The Me-Suite

Donna Peters interviews SassyLass CEO, Janice Jackson.   Janice is a career C-Suite leader and mom who champions:

1) never wear a "mask" at work (be at work who you are at home)
2) don't mistake kindness for weakness
3) speak truth to power
4) put family first

Janice's Core Values are: courage, authenticity and vulnerability.

SassyLass believes the future is ethical.  The future is transparent.  The future is women.   "Sassy, classy and a little bad-assy."  Monthly, SassyLass supports a specific organization with its profits to empower women everywhere.  April 2020, SassyLass is donating to the World Health Organization's COVID-Solidarity Response Fund.

Check out other episodes such as:
Managing Your Personal Fear
Embrace the Hard Things
Servant Leadership
The Innovation Ninja Shares His Powers
Storytelling with a C-Suite Leader
Think Like a CFO: Dollar Scholar Shines a Lights at a Dark Time
Improv Can Improve Your Work and Play
How to Have a Growth Mindset
Do You Know Your Core Values?
Build Your Personal Board of Directors
A CEO Gets Real About Real Life
Creating the Culture You Want to Live In
Shape the Future You Want
Options Are Power

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

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

Donna Peters interviews strategist, Reza Firouzbacht, on the concept of the extremely timely topic, managing FEAR.  Uncertainty has shaken our sense of health, community, security and livelihood.  Many of us feel we lack control.  Reza encourages us to view fear as a signal, rather than as a negative emotion.  Fear is a primal instinct and an important signal that needs our attention. It's a lighthouse on whether or not we have accounted for both the data and our gut instinct to take the right actions.  Fear is a signal that says, "Caution. Pay attention."   We then must ask "what is in our control and what is out of our control in the situation?"  For what's in our control, "what are we going to do about it?"

To manage fear, Reza pulls upon his varied experiences as a:

• young boy growing up during the revolution and bombing raids in Iran
• student of biology and neuroscience 
• scenario planning expert
• champion of meditation to calm the mind

The right mindset is critical to acknowledging, processing and addressing our fears in a rational way.  With a rational mind, we can process the fear: Is it False Evidence Appearing Real?  Is it an overstated fear?  Is it an understated fear?  

Reza recommends meditation as the first best step to calming the nervous system so that we can think rationally through what we can and cannot control.  And then take action on what we can control by naming that which we cannot control.  Reza recommends Tara Brach's Facing Pandemic Fears with an Open Heart.

Check out other episodes such as:
Embrace the Hard Things
Servant Leadership
The Innovation Ninja Shares His Powers
Storytelling with a C-Suite Leader
Think Like a CFO: Dollar Scholar Shines a Lights at a Dark Time
Improv Can Improve Your Work and Play
A Listener Shares Her Me-Suite Morsels
How to Have a Growth Mindset
Do You Know Your Core Values?
Build Your Personal Board of Directors
A CEO Gets Real About Real Life
Creating the Culture You Want to Live In
Shape the Future You Want
Options Are Power

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

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

Donna Peters interviews Chief Strategy Officer, Alan Nalle, for a prophetic interview on how to think strategically about:

• making big decisions (including saying no)
• embracing the hard things
• being rigorous in your analytics and criteria for decision-making
• the value of partnering with others

Alan's core values: meritocracy, integrity and transparency/candor

Check out other episodes such as:
Servant Leadership
The Innovation Ninja Shares His Powers
Storytelling with a C-Suite Leader
Think Like a CFO: Dollar Scholar Shines a Lights at a Dark Time
Improv Can Improve Your Work and Play
A Listener Shares Her Me-Suite Morsels
How to Have a Growth Mindset
Do You Know Your Core Values?
Build Your Personal Board of Directors
A CEO Gets Real About Real Life
Creating the Culture You Want to Live In
Shape the Future You Want
Options Are Power

Thank you for joining us in The Me-Suite: a source of power for the life-minded.  Subscribe to the podcast.  Visit our blog and executive life coaching services.

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

Donna Peters has a Q&A with Me-Suite listener and attorney, Ellis Izlar.  This Q&A dives into the most popular question we're receiving in The Me-Suite right now: How should I be building or rethinking my Personal Board of Directors at this time of change?   These questions are coming in from the very popular episode #1 "Building Your Personal Board of Directors" with CEO guest, Ana Dutra.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EPISODE:
--How to identify your topics/need that would benefit from a Personal Board
--How to pick the members of your Board
--How to invite your Board members (and what if they want to say "no")
--How to focus your Board
--Ellis' Core Values: you're a prisoner of your own experiences--widen the walls; expect great things and they will happen; make people feel special

Check out other episodes such as:
Servant Leadership
The Innovation Ninja Shares His Powers
Storytelling with a C-Suite Leader
Think Like a CFO: Dollar Scholar Shines a Lights at a Dark Time
A Listener Shares Her Me-Suite Morsels
A Chief Strategy Officer Maps It Out For Us
How to Have a Growth Mindset
Do You Know Your Core Values?
Build Your Personal Board of Directors
A CEO Gets Real About Real Life
Creating the Culture You Want to Live In
Shape the Future You Want
Options Are Power

Thank you for joining us in The Me-Suite: a source of power for the life-minded.  Subscribe to the podcast.  Visit our blog and executive life coaching services.

