Be a Better Leader by Reading Fiction with Melanie Bell

What is your Plan A?My Plan A was to go to college, get married, have 2 kids, and have a great career. I didn’t know that I would have post-partum anxiety and secondary infertility with my family and burnout on the path to career success. As the cliché goes, life can throw us curveballs, and it up to us how we handle these challenges and pivot to Plan B.Plan B is always seen as the back-up plan or the plan that isn’t as good as Plan A. As I get older and farther along in my life and career, I don’t think that’s true. Sometimes our Plan A wasn’t right for us anyway. Plan B, C, or D are just as good or even better than Plan A.My guest today, Jackie Cetera, and I talk about this very concept. When we are younger and just starting out, we have this vision for how things are going to go personally and professionally. We can’t anticipate the bumps or bruises along the way. Jackie’s story is an encouraging one of finding joy in the pivot to a different way or living and working.

I am so excited for my guest today, Amy Quesenberry. Amy and I met through Shelia Higgs Burkhalter and the Infuse Compassion into Companies Conference. When we met, Amy shared her Start with Compassion model, and I was blown away. If we start with compassion with ourselves, with one another, and within companies, it truly can drive better relationships, more productivity, higher satisfaction, happiness, and so much more.As a recovering perfectionist, starting with compassion is easy to understand and difficult to implement. If you struggle with perfectionism or wear a mask or leverage other armor like people pleasing to look or move through the world and work a certain way, this conversation is for you!I loved this conversation because Amy was vulnerable and so brave. Thank you, Amy, for being the amazing person you are!During the podcast, Amy and I chatted about:What led her to participate in the latest Brave Women at Work women’s anthology, Brave Women at Work: Lessons in Letting Go.Why her chapter is called, “No More Hiding” and what she hopes readers take away from her story.The story that led to the development of her model, Start with Compassion, and her company of the same name.What starting with compassion means to Amy, and why it is important.

On this weeks episode, Meghan Grace https://www.meghanmgrace.comhttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/genz/id1377915856https://www.amazon.com/Generation-Goes-College-Corey-Seemiller-ebook/dp/B019YNNZAA?ref_=ast_author_dphttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K52C97N/ref=mes-dp?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=TPIuC&content-id=amzn1.sym.8572ac08-6096-4eb6-b32e-2c759cc3eb5b&pf_rd_p=8572ac08-6096-4eb6-b32e-2c759cc3eb5b&pf_rd_r=45RW287DPDEC2QRG3ZMQ&pd_rd_wg=Z91Kx&pd_rd_r=91bbc826-603f-4a8b-945b-60d46c96d05fhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/meghanmgrace/

I am so excited for my conversation with my guest, Amanda Kenderes. Amanda has discovered something entirely new about communication that I am pumped to share with you.It’s called Talk Types.What if the way we talk and who we are as people are intrinsically linked? If we understand our talk type and others, we can understand how to better communicate with one another, and as a result, have better personal and professional relationships.During the podcast today, Amanda and I chatted about:Why we communicate to begin with; what are the goals of communication?What Talk Types are and the six different talk types that exist.How we discover our personal Talk Type.How we bridge the gap between Talk Types if we are on one of the Type and our spouse, partner, boss, friend, or colleague on the other. How we can leverage our talk types during a key presentation or negotiation.Here is more about Amanda:Amanda Kenderes is a professor of interdisciplinary studies at Humphreys University. She holds a Ph.D. in Social Science and Comparative Education from the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. She grew up in North and South America, Asia, Africa, and Europe.If the Brave Women at Work Podcast has helped you personally or professionally, please be share it with a friend, colleague, or family member. And your ratings and reviews help the show continue to gain traction and grow. Thank you again!Also, if you haven’t yet downloaded my freebies from my website, check them out at www.bravewomenatwork.com.

When we grow up, we think we have it all figured out, don’t we? We believe we should go to college, get a good job, find our perfect partner, be fit, have a good circle of friends, maybe have kids, etc. All before the age of 35. We have these insane expectations for ourselves and what our lives will be.And then, we learn. Maybe the job or career path we originally selected isn’t right for us. Maybe we find ourselves without a partner or kids. Maybe life faced us with health challenges. Whatever it is, life tests our ability to pivot and reinvent ourselves into something new. It’s like the Japanese art of Kintsugi. With Kintsugi, Japanese artists take broken pieces of pottery and carefully pour gold into the cracks to put it all back together. So, the bowls that were once broken are now even more beautiful than before. Look it up. Kintsugi is so beautiful even though it is technically broken. It has been made new.During my conversation with my guest today, Nicole Meline, I was reminded about the power of reinvention.

