The Incredible Gift of Gratitude by Meridith Elliott Powell

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Competitive, challenging, and constantly changing—that is today’s marketplace. If the last few years have taught us nothing else, it is that our lives, our health, our businesses, and our customers—things can change in a moment’s notice. To succeed, we must be hypervigilant and prepared for anything. 

It is tough out there. It takes a lot of energy and focus and allows little time for rest. With the holidays, we have the opportunity to slow down, close our offices, and spend a little time with family and friends, sharing a meal and reflecting on what we are thankful for. In essence, the holidays allow us to focus on something that is good for our family, our friends, ourselves, our community, and even our business—gratitude. 

When we think about gratitude, we typically think of relationships or what we are grateful for in our personal lives, but gratitude also plays a significant role in business. According to research done by Plasticity Labs, gratitude has an incredibly positive impact on leadership and business. 

The impact of a culture of gratitude: 

• A culture of gratitude predicts higher job satisfaction for team members and leaders. 

• A culture of gratitude fosters a powerful sense of connection and community. 

• Employees who work in a culture of gratitude focus more on what is right with their job rather than what they do not like. 

• Employees who work in a culture of gratitude believe that their job and work environment will consistently get better and continuously improve. 

Gratitude is powerful. It is good for you, your team, your business, and your community. 

4 Strategies to Bring Gratitude into the Workplace 

1. Make a List – of the things in your workplace that you are grateful for right now. What is valuable and what are you proud of? Things like your business is doing well; you made it through the last few years; you are coming together again and connecting as a team; you have retained most of your employees, etc. Make a list of what you are grateful for and take a few moments to start your day by reading it. Beginning every day by reviewing this list will ensure that you see the workday through the lens of being grateful. 

2. Find Opportunity – make the time to be grateful and be intentional. If you want to create a culture of gratitude, then you need to find the opportunities to see the good things in your company. I work with a CEO who finds one point of gratitude every morning and one every afternoon. He leaves his office and goes to find the positives with his team and in his company. He then shares that with the entire team. 

3. Focus on Wins – to create a culture of gratitude you need everyone focused on finding the good things in your organization and with their fellow team members. So, when you see others practicing gratitude, focus on those wins. What you as the leader focus on will expand; that is what you will get more of. To get more gratitude in your business you need to call it out, focus on it, and celebrate every act of gratitude you see. 

4. Be Mindful – last but not least, be mindful. This takes work. I know I am frustrated by things more often than I see the positive and reflect on what I am grateful for. You need to train yourself to start to integrate gratitude into every facet of your life. You are the way you lead. By being mindful, you will create opportunities to find the good vs. the bad and reap the rewards of what a grateful culture will bring into your business and your life. 

So, I am wishing you and your family a wonderful holiday season. I hope it is full of wonderful and positive acts that bring all the rewards that only a culture of gratitude can bring. 

Meridith Elliott Powell is a business strategist, keynote speaker, and award-winning author with expertise in business growth, sales, and leadership strategies. She was named One of the Top 15 Business Growth Experts to Watch by Currency Fair and One of the Top 20 Sales Experts To Follow by LinkedIn. Meridith’s latest book, The Confidence Plan: A Guided Journal, is now available from Sound Wisdom. This guided journal will enable you to discover your confidence, learn to trust yourself deeply, and step out boldly into a happier, more fulfilled, and more successful life.

Inspiration and Implementation by Jim Stovall

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These columns have appeared for over two decades in newspapers, magazines, and online publications around the world. In more than a thousand columns, I have written on a myriad of topics and subjects, but every column—including the one you’re reading now—ends with the phrase, “Today’s the day.” It really doesn’t matter what you think about, dream about, or plan to do. The only thing that matters is what you do.   

Inspiration is important. It may be among the most valuable elements of our human experience, but without implementation, it is useless. I have a friend who I have known for almost 40 years. He has had hundreds of great ideas and lofty plans. Unfortunately, he has never carried any of them out. I’ve another friend who I have known even longer. He has had only one plan for his life that he has been committed to since we were teenagers. He has stayed committed to his single plan and has vigorously implemented it over these many years. It will not surprise you to know that he is far more successful than the friend with overflowing inspiration. 

If you have a thought, an idea, a calling, or a plan in your life, it means that you should do something today to make it a reality. Maybe you just read a book, research the topic, or reach out to make a new connection or contact, but you should not let the day get away from you without implementing your inspiration. Every day that goes by is critical to your goal. When you put your head on the pillow tonight, you will be either one day closer to or one day farther from your goal.  

Art critics worldwide, and anyone who has visited the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican and has viewed Michelangelo’s masterpiece painted on the ceiling, would agree that Michelangelo was filled with inspiration. Centuries later, that inspiration impacts everyone who experiences one of the most outstanding artistic achievements in history. 

There is a story about Michelangelo that has endured for hundreds of years. During the period he was working on his magnificent sculpture of David, he worked in a studio with other artists. As Michelangelo arrived one morning, he noticed all of the other artists were just sitting around doing nothing. When he inquired about it, the other artists told him they were waiting on inspiration. Michelangelo’s response speaks to us all, “Inspiration will find me already at work.” 

As you go through your day today, embrace your inspiration and take action. 

Today’s the day! 

Jim Stovall is the president of Narrative Television Network as well as a published author of many books. He is also a columnist and motivational speaker. Follow him on Twitter (@stovallauthor) or Facebook (@jimstovallauthor). His new book, Words That Shaped Our World: Legendary Voices of History: Quotes That Changed How We Think, What We Do, and Who We Are, coauthored with Kathy Johnson, is available for from Sound Wisdom on December 20, 2022.

WHY GOLF?: 9 POWERFUL REASONS FOR WOMEN TO TEE UP by Dee M. Robinson

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Here are nine great reasons why women need to spend more time on the golf course:

1. A golf course is a special place. It’s a safe space. A golf course is that rarity in our world: a no-judgment zone, a place where you can be yourself, and perhaps even discover yourself, by focusing on the game. It is a meditative place, a place that centers you. The latest estimate is that there are something like 33 million active golfers in the United States. Odds are you know one of them. Ask that person whether this is a special place. My guess is that they will tell you that it is the perfect place to reset. If you are worried about how poorly you might play, or how you will look, let me just say the following: Play anyway. Build up your courage muscle. Learning to put things like fear of embarrassment aside is an important part of your personal growth. I am here to tell you that I have played with some major, major golf pros, and sometimes I was initially concerned about how I would look to them as I played. You know what? It was no big deal. I just played my game. They played theirs. We connected. The ease with which you will find yourself moving beyond irrational fears like “How will I look?” is part of the experience that makes a golf course such a special place. Nothing in life is as intimidating as we first imagine. And I can tell you from personal experience that a golf course is a great place to learn that lesson—and strengthen your courage muscle. 

2. A golf course sets you up for success. That’s because a golf course is a great place to build and strengthen relationships. I am talking here about all kinds of relationships: family, business, and everything in between. There is a popular stereotype about the golf course being a place where executives close deals. That has not been my experience, and I’ve played a lot of golf with a lot of different executives over the years. What I have experienced is that it is easier for people who play golf with one another to connect with each other, be real with each other, and show vulnerability. So from that standpoint, yes, the golf course is the best possible place to take business contacts. You will definitely reap higher benefits on the golf course than you would from the same number of hours spent taking someone out to dinner. You will connect with people on a golf course in a way you cannot in any other setting. And strong, enduring connections are what set you up for success. (Side note: The golf course is also a great place to learn whom you don’t want to do business with!) 

3. A golf course sets your kids up for success. No joke! In addition to helping them learn how to create the deep, enduring connections described above, a love of golf sets your kids up for success in countless other ways. For example: by making it easier for them to get a scholarship to a great college or university. Think about it. Which do you think is easier to get: a football scholarship or a golf scholarship? Kris E. Wilson, CEO of The Littlest Golfer, may have put it best: “The first thing golf teaches is humility, the second; empathy, and the third patience.” Aren’t those the values you want your kids to live on a daily basis? 

4. A golf course makes parenting far easier. This one surprises people, but it is absolutely accurate. I’m talking about younger children now: those aged between about eight and fifteen. If you’re a parent with kids in this age range and you are looking for a long-overdue day off, let me point you toward an overlooked, top-quality babysitter your kids will love that also puts your kids on the fast track for success in later life: your local golf course. Google “First Tee” and “PGA Junior League” for more information on the relevant programs—or contact PGA REACH and we will point you in the right direction.  

