Episode 321: Pat Dillon Demystifies Federal Funding Available to Start-ups and Existing Businesses, Part I

Early-stage businesses and growing an existing business require capital infusions at different stages of its growth. Hunting for money goes something like this once a somewhat final draft of our business plans is written. We reprioritize our monies and check with friends and family to check what financial resources might be available. We talk with bankers and look for loan opportunities, potential financial investment angels, and venture capital options. Credit card maximums are re-evaluated. We stretch our financial resources as far as possible and hunt for other resources to get our new products and services into the marketplace.

Government resources are also available. Did you know $100B per year is invested in contracts and grants for research and development of new technologies? To demystify our government funding ecosystem, I turned to a 30+ year treasured innovator in Minnesota’s science and technology, investment, and commercialization arena, Pat Dillon.

Pat Dillon shares one of the largest sources of early-stage capital for technology commercialization in the United States that our tax dollars fund. It is known as America’s Seed Fund. Each state has grants and other funding resources that support a diverse portfolio of early-stage and existing businesses. A capital ecosystem you want to make sure you know about, no matter what industry or creative type of business you are in. There are many ways to get grant monies to support your work.

Pat Dillon, MBA, is the founder and director of Minnesota’s Small Business Innovation Research and the Small Business Technology Transfer Accelerator - known as Minnesota SBIR/STTR Accelerator. Each state has SBIR/STTR programs. We are focusing on Minnesota’s SBIR/STTR Accelerator programs because, obviously, I am here, but once you know the funding history and how these programs work, you can check them out in the state where your business is registered.

Pat has 30+ years of demonstrated knowledge, experience, and relationships that allow hundreds of businesses to apply and win funding.  Since 1994, she has facilitated $250M in SBIR/STTR Accelerator funding, resulting in additional investments, patents, jobs, mergers and acquisitions, and new products and services for global markets. She works with 100 start-ups and existing businesses per year as they transform their high-risk, high-impact technologies into marketable products and services. SBA_SBIR_Overview

Other meaningful aspects of our conversation include:

* Two prior Guest Mentors have participated in the SBIR/STTR Accelerator programs and have won awards.

* Allison Hubel, Ph.D., CSO, BlueCube Bio Founder, and Karen Dodson, President

* The Inspiration Ecosystem: How Compassion, Curiosity, and Coaching Led to An Award-Winning Start-up | WeMentor Mondays with Nancy PODCAST

* Expanding BlueCube Bio’s Ecosystem | WeMentor Mondays with Nancy PODCAST

* Co-Founders of HabitAware: Aneela Idnani (Kumar) and Sameer Kumar

* Becoming HabitAware | WeMentor Mondays with Nancy PODCAST Becoming HabitAware

*

Episode 320: Getting Extraordinary Results with Scott Welle

If you are an Outperformer, you are continuously tracking and tweaking. Replacing limiting beliefs and tweaking results as you go, whether you are an athlete, a scholar, a filmmaker, a creative, a performer, a business leader, a manufacturer, a techie, or an author of 10 books. There is always something to learn in each new challenge.

Scott Welle just finished his 10th book, Outperform The Norm: Daily Execution. Extraordinary Results. In no particular sequence, we briefly discuss his 10 Excellence in Execution Principles, with Scott offering many insights to savor and apply.

Two crucial questions he says you need to ask yourself about big goals. You will have to listen to find out what they are. Yes, yes, yes. I want you to hear Scott’s explanation around them. DOWNLOAD

Scott’s 10 excellence in execution principles are listed below. Check them out and make sure your big goals have included his principles.

Scott’s 10 Excellence in Execution Principles

* Own It

* Live It

* Love It

* Shove It

* Internalize It

* Externalize It

* Stack It

* Track It

* Speak It

* Tweak It

How important is it to adopt the identity of who you need to be to achieve a big goal? Really own it #1 principle. Scott uses an example of writing vs. being a writer I found particularly pertinent.

Here is another example of owning it that happened over the weekend. UW-Madison is Scott’s alma mater.

Matthew and I have been observing our daughter, Olivia, at UW-Madison. We have done more than observe, but I think you know what I mean. Scott says, “no Outperformer goes it alone.” The rowing team and its coaches accepted walk-ons in the fall of 2021. Olivia’s first year was not an option with COVID restrictions; no walk-ons. Her coaches for the novice team are also new last fall to the UW-Madison rowing team. Olivia calls them Hodge and Vicky.

