Tag Archives: success

Common Traits of Highly Intelligent People

The other day I attended a meeting where I was able to able to meet with several companies that had all been started under one umbrella where they began in think tank full of really intelligent people who all worked on different ideas until their best ideas rose to the top to become actual companies. […]

I swear childbirth was less painful than tax season is

Ah yes, the beloved tax season is upon us yet again…that season of excitement where you have the thrill of trying to pull together all of your receipts and all of your records for every transaction that took place during the prior year…that feeling of joy as you calculate just how much money is about […]

Avoid coming down with the “I’ll Be Happy When…” Syndrome

I call it the “I’ll be happy when…” syndrome. It starts subtly but it spreads quickly. It goes something like this:  I’ll be happy when I finish this project, or, I’ll be happy when I can afford to buy _____, or, I’ll be happy when I can lose ten pounds, or, I’ll be happy when […]

Know Your Audience

Many years ago back when I was single I had gone on a trip with a group of people. Within this group there were many people who didn’t know each other prior to this trip. One of the young men in his mid-20’s began talking to another young man who he didn’t know yet and […]

He Said, She Said. The Gender Communication Gap

I gave a keynote speech at a conference today and for part of my speech I went over some of the gender differences in the way we interpret communication in the workplace.  It’s such an interesting topic and there is so much that I discovered over the years as a CEO managing nearly 2,000 men […]

What one successful entrepreneur said was the most important advice he could give me as I began my entrepreneurial journey

Yesterday afternoon someone I love dearly passed away.  He was Marion D. Woods to others, but he was Uncle Buzz to me and Buzz Woods to his good friends. He had been fighting cancer but unfortunately his body wasn’t able to fight it any longer and he passed away surrounded by his wife and children. […]

Happiness is finding out you have a three day weekend ahead!

Since mid-December I have been traveling non-stop. First to Idaho, then to Hawaii, then to Washington DC, then to California, and then to Cabo San Lucas…each trip coming back to Utah for a few days in between and then heading right back out again on the next trip. I feel like I have literally lived […]

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 […]

The Biggest Secret I’ve Ever Had To Keep

Keeping exciting news a secret is not something I enjoy. When I buy someone a gift it’s all I can do not to tell them the moment I buy it. It makes keeping Christmas presents a surprise incredibly difficult. But today I am proud of myself because for the last two months I have been […]

Learn from yesterday, live for today, look to tomorrow, rest this afternoon.

Remember when we were kids and the thing we hated most in the world was nap time?? Remember trying to negotiate with your parents to get out of it? Repeatedly yelling, “BUT I’M NOT TIRED!!!” Then you hit adulthood and all you can think of is that you really wish those childhood nap days you […]

Heaven Help Me!

After such an amazing week last week and over the weekend the last thing I have any right to do is complain about anything, but after all the travel I have been doing over the last two months where things have been booked back to back without time to read emails and check phone messages […]

Never Think Nor Say “I Can’t”

Someone once told me that the moment you either think or say the words “I can’t” you’ve lost, so never to do it. Hearing that advice had a big impact on my life because I believed it and I tried to never allow myself to think or say it when it came to my business […]

A Lickin’ Does A Fellow Good

Saturday when we got home from our Hawaii trip we opened a knock at the door to find my mother-in-law and father-in-law who had driven down from Idaho to surprise us with a visit as they wanted to be here for my husband’s birthday tomorrow (Tuesday).  One of our favorite activities when our in-laws come […]

Be Confident

“Be Confident. Too many days are wasted comparing ourselves to others and wishing to be something we aren’t. Everybody has their own strengths and weaknesses, and it is only when you accept everything you are – and aren’t – that you will truly succeed.” The number one killer of confidence is when you start comparing […]

Our direction is set by the little day-to-day choices we make

“The course of our lives is not determined by great, awesome decisions. Our direction is set by the little day-to-day choices which chart the track on which we run.” – Gordon B. Hinckley Everyone who knows me knows that I am all about setting goals and moving in the direction of those goals. So when […]

2017 will be as incredible as the GOALS you set for it!