5. A golf course is fun. That is reason enough to be there! Sure it can be frustrating sometimes. But every hole is an opportunity to reset. The reason golf is fun is simple: working to improve your game makes working on yourself more enjoyable. Golf can be a team sport, yes, but ultimately it is about you: your mindset, your ability to focus, your willingness to adopt a mindset that supports yourself and others. You may be thinking that mastering those things takes work. What if mastering them was really all about play? 

6. Getting better on the golf course helps you get better elsewhere in your life. No, you’re probably not going to be Lee Elder coming out of the gate. The fundamentals matter in golf as in life. So you’re going to have a learning path. You’re going to work with a pro who can coach you on those fundamentals. With the help of that coach, you’re going to set clear goals, and you’re going to do what you need to do to achieve those goals. You’re going to practice. You’re going to learn. And you’re going to improve. Then you’re going to set new goals. Guess what? This is a pattern you can implement elsewhere in life—in leadership, in sales, in innovation, in any area that matters to you.  

7. Lessons you learn on the golf course connect directly to lessons you learn about yourself. In addition to learning about the strengths and weaknesses of others while you are out on the links, you will inevitably learn important lessons about your own strengths and weaknesses on the golf course. I have learned countless lessons about how to manage myself on the golf course. You will, too.  

8. A golf course is great for your family. Golf gives you an opportunity for quality family time you can’t get anywhere else. Move beyond the mini golf! Take your family to the next level! I promise you, you won’t want to go back. 

9. A golf course empowers you to reclaim your agency—your ability to truly OWN the choices that determine the direction and quality of your life. Early on, I claimed my agency in the world of business by refusing to be an outsider—and by getting in the game. One of the most important ways I got in the game was by learning to play golf! When I first started playing, I did not have the love of golf as a sport that I do now. I thought I “had to” play golf to advance my career and to feel more included, because I saw that important connections were happening on the golf course. I played—poorly at first—as means to an end: the aim of making myself more visible. I soon fell in love with the game for its own sake. I also learned that saying, “Hey, I would love to play with you sometime” was a great way to say, “I would love to get to know you better—you’re someone I want to spend time with.” That powerful invitation allowed me to create and expand relationships that mattered and get a clearer sense of what was important to other people– and it also gave me a clearer sense of what I could learn from them. Long story short: golf helped me strengthen my courage muscle, get myself in the game, and put myself in the driver’s seat of my own life. Golf can do the same for you. 

Today, in my role as a trustee of PGA REACH and co-chair of PGA WORKS, my goal is to promote more inclusion in the game and diversify the golf industry’s workforce. I love this role. The more I engage with golf and golfers, the more opportunity for meaningful personal and organizational change I witness. With every drive and every putt, we strengthen the courage muscle, and we shift the paradigm. 

Let me also point out that a golf course really can change the trajectory of a young person’s life. This is the whole point of the PGA WORKS Fellowship program. It provides the opportunity for a one-year, paid immersion in an entry-level employment experience that offers a taste of what a career in the golf industry can provide. To learn more about the Fellowship program, or to find out about sponsoring a PGA WORKS Fellow, drop me a line! 

If you are a woman or a member of a minority group and you are not yet golfing, my message to you is simple: get in the game! If you are a woman who is ready, willing, and eager to do that, I hope you will connect with us via the PGA REACH website (pgareach.org), or connect with me on LinkedIn. I would love to get you in the game. 

Dee M. Robinson is an entrepreneurial leader who leverages strategic thinking to find innovative solutions that scale businesses. In 1995, she founded Robinson Hill, a concessions management firm specializing in retail and restaurants at airports and other nontraditional venues. In everything she does personally and professionally, she strives to help others and shorten the runway to success, empower people and organizations to overcome fear and limitations, and elevate their thinking about what is possible. Her new book, Courage By Design: Ten Commandments +1 for Moving Past Fear to Joy, Fulfillment, and Purpose

Building an Accountable Workplace Culture by Sam Silverstein

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One of the most common questions I hear from leaders is: How do we build an accountable workplace culture? 

The answer is simple…but it is not easy. In fact, the answer to this question gives us a textbook example of why simple principles often take immense amounts of time, energy, and effort to implement. The simple answer is as follows. 

To build an accountable workplace culture, you first design it. How do you design your workplace culture? Through your values. Your values are the house rules. Values must be consciously chosen and they must be authentic to your organization. They should not be cut and pasted from some other organization’s values. They should be yours. Your values must say to everyone in the organization, “This is how we do it here.” Everyone in leadership must model the values that leadership chooses to live and evangelize. 

In every decision, leadership must live the values. If one of your values is Trust, then it does not matter what we produce, it does not matter what your title is, it does not matter where you sit on the org chart: You cannot make a decision that undermines the value of Trust. Period. That has to start at the top. 

Everyone must live the values. That is a condition of employment. You live and model the values with every decision, and you teach the values to each and every individual. And when people come into the organization, they see the values in action. If they choose to buy into those values and protect them, they get to stay on. If they do not buy into and protect those values, they have to leave. 

You are continuously modeling, teaching, and protecting the values in every discussion, every meeting, and every communication, regardless of the platform on which that communication takes place. Whenever you protect the values, you protect the workplace culture. Typically, you protect the workplace culture through living the values in your relationships with people, so they are inspired to live the culture… and you protect it by noticing when people are not living the values. At that point, you as the leader must make an effort to coach them up to a point where they can and will live the values. If that effort fails, then you have to let them go somewhere else, somewhere their behavior will be accepted. 

Sometimes it takes courage to defend the culture, but the alternative is a disaster. When you allow people who are refusing to live the values to stay in your organization because you are afraid of being unable to hire other people, or because you do not like starting uncomfortable conversations, or because you believe that people will not like you if you defend the culture, or for whatever reason, then you no longer have a culture by design. You have a culture by default, and you have sent a message to everyone in your organization that “anything goes here and we no longer believe those values. All you have to do is (fill in the blank): be pretty, produce, be related to the right person, have tenure, whatever, and you do not have to live the values.” That is not the way to go. 

Once you identify the values that support your culture, it is important to celebrate it every chance you get: with teams, with individuals, for little victories, for big victories. An accountable workplace culture is precious. As the leader, you need to deliver positive reinforcement every time there is success, big or small, so that everyone in the organization will be motivated to continue and repeat that success. 

When you protect the workplace culture, you make a better place to work for everyone. This is what attracts the best people and creates the desire within those people to stay. Building an accountable workplace culture takes effort—but the quality of that culture will always show up on the bottom line. 

Sam Silverstein is dedicated to empowering people to live accountable lives, transform the way they do business, and create a more accountable world. He helps companies create an organizational culture that prioritizes and inspires accountability. His latest book—The Accountability Advantage—is now available from Sound Wisdom. You can follow Sam on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Tiny Habits, in Key Areas, for Big Changes by Mary C. Kelly

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One donut hole takes me about 10 seconds to devour. 

Donuts are fried flour and sugar coated in more sugar. They are not good for me. I rationally know this. 

Donuts are my kryptonite. 

One donut hole may not be terrible, but a dozen is. 

Ten seconds times twelve is 120 seconds. Two minutes. In 2 minutes, I can destroy all the healthy eating I have done that entire week. 

Choosing to NOT eat the donut holes and choosing to have an apple instead is an example of a tiny habit. 

Why Little Tweaks Can Change Your Life and How to Choose Strong Tiny Habits 

Take a moment and think about what you could accomplish in a week, a month, or even a year. 

If you created tiny habits today and kept building them up over time, what could you accomplish? 

Trying to make massive changes all at once usually leads to burnout or failure, but taking baby steps with tiny habits toward a bigger goal is doable, sustainable, and puts us on the road to success. 

Habits of all kinds—both good and bad—have compounding effects, which means the more you do something, the greater the results. The more you lace up those running shoes and run, the better your cardiovascular health. 

What Is a Tiny Habit? 

Tiny habits are actions we take every day, often without thinking about them. Brushing your teeth twice a day is so ingrained that it is instinctive now. We were taught as kids, and that action was reinforced by parents and teachers. These tiny habits are also quick and easy, sometimes less than two minutes, so we do not even notice them taking up any time out of our day. 

In the running example, you need more time than two minutes to go for a short run, but adding an extra two minutes to your current running workout is negligible. Adding another two minutes the next week is still negligible. 