I don’t know all the ins and outs of the coaches. I know that Olivia’s mindset shifted, and she proclaimed herself ‘a rower’ sometime before her first Regatta in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, on April 15 and 16. Never having rowed before, Olivia’s goal was to go ‘all in,’ giving it her best, see if this was her ‘college sport.’

This sport has four Regattas a season before the NCAA Championships, so the athletes have a lot of pressure to perform at their highest level every time their boat hits the water. Leading up to the weekend’s Regatta, the team had countless hiccups with sickness and injuries and a few boat accidents, but the team kept up a schedule of two workouts five days a week. And an early morning workout on Saturdays.

Scott knows what he speaks and writes about. I noticed his 10 principles in real-time. I’ll give you the most essential details. Olivia applied the discipline she learned from being part of a Nordic Ski and Cross Country Running team in High School to her daily routine.

I noticed Olivia’s coaches applying the 10 Excellence in Execution Principles through the fall and winter into this spring when the season is underway. She needed to face two extra challenges with rowing: being out of shape from not competing in an organized sport for an entire year and never having rowed before. Getting extraordinary results in her first year on the team seemed impossible. One caveat, she was competing against other University novices like herself. This was a Regatta for southern state Universities like Kansas State, Central Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, Purdue, Notre Dame, and Virginia Tech, to name a few. I guess

Episode 319: Daily Strategies of Outperformers with Scott Welle

Scott Welle role models what he writes, speaks, and teaches. He just published his 10th book, Outperform The Norm: Daily Execution. Extraordinary Results. Scott is here to cultivate connections between our daily execution and realizing big aspirations, highlighting how the Norm thinks and the Outperformers function.

Outperform The Norm: Daily Execution. Extraordinary Results contains ten principles that explain an Outperformers strategy of goal setting, the execution of goal achievement, and the psychology of aspiring to big things. We focus on the mental game and improving daily strategies to Outperform. The little things matter in our daily activities, and they can add up to significant results done with mindful intent and applying Scott’s ten principles.

Scott has a master’s degree in Sports Psychology and enjoys pushing his own physical and mental limits. He has completed 5 Ironman triathlons, 29 marathons, and a 100-mile ultra-marathon run. The proof is in the O.P.P. Framework. We go into the ins and outs of Outcome goals, Process goals, and Performance goals to offer practical strategies for improving our daily output.

I have been following Scott via his weekly emails since I first heard him speak at the Optimist’s Club and at the Small Emerging Growth Companies organization a few years later. In 2017, Scott was one of our podcast Guest Mentors. We focused on two of Scott’s books at that time. His 1st book, Welleness, and his 9th book Outperform The Norm. We talked about adopting an attitude of gratitude and key phrases and words that retrain our minds from having 78% negative daily thoughts to positive thinking, being, and doing.

Outperform The Norm: Daily Execution. Extraordinary Results is laid out in three sections. The mental game of goals, goal-setting strategies, and excellence in execution. We start with updates from 2017 and Scott’s beliefs for the first 20 years of his life. This is an example of how crippling comparison can be, and Scott’s power of awareness transformed self-defeating, self-limiting, and self-sabotaging beliefs to become the Outperformer he is today, inspiring us to harness the tremendous potential within (body, mind, and spirit).

Other Conversation Highlights:

* The formula for water intake.

* Scott says to tear up your daily to-do list and replace it with a strategic-priorities list. Shocker!

* Long COVID and its effect on Outperformers.

* The age by which our personality is formed.

* Our minds give out before the body. How to work with your mind.

* #1 Outperformer Principle: Own It. Are you partially interested (the Norm) or fully Committed (the Outperformer)?

* Process goal strategy: focused attention on things that matter and things you can control.

* 4 Musts in Setting Process Goals.

I am applying Scott’s ten principles and daily strategies as I aspire to publish my book. I would love to hear how our conversation affects you. Contact me HERE.  DOWNLOAD

“Any goal is realistic with an intelligent plan to accomplish it.” — Scott Welle.

 

My Reflection

In pondering the concept of Outperforming the Norm, I asked myself. How does this concept jive with my compassionate desire for all beings everywhere to be happy, peaceful, and free? Being happy, peaceful, and free requires us to set goals and have aspirations beyond ourselves. This, in turn, challenges us to live our lives with integrity. To live with integrity,

Episode 318: Dan Oshinsky’s Innovative Leadership at BuzzFeed, The New Yorker, and Inbox Collective

Dan Oshinsky has a knack for being at the right place at the right time, with the right strategy, a theme we began last week about “opportunity timing.” We discuss what it took for him to build capable teams at BuzzFeed and The New Yorker and his aspirations for Inbox Collective, including tips on sending better emails.

