The Female Insight Zone

Financial results drive corporations, and this laser focus on achieving monetary goals often means a neglect in the areas of personal development and emotional intelligence. But the fact of the matter is that honing these skills does have a positive impact on the bottom line, as authentic leaders can both create a higher level of engagement among employees and inspire teams to perform at a higher level.

Mary Pat Knight is a sought-after transformation strategist, business coach, and EQ expert. Her training programs help corporate leaders sharpen their emotional intelligence to attain high-level, authentic leadership. As the founder and CEO of Leaders Inspired, Knight employs a transformational process to guide executives through times of change, motivate employee engagement and create healthy teams. She is passionate about helping executives lead from the heart while producing phenomenal business results.

Knight boasts more than 30 years of experience in the areas of executive coaching, operations, strategic planning, marketing and HR. Today she explains the value of dedicating work time to personal development, emotional intelligence and leadership, offering her insight on the bottom-line impact this training can have on businesses. She discusses her experience watching women wear masks to protect themselves in the corporate environment, and how that led to her commitment to the development of authentic leaders. Listen in for Knight’s take on using your voice to be the greater good in the world and making a commitment to your own personal development.

Key Interview Takeaways

Organizations would do well to dedicate time to personal development, emotional intelligence, and leadership. Knight argues that this commitment would not only impact the corporate environment, it would positively effect families, communities and the world at large.

Personal development and emotional intelligence training have a positive bottom-line impact on businesses. Organizations with a commitment to personal leadership create a high level of engagement among employees and retain leaders who inspire teams to perform at a higher level.

Creating a heart-based culture has a positive impact on sales. Knight works with a large heating and air conditioning company that shifted their approach to customer interaction and saw an increase in profits as a result.

Use your voice to be the greater good in the world. It is important for us women to find and then sustain our voices, rather than donning a mask that keeps us small.

We lose when we protect ourselves. Knight experienced a game-changing moment watching her marketing team lose their authenticity in the board room, leading her to a career in HR training and development.

Make a commitment to your own personal development. Knight continues to hone her own emotional intelligence through spiritual communities, heart-felt professional groups, coaching organizations, therapy, books and mentors.

Connect with Mary Pat Knight

Leaders Inspired

Email mpknight@leadersinspired.com

Resources

EQ Quiz

Nancy Wright on The Female Insight Zone

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As female entrepreneurs and business leaders, we have a lot to overcome. But the first step is to get out of our own way. Maybe perfectionism is holding you back, or maybe you’re thinking too small. Today’s guest is on a mission to give you WINGS—Women, Innovating, Networking, Growing and Scaling—and turn your small business into an empire.

Melinda Wittstock is a serial entrepreneur, award-winning journalist and content marketer. She has more than 25 years of experience as a host, journalist and executive across the world’s top media brands, and she has launched four successful media, tech and predictive analytics businesses of her own. Wittstock currently serves as the founder and CEO of Verifeed, a predictive social intelligence solution that helps businesses grow their brand and bottom line. She also hosts a podcast on female entrepreneurship called WINGS of Inspired Business to help women develop the confidence, connections and capital they need to achieve.

Wittstock is a passionate advocate for women in business, committed to investing $10M in 100-plus female founded companies in the next ten years. Today she explains the concept of Return on Authenticity, discussing why talking to prospects as human beings leads to a higher return on investment. Wittstock speaks to the idea of building personal relationships at scale through social media marketing and the value in defining your ideal customer before you design a social media marketing campaign. Listen in for her insight around investing in female entrepreneurs and learn how her podcast is inspiring women to grow in business and in life.

Key Interview Takeaways

Speak from the heart, and you will wildly outperform your competitors. Wittstock calls this idea the Return on Authenticity, and it is a much better measure of return than vanity metrics such as likes and followers.

People do business with people. Companies do better when their leadership has a personal brand presence, and social media allows those leaders to build relationships with prospects at scale.

Define your mission and your ideal customer FIRST. Verifeed’s software cannot help you with social media marketing until you know yourself. Once you have identified your ideal client, the platform helps you understand and engage those people over time.

Too many women succeed in silence. Wittstock’s podcast, WINGS of Inspired Business, seeks to affirm and inspire female entrepreneurs and business leaders, exploring the connection between personal and business growth and manifesting the confidence they need to succeed.

Successful women must give back to other female-owned businesses. Wittstock has plans to invest in 100 female-founded and women-run businesses in the next ten years.