A friend of mine used this technique to get back to a running habit. Go for a 20-minute walk. After 10 minutes, run for 30 seconds. Go back to walking. Keep increasing the running time by 30 seconds every day until he can run for 10 minutes straight. 

How to Choose Your New Habits 

Every single area of your life can be improved with the help of tiny habits. Decide where you want to focus or what specifically needs improving. Having a goal in mind will lead you in the right direction and these tiny habits will build the processes necessary to reach those goals. 

Most habits revolve around three areas. 

1. Health – Most people say they would like better health. Create a tiny habit to drink more water or to eat a daily salad. Plan ahead so you have both available. Within a few weeks, your body will be craving more water and preparing salads will become second nature. Want more sleep? Set the alarm for the time to go to bed, not just an alarm for when to get up. Head for bed when the night alarm goes off. 

2. Relationships – One tiny habit is to spend 10 minutes reconnecting with your spouse or partner after a long day of work. We try to watch nightly sunsets. It sounds simple, but once you get into the habit of heading outside as the sun is going down it becomes a relaxing habit. This simple act is even more important if you have children running to various activities or if one of you travels a lot. Do you have a regularly scheduled date night? Get in the habit of hiring a babysitter and putting your adult relationship at the top of the priority list. 

3. Business – Create business hours—especially if you work from home—or start using the Pomodoro Technique to accomplish projects or meet deadlines. The Pomodoro Technique uses a timer to block off 25-minute increments, where you focus on a task until the timer rings. Take a 5-minute break, and then reset the timer. 

What habits do you have that make a significant difference? 

Mary C. Kelly, PHD specializes in leadership growth that helps organizations improve their profitability and productivity, especially in finance, insurance, real estate, and manufacturing. One of the first female graduates of the Naval Academy, Mary served 25 years on active duty, mostly in Asia, leading multi-cultural teams in nine countries. Her remarkable career of service included working as an intelligence officer, a chief of police, an HR director, and a chief of staff, as well as training more than 40,000 military personnel. Mary has been a leadership and economics professor at the Naval Academy, the Air Force Academy, and Hawaii Pacific University. She has written 13 business and personal development books, including her latest, Better in 52 Weeks: Action Steps to a Better Business and Better Life, available now from Sound Wisdom. This article originally appeared here and has been edited for inclusion on The Sound Wisdom Blog.

What Makes You Feel Wealthy? An Exclusive Look at the Think and Grow Rich Guided Journal

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Napoleon Hill’s foundational personal development book, Think and Grow Rich, is prefaced with the question “WHAT DO YOU WANT MOST? Is It Money, Fame, Power, Contentment, Personality, Peace of Mind, Happiness?” 

In order to follow and obtain results from Hill’s success system, which provides a path for conditioning the mind to attain the riches one desires, you must first decide what wealth means to you. Indeed, Hill uses the word “riches” in its broadest sense—to mean that which adds great value to one’s life; that which confers abundance.  

As you begin your journey to think and grow rich, spend time determining what form(s) of wealth you are pursuing. As a guide, Hill categorizes the greatest forms of wealth into the “The Twelve Riches of Life”: 

1. A Positive Mental Attitude 

2. Sound Physical Health  

3. Harmony in Human Relationships  

4. Freedom from Fear 

5. The Hope of Achievement 

6. The Capacity for Faith 

7. Willingness to Share One’s Blessings 

8. A Labor of Love 

9. An Open Mind on All Subjects 

10. Self-Discipline 

11. The Capacity to Understand People 

12. Economic Security 

Take some time now to reflect on what you want most in life. Which of the Twelve Great Riches do you most desire? Why do you think that form of wealth will enrich your life the most? 

To get started, you might ask yourself… 

• What is my own personal definition of “wealth”? 

• Is wealth a feeling, a mental attitude, a behavior, an experience, or a combination of these? 

• Is wealth something to spend, enjoy, share, or a combination of these? 

• What makes me feel wealthy? Examples: having a fully stocked refrigerator, having control over when and how I work, having a zero balance on my credit cards 

• When I picture myself enjoying wealth, what does that look like? 

• What inspires me to pursue wealth? 

Your journey to wealth, however you define it, can be supported by the new Think and Grow Rich Guided Journal, an official publication of the Napoleon Hill Foundation that offers 52 weeks of inspirational content, journaling prompts, and action activities to help you Think and Grow Rich. 

Get the new Think and Grow Rich Guided Journal from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other fine retailers, and discover a full year of inspirational content and journaling activities based on the success fundamentals that form Napoleon Hill’s philosophy of personal achievement, as presented in Think and Grow Rich. Each success principle is broken down into key behaviors, thoughts, and attitudes so that you can focus on building one new mental habit each week. This beautiful guided journal will keep you committed to eradicating negative thoughts and taking full control of your mind so that you can achieve your definite major purpose in life.

The Courage to Fail by Dee M. Robinson

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There was a time, years ago, when you got around on your hands and knees. And you were fine with that. It worked. Most of the time, you got where you wanted to go.  

But one day, the people around you started doing the strangest thing. They began holding you up in such a way that you had to stand on your own two feet. It seemed impossible at first for you to maintain your balance, even when you held on to someone’s hand.  

You failed. You fell. And fell. And fell again. But eventually you got the hang of it. Kind of. 

Then the people around you—never satisfied—started trying to get you to take a step forward while you were balanced, precariously, on those tiny feet of yours. You thought they were kidding at first. But they just wouldn’t stop bugging you about this. They’d stand you up in a place where you couldn’t hold on to anything for support, then move away from you, then beckon for you to move toward them! 

Were they crazy? You just got the standing thing down! 

But they kept this up for long enough that eventually you thought you might as well give it a try. So you tried taking a step.  

And you failed. You fell. And fell. And fell again. 

It hurt to fall down. And you had to do it dozens, maybe hundreds of times before you finally managed a queasy forward step or two. Truth be told, it was a little like falling. But you managed to stay on your feet. And pretty soon, you were walking, with total confidence, four or five or even six steps at a time. 

Every step you took was the result of failure. Every step you take now is a testament to your ability to learn from those failures. 

Moral: Even your “biggest” failure contains the seeds for your greatest success…as long as you are willing to notice the lessons and learn from the experience. 

Dee M. Robinson is an entrepreneurial leader who leverages strategic thinking to find innovative solutions that scale businesses. In 1995, she founded Robinson Hill, a concessions management firm specializing in retail and restaurants at airports and other nontraditional venues. In everything she does personally and professionally, she strives to help others and shorten the runway to success, empower people and organizations to overcome fear and limitations, and elevate their thinking about what is possible. Her new book, Courage By Design: Ten Commandments +1 for Moving Past Fear to Joy, Fulfillment, and Purpose, is available on November 15, 2022 from Sound Wisdom.

Quiet Quitting by Jim Stovall

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Recently, there’s been a phenomenon arising throughout social media that has come to be known as quiet quitting. As in most things, there are two sides to the story.  There are people who simply do the minimum required by their job and will not consider achieving anything above and beyond the role they were hired to do. Then, there are those people who reject the notion of being required to do extra work without extra pay, recognition, or overtime compensation. 

First and foremost, I would say all employers should treat employees the way they, themselves, would like to be treated. We succeed in business by providing quality goods and services to our customers, and that cannot happen without fully engaged and committed employees. 

For workers, the concept of quiet quitting can be counterproductive and even harmful. Beyond the fact that you are hurting the organization you work for, you are hurting yourself. I’ve long believed that the way we do anything is the way we do everything. You can’t expect to have a mediocre, lackluster, or minimal performance in your career and then expect to have a great personal life or family life. 

I’m a huge fan of the transformational writer Napoleon Hill. One of his most impactful success principles involves going the extra mile. Dr. Hill did not advise his followers to exceed expectations merely so they would do work for which they were not specifically paid. On the contrary, he believed that going the extra mile represented the key to professional and personal success and happiness. The quickest way to get a better job is to do a better job. 

Whether you’re an employee or an entrepreneur, financial success often comes down to doing work you don’t get paid for so that someday you get paid for work you didn’t do. Regardless of their motives, those individuals who associate with the quiet quitters and are publicly posting online need to remember that we become like the people we hang around with and that current employers, future employers, and associates follow social media, too. 

It’s very important that we all thoughtfully consider how we identify ourselves and how we present ourselves to the world. The concept of doing the least possible to just get by will not serve you or those around you well. 

As you go through your day today, go the extra mile and reap the rewards. 

