state. In the six years he’s been open, his business has exploded, and he has perfected his systems and hired an incredible team. Today, he’s on to share his favorite hiring tool, the DISC assessment along with practical tools for making your next hire.

[4:55] Eddie and I start off sharing a little about what the DISC assessment is. We talk about the theory behind it that centers on four personality traits: dominance, influence, steadiness, and compliance.

[5:45] Eddie shares how he got into learning about and studying the DISC assessment. He shares how his own interactions with his team lead him to search for a way to hire the best people for the work he needed. He wanted to best serve the people on his team, so they could provide the best service to their clients.

[8:05] Eddie and I spend the next several minutes digging deep into each of the four characteristics and what different traits tend to show up in each category. We discuss their strengths as well as their fears. We also share stories of how we’ve learned to better interact with these different people on our own teams as we’ve become more understanding of the DISC assessment.

[17:00] We recommend you start by taking the DISC assessment for yourself. You can take it for free from WizeHire. Find out who you are and how you’re showing up, and then offer it to people on your team, whether that’s business or family.

[18:00] Eddie and I introduce four ways you can use the DISC assessment as you begin to figure out roles you may need to fill on your team and how to find the right person to fill it.  

[19:00] 1. Look at your job description and decide who would find the most success in that role. You want to make sure that you are putting people in the right role, otherwise you’ll have great team members get burnt out because they are doing the wrong job.  

[24:40] 2. When you get a good resume in response to your ad, request that they take the DISC assessment and send it back to you. This will give you more clarity on who is excited about the job and who would be a good fit.

[27:00] 3. Review each person’s DISC assessment before setting up a phone interview with them. Review the information so that you are able to communicate with them in the best way possible, and so you can decide what additional information you’d like to find out on the phone interview.

[27:40] 4. Have a phone interview to validate the DISC assessment. Use pointed questions that will allow you to clarify and validate the results of their assessment. This will allow you to make sure you want to take the time to bring them in for a full, in house interview.

[29:27] – Eddie shares one last piece of advice on how to start using the DISC tool now, with your current employees and team members before you start implementing it as a hiring tool.

Utilizing the DISC tool when you are looking to hire, and with your current team or family has unlimited value for you. Remember, do not label yourself your one DISC trait. It’s great to know yourself better, and it helps the relationship you have with your team, but you can also use this information about yourself to grow and change as you pursue you.

Links from Today’s Episode

WizeHire Free DISC Assessment

Upper Cervical Chiropractic of Rochester - Dr. Ed Gigliotti

Subscribe to the Podcast

I am grateful you were here for today’s episode! To make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast. Click here to subscribe on iTunes.

In order to help others find this podcast and help inspire them, I would love for you to leave a review of the podcast. Share something that motivated you, or something that helped you re-frame the way you approach your life and goals. I’d love to hear how you’re pursuing your best self. Click here to review the show on iTunes. You can go to “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review”. Your comments are greatly appreciated!

More Episodes You’d Be Interested In

Episode 3: 3 Reasons You’re Not Making Your First Hire

Episode 6: Good Enough to Move On

Episode 5: Pursue You Picks: The ONE Thing

Episode 10: The Pruning Challenge

Welcome to the Pursue You Podcast, where we are empowering you to continually reflect, design and pursue who you were created to be so you can give the gift of your best self to your family, community, and business!

Today I want to talk to about pruning, and before I get into it, I have to call out the elephant in the room. If you know what pruning is, it has to do with gardening, but don’t be fooled into thinking I know what I’m doing when it comes to gardening. In fact, I’m so bad at gardening that I once killed a cactus. But today, I want to talk about pruning as a metaphor for your life. Pruning, by definition is when you trim a tree, shrub, or bush by cutting away dead or overgrown branches or stems, for the purpose of increasing fruitfulness and growth. Today, I want to share with you four areas of your life that might need pruning in order to increase your ability to pursue your best self, and thereby give the gift of your best self, to those around you.

[1:50] I share a story about when I first came to understand the idea of pruning as a metaphor for life, and how it prompted me to realize that I needed change in my life, no matter how hard it was going to be.

[5:35] I introduce the four areas of life that I am going to challenge you to reflect on and see where you might need to do some pruning in your own life.

[5:50] 1. Commitments: The things you have committed to, be it committees, family, church, etc. are either fulfilling you or draining you. I share some of the excuses I made before I finally made the decision to leave the committees that were draining me, and I challenge you to examine your commitments and see which ones you need to step away from.  