Connect with Melinda Wittstock

Melinda Wittstock’s Website

Melinda Wittstock’s Podcast

Melinda Wittstock on LinkedIn

Melinda Wittstock on Facebook

Melinda Wittstock on Twitter

Verifeed

Verifeed on Twitter

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Change is scary. It is also an opportunity.

And if we are too busy resisting change, we may end up passing on the opportunities—without even recognizing it.

Frankie Picasso has come to embrace change. After a serious motorcycle accident in 2003, she recreated her life and became a certified coach. Today, Picasso is an international SocialPreneur, talk show host and champion for change. She is the founder of The Good Media Network, a platform to help nonprofits reach a wider audience and connect with potential donors, and a professional artist whose work has been featured in the International Book of Contemporary Artists. Picasso is also the author of Midlife Mojo and No Bull Allowed.

On this episode of The Female Insight Zone, Picasso defines what it means to be a SocialPreneur, explaining how her work makes a positive impact in the world. She discusses her coaching practice and how she helps clients navigate the danger and opportunity that accompanies change. Listen in for Picasso’s insight around the significance of understanding what you value and how to leverage Midlife Mojo as a prescription for change.

Key Interview Takeaways

SocialPreneurs are dedicated to doing good things in the world. Picasso is passionate about having a positive social impact through her work as an artist and as the founder of The Good Media Network.

Change happens best in chaos. Transforming your life involves both danger and opportunity, and Picasso’s coaching practice is about helping people navigate the fear to take advantage of the opportunities.

Understand what you value. Identify the places where your values and your life are not in alignment and you reveal where change is necessary.

Midlife Mojo is a prescription for change. Picasso’s book seeks to help readers identify the underlying automatic commitments that are holding them back, overcome their fears and become UNSTOPPABLE.

Connect with Frankie Picasso

Unstoppable Frankie Picasso

The Good Media Network

Frankie Picasso on Fine Art America

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87% of employees experience physical, psychological or behavioral symptoms of poor mental health, resulting in between $17 and $44 billion in lost productivity.

There is an epidemic of presenteeism in our culture, a phenomenon in which employees are physically present at work, yet high levels of stress prevent them from getting much done. This stressed mindset results in choices made out of fear that take us further and further away from the things we really want. What can we do to shift our thinking and respond to stress in a way that serves us in reaching our highest potential?

Christine Monaghan is a human-potential champion who works with individuals and organizations to inspire a solutions-based leadership approach that boosts productivity, engagement and profits. She is passionate about influencing others to replace stress and tap into optimum performance through a focus on mindful commitments, conversations and choices. Monaghan came to this work after enduring emergency heart surgery and the extreme anxiety that followed, and now she is on a mission to help others access new levels of potential from a place of ease versus stress.

Today, Monaghan explains how she was able to view herself as a clean canvas in the aftermath of her near-death experience, focusing on the opportunity to create a new life rather than what she had lost. She discusses strategies for responding to stressful situations as opposed to reacting out of fear, working ON your life rather than IN it, and getting comfortable being uncomfortable. Listen in for Monaghan’s insight on calming your nervous system in stressful situations and making choices that get you closer to your goals.

Key Interview Takeaways

After a difficult experience, view yourself as a clean canvas. In the aftermath of Monaghan’s near-death experience, she chose to focus on the opportunity to create whatever she wanted rather than dwelling on what she lost.

Reprogram your mind to respond to stressful situations versus reacting out of fear. Ask yourself if this choice will move you closer to or further away from how you want to feel and what you want in your life.

Work ON your life rather than IN your life. This is the key to closing the gap between goal-setting and goal-achieving.

Who you become in the process of achieving your goals is the gem. Reaching the goal itself is a second reward.

If you’re feeling stressed, calm your nervous system and course correct. Touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth and take three deep breaths. Then, pause and make a choice that takes care of you and fulfills your responsibilities.

Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Discomfort is a signal that you’re moving forward.

Connect with Christine Monaghan

Christine Monaghan’s Website

Daily Life Mastery on Instagram

Christine Monaghan on LinkedIn

Resources

HeartBroke, From Uncertainty to Possibility by Christine Monaghan

Forbes 2018 Trends Article

Deloitte Report on Workplace Mental Health and Wellbeing

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The business world often downplays the role of hopefulness in the workplace, maintaining that hope is not a viable approach. But if you’d ever worked in an office where people felt hopeless, you know that progress is not possible without it. Libby Gill believes that hope IS a strategy, and she uses research around hope theory to give her clients the discipline and competitive advantage necessary in today’s rapidly changing world.