We resume at BuzzFeed, where Dan built a team that grew online newsletters into one of the biggest traffic referrers, writing over 200 posts that drove over 250M clicks to its site. He knows how to exploit opportunities, bending them towards a positive and focused purpose. You can feel this energy as he applies innovation and creativity to managing people and projects. The definition of an innovative leader.

BuzzFeed is an online publication founded by Jonah Perretti in 2006. Dan’s first year, he studied their email design and started cultivating a newsletter team of three, then five. By Dan’s fifth year of employment, the company spiked in growth from 175 employees to 1500 employees and opened 20 offices worldwide. Last I checked, 24 blogs were trending.

Dan gives a unique perspective about his teambuilding exercises that are not really teambuilding exercises. He built the team and passed it on to capable hands as he did after creating Not a Newsletter, a monthly briefing with news, tips, and ideas about how to send better email worth signing up for if you have a blog. To foster trust, he turned ‘his meetings’ into ‘their meetings.’

You might have noticed BuzzFeed in the news lately. Entrepreneurs under financial pressure can have difficulties fulfilling promises when they take their companies public, which was the case at BuzzFeed. Seventy disgruntled employees could not sell their shares because stock prices dropped after their Initial Public Offering (IPO) in December 2021. This collective group has sued the media outlet for $8.7M. 

The New Yorker, on the other hand, was a whole new scary and exciting challenge for Dan. An established, well-respected magazine. Its first publication hit the marketplace on February 17, 1925. It was founded by Harold W. Ross and his wife, Jane Grant, a New York Times reporter. “Ross wanted to create a sophisticated humor magazine—in contrast to the corniness of other humor publications such as Judge, where he had worked.” According to the New World Encyclopedia, the New Yorker publishes reportage, criticism, essays, cartoons, poetry, and fiction.

Dan helped The New Yorker magazine with a digital transformation, increasing online subscriptions. The magazine publishes 47 times plus five extra in-depth issues each year. To digitally transform the magazine, Dan directed a team of five journalists and brought Adhoc teams from established work silos within the organization together. The New Yorker Subscription Teams of creative, intelligent, reasonable, hardworking people who happen to be unusually friendly helped make Dan’s job as Director of Newsletters easier. A bonus was being around people with an extensive vocabulary. His relational literacy helped them invest in the makeover to increa...

Episode 317: Dan Oshinsky after 10 Years of Blogging and 850 Posts

Dan Oshinsky, an entrepreneurial journalist, knows how to capture our attention and build loyal audiences. He has had tremendous success at The New Yorker and Buzzfeed, driving over 250M clicks. With over 10 years of blogging and 850 posts, Dan has ideas for us about launching new ideas, publishing content, and building relationships through email.You get a sense of Dan’s uniqueness with how he promotes Inbox Collective, a consultancy that helps news organizations, non-profits, and brands get the most out of email. His knack for being at the right place at the right time and how he sniffs out news opportunities are humorous and fascinating to listen to.Dan grew up in Washington D.C., loving print newspapers and observing reporters. These observations led to understanding the difference between lazy reporters and excellent ones. At age 14, Dan got a tip from his father, who told him to email team owner Ted Leonsis and see if he could cover one of the Washington Capitals Hockey games. It worked. Dan got his first press pass and covered a game for his middle school paper. He learned that being a reporter has its perks and well-crafted emails unlock the gates to new relationships and valuable opportunities.Curious serial creators have many ideas and new things to start, and Dan has started many. He even created new titles for himself. Director of Newsletters at Buzzfeed and The New Yorker helped him realize how to explore what works and what doesn’t work with content on a much larger scale and in an enormous playing field. Maybe it is time for you to explore a larger playground, or not. Enjoy our conversation. DOWNLOADNEXT STEP: Challenge yourself and do the Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring (C.A.L.M.) Activities, below.

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Episode Resources

Dan's Resources

A Massive List of Dan’s Stories. | danoshinsky.com

Inbox Collective | Pico Partner (trypico.com)

Dan Oshinsky, Online Media (brandyourself.com)

Introducing… Not a Newsletter: A Monthly Guide to Sending Better Emails. | danoshinsky.com

Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring

After listening, do these three C.A.L.M. Activities:

* Take this risk or do this adventurous task: New opportunities stretch us in unpredictable ways. They develop our character and keep us invested in life and learning. I was blown away by Dan’s enthusiasm and zest for life. Make a list of new opportunities you want to explore.

