inspHERation

It's easy to get burnt out at work and feel like you're just a hamster in the wheel, doing the same thing every day. As a result, it can be easy to lose sight of the passion you have for your job and forget what your purpose in the organization is.

So today we talk about why it’s okay if you feel like this sometimes and what you can do to rediscover purpose!

Welcome to InspHERation Nation!

The Weekly Commitment

Every week, we will ask you the same question: What is the one thing that you will commit to doing or improving this week?

Writing down your answer to the question will start a self-accountability process, and following up with this practice after every episode will help you take consistent small actions that ultimately lead to BIG transformations.

If you want to share what you are committing yourself to, we would love to hear! You can get in touch with us at...

• [email protected]
• Facebook
• Twitter (@inspHERationpod)
• Instagram (@inspherationpodcast)

Three Key Takeaways:

• Remember your why. There is obviously something that led you to join the credit union, or wherever it is that you work. Something led you to take that path, so reconnect with why you did that and what lit you up at that point in time. Similarly, reflect on the greater Why in your life outside of work.

• An article from the Harvard Business Review, "You’re Never Done Finding Purpose at Work," offers a great exercise: Throughout the workday, write down approximately how much time you spent in each of the three mindsets below. If you're spending most of your time, like 50% or more, in the purpose mindset and like, "This is really lighting me up. This is really exciting me. I'm really excited to be working on this particular project," then don’t throw in the towel. But if you're spending 90% of your time living in the other two, particularly towards the bottom, then it might be time to re-evaluate.

1. Job Mindset - I'm here to get to collect my paycheck, to clock in, to be an adult that has a job.
2. Career Mindset - I'm really interested in the title, and I'm really interested in more power, or more opportunities, or more pay; I want to advance my career.
3. Purpose Mindset - I'm here because I'm passionate, and invigorated, and excited, and I love the work.

• Consider the things that you enjoy about your job and the things that you don't enjoy about your job (and this tip can actually help you with the above exercise). Sometimes your mindset all comes down to how you frame things. If you're not having a good day at work say, "But at least I get to work on _____, and that is something that really lights me up." Even if your current task doesn’t light you up, you don't get to work on it all the time. But if there's something that's part of your job that you really don't like to do, something that sucks your soul out, that's a good time to have a conversation with your boss and says something like, "This takes me way more time than it would with somebody who's really passionate about it or somebody who knows more about it than I do. Is it something that we can outsource?" Remember that there are things that you can do to make the job that you currently have more enjoyable, so don't just jump ship right away!

Resources:

• HBR: "You’re Never Done Finding Purpose at Work" by Dan Pontefract

The inspHERation Podcast is produced by Podcast Masters

At any given point, you have one of two different mindsets: a scarcity mindset or an abundant mindset. This is an idea written about in Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and today we will discuss what exactly these two mindsets look like in real life, how you can move toward an abundance mindset, and why you probably want to.

Welcome to InspHERation Nation!

The Weekly Commitment

Every week, we will ask you the same question: What is the one thing that you will commit to doing or improving this week?

Writing down your answer to the question will start a self-accountability process, and following up with this practice after every episode will help you take consistent small actions that ultimately lead to BIG transformations.

If you want to share what you are committing yourself to, we would love to hear! You can get in touch with us at...

• [email protected]
• Facebook
• Twitter (@inspHERationpod)
• Instagram (@inspherationpodcast)

Three Key Takeaways:

1. Keep a gratitude journal and be grateful. If you don't feel like you have enough of something, seeing all the things you do have is really powerful!
2. Check the language that you use with others, as well as the internal dialogue that you're having with yourself. If you're saying “can't” a lot, or you “have to have” something, or you “have to do” something, try to take note of that and stop. You can accomplish what you want, and you get to live the life that you want to live!
3. Say positive affirmations. A scarcity mindset can really lend itself to being in a negative place... and that’s just a hard way to live! Whatever you want that you don't feel like you have or deserve to have, for whatever reason, write it down and then either look at it every day or say it to yourself in the mirror. So pick a positive affirmation that will make yourself feel good and make yourself feel like you can achieve whatever you want to achieve, remind yourself of it every single day!

Resources:

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

The inspHERation Podcast is produced by Podcast Masters

Today, we're talking about difficult conversations... which, frankly, no one wants to have.

