C-Suite Network™

Menu

Month: October 2021

Categories
Culture Growth Health and Wellness Human Resources Leadership

3 Steps to Defuse Any Fight with Your Kid

Has your home turned into a warzone? For many parents, after long months of being stuck indoors—sharing the same space for work, school, home, and recreation—the pressure might be building to a boiling point. Add in the worry and stress many families are feeling this holiday season, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

When a disagreement hits the boiling point, things get ugly. There’s screaming, crying, swearing . . . and that’s just the parents. And after it’s all over, we often feel ashamed and regretful. It’s only then that we remember we’re supposed to be the adults in the room.

That “out of control” feeling isn’t your fault. In the moment, when your child’s just done something that drives you nuts, your emotions get the best of you. But when you’re running hot, you don’t act like the parent you want to be. And that’s because you may not have the right tools to be able to respond instead of react.

First, take a breath. Find some compassion for yourself, and forgive yourself for that behavior you’re not proud of. None of us are perfect. When you show kindness to yourself, you model that kindness for your children, too.

Then, follow this 3-Step ACTion Plan next time you find a discussion going south. It can help you prevent a difficult situation from accelerating into a full-fledged meltdown.

Acknowledge your kid’s feelings and needs

Children often have a hard time naming the emotions that they’re feeling. Ask them leading and compassionate questions. If your kids are fighting over a toy, for example, ask: “Are you feeling angry that your sister took your toy without permission?” Their answer will help you understand their response and give clues about how to remedy the situation.

Communicate

Once you validate their feelings and identify the unmet needs that drive the feeling, check in with them to be sure they feel understood before switching to wanting to share your perspective and expecting them to hear you. Failing to do this may result in them tuning you out!

We all want to turn it into a teachable moment and explain why certain behaviors are not acceptable with more depth than “Because I said so.” Knowing that the teachable moment is NOT at the time of the issue is VERY important. It is okay to explain to your child that hitting their sibling is hurtful and doesn’t fix the problem of the swiped toy—or resolve the anger they’re feeling.  AND you get that it would really help them to practice some skills before these kinds of flashpoints occur so that there is more choice for them to respond differently.

My experience is that the key is to teach the skills for self-regulation in heated situations more than lecturing them; most kids know already that hitting isn’t okay. The issue is more about tools for impulse control when they are experiencing high emotions.

Target another option

Ask your child to help identify a solution to the problem at hand. Maybe your children can agree to take turns sharing a favorite toy. If you catch your teenager sneaking out to meet their friends, maybe you help them find a safe space for a socially distant hangout instead of sending them straight to their room. The goal is to build your child’s ability to objectively problem-solve and to let them know that the two of you are on the same team. Solo problem-solving is rarely effective. Collaboration sets the tone for your child to feel that you’re invested in them meeting their needs and want to find a solution that meets your needs too—but not at their expense of getting to meet theirs.

Learning to defuse disagreements is challenging, and it requires commitment and effort to overcome your own emotional response. But the 3-Step ACTion plan can help both parents and children learn to treat each other with love and respect.

If you’re looking for more tips on maintaining a peaceful household, download my free ebook, 7 Strategies to Keep Your Relationship with Your Kids From Hitting the Boiling Point.

Feel free to download the ebook here: www.consciousparentingrevolution.com/products/ebook

P.S. If the 3-Step ACTion plan resonated with you, be sure to grab the ebook for even more parenting advice!

Categories
Growth Health and Wellness Leadership

What do Trust Issues Look Like?

You want to confide in your friend but you’re not sure she won’t share your deeply personal feelings with someone else.

You’d love to be a team player and a collaborative partner at work but if the person you trusted the most proved untrustworthy, how can you trust your boss, coworker, or partner?

You want to be more open and vulnerable with your partner but you don’t feel safe.

Trust. It’s something that is so foundational.

When trust is shattered, it is really hard to feel safe and secure because trust sets the foundation for our sense of safety and security. So, when that person or people who created that sense of safety and security are the very ones to shatter it, it’s traumatizing.

So many of us don’t regain that sense of trust and we walk around feeling unsafe, insecure, and anxious.

Can you repair trust? I say no. Can you rebuild it? Yes.

Imagine trust being like a brick wall. That wall is built brick by brick by brick and it can take a long time. Every opportunity someone has to show they’re trustworthy represents one brick in the brick wall.

So now imagine the person who built that brick wall shatters the entire wall in one soul-crushing and painful moment. Now, the person whose trust was shattered has every right to look at the brick wall and say; “I don’t have the least bit of interest in watching that thing get rebuilt.” That’s completely fine and with that, they heal themselves and move along. However, if they’re willing to watch that brick wall be rebuilt, the person who shattered that brick wall has to be…a really good bricklayer.

