Debra Kasowski, Author at Debra Kasowski

Episode 124 – Struggles to Success with Pam Wasley

August 22, 2017 by Debra Kasowski 2 Comments

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Meet our Guest

Co-founder & CEO of Cerius Executives and Cerius Advisors, Pam Wasley is a serial entrepreneur with multiple decades of knowledge and experience. She has personally sold companies, led a management buyout, and advised hundreds of companies on strategies for growth and higher shareholder value. Pam has served on several private boards and is a highly sought after speaker. She’s been featured in prestigious publications such as Forbes, Entrepreneur, Fortune, and Bloomberg Businessweek on the topics of mergers and acquisitions, the workforce of the future, and global contingent workforces.

EPISODE 123 – The Simplicity of Success with Milana Leshinsky

August 17, 2017 by Debra Kasowski 2 Comments

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Meet our Guest

Simplicity Circle Founder Milana Leshinsky is creating a simplicity revolution for coaches, authors, speakers and entrepreneurs who want to grow their businesses with ease. Creator of Recurring Revenue Revolution, author of Coaching Millions, co-founder of JV Insider Circle, and an inventor of telesummits, Milana is known as a serial entrepreneur and paradigm shifter by many luminaries. She came from Soviet Ukraine 25 years ago as a classical musician with zero knowledge of the business world, and has built multiple six and seven-figure businesses since. Today sheʼs passionate about showing entrepreneurs how to use simplicity as a growth strategy and say goodbye complexity and overwhelm. Hello simplicity, profits, and ease.

Stop Letting Your Troubles Keep You Awake at Night

August 16, 2017 by Debra Kasowski Leave a Comment

Do you dread getting up in the morning and going to work? Are you having trouble sleeping? Are you tossing and turning trying to get to sleep but nothing seems to work? Are you having trouble concentrating on simple tasks? You have many thoughts running through your head – all going in different directions. Some thoughts may be about how you are going to make ends meet or meet payroll, some thoughts may be about an interaction you have had or that you have yet to have with someone, and some thoughts may be that you no longer have passion or meaning in the work that you do. There can be many different thoughts troubling you. Don’t let them steal your joy, your happiness, or your sleep. You do have the power to change “what-is” to what you want it to be.

Identify What is Troubling You. You need to assess where you are at. What is troubling you? Is it one specific thing? Has your work become repetitive and routine? Do you look around and wonder if anyone else is feeling the same? Maybe you are wondering why you do not enjoy what you are doing anymore or you long to start your own business or jump into your side business full-time. Whatever is it, you do not have to face it alone. If you feel you need to brainstorm ideas or create a strategy, you can hire a coach to help you build an exit strategy or a plan. If you feel how you are feeling is related to anxiety or depression, a counselor or psychologist is the best person to support you.

Reflect on What Brought You Joy that You Stopped Doing. Everyone has things that they have built into their lives that bring them joy outside of work and business that creates anticipation and harmony (which some refer to as balance). Family vacations, listening to music, going for the morning run or partaking in sunrise yoga, or entertaining or long leisurely lunch with friends tend to be put on the backburner when we get consumed with work and family obligations. It is important to bring the things made you come alive back into your life. When you are happy and fulfilled, you not only share that happiness with others, you give them permission to do the same.

Decide What You Really Want. What are you passionate about? What makes you come alive because you have the burning desire to pursue it? The clearer you are, the clearer the path is before you to reach your destination. If you want to be a full-time entrepreneur, what does that look like? How will you spend your days? What is your product or service? How will you expose your product or service to the marketplace? If you want to change careers, what are you changing to? Do you need to go back to school?

“If you have a strong purpose in life, you don’t have to be pushed. Your passion will drive you there.” – Roy T. Bennett

Set a Date for Your Transition or Exit. Write down a specific date in which you plan to resign from your current role. Start planning backward from that date. What do you need to do to prepare for the transition? Do you need to save up a certain amount of money? Do you need to put together a training manual so you do not leave your replacement high and dry without some knowledge or history of your role?

Brainstorm What Barriers, Obstacles, or Roadblocks May Show Up. It is important to have these challenges in your awareness but do not focus on them. Know that there are internal and external roadblocks that may appear and brainstorm ways you may tend to them should they arise. You will be mentally prepared. They do should up.