[10:52] I ask the question, “How do we know if something is fulfilling or draining?”. Then, I challenge you to ask yourself these questions in relation to your current commitments: How did I feel doing what I did today? How did I feel on the way there, after it was over? How do I feel about it at the end of the day? Did I show up better or worse after?

[11:45] 2. Habits – Which habits are positively or negatively impacting your life? This one is hard because they are small things, like hitting the snooze button, or checking email in bed, or not hugging your spouse enough. They aren’t massive, but they compound, and they turn into bigger problems. Ask someone else to help you notice these things. What is consuming your time at each segment of your day?

[16:20] 3. Content Consumption - You are in control of what you consume on social media, tv, movies, etc. I challenge you to reflect on how the people you follow on social media make you feel, how you respond to watching the news or certain T.V. shows, etc. Find the content that lifts you up and empowers you as you go throughout your day.

[23:00] 4. Relationships – If you met the people you spend the most time with at a party today, would you see them and want them to be the people that were influencing you? Do a relationship check to make sure your close, close friends are all people who fill you up. Are there people in your life that aren’t serving you? If they aren’t serving you, you can’t serve them.

Pruning is hard. It takes a lot of work, reflection and self-awareness. It takes counseling and experimentation to see what’s serving you and what isn’t. Here’s the harder part, for me at least. As you start to prune, you may go into panic mode and try to hold on to things that you need to be letting go of. Until you really reflect, you won’t have the confidence to do the hard action of pruning. Pruning can make you feel so empty, but what feels like emptiness at the time, that emptiness is really space. It’s space to make active choices on everything from your commitments, to habits, to relationships, and as they slowly fill back up, you realize your life is now filled with things that empower you and fulfill you. All your energy and time is being put to the best use and that focused energy goes towards the right things. I challenge you to see how pruning can change your life. It will give you space to design and pursue a life that allows you to give the gift of your best self to everyone around you.

Subscribe to the Podcast

I am grateful you were here for today’s episode! To make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast. Click here to subscribe on iTunes.

In order to help others find this podcast and help inspire them, I would love for you to leave a review of the podcast. Share something that motivated you, or something that helped you re-frame the way you approach your life and goals. I’d love to hear how you’re pursuing your best self. Click here to review the show on iTunes. You can go to “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review”. Your comments are greatly appreciated!

More Episodes You’d Be Interested In

Episode 8: Pursue You Picks: Do Less

Episode 6: Good Enough to Move On

Episode 3: 3 Reasons You’re Not Making Your First Hire

Episode 9: What I Learned at the Rise Business Conference

Welcome to the Pursue You Podcast, where we are empowering you to continually reflect, design and pursue who you were created to be so you can give the gift of your best self to your family, community, and business!

Today we’re talking about the Rise Business Conference I attended that is put on by Rachel Hollis and her husband Dave Hollis through the Hollis Company. While they have held multiple personal development conferences, this was their first ever Rise Business Conference, emphasis on business!

In a nutshell, it was awesome! It was fabulous, and not just in that emotional high feeling where you feel like you just want to live in an imaginary bubble after a great conference, but I was able to leave with very real, tactical takeaways. Now that I’ve had time to think about my experience, review my notes, and summarize my takeaways, I want to share them with you, and hopefully pass along some of the amazing wisdom I heard during the conference.

[3:00] I start off sharing my story of how I discovered Rachel Hollis, who she was, what she was about, and my internal struggle with being excited about her and her mission, but also feeling like I couldn’t pursue what I wanted to because she was already doing it.

[6:50] I introduce the “bean dip” (Rachel’s term) or Ladder concept that the conference centered around. Each rung represents a different topic that we covered during the conference.

[7:29] Rung 1 - YOU - You are the problem, but you are also the solution. We spent nearly an entire day focusing on this topic. I’m sharing my biggest takeaways from all of the speakers that covered this topic, but ultimately, I want to share Rachel’s 5 points – humility, hard work, health, honesty, optimism.

[17:42] Rung 2 - Product and Service – The big point that hit me was that they helped us realize the businesses that were really succeeding were offering a product, service, AND an experience and that experience is key. I challenge you to ask yourself: what can you do to enhance your experience opportunity?

