Exceptional People Magazine - July/August 2021 by Atela Productions, Inc.

July/August 2021

Why You Need to Build a Personal Brand How to Plan Your Exit from the 9 to 5 Routine Five Key Elements to Being Persuasive

A Born Entrepreneur:

Leading Others to Success

LETTER FROM Founder and Publisher Editor-in-Chief Monica Davis Writers & Editors Jon Crump Marla Gem Suzanne Harris Company Writers & Contributors Donna Carletta Kathy Kentty Pat Markel Other Contributors Andrew Horton Greg Williams Jack Canfield Annemarie Cross Art and Graphics Designer Jenette Antonio Sityar Exceptional People Magazine is published bi-monthly by Atela Productions, Inc. The opinions of the contributors are not necessarily those of Atela Productions, Inc. Exceptional People Magazine is a copyright of Atela Productions, Inc. The contents of this publication may not be printed, copied or distributed without the express written consent of the Publisher. Copyright © 2021 All rights reserved.

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the Publisher

Dear Friend,

Do you believe you possess leadership qualities? Or do you believe leadership is only meant for a few people? Many people underestimate their ability to become leaders because they never thought of themselves as being out in front, taking charge. Leadership roles are found in families, at school and work, in business and communities, and many other areas of life. My first experience in a leadership role was at the age of 17 when I attended my first year of college. I joined the Army ROTC program to get out of taking physical education. What was I thinking? I was selected to lead a platoon and head the color guard. Though I didn’t realize early on what I was getting into, I was successful at it because I used the skills and discipline I gained from school and my parents. If you’ve ever had the experience of guiding others through a major challenge or helping them reach specific goals or outcomes then you probably possess leadership qualities. Consider whether you have any of these traits: • You are a visionary who is able to take a vision and make it reality. • You are willing to face the unknown, persevere through tough times, and make unpopular and difficult decisions even when others criticize them. • You have the ability to connect with people and make them feel comfortable following your lead. • You know how to identify and effectively employ the talents of those around you, including how to boost their self-esteem. If you have some or all of these traits and you possess the discipline and patience it takes to lead others, then you have great potential for becoming a leader who can make a difference in the lives of others no matter what your position may be. With every wish for great achievements,

Monica Davis Founder

P R O D U C T I O N S , INC.

CONTENTS EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

DR. KAREN L. SEMIEN-MCBRIDE A Born Entrepreneur: Leading Others to Success

MINDING MY BUSINESS

Five Key Elements to Being Persuasive

How to Plan Your Exit from the 9 to 5 Routine

How to Reduce Business Costs in Five Simple Steps

How to Successfully Find Exceptional Job Applicants

Why You Need to Build a Personal Brand

Winning Your Partner’s Backing for That New Business Opportunity

For every dewdrop on a flower, so exists the number of opportunities for you to develop a new skill, execute a new idea, be thankful, share your blessings with others, develop a new attitude, and make the world a better place. Just do it. Monica A. Davis

WELCOME TO THE TOP SECOND EDITION

Learn from the best and get proven and time-tested advice needed to succeed. Discover powerful strategies and systems, and endless possibilities to rapidly grow your business in any economy. Gain powerful insights to help you achieve growth quickly and save your most precious resources—time and money. Wow, I simply love this book. I was personally empowered by this tome of collective wisdom and insights. WELCOME TO THE TOP IS A MUST-READ FOR EVERY PERSON WHO IS SERIOUS ABOUT LEADING A FULFILLING AND PRODUCTIVE LIFE. My heartfelt thanks go out to Monica for providing us a clear way to manifest our destiny. Dr. George C. Fraser, CEO, FraserNet, Inc.

WELCOME TO THE TOP IS A MASTERPIECE AND AN ABSOLUTE MUST-READ FOR ENTREPRENEURS. It should be mandatory reading in every business school. Many of the ideas and the advice they offer can be applied immediately to any business. I have used them for my business and had great results. The wisdom they each share is profound and will shorten the learning curve for readers and save them from making a boatload of costly mistakes. Chrissy Carew, Hall of Fame Master Certified Coach & Founder of Insightful Player, LLC

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A Born Entrepreneur:

Leading Others to Success

Photo Credits: Kait McKay Photography

EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

THE SECRET TO GETTING AHEAD IS GETTING STARTED.

