Women Worldwide with Deirdre Breakenridge

This year (and every year), how will you create the greatest possible impact in your career and in your life? Figuring out how to reach your maximum potential requires a great deal of passion and introspection. To get there, perhaps the best place to start is with a bit of motivational thinking.

 

Joining me on the show is Holly Dowling, global keynote speaker, inspirational thought leader, trainer, and consultant. Holly spends her time helping professionals to live life with a passion and to reach their fullest potential and serves as an expert in strength-based leadership, change of management, and corporate women's empowerment. If all that wasn’t already enough to keep her busy, she’s also the host of the podcast A Celebration of You.

 

If you need a January pick-me-up, look no further. Holly’s advice for surrounding yourself with positive people, pursuing your lifelong dreams and passions, and turning your darkest periods into your brightest days will energize you for the entire year ahead.

 

In This Episode

  • What it means to have a butterfly dream on your shoulder
  • How to energize and uplift the people around you
  • The positive impact dark periods of life can have
  • Where to find “balcony people” in your life
  • Three qualities all successful people share

 

Quotes in This Episode

“My mantra began, ‘Tell me no. Watch me go.’ … No matter what I want in this world, no matter what adversity I face, I can still do something magnificent. I believe everybody has that.” —Holly Dowling

 

“If there's one person in this room that [this experience] can make a difference for them, and it rekindles a hope and a spark of light in their own personal darkness, then that is why I'm there.” —Holly Dowling

 

“I chose to not live in ‘woe is me.’ I choose to live in ‘wow is me.’ And I'm not going to say it's easy. But I do believe it's a choice, and I choose joy every day.” —Holly Dowling

 

“Take these next 30 days to fall back in love with who you are. It's never too late to dream. How about relishing and celebrating who you are? And that has a lot to do with the stuff you've been through.” —Holly Dowling

 

“Is it networking or is it just being open to the world and the serendipitous moments that are around us and in front of us? I'm allowing myself to be open to everybody I meet.” —Holly Dowling

 

Resources

HollyDowling.com

A Celebration of You Podcast

Connect with Holly on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn

Direct download: HollyDowlingonWomenWorldwide.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 12:08pm EDT

We live in a lightning fast world. How do you make sure your business is keeping pace? According to today’s guest, the answer is by embracing failure and by preparing to change–fast.

 

Meet Brandi Boatner, the Social and Influencer Communications Lead for IBM Global Markets. Brandi has been working with IBM since 2010, and she has also served as a Digital Experience Manager for IBM Global Technology Services. She's currently the Chair of the IBM Black Network of New York Business Resource Group (BRG), and she's a founding member of the IBM Marketing Communications and Citizenship MCC Diversity Council. Through her work with IBM, she’s become an expert in adopting an agile framework to build more flexible, fast-paced teams.

 

Follow along as Brandi shares the inside-baseball on becoming an agile marketer, ways to embrace failure (and why you should!), plus the best advice she has ever received.

 

In This Episode

  • What it means to be an agile marketer
  • How agile principles apply to everyday tasks
  • Ways to combat (or keep up with) warp speed change
  • The best career and life advice Brandi’s ever received
  • How mindfulness can transform your life

 

Quotes in This Episode

“Fail fast and embrace that failure so that you can iterate, course correct, and then try again can apply an agile framework to whatever it is that [you’re] doing.” —Brandi Boatner

 

“We live in a three-second world, right? A three second, right-swipe world. If I can't do what I need to get done in 10 days, why am I doing this? Why?” —Brandi Boatner

 

“I've gotten rid of that mindset of, ‘This has to be perfect.’ It does not have to be perfect. There has to be progress made on the task… I celebrate progress not perfection.” —Brandi Boatner

 

“Change and comfort can't coexist, so you should be willing to have that uncomfortable conversation in order for you to implement the changes that you need as a professional and then as a business.” —Brandi Boatner

 

“People can define their success differently. You might ask somebody else, and they say success is money. Someone might say success is happiness, somebody might say anything, but for me I would really say success, for me, is growth. ” —Brandi Boatner

 

Resources

Email Brandi or connect with her on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram

IBM

Emotional Intelligence 2.0

Direct download: BrandiBoatneronWomenWorldwide.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 1:08pm EDT

In our time producing Women Worldwide, I have spoken with people from all walks of life. I’ve interviewed entrepreneurs, inventors, and educators from around the world. But today is a first. I don't think we've ever had a volcanologist on the show. Meet Jess Phoenix, a professional field scientist who's running for the California Congress.