[19:20] Rungs 3 & 4 - Branding and Customer Experience – In order to create a better product, service or experience you need to listen to your customer and respond to what they are asking for. Let’s work on this practically by creating a circular flow chart that outlines your customer’s journey in order to assess how you can offer a better customer experience.

[22:00] Rung 5 - Marketing – Amy Porterfield hit on this topic so well and her biggest point was about having an email list that allows you to constantly engage with your customer base in an personal and authentic way, while delivering original content that you are creating (like a podcast!) to them each week!

[25:00] Rung 6 - Sales – Most of us are selling something because we want to help our customer when they are in need. In order to do this successfully, we have to be passionate about what we are selling. If we aren’t, we shouldn’t be selling it.  

[28:14] Rung 7 - Finances – This is often a difficult subject for business owners, because they honestly don’t know their numbers. I’m here to encourage you from this conference that you need to know your numbers, and it’s okay to ask what they are and to learn how to understand it better. Once you do this, you’ll be able to figure out simple things you could change or tweak to make even more money.  

[32:20] Rung 8 - Systems & Processes – The best way to establish your systems and processes is to figure out what your goal is, and then, work backwards to outline a road map to get there.  

[33:38] Rung 9 – People – Define what success looks like for you and then make sure that every decision you make supports that goal. Otherwise you will never be able to stay rooted in what you value.

[37:25] Rung 10 – Servant Leadership - A great leader makes it all about the team. A servant leader asks questions: How are you? What are you working on? How can I help? Then, follow up and follow through. You are responsible for providing the training and resources your team needs to grow.

This conference was an incredible experience and I was excited to break it down the 10 rungs of the ladder for you. I am just siting here after going through this, and I remember the overwhelming sense of joy I had there, and I think about hoisting a business conference just like this in the future. I know you guys that are here listening are excited about that with me, and you are the ones that give me so much fire. You’ve shared about how you’re using these episodes to grow you and think bigger in your business. I don’t know how long it will take to do this, but I know that I am going to be pursuing it! I am excited to pursue this big, crazy dream. Thanks for being my hype tribe and get me excited about this “Pursue You” business! Having you on this journey makes it even more enjoyable for me. Thank you!

Links in Today’s Episode:

• The Hollis Co.

• Rise Business Conference 2020

• Goal Digger Podcast

• Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast

Subscribe to the Podcast

I am grateful you were here for today’s episode! To make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast. Click here to subscribe on iTunes.

In order to help others find this podcast and help inspire them, I would love for you to leave a review of the podcast. Share something that motivated you, or something that helped you re-frame the way you approach your life and goals. I’d love to hear how you’re pursuing your best self. Click here to review the show on iTunes. You can go to “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review”. Your comments are greatly appreciated!

More Episodes You’d Be Interested In

Episode 7: Screen Time Hacks

Episode 3: 3 Reasons You’re Not Making Your First Hire

Episode 1: Find Your Way Back to You

Episode 8: Pursue You Picks: Do Less

Welcome to the Pursue You Podcast, where we are empowering you to continually reflect, design and pursue who you were created to be so you can give the gift of your best self to your family, community, and business!

I am so excited to share one of my favorite books I read in 2019 for today’s Pursue You Pick. It’s called Do Less, by Kate Northrup. I first heard her on the Goal Digger Podcast with Jenna Kutcher, a podcast that I absolutely love - and so I of course fell in love with Kate’s message and wanted to dive into more of her work.

Kate is an entrepreneur who supports ambitious women to light up the world without burning themselves out in the process. CAN I GET AN AMEN!?

There’s a quote on the insert of her book that says, “In our culture, the way we’re working isn't working. Our addiction to busyness and obsession with always trying to do more leads us to feel like we're always failing our families, our careers, our spouses, and ourselves. We need to revolutionize the way we work.”

The overall premise of the book is the idea of doing less, so that we can have more, or rather, experience more. 

[3:45] I start off sharing a bit of Kate’s personal story that she outlines in the book, and what led her to the conclusions she shares in her book.

[7:20] I challenge you to think about things that are restricting your time today and try to start brainstorming how you can do those things in less time.

[11:50] I share with you Kate’s explanation of how our energy levels and productivity can be related to our 28-day menstrual cycle. I outline the four phases that Kate discusses and share with you how she relates them to our energy and productivity.

[15:20] For those that don’t currently have a cycle, I briefly discuss how you can look at your energy and productivity in relations to the four moon cycles.

