Girls Who Do Stuff

She drew a crude drawing of a shirt on the flight home from visiting her mother and felt "This is what I am supposed to do with the rest of my life."

Her mom later passed away and she came up with the name of "Redefined Courage" because her mom defined courage for her. She has grown it into a vibrant business that is growing! They've created the "HOPE" post-operative shirt which is specifically designed for comfort and healing after breast surgery.

*Interior pockets to hold drain bulbs

*Over-sized for comfort

*Easy washable soft, cotton fabric

 
They want their customers to know someone cares for them and made this especially for them. 

Nikki shares that she believes that courage has two components. One part is bravery in the midst of the struggle and the second part is doing the next thing and move forward. 

We talk about trust in the context of parenting. Sarah shares a story of what her children did recently and the lesson she wanted to help them learn about why trust is so valuable.  

We talk about focusing on gratitude and the power of daily focusing on positive things that happen during your day. It helps you learn to be grateful for the little things as well.   

Carrie is a professional speaker located in Raleigh, NC. Her past clients include Target, Jack Daniels, Marriott, Carolina Inn, Aspen Dental, Northwestern Mutual, Coca-Cola Consolidated, State Farm, YMCA CEOs, Regal Cinemas, and so many more. She shares her story and lessons she has learned along the way.

Carrie shares about throwing a party on a plane that got national news coverage and what she learned about herself during the process. 

From USAtoday.com: 
"Carrie-Grace McQuaid aims to spread kindness every day of her life, no exceptions. The day before her birthday, McQuaid had to fly for work. She decided to celebrate by handing out goodie bags to crew members and passengers on her flight. After getting the airline’s permission to distribute the items, she wrapped 185 bags and prepared hand-written thank you notes for the pilot and crew. On the flight, McQuaid handed out each bag, connecting with each person as she offered up the sweet treat. USA Today spoke to McQuaid who shares her thought process:
“My birthday wish every year is for more kindness in the world. I feel like every time I read a news story, it's always something negative. The world could always use more positivity and I had never been on a flight before where I had gotten goodies. So I thought this would be a fun way to celebrate my birthday, and it's a great way to love on people too!"

She also shares her heartwarming engagement story and love story. 

You can find out more about Carrie on her website: http://www.simplycarriegrace.com

Noa opens up about her childhood in Israel, serving in the Israeli army, and the experience it provided her for her career today. Moving to the U.S. and the challenges of raising kids.

Her background in Israel was human resources, training development, and she played an executive role. When she moved to the U.S., she felt like no one cared about her experience, and this led to a part of her story where she had to redefine herself and regain her confidence. In Israel, she was fearless, and suddenly, in the U.S., she felt less than because her lack of English expertise left her feeling like she is not good enough.

She shares her journey of getting over the "Not enough" syndrome that so many people deal with. She became the victim of her story upon reflecting. 

"My first experience as a leadership coach was when I served in the Israeli Navy. I helped officers learn what does it mean to lead by example and walk their talk. Since then, my passion for helping leaders walk their talk have never stopped, and the real lesson of understanding what does it mean started with my personal relocation experience." - Noa.

"My personal relocation experience, reminded me that many times when we step into the path of change, we think we know how the change is going to look like, but in reality even though we try to control every step along the way to shape it as we want, the result will look differently and this is when we feel stuck." - Noa.

We have a fascinating conversation about the difference in our mindset when we are focused on "being" versus when we focus on "doing."

Noa shares the story of how she got into coaching in the U.S. from hitting rock bottom after failing an entrance exam to starting a blog that for her was an emotional outlet that led to a relocation business and ultimately a coaching business for other people who felt stuck, looking for coaching.

Noa shares about her experience of getting trained and moving into a coach's role and how it has impacted her relationships with her husband and with her children.

Anna was diagnosed with breast cancer at 27 years old. No family history, it came out of the blue. She was a newlywed and wanting to start a family. She was in the best shape of her life, eating vegan, etc. She had always been interested in fashion and beauty and went to Pinterest and social media to find out what to do with her cancer diagnosis. And she discovered that cancer was her niche. Cancer is part of her journey and wants women like her to be confident and beautiful as they go through adversity in life.

"Cancer may have taken my breasts and my hair but I kept my lipstick and heels. Facing breast cancer in my 20s led me to confront my insecurities and find new ways to thrive with self-confidence and style. I started My Cancer Chic to share my own journey and provide support & inspiration to all women hoping to thrive through and beyond the adversity they face."

We talk about the "everything happens for a reason" philosophy. 

