Design Yourself

Yes, magic exists. Inspired by this week's solar eclipse, host Sharon decided to share what she does to bring magic into her life. Learn her tricks for creating magic in her business from manifesting dream clients to the power of sitting with your palms facing up. Plus, there's poetry! This week's episode is a great fit for anyone to shake off logical thinking and get into the creative practice of tapping into the magic all around you.

• Dallas Clayton's books Make Magic! Do Good! and It's Never Too Late
• Design Yourself 41: On the Road with Aimee Rowe highlights the magic of the Camino de Santiago
• Go Beyond coloring + activity book
• Design Yourself 5: A Vision Meditation
• Design Yourself 29: Go Beyond – PRS Vision Cycle

This week Sharon shares one of the most helpful pieces of wisdom she's ever received: "It's more important to be present than prepared." Learn how she has come to understand this adage over the years and how she's added on to it as well. As part of this process, Sharon shares some questions you might consider if you find yourself holding on tightly to a desire to be in control and tips for bringing yourself back to centered awareness. May today's episode steward you in stepping into your full presence, regardless of how well prepared you might feel.

Today's show really focuses in on two core ideas:

1. It is more important to be present than prepared.
2. Everyone requires a different level of preparation to be present.

As we discussed it is more important to be present than prepared, we also looked at two ways of stewarding this mindset:

To aid this process, you might try and understand your impulse to control, but reflecting on questions like:

• What's important to me about controlling this situation?
• What value/s feel/s threatened by not having control?
• What could be offered to me in letting go of control?
• What is the opposite of holding on to control? (e.g. embracing ease)

To support you in drawing full awareness to your present moment, you might:

• Integrate breathing prompts into your routine
• Sit in meetings with your palms up (receiving posture)
• Ask for help from a friend
• Ask yourself: What will allow me to stay present?

Making a commitment can be daunting. Sometimes we get swept up in all the research we can do, even for some of our everyday decisions. Is this really THE best restaurant we could eat at on vacation? Is this THE movie we want to see? So when it comes to a longterm commitment, the pressure often rises. Is this really THE right job? THE right person? THE THING?! Host Sharon agrees with Sheryl Sandberg and Warren Buffet: Picking a life partner is one of the most important decisions we make in our lives. And this week she is delighted to be inviting her partner-in-crime (psst, hubby!) on the show to celebrate 10 years of being married. This episode is great for anyone who is curious about what it takes to sustain commitment to any one person (or thing!) while allowing for change and growth to still happen. Bonus: If you listen through to the end, you can meet Sharon and Colin's 4 year old daughter who opted to make a surprise appearance on the show.

"Go with the interruptions." – Sharon Lipovsky

"I truly believe that the single most important career decision that a woman makes is whether she will have a life partner and who that partner is." – Sheryl Sandberg

• Kenyon College
• Pavement
• Cave In
• Our DC real estate agent, Cameron Shosh
• Episode 50 with Sue McLeod
• Young House Love Has A Podcast

It's a great accomplishment to achieve a critical goal. It can be all the more satisfying when that goal is to run a business you care about successfully. But it's still just one outcome. Today's episode focuses on 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 our work gets us so heads down that we forget to lift up and make sure that all the effort is driving towards the kind of success that we really 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 is dreaming about starting one. It will also speak to anyone who is looking for a little more alignment between your actions and your dreams.

Speaking of for the sake of what, here is a photo of a place that inspires my for the sake of what. Pssst, this place sits on the real Point Road – the inspiration behind Point Road Studios.

• 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
• Here's a couple of shots, as promised, of the family out for a hike:

Inspiring others to trust and follow you takes more than great ideas or a stellar product or service. It takes executive presence. Executive presence communicates your authentic spirit in way that allows others to connect to you. It inspires and motivates. And it necessarily takes many different shapes and forms. Executive presence must be varied because at its core is the unique spirit of each of us. In today's episode, Sharon clarifies what this often misunderstood term means and why it matters. Then she offers up 5 actions you can take to understand, define, and amplify your own executive presence.

Executive presence is the result of aligning your inner message and spirit with your exterior presentation – e.g. what you communicate through your words, body language, pace, pitch, and appearance.

Not having executive presence means you can get skipped over for job promotions or not get hired by your ideal clients. Lacking executive presence means being less trusted to lead the way through difficult times.

