Gina Rudan's Blog

Intuition, Your Personal Fortuneteller

There is something very mysterious about our intuition. It simultaneously scares and excites us when we face these moments of inexplicable foresight. As with most mystical contradictions, I find myself curious to learn more about it, especially about how to tap this internal messenger for my own personal development. I even wonder, “What if I can master my intuition like some kind of superhero power?” But then I fear whether it might master me. What is it about some unknowns that heightens our curiosities?

Those analytical types reading this, the “left brainers,” may immediately ponder whether intuition is indeed real and or just a mythical perception, with little value beyond the random emotional ping we sometimes experience but rarely listen to.  Historically, it has been hard to measure and prove how intuition works and I think this is an unfortunate reason many disregard its true value.

Others of us, the right brainers, may consider intuition a true and valuable soft asset and actively cultivate it, but sometimes ignore it. Why?

Some of us fear our intuition because it’s usually right and we are not ready to “face the truth.” While others ignore our intuitive inner voices completely, keeping them muted at all times. Why do we ignore the big foghorn signals that our intuition sends us? Why do we brush off the hunches we regularly have and think we are actually being more strategic and responsible by ignoring the blaring internal messages? If you are someone who chooses to fear your intuition or disregard its value, it may be why you remain stagnated in life.

Deciding that I want to master and cultivate my internal fortune teller I have decided to listen actively to her as she shows herself throughout my day. Today the broadcasted internal message was, “ Gina, be sure to read before you review your presentation because you might uncover another nugget that you can add to your talk.”  Instead of diving into my presentation preparation, once I was seated on a plane I decided to read my November issue of Oprah and guess what? I uncovered a great article filled with spot-on tips for waking up your right mind. My internal fortuneteller was completely on point. I listened, I read before writing (which is very rare for me), and found a great nugget of wisdom from Martha Beck that spoke to me. She basically shared a simple exercise in writing your name backwards, upside down and from all directions including writing it with your other hand. This gets the right side of the brain juices going. Perfect practical genius tip, I thought to myself, which was delivered to me by Mrs. Intuitive who lives somewhere within me.  This is a very small example of how effective one’s day can become when you quiet yourself down and listen actively to your intuition.

Try this:
Schedule appointments with your internal fortunate teller. Yes, carve out quiet time and listen to the messages your intuition has been trying to share with you. Press play and let it flow, you will be amazed where it will take you.

If you have a compelling story about an experience with your intuition please share it in the comments section below.

On Your Next Business Trip, Pack a Tent

This week I received an exciting email from a young professional who I had the pleasure of meeting during one of my Practical Genius talks. Inspired by my message and crusade to inspire professionals to bring their whole selves to work and to honor their personal creative talents, she wrote me to share her exciting decision to take me up on my advice on her next business trip. She was heading to San Diego on business and had decided to actually go on a photo exploration camping trip while visiting California. With little time to give notice to her friends that she was coming, she decided to pack a tent right alongside her business suit and camp out for two nights in the Redwood Forrest at the tale end of her business trip. 

A rather experienced global traveler, Adie had decided to honor both sides of herself-the professional coordinator and the professional photographer. She is both and had been living out these roles separately. I encouraged Adie to realize that one side of her positively influences the experience and the success of the other and that she had to begin to seek out ways to mash, blend and deliberately crash the two.

Knowledge workers today need to learn from this young person and begin to create a life and experiences where we purposefully combine all sides of who we are into one entity and experience. I also think employers and managers have to begin to realize that her decision to go on a personal adventure is a huge advantage to her employer and to her competitive advantage as a blossoming knowledge worker, for she will return with a greater sense of self.  When one operates with greater purpose, greater productivity and conviction, this is the result. And isn’t that what the game is all about?

The trick to honoring your practical genius is to begin tackling all facets of who you are and doing so with a sense of urgency. Stop making excuses, “I will start once I have the money. I will start once my kids are off to college. I will start once I leave my partner."  There is no perfect time and the sooner you realize tomorrow isn’t guaranteed to anyone, the sooner you will begin to honor your passions, creative talents, personal truths and ultimately will begin to prioritize your true purpose.