Gill is an executive leadership coach, keynote speaker and bestselling author. After heading communications at media giants Universal, Sony and Turner Broadcasting, Gill left the corporate world to found Libby Gill & Company, a coaching and consulting firm focused on helping high-performing individuals and organizations navigate challenge and change. Gill’s client roster includes Comcast, Disney, Honda, Microsoft, and Warner Brothers, among many others. She has appeared on CNN, NPR, and The Today Show, and Gill is the author of the award-winning YOU UNSTUCK. Her latest book, Hope IS a Strategy hits shelves April 10, 2018.

Today, Gill shares her early achievement in the corporate world, explaining how a willingness to take on new challenges contributed to her success. She defines ‘riskophobia,’ discussing how the predisposition for safety can hold us back personally and professionally. Gill speaks to hope theory and the need for hopefulness in the workplace to facilitate risk-taking and innovation. Listen in for Gill’s insight on changing habits and staying hopeful with a daily meditation practice.

Key Interview Takeaways

Raise your hand. Gill attributes her corporate success to a willingness to take on new responsibilities and lean on her team.

Even if you fail, you’re not going to fall apart. Humans are hardwired to avoid danger, and we often give in to our predisposition for safety. But Gill contends that you need to get past the ‘riskophobia’ and take on the next challenge.

Hope is the jet fuel for life. Gill argues that hope is the missing link in the workforce, and she coaches leaders in building a sense of hopefulness that allows for risk-taking and innovation.

It takes much longer than 21 days to form a habit. Research has determined that 66 days or longer is more accurate, and Gill suggests establishing a trigger that makes the new habit automatic—a hardwired part of our routine.

Bring the entire team in on the coaching process. In Gill’s work coaching leaders, she finds it useful to include the team in both identifying blind spots and recognizing behavior change.

Stay hopeful with a daily meditation practice. Whether you choose to run, chant, pray or read, starting each day with the right tone helps you get past the fear, doubt and insecurity—and stay positive.

Connect with Libby Gill

Libby Gill & Company

Libby Gill on YouTube

Libby Gill on Facebook

Libby Gill on Twitter

Libby Gill on Instagram

Resources

The Hope-Driven Leader: Harness the Power of Positivity at Work by Libby Gill

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There are things you simply cannot control in your personal and professional life… But you CAN control your thoughts—and thoughts have the power to change reality. If you have been feeling like a victim of circumstance, it’s time to shift your perspective, connect with the divine and harness your miracle power.

MarBeth Dunn is a mindset, success and happiness coach with 30-plus years of experience in spiritual teaching. She trains business professionals to create personal and economic miracles, using her intuitive abilities and the powerful Miracle Activation Technology system to offer clients greater confidence, financial success and emotional freedom. Dunn has been featured on several media outlets across the US, including FOX, CBS and NBC.

Today, Dunn shares the personal story of how she harnessed the ability to change her thoughts and attract miracles in her personal and professional life. She explains the value in cultivating peace in order to ‘ride the coattails of the divine.’ Listen in for Dunn’s insight on visualizing the situations you want to create and reframing negativity by asking, ‘What good could come of this?’

Key Interview Takeaways

Thoughts can change your reality. Many years ago, Dunn was struggling in her business and personal life, seeing herself as a victim. The moment she realized that the ability to change her thoughts gave her power, miracles started to happen.

There is no such thing as an idle thought. Every thought has power.

Cultivate peace. Dunn contends that you always have the choice to get embroiled in conflict or opt for peace, and peace affords a connection with the divine.

Reframe a situation by asking, ‘What good could come of this?’ A shift in perspective leaves you open to possibilities—and frees you from being locked into desperation.

Visualize yourself in the situation you want to create. If you need new clients, for example, visual yourself interacting with new clients and feeling good about it.

Connect with MarBeth Dunn

Your Miracle Power Website

Miracle Mindset on Facebook

Free Consult Application

Resources

MarBeth Dunn’s Free eBook

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Who is #BackingYou?

What would you do if you could take fear off the table and fully commit to yourself? Would it give you the courage to put yourself in the driver’s seat and become an entrepreneur? To reach out and ask for peer support? To go after backing for your business through non-traditional models?

Kimmie Greene is a finance expert and business mentor at Intuit and the spokeswoman for QuickBooks Self-Employed, a division of Intuit that provides freelancers and independent contractors with an easy and affordable way to manage their finances and save money during tax season. Prior to QuickBooks, Greene spent two years running her own PR firm, building a business that generated $250K in annual revenue.