The only way it can be rebuilt is the same way it went up the first time, brick, by brick by brick. Every opportunity that person has to show that they’re trustworthy represents one brick in that brick wall. So, you can see why it would take a lot of time and effort.

Now, what I see many people doing is this. Trust has been shattered. The person who shattered the trust is kind of nonchalant about the whole thing, and the person whose trust was shattered thinks; “This is so hard, so painful, they’re not doing any rebuilding so I’ll rebuild the brick wall” because they’re in pain and it’s uncomfortable. They don’t like the feeling and they just want the painful emotions to go away.

When the person whose trust was shattered is the one who builds the brick wall, you can’t feel safe, you don’t feel secure, your level of anxiety is always high because you don’t know if you can trust that other person.

Left unhealed, we lose trust in ourselves too. We don’t trust our judgment, our discernment, and our ability to know if we’re making decisions that serve us best. Taking it a step further, if we don’t trust the person to who we gave our trust, and we don’t trust ourselves, how can we trust in anyone or anything else?

We’re taking all of this on during the Trust Again Challenge. In these times, we do not feel safe, we do not trust, and we need to get back that sense of trust and safety. When we don’t rebuild trust, it impacts every area of life. It prevents us from the relationships, joy, and fulfillment we want most.

With the shattering of trust, we find ourselves stuck. In the 5 Stages from Betrayal to Breakthrough (one of the discoveries made in my Ph.D. study) this is so common to Stage three, the most commonplace to get stuck. Transformation doesn’t even begin until Stages four and Stage five. If you’re having trust issues, there’s a good chance you may be stuck in Stage three and you are holding yourself back from the transformation that you deserve. The hardest part has happened already, you owe it to yourself to move through the Stages. So, if you have any kind of trust issues, know that there’s a really good chance you’re deeply rooted in that Stage three (it’s not your fault when you know about the Stages, it’s easy to see why we get stuck there). The good news is, there’s a predictable and proven way to move through all of it.

If you’re struggling with trust, there is no reason to stay stuck. You’re holding yourself back from the love, from the intimacy, from the connection you so rightfully deserve. It’s time to love again, feel safe again, trust again.

Dr. Debi
CEO and Founder, The PBT (Post Betrayal Transformation) Institute

 

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

The Astonishing Benefits of Mentoring Your Franchisees

I am sure you are already doing everything you can think of to support your franchisees and assure their success. You are training them and their staff, offering them marketing support, inviting them to join supportive franchise counsels, and doing so much more.

But chances are there is one more activity you should be engaged in, one that might not be on your radar . . .

You should be mentoring your franchisees

What Is Mentoring?

In the context of non-franchise businesses, mentoring is usually a one-on-one relationship between a more senior employee (the mentor) and a more junior employee (the mentee) with the goal of helping the mentee contribute more, experience faster career growth, and benefit the company.

In franchising, mentoring usually means having someone from the parent franchising company forge that same kind of relationship with a franchisee to help him or her grow, achieve greater levels of success, and contribute more to the overall franchise system.

Yet a franchising company can facilitate other kinds of mentoring relationships too, usually with very positive results. The owner of one a highly successful franchise location can mentor a new owner, for example. Or a firebrand new owner who is achieving meteoric success quickly can mentor new owners, or even established owners who might have hit plateaus in their growth.

If you are creative and take stock of where your franchisees are in the life cycle of ownership, you will be able to identify many opportunities to use mentoring to build success.

Mentoring Is Far More Powerful than You Expect, Two Experts Say

I always believed in mentoring and tried to mentor others to help them achieve success. Yet my understanding and commitment to mentoring were deepened recently when I moderated a Training Unleashed Podcast with Kevin Harrington and Mark Timm, two highly successful entrepreneurs who believe that the more you mentor others, the more success will come back to you. That outlook will bring greater levels of success to your franchise too if you mentor franchisees.

Kevin was one of the original sharks on the hit television show Shark Tank. He is also recognized as the man who invented the infomercial. Mark, who calls himself a “serial entrepreneur,” has built successful companies in more than a dozen countries, from retail to wholesale to manufacturing and real estate.

They believe so strongly in mentoring that they made it the focus of their new book, Mentor to Millions: Secrets of Success in Business, Relationships, and Beyond.

Both men explain that their success was transformed when they were working with the son of Zig Ziglar. Zig was a visionary business thinker who believed “you can have everything in life you want if you just help enough other people get what they want.”