Jim Stovall is the president of Narrative Television Network as well as a published author of many books. He is also a columnist and motivational speaker. Follow him on Twitter (@stovallauthor) or Facebook (@jimstovallauthor). His new book, Words That Shaped Our World: Legendary Voices of History: Quotes That Changed How We Think, What We Do, and Who We Are, coauthored with Kathy Johnson, is now available for preorder from Sound Wisdom. 

What to Think about BEFORE All-Employee Meetings by Alyson Van Hooser

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Team building can be significantly impacted during all-employee meetings. Usually, leaders have great intentions and hopes when conducting these team meetings. 

They want to make sure everyone feels celebrated, and they want to be transparent in sharing information. 

 However, sometimes the after-effects of the meeting are less than ideal for team building. 

To avoid unnecessary consequences and negative team building results, watch this episode of The Man & The Millennial Show for what to think about BEFORE your next all-employee meeting. 

Alyson Van Hooser is a leadership keynote speaker and trainer on millennials, Gen Z, and women in business. With the grit that comes only from tough experiences, Alyson has learned a thing or two about personal and professional success. From her management experience with Walmart, as an elected city council member, bank manager—all before the age of 30—Alyson has wisdom well beyond her years! Her latest book, coauthored with Phillip Van Hooser, is Accelerate Your Success: 30-Day Journey to Elevate Your Performance & Fuel Your Professional Growth. Connect with Alyson on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Crack the Code on the Biggest Challenge Facing Business Today by Meridith Elliott Powell

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What if I told you that today’s uncertainty can actually lead to opportunity and growth? What if I told you that disruption, even when negative, can be just what you need to take your company and team to the next level? And what if I told you that when you embrace uncertainty, it can positively drive innovation, employee engagement, and bottom-line results?  

Now, what if I told you that if you don’t address uncertainty; if as a leader, you don’t address the issue, the elephant in the room; if you don’t have a plan and a strategy for turning uncertainty into opportunity, then the three most important areas of your company—innovation, talent, engagement, bottom-line results will actually be negatively impacted? 

Now, what if I told you that inside this ground-breaking research report is the answer to those questions and the key to turning uncertainty into your greatest competitive advantage? 

Click here to download our 2022/2023 original research on The State of Uncertainty and Its Impact On American Business Today. 

In my 2021/2022 report, I presented research and data I commissioned from The Center for Generational Kinetics (CGK) and shared with you:  

• The influence of uncertainty in business, including the resulting emerging challenges  

• How top leaders navigate this uncertainty  

• A proven 9-step formula you and your team can use to leverage uncertainty, creating immediate opportunities and long-term sustainable growth. 

In this new report for 2022/2023, I compare several data points to last year’s data, giving you unique year-over-year insight into whether your competitors are evolving or missing the boat in this time of prolonged uncertainty. With this apples-to-apples comparison, you can identify early trends and patterns your company can leverage to thrive in a constantly changing market.  

I also reveal and analyze our new findings for 2022/2023, including the powerful impact uncertainty has on the biggest challenges facing business today:  

• Sales and marketing 

• Business innovation 

• Talent recruitment, engagement, and retention 

I uncover how your company can transform uncertainty into opportunity in all of these areas. I give you tools for ensuring uncertainty doesn’t negatively impact your organization in these areas, costing you bottom-line results. I also guide you through the three vital phases your company must complete to respond successfully to any crisis.   

As they did in the previous study, CGK gathered data for 2022/2023 from personal interviews, surveys, and focus groups comprised of business leaders across a broad spectrum of industries, tenures, ages, genders, and experience levels. Since the last report, the world has changed even more. Although Covid is still (and probably will always be) a part of our everyday lives, the pandemic is over for all intents and purposes. It’s no longer front and center in the discussion of uncertainty. Inflation, supply chain issues, as well as exhaustion from continued and never-ending uncertainty, and global unrest have taken over. 

The results show how being ready for uncertainty is more vital than ever for businesses and leaders. And they also show a few surprises, like how certain types of leaders have changed their perspective and how that change is impacting their companies.  

Overall, uncertainty remains one of the greatest opportunities for people who know how to use it. It’s a secret weapon for your organization, clients, and team—but only if you shift how you think, feel, and—most importantly—act towards uncertainty.  

In this report, I help you do just that. I analyze uncertainty on a deep level, present ways for you to develop a strong strategy for capitalizing on it, and give you tools for engaging your team in executing that strategy. 

Uncertainty will always be a constant force, but it’s becoming a stronger and more frequent presence year after year. You must be able to use it to your advantage—or risk being passed by in the marketplace. 

Meridith Elliott Powell is a business strategist, keynote speaker, and award-winning author with expertise in business growth, sales, and leadership strategies. She was named One of the Top 15 Business Growth Experts to Watch by Currency Fair and One of the Top 20 Sales Experts To Follow by LinkedIn. Thrive Workbook & Guided Journal—now available from Sound Wisdom—equips businesses, teams, and leaders to leverage uncertainty to drive innovation and organizational growth.

How to Put Your Next Guilt Trip in Its Proper Place by Karen Allen

Photo by Verne Ho on Unsplash

Tell me if any of these sound familiar… 

You spend an afternoon with a really toxic person in your life and realize you really need to set some boundaries and maybe even cut them out of your life.  

But when they call you a week later, you find yourself thinking, They really need me. I can’t just abandon them. 

You spend 20 minutes thinking about how much you really need a massage. Maybe you even go online to set up an appointment.  

But eventually you find yourself thinking, I shouldn’t spend that much money on myself right now, and you scrap the plan. 

You’ve been working overtime at work, trying to help the team, but it’s been wearing you down. You decide you need to step back and start clocking out earlier.  

But as the work piles up on your desk, you tell yourself, We should be onboarding the new hire in a few weeks. I don’t want to let the team down. I can hold out a little longer. 

Trust me, if you recognize any of these scenarios, you are not alone. 

But, WHY??? Why do we feel guilty for doing what’s best for us? 

To unpack this, first let’s start with the definition of guilt. Here’s what Merriam-Webster has to say: 

guilt (noun): a feeling of deserving blame for offenses 

Hold up. Go back and take a look at those scenarios again. 

WHAT OFFENSES do you see?? 🧐  

In every single one of those scenarios, you might feel guilty for just thinking about doing something. Then you let that guilt keep you from taking action because you're already anticipating whom you might hurt. 

It’s wild, but I’ve been there, I get it. We punish ourselves for even thinking about taking better care of ourselves. We talk ourselves out of necessary changes, we overanalyze every possible “what if,” we may even believe that wanting what’s right for ourselves is selfish.  

But you know what? That stops right here, right now. Because what you focus on gets bigger and it becomes your reality. The reality is you deserve what's best for you, and only YOU know what that is.  

“The reality is you deserve what's best for you, and only YOU know what that is.” —Karen Allen 

Release the guilt tied to disappointing others. When you focus on all the ways you might disappoint other people, you lose sight of all the positive ways that choice could impact your life. Where your attention goes, energy flows. So give your attention and energy to the things that reciprocate peace, joy, and health. 

When you STOP dwelling on how the decision might disappoint other people and SHIFT your attention to why this choice is good (maybe even downright necessary) for you, the good gets bigger. 

Either you’re going to make the false sense of guilt really big, or you’re going to make your peace and sanity really big. 

The choice is yours. 

Okay, so let’s go back to those oh-so-familiar scenarios. 

You’re thinking about pulling back from a toxic person in your life. Your first instinct is to worry about how they’ll react and sacrifice your sanity for their feelings. 

But if you STOP and SHIFT to thinking about how distancing yourself from this person would bring you peace of mind and free up the mental energy you spend on the relationship, that becomes the heart of your choice to do what’s best for you. 

You’re thinking about getting a massage. Your first instinct might be to think that there are lots of other ways you should spend that money. 

But if you STOP and SHIFT to thinking about how that money would support your mental health, that becomes the focal point of a good investment. 

You’re thinking about setting some firmer boundaries with your work schedule. Your first instinct is to think about how you’ll let down your boss or your coworkers. 

But if you STOP and SHIFT to thinking about how that time to decompress will help you have more energy and bring your best self to work, to your family, to your other commitments, that becomes the truth that grows. 

Now, listen, you might say, “But both of those things are true! Scaling back my work hours would disappoint my boss, AND it would help me get the rest that I need.” 

And of course you’d be right. The difference is where you put your focus. 

If you get distracted by guilt, remind yourself of the good things that can come out of this choice, too. Instead of feeling gripped by guilt, just keep gently pulling your focus back to the good. 