Today, Greene shares the inspiration behind her decision to become an entrepreneur and how that experience allows her to connect in an authentic way with clients at QuickBooks Self-Employed. She discusses her top takeaways from the recent Create & Cultivate conference celebrating female entrepreneurship, explaining the value of committing to yourself and learning from other women. Greene speaks to the fear of money, offering advice on how to discuss your fees with confidence. Listen in for Greene’s insight around non-traditional funding models and tools to support your financial well-being.

Key Interview Takeaways

Entrepreneurship puts you in the driver’s seat. Greene’s had been cast as the ‘tech person’ in corporate PR, but her decision to freelance gave her the chance to spread her wings and take on projects in other areas.

Take fear off the table and commit to yourself. You cannot expect others to back you until you have moved past the fear and made the decision to back yourself—100%.

Take advantage of peer learning. Reach out to other women entrepreneurs with questions and learn from their experiences.

Overcome the fear of money by putting it in writing. Greene suggests that asking other freelancers in your market what they’re charging and publishing your fees in the form of a contract will afford you confidence.

Be sure you are on solid ground with your personal finances before you start a business. Financial well-being allows you to say ‘yes’ to the right clients, projects and opportunities.

Look into non-traditional funding models. Venture capital and bank loans are not the only choices. Consider self-funding and crowdfunding campaigns to finance your business.

Connect with Kimmie Greene

QuickBooks

QuickBooks on Facebook

QuickBooks on Twitter

QuickBooks on YouTube

Resources

Mint

TurboTax

Create & Cultivate

Indiegogo

GoFundMe

Kickstarter

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Businesses that thrive long-term continue to innovate, even when they are at the top of their game. If the Kodaks of the world don’t disrupt themselves, someone else certainly will. So, the question becomes, how does an organization continue to drive growth and generate new ideas—even if there is no one in the rearview mirror? Dr. Natalie Nixon contends that the key to accelerating innovation lies in the ebb and flow between rigor and wonder.

Dr. Nixon is the Founder and Principal at Figure 8 Thinking, a consultancy dedicated to helping organizations accelerate innovation by connecting the dots between creativity and strategy. A design strategist and hybrid thinker, she leverages her background in service design, anthropology and fashion to support clients in cultural transformation, leadership development, and team collaboration. Nixon is also a Fellow at the Paris d.School and a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, and she created the Strategic Design MBA program at Philadelphia University. Nixon is a frequent contributor to Inc. magazine, and she has been a featured speaker at the Business Innovation Factory, 360 Possibilities and The Copenhagen Institute for Interactive Design.

Today, Nixon shares the connection between her background in anthropology and fashion, explaining how she sees the world from a ‘worm’s eye view.’ She discusses how her business, Figure 8 Thinking, evolved from a talk on improvising at work she delivered at TEDx Philadelphia in 2014. Nixon describes how companies can accelerate innovation by driving growth based on consumer needs, hiring from a non-traditional wheelhouse, and benchmarking progress against a wide variety of sectors. Listen in for Nixon’s insight around kinesthetic learning and the balance between wonder and rigor.

Key Interview Takeaways

Drive the growth of your business based on the needs of the consumer. Nixon contends that if you focus on the end-user, profitability, efficiency and productivity will follow.

Ensure thought diversity by hiring from a variety of sectors. More diverse inputs result in more innovative outputs, so companies willing to hire anthropologists, psychologists and artists will naturally accelerate innovation.

Benchmark your team against other sectors. Rather than simply making comparisons with others in your industry, Nixon suggests casting a wider net to determine what ‘best in class’ really means.

A superiority complex can be fatal. Nixon argues that companies like Kodak fail when they lose their curiosity. A false sense of security and resistance to change leaves a company ripe for disruption.

Physical activity helps balance the mind. Nixon’s recent return to the dance studio is fueling her creativity and outlook in a positive way.

Rigor cannot be sustained without wonder. Corporate culture emphasizes structure and processes, but problem-solving only happens when we balance that rigor with the time to daydream—to pause and suppose.

Connect with Dr. Natalie Nixon

Figure 8 Thinking

Dr. Nixon on BigSpeak

Resources

Dr. Nixon at TEDx Philadelphia

Strategic Design Thinking: Innovation in Products, Services, Experiences and Beyond edited by Natalie Nixon

Dr. Nixon’s Column in Inc.