We all need to find a way to pair a camping excursion with a business trip. Business should always come first, but think of what happier, motivated employees we would all be if we made bolder, more creative decisions on how we use our time on business trips.

While reading Adie’s moving email, I found myself saying to myself. “ It’s working.  She got it!” This is ultimately what every thought leader wants for their audience, for each to have her own amazing epiphany.

As I sat contemplating this breakthrough, I closed my eyes and imagined this fantastic young woman “killing it” on her business trip and then visualizing her sleeping alone in the Redwood Forest with nothing but her Ipod and her camera. All she needed was the nudge, encouragement and the courage to reprogram her assumptions.

This post is dedicated to Gen Yers who are trying to figure it out. I have one piece of advice for you. Be who you are and bring it forward smartly and elegantly and you will go way beyond where you want to go.

Fearless

People ask me all the time, “Gina how do you do it?” But the real question they are asking is ”Gina, how the hell are you succeeding during such uncertain times?” 

My answer is simple. The way I see it, you have one choice in life. You can choose to live in fear or you can choose to live fearlessly. I have chosen the latter.

The greatest lesson I have learned this year is if you don’t want to live in fear, you have to take risks. The more risks you decide to take in life, the less fear you live with. Big fat, scary risks really do wash away fear and the outcome over time is a rewarding sense of fearlessness. The trick to this paradigm is if you don’t take outrageously scary risks like jumping out of a plane or committing to a relationship or, in my case, launching a business during a recession, you will never really conquer fear.

Once I realized that fear—a state of physical, emotional and intellectual imprisonment—can be put to rest by chewing off the shackles myself and jumping into the pool of the unknown, I realized how many of us don’t know this juicy secret.  Now some risks will result in failures and some will be successes and that is the reality of it. But the good news is that regardless of the outcome, the more you play with risks the better you get at selecting the right ones to take.

This is the answer to question "How the hell am I doing it?"  I am taking big risks every day. And the more risks I choose to take, the stronger I am becoming. And the stronger I become, the more inclined I am to take the risks a bit further. Working for myself, managing my household, and raising my son, all the while exploring my writing and all my other yummy passions takes jumping into the mess of life and facing it head on. There’s no other way to do it than to just do it!

 I have suffered from some apprehension and anxiety my whole life and it has only been this year—on my own, responsible for own livelihood and success—that my anxiety has been close to zero. Why and how? By confronting life with the reigns in my hands, realizing I don’t have time or energy for a panic attack if I’m moving relentlessly forward, striving toward my own success.

And you can do the same. If you are paralyzed by fear and you’re standing along the sidelines of life waiting for fear to find another victim, you’re going to be waiting a long time. Instead, twist that bad boy by the ear and recognize that it’s your choice. Fear will never leave unless you begin to make choices that replace the fear.

One way to do that is to dive into the unknown, do something radically new, challenging and outrageous. It can be a new venture, a new project, or a new-to-you activity. Pick something bold and do it. Decide to take a big fat risk and regardless of the outcome find comfort in knowing the more you play within the unknown space, the more fearless you will become. The more fearless you become the more successful you will be. Money-back guaranteed!

You are the MC of this show called life and choosing to live without fear is your ticket to absolute freedom.

Building your Audience One Person at a Time

Many of us are working towards building our audiences on a daily basis. Whether it’s obsessing over growing our Facebook friends, Twitter followers, blog readers, newsletter subscribers, LinkedIn connections or cultivating new network contacts, prospects, and clients, or even finding volunteer to pitch in on our causes, all of us are some way building audience. That’s because the definition of “audience” is broader than you think. The people in your audience are not just eyeballs or numbers, they’re members (or potential members) of your personal community, that valuable group of geniuses I’m always encouraging you to surround yourself with.

