On today’s show, we discuss getting unstuck and out of your own way.

Theresa Lear Levine’s personal struggles with trauma, high-functioning anxiety, and ADHD kept her in a holding pattern of dissatisfaction and stress for longer than she likes to admit. Eventually, it led to exhaustion, insomnia, and major difficulty being present in her own life. All those negative feelings melted away when she cracked the code to her nervous system, taking responsibility for her own well-being, and elevating her consciousness in ways that truly restored her feelings of calm, clarity, and confidence. 

Theresa is an EFT Master Practitioner, Law of Attraction coach, and Energy Strategist. She’s the founder of Becoming More Me where she helps professional women to get out of their own way and resolve their innermost pains, traumas, and challenges so they can fully enjoy their success and present moments. 

Using scientifically proven methods to release resistance and leverage perceived weaknesses into superpowers, her clients overcome limiting beliefs and thought patterns, resolve fears, and navigate major work and life challenges with ease. 

Theresa is the host of the Becoming More Me Podcast and lives near Washington, DC with her husband, Jeff, and their 4 boys as well as their 2 yellow labs. 

Key Takeaways:

What is EFT?

Emotional Freedom Techniques regulate our nervous system utilizing our Meridian system, which is the same system and end points that would be accessed for a deep tissue massage or acupuncture. In the same way that these techniques can release physical pain, we can use techniques to release negative emotions and beliefs. We can release these things by thinking a negative thought and then tapping on various points located all over the body. By focusing on the negative and doing this in a certain sequence, we can elevate to a new perspective. There are many scientific studies about this, showing that it can change the way you feel physically or emotionally about current issues, past traumas, or worries about the future.

How do you identify that you have a problem that could be helped by EFT? How do you determine the source of the problem?

There’s usually something you’ve identified that keeps happening over and over that you don’t like and wish you could get past. We work backward as far as possible to earliest negative memories. At the end of any real work is the finding of true love, acceptance, and forgiveness, which completely shifts and changes our feelings physically and emotionally about everything.

What does the process look like?

You’ll think about a negative issue, such as a headache. You’ll say something expressing how much you don’t like the headache, but you want to love, accept, and forgive yourself. Then tap on the specific points that have been shown to release these feelings as you express the negative. It may need to be repeated. The process is the same for a physical issue or an emotional one.

How long does the work usually take?

This process is quicker than talk therapy, but still takes time. Theresa typically works with clients for about 6 months. A person can do this on their own any time, with or without help. Ten minutes of tapping can lower cortisol (stress hormone) up to 43%.

After people go through this process, what kind of results have you seen?

The end result will be creating greater calm, confidence, and clarity. Some examples have been:

• Helped a CEO that was afraid to fly be cool with getting on planes
• Helped women do TedTalks without anxiety
• Helped women get through financial ceilings
• Helped women transition their business

How does this differ from positive affirmations?

We like to use a different approach. You don’t want the statement to be too much of a leap from reality. If you say, “I’m a patient person,” but you’re struggling with that, your brain will disregard it. Instead, ask a question like, “What would it take for me to have all the patience I need to feel good about this day?” Your brain and subconscious will look for the answer to that question, rather than disregarding it.

3 Top Takeaways:

• Take the time to slow down. Take a deep breath.
• Tap into your intuition so you can make decisions from a centered place.
• While you find yourself ranting about something that is bothering you, just try tapping one of the EFT end points and see how it goes.

If you’d like to experience what it’s like to do EFT Tapping with Theresa, you can access the session we did together by requesting her private sessions resource absolutely free at theprivatesessions.com You’ll receive access to dozens of EFT sessions that are packed with value, nervous system regulation, and therapeutic breakthroughs!

More ways to connect with Theresa Lear Levine:

Website theresalearlevine.com 

The Becoming More Me Podcast Becomingmoreme.com 

Instagram @theresalearlevine 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theresalearlevine/ 

On today’s show, we discuss the value of optimizing your organization.