And it’s no wonder why – it’s right in the name! – but you can't get through life without having difficult conversations. And if you know how to do them well, and you go into them with the right mindset, it just makes things a lot better.

Welcome to InspHERation Nation!

The Weekly Commitment

Every week, we will ask you the same question: What is the one thing that you will commit to doing or improving this week?

Writing down your answer to the question will start a self-accountability process, and following up with this practice after every episode will help you take consistent small actions that ultimately lead to BIG transformations.

If you want to share what you are committing yourself to, we would love to hear! You can get in touch with us at...

• [email protected]
• Facebook
• Twitter (@inspHERationpod)
• Instagram (@inspherationpodcast)

Three Key Takeaways:

1. Journal about your first step, whatever it is. Just write it down! Or, if you’re not feeling like writing today, take out the voice memo app on your phone, record it, and listen back to it.
2. Don’t apologize to someone as you tell them you want to have a difficult conversation. You're allowed to have your emotions, so don’t apologize for them! That's an important part of being a human.
3. Don't go into a difficult conversation with assumptions. You want to be in a good mindset because it's a lot more likely that something bad will happen if you go into it thinking that it will. And if you go into the conversation imagining what that other person is going to say or how they're going to react, that's informing how you speak to that person and how you react to them reacting.

The inspHERation Podcast is produced by Podcast Masters

At TwoScore, we have a thing called Motivation Mondays where we share and discuss an inspirational topic. This past week, Amanda shared an article from Success Magazine titled, “What Advice Would You Give to Your Younger Self?”

We started talking about it and it was really motivational for our team, so we wanted to share some of that with all of you!

Amanda’s Top 3 Pieces of Advice:

1. Life is short, so eat the cake! It isn't always about the size of your jeans and everything. If you would enjoy a piece of cake, if that would make your heart happy, please do that!
2. Take care of yourself. No one else will take care of you the way that you would yourself. We’re not saying that people won't take care of you, but no one else is going to advocate for you and take as good of care of you as you would yourself.
3. Friends are the greatest treasures in life. I’ve have had some really rough times over my life, but the friends who are willing to come to your side at 11 PM when you’re a mess are worth more than gold – and they make life wonderful!

Liz’s Top 3 Pieces of Advice:

1. Whatever you may be worried about is not as big a deal as you think it is! This too shall pass. It’s not that big a deal.
2. People are too worried about themselves to really worry about you. We tend to think that people are watching our every move at work or in our personal lives, that we're under the microscope... but nobody cares! Again, we’re not saying nobody cares about you at all, but you’re not the center of everyone else’s universe
3. You are the expert on your own story. So, whenever you're having impostor syndrome, remember that you're an expert in your own experience, you're an expert in everything that has led up to you making this decision. You have everything in your life to pull from and no one can take that away from you, and it's unique to you!

Welcome to InspHERation Nation!

The Weekly Commitment

Every week, we will ask you the same question: What is the one thing that you will commit to doing or improving this week?

Writing down your answer to the question will start a self-accountability process, and following up with this practice after every episode will help you take consistent small actions that ultimately lead to BIG transformations.

If you want to share what you are committing yourself to, we would love to hear! You can get in touch with us at...

• [email protected]
• Facebook
• Twitter (@inspHERationpod)
• Instagram (@inspherationpodcast)

An exercise for you:

We always want to leave you with something you can take away from the episode, and today we have an exercise that we invite you to do with us over the next week:

Write a letter to your younger self – or, even better, find a younger person to share your wisdom with!

Our basic human need is being connected to others, and we think sharing advice can be a really powerful moment, for both you.

Resources:

• Read: “What Advice Would You Give to Your Younger Self?”

The inspHERation Podcast is produced by Podcast Masters

Today, we are talking about perfectionism. Now, just to be clear, we are perfectionists... but we’re working on it, and awareness is the first step!

Sometimes we end up wearing perfection as a badge of honor, we like to think that means that we're working hard towards being better, but perfectionism can be a really dark place to be when you get too deep.

So we're going to kind of peel back the layers of perfectionism and discuss how to break some of your perfectionist habits.

Welcome to InspHERation Nation!

The Weekly Commitment

Every week, we will ask you the same question: What is the one thing that you will commit to doing or improving this week?

