There's a time for everything.

There's a time to open doors and there is a time to close doors. There's a time to start something and there is a time to put an end to it.

You may have noticed that the podcast hasn't been released for a couple of weeks.

It's at this time that I let you know that we will be putting an end to The Heart of Leadership Podcast for the time being. We aren't closing the door forever, but there is no current plan to resume it in the near future.

It is a bittersweet announcement. I have loved doing this, but there are new exciting things on the horizon for our business, Upward Focus.

Thank you to everyone who has listened to the podcast and come along this journey with us. I look forward to continuing our journey together as we step into becoming the best version of ourselves. 

For more information about our business and what we are doing, head to http://www.upwardfocussolutions.com

Are you exhausted, tired or burnt out? Are you overwhelmed with all the work you have to do? Do you lack motivation, lack passion and have a loss of focus? Do you need help getting back on track but you don't know where to start?

You don't let your car run on empty, so don't let yourself run on empty!

In this episode of The Heart of Leadership Podcast, I welcome back my brother and business partner, Craig McIntyre, as we switch roles and he asks me questions about my new book, "Focus Fuel: How to Focus When You're Running on Empty", as well as questions regarding writing a book for the first time and steps to take to overcome challenges along the way.

Thank you for Craig for wanting to do this. It was fun to be the one answering the questions.

For more information on The Heart of Leadership Podcast, Andrew, and his business Upward Focus, head to www.upwardfocussolutions.com

"Who do you think you are? Do you really think you can do that? I don’t think so! You’re not like everyone else!"

"What makes you think you can do that? You’ve failed before. It’s going to be no different this time around. You don’t have what it takes!"

Do you find that you tend to compare yourself to others only to try and prove to yourself that you don’t measure up to them? They are way more successful than you ever will be. They are at a way better point of life than you are and you can never catch up. You’ll never be as good as them.

Or maybe you are trying to change habits in your life for the first time in ages and all you can think of is all the times you have failed in the past. You try to say positive affirmations about yourself, but you don’t believe them. You feel like a fraud.

If any of this sounds familiar to you, you have just been diagnosed. I’m sorry to tell you, but you are dealing with impostor syndrome.

But don’t worry, you are definitely not alone. In fact, they say about 70% of people suffer from impostor syndrome.

That’s a high number isn’t it? Well today we are hoping to reduce that number. Today we are going to look at how to deal with imposter syndrome so you can move past that doubt and fear and step into becoming the best version of yourself. 

We are going to go over 7 ways to overcome impostor syndrome in our lives.

Who do you think you are?

You’re someone who’s going to get a lot stronger after this episode. That’s who.

For more information on The Heart of Leadership Podcast, Andrew, and his business Upward Focus, head to www.upwardfocussolutions.com

To be or not to be? That is the question!

This new year is less than two weeks underway and we have already set some goals for the next year and that's awesome! But often we are so focused on having a "to-do" list that we miss the big picture.

We want to accomplish things. We want to keep ourselves busy. And while that's great, we shouldn't just be focusing on a daily to-do list. We really should be more concerned about another list.

A "to-be" list.

In this episode of The Heart of Leadership Podcast, we look at the importance of creating a "to-be" list as we continue on this journey to become the best version of ourselves.

What type of person do you want to be?

For more information on The Heart of Leadership Podcast, Andrew, and his business Upward Focus, head to www.upwardfocussolutions.com

2020 is officially over and a new calendar year is upon us. 2021 is here and that means saying goodbye to everything to do with 2020 right? Well, not exactly. While many of us want to just throw 2020 in the trash, we can't throw everything away.

We take memories with us. We take successes. But most importantly, we take lessons learned. What things did you learn in 2020? We all learned a lot. We learned a lot about ourselves, about others and about our world.

In this episode of The Heart of Leadership Podcast, we take a look at the lessons that we learned in 2020 and I share the lessons that 2020 taught me, including an original spoken word piece.