Anne Hill a certified Director of Operations, a business owner, wife, and mother. She took her experience building processes, teams and businesses in the healthcare space and started her own. And while she started as a Physical Therapist and Rehab Manager, she now spends her days rehabbing and restoring businesses. 

For the last 10 years, she has helped entrepreneurs set their business up for success by building teams and processes that work…even when they are not around. She helps people feel less pain and more joy as an entrepreneur (isn’t it funny how life can take a turn, only to come full circle again?). 

She can help you create realistic SOPs…or hire a kick-ass team…or figure out how the heck to build the business you’re dreaming of…so you can step away – whether it’s for a morning off or desperately-needed family vacation. 

Key Takeaways:

What contributes to lack of efficiency and effectiveness of a business?

Growth causes communication issues and role changes. Businesses have to evolve and adapt processes as they grow.

What are some preventative measures businesses can take as they scale?

Company-wide training helps to make sure everyone is on the same page and working toward the same goals.

What are some tools to help create that alignment?

Leadership should first be aligned in business goals and values. Then, they will more likely hire people aligned with those things and train them in that way.

What are some symptoms for a larger company to identify that may mean there is a problem?

• Revenue will plateau.
• Team members won’t be as motivated or feel like they bring value.

How does a company know where to start with improving?

• Identify the big areas by looking at the metrics to determine where things are stagnant.
• Talk to the team members to get their impression.

For cross-departmental changes, is it harder to accomplish change?

Every aspect of the business affects others. Start with one and then gradually bring in the others. Ensure that fixing one area won’t negatively affect another area.

How do you determine what the future state of the business should look like?

It’s about learning what the vision is from conversations with the leadership and the team members. Then we can reverse engineer processes that will get the company to that future state.

How often should a company review processes for optimization?

Annually, pick different areas of the business to focus on as a phased approach.

What is the biggest pitfall?

The biggest pitfall is when a business focuses all its energy on putting out fires rather than taking the time to really look at ways to improve.

Teams with structure are more efficient. To operate effectively, a team needs to know:

• Where to find things
• Where to get information
• How to communicate
• What the expectations are

Process documentation is important at any company size. It’s vital that the documentation provides an overall framework while still allowing for creativity for employees.

What about KPIs?

Every department should have KPIs. If we don’t track things, they won’t get enough attention. For the business as a whole, we should limit them to 3-5 to stay focused.

3 Top Takeaways:

• Remember who you are as a business and why you do what you do.
• See how what you do fits into the big picture of the business.
• Focus on communication. Make standards and expectations clear.

Connect with Anne Hill:

Website: https://hilltopoperations.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annehill/ 

On today’s show we discuss what to do when you’re not getting the results you need.  

Two decades ago, Jason Scott founded 120VC to help people, leaders, and teams get things done that really matter. He’s uncovered some universal truths along the way: organizations are optimized for the results they’re getting, and to get different results, humans need to perform their jobs differently.

His passion to mentor and training a new generation of leaders led him to start the Transformation Leadership Academy where he leads a 14-week certification program. And in 2020, Jason launched the 120 Brand Community, featuring Brick and Matter CO, BAMCO, a brand accelerator transforming how brands can go to market, and Next Jump Outfitters an overland guide and e-commerce business transforming how people balance work and play as digital nomads.

Jason has spent over 20 years leading global transformational efforts for DirecTV, Trader Joe’s, Blizzard Entertainment, RIOT Games, Sony Pictures, ResMed, AAG, Universal Music Group, Remitly, and others. He is the author of two Amazon-bestselling books “It’s Never Just Business, It’s About People” and “The Irreverent Guide to Project Management, An Agile Approach to Enterprise Project Management” and is a sought-after keynote speaker.

When a high functioning team is not performing well, how do you go about diagnosing the problem?  

• Figure out who is struggling on the team. The problem is almost always a person.   
• Find out what that person is missing to be successful at their job and help them find it.   
• If that doesn’t work and they are unable or unwilling to work together on what is missing, the leader can help them move into another role where they can be successful.  

When an individual in a team is not performing well, what advice do you have for them?  