his quote has been attributed to Mark Twain, Agatha Christie, Sally Berger, and others. No one knows for certain who actually coined it. But while speakers, coaches, and teachers regularly use it to motivate their audiences, few have actually lived it – and then committed their lives to helping others do the same. Dr. Karen L. Semien-McBride is one of those few. Her enthusiastic, inclusive, and perpetually positive energy is infectious whether she’s speaking to a group, teaching a class, or coaching a C-Suite executive. But there’s far more to Semien-McBride than just passion and positivity. The born entrepreneur was already making tidy profits at the age of 11, selling candy to her grammar school classmates. While her parents had provided a safe and encouraging home environment in the midst of LA’s tough Compton neighborhood, neither one of them had taught her to start her own business. Her innately mathematical mind gave her a love for accounting, which she did for friends and associates during high school. For fun, she started making beautiful floral creations for weddings. And at age 17, she sold her now-booming florist business – and used the proceeds to pay for college, where she earned a BA in Business Administration. She moved up the corporate ladder quickly, attaining top-level leadership roles in finance, student services, enrollment, marketing and administration at several California firms and universities. At the same time,

July-August 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

Semien-McBride continued her education, earning multiple business and organizational leadership post-grad degrees and certifications including two PhDs in business psychology, social psychology, and organizational leadership. It sounds like a lot, but that wasn’t all she was up to. Working at higher levels in corporate environments, SemienMcBride saw the issues women faced in these fields. She experienced many of these issues herself. So she started a non-profit called the Association of Rejuvenating Women (AORW) to support women’s health and professional growth. AORW evolved into The CEO Institute, one of several subsidiaries of MK Circle, an investment and small business incubation company she founded with her husband in 2017. Today at The CEO Institute, Semien-McBride coaches others on how to get ahead by cultivating their inner leader. In particular, she works to bring emotional intelligence to the forefront of organizational culture, offering 1:1 executive coaching, leadership, and team building programs for executives, civic leaders, small business owners, and entrepreneurs. Her groundbreaking Operational Style Assessment is disrupting the traditional personality assessment for career success development, and the proof is in the pudding: Her coaching programs are consistently producing transformative leaders focused on sustainability and innovation while maintaining their own healthy work-life balance. How does someone become so jaw-droppingly motivated? Semien-McBride says her motivation is based on three very simple questions. Can I do it? Will it work? Is it worth it? It appears that whatever Semien-McBride puts her mind to, the answers to those three questions is an enthusiastic “Yes!”

EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

We caught up with her recently. Here’s what she told us. Monica: Could you talk a little about your life growing up? Dr. Semien-McBride: Absolutely. I am a proud product of Compton, California, the inner city of Los Angeles. People often assume that Compton is a really bad neighborhood. But I didn't see that. My parents made our home feel like a mansion. I knew things were going on around me that were not the best, but those things weren't an influence on me. In school I focused on who I was: an entrepreneur from the womb. That came from my parents; I started watching my father early on. He was the first entrepreneur that I saw in action. He could fix and create anything. He could make things look amazing. He was a DJ actually, so that was his ‘side hustle.’ I watched him work full-time at a manufacturing company, and in the evenings or weekends, he DJ'ed parties.

bunch of rolls, sorted them, and put five pieces in my mom’s wax sandwich bags. I wrote 25 cents on the bags, stapled them closed, put them in my backpack, and sold them to kids at school. I created a business model through that process. One day I was dumping all these quarters out of my backpack and onto my bed, and my mother happened to pass by. She said, "Oh my God, where did you get all this money?" And I said, “Well, I'm selling candy." Then she called my dad in. They're both looking at this money on my bed and asking, "What has my child done?" So I explained my business plan.

I discovered my love of music from my father. But I didn't realize how much I paid attention to his entrepreneurial spirit until I was a little older. My mother was a working woman and an amazing homemaker. Her focus was to teach me how to be a wife – not Dr. Karen. She focused on showing me how to cook and clean, which I enjoyed because it challenged my brain. I was in the sixth grade when I created my first business. My mom worked at a lower end department store. She didn't drive, so I would go with my dad to pick her up on Fridays. He would give me some money, and I would buy candy in the store while we were waiting for her. I thought, I'm going to sell this candy. A roll of 15 Lifesavers cost a quarter. I bought a whole

Exceptional People Magazine | July-August 2021

EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

I told them, "When we go on Fridays, Daddy gives me money, I buy, then I sell, and these are my profits." So I learned profit very quickly. That wasn't what they were teaching in sixth grade. My dad, being funny, said, "I'm going to invest. How much more do you need?" And he helped me get a savings account. But eventually I said, "Okay, I'm done with this.” I wanted to do something else. Around the age of 17, I started another business, working with flowers. I loved working with my hands, so I would create flower arrangements, bouquets, and corsages for weddings. It became popular. My dad supported me and helped me turn it into a flower business.