Guilt is like empty calories, friend. It serves no purpose. It’s not healthy for you. 

It fills you up for the moment, but in the end, it leaves you feeling hollow. 
So what's the answer?  

Be brave enough to do what’s best for you. 

Then and only then, will you be able to put guilt in its proper place.  

Karen Allen is a keynote and TEDx speaker, the founder of 100% HumanTM, and author of the book Stop & Shift: The Mindset Reset That Changes Everything, now available from Sound Wisdom. Karen began her career in human resources and talent acquisition, leading countless training sessions, new processes, and change initiatives. However, at a young age, she suddenly became a widow when her husband was tragically murdered. On the quest to rebuild her life, she discovered healthy habits and lifestyle changes that helped her find her way back to a whole heart and strong mind. Now, she shares practical advice and life-changing strategies that provide tangible results and skills—including her highly acclaimed Stop & Shift method, detailed in her new book—to help people push through the challenges we all face in life and work. This article originally appeared here on karenallen.co and has been edited for inclusion on The Sound Wisdom Blog.

Accountability Is the Answer to the Great Resignation by Sam Silverstein

Photo by Eric Prouzet on Unsplash

The Great Resignation is in full swing. People are quitting their jobs. It is rampant. But it is important to understand that people, for the most part, are not retiring. People are resigning from companies where they do not feel like they belong. They are resigning where they do not feel valued. They are resigning where they do not connect to the organization’s mission. They are resigning when they are not connected to a group of peers. They are resigning when they do not feel like they are being developed and grown for future opportunities. People are resigning when they cannot work remotely or build their work life into their lifestyle. 

The list goes on and on. Mostly people want to be valued, be a part of something, and live a fulfilled life. When they do not, the Great Resignation comes into play. What many workers find out is that when they resign because of money and go somewhere else the grass certainly isn’t greener. I always advise people to leave an organization with a weak culture. For the most part, do not leave for money. When you go someplace for money, you will, many times, find yourself in an environment where you are not happy. 

So, what does this all mean for the leader who is fighting the Great Resignation? It means you better have your culture right. During the pandemic we found that the organizations that excelled were the ones who had strong, positive, sustainable workplace cultures. The ones that did not, suffered greatly. This still holds true through the Great Resignation. 

People do not leave organizations where they feel valued, developed, a part of a community, and connected to the mission of the organization. People leave when leaders believe that people are simply a means to an end. And most of the leaders that treat people this way do not even realize they are doing it. 

How does your culture shape up? Do you have an annual workplace culture assessment tool that you use to get real data on what is going on inside your organization. If you do not have real data, how can you address real problems? 

The accountable leader puts their people first, makes sure that all decisions are made with the people’s interest in mind as well as the future of the organization, and ensures that everyone has a voice that is heard. 

When an accountable leader would rather die than let their people down, then the people would rather die than let that leader down. It always comes down to relationships. When you create a workplace culture that truly values people then the people value the organization, and the Great Resignation is not even in their vocabulary. 

Sam Silverstein is dedicated to empowering people to live accountable lives, transform the way they do business, and create a more accountable world. He helps companies create an organizational culture that prioritizes and inspires accountability. His latest book—The Accountability Advantage—is available for preorder from Sound Wisdom. You can follow Sam on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Time Thieves by Jim Stovall

Photo by Morgan Housel on Unsplash

Throughout my 40-year business career, there has been a proliferation of books, videos, and training courses on the subject of time management. Any number of experts will take your attention, effort, and money to fulfill the mission of helping you to manage your time. Managing time is as absurd a concept as managing the weather. You can’t control the weather. At best, you can prepare by equipping yourself with an umbrella, a warm coat, or rain gear. Whether you prepare or not, the weather will do what it’s going to do, and whether or not you and I are organized or productive, there will always be 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, and seven days each week. 

Once we understand that we can’t control time, we face the ongoing challenge of controlling ourselves. Controlling how we utilize time is difficult because we are forever confronted with time thieves. These are the people, activities, and distractions that gobble up our minutes, hours, and days. 

It’s important to realize that you cannot judge what is an appropriate utilization of your time unless you have a specific objective and a definite goal. A goal is a dream with a time limit and an action plan. Without a deadline and a plan to reach your objective, you don’t have a goal; you simply have a wish. Once you’ve established a firm goal, you can then begin to control yourself and your efforts within the context of your daily schedule. Even after you’ve established a firm goal and an action plan of how to achieve it, the time thieves will not leave you alone. In fact, they may increase their efforts to distract you.  

“A goal is a dream with a time limit and an action plan.” —Jim Stovall 

As you go through your day today, set your goals, control your activities, and time will reward you. 

Today’s the day! 

Jim Stovall is the president of Narrative Television Network as well as a published author of many books. He is also a columnist and motivational speaker. Follow him on Twitter (@stovallauthor) or Facebook (@jimstovallauthor). His latest book, coauthored with Greg S. Reid, is Passport to Success: Experience Next Level Living, now available wherever books are sold.

Stay Grounded in the Grind by Alyson Van Hooser

Photo by Adam Winger on Unsplash

I don’t believe anybody’s true purpose in life is to serve themselves. Instead, I think our purpose is rooted in serving others. We begin a life well-lived, full of meaning, contentment, and no regrets when we use our gifts and calling to achieve success through serving others. 

But if we’re not careful, we’ll get wrapped up in “achieving” our purpose—or “doing our job”—and completely lose sight of the object of our purpose—other people. 

The Grind Plays Like This 

It usually plays out like this… 

We figure out our gifts and line them up with opportunities to serve. For example, I do that through speaking, training, and writing. You may do that through sharing products or services to help others achieve their goals, or teaching others about what you know, or using your gifts to help in someone else’s business, whatever your job or hustle may be… 

Then, in order to make sure we do those things well, we make to-do lists of everything we must do. Productivity, right? We start tracking all our daily tasks, steps to accomplish the goal. We make sure we are getting our job done. And in the pursuit of productivity, we miss our purpose. Our priorities get out of balance. 

How do you stay grounded to your purpose in the midst of the daily grind at work? Here are three ways. 

As you plan your day or week, add these three action items to your to-do list so at week’s end, you’ve done more than work to take care of yourself…instead, your cup will be filled by pouring into others. 

1. Celebrate Someone 

Celebrating is all about reinforcing who and what is most important. For the person on the receiving end, it feels good to have someone reinforce that they are important. For you, it focuses your mind on selfless actions which creates a much more meaningful existence. 

There’s always a reason to celebrate. Holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries, of course. But there are also national holidays like National Pizza Day—who wouldn’t love being surprised with free food?! You can celebrate summer break, a professional achievement, or simply just because. 

2. Serve Someone 

Everyone has hard things they’re dealing with in their life. Pick someone, a coworker, customer, friend, family member—someone you can serve. Then think of a way to serve them. Clean their house, play with their kids so they can go out, mow their yard, make them dinner, plan something fun for them to do, etc.   

Serving others is not about what’s convenient for you. Serving others is about giving them a leg up when they’re struggling. Whether you know them personally or not, who can you help this week? 

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3. Strengthen Someone 

Empowering others is key to everyone living out their calling. How can you use your words, actions, time, and other resources to strengthen someone else this week? Maybe you make time to stop by someone’s desk to speak life and encouragement into them. It could mean you choose to say “yes” to the person who has asked you to mentor them—it’s your turn to strengthen them with your knowledge. It could be a handwritten note that simply says, “I believe in you.” How can you empower someone to live up to their full potential? Something as simple as that may help someone else turn a corner into a better, brighter future. 

Grinding for the Greater Good 

When we realize this life is not about me, but about us—helping another to crush their personal goals—we all arrive in a better place. Keep your intentions pure, focus on serving others, and then the grind will be better balanced because you’re serving the greater good. 

Alyson Van Hooser is a leadership keynote speaker and trainer on millennials, Gen Z, and women in business. With the grit that comes only from tough experiences, Alyson has learned a thing or two about personal and professional success. From her management experience with Walmart, as an elected city council member, bank manager—all before the age of 30—Alyson has wisdom well beyond her years! Her latest book, coauthored with Phillip Van Hooser, is Accelerate Your Success: 30-Day Journey to Elevate Your Performance & Fuel Your Professional Growth. Connect with Alyson on LinkedIn and Instagram. 

This ONE Life Hack Will Absolutely Make Your Life Better by Karen Allen

Photo by Allef Vinicius on Unsplash

Let me tell you, friends, I love a good life hack. 