So whether you are recruiting folks to grow the congregation of your church, or growing support for your cause or charity or even looking for romance, in the spirit of sharing what works for me (!), here are a few tips on growing your audience effectively: 

Rule #1. First and foremost, identify exactly who you really want to gather around you. Be selective. Its far more interesting  and valuable to have an audience you actually love than to have a group of followers, listeners or so called " friends" who you really don’t care about.

Rule #2. Build a global tribe. Local audience building is nice but global audience building is outrageously gratifying.  I recently set out to follow a few great minds from across the globe and have to admit my Twitter experience has improved for the better with the additions of the new global voices within my feed. Global perspectives from at least 45 countries should always be a part of your agenda. Reach across waters, reach across languages if you are bilingual—and know that erasing boundaries starts with building international relationships in your own life. Trust me, you will love this.

Rule #3. Quality time in real time is priceless. When you can have a real-time experience with your audience go for it. Social media is great but everything in real time is so much more potent. An espresso level experience is always better than anything instant. Find the way to reach out in real time whether it’s speaking to your audience on a panel, attending a charity event and or even hosting a dinner party. Identify, reach out and strategically engage members of your new audience on a monthly basis in person. Intimacy, trust and purpose grows in real time.  One way I accomplish this is through the art of slow dining in every city I visit. I strategically select the person I want to spend time with and am trying to build a relationship with and we head out to dinner. The outcome is always, always, always even more valuable than I even imagined.

Rule #4.  Add value. When dating your new audience, be creative and resourceful and remember to add value to the experience for them.  Growing your audience is one thing but keeping them engaged and satisfied is a whole other ballgame. Don’t get lazy.

So here’s what I’d love to see you do: If you think these tips were helpful please forward this post to someone important to you. And if you really liked this post, register to receive my blog every week. My goal is to grow my audience by feeding it well and I need your help to do it. 

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Surround Yourself with Genius

Networking is a Science, Building Relationships is an Art

In January when I resigned from PR Newswire to launch my own practice, I set the goal to spend the entire year surrounding myself with genius. My hope was to spend this period in an inspired state of mind and I figured dedicating time to building meaningful relationships with the thought leaders I respect would help ease the start up pain that all entrepreneurs go through their first year out the gate. And wow, was I was right!

I am coming close to celebrating my first year in business and my focus on surrounding myself with genius has really heightened my quality of life.  Now some of you may view this goal as outrageous or unrealistic but I encourage you to consider doing the same. The learning is tremendous, the explorative quest is invigorating, and the bottom line is its downright pleasurable. Red velvet cake kind of pleasurable.

Now we all view and interpret genius differently and for me the true geniuses are those of us on this planet who are living a “hybrid life." Hybrids honor of our hard assets—our strengths, credibility and expertise—alongside and without compromise of our soft assets—our creative abilities, passions and values. Spending time with these hybrid geniuses (a.k.a. cultural modernists) is fantastic.

I don’t know if it was kickass luck last week, the power of intention, or my bold commitment to spend time with “phat brains” but last week was a record week for me. Here are a few highlights:

I spent an amazing two hours in the home of the amazing Sunny Bates <http://www.sunnybates.com/>. Sitting barefoot sitting on her couch, we drank wine and she shared her perspective on social entrepreneurism, innovation, and told me about her passion project, kickstarter.com <http://www.kickstarter.com/>, which was my favorite topic of the night. Sunny was genuine, funny, and a great example of a living, breathing, proactive, practical genius.

This experience was then followed by two days with the members of the Relationship Masters Academy. Yes, you read that correctly, I am actually enrolled in a year-long program to master meaningful relationships. And it was through this program that I was able to spend another 18 hours with a few more fabulous hybrids. My peer group in the class included an amazing writer and thought leader, a serial entrepreneur and an executive who is learning a few personal truths about family. Other amazing hybrids included a lawyer who is also a musician that doesn’t like to wear socks; a sexy British woman who left her corporate cocoon to follow her passion; and a ex-pat who shared her intimate concerns about moving from her home in Amsterdam to London. And I should not forget the amazing woman from Dallas who was the first to be bold enough to emotionally undress with me. You have to love a woman who takes to lead.

