Welcome back everyone – I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving holiday!  I, for one, had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  My husband and I didn’t have our kids this Thanksgiving as they were all at their in-laws, so the two of us decided to fly out to Dover, Delaware where we got together with two […]

Wishing for your own Thanksgiving Miracle or Christmas Miracle this holiday season?  After all…this time of year does tend to be a time of miracles… But what if this holiday season you decided that rather than just wishing for your own miracle you were actually going to BE THE MIRACLE for someone else’s life instead? […]

Can a vending machine change the world? If all its dispensing is a Twix candy bar or a bag of chips then perhaps not (although I do love a good Twix 🙂 ). But what if that vending machine was actually a Giving Machine? Then could it change the world? …Watch this 1 minute video […]

I’m so excited to share an amazing thing I learned about that will literally transform your entire December!  And I wanted to hurry up and let all of you know about it today so you can sign yourself up to join me in it before we all start taking off for the Thanksgiving festivities this […]

“Live in such a way that if anyone should speak badly of you no one would believe it.” – Zig Ziglar I absolutely love, love, love that quote! Over the years I have learned that you cannot control what things people may say about you – some will say mean or unkind things and even […]

My two year old grandson came barreling in the door of the house calling out “Grandma…Grandma” as he ran over to me to give me a hug.  I’m telling ya….that is seriously just about THE GREATEST thing in the entire world! As I sat with him playing it made me long for the days when […]

Back on March 6, 2013 I wrote an article in Forbes Called Passive Aggressive Behavior Will Destroy A Company’ Culture. That article rings as relevant today as it did back then. It reads: Passive-aggressive behavior in any company is one of the most destructive cancers to a culture that ends up killing both a great company, and the self-esteem of […]

“Ships don’t sink because of the water around them; ships sink because of the water that gets in them. Don’t let what’s happening around you get inside you and weigh you down.”  – Unknown It’s fairly normal for us to feel discouraged at times in our lives….times when people disappoint us, times we disappoint ourselves, […]

When I was CEO of my company interviewing people to hire, I never once had an interviewee choose to use their time in the interview to bash the other candidates applying for the job. And if they had, I certainly wouldn’t have been willing to hire them.  I would hire the candidate who shared our […]

“How do you get past that feeling of never being enough when you are trying to juggle being a mom, working a full-time job, going to school, etc. It just feels like I’ll never be enough”  That was the question one of the women asked me today after hearing me talk at an event for […]

“You can lead a horse to water and sometimes the horse will crap in it.”  – Roger Ellerton Yesterday I was dealing with some fallout that was caused by someone who made some really unnecessary mistakes in a professional setting that had some really impactful consequences.  What was even more frustrating to me was that […]

I spent the evening tonight with a group of incredible philanthropic givers with a heart toward the area of education in Utah and dear friends of my husband and I’s so we could talk about how we can expand an incredible program called Youth Entrepreneurs throughout Utah’s High Schools as well as the Universities Entrepreneurship […]

Today was a really big day – it was the groundbreaking for the new Scott C. Keller Business School Building at Utah Valley University.  This is a project our Woodbury School of Business National Advisory Board I’m Chairing has been working on for years so it was fantastic to see it actually happening. And I’m […]

Last Thursday was quite the whirlwind of a day!  I started off my day in the morning heading down to Provo Utah to speak at an event put on by RevRoad. RevRoad is a business accelerator for entrepreneurs that offers coworking space, legal services, marketing, accounting, mentoring services, etc in return for equity.  They asked […]

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not […]

As I was leaving work on a Wednesday night back in October of 2011, I received a phone call that my mother had slipped and fallen down in the rain and she was being taken by ambulance to the hospital.  She had broken her femur and her hip and was going to be taken into […]

“What if you gave someone a gift, and they neglected to thank you for it–would you be likely to give them another? Life is the same way. In order to attract more of the blessings that life has to offer, you must truly appreciate what you already have.” ~ Ralph Marston It was Henry Ward Beecher […]

In yesterday’s blog I shared points from a Forbes article I’d written years ago on the importance of giving people honest feedback. Today I thought it would be good to share points from a follow-on article I’d written for Forbes on the importance of receiving feedback (The article was titled, If You Want To Improve, […]

Years ago I wrote an article for Forbes called Speak The Truth Even If Your Voice Shakes which talked about the importance of giving people honest feedback in a respectful way, even at times it feels uncomfortable or  intimidating to do so.  In the article I shared seven lessons I’d learned about giving feedback and […]

The other night I was watching a show about a Navy SEAL Team. Seeing the way the team has each others backs, through thick and thin, was so inspiring and it really got me to thinking…perhaps the reason those SEALs are able to be so brave and have such courage to face whatever obstacles lie […]

It was a dark and stormy night. I was sound asleep in my bed on the main floor while my two little kids were fast asleep upstairs in their beds.  As a single mom at the time I was always keenly aware of any sounds I heard in the house late at night.  But this […]

If there is one thing I wouldn’t know how to get by without in life, its prayer.  Prayer is such a critically important part of my life and always have been – I pray for guidance, I pray about the decisions I need to make, I pray for my loved ones, I pray for help […]

Is it messed up that I started putting up my Christmas tree last night?!? I just couldn’t help myself…it’s crazy cold outside and it started snowing which made it feel like Christmas…and Christmas happens to be my very favorite holiday of all time…so yeah…I got excited and BAM…the decorations came out….so like it or not, […]

“Happily ever after doesn’t happen by chance, but rather by choice.”  Dr. John Gottman Over the weekend my husband and I went to a marriage workshop that covered material from The Seven Principles For Making Marriage Work, written by Dr. John Gottman. Drs John and Julie Gottman are renowned experts on marriage and have done […]

“The grass is always greener” …it’s a syndrome that plagues a lot of people. They constantly believe something else would be better than what they currently have.  Most commonly we hear of people catching that syndrome in their dating or marriage relationships, but the truth is it can exist in any area of life, from […]

“When you love people very much, isn’t it grand to be able to join in their happiness? Like everything else in the world, however, there is a price to pay for love, for the more happiness we derive from the existence and companionship of other human beings, the more vulnerable we are when there is […]

In one of Loretta Laroche’s talks (comedian, public speaker, author) she shares eight big reasons why people aren’t able to lighten up: Eight Reasons We Can’t Lighten Up 1.      We’re too busy. (Let’s face it? Will we ever not be busy?) 2.      We’re afraid of what they may say.  (I don’t know who they are, but they sure stop the laughter […]

My parents did an amazing job of instilling the desire in me to serve others, to focus outward, to be unselfish.  But what I’m beginning to recognize recently is that sometimes the most unselfish thing we can do is be a little bit selfish…Let me explain: You see, it’s easy for me to take care […]

As I sat Friday night in the BYU Marriott Center (with its seating capacity of around 19,000 people), and they flashed my photo onto the jumbotron screens and had me stand and be recognized by the audience for receiving BYU’s Honorary Alumni Award it was completely surreal. That’s how they started the BYU Spectacular event […]

“The effect you have on others is the most valuable currency there is.” – Jim Carrey It was nine years ago yesterday, October 16, 2010, when I got the phone call letting me know that my best friend Steve Gasser had died. It was totally unexpected and a complete shock when it happened. I was […]