Overcoming Distractions

What makes a great place to work? We are going to find out this week with our guest Mari Ryan. Mari is the founder and CEO of Advancing Wellness and the author of The Thriving Hive; How People-Centric Workplaces Ignite Engagement and Fuel Results.

Advancing Wellness is a workplace wellness consultancy based just outside of Boston. Mari and her team help build cultures of wellbeing in organizations.

We talk about what makes a company a great place to work and how an organization can build that culture of wellbeing so everyone can thrive. Even those of us who are prone to distractions.

Some of our conversation points include.

• What makes a great place to work?
• What are the items people should keep in mind when looking for a great place to work?
• What contributes to a culture of well being?
• Is work-life balance a fad, a real issue or something that many need and want?
• Does the corporate world understand the importance of work-life balance?
• Distractions- What should a person that could be prone to distractions look for in a workplace? Even in the interview.
• And, how does a person with other gifts or abilities find the right work environment? What’s the best way to work with management, your boss? Etc…
• Mari talks about her book and why she wrote it the way she did in story form.

Learn more about Mari Ryan and Advancing Wellness Here: http://www.advwellness.com/

Find Mari’s book here; https://www.amazon.com/Thriving-Hive-People-Centric-Workplaces-Engagement-ebook/dp/B07H3879LT/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1537111671&sr=8-1&keywords=the+thriving+hive

This week we have a great chat with Sarah Reiff-Hekking, Ph.D, and Founder of True Focus Coaching, Inc. based just outside of Boston. Sarah works with professionals at all levels to help them overcome procrastination and overwhelm and prioritize all the important tasks in their life.

If you are professional in the business world then you have no doubt experienced, overwhelm, distractions and have even procrastinated on various tasks. Sarah walks us through how to overcome various distractions in our business life and gives us actionable tips on how to be more productive.

Our conversation:

• How Sarah worked on her own struggles with procrastination and overwhelm.
• We talk about why procrastination is such a big issue with those in business
• Sarah walks us through the four issues we struggle with when it comes to time management
• Sarah’s three core philosophies when it comes to time management
• Fives step to busting through our own procrastination and overwhelm.
• The power of positive self-talk but understanding it is not the only solution

Sarah runs coaching programs as well as time management boot camps. Learn more about Sarah Reiff-Hekking here; https://www.truefocuscoaching.com/

Find Sarah’s eBook, 5 Steps to Bust Through Procrastination & Overwhelm at www.Truefocustips.com

In this episode we talk about kindness and we touch upon the related item of respect. We discuss why kindness matters in life, your business world and more importantly, kindness to yourself.

This week’s guest is Tara Cousineau, PhD and author of the book The Kindness Cure; How the Science of Compassion Can Heal Your Heart and Your World. Tara is a clinical psychologist a meditation teacher and is connected with Harvard University.

In her book she talks about the many subjects related to kindness including, stress, compassion, emotions and gratitude.

On the podcast we discuss

• The definition of kindness
• In 2019, is kindness is lacking in our society?
• She explains why kindness takes effort.
• What does stress have to do with kindness or lack of kindness?
• How do we be kind to ourselves? Despite our past experiences, etc…
• Is kindness being embraced in business culture?  
• The benefits of meditation both personally and in the business world.

You can find out more about Tara and her work at: https://www.taracousineau.com/

Her book The Kindness Cure can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/Kindness-Cure-Science-Compassion-Heart/dp/1626259690/

The Ted talk she refers to in our discussion with Rick Hanson can be found here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpuDyGgIeh0

The practice of marketing and public relations in a business has fundamentally changed in the past decade. When social media came into our landscape and began to take shape, it changed the way we did business on a number of levels. Those in business were left scrambling to make the best use of these new platforms. And that continues today as the rules keep changing.

In this podcast, we chat with Louis Gudema, author of the book, Bullseye Marketing. Louis helps us understanding the marketing trends in 2019 and beyond. We talk about how public relations and marketing has changed, what has stayed the same and how those in business can continue to create valuable and effective marketing and PR plans without letting is distract us into frustration.