Before I knew it, I was making flower arrangements for people – some amazing things that were really cutting edge. Monica: Your parents set you up to be well-rounded in so many different areas of life. Dr. Semien-McBride: Absolutely. When I was on my way to college, I had another "I'm done with this" thought. My father's friend knew a florist, and my dad talked to her. I had a meeting with her, and she said, "I would love for you to train my staff on some of your ideas, and I want to buy your customer list." I got $11,000 for the business. Monica: Wow. How did you manage that at age 17, while going to school? Dr. Semien-McBride: I was a good student, so I had finished most of my educational requirements. In the 11th grade, I only had four classes, and by my senior year, I only had two. So I had time on my hands. My parents had already decided they wanted me to attend a Christian college. My grandmother taught me how to sew, so today my husband and I have a clothing line. I get to do all the wonderful things that I love to do, and all of that really showed my leadership skills. When I got to college, I studied business. My bachelor's is in Business Administration. I loved math and I loved accounting. Monica: What advice and encouragement can you give to young ladies who have ideas, but feel intimidated or unsure about talking to parents or others because they may think they’re too young?

July-August 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

Dr. Semien-McBride: Seek out people who you want to be like. Mentorship was very important to me. My first education was on mentorship. I found that just because people are around you, that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be the ones to encourage you to move to the next level. You have to find people to emulate and place yourself around them. That was important for me. I would find a way to meet people that I wanted to be like. I had no problem walking into a small business and saying, "I like what you're doing. Tell me more. Can you mentor me?" Emulation is so important – understanding what others are doing. Not to copy, but definitely to emulate their presence, their thoughts of growth, and how to make opportunities happen. Monica: What should they look for in a mentor? Dr. Semien-McBride: First, see if what someone is doing even interests you. Are they doing what you want to do? Then go from there. It's amazing how willing so many people are if you simply ask them, "Can you mentor me?" They may not all have the personality you want them to have. They may not all have the wherewithal to be a true leader. So you have to keep in mind that you can only get what they offer; you can't change them. That is why having two or three different mentors is important. Maybe one focuses on business, another focuses on personal communication, and the other focuses on helping you build relationships. But definitely start with what you want to do. Monica: Much of your work focuses on Operational Style assessments and language. Can you share what that is? Dr. Semien-McBride: When creating Operational Style assessments, the first thing you may say is, "I've done the Myers-Briggs, the discovery insights, and the DISC.” Those are all well and good, but they're all very personality-based.

With Operational Style assessments, we're looking to see how you show up when you walk into a room. Are you shaking hands and kissing babies? Are you surveying the room to see if you want to be there or not? Are you judging everybody? Or are you thinking, “I'm here to do something specific and I want to focus on that”? Understanding who you are is what Operational Style is about. It's a language with four different quadrants. We all sit in one quadrant very strongly, and we have to learn the others to get better at communicating, interactions, and in making more strategic decisions. It is based on understanding who you are first, and then knowing that there are three other languages that you need to learn. So then you're not just focusing on who you are, and not realizing there's a world around you. Monica: What is emotional intelligence and how does it work in terms of leadership? Dr. Semien-McBride: When I mention Operational Styles, it really is about self-awareness. We created the Operational Styles so people can understand what true self-awareness is – understanding who you are, what you stand for, and why. The first personal competency of emotional intelligence is self-awareness, and so it only makes sense that I teach emotional intelligence because I'm so focused on self-awareness. There are two sides to it: a personal competency side, and a social competency side. I focus on the personal competency side, because I think we have to shift right before we can communicate and interact with people. That personal competency side is about selfawareness, which is all leadership-based, because you've got to understand who you are first. The second competency is the ability to regulate. Once I'm aware, I need to then regulate my emotions so that I can be effective. The last competency is motivation. I talked about going out and looking for your own mentorship. That's motivation.