Have you ever thought about the concept of baggage at work? I have a dear friend, Pam, that always tells me “Wherever you go, there you are.” If you don’t do the lessons, you bring everything with you from job to job or company to company. You bring your habits, patterns, and mental and emotional baggage.The question that my guest, Tamara McLemore, and I chat about today is how can we release this baggage so we can take control of our careers?During my conversation with Tamara, we chatted about:How did Tamara become an accidental project managerWhat is Tamara’s definition of corporate baggage?How can we drop our corporate baggage?How do we let go of roles that don’t serve us such as “office mom”?What is Tamara’s Project Management Certification and work with women all about?Here is more about Tamara:Tamara McLemore is the “Accidental Project Manager.” She has over 20 years of experience in tech, wireless, software application and infrastructure project management for the United States Federal Government, Airline & Travel, Banking & Mortgage, and Raw Material Industries leading and advising programs and projects upwards $150M in budget.And guess what? Tamara has a degree in Journalism. She was able to learn and master the art of Planning, Execution, Implementation and Risk Management. I’ve been working with amazing companies and individuals identifying that innate Project Management Strength and developing those talents into high-performance individuals that equate to high performing organizations.If the Brave Women at Work Podcast has helped you personally or professionally, please be share it with a friend, colleague, or family member. And your ratings and reviews help the show continue to gain traction and grow. Thank you again!Also, if you haven’t yet downloaded my freebies from my website, check them out at www.bravewomenatwork.com.

My guest today, Tonya Herb, is welcoming me and anyone else that struggles with this, to try a new way. What if we turned to others and delegated during stressful times, and really all the time? I know, monumental for perfectionists like me. What if we engaged in kindness towards ourselves? Tonya dives into her proprietary BIKE method and how she leverages that with the work she does with her clients. During my conversation with Tonya, we chatted about:Tonya’s walk with perfectionism and how and when she pivotedHow delegation can assist us with perfectionistic tendencies, and if we struggle with delegation, where we startThe fun story behind the BIKE acronymWhat the BIKE Method is and how Tonya uses it in the work she does todayHere is more about Tonya:Tonya Herb once navigated the corporate maze, then became completely obsessed with the “Lead From Where You Are” philosophy and flipped the script from corporate climber to your go-to biz bestie.Hard-knock lessons, relentless self-development, and unwavering resilience fueled Tonya’s journey from corporate to entrepreneur and she could not be more excited to help you discover what fuels her clients!Tonya has lived the overworked and overwhelmed, and she’s here to tell you the truth about why you might be stuck. Together, she works with her clients to break through those barriers with an out-of-the-box approach that will leave them feeling empowered and ready to pedal through at full speed! Today, Tonya wears many hats – leadership coach, keynote speaker, devoted wife, proud mama, paddle-board enthusiast, Grams, and she loves every minute of it! Tonya is not just here to guide, she’s here to be a mentor, coach, and her clients’ biggest fan, teaching the art of “Leading you First” in true Tonya Kay style. It’s all about her clients! Their journeys to being undeniably, and unapologetically themselves, beginning right here, right now.If the Brave Women at Work Podcast has helped you personally or professionally, please be share it with a friend, colleague, or family member. And your ratings and reviews help the show continue to gain traction and grow. Thank you again!Also, if you haven’t yet downloaded my freebies from my website, check them out at www.bravewomenatwork.com. I have created three for you:24 career and leadership affirmations, (2) 5 Ways to Manage Your Imposter Syndrome, and (3) most popular, Getting Paid: 10 Negotiation Tips.They are workbook style guides, so you can complete them on your own time. One other very exciting announcement! Our keynote speaker at Thrive in’25 Women’s Conference is Erin Gallagher. Erin is the CEO and founder of Ella, an inclusive network expanding women’s access to human, social, and financial capital, and the Founder of the Hype Women Movement and Podcast.With 20 years of experience in global marketing, business development, organization and and culture change, she is a small business owner, entrepreneur, and mother of two.Erin was named a 2023 Top 100 LinkedIn Creator, Top 10 DEI Voice (#5), and recognized for the Top 100 Most Influential LinkedIn Posts of the Decade.Her book Hype Women: Breaking Free from Mean Girls, Patriarch and Systems Silencing is out in the world this Fall.I am asking all of you to invest in yourself this year and attend the Thrive in ’25 Conference from June 25th-28th in Chicagoland. This conference is a 12-month experience that includes 3-days of the conference, 6+ months of coaching with yours truly in the Brave Circle, a 12-month membership in HerCsuite, a powerful women’s networking platform, and a 12-month membership to Innovation Women, a female led speakers bureau. I don’t know about you, but I have never been to a conference that pours that much into each attendee. Typically, it’s a 2–3-day conference and you’re thrown back into your life. Not Thrive in ’25. We want to walk alongside you to incorporate your learnings from the conference personally and professionally.