Design Your Plan and Work the Plan. Write out your plan and create small milestones along the way. Breakdown each part of your plan into smaller tangible pieces; otherwise, you may get overwhelmed by all the things you feel you need to do. The daily actions will start creating momentum and propel you forward.

Celebrate Your Success. When you achieve your goal or reach your milestone, it is important that you take some time to acknowledge how far you have come from where you were. You took matters into your own hands and made decisions for YOU. You do not want to live with regret wondering what would have happened if you only made the leap.

Inject what you love doing into your life. If it does not make you say, “Hell yes!” or “Absolutely”; it means, “Hell No!” or “Not a Chance!” Life is too short to not do what you love and leave your signature out in the world.

What goal have you set that will make you jump out of bed in the morning and go after it?

DEBRA KASOWSKI, BScN CEC is an award-winning best-selling author, transformational speaker, blogger, and Certified Executive Coach. She has a heart of a teacher and is certified in Appreciative Inquiry and Emotional Intelligence. Her writing has been published in a variety of print and online magazines. Debra Kasowski International helps executives, entrepreneurs, and organizations boost their productivity, performance, and profits. It all starts with people and passion. Sign up the Success Secrets Newsletter and get your free mp3 download today! www.debrakasowski.com

EPISODE 122 – Accountability with Purpose

August 15, 2017 by Debra Kasowski Leave a Comment

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“Maybe you’re not perfect, but you’re willing to actually look at yourself and take some kind of accountability. That’s a change. It might not mean that you can turn everything around, but I think there’s something incredibly hopeful about that.” Brie Larson

Let’s start by exploring what accountability means to you and why it is important. Accountability is about standing behind (or beside) the actions and decisions you make. Accountability is like a checklist to see if expectations have been met and who is responsible for what they said they were going to do. When people must claim responsibility for their actions, this is where you may see people start finger pointing, blaming or complaining about why they did not meet expectations. Funny thing is for the finger point outward, there are three fingers pointing back. Each person in a relationship or interaction can take 100% responsibility for their actions. It builds trust because you have faith that the other person is going to put in their 100% effort like you are. This type of commitment gets results. You will want to go back and listen to our first episode on Taking 100% Responsibility.

To be accountable, you must have a clear purpose or WHY for doing what you do, driven by a vision, mission, and core values. Your core values act like a compass directing you and keeping you on track to meet your goals.

Accountability serves a purpose. By being accountable for your actions, you will tend to pay more attention to whether you are taking the actions necessary to meet expectations. You will notice that your performance increases because you need to be accountable for your actions through reporting your outcomes or explaining the consequences of the results you achieved. You will start valuing your work more because it is your heart and soul or sweat and tears invested in the results. Goal setting and setting clear expectations are important in laying out a plan to be accountable with a purpose. When you have a goal in mind, you can set up accountability check points to ensure you are on the right track. Without a clear set goal, you lack direction of what you are working towards. Therefore, it is so important to ink your goals.

Let’s look at finances. If you do not have a financial goal of what you are aiming for, how will you know when you have met it? What are your expectations? What will you sacrifice short-term for long term success? When you are accountable for your finances, you give every dollar a job. You know what money coming in and what money is going out. You may call you credit card or internet company every 3-6 months to see if you can get a better rate. You can look at what is costing you the most money and learn where you can find cost savings. You can make better decisions knowing what your money can do for you.

Let’s take a look at professional development goals. What are areas you want to strengthen? Is there a book you want to read or a course you want to take? Consider working with a coach to keep you accountable and help you uncover where you may be sabotaging your efforts. Again, what gets measured gets managed so you will want to ink the goal.

Being accountable is NOT about pointing fingers or picking sides. It is about OWNING what you have control over and FINDING solutions to get the desired results. It is NOT about pretending to know everything or pretending to be something you are not. You need to be willing to admit when you do not know something BUT you can ask someone or put in the effort to figure it out. You need to drop the excuses and stop getting defensive when someone asks you to take responsibility for your actions.

Have you ever noticed that people get angry or defensive when they do not want to take responsibility for their actions? These people try to deflect responsibility and do not realize that they could be sabotaging their own success because of their lack of commitment. If you make a mistake, own it right away! People are more forgiving if you OWN your mistakes versus deny them. Everyone makes a mistake at one time or another.