Exceptional People Magazine | July-August 2021

EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

That's you saying, “I have something I need to do, and I have to go do it. I can't wait for somebody to motivate me. I have to be internally motivated.” There's a theory around motivation. The three questions of self-motivation are: Can I do it? Will it work? Is it worth it? If you can say yes to all those, then you have the formula of motivation. Monica: You are an exceptional example of what leadership looks like. Can anyone become a leader, or do you believe most of us are destined to be followers? Dr. Semien-McBride: Everyone has an opportunity to become a leader, but what holds us back is mindset. Either you're in a growth mindset, or you're in a fixed mindset. That is where stagnation originates. Additionally, things can happen in our Operational Style, in the emotional intelligence space, that hold us back. The only reason we don't become leaders at a higher level is because sometimes we make a subliminal choice because we don't want to shift from our fixed mindset. Monica: When you were working in corporate America, moving up the ladder as an African-American woman, did you encounter any hindrances or setbacks because of who you were? Dr. Semien-McBride: Yes. No matter how hard I worked, it was always this space that I fell into. But I did my best to overlook some of those areas of stagnation. One of them was about my education. I was always moving up quickly. Whenever I would get to a place of promotion, I would often hear,"Well, you don't have the right degree." Then I’d get that degree, and they’d say, "You don't have this other degree.” "Okay. I'll go get that next degree."

July-August 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

I got all of the degrees, and I heard “Now this position is more psychology-based." “Well, all my degrees have psychology in them." And so I thought, "Okay, I'll go get another one." I got an honorary degree as well. I finally realized that if I kept taking these steps to please others and meet their criteria, I was missing many other opportunities for me to create my own. I can definitely tell you stories and stories about things that people have done or said. Even getting my first doctoral degree. My dissertation work was amazing, but it was also amazing how many blocks and obstacles there were. But I really believed in emotional intelligence and that selfmotivation piece so that I wouldn't be hindered. Monica: You eventually left corporate America to begin working for yourself. You started an organization called Association of Rejuvenating Women (AORW). Can you talk a little bit about that? Dr. Semien-McBride: I always start businesses because I see a need that needs to be met. Usually that's what businesses do, but some people start just because they want to be a business owner. I remember very vividly calling a close girlfriend and I said, “I’ve got this idea of a women's organization that will not only help women understand health, but also help them progress in their professional careers.” I had already written business plan, so we started it. It was such a great opportunity for us to bring women together. It was something that women felt they hadn't seen before. It came about when she and I went to a conference that was probably the most amazing conference we had ever attended. I thought we need to create this and expand it.

EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

When I was researching my first dissertation in mentorship, I saw that women weren't supporting women to the level that could get them moving up. The women who got to those higher levels weren't reaching back much. There was so much discord, and I thought, “I'm going to narrow in on building emotionally intelligent leaders.” I started with women. I received a grant from two funders to pilot this program to say, “I'm going to create a 12-month program using my own curriculum because all my research says that you can't train people on a one-anddone.” These few-day workshops are not shifting people the way they need to be shifted to be able to be at the highest level of leadership. That means that you are working not only for you, but you're working for the people who work for or with you. Your job as a leader is to pull people up and to create a succession plan, because you should be moving on. That is how the CEO Institute was born.

Monica: You served in leadership roles at multiple highlyrecognized colleges as well. Dr. Semien-McBride: I've been a dean of students at 30,000-student community colleges, a vice president of a graduate university, an associate vice president at another very prominent college, and I've been a consultant for many state institutions. Some are still my clients to this day, as I help them build their leadership. I have served in the C-suite as well. In my last role, before I moved on, I was a chief operations officer for an educational marketing and research firm. That was just amazing. But I went into that role letting the CEO know that the plan was to scale out, because by then I was already working on The CEO Institute. I let him know we need to start thinking about a succession plan.

AORW focused on the professional growth of women. The pilot took off. Then we did a pilot for men, and that was amazing. It was clear that we had the right curriculum and everything worked. We were seeing results: people getting raises, getting new jobs, clearly understanding their value. These people were walking away from the program different in how they saw the world and how to be more strategic. They were seeing habits that were not positive, and turning them into positive ones. We started The CEO Institute in 2017, and here we are in 2021. The business has grown so much. I now have coaches on staff, a marketing team, and a PR person. It's been awesome.