* Apply Self-Compassion: Imagine new opportunities coming your way throughout the day. Continue that thinking into the next day, the next, and so on. Focus breathing in the fresh air of rejuvenation and releasing stoggy air you no longer need. Continue your focus until your energy level has increased and you are ready to move to the next best thing....

Episode 316: How Design Influences Behavior with Architect Damaris Hollingsworth

What do you notice first when you walk into a new space, whether a home or community space? The smell, the nicknacks on shelves, the layout, the color of the walls and flooring, or a terracotta ornament? A double-hung window? How do you feel in the space? How do you react when in space?

Do you ever wonder if your needs have been factored into a space? What makes a space inclusive where you feel you belong and are unafraid, seen, and welcomed? In our free-flowing conversation, Guest Mentor Architect Damaris Hollingsworth answers those questions and others.

Our first conversation taught us how early challenges led Damaris to develop grit and grace in becoming a multicultural architect designing inclusive and equitable community spaces. Today, you will hear how design influences our behavior in five core areas, how Damaris founded Design By Melo, and her aspirations and mentors. I experience a couple of ‘aha’ moments.

It was jaw-dropping to learn how airport security checks Damaris’ hair, of all things. How Damaris told the story of a recent airport security search made me laugh. The giddiness vanished when I settled into how she felt when a stranger touched her hair. We all go through airport security checkpoints; our experiences are not the same. Implicit bias has chilling effects and leaves all of us feeling diminished.

If you listened to our first conversation, you know when Damaris faces a challenge, she embraces it and innovates. Damaris has needed to design outside of textbooks because, she concedes, people of color aren’t the authors, so their voices and experiences are not represented in the way they need to be. Writing a book about her lived experiences and unique contributions to the architecture field through Design by Melo will inspire all people to fulfill their capacity and understand how places and spaces are created once we get her book into our hands. She is co-writing it right now.

Design by Melo is “founded in the belief that the built environment needs to do more than addressing the functional needs of proposed spaces; our clients benefit from a holistic approach to all that we do. Because places and spaces must also speak to the values of global engagement, cultural competency, inclusion, sustainability, and human performance, your benefit doesn’t stop when the project is complete.”

“Our behavior,” says Damaris, “is influenced by our reactions to our surroundings: color, textures, compositions, mass, void, nature or the absence of nature.” Her five company values listed above dovetail creating an inclusive and diverse representation of the people and stakeholders who occupy community spaces, whether for work, prayer, worship, celebrations, and other events and purposes.

An experience Damaris felt when working at THOR Construction allowed her to be her authentic self. She felt she belonged without any pretense and now designs with unapologetic inclusion. There was no proving oneself to others, just total acceptance of who she was as an architect and human being doing great things.

Damaris employs five people, including herself and a few subcontractors. We discuss how co-working spaces have changed, human performance, and how productivity is affected in non-inclusive spaces.

Another ‘aha’ moment. Did you know that temperature settings in office buildings have been set for men wearing suits? How productive can a woman be wearing a dress when one is freezing all day long from low office temperatures? We overcome unwelcomed barriers like these and become architects.

Cultural competency comes through understanding the needs of the people we are serving. A bank project off of Lake Street and Nicollet Avenue in Minne...