• There’s a paradigm around accountability that comes from a breakdown, something didn’t go right, and we are going to hold a person “accountable”. This is backwards. A good leader is going to find the right person for the job, that person is going to find the best way to do their job, and the leader is going to help them find their own roadmap to accomplishment. Leaders set people up to be accountable.   
• When an individual feels like they are not succeeding, they are miserable. So a good leader is going to work to help find out what’s missing for the individual, and if that doesn’t work, keep supporting them until they transition out.   
• It is ultimately the leader’s responsibility to make sure the people they invite on to the team, succeed on the team.   

What are your thoughts on failing projects:  

• Projects fail due to poor leadership, period.  
• If you’re not getting the results you need from a team, you need to try something different with the team and then measure if that improves or diminishes the desired result.   
• If you have a project that solves a problem that the people on the project think is real and exists, they will voluntarily participate you won’t have to force them.   

Best practices to reach best project outcomes (KPIs):  

• Make sure you can articulate why the change needs to be done. 
• Humans fundamentally want to succeed. If you ask humans to their jobs differently, they must understand and feel the problem we are solving is important enough to put themself at risk and be vulnerable.   
• When you have a change project you want to deploy, start by asking: 

1) Who are we going to ask to do their jobs differently?  

2) Who is going to be doing the work?  

3) Ask the stakeholders who are responsible for these humans going to manage the change? 

4) How is the problem I am solving related to the two groups that are going to change the way they work.   

Leadership is about commitment not compliance or agreement.   

• As a leader, don’t ask for people to agree – which is from their head, ask them to commit, which is from their heart. 
• Lead by giving people the ability to choose their own path.  
• Compliance is an illusion. You can have authority over people, and they’ll still avoid things they don’t want to do. If you give people choice, and you call on them to use that choice. Allow people to choose to follow you.  When someone tells you something is mandatory…there is a visceral feeling of resistance for humans.   

What do you do about performance reviews when people are not on board?  

• First question from your team members will be why? So whenever you launch any project you need to rationalize your why.  
• To get to your why ask first, what problem are you solving?  Does it improve customer satisfaction? Does it improve team satisfaction?  Does it improve profitability?  

• Then ask: Is there demand for this? Don’t launch a project before you know you have demand. Test a project demand before you launch it.   
• Create a brief presentation with the questions:  How does this drive company vision?  Why do we need to make this change now?  What will happen if we don’t make this change? How are major stakeholders impacted? How does it benefit them?  
• Ask for people to give you experience shares, not advice or opinions.  Team members experience questions:  Tell me about a job you didn’t do performance reviews. How are performance reviews at this company for you?  

Top Takeaways:  

• You don’t have to be talented to be successful. You just have to do the work.  
• The meaning of life is people. If you care for people on your team and support them to be as successful as possible, they will succeed for themselves and for you. Control is not necessary.   

Connect with Jason:  

Websites: https://120vc.com/  

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonscott120vc/  

On today’s show we discuss how to uncover untapped potential in your team.  

Dr. Clint Ladine is a leadership and success coach, author, and former professional basketball player. His clients include renowned restaurateurs, super bowl champions, and C-suite executives. He has delivered coaching leadership development programs in both the profit and not-for-profit realms and he is the author of Power Coaching: Stand Out, Get Unstuck, And Energize Your Leadership. 

Clint’s credential include a Master’s degree in leadership and a Doctorate degree of Strategic Leadership and Executive Coaching from Bethany University. He hold more than 13 years of organization development and executive coaching experience. He previously founded a health clinic in San Francisco and played professional basketball overseas.  

Clint lives in San Francisco with his wife of 27 years and five kids and has served as the president of the North of Market Community Benefit District, a non-profit organization helping to beautify, enhance safety and foster the arts in the Tenderloin district of SF. He is currently serving on the Stonestown YMCA Board of Directors as the chair of the fundraising committee. 

How does coaching in basketball relate to coaching in corporations? 

• Coaching is about maximize potential to ensure the teams are working cohesively.  
• One of the jobs of a basketball coach is to manage egos and get people to work together in the best way, similar to a corporate coach. 

How do you help a team work together?  