Exceptional People Magazine | July-August 2021

EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

In every role that I've taken, I’ve communicated that I had a succession plan. I think that's something important for leaders to know: From day one you should be looking for who's going to be in your place when you leave. Come in with a growth mindset looking for the person who's going to fill your shoes. That immediately says you're going to grow, right? Monica: What are your thoughts about women in leadership roles today, especially in corporate America? What do you believe can be improved so that more women have the opportunity to serve in those roles? Dr. Semien-McBride: We women have to create the roles. We have to build a bench so that other women can step into our roles. That's how our male counterparts have been in their roles for so long. They've been taught how to be strategic. A young man is taught to identify an organization’s players, decision-makers, and influencers in his first 30 days. We're not taught that. You need to find the low-hanging fruit, so they can know your name. Start making things happen so they know who you are. Then start looking for your mentor. Start executing that on day 90. Monica: What can women bring to the table as leaders that differs from men? Dr. Semien-McBride: As women, we have an intuitive ability for empathy. We have a way of connecting and communicating with people. We need to erase the societal norm that you have to be strong and working hard to move up the ladder. If we instead focus on being who we are, utilizing our own God-given talents, we can be excellent leaders. Monica: Who is your target audience for The CEO Institute? Dr. Semien-McBride: We focus on middle managers who really want to progress and move up. We have a program

July-August 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

LIFE IS NOT A SPORT YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN WITHOUT A COACH. FIND YOUR MENTORS AND YOUR COACHES. FIND PEOPLE WHO YOU WANT TO EMULATE. for small business owners, helping them see what part do they play, and why their businesses are not growing. We also work with civic leaders, politicians, and city leaders handling big budgets. Many people miss the mark on how they interact, communicate, and make strategic decisions. We also work with C-Suite individuals. We work with entrepreneurs in helping them get off the ground and understand their business, knowing what a business model is, and what part they play in that business model. Monica: How does psychology play into a leader’s role on a day-to-day basis? Dr. Semien-McBride: It's everything. We're all human, so our brains are all based on emotion, right? Psychology came from the whole concept of understanding emotion and understanding our brains, which are 90% emotion. Psychology is about understanding how the brain and emotions connect, how we regulate emotions, and how we utilize and understand them, to become better communicators, decision-makers, and growth planners. Psychology is a crucial piece.

EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

Monica: What do you appreciate most about what you have accomplished so far? Dr. Semien-McBride: That I am doing what I love, that I'm helping people every day, and that I get to live in the results. It's like I'm forever in this action research project and watching the results. The most beautiful thing is getting a text that says, "I was able to negotiate my salary and they said yes,” "I got the job after all the work we did,” "I got the promotion," "My business is now making more money," "I'm using the marketing plan and I'm seeing more customers," or "My staff is saying that I'm much easier to work with." All the beautiful testimonies that come say to me that I'm blessed to be able to do the work that I'm good at and love.

Monica: What's on the horizon for you? Dr. Semien-McBride: I'm finishing the Operational Style book. That is hopefully slated for the end of the year or sooner. I am also thinking of adding branches to the CEO Institute, such as an employment placement division. People call me all the time and ask, "Do you have clients who are interested in this or that?" They know I'm coaching these individuals. Why would they not come to us to seek potential candidates? We've been having a lot of conversations about creating a placement division where we help companies place good leaders, and it comes with the training. Monica: You have a lot that you still want to do. Dr. Semien-McBride: It's just the beginning. The goal is to get to mobile status for sure, but not in a way where we're not supporting people. Every business my husband and I start has to be a service that supports people. He and I both believe in that. We created MK Circle to form businesses that will support and help people. Monica: Would you mind ending with your last word? Dr. Semien-McBride: We all need a good coach on our team. Sports players don't just go out and win by themselves; they're coached. They're supported and elevated by their coach. Life is not a sport you want to participate in without a coach. Find your mentors and your coaches. Find people who you want to emulate. Go to them and get support. Don’t stand still. Make today the day that you walk forward. 

Exceptional People Magazine | July-August 2021

MINDING MY BUSINESS

Often, we set lofty goals and objectives for ourselves and our businesses, which is terrific. But when the path becomes long, challenging, and scary, we sometimes become a little weary along the journey. Developing an exceedingly high level of discipline and a never-quit attitude is what transforms visions into reality. Endurance is what you must have. Any obstacles you encounter are a test of your faith, strength and determination. Those who endure reach their end goal.

Five Key Elements

to Being Persuasive PROVIDED BY ATELA PRODUCTIONS

MINDING MY BUSINESS

here are many important factors that play into becoming persuasive and being a successful negotiator. Effective persuasion is an ongoing learning process. The process of persuasion requires you to establish credibility, reinforce your position with compelling content and not just numerical data, but also stories and metaphors that have emotional impact. You need to connect emotionally with your audience and find common ground for your goals. Are there any shared advantages to your position?