In a franchise, the potential returns from active mentoring individual owners are immense, because of the inherent structure of franchises. Whether you mentor a franchisee to improve his or her customer service, selling skills, marketing programs – or any other aspect of the business – you cause a quiet revolution to start right there in your franchise system. That revolution can ignite a spark of change that can trigger growth anywhere in your overall franchise system.

You never know just where! The positive mentoring outlook you start can transform the culture of your entire organizational system. There is no predicting just how extensively your mentoring efforts will repay you. As I say, even a tightly targeted mentoring relationship focused on improving a few activities can result in immense system-wide improvements.

The more you support franchisees through mentoring, the more your franchise will succeed. This is more than theory. Get started today and see how far you can grow.

 

About Evan Hackel

Evan Hackel, a 35-year franchising veteran is a nationally recognized expert and speaker on franchising. Evan is founder and CEO of Ingage Consulting, and CEO of Tortal Training, a leading training development company. Evan is an active advisor in the C-Suite Network. He is also author of Ingaging Leadership, and host of “Training Unleashed,” a podcast covering training for business. Contact him here, follow him at @ehackel, or call 781-820-7609.

 

 

 

Categories
Growth Personal Development

Why Is My LinkedIn Profile Getting So Few Views?

Why Is My LinkedIn Profile Getting So Few Views?

“Why is my LinkedIn profile getting so few views?” I often get this question from audience members when I speak. For many, their lack of profile views is an obstacle they need to overcome. Perhaps their business is flagging and they’re hoping to attract customers; perhaps they are seeking a new position and are hoping to be found by recruiters and hiring managers. If having few views is a problem for you for whatever reason, this article will identify the contributing issues and provide strategies for improving your profile’s ability to attract your ideal target audience.

 

You have too few connections

One of the two primary drivers of LinkedIn’s search algorithm is your relationship with the person doing the search. In other words, people who are 1st-level connections with the person searching will rank more highly on the searcher’s query than they will rank on a query by someone with whom they are not connected. Thus, the search algorithm benefits people with a large network (500+ 1st level connections). Growing your network to this size will increase the likelihood of your profile being viewed based on a LinkedIn keyword search.

 

You have too few words

LinkedIn is a search engine; the second driver of its search algorithm is the number of times the keyword that is being searched for appears on your profile. A keyword can be multiple words; it is a search term someone may enter into a search engine. When you write more text, you will naturally use your keywords more often in context, which will help your profile show up in more searches.

LinkedIn’s search function is not just looking for whether a keyword entered by someone doing a search is on your profile or not; it is looking at how many times their keyword appears on your profile. You simply can’t have search words show up often if your profile has very little text. If your profile has no About section or just a sentence or two and you have no text or very little text under each of your positions, your chance of ranking high enough on a keyword search is quite low. See LinkedIn’s character limits for each section in my article.

 

You have made parts of your profile private

This error is most often found among people who established their LinkedIn account many years ago when people were warier about sharing career information online than they are now. If you’ve made your text private, LinkedIn’s bots can’t read it, and any keywords that you used in those sequestered parts of your profile will not contribute to your ranking. You’ll find these privacy settings on the right side of your profile under the heading “Edit public profile & URL.” When you click on this heading, you’ll find each section of your profile named along with a toggle button that can be set to “hide” or “show.” For your best chance to be found on a keyword search and to have your profile seen each section should be toggled to “show.” For a further description of setting errors, you may have made, see my article.

 

Many people on LinkedIn have the same name

Up until this point, we have been talking keyword searches, for example, someone searching for an accountant with experience in the real estate industry who lives in Philadelphia. But now let’s turn to what may happen when someone searches for a person by name.

 

Suppose your name is John Hart and you are in a Zoom networking meeting with people from all over the US, Canada, and Australia. If someone from the Zoom meeting decided they would like to connect with you and searched for “John Hart” on LinkedIn, they’d be faced with 100 pages of people named John Hart to choose from. How can you improve your chance that they’ll find you, and actually view your profile,  before they give up?

 

One way you can make things easier for people is to list your middle initial and/or your credentials (e.g., John T. Hart, JD) on both your Zoom label and on your LinkedIn profile. Having a photo that actually looks like you look today also helps. Listing your location on your Zoom screen also can help. To provide people with the most definitive way to connect, you could put your LinkedIn URL into the Zoom chat. To find out how to customize your LinkedIn URL to have it be memorable and easy to use, see my article.

 

You have no profile photo

Whether you have a profile photo or not has no bearing on whether your profile will be found on a LinkedIn keyword search, but it has a lot to do with whether your profile will actually be opened and viewed. LinkedIn’s research tells us that you are 21 times more likely to have your profile opened (viewed) if you have a profile photo than if you do not.

