3 Ways to Open Your Vision

Estimated read time: 2 minutes.

Outside existing structures in Casper, WY

My family and I are on the proverbial American road trip out West – Mt. Rushmore, ranches, vast open spaces of deer, wind and sage brush.

Believe it or not, even out here, I'm thinking of you.

Two things this family likes when traveling are good meals and lots of homemade treats. Thanks to Yelp and Trip Advisor, we have sampled every cupcake, kolache, and ice-cream flavor in the west.

The 4th of July (independence day in the USA) found us in Casper, WY and none of our Yelped options were open. We called place after place, and all were closed (insert frowny face).

We took matters into our own old-fashioned hands by driving into downtown Casper to seek our culinary fortune. We stumbled into Ming House Chinese restaurant which did not appear in any of our internet searches. Inside, we were greeted by the sweetest old man on the planet who spent two hours personally cooking our food while we played Uno. It was a magical evening.

This experience got me thinking about vision and the way the structures around you (and me) conspire to limit the possibilities you think you have.

Internet searches have you believe that the options listed are the only or the best choices. Structures at the office lead you to believe that solutions must fit into a limited range of possibilities. Perceived circumstances in your life and career can keep you in a holding pattern of sameness.

So what do you do about it?

1. Be aware. Start to notice when your possibilities are being determined for you by the limitations of technology, someone else's perspective, or perceived constraints.
2. Open your vision. Look for the options that are outside those structures. You might need to develop new ways of seeing what's possible to even start to see expanded possibilities.
3. Head off the beaten path. Metaphorically drive into downtown to find the restaurants that aren't on Yelp. Try the thing that no one is seeing. Test new options and see what happens.

And you know that I love to hear from you so when you find that expanded possibility, I'd love to hear about it.

Warmly,

Christina

P.S. If you know someone who would like to receive this newsletter, they can sign-up for The Corporate Rebel Video Podcast and Newsletter HERE.

Who are your people?

Estimated read time: 1 min, 15 seconds

The movers put my sense of humor in here somewhere. Do you see it?

I've been thinking of you all week.

My family and I moved on Monday into our "being renovated" 100-year-old house. There are boundless lessons in the dust, the pile of furniture, and the fact that we have no working toilet. Don't ask.

Gratitude got me through a complete panic on Monday night. Letting go will help me live in the chaos that will be our lives for a few months. Then there's the no toilet thing. Oh, the lessons that are here for you.

There's one lesson, though, that kept coming back all week.

Throughout this entire transition, our people have shown up to bring food, help with cleaning, take our children, and offer moral support. When one of the movers handed me a sandwich, I almost cried. When our painters said they could come on Tuesday, I did cry. I've gotten some great ideas for kindness and generosity from our people.

Who are your people? The ones who will drop everything to clean walls. The ones who will give you late-night feedback on an important presentation. The ones who will walk around the block with you when you are angry or disappointed or sad. The ones who will offer you a sandwich in the moment you share together.

Your world is full, and it can be easy to head straight for your computer in the morning. Instead, find a moment or two each day to nurture your people, to show them some love, even the people you will only know for a few days or a few minutes.

We are not meant to do this life thing alone. And you never know when you might need to use their toilet.

With so much gratitude and love this week.

Christina

P.S. If you know someone who would like to receive this newsletter, they can sign-up for The Corporate Rebel Video Podcast and Newsletter HERE.

You are not fooling anyone!

Estimated read time: 1:16.27 minutes

No cubes, real or imagined, were harmed for the creation of this newsletter.

Meet Carole.*

*Carole's story is told with permission. In Carole's words, "Sure! I’m flattered."

When Carole walked into the conference room for the women's leadership program I was facilitating, she wore a tight bun, a polo shirt and what can only be described in 1950s terms as "slacks."

She was buttoned up.

As we spent time talking about the program topics like navigating politics and developing a business persona, I started to notice subtle things about Carole, like a pair of Saturn earrings or the cape she quickly removed when she walked in from the cold.

In our third session, we did a feedback exercise where the group shared what they wanted to see more of in each other. The other women wrote things on Carole's board like, "I wonder what it would be like if you wore your hair down and let your creativity fly?" After reading the feedback, Carole told the group in a stricken voice, "It's clear that I'm not fooling anyone."

In our next session, Carole said she realized how much she had sacrificed to fit some made-up image of a successful corporate professional. She decided to embrace her creative, rebelicious self, and let her masses of curly hair down, literally and figuratively. She started wearing the loose, creative clothes she loves and donned her giant jewelry, too. And she was right, her gorgeous hair looks just like Hermione from Harry Potter.

Carole liberated herself from the sense that she had to be a certain way to be successful in corporate environment.

Here's what she wrote in an email a few weeks later:

"I also decorated my cube with some colored fabric and art to express my personality, and have gotten a lot of positive feedback on being more authentic in both my décor and my appearance. I’m definitely getting a more positive vibe from people, and I’m more relaxed and open myself, too."