Episode 315: Grit and Grace with Architect Damaris Hollingsworth

Imagine meeting an impressive mentor at age seven and then following a dream to be an architect that takes you from Brazil and Arizona to Minnesota. Damaris Hollingsworth reflects on the grace and grit embedded in her journey to becoming a multicultural communicator, inclusive thought leader, and principal architect and founder of Design By Melo.The American Institute of Architecture (AIA) notes Damaris Hollingsworth “as someone who forges cross-cultural communication skills among architects through her design projects, advocacy efforts, and mentorship programs. Her empathetic nature and ability to listen closely inform her compassionate approach, highlighting the importance of cultural fluency for the profession.” Her energy, brilliance, and authenticity filled the space we occupied at Life Time Work, a new co-working space in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.Damaris designs from an equitable and inclusive viewpoint. We talk about what inclusivity feels like in a space. “Our behavior is influenced by our reactions to our surroundings: color, textures, compositions, mass, void, nature or the absence of nature,” says Damaris.Design by Melo emphasizes the need for places and spaces to expand beyond functionality to include values of global engagement, cultural competency, inclusion, sustainability, and human performance. We discuss each value with examples of how they can work together in community spaces.At age 14, Damaris’ entrepreneurial aspirations emerged when a desire arose to have a coming-of-age party equivalent to her sister’s, even if her Dad was retired. She found a solution through her self-employed Aunt.Early experiences of grit and determination earned Damaris a label of being ‘stubborn.’ Entrepreneurial leaders are more than stubborn; they have a strong internal drive and determination uncovering every constraint to realize their dreams through business ownership. The dream seems out of reach to others; most people thought that about Damaris’ initial dream, her architectural passion. You see, Damaris grew up in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in a loving home, a poor neighborhood, and a huge Pentecostal church community. A common belief was that poor people don’t become architects.Had Damaris not explored her youthful dream to become an architect and harnessed her internal drive toward earning an architectural degree at the University of Sao Paulo. She would not have fulfilled her next dream to attend Arizona State University College of Design and her next dream to start and build her firm, Design By Melo in Minnesota, and her next set of aspirations. A community seems to rise around Damaris, as does happen with thought leaders who have a vision beyond themselves to create a better world.Damaris is living her passion by designing inclusive and equitable community spaces. Bringing community values and economic realities into consideration of the design. She has learned how to marry an architectural passion with her spiritual calling by finding solutions rooted in the people who use the community space.Damaris has a prominent voice in the architectural arena. She was honored with a 2020 AIA Young Architects Award. This award recognizes those who demonstrate exceptional leadership and make significant contributions to the architecture profession early in their careers.Our conversation has the kind of profundity that encourages living with purpose, authenticity, and determination. Enrich your mind and listen in on our conversation. DOWNLOADNEXT STEP: Challenge yourself and do the Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring (C.A.L.M.) Activities are below.

Episode 314: Sustain Your Focus with this Meditation Practice

Are you able to focus on the right things at the right time, most of the time? If so, you are practicing four aspects connected with one skill: focus. You can direct your attention to what you want to think about and can sustain your attention as long as you would like to. You notice when your focus has been diverted to something else and can return to your focal point when you desire. You can also relax your attention and let your mind rest.

The purpose of meditation over time is to keep the mind stable and attentive. Last week we did a Directing Focus meditation. Today is the compliment meditation to directing focus, and that is a Sustaining Attention meditation. 

The Healthy Minds Innovation APP has four areas that support the development of a calm, clear, and stable mind over time. I briefly describe them right before your 6-minute Sustaining Attention meditation. You will notice below that focus is a skill connected to awareness, the first area in a healthy mind. 

* Awareness: means practicing presence, focus, and self-awareness.

* Connection: means practicing appreciation, kindness, compassion, and widening the circle of influence to see how we are all connected.

* Insight: the key to having a healthy sense of self is what scientists call “self-inquiry.” The ability to step back and examine our expectations and beliefs. Self-knowledge and transcendence. Transcendence is part of being whole or in a state of grace and developing a higher level of consciousness. Practicing insight means examining how our thoughts, emotions, and beliefs shape the way we see the world.

* Purpose: finding meaning in the mundane details of everyday life. “Deep purpose,” says Cortland Dahl (the speaker in the Healthy Minds APP), “gives us the ability to keep our most deeply held values front and center in our life, relationships, and at work. It helps us to see the bigger picture and focus on the most important things in our lives.” I call this our lifework. The reason we are here.

Directing attention is focusing on the right things at the right time. Sustaining attention is an ability to keep your focus, control impulses, and keep your mind from wandering.

It is time now to tap into the reservoir within and stay present to what is in your heart. This inner peaceful and sacred space is where no one but you has access. DOWNLOAD

NEXT STEP: Challenge yourself and do the Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring (C.A.L.M.) Activities are below.

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Episode Resources

Direct Your Focus Meditation

Catch Yourself Before Distracting Yourself: Direct Your Focus

 

Episode 313: Catch Yourself Before Distracting Yourself: Direct Your Focus

Have you ever felt challenged to direct your focus? We are looking to check the weather APP one second, and all the pop-ups grab our attention. Pretty soon, we turned off our phone and remembered afterward that the one thing we needed and didn’t look up was the temperature. We have similar physical experiences. We enter a room to get something and forget what we needed in that room once there. Only to leave the room, remember, and then schlep back to get the forgotten item. Distraction is time-consuming and toxic. What if we could reverse the trend by learning to catch ourselves before getting distracted?