I mean, we’re all looking for the easiest, fastest, and the most effective way to approach our tasks and our responsibilities, right? We’re all doing our best to simplify our lives and focus on what really matters.  

Well, I’ve got a life hack that will instantly make every single aspect of your life better. You ready for it? 

Learn how to handle hard, because if you always expect easy, life will always be hard. 

I’m just gonna give you a minute to sit with that, friend.  

. 

. 

. 

Okay, you back with me? I know that was a serious truth bomb to drop on you. 

But seriously, my biggest life hack is investing your energy in learning how to handle hard things. Because when we are prepared for challenges, navigating them becomes so much easier.  

I’m not being cynical here. I’m encouraging you to be prepared. 

I don’t want you to read this rule and think this means that you should always expect the worst or that you need to prepare for the worst-case scenario. 

In fact, this is just the opposite of that kind of catastrophizing. 

See, when you’re preparing for the worst-case scenario, you’ve got your energy focused on one possible set of negative outcomes. You’re focused on trying to prevent those imaginary scenarios from becoming reality.  

That’s wasted energy, friend. Because when that one worst-case doesn’t become reality (and let’s face it, they usually don’t), then all of your planning was wasted. 

 I don’t want you to waste your energy. 

 I want you to make a solid investment in honing your skills. Learn how to navigate the hard times so that when they surprise you (and let’s face it, they usually do), you’ll be able to respond effectively to the reality of the situation. 

 Here’s one way to think about it… 

 Imagine you’ve got a goal of running a marathon sometime next year. You haven’t made any concrete plans yet, but it’s something that’s on the horizon, and you want to start preparing. 

Would you look up every marathon route in your state, then visit each one to check out the finish line so that you can avoid any mistakes in your final sprint?  

 Would you start tracking the weather for the next 12 months to see whether or not you should train in extreme conditions?  

 Would you start stocking up on mole skin in case you get a blister the day of the race? 

 No way, right? 

 None of that would actually help you prepare for the huge challenge of running 26.2 miles.  

In fact, it would distract you from the kind of preparation you really need to do. 

Your energy would be much better spent if you used it to work out a training plan or make healthy changes to your diet to support your goals or set up regular massages to help your muscles recover as you ramp up your workouts. 

That’s the kind of prep work that will really help you get ready for the challenges you might face on race day, right? 

And even if you end up changing your mind about doing a marathon, none of that prep work would really have been wasted. You’ll still have taken steps that would improve your physical and mental health. 

So when I say that the best way to make your life easier is to prepare for hard times, I mean start working on the big-picture skills that will help you navigate them, so that no matter what life throws your way, you’ll know that you’re prepared ride that wave. 

You know I’m here for productive, positive actions, so here are three strategies to help you build the skills to handle hard (and resources to help get you started with your practice): 

Proactively Cultivate Inner Peace 

When hard times hit, it’s easy to get caught up in the external turmoil. Knowing how to make inner calm and equanimity your default setting is how you create space from that turmoil and step into a clear mindset before acting.  

That may sound like total woo. I mean, who defaults to calm when they’re confronted with overwhelming, frustrating, earth-shattering news? The answer is “the people who practice.”  

When life gets hard, I want you to be able to immediately touch base with the peace that resides within you. Because that’s how you respond to hard things most effectively.  

Sure, anger, worry, or overwhelm might feel like it’s the natural response to stress. But when things get hard, we need to be able to make our best decisions, and we can do that most effectively when we’re clear-headed.  

One great way to cultivate and build that internal calm is meditation. Meditation helps you learn how to shift into that mindset. Practicing regularly at times when you’re not feeling stressed allows you to build the muscle memory you need to do it when life gets hard. 

Build Recovery into Your Schedule 

I know that most of the people in this beautiful community are high-achievers. We like to do good things well; it’s our default state. 

But if we want to bring our best to those meaningful moments—whether that’s a fun project or a world-changing work project—we need to honor what science tells us about how we’re wired.  

And the research is very clear—we can’t keep going, going, going indefinitely. Our minds and our bodies will burn out, and that’s never conducive to handling hardship.  

We don’t want to face tough times when we’re running on fumes.  

We can never know what’s ahead; we don’t have a crystal ball that will tell us what’s on the horizon whether we’re facing a tough day, a tough chapter, or a tough season.  

So the best thing we can do is to make sure that we’re getting proactively giving ourselves time to rest so that we’re prepared for those unexpected challenges. 

Build rest and recovery into the rhythm of your life so that when that when hard happens, we will have the energy that we need to really face it.  

And not only that, learning how to rest will teach us tools that will help us navigate those tough times so that we know when we need to press and when we need to pause. 

Know When to Phone a Friend 

If anyone struggles with asking for help, it’s your girl right here. Yeap, this girl, the one who is about to tell you how important it is to reach out to your community of support when you need them.  

I’m telling you this because I know what a game-changer it is.  

Calling in your support network isn’t about dumping your hard stuff on other people. It’s leaning into those who love you.  

Because when we feel supported, and when we feel loved, it helps us to stay connected to the good.  

The people we love don’t need to carry our burdens for us, and they don’t need to solve our problems. But trusting them to give you the warmth, care, and compassion you need reminds you of the things that are good in your world.  

No matter what chaos or pain we’re experiencing, when we reach out to those we love, we remember that there are pockets of love all around us. We get a reminder that the entire world isn’t chaos and pain.  

When we practice reaching out to others during the easy times, those connections become a lifeline for us during the hard times. 

We can’t control what life will send our way, friends. And that can feel like a scary thing to accept. It can make us feel powerless. 

But once you do, you’ll be able to step into your real power. You may not be able to control the world around you, but you have everything you need within you to weather any storm and to rise above. 

Karen Allen is a keynote and TEDx speaker, the founder of 100% HumanTM, and author of the book Stop & Shift: The Mindset Reset That Changes Everything, available from Sound Wisdom on September 20, 2022. Karen began her career in human resources and talent acquisition, leading countless training sessions, new processes, and change initiatives. However, at a young age, she suddenly became a widow when her husband was tragically murdered. On the quest to rebuild her life, she discovered healthy habits and lifestyle changes that helped her find her way back to a whole heart and strong mind. Now, she shares practical advice and life-changing strategies that provide tangible results and skills—including her highly acclaimed Stop & Shift method, detailed in her new book—to help people push through the challenges we all face in life and work. This article originally appeared here on karenallen.co and has been edited for inclusion on The Sound Wisdom Blog.

Taking Stock by Jim Stovall

Photo by micheile dot com on Unsplash

I have written more than 50 books and well over a thousand of these syndicated columns that appear in newspapers, magazines, and online publications around the world. Every book and each column, including the one you’re reading now, has my contact information. You can imagine how many calls and email inquiries I receive. People often have questions about business, careers, relationships, education, and success, but the most frequent topic my readers want to focus on seems to be personal finance and investments. 

Inevitably, any discussion involving long-term investing touches upon the stock market. Most investors know, and financial experts agree, that long-term, the stock market is an investment worthy of consideration. While I have always believed in and profited from the stock market, please remember that it may not be wise to invest money in equities or common stock if you need those funds within the next five years. The vast majority of five-year periods throughout the stock market’s history have been favorable. However, if you’re investing for a year, a month, or a day, it can be very volatile and risky. Overall, I know that the weather will be generally hot in August, but if I’m betting on one specific day, it’s impossible to predict. 

United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld once said, “There are unknown unknowns, there are known unknowns, and there are known knowns.” This philosophy is not only true in geopolitical matters but can help explain the stock market. 

When we think of unknown unknowns, we refer to things like pandemics, civil unrest, earthquakes, and other unpredictable external factors. While these events certainly impact the stock market since they are not predictable, we can only address them by staying invested for the long term and allowing the market to recover. 

When we think of known unknowns, they involve recessions, political campaigns, and seasonal marketplace events. We know that there is generally a year-end rally in the stock market, and the retail sector does well during the holiday season. If we invest for a five- or ten-year period, these factors become a non-event. 

When we think of known knowns, we generally refer to things we control, such as the approximate date we want to retire, when our kids will be going to college, how much we invest, and other predictable life events. If we think of the stock market as a small child climbing a set of stairs while playing with a yo-yo, we will have a powerful visual reminder. If we focus on the yo-yo, we will likely be nervous and stressed. But if we remain focused on the child as they slowly climb up the stairs, we will feel positive about our financial future. 