[17:45] I share how recognizing these phases and cycles and what my body needs at the time allows me to give myself more grace and helps me to plan my business and life accordingly in order to maintain maximum productivity without busyness and burnout.

[22:00] I share my top three favorite experiments of the 14 that Kate shares in her book. I challenge you to grab a copy of the book so that you can see which experiments will help you boost your productivity while also finding more time to experience more of what you love.

I related to this book in so many ways, and I feel like it just gave me permission to look at productivity the way that my body was telling me to. Hopefully, this episode has peaked your interest, and encouraged you to pick up this book (hard-copy or Audible) for yourself and try one of these tweaks or experiments to see how it fits into your life. Then, I hope you’ll be able to pursue YOU as you do less and experience more!

Subscribe to the Podcast

I am grateful you were here for today’s episode! To make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast. Click here to subscribe on iTunes.

In order to help others find this podcast and help inspire them, I would love for you to leave a review of the podcast. Share something that motivated you, or something that helped you re-frame the way you approach your life and goals. I’d love to hear how you’re pursuing your best self. Click here to review the show on iTunes. You can go to “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review”. Your comments are greatly appreciated!

More Episodes You’d Be Interested In

Episode 7: Screen Time Hacks

Episode 5: Pursue You Picks: The ONE Thing

Episode 2: Why Self-Care is NOT the Answer…and What Is!

Episode 7: Screen Time Hacks

Welcome to the Pursue You Podcast, where we are empowering you to continually reflect, design and pursue who you were created to be so you can give the gift of your best self to your family, community, and business!

Let’s talk about screen time! No, I don’t mean for your kids...I mean for you! As a realtor for the last 10 years, screen time has been a huge challenge for me. I need to be by my phone for other realtors, for my clients, to monitor new listings, to reach out to a new client wanting to work with me, etc. And when I was on it 24/7, my business grew! It was this self-perpetuated addiction to my phone. Today I want to share with you some screen time hacks along with some perspective that I have found ultra-helpful as a parent and entrepreneur. My goal is that you’ll see that there are tactical tools and mindset shifts that, wherever you are with screen time, so you can feel confident that you are in control of how technology is influencing your life and how you’re showing up in the world.

[1:00] I start off sharing with you my story, and how I first realized I had a problem with screen time.

[5:30] Hack #1: Completely silence your phone. I talk about how removing the distractions of ringing, vibrating, etc will help you keep your attention focused where it needs to be. To hear more about how distractions, have a negative impact on your world, go back and listen to Episode 5: The One Thing.

[7:00] I recommend practical ways to implement hack number 1, and how to make it work for your specific lifestyle.

[9:45] Hack #2: Set an alarm to check your phone. I share a story about how a friend of mine was also looking to ditch some screen time and how setting alarms for checking our phone gave us more freedom and enjoyment with our families in the evenings.  

[13:00] I share my advice and action plan for how to regularly implement an alarm schedule for your screen time.

[14:40] I talk about how you can implement the alarm hack into your work day as well.

[16:35] Hack #3: Carry a pen and paper with you. Sometimes the hardest thing is when you have good intentions and then something else sucks you into the black hole of screen time. For me, this is always adding a note in my task list. I share how I now write it on paper, making sure I remember, without getting distracted by other things on my phone.

[18:40] I challenge you to think about the one thing that’s pulling you back to your phone that just gets you started down the black hole of YouTube videos and Facebook. What are the things that you think will take a quick second and then suck you in?

[19:00] Hack #4: Take apps off your phone! What apps are you opening when you’re bored, or you get that feeling like you need to be on your phone. Those are the apps to delete. I also share other solutions for when it’s not practical to completely remove the app from your phone.

[20:35] Hack #5: Forward your phone. This hack may seem excessive or unnecessary for your current situation or job, but I share a lot of practical tips for delegating out your phone calls and voice mail. It is life changing!

[23:00] I talk about how to approach these hacks if you’re still feeling worried about missing emergencies phone calls, clients, etc.

[25:50] Hack #6: If you’re unsure if screen time is even a problem for you, I challenge you to use this week to see where you’re at. Use one of the many apps available for tracking screen time and app usage and see where you might need to change things up or what you need to do to maintain where your current usage.