 

You are not active on the platform

One of the ways people find and view others’ profiles is by seeing what they post online. People who post interesting content find that their views spike on the days when they post something engaging.

 

On-point help

If YOU need to see a surge in your number of views, I’ve developed a self-paced, online course that could be a great fit for you. It’s called How to Be Found on LinkedIn: Key Strategies for Attracting Ideal-for-You Opportunities. Course details and registration can be found here.

 

 

LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive-Second Edition, by Carol Kaemmerer, Published January 2021

If you are a C-suite executive or senior leader who would like to improve your LinkedIn profile and presence, I can make it easy for you. I have a track record of working effectively with C-suite executives and senior leaders to create LinkedIn profiles and other executive-branded materials that help them show up as authentically and powerfully online as they do in person. This way, they can attract the talent they want to hire, increase their visibility and influence, and control their career. I also mentor clients on LinkedIn etiquette and effective posting strategies to ensure their success. Let me help you use this essential business tool effectively. Contact me through my website: www.carolkaemmerer.com or profile: www.linkedin.com/in/carolkaemmerer. 

 

 Other resources:

Book me to speak either virtually or in-person on personal branding via LinkedIn. I am a member of the National Speakers Association, a Certified Virtual Presenter, and an Advisor to the C-Suite Network.

 

My NEW book Second Edition: LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive: Promote Your Brand with Authenticity, Tact and Power is available through online booksellers. For quantity discounts or signed copies, contact me directly.

 

To receive my monthly articles in your email inbox, sign up for my monthly emailing here.

 

Articles by Carol Kaemmerer

 

How Can LinkedIn Be Part of Your Company’s Strategy for Responding to the Great Resignation?

Is Your LinkedIn Profile Missing the Mark?

Comfortable in Your Job? Uncomfortable Life Lessons to Safeguard Your Career

How to Be Found on LinkedIn: Ten Top Strategies to Rank Well on a LinkedIn Keyword Search

Why Are You Playing Small on LinkedIn?

If You’re Not “Writing to the Margins” on LinkedIn, You’re Missing Out

Don’t Be Hooked Through a Big Phish: Recognize and Avoid Phishing Scams on LinkedIn

A Small Omission That Undermines Your Credibility on LinkedIn

“Tell Me More…” — On LinkedIn

What is Your Poor LinkedIn Profile Costing You?

C-Suite Executives: Stop Hiding Online

 

Categories
Culture Growth Health and Wellness

Does Yelling at Your Kid Work?

Stop me if you’ve ever been in a situation like this one. . .

 

You’ve had a long day—the kind where nothing seems to go right. Now, when you’re supposed to be enjoying family time, your kids will not stop bickering over the most insignificant things. 

 

While they’re arguing over who can drink their water faster, you realize that you’ve finally had enough. You interject, pleading with them to stop because you’re afraid one of them might choke—and, let’s be honest, you just want a little peace and quiet.

 

Then it happens. Your sweet child turns to you and says, “Shut up, Mom.” 

 

That’s your trigger. You take a deep breath and start yelling your head off. You’re human and you yell because you feel so disrespected, and it’s been such a hard day. . . a hard week. . . a hard month. . . a hard year!

 

You’d never yell at a friend, or a coworker, or a neighbor, so how could you possibly have it in you to yell at your child?

 

Understanding Why Parents Yell

There are several reasons why parents yell at their children. It could be:

  • an attempt to get your child to literally hear or listen to you
  • a way of asserting dominance
  • because you simply lost your temper

But unless you’re shouting in a crowd to get your child’s attention, yelling is never the best way to accomplish your parenting goals.

 

In my TEDx Talk, The Rebellion Is Here – We Created it, We Can Solve It, I talk about the external locus of control or the thought process of using rewards and punishments to control behavior. When parents turn to controlling forms of discipline—like yelling—they’re relying on external factors to create what they believe will be well-behaved children.

 

If you’ve fallen into this trap before, give yourself some grace. Most people resort to this method of thinking, particularly in moments of stress. But it isn’t effective, and it certainly doesn’t lead to “better” behavior.

Pexels Keira Burton 6624292

Overcoming the Instinct to Yell

Just as there’s an external locus of control, there’s an internal locus of control. The internal locus of control addresses underlying, unmet needs. It’s not about what’s happening on the outside; rather, it’s about everything going on inside that is causing undesirable behavior.

 

When children act out, it’s often their way of expressing an unmet need. This same logic can be applied to a parent who acts out by yelling, too.