 

In addition to her hands-on work as a volcanologist and burgeoning political career, Jess is executive director, principal investigator and co-founder of a revolutionary environmental scientific research organization called Blueprint Earth. She's also a fellow in the Explorer's Club, a featured scientist on the Discovery Channel and Science Channel and a TEDx speaker. Her work has been covered in Popular Science Magazine, NASA's FameLab on National Public Radio, CNN international and on This Week in Science. Her mission is to inspire everyone to tap into their innate curiosity, igniting wonder about our planet and the world we live in.

 

Stay tuned to hear incredible stories from Jess’s professional life and find out how she’s using her scientific background to fuel political change and encourage people around her.

 

In This Episode

  • What entrepreneurs can learn from Jess’s episode with horse thieves
  • Proof it’s never too late to learn a new skill or passion
  • The benefits of leveraging social media
  • How doors open when you don’t shy away from saying ‘yes’
  • Why you don’t have to be the best at what you do

 

Quotes in This Episode

“Being curious about a number of different things is okay. You don't have to focus or specialize too early because you can change directions… You can get into things at any age. It doesn't require you doing it from when you're five or anything like that.” —Jess Phoenix

 

“You always have to think about what the greater cause is and that's what keeps you going even when it's rough 'cause it's not all fun and games. It's not all campfires—I mean sometimes you deal with horse thieves.” —Jess Phoenix

 

“We are humans, we are so adaptable. So that's what we have to do. We have to adapt to the challenges and that means be flexible, be creative, and solve those problems.” —Jess Phoenix

 

“It doesn't matter what your problem is, if it's an erupting volcano, a flat tire, God knows what! You just look at it, and you just take it apart, piece by piece. And you figure out how you're gonna get out of this situation you're in, and you just do your job.” —Jess Phoenix

 

“You don't have to be the best, but you have to be so good that they can't ignore you.” —Jess Phoenix

 

Resources

Jess Phoenix for Congress

Volcano Jess

Connect with Jess on Twitter, Facebook, and here and here on Instagram

Direct download: JessPhoenixonWomenWorldwide.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 8:25am EDT

Would you say you or your business has reached your limitless potential? Have curiosity and passion helped you to impact others and to reach your goals? According to today’s guest, nurturing your curiosity is exactly what you need to elevate your business to the next level.

 

Nikki Barua is a change agent, and she's leading a movement to empower people and organizations to thrive amidst disruption. She founded BeyondCurious in 2011 to help large companies innovate like startups, and since then, the award-winning digital accelerator has created massive impact by guiding brands to achieve their digital transformation goals. Nikki was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year by ACE in 2014, recognized as Top Woman Entrepreneur in North America by Ernst & Young in 2015, and as LA Woman of Influence by The Business Journals in 2016.

 

Tune in to hear why you should be fostering your own curiosity, why you should learn to pivot like a small business, and how to turn your business’s challenges into opportunities to level up.

 

In This Episode

  • Why every child needs heroes
  • The ways education can help you think differently
  • How to nurture your own curiosity
  • Why big organizations should think and operate like small startups
  • What makes entrepreneurship like a video game

 

Quotes in This Episode

“I grew up with a belief that it's possible for us to do absolutely anything. And with that belief in my heroes, I learned very early on to really dream big and be bold and take courageous action.” —Nikki Barua

 

“The gift that I got from education was in how to think. The most powerful gift or tool we can be equipped with is being able to frame great questions, because when you know how to approach a problem, the answers emerge from within you.” —Nikki Barua

 

“As we grow, we tend to lose that curiosity because we're afraid to ask or we're afraid to simply pursue something where there's a potential of failure. And so our fears tend to get in the way of our curiosity, and when we let that fear overtake our curiosity, it limits our ability to learn and to grow and to give back. ” —Nikki Barua

 

“As an entrepreneur, your challenges are never ending. I've learned to frame it in a way that I measure my progress as an entrepreneur based on the size of my problems. So if my problems are getting bigger, I know I must be getting better.” —Nikki Barua

 

“One of the most important lessons of leadership is the humanity of being authentic and vulnerable and really being grateful for the opportunity to lead and to bring out the best in all of the other people.” —Nikki Barua

 

Resources

BeyondCurious

Follow BeyondCurious on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn

Nikki Barua

Connect with Nikki on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn

Direct download: NikkiBaruaonWomenWorldwide.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 8:07pm EDT

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