Some points we discuss are:

• Has marketing always been a somewhat confusing part of an organization?
• Does Louis feel that marketing and PR frustrates certain people? Even marketers…
• How has marketing changed over the past decade?
• What are companies doing wrong in this digital age or marketing and PR?
• Have marketing, PR and advertising become just the same thing in this digital world?
• How do we begin to make our marketing less of a distraction and bring in more ROI?

And we have Louis Gudema’s top tips for getting an organization of any size on the right track in their marketing and PR.

You can find out more about Louis Gudema at: http://revenueassociates.biz/

And find the book Bullseye Marketing here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/173220361X

When the message in your business is complicated, it causes many distractions as well as many other barriers to running a successful and growing company. From the front line, speaking with your potential customers all the way to the top to understand why your company does what it does, a lack of clarity and simplicity can make it difficult to convey what you do and why you do it.

This episode we chat with Stephen Melanson of Melanson Consulting based just outside of Boston. Stephen’s firm specializes in verbal branding and simplicity. He helps companies of all sizes get clear on a simple but effective message to help drive sales and revenue and provide a framework for that business. And in the end, help to differentiate your business from others in the market.

Here are some of our discussion points and takeaways;

• What do companies get wrong in this area of messaging?
• Why does a mixed message cause distractions in a business?
• How does complicating matters around message, hurt a business? Internal, external?
• For the busy and distracted entrepreneur or person in business, why is this even more important? Or for that matter, an entire organization that’s distracted, unfocused.
• When everyone is aligned in an organization, what happens?
• Is the elevator speech still a thing?
• How does a busy company or small business begin the process of simplifying their message?

• Stephen’s top tips for implementing solid verbal branding and simplicity in a business of any size.

You can find out more about Melanson Consulting here:

http://www.melansonconsulting.com/

This week we chat with the high-energy Master Paul Melella. Paul is a 6^th degree black belt in Taekwondo and runs a very successful martial arts business in New York. Paul is also a partner in the firm Empowered Mastery where he coaches high-performing individuals to take their career and business to new levels.

Paul talks about what is needed to gain and maintain some mental toughness in the business world. There are so many ups and downs as well as emotions when it comes to being in business or being in a career that has high demands. Paul walks us through what it takes to navigate the rough waters of business.

Some of the things we discuss are:

• Defining mental toughness in business
• Why is it important to have a little bit of toughness when you are in the business world?
• What from the martial arts can someone bring into their business?
• For someone that might be prone to distractions or unfocused, how does Paul work with them?
• How do we work through frustrations, such as being in sales, building a business? Meeting goals?
• Do things like fear and confidence tend to chip away at someone’s ability to hang tough in business?
• Paul’s top tips for mental toughness in the business world

You can find out more about Paul and Empowered Mastery at: www.EmpoweredMastery.com

What happens when the distracted child or youth becomes an adult? All kinds of things. And it’s the topic of many discussions of those who have children working their way through school and beyond. Between emotions, changing interests, demands from school and others, those who may be prone to distractions, including people with ADHD can struggle at first before they find their way.

With the proper strategies in place, routines and some self-awareness, a young adult with ADHD can thrive, become a responsible happy adult and make great things happen in their life.

Our guest this week is Brendan Mahan of ADHD Essentials. Brendan is an ADHD coach in Massachusetts and works with children, young adults, adults with ADHD and entire families.

Some of the topic we cover include:

• How is ADHD different in adults than children. What are the more significant challenges in each?
• As a young adult gets older, what types of challenges do you try to address?
• Are there common issues that arise as a child enters adulthood? Opposition, defiance, or on the flipside, motivation and energy?
• Does this time of change present anger, sadness, frustration? Etc…
• How can a person be more self-aware?
• How can those around them offer support?
• Tools to be more focused.

You can find Brendan at www.ADHDEssentials.com