Writing down your answer to the question will start a self-accountability process, and following up with this practice after every episode will help you take consistent small actions that ultimately lead to BIG transformations.

If you want to share what you are committing yourself to, we would love to hear! You can get in touch with us at...

• [email protected]
• Facebook
• Twitter (@inspHERationpod)
• Instagram (@inspherationpodcast)

Three Key Takeaways:

1. Eliminate the word “perfect” from your vocabulary.

1. Remember that you are a human being. What’s wonderful about our human existence is that you're here with everyone, you're alive, and you can feel things both good and bad. That means if you're a human being, you're also not a perfect robot!

1. Social media is great for connecting with other people, but it lends itself to making the people who have perfectionism live in hell even more because they're constantly comparing their insides to everyone else's outsides. So if you find yourself in a negative space comparing yourself to others on social media, get off of social media for a while. Take a break. It's okay!

Resources:

• Download the Wheel of Happiness self-assessment tool

The inspHERation Podcast is produced by Podcast Masters

People (especially women) often think that self-care is superfluous, or a luxury, or it's something that you’ll get to after doing something else – but it’s really important, and it’s something we need to plan for and prioritize!

Now, we’re far from self-care experts. Actually... we’re kind of bad at it! But we’re trying to get better every day and we invite you all to join us on this journey!

Welcome to InspHERation Nation!

The Weekly Commitment

Every week, we will ask you the same question: What is the one thing that you will commit to doing or improving this week?

Writing down your answer to the question will start a self-accountability process, and following up with this practice after every episode will help you take consistent small actions that ultimately lead to BIG transformations.

If you want to share what you are committing yourself to, we would love to hear! You can get in touch with us at...

• [email protected]
• Facebook
• Twitter (@inspHERationpod)
• Instagram (@inspherationpodcast)

Three Key Takeaways:

1. Believe that you're worthy of self-care. If you believe that you're worthy, then when you get upset, or you are having a bad day, or you're feeling stressed, you won't feel guilty about saying, "You know, I'd really enjoy ______."
2. Make self-care a non-negotiable. It's okay if your life isn't perfect! Self-care doesn't come at the expense of everything else.
3. Create a plan for self-care and pencil it into your calendar, but make it YOUR plan. So don’t say you’re going to read a book for 30 minutes every day just because that feels like what you should do. Self-care is all about recharging your batteries, loving yourself, and being good to yourself, so your plan has to be personalized to you!

Resources:

• Set up text or email reminders for yourself using sendrecurring.com

The inspHERation Podcast is produced by Podcast Masters

Today we want to talk about women supporting other women, in the office.

We know that, sometimes, it can be HARD – women are people too, and people can get on your nerves! On top of that, we’re genetically predisposed to compete for scarce resources (whether or not that scarcity really exists) and compare ourselves to others. That bleeds into every area of life, including the workplace.

But remember: you can be the bulb in your organization that changes the color of all the other bulbs! (If that made no sense to you, check out S2E2!)

Welcome to InspHERation Nation!

The Weekly Commitment

Every week, we will ask you the same question: What is the one thing that you will commit to doing or improving this week?

Writing down your answer to the question will start a self-accountability process, and following up with this practice after every episode will help you take consistent small actions that ultimately lead to BIG transformations.

If you want to share what you are committing yourself to, we would love to hear! You can get in touch with us at...

• [email protected]
• Facebook
• Twitter (@inspHERationpod)
• Instagram (@inspherationpodcast)

Three Key Takeaways:

1. Find another woman to mentor. Or, if you don’t have a mentor yourself, the first step might be to find someone to mentor you (and it doesn’t have to be a woman) because having a mentor will teach you the skills you need to mentor others. There’s always someone else who can benefit from what you’ve learned, and you can help them and build them up. If that makes them more successful, then they are going to mentor others and you’re going to start this wildfire of women building other women up.
2. When you’re in a mentorship role (or being mentored), you are spreading positivity; you are building someone else up or they are building you up, and that’s a tribe! So take the time to get to know the women in your office and make yourself known as the person they can turn to to be there or trust.

1. Stick up for other women at work when you see them being put down or being thrown under the bus. This is hard, but it’s important to show that this type of behavior isn’t acceptable, in front of others.