You are not fooling anyone, either.

Here's a challenge for you: Where will you let your hair down, literally or metaphorically, to be who you truly are - at the office and at home?

I hope Carole's story inspires you as much as it did me.

Love to all of you!

Christina

P.S. If you know someone who would like to receive this newsletter, they can sign-up for The Corporate Rebel Video Podcast and Newsletter HERE.

Sadness is part of your soul, test

Estimated read time: 1 minute, 57 seconds.

From the vigil in Orlando

The Corporate Rebel Series launched with an amazing recorded interview with Ann Betz about brain integration and success at work.

People asked me all day if I was excited for the launch. The answer was no.

Don't get me wrong. I love the series. Ann's interview is spunky and smart. I could muster some excitement, turn to friends for pep talks, present an excited face to the world, and I choose not to do any of those things.

I am profoundly sad about everything that has happened and continues to happen in the world. Rather than numb or deny my sadness, I want to honor it.

Shit happens to all of us. We face job losses, health scares, death, or terrible tragedies (like Sandyhook or Orlando). Even the monotony of working a soulless job can make us sad.

I struggled this week with whether to even refer to Orlando, and then I realized, that each of us has a responsibility to use our platform - whether it's a kitchen table, a board room, our FB page or a stage - to take a stand for love and peace: at work, on the street, at home, and in the public discourse.

We need our sadness. It's what connects us to each other and our own souls. Our emotions make us human. Staying connected to our dark emotions like sadness is part of the "without sacrificing your soul" part of being a Corporate Rebel.

Here are a few thoughts from this sad place:

1. Sadness is a natural human response when something is wrong. It's a sign that you are sensitive to the world around you and that you're paying attention. Be glad for that.
2. Sadness opens your heart. When you experience the full range of your emotions, you know you're alive.
3. Your sadness creates compassion for others: a customer who needs your help, a colleague who is struggling, a friend. Reach out.
4. Your sadness creates connection. People crave connection. (In fact, connection is one of the #1 factors that creates happiness at work.) When you share your vulnerabilities with others, the result is amazing.
5. Sadness leads to action. To give money. To write letters. To advocate for change in your workplace or community. To support those directly effected by tragedy and loss.

Own your little part of the universe. Love is bigger than hate. And it is our responsibility to live love every day in our souls and our actions.

Warmly,

Christina

P.S. If you know someone who would like to receive this newsletter, they can sign-up for The Corporate Rebel Video Podcast and Newsletter HERE.

What to do when what you really want is a nap.

Estimated read time: 2 minutes.

Here's one of my favorite images from the interviews. This one will be live in July. Don't we look like we're having fun?!

We've established that I have busted my butt for the last three months producing the amazing Corporate Rebel Series.

What I really wanted this afternoon was a nap. I didn't have it in me to do one more thing.

What I needed to do was conduct another interview and write this newsletter. To say that I didn't feel like it would be an understatement.

This got me thinking about you and all the times you don't feel like (fill in the blank).

Another story: When I was in a leadership program a few years ago we had to do all these terrifying things high in the trees, where we could, like, fall and die.

One of them was this balance beam that felt like it was 6 stories tall. We had to get from one tree to the other by walking the balance beam. As I was scooching across, legs shaking, stomach hurting, doing everything I could not to look at the ground (oh so far down there), our leader yelled out, "This is what commitment looks like!" My first thought was, "Nah. I'm a mess." Then I got it. That moment has stuck with me ever since.

Commitment is not pretty. It's not certainty. Commitment does not require you to feellike it. Commitment requires you to show up even when you don't feel like it.

Commitment requires you to focus on your purpose, your bigger reason for being. For me that means remembering the people in offices who are wondering if they are crazy... who crave the freedom to be themselves while still succeeding at work.

So I put on my mascara, conducted an awesome interview with an expert on executive presence and sat down to write this newsletter. This work matters. Yourwork matters. Let the mattering carry you forward even when you don't feel like it.

Christina

P.S. If you know someone who would like to receive this newsletter, they can sign-up for The Corporate Rebel Video Podcast and Newsletter HERE.

A humbling look behind the scenes!

Estimated read time: 2 minutes

The official production studio for the Corporate Rebel Series (note the requisite Nerf blasters and penguin audience)

The Corporate Rebel Series is finally on its way! Alleluia, praise baby Buddha, thank you, universe!

The truth is I feel so vulnerable having this series out there that I can hardly breathe.

Today, I want to pull back the curtain to show you what it's been like on the inside so you can see that:

1. I struggle with the same things you do.
2. You can see what's possible when you face your fear, make a commitment to something big, and keep moving.

Sound like a plan?

First, the Corporate Rebel Series required me to face my fears.

In order to create this series, I had reach out to people I didn't know and ask them to be part of it. (Even for an extrovert like me, this was terrifying.)