Absolutely.

1. Self Reflection: What is my presence like right now?

2. Identify Role Models

3. Ask for Help

4. Set a Learning Intention

5. Take Action and Iterate

• Personal stylist Natalie Tincher, Buttoned Up Style

Remember what it's like to first start out in work? Our guest today doesn't have to remember. She's in it. Artist and educator Julia Lipovsky joins her sister Sharon to talk about what it's like to find your voice and find a job. Hear how Julia paid attention to clues as she moved from a job to pay the bills to a job that inspires her soul. And how she put her art school education to work even when selling donuts. Julia is one of those people is wise beyond her years and this week's episode is filled with both parts sisterly laughter and inspiration. This is definitely one to tune into if you are trying to find your own voice.

"It's a slow burn, it'll come together. But there's a lot of pushback when you feel yourself that things aren't moving fast enough…when you know you have a lot to offer and give but you just don't know how yet." – Julia Lipovsky

"To me leading a well-designed life are when your passions and your routines find a way to intersect." – Julia Lipovsky

• Stendig wall calendar (see also photo below of Julia's own Stendig)
• MICA
• Visionary and Voices
• Thunder-Sky Gallery
• Northside neighborhood in Cincinnati
• Essex Studios
• Cryptogram
• Lynn Twist The Soul of Money

insta (Julia Lipovsky): julipovsky

insta (handmade clay necklaces): heycladies

We are half way through 2017, which makes now the ideal time to check in on how things are going and get focused for the second half of the year. In this week's episode, Sharon offers up 9 questions to reflect on how your year is going and shares what's she been noticing about her own New Year's resolution to "let rest." This episode is perfect for anyone who is ready for a quick time out to reflect and refresh before moving through the second half of the year. It's also a good fit for anyone who wants to know how to reboot because circumstances have changed and call for a new approach. This is exactly where Sharon finds herself and you will hear where she is struggling and how she is changing things up.

1. What was your new year's resolution (or theme/intention)?
2. What inspired this resolution in the first place?
3. How has this resolution shown up in your life so far? How's it been going?
4. What have you learned from your resolution?
5. What's different today as a result of your resolution?
6. What would deepen your practice of your resolution?
7. What will serve you as you look to the second half of 2017?
8. It's January 1, 2018 and you and I are high giving about how 2017 was everything you hoped it would be – and then some. What are we celebrating?
9. What will you commit to as you move through the second half of the year?

• Episode 28 of Design Yourself New Year, Same You on setting New Year's resolutions-intentions-themes
• Episode 46 of Design Yourself on Teaching and Transitions with my sister Phyllis Lipovsky
• Blog post on my initial 2017 theme Let Rest

It's easy to get caught up in what we are doing, isn't it? This week's episode is designed to help you lift out of the daily grind and celebrate your "champagne moment" successes. Whether finally hitting send on a big proposal, getting great feedback from a colleague or client, or finally seeing that passion project come to life, it's important to carve out time to celebrate. These celebrations can take many different shapes and sizes. The tips offered in today's show are designed to help you integrate celebrations into your way of doing business and living your life. Because taking time to appreciate and bask in what we have done is a critical step in keeping on doing. This week's episode is perfect for anyone looking for new ideas about how to high five what's going well and even for figuring out how to identify these milestones in the first place.

Don't forget to join the giveaway celebration this week!

Annie Dilliard wrote this in The Writing Life – "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing." It can be compelling to stay heads down, to go-go-go-go, but a life sent simply going ends up tiring us out. Or worse leading to burn out. The following tips are aimed at helping keep you focused not just on achieving progress, but enjoying yourself along the way.

1. Let your focus determine your champagne moments

2. Design a celebration to suit you

• How often do you create something that really is just about what you want?
• How many people do you want to be there? What venue do you see yourself in? What kind of experience are you creating?
• What would build your energy (verse draining it)?

3. Design a celebration that takes no effort

• What could I do right now to celebrate this success?

4. Celebrate by thanking others (e.g. run a Thank You Campaign)

• What makes my success possible?
• Who makes my success possible?
• What gesture would show how much I appreciate the help?

5. Celebrate with new learning

• Growth Mindset (e.g. there is more to learn) vs. Fixed Mindset (e.g. I know everything I need to know)
• What am I curious about?
• What investment in my own development have I been putting off that could make all the difference?
• What kind of learning format would suit my lifestyle right now?