As you go through your day today, focus on what you know and stop worrying about the unknowable. 

Today’s the day! 

Jim Stovall is the president of Narrative Television Network as well as a published author of many books. He is also a columnist and motivational speaker. Follow him on Twitter (@stovallauthor) or Facebook (@jimstovallauthor). His latest book, coauthored with Greg S. Reid, is Passport to Success: Experience Next Level Living, now available wherever books are sold.

5 Strategies to Create a Structure for Your Sales Calls That Gets Results by Meridith Elliott Powell

Photo by Magnet.me on Unsplash

A sales call is a privilege that every sales professional needs to take seriously. The most important thing a business owner has is their time, and you need to make the most of it. Remember, a sales call is not something these leaders grant to everyone. So take it seriously, and go into the sales call with a well-structured plan. 

Whether your business owner has gifted you an hour or just fifteen minutes for the call, you want to ensure you maximize your time and, more importantly, theirs. You need a structure to squeeze as much out of the time as you can.  

Every sale call with a leader, whether it is a cold call or a follow-up call where you hope to close the deal, should be well-designed and focused on the desired result. Here’s a great plan to follow when developing your sales call structure.  

5 Strategies to Create a Structure That Gets Results 

1. First, you want to set the stage – think about how the sales call needs to look and how you want it to flow. Will it be in person or virtual? If in person, are they coming to you, are you going to them, or will you meet them for lunch or coffee? 

If virtual, you’ll want to consider which technology to use and what your video setting will look like.  

Also, start to think about who needs to be involved in the sales call from your side as well as theirs. 

2. Next, you’ll want to create the agenda – so you have a feel for how the call will flow and as a gesture of confidence to your business owner. Providing them with an agenda lets them know what to expect and that this is a good use of their time.  

When you put together the agenda, share it; let the business owner know whom they should ask to attend from their company and who will be attending (position, title, role) from your company. If in person, over lunch or coffee, share the address and parking instructions. If on video, share the technology and the expectation that their video needs to be on. 

3. Now it is time to Craft the Conversation – design how you see it flowing and the steps you will take to cover all the information you want and need to be addressed. How will you open the call and establish rapport? What background information can you present to ensure you show that you understand the industry, the executive, and the challenges?  

What questions do you need to ask to deepen the conversation and gather the information that you need? How will you close the conversation and be respectful of their time? 

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4. Be mindful and thoughtful of your transitions – these are key; remember your time is limited, and you most likely have a lot of ground to cover. So how will you transition from one subject to another? How will you quickly move from building rapport into the heart of the conversation? If the business owner goes off on a tangent, what will you do to bring them back on track? Thinking ahead and planning your transitions during the call will ensure you are prepared and can keep to your agenda. 

5. Last but not least, don’t be too rigid – while structure is important, this is also a sales conversation. When the business owner gives you an opening or brings up a new idea, don’t be so structured that you miss an opportunity. 

Again, a sales call is a privilege. Use your time wisely and effectively. Structuring the sales calls allows you to be prepared, confident, and secure that you can maximize the time you have to engage with the business owner and create a result that is valuable for both of you.  

Meridith Elliott Powell is a business strategist, keynote speaker, and award-winning author with expertise in business growth, sales, and leadership strategies. She was named One of the Top 15 Business Growth Experts to Watch by Currency Fair and One of the Top 20 Sales Experts To Follow by LinkedIn. Discover more critical sales strategies in her book 30 Days to Sales Success: Build More Profitable Relationships, Close More Sales, Drive More Business.

Empathy Can Help You Wake Up Wealthier by Alyson Van Hooser

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

Headlines everywhere are claiming that empathy is an important LEADERSHIP skill. But that’s not quite right. It’s a necessary SUCCESS skill. If we choose to change our mindset regarding empathy, it might just be the catalyst for a more successful future for you! 

I am on a sold-out mission to show the world—to show you—the undeniable power of empathy and how it can transform your personal and professional success. 

Don’t get me wrong—I don’t believe in get-rich-quick schemes. Instead, over my lifetime, I’ve discovered that empathy can help you lead better, sell more, connect deeper, and ultimately, quite literally, wake up wealthier every single day. 

Whether we’re talking about navigating conflict, building a stronger team, selling more products and services, shifting a culture, improving communication, making better decisions, becoming more innovative, mending a broken relationship, earning trust and respect, etc., I’ve discovered that a simple choice to start with empathy can transform the outcome in the best way. In today’s blog, I’ll give you a brief example or two of just how a simple choice can help you wake up wealthier! 

Three Types of Wealth 

There are three ways I believe we can measure wealth. 

RELATIONSHIPS 

Your first thought might be money. And yes, that’s one way to measure wealth. However, it’s not the most meaningful way. 

I believe the most meaningful way to measure wealth in this life is in the quality of the relationships we build with other people. If you talk to anyone who has lived a long, fulfilling life and asked them what the key to their happiness and contentment is—their overwhelming answer would be the deep connections they’ve built with the people they did life with at work or home, with their friends, family, and their community. If you want to have a rich life, you must invest in your relationships. 

IMPACT 

The second way to measure wealth in your life is in the impact you make either now or for the future. If you leave this world a better place for others, you might just find that is exactly what fills your soul and fulfills your purpose. 

FINANCES 

The third, most common way to measure wealth is from a financial perspective. Whether you’re trying to influence someone to buy more, to stay longer, or perform better…your ability to perform well can have a direct effect on just how financially wealthy you become. 

Whether you measure your wealth in terms of the quality of your relationships, the level of impact you make, the number in your bank account, or a combination of all three, if you want to wake up wealthier every day, hands down, start with empathy. 

How to Make Empathy Work for Everyone 

When most people think of empathy, they think of kindness and compassion. Not me. And from this point forward, I hope you don’t either.  

The benefits of compassion and kindness can sometimes only be one-sided. However, choosing empathy from the beginning allows you to create better results for everyone involved. 

The value of empathy is rooted in uncovering prioritized needs and being able to think like someone else. If you can learn to uncover the most important needs of someone else and think like them, then you give yourself the opportunity to create a unique roadmap to a more impactful result for both parties. 

Empathy is a top success skill. It must be developed. When you can think like someone else and choose to meet their needs first, then you can lead better, sell more, and connect deeper. All of which lead to better outcomes for all involved. 

Servant Heart vs. Empathetic Mind 

I told you I’d give you an example of how empathy can help you become wealthier. Here’s one example from an “impact” perspective. Here you’ll see that empathy was not used first, and the maximum impact was not realized in the end. 

Servant leadership became mainstream in the 1970s and is now widely accepted and practiced today. Leading with a servant’s heart is important; however, leading with an empathetic mind is critical for maximum impact.  

Leading with a “Servant’s Heart” is important; however, leading with an “Empathetic Mind” is critical. —Alyson Van Hooser 

An F4 tornado ripped through my community at about 10:00 pm several months ago. Before the sun had risen, semi-trucks full of bottled water were headed our way. Standing on my back porch, I could see a local church parking lot filling with pallets of bottled water for the next several days. So many kind, generous people from literally across the world wanted to help, to make a positive difference. They knew people were struggling here in Kentucky and had lost everything. They know that water is essential. So, with a servant’s heart, people gave their own time and resources to help. All who witnessed the generosity or was a beneficiary of it are still so deeply grateful, including me.  

Several days passed after the tornado hit, and a disconnect became obvious to me. This was a familiar situation…one where we had incredibly compassionate, kind, servant leaders who were exhausting their resources to help and serve people by giving clean water. However, the donors weren’t making the positive impact they’d hoped for. Even months after the natural disaster, buildings were filled with donated goods and community leaders struggled to freely give it all away. Through social media and word of mouth, most of the appreciation and satisfaction that many expected to hear from the recipients of their generosity was instead drowned out by the droves of people that desperately needed different resources such as heaters, baby formula, bottles, shoes, furniture, and shelter. There were important needs that were unmet. Because of that, the impact that was intended was not realized. 

Oftentimes leaders are doing good work, but they’re not meeting the real need of their people. When that happens, leaders are often confused when they don’t get the response they thought they would from their people. I would suggest that what we have here is a lack of empathy. If we start with empathy, we save time, money, and maximize our return. 

If you want to connect deeper, lead better, sell more, make a bigger impact, make sure you’re actually serving the real need your people have. Don’t assume you know the need. You might have a bias you don’t even realize or be comparing their experience to your own—which may be totally different in reality. Get to know their story. Uncover their need. Serve their need first, then work better together going forward. You’ll see results so much faster if you start with empathy before you take action! 