Bottom line – phones are amazing, but for me and maybe you too, what we feel like is connecting us, has maybe we’ve taken it to far. We’ve crossed a line from connecting to being obsessed. I’m the first to raise my hand, and I say it with no embarrassment, I was actually addicted to it. While I had valid reasons in my mind for being on my phone, I was missing out on my life, I missed my babies, I felt unfulfilled, and I could never focus on where I was in the moment. I feel like I’ve come so far, and people are noticing that I can leave my phone places, and not be stressed and anxious about it. I hope you see that you can still be reachable, service your clients, be connected and be present wherever you are. I want you to reflect, design and pursue what screen time looks like for you when you are pursuing your best self.

Subscribe to the Podcast

I am grateful you were here for today’s episode! To make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast. Click here to subscribe on iTunes.

In order to help others find this podcast and help inspire them, I would love for you to leave a review of the podcast. Share something that motivated you, or something that helped you re-frame the way you approach your life and goals. I’d love to hear how you’re pursuing your best self. Click here to review the show on iTunes. You can go to “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review”. Your comments are greatly appreciated!

More Episodes You’d Be Interested In

Episode 5: Pursue You Picks: The ONE Thing

Episode 4: The Antidote to FOMO

Episode 2: Why Self-Care is NOT the Answer…and What Is!

Episode 6: Good Enough to Move On

Welcome to the Pursue You Podcast, where we are empowering you to continually reflect, design and pursue who you were created to be so you can give the gift of your best self to your family, community, and business!

The total nerd in me, that I now 100% embrace, is coming out in today’s episode. If you haven’t recognized yet, I LOVE attending seminars and conferences. I love that feeling of being immersed in a world of other growth minded people. One of my favorites that I work hard to attend every year is called Global Leadership Summit. The mission of the Global Leadership Summit is a community that is committed to learning from each other and using our influence to accomplish God’s purpose on earth. Now while it’s hosted at a church, the focus of these two days is very much leadership and growth focused. The first year there was my first-time hearing about Craig Groschel. From the moment I first heard him talk I was in absolute AWE. A little more about him, he has the Craig Groschel Leadership podcast, and he is the founder of Life Church, and creator of the YouVersion Bible App. He’s also a husband and father so his speaking really resonated with me. This past year when I attended his opening talk was called Bend the Curve, and one of the topics he shared with us was this idea called GETMO. G-E-T-M-O. And when I first heard it, I was like get more? Nope, it stands for “good enough to move on”. GETMO. Get it?

[2:40] I talk about the idea of GETMO and explain what it means.

[5:20] I talk about the challenge of finding the sweet spot between the investment of your resources and the value that the resources are adding to your life.

[5:40] I talk about the fact that GETMO is more for perfectionists, not people who just want to do the bare minimum. It’s for people who are always thinking about how they could still do more work. It’s not about what is the minimum amount of work I have to do, but about finding the sweet spot between the amount of work you are putting in and getting the most return out of it.

[7:50] I challenge you to find the areas of your life where you are investing your time, money or energies into something that has stopped adding value, or where you are investing into something that is having diminishing returns, and to think about something else you could invest that time and money into that would bring more value.

[8:45] I share an example from my own real estate business about how something that started out as a big improvement in our business eventually had to change because the effort we were putting into it wasn’t valued by our clients any longer. We had to analyze our efforts and the feedback from our clients to figure out how to maximize the output for our input.

[13:50] I challenge you to look at the meetings you have on your calendar and to see how much time you’re spending in those meetings and what you’re accomplishing in that time. Can you shorten the meetings? Can you accomplish everything you need to in 15 or 30 minutes? You could get time back without decreasing the value of the meeting.

[15:10] I talk about how it’s not always black and white to see the investments that need to be analyzed with GETMO. Sometimes you need to use C & E (counsel and experimentation) which I talked about in Episode 4 in order to see where you might need to make some changes. I share how we did this within our team to decide where to modify how we’re using our resources.

[17:00] I challenge you to regularly ask yourself two questions. First, what are you investing your time, money and energies into that has stopped adding value? Second, is there somewhere else you could be putting that investment to get value in something else?

[17:30] I translate GETMO from business to family and talk about how I had to learn how to find the sweet spot between scheduling ourselves into exhaustion with the activities we do with our kids, and knowing when we need to be back home as a family for rest.

[22:30] I talk about how we need to do these checks often because our “sweet spots” in business and life can change in different seasons. We need to recognize it and act accordingly and be okay with it.

