The Me-Suite

Your host, Donna Peters, interviews Dr. Kara Nance, CEO of WellessenceMD.  Kara shares her professional and personal journey to find what makes us well.  She started on the traditional path of school, marriage, mom of 4, homeowner—and realized that things in life were not working for her.  So much “doing” had disconnected her from what she really needed and wanted.  She listened to an inside voice and turned focus to helping people achieve their highest level of health—with the support of many she calls “family.”  

Kara reminds us that the quality of our lives is defined by the quality of our relationships.  She enourages us to “unplug and reboot our brains.”

Kara shares ideas for how to continue coping through COVID as the weather chills and forces us indoors.  You can join Dr. Kara’s remote Zoom classes on weekday evenings.  Classes focus on mindfulness, communication and relationships (Enneagram).

Kara's core values are Family, Flexibility and Fortitude.

www.the-me-suite.com
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LinkedIn: Donna Peters
Twitter: @DonnaPetersCMeO
*The Me-Suite podcast theme song by @Moshun

I made a new friend in the garden this week. The Frog Formerly Known as Prince is what I named him. So he has something to do with leadership coaching, believe it or not. As a leadership coach, I help clients identify and achieve personal goals. And the absolute top-trending issue in coaching is Time. Time is always a constraint, keeping people from achieving the goals that they set for themselves. So I first like to seek some ways that people can combine because it's very, very difficult to find something to completely remove from your to do list, but unrealistic to always keep adding to it. So I challenge people to think about the concept of combining. For example, if you'd like to read more, could you start with an audio book listening while you're doing chores or taking a walk in the neighborhood, or commuting?

If you'd like more exercise, is there an errand that you could do maybe walking rather than driving the right combination for me personally was gardening?  And I'll use it as an example because it might give you some ideas as well. So gardening allows me to exercise. You'd be amazed how high you can jump when you shovel up a snake in the compost.  You get some vitamin D because you're outside.  You connect with fun family memories because I'm planting some of my dad's heirloom seeds. And he would be very proud of my green beans. You practice patience because plants grow if and when they want to grow and weeding is meditative for me, I smile when my husband, the chef, says he's going to the farmer's market, but he means that he's going down to my garden.  

And you get to spend some time with friends and their kids. I like to invite my friends with their kids to come over and pick vegetables. Although I have noted that no one likes to pick the cabbage. I belly laugh about my garden flops. I've had a rank cantaloupe that splattered all over the kitchen. I mean, I think I'm still cleaning that up. I had the world's smallest carrots. They were invisible to the naked eye.  And the very, very popular "would you like some cucumber with those worms?" And then lastly, gardening has allowed me to demonstrate some gratitude.  Taking something from a seed to the dinner table is truly awesome. 

So share with me if you have found an activity that helps you pull it all together for you in your Me-Suite.  When time is a constraint, combine.

www.the-me-suite.com
FB: @mesuite
LinkedIn: Donna Peters
Twitter: @DonnaPetersCMeO
*The Me-Suite podcast theme song by @Moshun

Delegation is the true leader's paradox.

In feedback discussions, have you ever heard:

• You need to focus on more strategic issues.
• Why do you send emails so late at night and on the weekends?
• I’d like to engage you in this new important initiative, but you have so much on your plate.

Simultaneously, are you saying to yourself:

• It’s just faster if I do it myself.
• I don’t want to dump this task on her.
• He’s got a lot going on already.

Often, the high performers who want to receive more meaningful work are the very ones struggling to delegate work to others.  It’s a common leadership paradox.

A simple mindset shift helps us work through the paradox.  I call it “delegrow.”  It is impossible--absolutely impossible--for you to develop others if you do not delegate work that allows them to grow.  Conversely, it is impossible--absolutely impossible--for you to develop yourself if you are not delegated work that allows you to grow.  But how can you take on more without giving more to others?

Delegation doesn’t mean “shove this off on someone else.”  Delegation means “appoint as my representative.”  We are too often afraid that we’ll be seen as the bad boss dumping busy work on already-busy people.  Or we, ourselves, are so busy, it’s a waste of time to stop and involve others.  This faulty thinking works against our very goals to grow others and grow ourselves.

If we all have the mindset of “delegrow,” we will be asking different questions:

• What activities could I assign to my team to build their skills, their knowledge, their networks, their sense of ownership?
• What activities should I be seeking to grow myself?

 Yes, brown stuff does roll downhill sometimes.  The truth is, not all work is strategic and sexy.  Tedious, crappy assignments exist at all levels.  But, what may be crappy data clean-up work to you, could be an opportunity for someone else to learn the company’s chart of accounts.  What may be mind-numbing slide editing to you, was a chance for me to hone executive presentation skills...and I was even happy doing it on a Sunday because I got exposure to the leadership team at their offsite.  