01 Be Authentic Few things turn someone off than a lack of authenticity. No one likes to feel... • Like they’re lead on • As if they’re being deceived • That a person is not honest with them • Like a person has ulterior motives in trying to “help” them We want to know that someone is telling us the truth and being honest with us. There’s a reason that used car salespeople have such a bad reputation. They don’t seem authentic. They seem like all they care about is getting you to purchase a car. They don’t have a genuine, human concern for your well-being. They want to make their money and send you on your way. This may be a stereotype, but stereotypes are often based on truth. However, not all used car salesmen are have

July-August 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

Persuasion also requires flexibility. If you’re not willing to compromise, you can’t expect to bring people to your side. Here are a few more essential elements of persuasion to keep in mind and practice as you work with your prospects and clients, and seek to persuade your friends and others to accept your way of thinking, or your position on a particular subject matter.

this kind of reputation. Most of them do care about their customers. The simple fact is that we want people to be authentic with us. Now, more than ever, people can tell when someone is not presenting their true selves. They can tell when: • You’re not who you really are • You’re just putting on a show • All you care about is winning an argument When people sense a lack of authenticity, it makes it much more challenging to persuade them. They won’t trust you and won’t buy into anything you’re saying. If you want to persuade others and get them to come over to your side, it’s essential to be your true, authentic self. You need to be you and communicate honestly. The reality is that authenticity is always more persuasive. Authenticity wins the day.

MINDING MY BUSINESS

02 Use Reciprocity Few things are more persuasive and influential than reciprocity.

social obligation, people are more likely to say yes to those they owe.”

The reciprocity principle is the idea that if I do something for you, you feel compelled to do something in return for me. It’s the adage of, “You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.”

You can use the principle of reciprocity to persuade people more effectively.

A straightforward example is when waiters put a mint and a personalized thank you on the check. That tiny gesture can make people feel like they should leave a larger tip. I do something for you, and you do something for me. As master persuader Robert Cialdini says: “Simply put, people are obliged to give back to others in the form of a behavior, gift, or service they have received first. If a friend invites you to their party, you should ask them to a future party you are hosting. If a colleague does you a favor, then you owe that colleague a favor. And in the context of a

If you can give someone something of value, there’s a much greater chance that they’ll feel a sense of obligation to you. They’ll feel like they should provide you with something in return. There’s a greater chance that you can persuade them to come to your side. Even something as simple as a compliment can go a long way in terms of getting someone to come over to your side. This is one reason why persuasion is different from manipulation. With persuasion, you’re seeking to add value to the person you’re trying to persuade. You’re not just trying to get your way.

03 Use Effective Patterns of Speech It turns out there’s some science behind the stereotype of the fast-talking salesman.

Research has demonstrated that it’s better to speak faster in situations where someone will disagree with you. Why? Because it gives them less time to come up with counterarguments, which makes it easier for you to persuade them. To be clear, don’t speak so fast that a person has trouble following your argument. It would be best if you still were clear and easy to follow when communicating.

On the other side of the coin, if a person is more inclined to agree with you, speak more slowly. Give them time to evaluate what you’re saying. Give them time to process and see that your arguments line up with what they believe. They are already more inclined to agree with you, and when you give them time to process your arguments, it only increases the odds of you persuading them. To sum things up: • Speak faster when an agreement is less likely. • Speak slowly when they’re already somewhat on your side.

If you can add a bit of speed to your arguments, you may have an easier time persuading a person. Exceptional People Magazine | July-August 2021

MINDING MY BUSINESS

04 Create Scarcity The simple truth is that people want what they can’t have, and if you can create a sense of scarcity around your proposition, there’s a much greater chance of you persuading them. What exactly is scarcity? It’s putting some restrictions on what you’re offering. This restriction often creates a sense of urgency within a person. They feel like they need to take action on the offer, or they’ll miss out on something. It’s the classic case of Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). The scarcer something feels the more people want to get in on it. A classic example of scarcity is when Disney would say that they were putting a movie “back in the vault.” They were saying that if you didn’t buy the film immediately, you might not be able to get it for many years to come. The result was that people bought the movie.