It’s easy to network and stay a social snorkeler your whole life but it’s a whole other experience to actually decide to emotionally deepdive with new people you meet. My approach is obviously the latter and I just want to encourage you to consider prioritizing, identifying, and cultivating these kinds of new relationships. The experience is priceless.

Here are a few tips for Surrounding Yourself with Genius

1.     Create a target list of geniuses you want to know.

2.     Identify your currency. What are you bringing to the table and how can your own personal genius be remotely valuable to your target?

3.     Be ready to emotionally undress first, to really give it up. Believe me, they will follow if you’re being authentic.

4.     Follow up and be resourceful. This is key when trying to get a second date with your new contact. The more generous you are the more likely the relationship with continue.

5.     Lastly, always keep it real and remember this is about building your tribe and never about making a deal. The moment you get transactional, it’s over—so just don’t do it.

This post is dedicated to Sunny Bates <http://www.sunnybates.com/>  and my classmates at Relationship Masters Academy <http://www.ferrazzigreenlight.com/relationshipmastersacademy>.
  

Inspiration is Infectious

Don’t you find it amazing how a writer, thinker, leader, a friend, or even a child can say or write something that touches the depths of your curiosity? When these great moments happen, always stop to acknowledge that it’s happening. Yesterday on a flight back home from DC I was reading Pam Slim’s new book, ESCAPE FROM CUBICLE NATION: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur <http://escapefromcubiclenation.com>  and I found myself caught up in her enthusiasm and absorbed in her advice and the authenticity of her narrative.  If you are starting to scratch an entrepreneurial itch, you have to pick up Pam’s new book. What is most profound about the book is its ability to distill information, motivate to action, and light the fire in you all at once. I have been following her blog for two years and I am so pleased that she actually wrote a book that’s just as good as her blog, which for many doesn’t come that easily.

As a start-up myself I am reading so much from every informational and inspirational corner and her book is the best I have read yet. This post isn’t just a shout out to another writer but more importantly it’s also a lesson on the importance of acknowledging the genius in others. I wrote Pam an email this morning celebrating her success and although we don’t know one another I still believe it’s our social responsibility to acknowledge a genius success moment when it happens for someone. 

So the next time you read something, hear something or experience something that moves you, don’t wait to acknowledge it; do so while the message is still fresh on your mind and the shared energy is still all around you. Give appropriate props and pass the genius forward always.

Pam, thanks for lighting me up.

Are you a Feeder or a Vampire?

Throughout my journeys in life, I have come to realize that people generally fall into two categories when it comes to their approach toward others. Some of us are “feeders”—folks who are constantly in a giving state, giving away our energy, attention and support.  The rest of us are vampires, most comfortable in a state of receiving, fueling ourselves with the generous attention, energy and efforts of others.  Vampires aren’t innately evil or bad; usually, they simply know no other way.  Whether you are a vampire or a feeder isn’t important; what does matter is that you have a clear understanding of your role within this context.

If you are a feeder, like me, you really have to be mindful to manage the feeding and to remember to keep a little for yourself. And if you are vampire you have to be mindful to diversify your feeder supply so that you don’t go hungry when your favorite feeder ends up on empty, which eventually will happen.

This analogy may seem outrageous but believe me if you start to think of the people in your life you will immediately recognize every one of them as either a feeder or a vampire.

What is also interesting to note is that feeders will always be attracted to vampires and vampires will always be attracted to feeders. It’s a natural but dangerous symbiosis. Both have a tendency to cross the line with the other, go too far, give or take too much. Out of self preservation, both would seem to have a responsibility to stay within safe limits with each other, but this is rarely the case.

If you find you are a feeder giving to one too many vampires who are sucking the life out of you, the following tips will help you arm yourself emotionally and mentally against this mind drain. And if you’re a vampire who relies on lots of feeders in order for you to be productive and fulfilled, these tips will help ensure you get what you need.