We each need a mindset that growth—our personal growth and our ability to grow others—requires delegation.  What will you delegate tomorrow?

www.the-me-suite.com
FB: @mesuite
LinkedIn: Donna Peters
Twitter: @DonnaPetersCMeO
*The Me-Suite podcast theme song by @Moshun

Listen to this amazing story about "Tell Them Yes."  Your host, Donna Peters, interviews Donna Cryer, founder and CEO of the Global Liver Institute.  She is a Harvard and Georgetown Law grad, patient advocate, social impact entrepreneur and 25-year liver transplant recipient.  Donna focuses on increasing patient access to innovative care and helping people live a life of high achievement while navigating chronic illness.

Donna Cryer leads with drive, intelligence, humility and humor.  Her practical advice challenges us to 1) have a bold vision and 2) acknowledge our weaknesses so we can surround ourselves with the right people to help us achieve the vision.

Donna's core value is: "When you have a choice, and we all do, choose to be excellent."

www.the-me-suite.com
FB: @mesuite
LinkedIn: Donna Peters
Twitter: @DonnaPetersCMeO
*The Me-Suite podcast theme song by @Moshun

Your host, Donna Peters, interviews Andy Parker, co-author of Eat, Sleep, Innovate.  Andy is a partner at Innosight, the firm founded by Harvard professor and author, Clayton Christensen.  

Andy, Britain-born and Singapore-based, shares the 5 behaviors required for innovation and change in our own personal lives:

• curiosity
• customer obsession
• collaboration
• experimentation 
• empowerment

We discuss blockers and the practical BEANs required for behavior change:  Behavior Enablers, Artifacts and Nudges.

Andy's core values are:

• do work your proud of
• don't take yourself too seriously
• look out for yourself and others
• teach back to others if you can

www.the-me-suite.com
FB: @mesuite
LinkedIn: Donna Peters
Twitter: @DonnaPetersCMeO
*The Me-Suite podcast theme song by @Moshun

Your host, Donna Peters, interviews serial entrepreneur and dearest, funny friend, Mac Hardcastle.  Mac is the author of the Entrepreneur's Handbook with decades in private equity and VC.   He is now a C-Suite leader at a not-for-profit.  In 2020, Mac had a near-death experience with a 5% chance of living.  Here he reflects, with humor and insight, on:

• not letting the urgent crowd out the important
• raising a toast to those special in our lives
• examining our transferrable skills to take a chance on the work we want to be doing--when people are afraid, they go to what feels safe--you don't have to play it safe
• having conversations about the legacy we want to leave

Mac's core values are Intellectual Curiosity, Hard Work and Honesty.

In this episode, Mac offers listeners his deck of "Start a Conversation" cards that help us have important conversations NOW with those we love.  You can order the cards by contacting Mac Hardcastle at [email protected] and mention The Me-Suite interview.

www.the-me-suite.com
FB: @mesuite
LinkedIn: Donna Peters
Twitter: @DonnaPetersCMeO
*The Me-Suite podcast theme song by @Moshun

I am a career coach, podcast host and faculty at a globally renowned business school.  The #1 question I am asked is “what is the biggest mistake you’ve made in your career?”

I plan to be alive much longer to make many more mistakes, but thus far my #1 mistake was believing in work-life balance.  Work-life balance is a common concept. Some now dress it up and call it work-life integration.  The concept implies that work and life are equal sides of a seesaw.  The implied goal is to keep the seesaw horizontal while managing the ups and downs.  (I remember the sugar-high kid banging his end of our seesaw on the playground so hard my buck teeth almost straightened.  His name was Tommy.  I digress.)  

I now know there should be no work-life balance.  There should be only your LIFE...and everything else falls underneath that, including decisions you make about work, relationships, family, health, spirituality, passions, finances, learning.  Obviously work is an important, time-consuming component, but work should be in service of the life you want to live, not be a partner in balance with it.  There’s a difference. 

I didn’t begin to learn this difference until I was on a red-eye from Seattle to Birmingham.  I had been called home from a critically important client project that couldn't possibly progress without me--my first project as the overall lead at my new employer--and, did I mention, I planned to be promoted within the year.  A blockage in Dad’s left anterior descending artery (LAD), a proximal LAD lesion, had him now under sedation.  He survived the Widow Maker procedure while I was hurling at 35,000 feet for 5 hours reflecting on his principled life.  Literally hurling, btw.  As a two-million-miler, that remains the only flight when I’ve used the barf bag for barf.  