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To develop a reputation as a thought-leader in your industry, you must look at your life as a business and invest a significant amount of time and money in your own success. Are you willing to become your own Chief Strategy Officer? To hire coaches and a PR team? To practice your first presentation 40 times before taking the stage?

Robin Farmanfarmaian is a professional speaker, serial entrepreneur and angel investor working in cutting-edge technology and medicine, and she has a deep understanding of how artificial intelligence is likely to impact and disrupt the healthcare space in the next ten years. Farmanfarmaian currently serves as the VP of Business Development at Actavalon, a startup working to cure cancer, and she is an angel investor in Dance Biopharm Holdings, a company developing inhaled insulin products to treat diabetes— among many other projects. Her book, The Patient as CEO: How Technology Empowers the Healthcare Consumer, is a bestseller on Amazon.

Today, Farmanfarmaian shares the story behind The Patient as CEO, explaining how a misdiagnosis led her to take charge of her own healthcare. She addresses the advances that have been made in medicine to this point and how technology is dramatically accelerating our progress moving forward. Listen in for Farmanfarmaian’s insight around developing the confidence to thrive and investing the necessary time, effort and capital in becoming a thought leader in your field.

Key Interview Takeaways

Become the CEO of your own healthcare. Farmanfarmaian’s misdiagnosis at the age of 16 led to countless hospitalizations and multiple surgeries—before she took control. She was finally diagnosed correctly and went into remission overnight.

The human body is an incredibly complex system. Yes, we have made great strides in our understanding, and life expectancy has doubled in the last 100 years. But we still only have treatments for a few hundred of the more than 10K known human diseases.

Technology is dramatically accelerating human progress in healthcare. AI allows us to apply machine learning to massive data sets, providing insights that would otherwise take us years to discover.

View your thought-leadership as a business. Farmanfarmaian invested a great deal of time, effort AND capital to become a sought-after speaker. She hired high-end coaches, designers and a marketing team, and she practiced her first presentation 40 times before delivering it on stage!

You are that strong. Farmanfarmaian’s secret weapon is confidence coupled with a strong sense of mission. Despite the extreme trauma she has experienced, Farmanfarmaian is determined to positively impact 100M patients worldwide.

Connect with Robin Farmanfarmaian

The Patient CEO

Robin Farmanfarmaian on LinkedIn

Robin Farmanfarmaian on Facebook

Robin Farmanfarmaian on Twitter

Resources

The Patient as CEO: How Technology Empowers the Healthcare Consumer by Robin Farmanfarmaian

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We often feel as if we must cut off certain parts of ourselves depending on the circumstances, especially when it comes to the way we show up at work. But Dr. Anita Sanchez contends that this separation and misalignment is what causes suffering, and if we want to do our best work, we need to tap into the four sacred gifts and maintain our wholeness—the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of ourselves.

Dr. Sanchez has spent four decades sharing indigenous wisdom with executives and their teams all over the world. She draws on the teachings of her Aztec and Mexican-American heritage as well as the latest science to inspire and equip leaders to enjoy meaningful, empowered lives and careers. Dr. Sanchez serves as a transformational leadership consultant, speaker and coach, and she is the author of the bestseller The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times.

Today, Dr. Sanchez explains the concept of transformational leadership, discussing the way that true transformational leaders inspire their teams rather than trying to manage them. She walks us through the four sacred gifts: the power to forgive the unforgiveable, the power of unity, the power to heal, and the power of hope in action. Listen in for Dr. Sanchez’s insight around applying indigenous wisdom to business in a way that allows people to keep their wholeness, develop supportive relationships, and leverage hope as an energy source.

Key Interview Takeaways

People don’t need to be managed, they need to be inspired. True transformational leaders serve in aligning the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical aspects of every employee.

Harness the power to forgive the unforgiveable. Rather than hanging on to hurt or mistreatment and being imprisoned by it, we must use our energy for what we want to create in the world.

Connection makes everything possible. We need to see past the illusion of separation that is causing the current division and divisiveness in the world and move into positive action. As Dr. Sanchez puts it, ‘The GPS doesn’t work if you’re standing still.’

We can’t give what we don’t have. For true healing to occur, we must first adopt an unconditional love of self.

Hope is an energy source—and a choice. We can draw on the magic of hope if we sit still and allow the unimaginable to arise, and no one can take that away from us.

Connect with Dr. Anita Sanchez

Sanchez, Tennis & Associates

Four Sacred Gifts

Resources

The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times by Anita L. Sanchez

Libby Gill on The Female Insight Zone

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