Here’s a fact: For many years, I didn’t know that our money mindset has a direct relationship with how powerful we feel and how we move through our professional and personal lives.I didn’t get the connection, and I have been in financial services for over 25 years. After I dove into all things on leadership, self-improvement, and energetic management, I learned that there is a positive correlation between our money, speaking up, and the energy associated with feeling powerful as a woman. If we feel good about our money, we will speak up more. We will feel more confident. We will make powerful choices. We will be braver at work and at home.My guest today, Aja Evans, is the first financial therapist I have interviewed. I have interviewed financial coaches before, but not financial therapists. After learning more about Aja’s important work, I was excited to dive into this discussion!During my conversation with Aja, we chatted about:The story behind Aja’s financial awakeningWhat financial therapy is and how it is different than financial coachingWhat the thoughts, feelings, and attitudes are behind someone who may need a financial awakening of their ownWhat is the story behind people that are trying to keep up with the Joneses? What about money hoarders? What is the story there?Her book, Feel Good Finance: Untangle Your Relationship with Money for Better Mental, Emotional, and Financial Well-Being.Aja provides an overview of her freebie to Your Guide to Getting Financially Naked

Where are my readers? Or what about aspiring readers? If you are a reader, this show is for you! When I was introduced to Melanie Bell and her work with Leaders Who Fiction, I knew she had to be on Brave Women at Work.I am a non-fiction reader and often struggle with getting into a fiction book. When I heard Melanie talk about the benefits of fiction, I knew I had to give it another try. In addition, according to an article in Inc, “How Reading Fiction Can Make You a Better Leader,” “There’s a growing body of research that suggests that getting lost in well-written stories actually can actually make you better leader. Fiction works as an empathy workout, these studies find, helping bosses better understand diverse viewpoints and boosting their EQ.”During my conversation with Melanie, we chatted about:Why Melanie started Leaders Who Fiction?What is the research about exercising different parts of our brain while reading fiction and leadership?What are the benefits of reading fiction on our work performance?What are some of Melanie’s favorite fiction reads?How you can join Leaders Who Fiction, a free online book club!Here is more about Melanie:After completing a degree in International Development from McGill University in Montreal, Melanie’s earlier career included marketing positions at Waste Management and Ecom Access, a marketing software startup.​Returning to Houston to earn her MBA from Rice University, she then became Director of Marketing for the SURGE Accelerator​/SURGE Ventures).​In 2014, she decided to pursue her own entrepreneurial vision, founding Marketing Interface to help growth-stage companies achieve their business goals by reaching their target market, converting potential customers into paying customers, maintaining these relationships, and measuring the results of their marketing initiatives using technology.​In 2019, she merged Marketing Interface with her husband Matt’s consulting practice to create Strategic Piece. She is an active reader and writer, and founded Leaders Who Fiction, an online book club that helps leaders exercise a different part of their brain, learning relevant skills by reading and discussing works of fiction.​She is also an active mentor at Rice University’s entrepreneurship programs.If the Brave Women at Work Podcast has helped you personally or professionally, please be share it with a friend, colleague, or family member. And your ratings and reviews help the show continue to gain traction and grow. Thank you again!Also, if you haven’t yet downloaded my freebies from my website, check them out at www.bravewomenatwork.com.

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” —Martin Luther King Jr.If the term Brave Women at Work were in the dictionary, (why isn’t it? LOL), Robyn Malone would be part of the definition. I met Robyn through a dear friend and colleague, and we hit it off pretty quickly. As you will learn during our show today, Robyn has done some scary things, including:Following her heart and leaving her established community in New York City to be with her now husband in Chicago.Re-establishing her entire personal and professional community after the move while maintaining her community in New York.Recognizing that even though she didn’t plan on being an entrepreneur, a business was building itself around here, so she took note and build a thriving boutique PR agency.Not being afraid to be a truthteller in her industry because she has decided to stick to her values.And more!Robyn was a like a jolt of motivation to my system and a beautiful reminder that we can do things that scare us. I’m now wondering how I’m going to stretch myself next! Anyone want to go with me to Bali? Just kidding. Well, maybe not.Here is more about Robyn:Robyn Malone is the EO & Chief Partner Officer of RJ Communications, a boutique health, tech, and wellness PR agency. Robyn's communications career includes experience across various sectors, industries, therapeutic areas, and brands. Her passion for health, however, led her to focus on work that has the potential to impact lives. A storyteller at heart, Robyn spent her career in healthcare PR and communications, launching familiar healthcare brands and partnering with global powerhouses like Pfizer and P&G. Robyn has worked extensively in corporate and brand communications in the consumer health and pharmaceutical sectors – often managing large, multinational, and multi-regional teams to develop and execute successful campaigns that deliver tangible business results. These include "You Don't Know Jack About MS," – a public awareness campaign featuring newly diagnosed MS patient Jack Osbourne, and "Relieve My Fever," – a children's contest featuring Angie Harmon to re-launch Pfizer's Children's Advil. The integrated, communications-led effort garnered more than 135 million media impressions in top-tier print and broadcast media, including Fox & Friends, The Rachael Ray Show, Parade, and People. Today, RJ Communications works with a range of clients ranging from tech startups to large, well-established multinational companies, using our experience in all things health to tell health stories and grow healthy brands. A native NYer turned Chicagoan, Robyn marries heart, head, and humanity to tell the stories that compel people to action.​If the Brave Women at Work Podcast has helped you personally or professionally, please be share it with a friend, colleague, or family member. And your ratings and reviews help the show continue to gain traction and grow. Thank you again!Also, if you haven’t yet downloaded my freebies from my website, check them out at www.bravewomenatwork.com.