 

You can’t pour from an empty cup, and you can’t think logically when you’re completely mentally drained. Yelling or losing your temper is always a sign to check in with yourself, as a parent and as a person, to understand why you acted out.

 

As it turns out, yelling or other controlling forms of discipline don’t stop this cycle. In fact, they actually lead to your child acting out more, through retaliation, rebellion, and resentment.

 

Pexels Monstera 7114755

Yelling can cause lasting psychological damage in children. And it never addresses the root of the problem. If you find yourself about to scream or shout, it’s probably best for everyone involved that you remove yourself from the situation and find a different outlet.

 

The next time you wind yourself up to yell, pause. Ask yourself how you might respond to that sort of discipline—and if it would cause you to change your behavior.

 

Instead, turn away, take a few deep breaths, and return to your child with a clearer head. You’ll have the opportunity to communicate with them in a manner that fosters security and connection.

 

At the end of the day, parents are all doing their best in difficult situations. But it’s important to remember that children are in that very same position. And when you find different ways of communicating with your child, it’s easier to remember that you’re both on the same team.

 

Love and Blessings,

Katherine
P.S. Sometimes you just need to talk to someone who understands. The Conscious Parenting Revolution has a network of supportive parents here to offer you solutions, or just a listening ear. Join our private Facebook Group today!

Categories
Entrepreneurship Human Resources Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

“How Disqualification Can Quickly Improve Winning Negotiation Strategies” – Negotiation Tip of the Week

“Disqualification can be a disguised blessing that reveals unforeseen opportunities.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (Click to Tweet)     Click here to get the book!

 

 

“How Disqualification Can Quickly Improve Winning Negotiation Strategies”

People don’t realize they’re always negotiating.

Before you negotiate, what winning negotiation strategies do you create as part of your plans? Do you consider how you might use the ‘disqualification’ tactic as part of your strategy? Disqualification negotiation is somewhat akin to the takeaway tactic – the latter being where you reclaim something you conceded to use for leverage.

The disqualification tactic can invoke greater compliance than the takeaway, especially if you have less power in the negotiation. Because when used right, the last thing an opponent expects when you have less influence is them being disqualified by you. Here is how you can use the disqualification tactic to create more winning negotiation strategies.

Click here to discover how you can become a better negotiator by using the disqualification tactic!

 

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

 

Listen to Greg’s podcasts at https://megaphone.link/CSN6318246585  Once there, double click on the one you would like to hear.

 

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

 

To receive weekly free 5-minute sneak peeks into the brilliant techniques offered by Greg, click here

https://www.themasternegotiator.com/negotiation-speaker/   and sign up at the bottom of the page

 

 

 

 

Categories
Best Practices Growth Health and Wellness Leadership

Feeling anxious? This Can Help.

Remember your child as a baby? When they accidentally hit their head on the side of the crib or get startled awake by a loud noise? Seconds tick by slowly as you wait for the sound of that gulp for air — usually followed by a piercing cry.

Breathing: it’s probably the most hard-wired, involuntary function we do as human beings. Every creature, great or small, breathes. Breathing gives us life, and we don’t even have to think about doing it — you inhale and exhale as reflexively as your heart beats in your chest.

But despite the fact that breath keeps us alive, we tend to take it for granted.

The Harvard Business Review and the Yale News both recently conducted studies revealing the effectiveness of SKY Breath Meditation, a breathing modality that engages the parasympathetic nervous system — the part of your brain that controls rational thinking, gives you a sense of calm and provides balance in stressful situations. Participants in both studies reported a better sense of well-being and mental health after just two days of practicing the methods.

As someone who has been trained in SKY Breath Meditation for 10 years, I can attest that breath does so much more than supply your body with oxygen. The way you breathe can have a big influence on how you feel and experience the world.

If you’ve been stressed, depressed, or overwhelmed — by current events, the holiday season, or your kid’s insistence on listening to “Baby Shark” on repeat — you’re not alone.

Here are some tips to help you literally catch a breather (share them with your child too!):

  • Deeper inhales and longer exhales. What happens when your child cries? Their breaths turn to hiccups. The same thing happens when we feel stressed or sad. When you start breathing rapidly, consciously focus on taking deep inhales and long exhales. Count to 4 for inhales, 8 for exhales (or as close as you can comfortably get). The fog in your brain will clear up in seconds.
  • Do some quick, light stretching. Pressured by deadlines at work and the mounting pile of laundry at home? Take 5 minutes for a quick stretch break. Full-body activities like a yoga sun salutation get your blood flowing with good oxygen and help relieve stress.
  • Carve out time for meditation. Ten minutes is ample time for you to feel the positive effects of your breathing/meditation practice. Don’t have 10 minutes? Take 2 minutes, if that’s what you have. Find a quiet spot to sit in and breathe deeply. Check out our work with America Meditates by Art of Living.