The Transformational Power of Empathy 

If you want to improve your success from a relationship, impact, or financial perspective, focus on people’s needs. Maybe someone needs to feel as though they belong, as though you care, as though they’re respected, maybe they need a warm meal, a listening ear, etc. Start there, with empathy. 

From a leadership perspective, one example may be that if an employee is struggling to get out of bed in the morning because they’re depressed, and yet you’re offering free pizza and hybrid work options to boost morale and performance, you might be wasting your resources. Start with empathy. Get to know your people on a very real level. Uncover their unmet need that will lead to a transformational outcome. Make a decision that meets their need first. When you do that, you’ll eliminate a barrier to an authentic connection, which will give you permission to move forward toward the win-win outcome you crave. 

If you look at this from a sales perspective, one example may be that before you try to sell something, uncover the needs of your future customer. Maybe they need to know you’re honest, or that you’re not going to take advantage of them. It’s possible they need to talk to you at a certain time or to talk fast…or maybe slow down. Start with empathy. When you do that, you uncover exactly how you need to move forward so they will be more likely to buy from you. 

The transformational power of empathy lies in your ability to correctly uncover the most important needs people have and allows you to think like someone else. Empathy is a skill. It must be developed. When you’ve highly developed your ability to effectively empathize—to accurately uncover needs and think like someone else—THAT is how and when you begin to create your unique, extremely specific roadmap to success…ensuring every single day that either from a relationship, impact, or financial perspective, you can wake up wealthier. 

How are you making sure your skill of empathy is the best it can be? 

Alyson Van Hooser is a leadership keynote speaker and trainer on millennials, Gen Z, and women in business. With the grit that comes only from tough experiences, Alyson has learned a thing or two about personal and professional success. From her management experience with Walmart, as an elected city council member, bank manager—all before the age of 30—Alyson has wisdom well beyond her years! Her book Level Up: Elevate Your Game & Crush Your Goals is now available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, and other fine retailers. Connect with Alyson on LinkedIn and Instagram. This article originally appeared here on the Van Hooser Associates Leadership Blog and has been edited for inclusion on the Sound Wisdom Blog.

Delegating Effectively in 6 Steps by Phillip Van Hooser

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Delegating gets you (and others) ready for greater responsibilities and promotion, and it offers the organization greater continuity while minimizing the loss of talent. 

There is no perfect approach to delegating tasks. However, there are some steps in the delegation process that need to be clearly identified and clearly followed for delegating to be a win-win-win for your employee, the organization, and yourself. 

Following these six steps will help you ensure that you handle the conversation to delegate tasks the right way. 

Set the Stage 

Right up front, share what the vision, purpose, and end goals are for the task/s you’re delegating. 

This helps your people understand exactly what they are working toward, why it is important, and what success will look like. 

What, Not How  

Hear that very carefully. You don’t want to tell the person to whom you’re delegating how to do the job—that’s micromanagement, not delegating. 

But you do want him/her/they to know what the end result will look like. Do you want the results to be faster, cheaper, safer, or higher quality? Whatever it is, be specific. 

Stephen Covey, in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, said, “Begin with the end in mind.” Your people won’t know what the end should be unless you share it with them. 

What Are the Limits? 

In other words, don’t delegate a task to someone, let them go out with great excitement and enthusiasm, only to tell them later they overstepped important parameters. 

It is defeating to hear: 

“Oh, wait a minute, you can’t do that because we don’t have the time.” 

Or… 

“We don’t have the money to do that.” 

Or… 

“You can’t use those resources on this.” 

Right up front, tell them: 

“This is your task.” 

“The end results should look like this.” 

“And you are limited by these parameters (time, money, other resources, authority, etc.)” 

Did I Hear You Say… 

In the conversation to delegate tasks, a lot of information is shared all at once. It is the responsibility of the person delegating the tasks to ensure the message is heard and received correctly.   

If anyone messes that up, it’s the one doing the delegating—not the one receiving the assignment. 

The person you’re delegating to may be thinking, “I’m still thinking about number one and they’re already on number three. I don’t even know what was said about number two!”   

That’s not a bad thing! It’s likely your employee is excited about the process and their mind is whirling with ideas. But you’ve moved forward with additional steps and they may have missed important information along the way. 

For clarification, simply pause the conversation and ask: 

“Okay, I know I have given you a lot of information. Tell me what you have heard me say so I can make sure I have communicated clearly and correctly.” 

What they repeat back to you may be incorrect. Verbally take responsibility for not communicating clearly and then move forward with the correct information. 

That Gives Me an Idea… 

Back to those thoughts that were swirling in your employee’s mind… 

“I would like to hear some of your initial ideas for this particular project—what are your first thoughts?” 

Now, frankly, don’t expect too much, because you’ve just now delegated the project to them. But, even in the early stage of delegation, ideas surface. You want to have at least an idea of what they are thinking. 

But this is really important to keep in mind. 

Ask about their ideas and plans before you tell them what you think good plans would be. 

This way they feel freer to share their ideas. The point is, leaders should want their employees to feel free to share ideas and thoughts without hindering or hampering that flow. The delegation conversation can be a great place for that! 

Getting in on When 

When you delegate a task, create a completion date. I’m a big believer that whenever possible, it’s important to create a negotiated completion date. In other words, I’m assigning the responsibility; however, I want my employee to be in on identifying and determining what that completion date would be. 

For example, you can ask: 

“So when do you think you can have this task completed?” 

Allow them to respond and, if necessary, negotiate the timeline as needed. Also, include a midway follow-up meeting to discuss the progress of the project. This will ensure that no one is waiting until the last minute to start the task. 

Delegating in 6 Steps 

Using these six steps when delegating tasks and responsibilities truly makes delegation a collaborative effort! Give it a try and watch the success you, your people, and your organization realize! 

Phillip Van Hooser, CSP, CPAE is committed to helping organizations transform their business outcomes by building engaged employee relationships. He is an award-winning keynote speaker and author on engaged leadership and communication. To learn how to build influence and secure greater opportunities through effective professional communication, pick up a copy of his book Earning the Right to Be Heard. Connect with Phil on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Building an Exceptional Library by Jim Rohn

Photo by Alfons Morales on Unsplash

Below is an exclusive excerpt from the Sound Wisdom edition of The Art of Exceptional Living, available for purchase on August 16, 2022. Preorder it now from all major retailers. 

Having a good library will change your life. I would venture to say that every home worth more than $500,000 has a library. Why do you suppose that is? Wouldn’t that make you curious? Why would every expensive home have a library? Makes a person wonder, right? 

You may think, Well, I can’t afford a $500,000 home. It doesn’t matter what size home you have or what it’s worth. In your present home or apartment, clean out a closet and call it your library. Start the process, like I did. Start building a library that will increase your knowledge, wisdom, and intelligence. 

The books in your library will reveal that you’re a serious student of health and life, spirituality, culture, uniqueness, sophistication, economics, prosperity, productivity, sales, management, skills—values and characteristics of all kinds. 

My mentor Earl Shoaff helped me start my library. One of the first books he recommended was Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. 

He said to me, “Think and Grow Rich, doesn’t that title intrigue you? Don’t you have to read that book?” 

I said, “Yes, sir.” I found the book in a used bookstore; that’s where I had to start, in a used bookstore. I paid less than 50 cents for it and I still have it. It’s now one of the rare, hardback editions of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Wow! Shoaff was right.  

There are several key categories to have in your library that will nourish you in the most exceptional ways. These are the different courses—your mental food or food for thought—comprising your total healthy reading plan. It is so very important to nourish the mind—not just the body, but also the mind. Key phrase. The books in your library need to be well balanced. You can’t live on mental candy. Some may say, “Well, I just read books with positive content.” That’s too second grade. You have to promote yourself out of second grade. You can’t just be inspired, you have to be taught, you have to be educated. 

To read more, pick up a copy of Jim Rohn’s The Art of Exceptional Living, now available for preorder from Sound Wisdom. For more than 40 years, Rohn honed his craft like a skilled artist—helping people the world over sculpt life strategies that expanded their imagination of what is possible. Those who had the privilege of hearing him speak can attest to the elegance and common sense of his material. It is no coincidence, then, that he is still widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of our time, and thought of by many as a national treasure. He authored countless books and audio and video programs, and helped motivate and shape an entire generation of personal-development trainers and hundreds of executives from America's top corporations.