Tag Archives: college

What will be talked about at your funeral? The importance of eulogy virtues.

David Brooks, columnist for the New York Times wrote an awesome article in 2015 called “The Moral Bucket List” (well worth the time to read!). Here is an excerpt from the article that perfectly explains the answer to a question I was asked the other day as to why I donate so much of my […]

Is the Universe just messing with us?

“Today: had my top on backwards, the pants I’d slept in and looked like Jack Nicholson from the shining. Saw all of the people I know. All. Of. Them!” Isn’t that exactly how it goes?! Those days you feel prepared for anything often nothing seems to happen… and then the days you aren’t prepared at […]

Overwhelmed and Inadequate: Balancing Work and Family Life

Back when I was single and working full time with two small kids I often found myself feeling overwhelmed and totally inadequate. All these women around me seemed so perfect, with perfect kids and perfectly ironed clothes and homemade bread on their counters. I felt like a complete failure compared to them. My home was […]

How People’s Definition of Politically Correct Has Crossed The Line Into Absolute Ridiculousness

One of the core values I believe in wholeheartedly is the value of Respect. It’s my belief that we should always treat every person with respect, we should always voice our opinions in a respectful way, and we should talk to one another in a respectful manner, always. As a CEO I made sure that […]

Think BIG!

From the time I was young I have had an inability to think small. I don’t really know why I am like that, I just always have been. In college when friends wanted me to sell $10.00 lipsticks I immediately thought, “Why sell just $10 of something when for the same effort I could sell […]

Serving those you love and loving those you serve

I spent the last six days in Cabo San Lucas Mexico with the Brigham Young University (BYU) Center for Entrepreneurship Board Retreat. We traveled down with around 45 couples who flew in from all across the United States. These couples are all donors to the University who all share a mutual passion for promoting entrepreneurship […]

It’s not the What or the Where – It’s the Who

There is little better in life than spending time with the people we love. And this year we were especially lucky because we had an extended Christmas holiday break off from the kids colleges – they had an extra week off this year because of the way the holiday dates fell so they were off […]

No Man Is Above Unconscious Gender Bias In The Workplace – It’s “Unconscious” (Forbes Article)

Imagine you are watching the following scenario take place: A small meeting is being held in a board room. At one end of the table sits a man (we will refer to him as man A) and across from him sitting side by side at the table is another man (man B) and a woman. […]

The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.

Of all the things I do with my time, one of the things I enjoy the absolute most is the opportunities I have to speak to groups of college students and to pass on to them as much knowledge as I can on all the life lessons I have learned in my journey from being […]

The Thirty Second Quiz

Today we are all going to take a Thirty Second Quiz.  Now I realize that the word “Quiz” probably gives a few of you PTSD as you start thinking back to the days when you walked into your college classroom and your professor would tell you to take out your number 2 pencils because you […]

Learning the Hard Way

The older we get the more we realize how much better life is if we are just willing to learn things the easy way – like by listening to those who have been there and done it and who have the experience to give us advice on avoiding pitfalls we will face. In the early […]

Remember what it feels like to just breathe

The last several weeks have been such a whirlwind for me. I was running around like crazy trying to prepare everything for my daughter to get home, and then there was all the emotion that surrounded her actually getting home, followed by hosting a huge open house event for everyone to welcome her back. I […]

Find that thing that brings you JOY!

Back in 2011, as a Christmas gift, my son Dalton who was a freshman in college at the time, decided to write a blog for me one night so I could take a night off from writing. It was posted back when my blog was only for my employees so none of you got to […]

Music and Memory – an Old School Throwback Jam

Some of the greatest song quotes ever – “It takes two to make a thing go right…it takes two to make it outta sight…” –Rob Base  and “Don’t just stand there bust a move!” -Young MC and “If you gotta problem, yo I’ll solve it….Word to your mother…” -Vanilla Ice Last Saturday night my husband […]

Successful Mothers (and Happy Mother’s Day!)