Today, I talk about directing attention. Focus is a skill set with four aspects: directing, sustaining, noticing, and relaxing attention. Directing attention is focusing on the right things at the right time. An ability to keep your focus, control impulses, and keep your mind from wandering directionless.

Because meditation can reduce lapses in attention and positively impact our work and relationships, I have prepared a 6-minute meditation exercise to help you direct your focus. After completing this meditation exercise, please share it with your leadership team, staff, and family. We can all learn this first aspect of focus: directing our attention. DOWNLOAD 

My inspiration for today’s topic and meditation came from a series I am doing through Healthy Minds Innovation and Healthy Minds @Work. I highly recommend the Healthy Minds APP to track your progress as you build a calm, clear, and stable mind. It is not unlike building muscles in other parts of the body. Repetitions, consistency, and intensity strengthen muscle tissue in different muscles groups building skeletal, cardiac, and smooth muscles over time.

A meditative state of mindful alertness all day. What would that be like? Try it and experience the energy surge as you direct your mind to what you want and need to focus on. I have found a consistent practice with the four aspects of focus helps me gain control of my mind, even when it is in its most distracted state. I know what has happened and can direct my attention back to the task at hand. My ability to sustain attention longer has increased with it. You can even begin to notice when your attention has been diverted and how it feels when attention is in a relaxed state, like in between daily tasks and projects.

Directing attention doesn’t do much good if we can’t sustain our attention, so next week I will empower you with a meditation practice you can do to sustain focus, a compliment to directing attention. DOWNLOAD

NEXT STEP: Challenge yourself and do the Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring (C.A.L.M.) Activities are below.

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Redefine how you lead and redesign your business. Dual innovation with mentoring works!

* Strategies to Grow Your Business

* Meaningful Conversations

* Evolve How You Lead

* Get Support, Insight, Accountability

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        HIRE A MENTOR

Episode Resources

Healthy Minds Innovations

Healthy Minds Innovations

Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring

After listening, do these three C.A.L.M. Activities:* Take this risk or do this adventurous task:

Episode 312: WeMentor 30 Years In John Patching Interviews Founder Nancy Meyer

John Patching does spiritual therapy for the serious soul out of Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. He interviews me about being a business and life mentor for 30 years, a collective string of memories, both funny and endearing. Outside of his British accent, I appreciate John’s way of diving into questions, some of which you can answer, too.

Who are you? It is a big question for all of us. I answer this question with keywords and phrases, including adventurous, fun, and gracious. Evolving as an entrepreneurial leader and spiritual human being is what you and I have in common. Continuing to evolve in leading and mentoring is an integral part of business ownership, innovation, and adapting to change. Most of us embrace the personal growth aspect that we didn’t anticipate when launching our businesses. I have come to treasure the freedom that comes in asserting self-leadership. You get to influence and take charge of your journey as you influence others. As I often say, “dual innovation with mentoring works!”

Preparing for disasters, pandemics, and climate change is part of our future. “If Armageddon comes,” John asks, “what five things would you bring with you?” We share our sensible lists.

Three humorous experiences reveal my resourcefulness, determination, and sense of humor. You will find out what socks and podcast guest mentors have in common.

Thirty years in business is a long time, yet, my passion for mentoring entrepreneurial leaders and expanding the professional field of mentoring flickers like a flame underneath the burner of a gas range. It fuels my life and relationships and my ability to contribute to this world in a meaningful way, one mentoring relationship at a time and influencing millions of others over a lifetime helping breakthrough to new dimensions:

* As an Entrepreneurial Leader (Innovator),

* As a Small Business Owner (Practitioner),

* As a Mentor (Role Model), and

* As a Spiritual Human Being.

I am determined and inspired to keep going, which I encourage you to do as well. No matter what is on our paths as we advance, let’s keep evolving with our ventures, especially as our personal and family lives change. For today, we are right where we need to be. Enjoy our engaging conversation. DOWNLOAD

Before you start listening, would you please give me your insights and feedback? CLICK HERE to complete a brief survey.

 

Challenge yourself and do the Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring (C.A.L.M.) Activities below.

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Redefine how you lead and redesign your business. Dual innovation with mentoring works!

* Strategies to Grow Your Business

* Meaningful Conversations

* Evolve How You Lead

* Get Support, Insight, Accountability

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        HIRE A MENTOR

Episode Resources

The Beardstown Ladies’: Little Book of Investment Wisdom

The Midwestern grandmas who became stock market celebrities (thehustle.co)

20 years on, investing ladies haven’t changed their style – The Globe and Mail