Design Yourself

Big change rarely happens in an instant. Transitions are a natural part of the process. Transitions can feel uncomfortable. How do you build up resistance to stick with it? What supports you in building momentum toward a new destination? That’s what we get into in this Design Yourself episode on Sitting in the Messy Middle.

Links and Resources:

For show notes visit:

https://pointroadstudios.com/podcast/sitting-in-the-messy-middle/ 

To connect on Linked In: 

@Sharon Lipovsky

@Point Road Studios 

To connect on Instagram:

@pointroadstudios

Rate, Review & Subscribe to the podcast on Apple & Spotify

1. Be clear on your why.
2. Partner on the HOW.
3. Stay present to what’s needed now.

• Design Yourself podcast on Partnering

Rarely can our dreams be realized in isolation. Partnering with others is a natural consequence of ambition. That doesn't mean it's easy. What makes for effective working relationships? What are the conditions that steward us to powerful teamwork? How do mutual accountability and productive conflict fit in?  We explore these questions and more in this episode focused on partnering and productive conflict.

Links and Resources:

For show notes visit:

https://pointroadstudios.com/podcast/partnering-and-productive-conflict/

To connect on Linked In: 

@Sharon Lipovsky

@Point Road Studios 

To connect on Instagram:

@pointroadstudios

Rate, Review & Subscribe to the podcast on Apple & Spotify

• Marie Kondo’s book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up”
• Patrick Lencioni’s model highlighting the conditions needed for effective teamwork: trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, results

Deep listening can change the world. Listening impacts so many things: Our understanding, our questions, and our connections to those around us. When we listen deeply, we light a spark for transformation.

But listening isn't easy. There are habits and culturally accepted practices that hold us back from really listening to understand. The good news is that you can create simple shifts to improve the quality of your listening and inspire others to do the same. 

This Design Yourself episode highlights 12 habits that prevent us from listening – including rehearsing, daydreaming, and placating. We invite you to see with a fresh perspective where your listening gets derailed and to make simple shifts to bring your attention back to listening to understand.

Links and Resources:

For show notes visit:

https://pointroadstudios.com/podcast/how-to-be-a-great-listener/

To connect on Linked In: 

@Sharon Lipovsky

@Point Road Studios 

To connect on Instagram:

@pointroadstudios

Rate, Review & Subscribe to the podcast on Apple & Spotify

You can download a summary PDF of the Listening Blocks and tips for being a great listener here.

Mind Reading – Assuming you know what the other person feels

Rehearsing – Planning what you want to say next

Filtering – Listening only for what’s relevant to you

Judging – Evaluating the speaker and what they say

Daydreaming  – Getting lost in your own thoughts

Identifying – Relating everything you hear in yourself

Advising – Listening to solve or direct

Sparring – Invalidating the speaker through argument or debate

Being Right – Resisting all communication that suggests you are wrong

Derailing – Changing the subject

Comparing – Trying to figure out how you compare to the speaker

Placating – Agreeing too quickly

Source: Messages: The Communication Skills Book by Matthew McKay, Ph.D., Martha Davis, Ph.D., and Patrick Fanning

• Which listening block shows up most frequently for me?
• What new awareness am I taking with me about the quality of my own listening as I learn about listening blocks?
• What’s one listening block that you could pay attention to this week to improve the quality of your conversations?
• What’s one thing you could pay attention to this week to improve the quality of your listening? (e.g. set aside technology; ask for a colleague to be your listening accountability partner in a specific meeting)

• Messages: The Communication Skills Book by Matthew McKay, Ph.D., Martha Davis, Ph.D., and Patrick Fanning
• Original Design Yourself episode on Listening Blocks

How we spend our days is how we spend our lives. Routine matters. It is a foundational building block that shapes what we do and how we do it. It seems simple enough: Make a choice each and every day to align with what matters. But it is not always that easy. How do you balance the short—and long-term priorities? How do you shift long-held routines that involve other people? We get into these questions and more as we discuss routines reimagined.

Links and Resources:

For show notes visit:

https://pointroadstudios.com/podcast/routines-reimagined/

To connect on Linked In: 

@Sharon Lipovsky

@Point Road Studios 

To connect on Instagram:

@pointroadstudios

Rate, Review & Subscribe to the podcast on Apple & Spotify

• How do we cultivate the eyes of a traveller when we don’t go anywhere at all?  
• How can we make mindfulness a way of being, even amidst habit and routine?  
• How do we remind ourselves of the unspoken choices we have everyday?  
• How do we act with courage as we make these choice – and own the life that these choices build?
• What’s working in my current routine?
• What would I like to change?
• What’s the ideal way for me to start my day? End my day?
• What small change could I make right now that would make a huge difference?