Anna describes how cancer gave her brazen confidence that she never had in her entire life. She was bald, not looking like herself, and she thought she would have the lowest amount of confidence she had ever had, but it was like she was given permission to say, "I'm a bad-a$$, I'm going to put on my wig and some lipstick and heels and walk into that chemo facility and show those doctor's who's boss.

Part of her experience was like stripping her identity of cultural norms for women especially to feel pretty and sometimes fake. Cancer takes that away and puts you in a vulnerable position and doesn't give you a choice. For her writing about her story was her way to control what that message was.

Anna shares her appreciation for a lesson learned from Brene Brown about vulnerability. It's not just about being vulnerable because you should, it actually positively impacts your life because it deepens your relationships.

She shares her and her husbands' love story about how they met, fell in love and built a foundation for a happy marriage. Anna also opened up about her experience with sex during and after cancer and the help and support she found along the way to rediscover her body. 

As a young child, Jenny's father, David and his family fled their home near Paris to escape the Nazi invasion. They almost didn't make it and share a harrowing story of the escape.

His father left a successful business and his wife was pregnant with twins when the decision was made. They walked to the border and waited a few weeks at Spain's border. They booked passage on the freighter after bribing the ship captain after crossing the Pyrenees mountains. 

They were the only ones in their family's lineage to make it out.

He discusses growing up as a Jewish child in the 40s and 50s and the antisemitism that existed in our country at that time. His father had no funds when they arrived but he did have some jewelry that he had sewn into the lining of his jacket. He went to night school to learn English and get his citizenship. He then would buy distressed businesses and bring them back to health. He was an innovator.

We hear their love story that started as high school sweethearts and the story of their humorous and interesting wedding.

They worked hard to provide a different kind of life for their children, they were foster parents and took in unwed teenage mothers through Catholic Charities. There has been a massive ripple effect as a result of their history.

We get the answer to the question about whether or not Jenny's dad knew their daughter was drunk and he chose to ignore it or he knew and let it go.

In this episode, Jenny and Sarah get authentic and share the top three life-lessons they've learned from their parents.

The first lesson Jenny learned from her parents was "learn to laugh at yourself." This was modeled by her family of sharing funny stories to teach lessons. Although this took her time to incorporate into her life, this has been a life-changing lesson for her.

Sarah's first lesson was from her mother. From the actions of her mother she learned the importance of "The need to take accountability."
In her adult life, she models accountability in her parenting in conversations like "Mommy shouldn't have lost her temper and raised her voice at you. She is sorry." This allows her kids to know it's safe to make mistakes as long as you take ownership.

The second lesson that Jenny learned from her parents is "Put yourself and your marriage first." She shares examples from her childhood of how her parents modeled this for her and how this affects her life and marriage today.

The second lesson that Sarah learned from her mom is "Always speak up." She believed that she got her confidence and assertiveness from her mom. Her father was more passive. So she learned from her dad to not let people walk all over you. You can be kind and speak up for yourself. Sarah always wanted to go into psychology because people would often bring her their problems as a child. She loved helping people solve their problems and honored that people trusted her. 

The third lesson that Jenny learned from her parents is "Anything is possible." Although many consider it a cliche, she has seen her parents succeed in business and life despite not taking the traditional route. Her father has been a successful entrepreneur even though he didn't go to college first. This helped her feel empowered to go after what she wants even if it may seem like it might fail. Take risks and if you fail, you learn. 

The third lesson that Sarah learned was from her father: "Unconditional love and forgiveness." We talk about the difference between setting boundaries, acceptance, and unconditional love. 

Our guests are both lifelong learners who thrive most when helping others. While their stories are very different and we have taken divergent paths to get to where we are, we are both wired to supercharge those around us and be catalysts of change.

Trinity Gregor – small business owner; process improver; business development coach; honey badger

Mike Manning – small business owner; career evolutionist; BNI Trainer; business coach; grandfather

On the episode, Mike and Trinity share about how they started their business relationship and how they both got into coaching and started Wired2change.com

With "The Wired 2 Change Podcast", their goal is to help you grow your business to the level you want it so you can enjoy the life of the small business owner. Most of the small business owners we meet and work with needing help with systems and processes, especially in sales and marketing. We help them create a more profitable and efficient yellow brick road on the way to their Oz. 

Trinity and Jenny share tips on how they manage their ever-growing networks.

Mike shared the origin story of the nicknames for the Girls Who Do Stuff AKA J. Mitch and Madness.

Trinity shares about "Left pocket-right pocket" in your search for finding meaningful connections at networking events.

How do you manage people that think people you created a meaningful connection in a meeting when it's only one-sided? Trinity calls them energy vampires.

We talked about how impersonal calendar link programs feel and how to balance their effectiveness with their perception.

