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Summary

• "The first person you must show up for is yourself."
• Evaluate yourself on these 5 areas: Where you are at right now, Self-Talk, Affirmations, Expressing Gratitude, Being Kind to Yourself.
• By evaluating how you are showing up for yourself, you will be more cognizant of how you treat yourself. This allows you to see the areas you can improve on, thus greatly improving how you treat yourself and show up for others.
• Showing up for others does not happen by accident. It takes practice and intentional effort, but most of all, it requires you to show up for yourself first!
• Show up for others better by actively listening, being vulnerable and expressing empathy.

Full Transcript

Welcome to Focus Forward Business Design…I am Leigh Wilson, your Certified High-Performance Coach.  We have all heard about “showing up” and it is becoming kind of a cliché phrase.  What does it exactly mean and where are we...

Full Transcript

Holiday Stress is a real thing and learning what you can do to make this time of year not only manageable, but enjoyable is key to truly believing it can be the most wonderful time of the year and living in the Tis the season to be jolly moments.

I am Leigh Wilson and this is Focus Forward Business Design.

We all know that the holidays in the best of times bring stress, but the past couple of years have had their own unique stressors with COVID adding travel restrictions, masking, group limits and event cancellations.  As we move into the 2021 holiday season it does seem that we have progressed past last year and a bit more normalcy may be present for this year, but that does not eliminate all the holiday stress that has been around since Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Holidays added the expectation of joyous gatherings, large meals, gifts and extended family.

I am going to wrap up an early Christmas gift for you and give you 5 reminders to reduce...

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 Summary

Listen when people speak. Really teach yourself to listen at a level that you never have before. Many people can claim to be listening and it may even appear that they are. But are they mentally engaged with the conversation or are they thinking of the next thing that they should say, or worse yet thinking about something or someone entirely separate from what is happening in front of them or on the other end of the phone? Being an influencer means caring and caring means listening and interacting. A challenge for you would be to replay a conversation that took place during your day and put yourself in the other person's shoes…how do you think that they felt when that conversation ended? Did they feel that you were an advocate for them, that you helped them or were you just a warm body that stood there and nodded? We have all been on both sides of those “courtesy” conversations and know that you walk away with...

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Summary

Leadership is a big piece of a successful business and a bazillion books have been written on what makes a great leader. Leadership has changed drastically throughout the years.  As different generations have learned through the practice of different leadership styles, what was successful and acceptable 30 years ago doesn’t fly today. 

The days of the dictatorship are just not as well received as they once were.  You may remember your parents or your grandparents if they worked a job where they were the “employee”.  They likely went to work, were told what to do, were told what the expected outcome was and they were paid for doing that job.  If the result was not as expected they may have been demoted or worse yet fired. If they did perform as expected they never heard a word about it. You typically had one leader or maybe management teams that were in charge of leading the troops and the...

Full Transcript

You mention the word influence and many things come to mind to different people.  I have heard people say, “role model” or “mentor”.  On the opposite end, I have heard, “manipulate” or “force”. Those are quite different feelings that one word can generate depending on the life lessons that someone has experienced. How you choose to use influence can be a major factor in the results that it produces.  Let’s jump in.

I am Leigh Wilson and this is Focus Forward Business Design

I really was amazed at how many people look at influence as a negative thing.  It made me step back with fresh eyes and take a look at what people were perceiving influence to be.  What I found out is that a large majority of the population truly felt that the definition of influence was parallel with manipulation.

What we do know and what I have always believed is that high performers have the ability and the gift to...

Summary

How can succeeding at a high level be a bad or fearful thing?  However, what we know is that there are many amazing people, maybe even you that fear success at some level.  People that have so much to offer but very likely stand in the shadows and do not contribute when their opinions or ideas could revolutionize a company or take them or their peers to a new level of accomplishment.

If this is you or someone that you know, then you may be able to understand.  If you are one that thinks that this is not a real thing, then listen and open up your mind to the possibility that not all people embrace success and strive for more of it.  All of us probably know at least one or two people that struggle with this and we don’t even know it.  We have possibly just looked at them as great support or as not being as driven as others, when in fact they are bursting with more knowledge and dreams than we can imagine. They give the impression that being a...

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Summary

1. Acknowledge your Emotions. .Understanding what you are feeling is the first step to being able to take the necessary steps to learn from it and put into play the actions needed to come out ahead.

2. See rejection as proof that you are excelling and pushing the limits.  When people reject others for who they are or what they believe in, it is often from being ignorant or because they have been made uncomfortable.  This is a good sign that you are thinking at a higher level or venturing outside the norms.  This is good, this leads to growth and new discoveries.

3. Feel compassion for yourself. Understand that this is a process and rejection is part of it.  Do not be overly critical of yourself or your hurdles.  Giving permission to learn and fail along the way.

4. Rejection does not become who you are.  Believe in yourself and your dreams and goals.  Your vision is what defines you, not the...

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Summary

Here are 4 types of fear that often stop people from taking that next step.

Number 1 - Is the Fear of ruin -   If I don’t get this correct it is going to ruin my life forever.  Or I could make a fool of myself. I could ruin my reputation or ruin this relationship.   Many times, those are onetime events that we move on from.  By pushing through these fears, we learn how to deal with it and process it.  This allows us to grow and to deal with the next challenge differently, don’t focus on what you have allowed to be a huge disaster in your mind.

Number 2 is Rejection - She won’t love me, they will laugh at me, they will think I’m stupid, that’s ok. You don’t need their permission to grow and succeed. We have all been rejected but eventually it won’t matter.  We move on and look back and it has no effect on what you do today when you choose...

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Summary

We all know what busy looks like.  It is piles of papers, phone to the ear, someone wanting our time and stuffing a sandwich in your face while you drive to an appointment and try to get the mayonnaise off your shirt that dripped on there, no doubt while you were changing lanes.   You can’t argue that you are busy, but not so productive.  I know you can picture that.  You may look like a cartoon character.

Here are some sure signs of non-productivity.

#1 – You are always putting out a fire.  You know what this looks like.  Someone has an issue, you stop what you are doing, stop projects and try to solve whatever emergency someone has thrown at you.  This now results in your clients being put on the back burner and eventually they know it and they give up on calling or emailing because they know you won’t respond.  

#2 – You are exhausted but have no idea what you did...

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Summary

How to change your weeks into more focused, productive time through goals and must do’s for the week.  Understand a little bit about why you are or are not productive.  Being focused and productive has been researched for years and years and the same results keep emerging. Many people have not made the commitment to changing their habits and therefore they find that their production has not increased. Unfortunately they can actually take a step backwards as more and more obligations and distractions enter their world.

The good news is these are not changes that work for a handful of people.  They will work for everyone on the planet, but they will take mental strength and discipline.  The good news is like any habit or addiction, after a few weeks of doing this it will feel weird if you don’t do it.  Once your mind does that reset with new focus, you will begin to feel that something is missing or...