Be accountable with purpose. Find an accountability partner – this can be a family member, colleague, or friend or hire a coach to hold you accountable. They can support you as being a cheerleader when things are going well and hold you accountable for when things are not going as planned or you fail to take the actions you said you would. When you start running your business, organization, and daily life with intention and deliberate purpose, you will get the results that you are seeking or something better!

What are you going to do to be accountable with purpose?

We would love to have you subscribe to the Success Secrets newsletter on my website at www.debrakasowski.com where you’re going to get us free MP3 download 10 Surefire Strategies to Power Up Your Productivity and Performance. Book your complimentary Discovery Session by going to the Coach with Debra page on my website and send me your interest and we will set up a time and date to learn about how coaching can benefit you. Thank you for listening to The Millionaire Woman Show where we talk about leadership, business, and human potential to help you live rich from the inside out. Subscribe to The Millionaire Woman Show. Share it with Your Friends. Give us a 5-star rating!

EPISODE 121 – Embrace Your Challenges as Gifts

August 10, 2017 by Debra Kasowski Leave a Comment

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“When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny.” – Paulo Coelho

Have you ever thought how easy life would be if only we did not have challenges? According to the Cambridge Dictionary Online, a challenge is: (the situation of being faced with) something that needs great mental or physical effort in order to be done successfully and therefore tests a person’s ability. There is probably a challenge you are even facing today. There may be a strong possibility that you are trying to dodge or avoid the challenge. You may see the challenge as a pain so dodging it prevents suffering. Not all challenges result in pain but they often teach us lessons and expand the way you and I do things. There is no point in resisting it for whatever you resist tends to persist. Accept it and rise to the challenge.

Challenges stretch us and often make us uncomfortable because you need to change the way you show up. When you are first faced with a challenge, you may hesitate to evaluate the risks and rewards. You may be wondering, “What will I have to give up or stop doing to make this work?” You may hesitate because of your fears. The fear of failure, making a mistake, rejection, and even success. The fear of what others will say about you for making a choice, dressing a certain way, having opinions, or the way you speak. Don’t worry – everyone has an opinion so don’t take things personally. Their viewpoint is just that – the view of the world from their previous encounters and experiences. You do not have to do things that they do or they have done. Do you! Decide what you must do to face the challenge.

Sometimes a challenge is just what you needed to save you from getting stagnant or complacent. When life or your role gets too routine your brain does not get the stimulation it needs. Life becomes boring. You lose those creative juices that help you set yourself apart. Worry is not a useful emotion. Self-doubt robs the world of what you have to offer. Instead of being focused on self-doubt and worry which is a default to do and nothing but a waste of your energy. Channel your energy to believe in yourself and know you have what it takes to figure out the solution. Take stock of your knowledge, skills, and abilities. If you do not know something, you can always find a way. You must develop the “never give up” attitude to move through challenge.

Remember to embrace challenges as gifts. Challenges keep you relevant and relatable to others. Re-frame your challenge – what is the lesson you are meant to learn? How will this strengthen you? How can you take advantage of the challenge as an opportunity? Some people find comfort in sharing their challenges on and offline. Whereas, others tend to keep challenges private. What you need to know is that everyone faces challenges at one time or another. You do not hear about them. These challenges shape our character and often make us help us step into our potential to become a better version of ourselves. You may discover a new and improved way of doing things. Use your challenges to be of assistance to others in some way.

I remember one performance appraisal I had when I was a new manager years ago. My boss had suggested that I develop my “people management skills” which meant I needed to start having some difficult conversations. I was to avoid them. At the same time, I also knew that if I avoided dealing with a problem it may only get bigger. At first, I scripted out what I wanted to say even though the conversations did not always go as planned. I reminded myself – it was only a conversation. If I stick to the facts, emotions can settle. One conversation at a time, I got better. I am not nearly as nervous as I once was.

Tackle the Challenge as Early as You Can. No one wants to experience a challenge longer than necessary so brainstorm or make a list of the actions that need to be taken to push through to the other side. Remember you do not have to face a challenge alone. Talk to someone you trust or someone who has been through what you are going through to hear their experience. Sitting around and doing nothing does not get you ahead.

Discover and embrace your challenges as gifts or blessings. When you start to do this, your world with change. Push through your challenges – who you become in the process will inspire you.