Why? They were afraid they wouldn’t have another chance. Was Disney putting the movie “back in the vault?” Yes. And they knew that if they announced it shortly before they put it away, it would create a sense of scarcity, and there would be a surge of people to buy it. They were right. There are numerous ways you can create scarcity, including: • Limiting the number of what you’re offering • Highlighting what a person will miss out on if they don’t accept your offer • Putting a time limit on when someone can take advantage of your offer • Adding bonuses that they can get only if a person acts now Again, to quote Robert Cialdini: “It’s not enough to tell people about the benefits they’ll gain if they choose your products and services. You’ll also need to point out what is unique about your proposition and what they stand to lose if they fail to consider your proposal.”

05 Be Very Confident Not surprisingly, people are persuaded more by confidence than by expertise. In other words, they tend to be more influenced emotionally than logically. If you come across as confident, you’ll be more persuasive.

The more confident you are when presenting your arguments, the more likely you are to persuade someone. So be bold and enthusiastic, even if you’re not an expert on a particular topic.

On the flip side, you may have all the facts on your side, but if you’re not confident, you won’t be particularly persuasive.

The key is that you genuinely believe what you’re saying.

This is good news for you. It means you don’t have to be an expert in something to persuade a person. Instead, it would help if you were very confident in your presentation. Be bold when presenting your arguments. Avoid hedging them or qualifying them with phrases like, “I think,” or “I believe.” Don’t waffle or go back and forth when presenting your point. Present your argument with 100% confidence. 18

July-August 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

If you have strong convictions about a particular point, you can be bold and confident. You don’t need to have every fact at your disposal. It is essential to have a conviction regarding the truth of your arguments. So be bold and courageous with your arguments, even if you don’t feel like an expert. 

How to Plan Your Exit from the 9 to 5 Routine BY JON CRUMP

MINDING MY BUSINESS

hat’s stopping you from just walking out of your job to start your own business today? It’s likely to be one of two things: common sense or integrity. Both are precious commodities. Common Sense and Integrity Common sense says that you will most likely have commitments, obligations, and responsibilities that show up monthly, weekly, and even daily. It would not be wise to risk any of those commitments with any bold, cavalier action. It could cost you dearly both in the immediate future and long term. Also, you would put both yourself and your new business under immense pressure if you were under the gun right at the very beginning. It’s imperative to be supported by your family, your bank, and countless other individuals and institutions when you are starting a new venture. Integrity takes a long time to earn. This includes the integrity you have earned at your current workplace, both with your employer and colleagues. They could become valuable and influential contacts a little further down the road. It’s unwise and unhelpful to jeopardize your integrity when it’s unnecessary. Instead of just pulling the plug, it’s essential to plan your escape from your current employment with both common sense and integrity in mind. Preparing for Your Business It makes good sense to do plenty of research on your new business and get all your questions answered before making decisions on anything. A few ideas to consider: 1. Get an insider’s opinion. If you could get an insiders’ view of that business, it would serve you well. Standing on the outside looking in is a lot different from being on the inside looking out. It could save you a lot of time and money.

July-August 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

• Find someone who has already walked the path you intend to tread and ask them, “If you were doing this all over again, what would you do differently?” Their answer will probably be the most valuable conversation you could have for your new business. 2. How will you generate a profit? To the best of your ability, it’s essential to figure out the easiest and most effective way of generating a profit from your new business. 3. How will you scale up? Determine what you need to have in place to scale it to handle larger volumes of customers. Customers are critical because they provide your profits. 4. How much time do you need to get the business started? Determine how much time you have available to get your business off the ground. Naturally, the more effort and energy you put in, the quicker everything will go. • How long will it take for your business to generate some meaningful profit? Make a reasonable estimate based on the information you’ve collected. Once you’ve determined these aspects, it should be possible to calculate with some reasonable level of certainty what you need to accomplish to create a timeline for exiting your current place of employment. A Wise Way to Start Your Business So, now you can quit your job. Well, not so fast! You’re almost there! Many people start their business by working part-time from home while they keep their regular job intact. Even if it takes nine months or a year, or even a couple of years, to get things working efficiently and effectively, it’s got to be worth it. Don’t you think so? Remember to factor in some wiggle room for the unexpected, some downtime, and even some holidays. Talk to people who previously made this kind of transition. It’ll allow you to get a clearer idea of what is reasonable and doable for someone in your situation.