Learning to control your breath can help rid your body of stress and flood you with positive energy. Not only will you feel more in control of yourself, but you’re also providing an excellent model for your children about the importance of self-care.

Supportive breathing is just one technique for becoming the parent you want to be. If you’re interested in true parenting transformation check out the 90 Day Parenting Reset Program (coming soon).

P.S. My episode with ThePedsTalk Podcast hosted by Mona Amin, is live! We had a great conversation, so give it a listen and share with a parent who needs to hear it!

Categories
Marketing Personal Development

Corporate CPR Episode 11: Strengthening Your Social Media Content Strategy with Gina Schreck

Gina Schreck is the founder of SocialKNX, a digital marketing & social media management agency, and the owner of two coworking spaces, The Village Workspace and BarnWorx in Centennial, Colorado. She’s been ranked by LinkedIn as one of the top B2B marketers to follow in 2019 and 2020.

On today’s episode of Corporate CPR, Gina shared the most impactful strategies for strengthening your company’s social media presence and avoiding digital media faux pas. During our discussion, we touched on topics such as:

  • Choosing the best voice and style for your social media content
  • Which companies should be active on social media and why
  • Factors to consider when deciding the optimum content marketing budget
  • The best time to start using social media for business branding

This episode is fast-paced and full of impactful nuggets of information for companies ready to refine or expand their social media strategy.

Connect with Gina

Website

Facebook

LinkedIn

Twitter

Instagram

 

View the full episode here.

Categories
Best Practices Growth Health and Wellness Management

10 Tips to Boost Your Emotional Wellness at Work and Home

Work, family, financial challenges, Covid-19, and all the other stressors in the world can really take a toll on one’s emotional wellness. It’s not easy to be happy and enjoy life if your emotional health isn’t at a high level. While many of life’s ups and downs are beyond our control, there are a lot of things that are within our control. There are several things you can do to increase your emotional wellness that won’t cost a penny or require a lot of time.

Practice these strategies and positively affect your emotional wellness:

  1. Move more. Your brain and your body are connected. You feel your emotions in your body. If you move around more, your body will be healthier and better calibrated to your environment. Sitting around too much increases the likelihood of feeling stressed or depressed.
  2. Use your time more effectively. The more you get done, the less you leave undone. Having your work and chores done on a regular basis results in less stress and a greater opportunity to feel calm and relaxed. Putting your attention on determining the best way to use your time is a great habit to develop and will benefit your life for the rest of your life.
  3. Address any financial challenges you’re facing. There are only three basic strategies for addressing financial challenges: Worry about them, ignore them, or address them. Find a solution to your financial woes and begin working on it. The other options only result in stress and misery either today or in the future.
  4. Get enough sleep. Your brain and body are a mess if you’re not getting enough sleep. Find a sleep schedule that works for you and stick to it. Everyone has different sleep requirements.
  5. Be sociable. As solitary as you might think you are, you still need to be around other people on a regular basis. Having people you can count on makes a huge difference.
  6. Let go of expectations and focus on gratitude. Misery largely results from unmet expectations. Spend some time each day focusing on gratitude rather than being annoyed that life, you, or others, have failed to meet your expectations.
  7. Avoid the news. The news today is little more than mayhem and political news because that’s what people like to watch. Engaging isn’t the same as useful. You’re not missing anything. Watch or read something else instead.
  8. Avoid most social media. The basic premise of social media is admirable: Stay in touch with friends and family. The reality is that the most common use of social media is to make everyone else jealous of their family, car, house, or vacation. The image that people project is often false, and it makes others feel small by comparison. Be smart in how you use social media.
  9. Limit your obligations. A simple and meaningful life is the best option for most people. Keep your life simple by avoiding optional obligations that don’t add anything to your life.
  10. Carve out 5-minute vacations. Daydream, play your favorite music, water plants, surf your favorite podcast or video streaming platform.  As much as a 5-minute break can deliver some of the benefits of a full vacation for less time and money.

Avoid those things that can have a negative impact on your sense of emotional well-being. This includes social media, the news, unreasonable expectations, and unnecessary obligations. Get your rest, move around, and address the challenges in your life that are within your control. Spend time with people that you love.

 

When your emotional health is high, you have a solid foundation for enjoying many other aspects of life. Review the tips above and pick one to implement today.