“Successful Mothers are not the ones that have never struggled, they are the ones that never give up, despite the struggles.” This weekend we will be celebrating Mother’s Day. It’s a time we all take a moment to think about all the things our Mothers do for us in life. It’s also a time when […]

Some days you gotta just push through it

Yesterday morning when I woke up I could tell I was starting to feel a little sick but I had so much going on yesterday that I tried to ignore it and I was able to get through hosting my son’s big event at our house Sunday night. Then I woke up this morning and […]

There is no foot too small that it cannot leave an imprint in this world

Today I went down and spoke to the students at Utah Valley University. I really love speaking to the students at the colleges because as I stand on the stage and look out at their faces I can’t help but be humbled by the amazing things these young people are going to go on and […]

Six Steps to Making Good Decisions

It can be intimidating to make big decisions in life when you know they might have lasting consequences. Decisions like where to go to college, or who to marry, or what career to pursue, or where to live, or when to move, or when it’s time to try something new…all those things are big decisions […]

Lessons Learned From a Financial Role Model (Forbes Article)

Recently I was asked who my female financial role model has been in my life. When asked about a role model, we typically think of someone who has done everything right, setting an example we want to follow. But sometimes we find a role model who did some things we do want to follow, and other things that taught us what […]

“We cannot become what we want to be by remaining what we are.”

“We cannot become what we want to be by remaining what we are.” – Max DePree Change is hard because it stretches us. It pulls us out of our comfort zone. It forces us to come out of the known and head into the unknown, and that is always a little unnerving. But the fact […]

One Season Ends, Another Begins

I cannot believe that summer is coming to an end and fall is beginning. Our summer vacations have come to an end, most everyone’s kids are back to school at this point, and we all have to get back into our normal routines again. In some ways it’s sad to have summer playtime behind us […]

The Secret To Getting A Job After College: Pick A University That Offers Experiential Learning (Forbes Article)

The approach of most higher education institutions is completely backwards today. Rather than first year college students picking their classes based on their goal of a specific dream job, they end up picking classes based on what the University deems to be generally required, the classes their friends are signing up for, and what time […]

We Will Never Regret The Moments We Took

Here we are on August 3rd and I am suddenly aware of the fact that this is our last month of summer vacation before our kids go back to school again…And even though we can’t change the fact that summer vacay will be coming to an end in a few weeks for all our children […]

Graduation Day – Presenting Dr Anderson :)

We come into this world with two things:  Agency and Intelligence.  We leave this world with what we have done with that agency, and our intelligence – which has hopefully deepened significantly during our life, either through education or experience or a combination of both. I am a great believer in education and I have […]

If At First You Don’t Succeed…

“If at first you don’t succeed, do it like your mother told you.” We all remember the famous mom advice we got as kids:  Wear a coat, brush your teeth, look both ways before you cross the street, put on sunscreen, don’t take candy from strangers…..  We would roll our eyes and grumble under our […]

“Sometimes the smallest things take up the most space in your heart.”

“Sometimes the smallest things take up the most space in your heart.” That quote from Winnie the Pooh is so true. In life it is those little things that are so meaningful to us and become our favorite memories. Growing up I remember our family dinners most. Every night we would all surround our huge […]

Happy New Year! 2015 Is Going To Be Epic!!

Happy New Year everyone! The start of a brand new year – it is so exciting!  2015!!!  Don’t get me wrong, 2014 was a major year for my family that was full of big time milestones. We finished building our new house and our new houseboat, we moved into our new home, my daughter Ashley […]

Sometimes you just gotta cross your fingers and pray

This afternoon my daughter called me from college to tell me she was coming home to spend the weekend with us.  I was super excited until she said “Yeah, and Dad is taking us repelling tonight”.  WHAT?!  Repelling??  That thing where you dangle from the edge of a cliff with nothing but a clip attaching […]

Help them see their unlimited potential

Today I had the BYU (Brigham Young University) Founders Board Meeting. The Founder’s Board consists of people from all over the country who travel in for the board meeting each year.  The day started with me hosting the women’s luncheon at my home.  We had about 60 women attend and we all had a fabulous […]

Just Remember Life Goes On

“You have to take the good with the bad, smile when you’re sad, love what you’ve got and remember what you had. Always forgive but never forget, learn from your mistakes but never regret, people change, things go wrong, just remember life goes on…” Tonight as I was FaceTiming with each of my kids I […]