I had quiet, dark time in the air that night to think about my own life.  How do I know if I’m making the right decisions for the life I want to live?  I thought, “If someone speaks at my funeral about Donna’s amazing abilities to build a merger integration playbook, I’m gonna be pissed.”  I’ll be dead, of course, but I’ll also be pissed.  I thought about the companies I most admire and how they make big decisions.  Nike, Tesla, Johnson & Johnson, Accenture, Starbucks.  They have Core Values that steer behavior, that take a stand, that create the future they envision.

I thought, why don’t I have this steerage for my own life?  What are my Core Values?  How do my Core Values guide decisions for the future I want to live in?  And thus began my learning from a big mistake.  There is no work-life seesaw to balance.  There is only my LIFE at the top of a jungle gym--and all decisions I make--including those about work--are the scaffolding in service of that life I want to live, not in balance with it.  

My Core Values are Curiosity, Freedom and Respect.  I am curious what big mistake I will next freely make.  I respect I will have much to learn from it.

www.the-me-suite.com
FB: @mesuite
LinkedIn: Donna Peters
Twitter: @DonnaPetersCMeO
*The Me-Suite podcast theme song by @Moshun

Welcome to Season 2 of The Me-Suite podcast.  I'm your host, Donna Peters.  I am a career coach working with individuals, companies and academic institutions.  I help career-minded people have a life.  To live with, what I call, a Me-Suite mindset.   Beyond this  podcast, you can learn more about me and The Me-Suite career coaching and professional development at the-me-suite.com.  And find me on LinkedIn and Twitter.  

In Season 2, we continue to find the amazing in everyone.  Our guests are career-driven people who want to be in control of their future.  They strive to lead their lives like C-Suites lead the companies we most admire.  With purpose, planning and power.  Just like in the C-suite, doing this well in our own Me-Suite requires 3 things: letting our personal core values guide our decisions, keeping our day to day life running smoothly, and staying fresh and relevant for the future we wish to have.    

Season 1 was a top-trending podcast series in podcastlandia, so if you're a returning listener, I am bowing with gratitude and thank you for the feedback that helped shape the new season.  If you're a new listener, I am doing cartwheels.  Probably really poorly, but I am doing them just for you and am thrilled to be in your ear right now. 

In Season 2, we will learn what works for others and explore where we had some hard lessons and failures.  And we will continue to balance the aspirational with the practical sharing tips on what we can start doing differently on Monday.  We will hear from C-Suite leaders, next-generation leaders and those just launching a career.  We will hear from big business and entrepreneurs across industries.  We will learn about amazing successes and hot messes.

The #1 learning from listeners and my own experience is that people are amazing if you give them a chance to tell their stories.    So, please subscribe, share with others, and give us 5 stars if you like what you hear.  It helps us continue sharing the amazing in everyone. 

Season 2, Me-Suite suiteners, let's get in there!

*The Me-Suite podcast theme song by @Moshun

www.the-me-suite.com
FB: @mesuite
LinkedIn: Donna Peters
Twitter: @DonnaPetersCMeO

In this final episode of Season 1, an avid listener, Amy Easton, turns the mic around and interviews Founder & Host, Donna Peters.

• How is Donna feeling about wrapping up Season 1 of the podcast?
• What has been the most fun thing about the The Me-Suite podcast experience?
• Is she doing anything differently now because of the podcast lessons learned?
• What episode topic was the most difficult?
• What guest surprised her the most?
• What are the main themes to take away from Season 1?
• What's in store for Season 2?

Remember, all Season 1 episodes are available wherever you get your podcasts and at The Me-Suite.  Season 2 is currently in development.  Donna encourages listeners to share feedback on content and approach for Season 2.

Thank you for joining us in The Me-Suite: a source of power for the life-minded.  Subscribe to the podcast.  Explore our career coaching services.  Everyone needs a coach, especially at times like these.

www.the-me-suite.com
FB: @mesuite
LinkedIn: The Me-Suite

Host Donna Peters knows you'll love this episode!  In 13 lucky minutes, hear a montage of the Core Values across our incredible Season 1 guests.   The Core Values are as diverse as the guests we interviewed, with Curiosity, Helping Others and Integrity emerging as the more in-common themes. 

The diversity of thought, backgrounds and experiences represented in this group of tremendous talent leaves us energized about the future.

What are YOUR Core Values?  Let us hear from you.

Thank you for joining us in The Me-Suite: a source of power for the life-minded. 
Explore our career coaching services.  Everyone needs a coach, especially at times like these.

Remember, all Season 1 episodes are available wherever you get your podcasts and at The Me-Suite.  We are excited that Season 2 is currently in development!  Donna encourages listeners to share feedback on content and approach for Season 2.  

www.the-me-suite.com
FB: @mesuite
LinkedIn: The Me-Suite