Categories
Culture Growth News and Politics Personal Development

In Conversation with Bestselling Novelist Sally Fernandez

When Sally met Frank she discovered her style of writing and began seamlessly blending fact with fiction…or fiction with fact…you be the judge. So, if you relish suspense thrillers with a tinge of conspiracy you will enjoy Sally Fernandez’ novels. Readers have said she pens riveting plots of intrigue and political awakening.

But she wasn’t always twisting facts with fiction. Heavily endowed with skills acquired in banking she embarked on her writing career. Fernandez’ focus on computer technology, business consulting, and project management, enhanced by business and technical writing proved to be a boon. Her books of fiction also reflect the knowledge garnered from her business experiences, while living in New York City, San Francisco, Hong Kong, and Florence, Italy.

Fernandez’ foray into writing fiction officially began in 2007 when the presidential election cycle was in full swing. The overwhelming political spin by the media compelled her to question the frightening possibilities the political scene could generate. As a confirmed political junkie, she took to the keyboard armed with unwinding events and discovered a new and exciting career.

The Beekeeper’s Secret, the latest release with multiple five-star reviews, is the sixth novel and the second in the Max Ford Mystery Thriller series. It is preceded by the Award-Winning Climatized, soon to be a major motion picture, featuring Maxine Ford as the female protagonist. Fernandez’ prior Simon Hall Political series is comprised of Brotherhood Beyond the Yard, Noble’s Quest, The Ultimate Revenge and Redemption. Each book provides an exhilarating platform for the next, with a gripping narrative that challenges the reader to put the book down. The development of the other characters has created a lasting bond between them and the reader, especially now that Max has taken center stage.

A world traveler, Fernandez has visited every continent and over fifty countries. Her adventure travels with her husband, also the content editor-in-residence, include a scientific expedition in Antarctica, four African safaris, archaeological digs in Majorca and Peru, along with high-altitude treks in Bhutan, Tibet, and Mongolia. They continue to travel extensively throughout the world. I had a chance to come up with this prolific writer on her thoughts on Climate change as her bestselling novels, this is what she shared up with me.

 

Climate Change is a major element in the plotline of your new bestselling book Climatized (Max Ford Thriller Book 1) and it evolved in a very unexpected way, can you talk a bit about this and why you made this choice when writing this rather thrilling read?

 

In my earlier series, Simon Hall Political Thrillers, I touched on the issue of Agenda 21, a non-binding treaty that was developed in conjunction with the United Nations. It dealt with sustainable development which encompassed global warming, cheered on by Al Gore. I had questions about the validity of the statements that were being bandied and I ended up following the money. Not a pretty picture, but you must read my novel The Ultimate Revenge to come to that conclusion!

 

Then in 2015, the term Global Warming had morphed into Climate Change, reportedly a phenomenon that cannot be challenged. The topic was still front and center, in fact, it was so hot that it was left out of the dining room along with religion and politics. So when I decided to create a new series to give my Maxine Ford character a stage of her own, I took a different tack and began to follow the science.

 

What was fascinating about the project is that I incorporated real scientists into my storyline. Unlike my previous novels, I paired up my fictional characters with real organizations and real-life experts. So after the manuscript was completed, I set out to contact the various scientists to explain what I had done. One of my experts was Dr. Hal Doiron, Chairman of The Right Climate Stuff research team comprised of former Apollo astronauts, scientists, and engineers. Hal and other members of his research team, especially Tom Wysmuller agreed to review the manuscript. Needless to say, I was thrilled at their willingness to read and fact-check. It turned out to be a remarkable collaboration. From their meticulous details, explanations, suggestions, and corrections, it was clear they had devoted the time and interest to read the manuscript thoroughly. Hal’s review of the book was so eloquent that it became the Foreword.

 

This collaboration offered me an opportunity to speak to a group of NASA veterans at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. I remember I opened my talk by saying that giving a presentation is not rocket science, but imparting information to a group of rocket scientists was quite daunting. However, once I got over my two seconds of stage fright, I was warmly received as they listened intently to my explanation of the misnomers of anthropogenic global warming. Sadly, both Hal and Tom have recently passed away, but their memory lives on in Climatized.

 

The Beekeeper’s Secret, the second book in the Max Ford series, is truly one of your breakout books. Maxine Ford, the protagonist, goes on a thrilling adventure, coming up against Big PhRMA and the FDA during her investigation. She is also on a quest to find the Beekeeper. Why did you choose to have a beekeeper be a pivotal character in this story? What inspired you to create this compelling and enthralling storyline – and add Big PhRMA and the FDA into the mix. Clearly, it was a brilliant and perhaps prophetic choice given the current pandemic. 