Tips for Feeders
·      Create boundaries and exercise discipline with these boundaries. This will prevent you from over extending yourself beyond a healthy level.

·      Communicate your expectations clearly, early, and often with the vampires in your life. You are allowed to let them feed but don’t allow them to have a three-course meal. Appetizers only. You can’t ask a vampire not to feed for it’s his nature. You can’t win against nature.


·      The most important thing to remember is to feed yourself first. If you don’t fuel your passions and attend to your own well being first and foremost, there will be nothing there for you or your vampires. The more you feed others the more replenishing you require.

·      Cherish your relationships with other feeders. They can be a source of strength and inspiration when you need it most.

Tips for Vampires

·      Don’t depend on a single energy source. Spread your hunger across a variety of feeders who can meet your variety of needs.

·      Honor your feeders. Acknowledge that they are a source of energy and fulfillment in your life and express your gratitude for their generosity.

·      Draw a line of respect between yourself and the fellow vampires in your life. Vampires love other vampires but power struggles often surface. Be cognizant of the boundaries necessary in these relationships for they are just as important as they are with feeders.

This post is dedicated to all the beautiful feeders and provocative vampires in my life. I acknowledge, honor and respect members of both these tribes, for genius dwells on both sides. 


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Sanity is Overrated.

Yesterday I watched “The Soloist” and I sat in the darkness with tears rolling down my cheeks, my heart racing and my fingers tapping on the keyboard on my knees that wasn’t really there.  This film reminded me of the particular, occasional, unique and extraordinary intersection of insanity and brilliance. This is a “sweet spot” I happen to know well.

This movie was almost beside the point. Yes, the music was great, Beethoven to be specific. The edgy cinematography and amazing acting made it a film anyone would be glad they had seen. For me, though, the takeaway was the battle between the existence of genius and insanity all at once. That’s huge.

Based on a true story of the relationship between Nathaniel Ayers, a mentally ill, homeless street musician who possesses extraordinary talent and an L.A. Times columnist, Steve Lopez, “The Soloist” takes viewers on a musical journey into the minds of two brilliant creatives and what unfolds as they build and navigate through a friendship and experience together.

I have had the great fortune of loving two schizophrenics in my life: my grandma, Regalada Ortiz, who has since passed, and my brother in-law, Buddy, who is alive and well and a big part of my life.  What I have learned from both is that there are jewels of wisdom that simmer beneath the surface of mental illness and are accompanied by a great sense of mental freedom. This is not meant to glamorize this impossibly difficult condition, but to point to what we gain in real-life terms when we acknowledge and accept what it is.

There has always been a fine line between insanity and genius and I know as a thinker and an entrepreneur, I sometimes feel as if my mind is always walking that tightrope. How many of us battle mental complexities and psychological challenges in our own daily lives and use our mental deficiencies as excuses for our failures?

After watching “The Soloist,” I have a few recommendations for those of you who are battling “mind games” on a daily basis, so here they go:

• First and foremost, embrace your challenges and face them head on. The sooner you accept your reality and learn how to live with it the sooner you will be able to actually leverage your situation for greater insights into who you are and what you are capable of.  Waltz with your condition, for it could actually end up being an asset rather than a liability.  

• Everyone needs a therapist.  Just as we feel OK with having personal trainers in our lives I think anyone who is challenged with any mental discomforts should have a therapist. 

• Historically, genius has always showed itself through a great deal of insanity.  Do you think Einstein, Leonardo D, or Picasso were sane? Not! In fact maybe you have to be a little off to actually push your mind to a place that questions everything rather than accepts everything.

There is something extraordinary that can happen if you work with what you’ve got, even if it hurts. And yes, I know it sometimes hurts.  I am only trying to inspire you to consider the genius that lurks beneath.

No matter what, let it shine. And remember, sanity is overrated.