• “A New Chapter and Routines” – original post read aloud on this episode
• Design Yourself: Preparing for the Camino with Aimee Rowe
• Design Yourself: On the Road with Aimee Rowe
• Design Yourself: Walking the Camino (while pregnant!)

Leadership is an embodied act. When we feel good, it shows. So it is perhaps not surprising that many executives are curious about personal style. Some people savor the act of dressing as an opportunity for individual expression. Others prioritize efficiency and ways to save time in the morning. No matter what the motivation, there is one person Sharon refers her clients to time and time again: Natalie Tincher and her team at BU Style. So in this season of back to school and the changing of seasonal wardrobes, we take you back to this throwback interview with Natalie from 2018. We discuss everything from fast fashion and personal styling tips to how love and empowerment fuel everything Natalie does. We also learn about what some of the investments Natalie has made to scale her business including hiring her first employee and rebranding her business. This episode is a great fit for anyone who has ever wondered how to put your whole self into a thriving entrepreneurial business. It’s also a must-listen for anyone curious about the power of self-love and failing forward.

“I lead with my heart and love with everything in life. So I need everything I do with my clients to also feel that way.” – Natalie Tincher

Summer Series 2024 | Curated guidance and resources to guide and support you in making this season – and what follows – just what you wish it to be.

Stay Connected

For show notes visit:

https://pointroadstudios.com/podcast/style-from-the-i…-natalie-tincher/

To connect on Linked In: 

@Sharon Lipovsky

@Point Road Studios 

To connect on Instagram:

@pointroadstudios

Rate, Review & Subscribe to the podcast on Apple & Spotify

• Join Natalie's upcoming course Style From the Inside Out. Registration open now; course starts September 26, 2024.
• Original Design Yourself show notes from Episode 88: Empowerment and Personal Style with Natalie Tincher of BU Style
• Time Out New York, Top Six Personal Shopping Services which highlights Buttoned Up Style (now BU Style)
• Marie Kondo’s Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
• The website Sharon peruses for capsule wardrobe inspiration
• Essentialism
• AYR jeans

Whether you have dreams of building your own home, are in the process of moving through a life transition or are just curious about Sharon’s new life in the woods, this week’s episode is for you. Sharon begins by sharing a glimpse into the reality of life in her new two room cottage in the Catskill Mountains of New York and then shares the connection she sees between designing a physical space and designing a life and offers the 5 key lessons that she has learned through the design phase of her building process. We’ll explore everything from the power of welcoming change, how trust is a key priority in getting great results (with sanity in tact!) and how building something from scratch isn’t the secret to perfection.

Summer Series 2024 | Curated guidance and resources to guide and support you in making this season – and what follows – just what you wish it to be.

Stay Connected

For show notes visit:

https://pointroadstudios.com/podcast/building-a-home/

To connect on Linked In: 

@Sharon Lipovsky

@Point Road Studios 

To connect on Instagram:

@pointroadstudios

Rate, Review & Subscribe to the podcast on Apple & Spotify

• Simplify
• Take Breaks
• Be Free and Bold
• Cultivate Courage and Get Comfortable with Fear
• Keep Evolving

1. Embrace Imperfection
2. Prioritize Trust
3. Be Clear on What Matters
4. Hold the Big Picture and Be Present Now
5. Change Things Up

• See the Sharon’s home on the Magnolia Network show “Where We Call Home” (Season 3, Episode 1 | Catskills Schoolhouse); now streaming on Max.
• Original Build Your Home show notes
• Jonathan Adler and his first book My Prescription for Anti-Depressive Living
• Robert Hite
• Above the Fray exhibition that inspired the cover art for today
• New Minimalism
• Marie Kondo
• Young House Love Has A Podcast
• The Speed of Trust

Sharon reflects this week on work-life balance – or imbalance. She shares the marriage advice that stuck with her as she nears her wedding anniversary: “Marriage takes 100% effort to be successful, but rarely is it split 50-50. Sometimes it’s 60-40. Sometimes it’s 90-10. But it always takes 100% effort to work.” She shares how this framework applies not just to a relationship with our spouse but to any time we work with others.

Summer Series 2024 | Curated guidance and resources to guide and support you in making this season – and what follows – just what you wish it to be.