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

Donna Peters interviews Nicole Tranchitella, Senior Managing Director at Accenture, servant leader, wife, mom of 3 and a member of Donna's personal Board of Directors.

Who is emerging as a true leader in your life at these turbulent times?  Servant Leadership isn't about an org chart or a hierarchy.  Servant Leadership is a mindset we need now more than ever in our professional and personal lives.  Nicole shares what it means to be a Servant Leader and how we can all start to build a muscle of servant leadership by asking "how can I help you?"

A feel-good listen!

HIGHLIGHTS OF EPISODE:

--Nicole's Core Values: stewardship, gratitude, integrity, family
--Nicole inspires us to ask "how can I help you?"  She reminds us of the power of a thank you and the encouragement of a "keep me" folder

Check out other episodes such as:
The Innovation Ninja Shares His Powers
Storytelling with a C-Suite Leader
Think Like a CFO: Dollar Scholar Shines a Lights at a Dark Time
A Listener Shares Her Me-Suite Morsels
A Chief Strategy Officer Maps It Out For Us
How to Have a Growth Mindset
Do You Know Your Core Values?
Build Your Personal Board of Directors
A CEO Gets Real About Real Life
Creating the Culture You Want to Live In
Shape the Future You Want
Options Are Power

Thank you for joining us in The Me-Suite: a source of power for the life-minded.  Subscribe to the podcast.  Visit our blog and executive life coaching services.

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

This short episode highlights 4 new, fun things to do with family and friends in this time of physical (not social) distancing.  Each idea helps us flex our Me-Suite muscle:

1) Core Values: an exercise to do with the whole family.  Identify the core values you have in common as a family and those that are unique to each of you.  An energizing activity that will pull you closer together across all ages.  If you're old enough to talk, you're old enough to think about your core values.
2) The 5 Love Languages: a discussion with partners and those closest to you.  This sounds so cheesy, but it's really cool.  Which of the 5 love languages makes you feel loved and appreciated? How you like to demonstrate your love and appreciation is often NOT how the other person likes to receive acts of love and appreciation.  You will be surprised at what you learn about each other.
3) Virtual Pajama Party: use video to connect with friends in a casual way with no make-up, no agenda--just like a pajama party.  BYOB.
4) Gardening with Kitchen Scraps.  It's time to start gardening even if you don't have an outdoor space to do so.  Tips for sprouting foods right in the kitchen.  Fun, educational and eventually edible.

Check out other episodes such as:
Improv Will Improve Your Work and Play
The Innovation Ninja Shares His Powers
Storytelling with a C-Suite Leader
Think Like a CFO: Dollar Scholar Shines a Lights at a Dark Time
A Listener Shares Her Me-Suite Morsels
A Chief Strategy Officer Maps It Out For Us
How to Have a Growth Mindset
Do You Know Your Core Values?
Build Your Personal Board of Directors
A CEO Gets Real About Real Life
Creating the Culture You Want to Live In
Shape the Future You Want
Options Are Power

Welcome to The Me-Suite: a source of power for the life-minded.  Subscribe to the podcast.  Visit our blog and executive life coaching services.

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

The  3 rules of improv can help improve our daily lives RIGHT NOW.  Improv provides the building blocks for how we should be interacting with one another in all aspects of our lives.  The 3 rules are:

1. Be accepting
2. Be present
3. Be curious

Donna Peters interviews Nicole Cohen, improvisational theatre expert and corporate business leader on how to apply the rules of improv to our daily lives, with co-workers and family.  In person and from afar.

Improv increases our comfort with uncertainty, our listening and communication skills, our ability to problem solve, our ability to laugh and play with others--in person or remote.  We need the skills now more than ever in working with colleagues and interacting with family and friends.  

HIGHLIGHTS OF EPISODE

--Nicole's Core Values: Inspire Others; Be Present; Live with the "IRS"--integrity, respect, stewardship
--Nicole provides examples for applying the 3 rules of improv to improve the quality of our interactions
--Nicole closes with advice on the power of "taking a pause."  How timely

Check out other episodes such as:
The Innovation Ninja Shares His Powers
Storytelling with a C-Suite Leader
Think Like a CFO: Dollar Scholar Shines a Lights at a Dark Time
A Listener Shares Her Me-Suite Morsels
A Chief Strategy Officer Maps It Out For Us
How to Have a Growth Mindset
Do You Know Your Core Values?
Build Your Personal Board of Directors
A CEO Gets Real About Real Life
Creating the Culture You Want to Live In
Shape the Future You Want
Options Are Power

Welcome to The Me-Suite: a source of power for the life-minded.  Subscribe to the podcast.  Visit our blog and executive life coaching services.