I want to remind you this is not about doing the minimum amount of work. This is for those of us that are working too much towards perfection and are seeing diminishing results. When you maximize your resources with GETMO you’ll find yourself doing less and getting more, finding more joy and satisfaction with the same or less amount of effort. Do an audit of your time, energy, resources and see where you need to modify time, output, etc. Your resources are what you have to give the world, and I hope you know how precious they are.

Subscribe to the Podcast

I am grateful you were here for today’s episode! To make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast. Click here to subscribe on iTunes.

In order to help others find this podcast and help inspire them, I would love for you to leave a review of the podcast. Share something that motivated you, or something that helped you re-frame the way you approach your life and goals. I’d love to hear how you’re pursuing your best self. Click here to review the show on iTunes. You can go to “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review”. Your comments are greatly appreciated!

More Episodes You’d Be Interested In

Episode 4: The Antidote to FOMO

Episode 3: 3 Reasons You’re Not Making Your First Hire

Episode 2: Why Self-Care is NOT the Answer…and What Is

Episode 5: Pursue You Picks: The ONE Thing

Welcome to the Pursue You Podcast, where we are empowering you to continually reflect, design and pursue who you were created to be so you can give the gift of your best self to your family, community, and business!

Up until a few years ago, I wasn’t what you’d call a big reader. I’d gotten through a few books here and there, but as a realtor, entrepreneur, wife, and mother, my day to day schedule was crazy! Books or professional and personal development took a back burner. It wasn’t until my life and business hit a wall that I realized I needed to step it up a bit. My original business passion is real estate and Gary Keller is the author of a book I was introduced to as a result of my career with Keller Williams, and though I had read it before, I decided I needed to read it again after I had this mindset change, and it ignited a fire in me! I saw how consuming this content actually converted into me being more productive and feeling more confident in myself. It allowed me to live proactively rather than re-actively!

Because of the impact this book made on me, The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan is my first Pursue You Pick! This pick is a book or podcast that I love and think you would benefit from. I’m going to share my big takeaways, and how it’s impacted me, and I hope it will encourage you to check it out for yourself to dig deeper.

[2:15] I introduce the book, The One Thing, and talk about the tagline, “the surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results”. The simple truth is that there is one thing you can do, that if you do it, will make everything else easier or unnecessary.

[4:00] I highlight the three sections of the book: the lies, the truth, and extraordinary results.

[4:25] I dig into the first section, the lies and share the three that impacted me the most. The biggest one is that we believe that everything matters equally. This pointed out to me that just because I think of things in a certain order, doesn’t mean that is how I should prioritize them.

[6:45] I talk about how I practically narrowed down my tasks to things I need to do, things I need to dump and things I need to delegate. The resulting list was my success list, the things I would do that would help me move the needle toward success.

[11:45] I talk about how I found a small habit that I could change that transformed how many hours I had in my day and gave me back my time and energy.

[13:35] I talk about the lie of having a balanced life, and how it really is about finding counter balance. We need to figure out what matters most and make sure that part is getting all the time it needs to have.

[17:30] I move from the section on lies to the section on the truth, and the details on what can actually push us towards success.  

[19:00] I share the book’s idea on how to find successful productivity: Ask yourself this question, “What is the one thing that you could do that if you do it, it would make everything else easier or unnecessary?”.

[21:40] I sum up the book by highlighting part three and the extraordinary results. The book details how we need to have purpose in our lives. It aligns so well with this podcast, and there is a quote I love that says, “Happiness happens on the way to fulfillment.” When we’re working towards our purpose, we find happiness in the productivity we have as we pursue the goals we’ve set.

The ideas of this book aren’t earth shattering, they are mostly simple, and it finishes with some tactical advice on time blocking and recognizing when you need systems to break through dead ends and avoid burnout. Despite its simplicity, however, this book helped me move from merely entrepreneurial to purposeful. After spending the last few years reflecting and working on my productivity, I realized it wasn’t the grind that brought me success, and it wasn’t necessary. The problem with the grind for me was that I lacked the awareness of the damage it was causing in the other areas of my life. The takeaways from this book had a big impact on helping me recognize this and reorient my business and life to allow me to pursue my priorities in the best way.

I hope you’ll grab the book, check out the podcast and dig deeper into materials that will present you with small tweaks that will allow you to pursue you and have a greater impact on those around you.

Links

The One Thing Book

The One Thing Podcast

Subscribe to the Podcast

I am grateful you were here for today’s episode! To make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast. Click here to subscribe on iTunes.