We are just days away from the start of a brand New Year! And with the New Year comes a new chance to start fresh with a set of goals you want to accomplish in 2017…that’s right…its time to bust out the glue stick and scissors because it’s time to make your 2017 Goal Poster! […]

The true essence of Christmas

The week of Christmas is upon us and my heart can’t help but think about the true essence of Christmas – to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and the sacrifice he willingly made out of his infinite love for each one of us. It reminds me of a story I try to read each […]

The Executive Team is the single greatest factor that determines Success or Failure for any Company

Earlier today I was looking through some documents and I found an outline I had written for a talk I was asked to give clear back in 2005 on How To Build And Operate A Successful Executive Team. As I sat reading it, some eleven years later, I can tell you that if I were asked to talk on that same subject today I […]

What To Do and What NOT To Do

Throughout my life I have been blessed with some incredible mentors and role models. They have taught me the “what to do” things in life, and the “how to be” qualities, that if we embrace will turn us into someone others will want hope to emulate someday as well. The more in life I would […]

Coming to a fork at the end of one road

Life has been really crazy lately but what’s crazy is that its not for any of the reasons I would have expected this time of year. I thought I would be spending the last few weeks doing Christmas shopping and preparing for the holidays and trying to wrap things up at work so I can […]

It is better to give

Throughout this month I will try to share some of my favorite Christmas stories and poems that inspire me.  This story below is one I heard when I was growing up and I still remember the way it struck me as I heard it. It has a great message that inspires you to want to […]

How to Make the Right Decisions

Every now and then I will go back and read past blogs I have written on subjects that I am dealing with in my life that day. Tonight I read one of my blogs from back in 2012 that was exactly what I would have written to share tonight: Life is so full of decisions […]

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 […]

#LIGHTtheWORLD In 25 Ways. Over 25 Days.

Today I learned about an awesome challenge for all of us to “light the world” in 25 ways over 25 days as we lead up to Christmas. It’s a challenge meant to help us focus on incorporating more Christ-like attitudes and behaviors in honor of this Christmas season and over 800,000 people have already joined […]

True Wealth Lies In The Good You Do – Meet The Wealthiest Man In The World

As an Angel Investor and a Mentor I spend much of my day helping entrepreneurs in their pursuit of wealth by helping them to grow their companies. But today I was reminded of exactly what true wealth looks like. For more than 25 years he has been buying Christmas presents for children he may never […]

The TIGGER syndrome

People with passion are infectious! When someone is passionate and excited about something they can light up an entire room and they have the ability to suck everyone else into feeling passionate and excited with them! Yes, genuine passion and excitement are very powerful and influential tools in life…let’s face it…there is nothing more infectious […]

The more you recognize it, the more you will have of it

I love a great motivational speaker. Zig Ziglar has always been a personal favorite because he is always so amazingly positive, so when I came across this excerpt from the book “Attitude is Everything: 10 Rules For Staying Positive” by author Vicki Hitzges, which shares a story about Zig I had to share it with […]

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like….

I would love to say it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas outside, but as I walked out of the Little America Hotel after giving a speech at a big Women in Business Conference today the temperature was in the mid 70s and that made it look like anything but Christmas here in Utah! […]

What Makes A Winner?

“Years back when we lived in Boise, Idaho, a man … Bill Bowman, who was the wrestling coach at Boise State College, did his doctorate work, his dissertation, on what makes a winner. After interviewing over a thousand athletes and feeding all the information into the computer, he got his answer. Do you know what […]

You Gotta Have A Game Plan!

People talk about wanting to accomplish big things in life – which is AWESOME – but the only way we will ever actually accomplish those big things in our life is to create an actual game plan of how we are going to make that big thing happen! A game plan need to be a […]