 

My publisher, David Dunham, who also sadly died a few years ago, inspired the original concept for my storyline. In David’s fight against pancreatic cancer, he decided to turn to holistic medicine. And while he researched various remedies, he discovered some disturbing events. There were reports through various sources that many holistic doctors had met their untimely, and in many cases, suspicious deaths. Several of the practitioners also had run-ins with the FDA. Through my sleuthing, I discovered that in 2015, at the time I was writing the book, taxpayers funded the FDA with $331.6 million. During that same year, Big PhRMA funded the FDA with $791.1 million, which means 71% of the FDA’s funding comes from Big PhRMA. That of course begs the question, who is really in charge? I crawled into the weeds a little further and discovered that in 2017 radiation and chemotherapy drugs produced $100 billion in revenues annually with predicted profits to increase 8% each year going forward. My conspiratorial mind kicked into gear as I began to see how Alternative Medicine could pose a threat to the pharmaceutical industry. Imagine if natural cures replaced radiation and chemotherapy.

 

Ah ha, the Beekeeper! Well, that was serendipity. I just happened to be reading an article in the Life Extension Magazine about the extensive benefits of bee pollen, including in the treatment of cancer. The fact that it is natural also meant it could not be regulated by the FDA.

 

So my story starts with a senator dying in the Amazon jungle and a beekeeper meeting his death 4000 thousand miles away in New Mexico.  And yes, a bee has something to do with it, but that is The Beekeeper’s Secret, so I can’t tell you. However, somewhere along the way, I did invent a cure for cancer.

 

You are an avid traveler, so I have to ask you, what was your favorite travel adventure, and conversely what was your most challenging one? Also, do your travels end up in your books?

For me, favorite and challenging are synonymous. So, I would have to lump together my high-altitude treks in Bhutan, Tibet, and Mongolia. When you first arrive it is always important to take a few days to acclimate to the thin air. For example, when you arrive in Lhasa, Tibet you are already at approximately 11,000 feet. Ultimately, we climbed up to 25,000. All three countries are drastically different, but I most enjoyed Bhutan and Tibet because of the peaceful lifestyle of the Buddhists.

 

I’ve traveled to 55 countries and have lived in Asia and Europe. Thus far, only Europe has crept into my stories. In fact, in my first novel, Brotherhood Beyond the Yard, half of the plotline takes place in Florence, Italy, where I was living at the time. The Italian adventure picks up again in Noble’s Quest. And then, Max goes racing around Italy in Climatized. I’m working on my third Max Ford Thriller, The Infiltrator’s Shadow, dealing mostly with people in other parts of the world…so you can be sure China will be in there somewhere!

 

Climatized is being made into a major motion picture bringing Max Ford to life in a different way. If you had control over who plays Max, who would it be and why?


Max is my alter ego, my wannabee kick-ass spy within. So of course, she is intelligent, complicated, vulnerable, and lethal. My Hollywood team is currently, polishing the script and will be approaching a series of potential directors in the coming weeks. So that is the first step. But when we are ready to cast it would be awesome if we were able to get Charlize Theron. Then there is Maggie Q. And rumor has it that Gina Carano is interested. I know they are totally different. But all of them are natural beauties, and also possess some tomboyishness. My Max has to be tough and able to play with the big boys.

 

We heard you are planning a conference with some of the most renowned scientists and astronauts in the world giving speeches and talking about our Climate, which given the Presidential Debate was a hot topic on the agenda.   I know it is a bit early to have all of the details, but would you be able to tell us a little more about the event and what others in attendance can expect? 

 

You mentioned that Climate Change is a hot topic, and I believe it will continue to be for some time. So, I originally assembled a panel of experts to place the issue of Climate Change under the microscope and separate the rhetoric from the science. Keiser University in West Palm Beach has graciously donated its facility for the all-day event that was scheduled for March 12, 2021. Unfortunately, it was postponed due to the uncertainties of COVID-19. However, in the meantime, I established The Institute for Climate Change, a non-profit foundation with the mission to revive the practice of rigorous debate into the causes and consequences of climate change, as well as the associated costs and benefits. Also, to improve the social discourse on matters of science-based public policy, thereby facilitating the participation of a broad range of experts. I think it is most important to remind citizens of their responsibilities to evaluate, and not merely advocate, different points of view on this important topic, encouraging them to pose fundamental scientific and other questions of the experts we plan to engage.

We are incredibly honored to have amazing scientists agree to both virtual and live events in the future and hope to see Dr. William Happer, American Physicist; Larry Bell, Space Architecture; Dr. Jay Lehr, Geological Engineer, Kelvin Kemm, Nuclear Physicist, and other return to the podium. The organization is in its early stages of construction, but stay tuned for coming attractions!