Resources:

• inspherationpodcast.com
• Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Nell Scovell and Sheryl Sandberg

The inspHERation Podcast is produced by Podcast Masters

Today we’re talking all about FEAR – not the fears of spiders and snakes and things that go bump in the night, but the fears that drive us (and the anxiety we feel, as a result).

A big part of our conversation focuses on the relationship between fear and intuition, which are both feelings that come from our gut and guide your actions. Listening to them, however, can have wildly different results.

Welcome to InspHERation Nation!

The Weekly Commitment

Every week, we will ask you the same question: What is the one thing that you will commit to doing or improving this week?

Writing down your answer to the question will start a self-accountability process, and following up with this practice after every episode will help you take consistent small actions that ultimately lead to BIG transformations.

If you want to share what you are committing yourself to, we would love to hear! You can get in touch with us at...

• [email protected]
• Facebook
• Twitter (@inspHERationpod)
• Instagram (@inspherationpodcast)

Three Key Takeaways:

1. Identify your fear story, meaning what pops into your head when you think, “I can’t do that?” What is the fear that is driving you to say that to yourself?
2. Consider whether that fear story that you’re telling yourself is true.
3. Shine a light on your fear – and talk about it with others! It’s important to talk about what your fears are because there’s a shame factor in fear, and talking about it with people you trust lessens that.

Our challenge for you: Take one baby step towards a fear! If you take a chance and try something, the worst-case scenario is you learn from it!

Resources:

• inspherationpodcast.com
• Empower yourself at dailyworth.com
• Worth It: Your Life, Your Money, Your Terms by Amanda Steinberg
• Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert

The inspHERation Podcast is produced by Podcast Masters

Do you have a dark or negative workplace culture?

Does going to work deplete you, instead of adding to you? Are your co-workers protecting themselves, instead of the team? Is there any trust in the workplace? Is the leadership in your organization resistant to change?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, you may just work in a negative or toxic workplace.

Welcome to InspHERation Nation!

The Weekly Commitment

Every week, we will ask you the same question: What is the one thing that you will commit to doing or improving this week?

Writing down your answer to the question will start a self-accountability process, and following up with this practice after every episode will help you take consistent small actions that ultimately lead to BIG transformations.

If you want to share what you are committing yourself to, we would love to hear! You can get in touch with us at...

• [email protected]
• Facebook
• Twitter (@inspHERationpod)
• Instagram (@inspherationpodcast)

Three Key Takeaways:

1. If you wish there was a positive light in your dark workplace culture, think Ghandi: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” You don’t have to have a leadership role to be a leader in change.
2. If the person you report to isn’t leading you the way you need to be lead, manage up! If you’re not getting the feedback or tools you need to do your job effectively, it’s up to you to start that open conversation. You can learn more about this in Managing Up by Roger Gittines and Rosanne Badowski.

1. Create a list of what constitutes your dream culture. Consider what you need to thrive, in an ideal culture, and then identify the gap between where the organization is now and where you want it to be. This will help you put an action plan together.

Resources:

• inspherationpodcast.com
• Twoscore.biz
• Managing Up: How to Forge an Effective Relationship with Those Above You by Roger Gittines and Rosanne Badowski

The inspHERation Podcast is produced by Podcast Masters

Welcome back! As we start Season 2, we want to catch you up with what we’ve been up to!

And we want to let you know about some format changes we’re making based on your feedback: episodes will be shorter (better for a commute!), there will be a greater focus on what we are learning, and every future episode will outline three key takeaways.

We’re also going to be sharing episodes with you on a weekly basis for a while, so look out for another dose of InspHERation next Monday!

Welcome to InspHERation Nation!

The Weekly Commitment

Every week, we will ask you the same question: What is the one thing that you will commit to doing or improving this week?

Writing down your answer to the question will start a self-accountability process, and following up with this practice after every episode will help you take consistent small actions that ultimately lead to BIG transformations.

If you want to share what you are committing yourself to, we would love to hear! You can get in touch with us at...

• [email protected]
• Facebook
• Twitter (@inspHERationpod)
• Instagram (@inspherationpodcast)

Resources:

• inspherationpodcast.com
• twoscore.biz

The inspHERation Podcast is produced by Podcast Masters