Stay Connected

For show notes visit:

https://pointroadstudios.com/podcast/marriage-and-partnership/

To connect on Linked In: 

@Sharon Lipovsky

@Point Road Studios 

To connect on Instagram:

@pointroadstudios

Rate, Review & Subscribe to the podcast on Apple & Spotify

• The most inspirational advice I got leading up to my wedding:

“Marriage requires 100% effort to work. But rarely is it split 50-50. Sometimes it’s 60-40. Sometimes it’s 90-10. But it ALWAYS takes 100% to work.” Mimi Barringer

• Taking the Lead is the series from the podcast Note to Self. Much of the series follows two Brooklyn moms with a tech idea that has the vision and ambition to change what it looks like to be a working mom. But of course, they are dealing with many of the same stresses they hope to solve.
• Later episodes in the series also check in with the dynamic working parenting duo Andrew Moravcsik and Anne-Marie Slaughter.

“It’s not that I don’t want to work. I do want to work, but I want to work in a way that allows me to be home much more than a high-level government job would let me do right now.” Anne-Marie Slaughter

“We started out like most couples start out, I think a little bit naive, thinking that we are a two-career couple and we will also split the parenting 50-50.” Andrew Moravcsik

• If you’ve never read Anne-Marie’s influential Atlantic article Why Women Still Can’t Have It All, wait no longer. Read it!
• This week marks the first time in our nation’s history that a major political party nominated a woman for the office of President. No matter your politics, this is a special moment. I loved watching this video overviewing her career narrated by Morgan Freeman. 
• Finally, below are the two key distinctions that helped me see how I was good at adding things to my life and work and why I was struggling to let things go. I had to start strengthening my emotional muscles to get in shape for those changes.

Intellectual Learning – Ability to take on new things (e.g. job, hobby, relationship, etc.)

Emotional Learning – Helpful when you are processing how to put things down (e.g. making a move, a job transition, ending a friendship, etc.)

• Original podcast episode “There is No Such Thing as 50-50”

Every moment offers us a new choice. Will we be guided by the momentum of what has been or carve a new path forward? In this episode of Design Yourself Sharon discusses five tips for how to choose your own adventure and highlights what this guidance looks like in practice as she shares an adventure unfolding in her life right now.

Stay Connected

For show notes visit:

https://pointroadstudios.com/podcast/choose-your-own-adventure-2/

To connect on Linked In: 

@Sharon Lipovsky

@Point Road Studios 

To connect on Instagram:

@pointroadstudios

Rate, Review & Subscribe to the podcast on Apple & Spotify

1. There is no, singular “right” way.
2. Be clear on what matters to you.
3. Take aligned and inspired actions.
4. Tilt towards the good kind of scary.
5. Be present

• What is a 46er?

Summer is a season of rapid growth – in our gardens, our home lives, and at work. What is your relationship to this season? What transformation might you like to spark in the weeks ahead? Join Sharon as she shares five prompts and personal reflections inspired by this season.

Summer Series 2024 | Curated guidance and resources to guide and support you in making this season - and what follows - just what you wish it to be.

Stay Connected

For show notes visit:

https://pointroadstudios.com/podcast/bottling-up-summer-2024/

To connect on Linked In: 

@Sharon Lipovsky

@Point Road Studios 

To connect on Instagram:

@pointroadstudios

Rate, Review & Subscribe to the podcast on Apple & Spotify

1. What emotion or energy does summer inspire in you?
2. What is your present experience with Summer?
3. What are some sweet memories of this summer?
4. What would you like to call into the remaining weeks of summer?
5. What parts of summer would you like to bottle up to take with you into fall?

Hitting goals is not enough. Don't get me wrong: I love to run after a bold and audacious goal. But goal achievement can't be the end aim. Goals naturally come and go. They are a way to focus our energy and attention on something. This episode of Design Yourself explores the guiding question: "For the sake of what?" For the sake of what are you working hard to hit those goals? For the sake of what are you running your business? Sometimes work gets us so heads down that we forget to look at the big picture and ask if our energy is driving towards the kind of success that we want. Using the lens of running a business, Sharon offers up questions to ground you in your for the sake of what and then offers how you can cascade this foundation into the way you run your business. This episode is a great fit for anyone who runs a small business or dreams of starting one. It will also speak to those who seek more alignment between your actions and your dreams.

Summer Series 2024 | Curated guidance and resources to guide and support you in making this season - and what follows - just what you wish it to be.

Stay Connected

For show notes visit:

https://pointroadstudios.com/podcast/for-the-sake-of-what/

To connect on Linked In: 

@Sharon Lipovsky

@Point Road Studios 

To connect on Instagram:

@pointroadstudios

Rate, Review & Subscribe to the podcast on Apple & Spotify

• What is it that you are after in this life?
• What are your values?
• What is your deepest held conviction?
• What do you want to offer into the world? What is your unique contribution that you and only you can make?
• What do you want?

• Guided vision meditation in Episode 5 of Design Yourself
• Original Episode Show Notes with photos from family hike