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

Donna Peters interviews award-winning Chief Creativity Officer and Founder of Curiosity Division, Mark Musto.

We need creative solutions to complex challenges RIGHT NOW.  Mark offers up a powerful challenge to all of us: constraints are your friend when it comes to creativity and finding new ways of doing things.  And right now we are all under a lot of constraints--professionally and personally.  Flex your creativity muscle with this episode.

HIGHLIGHTS OF EPISODE:

--Mark's Core Values: curiosity, passion, candor, integrity
--Mark encourages us to re-invigorate the creativity that lies in all of us:

• everyone is creative 
• creativity requires emotional safety
• to find new solutions, approach challenges with a child-like mind
• remember constraints are your friend--the greatest creativity can come from knowing what is NOT possible
• create a little garden for yourself to exercise your creativity muscles--e.g., allow time for mindfulness, to read something new, to visit museums, to exercise
• quality starts with quantity--practice, create volume, allow yourself to make mistakes and play 

Check out other episodes such as:
The Innovation Ninja Shares His Powers
Storytelling with a C-Suite Leader
Think Like a CFO: Dollar Scholar Shines a Lights at a Dark Time
A Listener Shares Her Me-Suite Morsels
A Chief Strategy Officer Maps It Out For Us
How to Have a Growth Mindset
Do You Know Your Core Values?
Build Your Personal Board of Directors
A CEO Gets Real About Real Life
Creating the Culture You Want to Live In
Shape the Future You Want
Options Are Power

Welcome to The Me-Suite: a source of power for the life-minded.  Subscribe to the podcast.  Visit our blog and executive life coaching services.

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

Donna Peters interviews Otis Aust, a fee-only financial advisor and tax geek, founder of Aust Financial Advisory. 

What a timely topic!  In this episode with the "Dollar Scholar" recorded in Dec 2019, Otis Aust talks about being prepared for inevitable stock market down turns.  He was prophetic and gets real about financial decisions--thinking like the CFO of your own life. This discussion shares provocative statistics, research and experience to help us think practically and thoughtfully about our Financial Health. 

HIGHLIGHTS OF EPISODE:

--Otis' Core Values: fairness, transparency, continuous learning
--Otis shares fact-based advice and provocative thoughts on:

• Do you know you should be saving 15-20% of your income annually starting at 25?
• Is buying a home really an investment?  You'll be surprised by this discussion.  
• What is your relationship with money?  Your risk tolerance?  
• How does your family talk about money?  What are the most important financial questions to be asking in a relationship?  
• Did you realize the average person is retired for 30 years?  What will you need?
• Did you ever stop and think that you'll be in a relationship with the Federal Government your entire life?
• How do you choose a financial advisor?

The Millionaire Next Door: Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy, by Sarah Stanley and Thomas Stanley, is referenced in this discussion.

Check out other episodes such as:
The Innovation Ninja Shares His Powers
Storytelling with a C-Suite Leader
A Listener Shares Her Me-Suite Morsels
A Chief Strategy Officer Maps It Out For Us
How to Have a Growth Mindset
Do You Know Your Core Values?
Build Your Personal Board of Directors
A CEO Gets Real About Real Life
Creating the Culture You Want to Live In
Shape the Future You Want
Options Are Power

Welcome to The Me-Suite: a source of power for the life-minded.  Subscribe to the podcast.  Visit our blog and executive life coaching services.

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

Donna Peters interviews Shubber Ali, Innovation Ninja and University Lecturer, on what it really means to be innovative in all aspects of our lives.

HIGHLIGHTS OF EPISODE

--Shubber's Core Values: The Only Thing of Value is Our Time; Don't Care What Others Think; Never Stop Asking Questions
--The real definition of Innovation is "finding a new way to do something that adds value"
--Shubber gives practical advice, inspiring quotes and tangible examples for being more innovative in our personal and professional lives
--Shubber recommends the Adam Grant book, Originals.

Check out upcoming episodes which will include topics such as:
Do You Know Your Core Values?
Build Your Personal Board of Directors
A CEO Gets Real About Real Life
Does Your Life Have a Strategy
You Are Your Brand
The Culture At Home
Shape the Future You Want
Financial Advice That's Hard to Hear
Options Are Power

Welcome to The Me-Suite: a source of power for the life-minded.  Subscribe to the podcast.  Visit our blog and executive life coaching services.

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