I spent 2 weeks hitting send on email after email (139 to be exact). There were people who seemed so big and so important, I couldn't bring myself to contact them. With the encouragement of my friends, I finally did. Many of them said yes! (Amazing people like Ann Betz, Dr. Ron Friedman, and Henry Kimsey-House are part of the series.)

After 39 emails and 5 live conversations, the next hundred got easier.

Second, this project has required me to stretch beyond what I thought I was capable of.

I had to figure out ethernet, learn to edit videos, conquer YouTube, and handle Skype glitches. (I'm no tech wizard.) I had to stay focused so my children continued to get to school and our dog got walked. I even managed one tea date with a friend and talked to my husband on occasion.

Then there was the &%#@$* opt-in video (the one on the sign up page. You can see it here). I've never done anything with video and certainly, nothing that was going to be public. I recorded about 100 takes, took the feedback from my coach, and did 100 more.

And then as soon as the #$&%*$ video was live, one of my best friends called to say it "sucked." After wondering for an hour if I should get a new best friend, my BFF and I re-recorded the video and now it feels like me.

Know what I discovered? I can handle the technology. I can put a video into the world. I can plunk a huge project into an already full life and still keep the wheels mostly on the bus.

Third, working on this series has forced me to let go of any illusion of perfection.

There are a couple of glitchy interviews. A broken link in an email? Yep, have that. Hair sticking out - got it. Dog whining at the door during an interview? Yes, that, too. Sucky opt-in video? Check!

Action over perfection is the mantra that got me through. (Feel free to steal that one.)

Fourth, I had to face rejection.

People declined to participate. I survived.

Fifth, the Corporate Rebel Series has reinforced that the world is a good place, people are generous, and all you have to do is ask.

Putting together this series has been like a giant scavenger hunt. Even the most famous experts, the ones I was afraid to contact, are lovely, normal people. They are thrilled to help and to be part of something that supports our mutual mission to make the world of work better for the people who go there everyday.

I have been surrounded by guardian angels who share their feedback honestly and love me enough to tell me the truth.

Their generosity has been inspiring.

The Corporate Rebel Series has grown legs. With each speaker, an ecosystem has developed of people who care deeply about the work we do and how we can bring heart and sanity to our workplaces. Now, the series is running on its own and the audience is gathering.

A number of people have asked me where this is headed. The truth is, I have no idea. At this point, I'm along for the ride and having a blast.

And I'm ready for a few more tea dates.

Christina

P.S. If you know someone who would like to receive this newsletter, they can sign-up for The Corporate Rebel Video Podcast and Newsletter HERE.

Ever feel like a fraud? 6 Life Hacks to Handle Imposter Syndrome

Estimated read time: 2 minutes, 6 seconds.

Yup. This is what the Imposter Syndrome feels like.

Let's cut right to the chase today. Do you ever feel like a fraud?

See if this feels familiar:

You’re leading a meeting and a voice in your head tells you this is the moment when everyone will find out that you have no idea what you’re talking about.

You get a new job and worry that everyone will now see that you are not qualified and have no idea what you are doing.

You are thinking of starting a blog or a community garden or a new initiative at your children's school and you stop yourself because who are you to do such a thing.

Yeah – I relate. I feel like a fraud when I write this newsletter (I don't have anything new to say). I sometimes feel like I have no idea what I'm doing when I coach and this is the moment when my clients will discover that I cannot help them. Ugh. I hate these feelings.

This condition is so common that it has a name. It’s called the Imposter Syndrome.

Oprah Winfrey sometimes feels like a fraud. Even the most successful VP at your company cycles through feeling like an imposter (I know this because I coach them). It’s human to feel this way.

So, what do you do about Imposter Syndrome? Here are 6 life hacks that will help you through those moments when you know the game is up!

1. Remind yourself that it will pass. And that it will come back. And pass. And come back again.
2. Make fun of it! "Check it out. The jig is totally up this time." Laugh at yourself with humble recognition.
3. Tell someone. Bringing stuff like this into the light of day causes it to vaporize like the vampire that it is.
4. Keep a file of kudos and nice things people have said to you. Save every grateful email, every thank you card. Then pull them out to remind yourself that you and your gifts matter. To lots of people.
5. We need you! Stopping yourself from starting something new because you feel like an imposter denies the rest of us of your gifts. So get going already - even if you know you're not ready. You will never be ready.
6. Take action. Nothing proves your worth to yourself and quiets those soul sucking voices like actually doing something.

I hope this helps!

Christina

P.S. If you know someone who would like to receive this newsletter, they can sign-up for The Corporate Rebel Video Podcast and Newsletter HERE. P.P.S. I've been working on something big and cycling through Imposter Syndrome on a regular basis. In a few weeks you'll get to see it, and you can confirm that I really have no idea what I'm doing.