Sometimes the Ordinary is Extraordinary

While some people loathe their birthdays because they fear the inevitable, I absolutely love them. For me, my birthday has always been an excuse to act up and let my hair down. Not that I really need an excuse—ha! But when's its your big day, you can get away with a lot!

This year I decided to do my birthday a bit differently. Instead of partying like a rock star—which I have successfully accomplished in past years—this year, I decided to celebrate my inner child, to keep it simple and just enjoy the moment with the most important person in my life, my three-year-old son, Lucas. 

Now three-year-olds have a way of taking over a situation whether you want them to or not. But placing Lucas and the little boy stuff he loves at the center of my birthday on purpose has been more fun than I ever expected. Allowing myself to really just be a kid alongside him, fully present and fully available, is quite remarkable. In fact, I think I have learned more about being an effective mother over this birthday weekend than any other time since my son was born. Why didn't anyone tell me that motherhood is often best expressed at their level rather than at ours?

Enjoying my new birthday sneakers, playing games in my favorite jeans, watching movies, singing in the car, swimming, eating more sweets than should be legal, and both of us falling apart laughing when he tickled me has been amazing. Letting go of the parent role and diving into the let’s-get-busy-and-play mode has truly been a blast.

So maybe sometimes it’s best to just keep birthdays the way they were when we were kids—simple, colorful, and joyful. For there is great beauty and satisfaction in spontaneous laughter, running through puddles, and just being without a care in the world, even if it’s just for a day.

Sometimes the ordinary is extraordinary and this lesson in genius is my greatest birthday gift. Thank you, Lucas.

Be Fully Present in Life

What if I write an entire blog post with my eyes closed?

This is exactly what happened last week as I was healing from yet another Lasek surgery. You know you are passionate about something when you can’t stand another second, a day or moment without doing it.  For me, it’s writing and as I healed I was determined to write and I did just that so please enjoy this post.

As I sat up in my bed with my eyes shut with the warmth of my Mac book on my lap I began to feel myself get excited as I begin to type. Actively listening and actually enjoying the clicking and clacking of the keys of my laptop I began to wonder what I should write about.

Like most bloggers, we think, test, research and strategically plan the topics of our posts and this time I had decided not to write about my eye surgery saga but to actually just type and see what messages naturally surfaced.  As I submitted to this creative exploration, words began to decorate the space between my eyes and mind. Words ironically all beginning with P began to fly about giving me insight internally to what I was feeling.  Words like, passion, pain, pleasure, philosophy.

After the 4 minutes of speeding dating with various words, one bold headline almost like a bumper sticker popped into view and didn’t go away. 

“Be fully present in life!”

Wow, I thought to myself, is God trying to send me a message. Laughing out loud of the notion, I continued to write about this notion of being fully present.  It obviously was some kind of reality check and rather than ignore the message, I decided to confront the notion. I, like many of us, find it an ongoing challenge to be truly 100% fully present in everything that I do, especially at this time of my life as an entrepreneur.

Is being fully present almost impossible in today’s day and age because we never stop to do just that? In the darkness, alone, forced to shut off from the world and enjoy my greatest pleasure, I realized what I was enjoying wasn’t only the act of writing but it was the experience of being completely whole-heartedly fully present.

Why is being fully present so important?

So much of our interactions in life, at home, at work and even with your children as parents is in a “half there and half somewhere else mode” The “half there, half somewhere else” approach to life and our experiences is part of the reason why so many of us don’t actualize our full potential at anything.

We have to stop multi tasking and must start valuing the notion of sometimes less is more in our lives, in our relationships, in our communities and in our careers. If we begin to give our undivided attention to one area at a time and begin to approach each area of our lives in a fully present manner, progress will be increased.

It shouldn’t take darkness and eye surgery to get me to realize this in my own life but it did. And because of this insight, I now have made the commitment to slow down and enjoy a mind body state of fully presentness with everything I do.

My eyes shut with subtle pain the insight I was able to garner in this darkness was so much greater than the words I can share while they are open. There is profound truth in darkness and the message was an example of what happens when you are fully present in life. There is a beauty and nakedness about living in the moment. Try it, you just might like it.