6. Celebrate with the gift of time

• What would I love to do, if only I had the time to do it?
• How much time could I gift myself this day?

7. Set Champagne Moment in advance to motivate action

• Imagine yourself really seeing the celebration happening now.
• What does it look like?
• What actions can you take today to propel you forward?

8. Leave room for surprise Champagne Moments

• Join the giveaway celebration!
• Episode 46 of Design Yourself on Teaching and Transitions with my sister Phyllis Lipovsky
• Creative Mornings

Today we close out Season One of Design Yourself with the celebration of the podcast's 50th episode! Leadership Coach Sue McLeod joins host Sharon to reflect on what she's learned after her first year of podcasting and to model a process for evaluating progress. Whether you are wondering how your own passion project is going or are ready to take stock on a work initiative, this week's show offers questions to help you see how you are doing. This is also a great show for anyone interested in what it takes to start and stick with a podcast and learn what happens behind the scenes at Design Yourself.

"For Sharon there's there's this and – as opposed to an or – that guides her life." – Sue McLeod

"I do not hold myself up as THE model…but I do feel like having the specifics of what's real for someone makes the feedback or tools or advice more tangible." – Sharon Lipovsky

"A lot of my leadership is just living my life and sharing that with people." – Sue McLeod

• Here's the Vision Action Plan Sharon referenced using for laying out her own personal/professional development plans

• Eric Smucker is the bright mind behind Smucker Farms and Sharon's almost first guest for the podcast that didn't launch in 2013

• Rode Podcaster is the mic that Sharon uses in her home studio

  • Psst – she started with Blue's Snowball mic and will use 2 Rode Lavalier mics when she's offsite for interviews

• Podcast Like A Boss

• Camino de Santiago

• Georgetown Leadership Coaching Program

• Sharon mentioned in the show that she's interested in having someone join her team to support the podcast in doing things like write show notes and schedule guest interviews. If you think you might be a good fit, contact her here.

• Jon Flannery, Cryptogram

suemcleodcoaching.com

While checking out her site, sign up for her "sometimes irreverent, always relevant" monthly newsletter

Coaches: Check out her classes here

If you've ever wondered how you can make not just a living, but a life, this week's episode is for you. Nate Shearer is a thoughtful, funny guy who doesn't let work define him. His pursuit of play has led him to race bikes professionally, learn the welding trade, explore skate and surf culture, move out to the country and then return to the city - and the list goes on. He is also one of Washington, D.C.'s great hair stylists; he apprenticed under the world-renowned Orlando Pita. Tune in for inspiration on how to follow your passion and let the magic of curiosity unfold.

"My primary focus in life is mostly, for lack of a better word, playing; I've always gravitated towards jobs that I could just take off whenever I wanted, jobs I didn't take home with me."

– Nate Shearer

"I feel like I work best when it's approached like a collaboration." – Nate Shearer

"That's how you should try to form your life. You should just do these passion projects. If you are passionate enough about it and you just keep doing it, then people will be like, wow, what is this. Eventually, if you don't allow other people to stifle your passion then that passion can actually become your profession." -Nate Shearer

• People in Nate's hood growing up included Spike Jones and Jeff Tremaine
• Design Yourself episode 4 on the importance of taking breaks
• Jon Flannery of Cryptogram is the designer behind the Point Road brand that came up in Nate and Sharon's conversation
  • You can also hear Jon on the podcast in Design Yourself episode 46 on the Designer's Mindset
  • Interested in learning more about forms of poetry like the sestina and villanelle that Sharon referenced? The Making of a Poem is an awesome resource.
  • In Search of Captain Zero: A Surfer's Road Trip Beyond the End of the Road
  • Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft
  • You too can marvel at the picture of my dear friend Aimee Rowe biking down the Mississippi River
    • If you did Aimee, you can learn more about an adventure she and I took in Spain on the podcast here and here.
• Grounded: A Down to Earth Journey Around the World
• I love this shot of Nate out in the woods

• Harrisonburg, VA
• Writer Lydia Davis
• Nate's mentor in the hair industry, Orlando Pita

You can find Nate cutting hair at Calvary Salon (Washington, DC)

insta (professional): natetheshearer

insta (passion project): thejunkmilechronicles