Mike shares a story that he told himself early in his career that he wishes he didn't believe. He believes he didn't go for the million-dollar deals. He came to the business world late in life and was used to the life of a salaried worker. He worked through it by placing himself in different spheres and stop undervaluing himself.

"People are always willing to pay for value as long as you can prove your value." - Trinity.

We discussed people's issues with perfectionism and feeling like an imposter and how to get over that mindset and what Trinity did in her life to keep those issues at bay.

You can find out more info about Wired 2 Change on their website | Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram
 

A little about Rob from the White Rabbit Website:

My goal is to dethrone the enterprise overlords to make it a noiseless market and a level playing field so all businesses have equal opportunity to thrive. I'm driven to put the "people" back into "salespeople" and may the best business win. 

Specialized in creating versatile products and innovative services for the ever-changing digital landscape, builder of strategic relationships, process improvement addict, business strategist, development expert, and an ethical leader, who drives critical new growth."

Design is a universal language, so why not speak to the world using both beautiful form and intuitive function?" 

-
We discuss the history of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how its origin is math-based.

Rob shares his vision for the company which is making AI affordable for everyone and not just major corporations. 

We talk about the nature of workaholics. How when you love what you do it's easy to start losing time for other things in your life to focus on the thing that you love. We discuss how the amount of time you work in a week is a very personal thing and probably not a 40-hour set rule like many of us believe.

We discuss Google Ads. Rob points out some of the downsides of giant corporations controlling so much of our online experience. We also discuss an interesting story of target ads knowing more about a teenage girl than her own father did.

Rob unpacks what his company does and how it can benefit the average business owner. 

When asked how he planned to keep White Rabbit from falling victim to some of the common hang-ups of large data companies as they grow Rob said outlined their plan to hire an ethics department to monitor the company.

Jamie Walker works with Direct Sales and has a really interesting family story. From her website: "I am an ordinary woman that has done extraordinary things.  The kinds of things that raise eyebrows, draw in skeptics, and attract whispers during the school pick-up line. I have learned that you are either a doer or you are a doubter.  I pick do.  We are all different, darling."

She used to be a high school teacher; when she had 4 kids who were all 4 and under, she stayed home with them but found herself wanting to go back into the workforce because she missed adults and the structure. Moved to Charlotte for her husband's job and didn’t know anyone there - she would drop her kids off at the YMCA for 2 hours for free child care!

When she started in direct sales she did it as a way to spend time with adults. At one point, when she thought she might quit, her husband encouraged her to keep going. We all need someone who will encourage us to keep going. 

Because she was gaining enough money her husband got to go and find what he really wanted to do; he found Pencils of Promise and has been able to build two schools. He went to an orphanage and she said that she did not want to adopt but then when he got there he met a boy named James who he wanted to adopt and after she met him she agreed.
 

She wasn’t that excited to go visit the orphanage because she did not like children hanging on her but a couple of minutes into being there she realized that she did not mind as much as she thought she did. She was really worried about going into the adoption process and how it difficult that it would be 

Sarah asks Jamie questions about being a high school sweetheart, about how she and her husband have kept the love alive for so long 

We discuss how business families are a team.

We also talk through the process of adopting the boys is on the way and in quarantine, they have been writing them letters and doing skype calls.

Learn more about Jamie on her website 

Stay tuned until the end of this episode to hear some outtakes...

Paul shares the rollercoaster ride of his journey from growing up in a family of teachers and coaches. His family owned a peach farm; he worked on the wildlife refuge in the summers. He was given a lot of opportunities to learn to become a jack of all trades. He also speaks to the other side of being a jack of all trades, which is being a master of none. Growing up in a one-stoplight small town and ended up playing football at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Worked for Lowes Home Improvement as a manager and graduated with a major in Peace/War/and defense. He was a police officer in Carborro, then a wildland firefighter. Where he was a bulldozer operator and did prescribed fires, he also got his general contractor license.

Paul is one of the rare few people that Sarah believes is a representation of a perfect balance between masculine (assertive) and feminine energy (nurturing). 

Paul shares about the type of leadership/management that he thrived under in his early work career and why it empowered him to excel. He was left to "figure it out" and take responsibility to fix any mistakes. 

There is a differnece between perfectionism and healthy striving. Healthy striving is wanting to learn and excel at the craft, it's internally motivated. Perfectionism is externally motivated and about wanting to look the part and meet other's expectations.

Done is better than perfect.

One of the keys to success for Paul was networking. He talks through his approach. 

Paul also discussed his strong belief about his beard. He goes so far as to start a job interview or potential client meeting with a caveat the he will not be shaving his beard.