ImpartnerCon 24

I coined the hashtag as it's near and dear to my heart for leaders to support their often small but mighty channel teams (even within multinational organizations). Feel free to follow, share, and show your commitment as well. (Learn more.)

Is that you are able—from me or from someone else, at some point in your life and ideally without a diagnosis—to hear the messages that it’s ok to receive help; you don’t have to be perfect; you have a right to design your life and success as you see fit; life’s too short to be inauthentic, prideful, or ashamed; and this whole thing is just practice, so treat yourself with spaciousness and gentleness as you forget, remember, fall down, pick yourself up—and to extend that to others as they do too. 

I know that having a clear strategic vision is critical for professional success, and that’s why I’m always excited to help clients uncover their career passions and get closer to reaching their long-term goals.

The trouble is, when managers or individual contributors are doing things that don’t make sense, are doing the jobs of multiple people, do not have resources to delegate to, have internal or emotional barriers to delegating, or do not have the spaciousness in their schedules or enough creative energy to spark strategic thinking, they are not able to define their vision and develop a plan to execute it.

I want to see our clients be successful, get promoted (and be less stressed), so our agency seeks to amp up clients' strategic thinking by (1) taking non-essentials off their plates and helping them achieve more with content services, (2) creating space and actionable plans with our Strategy Day offer, (3) collaborating to plan for their professional success with a Creative Partnering™ Engagement.

Some of the most successful people I know have a network of people and resources to support them at their fingertips. They’ve cultivated relationships and amassed knowledge about who can do what the best.  Since knowing who can help you in advance of a fire drill or thorny problem is key, I invite you to be proactive and schedule a “capabilities call” with us. It’s a 30-minute overview of the kind of support we provide to channel leaders so that if you encounter particular challenges, you’ll know just where to turn. To learn about who we are and to discover our approach, visit our About page.

Too often before cancer, I spent a lot of time judging myself, comparing myself, trying to be perfect and fix all my imperfections, not appreciating my strengths and unique gifts, and the list goes on. One of the lessons of my diagnosis and recovery was to practice giving myself the space to be myself and to own my quirks, permission to make mistakes, and to treat myself more like a best friend than an enemy. Do I still fall down on this? Yes. That’s why the word “practice” is key. See also “On Being a Poster Child” below.

This is such a huge topic and I can only scratch the surface. Also, I’m still learning. In short, I think it’s important to explore cancer’s root causes (e.g., environmental factors), issues with pinkwashing and the business of cancer, and the social injustices with respect to prevention. The invitation is to expand awareness beyond what you’ve been told to be aware of. 

One of my core messages is that even as I advocate for certain things, I’m not always a perfect example or the most knowledgeable person there is AND I don’t believe that anyone has to wait until they know everything or strive to be perfect before opening their mouths. We have to tell our stories even as we’re figuring out what our stories are. The strength of my beliefs and ability to act on them ebbs and flows. I have to course-correct sometimes. And that’s OK. I hope you will give yourself spaciousness and gentleness (see above) if/when you do the same.

I am especially interested in leaders and companies who want to recognize men as allies for women.

I’ve always been enthusiastic about helping women advance their careers, start their own businesses, and gain access to more leadership opportunities. When women support each other, we help advance the world for the next generation of girls, and we get to experience work through the spirit of collaboration and togetherness. This is the world I want to live in, and it’s the world I get excited to create!

I say this all the time. Nothing, (and I really mean nothing) is created alone. As a woman who helps other women in leadership roles, I know that many of us have had to learn to delegate. And even if you’ve become an expert delegator over the years, life may still take us out of our genius zones sometimes. After all, we’re only human.

It’s also human to feel pressured by the volume of things we could be doing, and it’s so easy to get caught up in the little details of life. Believe me, I know because I’ve been there! Because of this, I realize it’s necessary to focus on what brings us joy and energy, and delegate the rest to others who have complementary skills. We deserve to stay in alignment with our visions and passions, so that we can work from a place of fulfillment and excitement.