• You want to help people understand their why.  
• In every team there’s an underlying why in the human condition that causes people to act in certain ways.  
• When you look at those emotional levers that people have  to succeed or be the best in their area you want to help them to understand that underlying why and tap into that corporate/community part as well.  
• Want to help them understand their why in relation to how it helps the community or corporation as whole.  

What type of things get in the way of coaching or people reaching their potential? 

• Many times it the ego. Or I can do it alone mentality. This hinders people because there’s a greater impact we can have together.  
• To work through this, you can teach that with humility and bringing people together everyone can be successful.  
• This is where coaching people toward an abundance mentality comes in to play. There’s enough for everyone.  

Do you think leaders still need to be the smartest in the room and know it all? Is that the right philosophy? And do you think that mentality still exist today? 

• This mentality still exists today, however successful leaders exercise humility.  
• They want their direct reports and team mates to excel are the ones that see people stay long term and increase in productivity and employee engagement.  
• For leaders, humility is the highest skill set. If they develop that skill they will see their teams succeed wildly.  

What role does leader vulnerably play in building teams? 

• Vulnerability plays a big part of leading. If you want to know others, you need to be known. 
• A leader is leading the charge, they are guiding people in to uncharted waters, so they should do the same with being vulnerable. Leaders can show the way. 
• Start with being vulnerable in small chunks to build trust. i.e. share a mistake  
• It builds engagement with staff and drives team cohesiveness.  
• Being vulnerable might not always go as planned but it is important for leaders to put themselves out there and try.  

What are other key attributes of team cohesiveness? 

• Wanting others to succeed. 
• Know your team and know their emotional levels and personal why’s.
• When you know everyone’s personal whys you can connect better. I.e. communication, recognition.  
• When people feel heard and seen they will be more engaged in the organization success.  

Signs of an unhealthy team: 

• People taking credit for success individually.  
• Shucking responsibility for mistakes.
• No small talk between team members (no visual comradery).

What do you do with a toxic team member? 

• Have a crucial conversation with team member – in a one-in-one setting ask them questions to try to understand more about where the team member is coming from:
  • What do you love about our team interactions? 
  • What has been a highlight for you? 
  • What are your pain points right now? 
  • What could we do better? 
  • What can I do as a leader to better motivate you? Could reveal a blind spot for the leader.  

What are limiting beliefs? 

• Beliefs that prevent you from executing your full potential.
• One way to identify a limiting belief is to look for the word because. For example: “we possibly couldn’t expand into this county because I’m not talented enough to lead this charge.” The because is usually not true.  
• Often, we have built up beliefs in our lifetime and we don’t even know they exist until we talk to a coach to unearth them.  

How do you address limiting beliefs? 

• Get with mentor or coach to unearth those beliefs.  
• Once you’ve identified a limiting belief, take a simple action step towards conquering that belief.  
• Take a small step to tackle the belief. I.e. write the first page.  

What are your thoughts on affirmations? 

• Highly recommended – YouTube, books, post it notes, journals etc.  
• We  need to hear positive reinforcement.  
• Many people have never heard anyone tell them they are doing something positive in their whole life.  
• People usually don’t get enough encouragement, if any at all.  
• Developing these pathways for people is major. Bombard your mind with positive affirmations.  
• Like a superior athlete, one of the major keys to success is that they believe they can do it. 

How do make affirmations not feeling like lying to yourself? 

• Find the component of truth.  
• Focus on the positive. 
• Focus on when things did work not when they didn’t.  
• Begin to reframe and find the truth in the affirmation.  

How can you bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be? 

• Take small steps.
• Don’t get overwhelmed with where you want to be. 
• Take small steps toward your affirmations (hire a coach, go on a webinar, have coffee with a leader you respect).

Top 3 takeaways: 

1) Hold on to your dream and vison for yourself personally and professionally. Strive for that vision.  

2) Build others up. Help others fulfill their dreams.  

3) Be kind to yourself. Reframe and continue to build on the positive.  

Connect with Dr. Clint Ladine: 
Website: https://www.successfullycoaching.com 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com