Women, Wine & Leadership

Five years ago Sonja tried to end her life by taking 200 pills. "I didn't want to leave my life," Sonja told me in our interview. "I wanted to leave the pain."

Suicide rates have increased 30% since 2000. I asked why. Sonja talks about the stigma, the embarrassment, being told in her own ER that she and her husband might want to seek a hospital where they won't be noticed.

Depression is the leading cause of disability in the world, yet there are not many groups for mental health in schools, businesses and communities. The Suicide Prevention Lifeline reports that the FCC recommended that 988 be designated as a national crisis hotline, but 988 is NOT CURRENTLY ACTIVE and will not connect callers to the Lifeline. Please continue to share 800-273-TALK (8255) and our chat page with anyone wishing to connect to the Lifeline.

In her book, "An Impossible Life," Wasden takes you into her story. "If you are holding this book in your hands, you are holding my life in your hands." This comes at a time when many people are at the end of their rope in a global health crisis. I hope Sonja's story brings you back to why you're here so you can design a forward-focused recovery plan.

I hope you will join us for this interview and checkout www.360lifestrategies.com for articles this month providing you strategies to navigate mental wellness.

Here's a switch. I had so much fun with Heather Aardema on my podcast, I joined her podcast and NOW I want to share that with you. We had so much fun! Heather is an Aspiring Minimalist and Host of Simply Full — a Whole-Body Wellness and Weight-Loss Sisterhood. She's a National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC) and Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach (FMCHC), but don't tune out if weight loss is not your thing.

We talked about whole body health, from the inside out, and strategies for turning stress into energy in these crazy times. It was a really deep conversation filled with strategies YOU need as we enter this recovery phase of COVID 19.

Join us! And share it with a friend.

Right now food plays an important role in our immune health. Suzanne Carpenter is an approachable, sincere, fun-loving, and passionate leader who loves to see personal improvement and transformation in those she teaches.  Through her successful ten-year nutrition career, Suzanne saw a gap in the industry and a trend in society.  Americans are more confused and overwhelmed than ever when it comes to actually losing weight and keeping it off.  She created a virtual nutrition education company called CarpenterOne80 whose mission is to provide affordable and simple programs that can clear  up food confusion so that people can win at losing weight.

Suzanne  is a Certified Nutritional Consultant, the CEO and Founder of CarpenterOne80, as well as the creator of SOS (Suz On Your Shoulder), Babysit My Plate, and The Food Peace University, three different virtual bite-sized nutrition courses.  They were designed to  teach you what you need to know to create sustainable results.

I met Dr. Gina Johnson at an Ellevate Network happy hour in Bellevue, Washington. We bonded over Pinot Noir before we bonded over integrative health. Gina provides personalized lifestyle / functional medicine on the phone. Her virtual telemedicine clinic and concierge service helps people optimize and manage their total health. This interview comes at a perfect time to provide strategies during the stay-home mandate. 

Here's the short list:

#1 Avoid the virus. Stay home.

#2 Wash hands, don't touch your face.

#3 Recognize the word vulnerable encompasses more than just elders

Here are a few signs your immune system is not well

Gina shares how to be the curator of your own health and what to watch for before you call the doctor during this pandemic. Most importantly, if you have symptoms, call your doc. If you have difficulty breathing, call 911.

Listen for more details and Gina's own strategies for staying sane in the shut in. If you want to contact Gina, go to https://www.vitalmindbody.com/or connect on Facebook. If you live in Bellevue and you want to support a local business, order dinner from https://www.cepae.com/ tonight.

MIKAELA KINER is an experienced HR / People Operations professional, founder/CEO, and executive coach. In 2015, Kiner founded Reverb, creating a healthy, inclusive culture in startups and growing companies in the Pacific Northwest.

In Female Firebrands, Kiner shares stories of 13 successful professional women from diverse backgrounds (including women of color, immigrants, and LGBTQIA+) and industries as they recount the challenges they've faced in their careers and how they have overcome bias, sexism, and the power imbalance. Chapter checklists provide invaluable to-do lists for women, men who want to be their advocates, as well as HR and business leaders.

I just had to close our our March series of women making history with this podcast. We are unstoppable, ladies. Remember that.

Boy, what a time in the world to talk about customer experience. I've spent hours this week cancelling flights and rental cars because of forced closures and I'm so surprised to hear the lack of human connection in the voices on the phone. I asked Stacy Sherman, a Cx (customer experience) leader to comment on why companies allow this human disconnect in the call center and what we can do about it.

Stacy is a Cx leader, strategist and blogger. When she's not running Cx for Schindler Elevator Corp, she's running a blog, Doing Cx Right, all about humanizing business and leading with a heart. I can tell that comes naturally to her. When I asked how she connects with her team during this lock down, she told me that part has actually been easier than connecting with her teenagers home from college.

Her approach begins with listening, connecting, being conscious of the context and intentional to connect. She's modeling what they need to do to help customers feel safe and cared for right now. I'm a big fan of inspiring more companies to train their people to lead from the inside out, care for customers from the heart and be fully present as humans in the workplace.

That's why I'm so happy to share this podcast with you. You can learn more about the Vivino wine app she talked about here. If you are interested in one of the meditation apps she mentioned, here they are: Calm and Simple Habit. You can find a link to the label of her Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc on my Wine Palace.

Emilie is a yoga instructor who, like me, started practicing yoga to cope with trauma in her life - her father's death. I love a term she used in our interview. She's tuning into radical acceptance of this current pandemic and the resulting isolation. Our response has to be radical because there's no place for this in our experience, no category in our mind's filing cabinet. That's why Emilie stayed up all night figuring out how to provide her yoga classes online, so she can create community for herself and her students.

" It wasn't until I was introduced to yoga that I realized that  the only way to release fear and anxiety was to find comfort in your own company. Learning to be with myself was actually the freedom I needed to not live from a place of worry and doubt. If I could truly love my own life then I wouldn't be so fearful of what happened or didn't happen to me, but I'd be able to ride the wave gracefully."

You can access her class schedule at https://www.emilieperzyoga.com/

And stay tuned to https://www.facebook.com/360lifestrategies/ for daily strategies for your mind, heart and business.

I love the picture on her web site of Kimberly Braun sitting on a rock, laughing, arms open. That's exactly what you'll find in this podcast interview. She's a minister, a teachner, a Reike master and now… a friend. I came away from this conversation feeling more relaxed and at peace with my full life. I hope you do too. You can learn more about her on LinkedIn or on her web site: www.kimberlybraun.com

Self love is not the same thing as self care. We're not just about taking a bubble bath. 93% of women experienced some level of burnout this past year. Conquering the world has produced an insatiable desire to succeed but also a huge toll on body and soul.

Angie Tebbe had me at, "It's the sum of all the parts." To live well spirit, soul and body, we need to curate a regimen of self love that is more grace than effort. She provides a line of  affordable, evidence-based women’s wellness products that launched online last year and in Target stores nationwide.

Some of their top products include:

I've already purchased the probiotic and a little birthday present for my husband to boost libido. Because Angie favors the cab grape, I've posted a little lesson on knowing your cabernet in my Wine Palace on Pinterest. Check it out and let us know your fave cab. Maybe pick up Angie's fave wine from the Celia Walsh collection and join the conversation.

*Worth mentioning, Angie supports an organization called Girls Inc. that you might want to know about - Inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and bold. I'm the mother of three girls, so I'm a big supporter of causes like this.