In order to help others find this podcast and help inspire them, I would love for you to leave a review of the podcast. Share something that motivated you, or something that helped you re-frame the way you approach your life and goals. I’d love to hear how you’re pursuing your best self. Click here to review the show on iTunes. You can go to “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review”. Your comments are greatly appreciated!

More Episodes You’d Be Interested In

Episode 4: The Antidote to FOMO

Episode 3: 3 Reasons You’re Not Making Your First Hire

Episode 2: Why Self Care is NOT the Answer…and What Is!

Episode 4: The Antidote to FOMO

Welcome to the Pursue You Podcast, where we are empowering you to continually reflect, design and pursue who you were created to be so you can give the gift of your best self to your family, community, and business!

We’ve all heard of FOMO right? It’s the fear of missing out. It’s a classic phrase we kind of joke about, but it’s pretty real. It has a big impact on us because we say yes before we consider anything else we’ve made a commitment to. It affects our businesses, our families and even the opportunities we have to serve. It’s often overwhelming and can be debilitating.

Don’t worry though! I have the antidote for FOMO: a little thing called JOMO, the joy of missing out. I saw this and fell madly in love with it, so I’ve gone really deep into it. Life is a bunch of small decisions that are all about what you’re saying yes to, and what you’re saying no to. This makes up how we spend our time and that is what our life is. So how do we make sure that what we say yes or no to is leading us to find JOMO?

[3:00] I introduce the two things we need to find JOMO. If we are ever going to begin to experience joy instead of fear, we must first begin by getting clear on our purpose and priorities.

[4:40] I help you ask the question that’s going to lead you to getting clear on your purpose. You need to ask yourself, “How do I need to live to feel proud of the way my heart is showing up?”.

[7:30] I get practical on what it looks like to clarify your purpose. I suggest finding a space where you can be in solitude, you can reflect, and you can take all your titles, achievements, successes, all of that exterior armor, and take it off. Then you need to ask yourself, “How do I need to show up? What impact do I want to make? What will make me proud of myself?”.

[8:00] I remind you that while finding your purpose is an ongoing pursuit, you need to start somewhere, and you need to realize that your purpose is unique to you!

[11:00] I talk about incorporating finding your purpose into your reflective self-care that I spoke about in Episode 2.  

[12:00] I talk about what it means to get clear on your priorities. It’s not just about naming a priority but identifying what focusing on that priority looks like for you.

[12:40] I talk abut what it looks like to make yourself the most important priority. Ask yourself questions that will help you see what it is you need to do for you to show up the best way that you can.

[13:40] I talk about clarifying your relational priorities. I walk you through an example of motherhood and our relationship with our children.

[16:30] I explain my C & E method: counsel and experiment. This method is crucial when you are trying to decide if your priorities need a shift or change.

[20:30] I talk about how C & E can help clarify and/or solidify your purpose and priorities. It gives you confidence in the decisions you end up making, which leads to a greater joy.

[23:30] I talk about clarifying your business priorities. I talk about how sometimes certain priorities are easier to pinpoint or clarify once you’ve set up boundaries with other priorities. I give you an example about how getting clear on my business priorities is much easier when I’m already clear on my personal and relational priorities.

[29:42] I talk about the importance of recognizing when your priorities change. We have to understand that other people’s priorities, or their expectations of our priorities can’t dictate what we believe is the best way to live our lives to gain joy and confidence.

I hope I’ve been able to help you start the process of getting clear on what you say yes to and what you say no to. When you’re taking the time to identify what you’re saying yes to, and your purpose and priorities are your filter, then you can kick the FOMO out of your mind and step into JOMO.

Remember, the antidote to FOMO is JOMO and the only way to truly have JOMO is by being confident that what you’re doing in that moment is where you want to be. Be confident in being you. Your purpose and priorities are evolving and growing, so get clear on what that is, so that you can continue to pursue you.

Subscribe to the Podcast

I am grateful you were here for today’s episode! To make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast. Click here to subscribe on iTunes.

In order to help others find this podcast and help inspire them, I would love for you to leave a review of the podcast. Share something that motivated you, or something helped you reframe the way you approach your life and goals. I’d love to hear how you’re pursuing your best self. Click here to review the show on iTunes. You can go to “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review”. Your comments are greatly appreciated!

More Episodes You’d Be Interested In

Episode 1: Find Your Way Back to You

Episode 2: Why Self Care is NOT the Answer…and What Is!