 Here are a few Practical Tips to Get you Started

Start every activity by centering yourself first. Taking 3 or 4 slow, deep breaths before starting anything helps bring all of your attention to the present activity. If you find your attention wandering, breathe deeply again and bring it back.

Stop checking e-mail multiple times per day, set times for reading and responding. For example, I wait until noon to check my email and use my mornings for readings. Let your phone go to voice mail, if possible, and return phone calls during a specific time. 

Clutter free your mind. It is said that Einstein wrote everything down to keep his mind as open and free as he could. Do the same, creativity cannot blossom in a cluttered brain. Make lists. I have a huge flip chart where I jot down priorities for the day.  Get organized and create quick lists.

If you have to, unplug Your Internet connection. Surfing, Facebook and Google sometimes can get in the way of quiet along time. Once a day, find the time for bonding with yourself, without any distractions.

The Other G Spot

Now that I’ve got your attention, let’s be clear—the “G” I am referring to is your genius. There is something deliberately bold and sexy about the word “genius.” I have always been attracted to the word and recently decided to date it exclusively. Like many writers, I fall in and out of love with certain words and phrases throughout my writing life but one word that keeps me lustfully loyal is the word “genius.” I even love the way it sounds. Genius.

When they hear me speak of genius, some people immediately become interested, while others become intimidated, viewing themselves as far removed from the concept of genius. Can someone please tell me when did we let the idea of genius get away from us? From a human capital development perspective, it is one of the most important words in the dictionary and yet why does it seem so alien to our experience?

Is it because we have been programmed to believe that this gorgeous word can only be applicable to a select few who have been struck by the gods with a rare, extraordinary talent? It’s amazing how few of us believe we actually possess a drop of genius.

What is also amazing is how you start out moving in one direction and with experience, exploration, creativity, and new relationships your work evolves, grows and expands organically.

When I first set out to start my business earlier this year, I was focused on the subject of personal branding. But working with both individuals and organizations over the last seven months has caused my message and leadership model to transcend personal branding and has evolved into a much larger yet deeply practical leadership model which I call “practical genius.”

What is PRACTICAL GENIUS?

Most people consider genius to be a gift bestowed on folks like Einstein or Mozart but not the rest of us. Contrary to this belief, PRACTICAL GENIUS is based on the underlying assumption that each of us possesses genius deep inside of us and it’s just waiting to be cultivated and set in motion. In my own life, I believe as a fully realized woman, authentic and entirely visible to the world, I am capable of exceptional accomplishments in my work, my community, and with my family and friends. That means I am the genius, not operating in the lofty, exclusive heights of science or culture, but right here, right now.

That’s what PRACTICAL GENIUS is all about: identifying and leveraging both the soft and hard unique personal assets each of us posses. Of course, it’s also about using those assets to open doors, attract opportunity, leverage personal power, and succeed beyond your wildest dreams.

So here’s how it works:

Step 1: First, you must Identify Your Genius. This means extracting and taking active responsibility for your unique strengths, passions, values, authenticity and creativity.  Hint: the intersection of both these quantitative and qualitative characteristics is where your genius lies.

Step 2: Express Your Genius. The greatest challenge—which is rarely addressed in leadership models—is visibility. If you are not actively, purposefully sharing your unique genius narrative with the world, you’re compromising your personal and professional impact.

Step 3. Market Your Genius. Here’s where the game really changes. When you project and distribute your genius consistently, with clear purpose and passion, your personal and professional dynamic shifts into crazy growth mode.

Step 4.  Surround Yourself With Genius. You are who you walk with. Raise the bar and build your network with others who are living purposeful, inspired lives. This step is about reaching out in a non-transactional way and cultivating meaningful, deeply valuable relationships.  Raise your expectations, elevate your standards and surround yourself with those who are a positive reflection of your genius.

Don’t you want to know where your PRACTICAL GENIUS might take you?