For more information on The Heart of Leadership Podcast, Andrew, and his business Upward Focus, head to www.upwardfocussolutions.com

Our lives are filled with countless pages and chapters. Some that we are proud of and some that we want to throw away. This past year has been a chapter of our life and 2021 is the same. However, what's to come is different.

The rest of our pages are still unwritten. They are blank pages.

What will you choose to have written? Will they be filled with regret or will you be intentional with them?

Will you choose to keep living in the past or will you look forward to what lies ahead?

In this episode of The Heart of Leadership Podcast, we look at the importance of being intentional with what we do with the blank pages that are before us. What will you choose to have written?

For more information on The Heart of Leadership Podcast, Andrew, and his business Upward Focus, head to www.upwardfocussolutions.com

Do you ever feel like you can't seem to apply what you're learning? Maybe you heard something really important and you got so excited about hearing it. You had this feeling inside of you when you heard it and you knew it was going to be life changing! But then a couple days or weeks go by and you haven't made any changes. You forgot all about it or you remember that something was important, but you can't seem to remember exactly what it was.

I can't imagine the number of important things and lessons we have learned, only to completely forget about them or to forget to apply them.

Why is that? We know we need to make a change. We know it's important and that it will help us. But we can't seem to apply it. It's a big problem.

In this episode of The Heart of Leadership Podcast, we go over why we can't apply what we are learning and the steps we need to take to start remembering and applying all that we have learned so we can continue to grow and get better on this journey of becoming the best version of ourselves.

For more information on The Heart of Leadership Podcast, Andrew, and his business Upward Focus, head to www.upwardfocussolutions.com

Can you keep me accountable? How many times have you said those words hoping that someone would help keep you check? Hoping that someone would help make sure you got your task done? Hoping that someone would make sure that you didn't fall back into a bad habit?

Accountability from others is awesome and it is a big part of our success. But what happens when others aren't there? They either say they are going to help but then let us down or maybe we don't even have anyone to go to. Now what? Do we just give up? No.

We need to keep ourselves accountable. We owe it to ourselves.

In this episode of The Heart of Leadership Podcast, we talk about 10 ways we can keep ourselves accountable to accomplish our tasks, achieve our goals and overcome bad habits and bad lifestyle choices.

For more information on The Heart of Leadership Podcast, Andrew, and his business Upward Focus, head to www.upwardfocussolutions.com

Criticism. Something that many of us fear. We try to avoid it at all costs and when we are faced with it, one of our first reactions is to defend ourselves. But that's not always the best thing.

What exactly is criticism? What types of criticism are there? Could criticism actually be good and helpful? How should I respond to criticism?

In this episode of the Heart of Leadership Podcast, we talk about constructive and destructive criticism, how to respond to it, how to give it out and what we can learn from all of it.

For more information on The Heart of Leadership Podcast, Andrew, and his business Upward Focus, head to www.upwardfocussolutions.com

Do you feel appreciated? Do you know when you are doing a good job? Do you know the little things you need to tweak to improve and get better? Do you show others that you appreciate them? Do you let them know when they could improve on something?

"Good job." "Way to go." "You did great today." "Thanks for doing that. I appreciate it."

Aren’t those words nice to hear?

What about things like...Could you please go into more detail next time? Would you be able to add pictures throughout the presentation? Or telling someone “we don’t use that type of language here. Please refrain from doing so from now on. You are representing the company.”

Those ones may not be the greatest to hear all the time, but they are just as important as the encouragement.

All of these words aren’t hard to say yet we don’t hear them nearly enough. We also don’t say them nearly enough to others.

Feedback. It’s a powerful thing.

It makes a world of a difference.

It gives direction. It sets the tone. It motivates us. It helps us understand each other. It helps us improve. It allows us feel valued and appreciated.

It’s powerful.

In this episode of the Heart of Leadership Podcast, we talk about the power of feedback and why you should be making it a habit of giving people around you the feedback they need.

For more information on The Heart of Leadership Podcast, Andrew, and his business Upward Focus, head to www.upwardfocussolutions.com