A while back I was able to attend a seminar by Dr. John Lund on communication where he gave some amazing advice on how to better communicate with others. His input was simple and easy to follow, yet powerful. The best quote of the entire event was this: “Don`t communicate to be understood; rather, communicate […]
Yesterday I wrote my Forbes article on moving past your mistakes in life and I used a quote from the movie the Lion King. There is another quote from that movie that I can’t help but share today because I think it is so powerful. There is a part of the movie where we hear […]
People often think they can’t change their past, but I disagree. Perhaps we can’t change every mistake in our past, but we have to remember that the past is a moving target. Every day that goes by us becomes a part of our past history. Whatever we do today will become a part of our […]
I often come across people who have a deep desire to be an entrepreneur and start their own business, but who haven’t done so yet because they “can’t come up with a good idea.” Too often I hear: “All of my ideas are dumb.” And in those moments, I cannot help but say: “Define a […]
It takes tremendous fortitude to utter the words “I was wrong, and I am sorry”. I love that word: fortitude. I could list the dictionary definition of fortitude, but let’s be honest, why go to that trouble when Bill Gates blessed us with Microsoft Word’s single click to see its synonyms, which are: strength, courage, […]
Employees who stand out in a company are the employees who stay standing through downturns, layoffs, and corporate restructurings. Standing out is the secret to gaining peace of mind that your job is secure. Whether you stay employed with the same company you are with today, or whether another company picks you up, your future […]
As a business leader I found that one of the scariest things to do was to give your people the freedom to make mistakes which will allow them to learn and grow, for the obvious reason that mistakes in any company can be costly. Scared as I was, I knew that truly great leaders found […]
We all go through difficult times. Whether it’s not getting a desired job, dealing with a difficult coworker, struggling to get along with a boss, hurting financially, coping with health problems, or nursing a damaged relationship, we all have to face adversity and trials in our lives. Sometimes the struggles we go through are the […]
Five incredibly important lessons to live by in your career and in your business: First – Only do business dealings with people of character and integrity. And no matter what, never ever let yourself break that rule. It will never, ever, be worth it. Not ever. Second – All the contract language in the world […]
One of my very favorite books in life is the book “Who Moved My Cheese”. It is a fantastic book for many reasons. 1. It`s easy to read because it has big print and it has pictures! 2. It`s about two mice and two men and let`s face it, who doesn`t love a story about […]
“Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who implement them are priceless.” What a great quote by Mary Kay Ash, and so true! The world is full of incredible ideas that never go anywhere because great ideas are useless without someone full of passion to implement them. I realize that implementing an idea can be […]
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 the individuals working there. For any wondering what passive-aggressive behavior looks like, I will try and give some examples that paint a picture. A passive-aggressive person is someone […]
Behind every company, whether it’s a multinational corporation or the smallest startup, is an intersection of talent. Each person is uniquely capable of performing their job: the company spokesperson is a gifted public speaker; the administrative assistant is a master multi-tasker; and the CEO is excellent at setting the vision and leading the team. Every […]
I have spent many years as the leader of several companies. I hope that during that time I have learned a bit about what it takes to become a great leader. Many of the lessons I am still learning, but I wanted to share a few of the things I have come to learn thus […]
One of the greatest lessons I learned during my time as a CEO was that great employees are not replaceable. It isn’t the technology or the product that make a company great, it’s the people. And companies who see their good employees as “replaceable” are wrong. Good employees are not replaceable. Let me clarify what […]
Some days I get really frustrated at the fact that there are a million things I really want to get done, yet there are just not enough hours in the day to do them all! And trying to pick and choose which things to put first can be one of the most challenging parts of […]
Just over five years ago, my husband and I were married. At the time, I had been a divorced, single mother of two for many years with a daughter who was 11 and a son who was 14. We were married on New Year’s Eve, so winter weather was in full force here in Utah, […]
Every single job in a company has vast importance, and far too often people lack an appreciation or an understanding of just how impactful each position is to the overall success or failure of a business. In my many years as a CEO, I would often watch as employees across various departments would either feel […]
Good Leaders are invaluable to a company. Bad Leaders will destroy it. When good leadership is in place in a company it can be felt throughout the entire organization. There is a corporate culture that isn’t forced, it has been developed. Communication is daily and open. Everyone understands the vision and goals of the organization […]
We all spend much of our lives working with the hope that one day we will achieve a level of financial freedom that will allow us to pursue our dreams. For me, the Grand adVenture that I dreamed about was starting my own mentoring and angel investing firm that would allow me to take all […]
I remember well those words spoken in a Pantene shampoo commercial back in the 1980’s. The attractive woman with the fabulous hair looked right into the camera and made the plea “Don’t hate me because I am beautiful.” That phrase became front and center once again earlier this year when UK columnist Samantha Brick wrote […]
2013 marks the beginning of Magic Goal Poster number three in my life. And given how amazing the goals I am including on Goal Poster number three are, 2013 is guaranteed to be an EPIC year! I realize that many of you reading this are thinking, “What the heck is a magic Goal Poster? And, […]
For years as a CEO, I absolutely hated the interviewing process for hiring. I felt that the entire hiring technique was inherently flawed. We would post a job description and candidates would respond with a resume that was tailored to fit the position we had described. When the candidate came in for their interview we […]
It is imperative that we decide in advance to do the right thing. When circumstances present themselves in the heat of the moment, we must already know what our response is going to be. As I turned on NBC’s TODAY show to watch the morning news, I was horrified to hear about the man who was […]
While I have been an entrepreneur for more than 20 years of my life, I have been an angel investor for less than one. As such, I have a pretty unique position of still being able to understand exactly how entrepreneurs feel, while now sitting on the other side of the table negotiating against them […]
As we are all aware, Tuesday is Election Day. Despite the importance of this day, it is often easy to throw it by the wayside and think, “Argghhh! I really don’t want to wait in those voting lines,” or “My one vote probably won’t make any difference,” or “I know that my candidate has enough […]
My heart goes out tonight to all of those entrepreneurs who have put their heart and soul into building their businesses only to have them impacted or even destroyed by a natural disaster such as Hurricane Sandy. Some might say that business owners should have been prepared for such disasters, but so often when someone […]
In a world full of great entrepreneurial ideas, how do you get your idea to stand out from the others? Today I served as a judge for the 2012 Medical Technology “Concept to Company” Competition. As judges, we were asked to select three winners from a group of eight different companies that presented to our […]
As an entrepreneur you start a business with the goal of someday selling it and getting your big payoff. You devote your entire life to making it a success, working your guts out, putting in crazy hours and making many sacrifices to grow your company. Then one day that payoff finally comes, and you suddenly […]
HUGE NEWS: I have been asked to write a regular article for Forbes! And so at least once per week my daily blog will redirect you from this website to read my blog on Forbes site. I am really excited to have this opportunity with Forbes. My ongoing Forbes article is called “adVentures of a Super Angel”, and today’s […]