MINDING MY BUSINESS

Work Smarter, Not Harder Remember, your new business should have no requirement for you to work 40, 50, or 60 hours a week. You intend to move on up in terms of profit and income potential and move down in terms of time needed to create it. Seriously consider working smarter, not harder. If hard work were any guarantee of success, most people would already be wealthy. It’s not about working hard. Your success will come from having a plan, an effective strategy, and the discipline and enthusiasm to follow through on it. Once you’re confident that you have a good business plan and you’re working part-time on your business and showing some profits, that’s the time for you to work out a sensible strategy to quit your job.

YOUR SUCCESS WILL COME FROM HAVING A PLAN, AN EFFECTIVE STRATEGY, AND THE DISCIPLINE AND ENTHUSIASM TO FOLLOW THROUGH ON IT.

It all takes patience and perseverance. But remember, everything good presents itself when the time is right. Soon, you’ll be looking forward to greater profits in your own business. 

Exceptional People Magazine | July-August 2021

How to Reduce Business Costs in Five Simple Steps

BY DONNA CARLETTA

MINDING MY BUSINESS

egardless of whether you are enjoying a period of immense growth or have fallen on difficult times, you should always keep a beady eye on your business costs and expenses. Operating your business efficiently and cost-effectively increases profitability while also ensuring you are optimizing your assets. However, cutting costs is not something that’s done without adequate forethought and research. Cut costs in the wrong area, and you could inadvertently reduce the quality of your products or services or undermine the customer experience you provide to your end clients. Fortunately, many quick wins can help you minimize your expenses while also ensuring you do not cut costs excessively. Here are five top tips for reducing your business costs the smart way. Focus on discretionary costs. Start by reconsidering your discretionary costs. Discretionary costs are the expenses you incur that are not of direct relevance to your business; i.e., your business would still operate without them; for instance, business lunches. While it can be great to foster client relationships over a glass of wine or a nice lunch, it is not essential. You could meet the client at a coffee shop or even onsite at your office and still achieve the same outcome. Additional discretionary costs include magazine subscriptions, office parties, events, breaktime treats for the office, advertising and marketing, opting for the highest speed internet connection when a cheaper version is available, and offsite events.

Look at cheaper alternatives to established expenses.

After you have streamlined your discretionary costs, take a look at some of your ongoing expenses and consider if you could reduce them by choosing an alternative service or offering. For example, can your sales team use videoconferencing technology more frequently instead of traveling to meet clients onsite? Are less expensive versions of your software packages on offer? Can you find simple ways of reducing your water and electricity usage?

Review your office costs.

Take a look at your rental costs. Do you make full use of the space you are renting, or can you potentially reduce your footprint and secure a lower rent? If your business is operating in challenging times, approach your landlord and ask if it is possible to renegotiate your rental costs and terms. If your business is potentially on the edge of failure, be honest with your landlord; your success is ultimately his success. If your

landlord is not willing to budge, consider finding less expensive rental space elsewhere. In some cases, you may even be able to operate your business remotely from a home office. This can significantly decrease your utility, tax, and insurance costs.

Reevaluate your supply chain.

Consider if there is any way you can save money along the supply chain. Perhaps you can secure discounts with suppliers you have been doing business with for a long time. They may be willing to help you, especially if you have proven to be a reliable customer over the past few years. Again, if your current suppliers are not willing to offer any deals, you may need to be prepared to walk away and take your business elsewhere. If you manage to secure a discount with an alternative supplier, you can potentially use that as leverage to renegotiate your existing contract.

Consider your staffing expenses.

Inevitably, you may need to consider reducing your staffing expenses. This can be a stressful and daunting task. Sometimes, business survival is dependent on some exceedingly difficult decisions. It is crucial that you recognize that cutting the cost of your staff budget today may be essential to your future—your business should remain in operation with some staff in place rather than go to the wall at the expense of everyone’s jobs. Before making people redundant, evaluate whether it will be possible to reduce employee compensation or hours. Communicate the current situation with your employees and explain what is on the line. Some employees may step forward and volunteer to leave or reduce their hours. Unfortunately, if reducing hours or compensation will not be sufficient to get your budget back on track, you may need to lose members of the team. Cutting costs and be challenging and stressful. As such, it’s no surprise that so many business owners turn a blind eye to escalating costs until the business finds itself in a hot mess. Regardless of whether you are experiencing a period of growth or decline, you should continuously closely monitor your costs and eliminate any unnecessary expenses. This will place you in a much better position from which you can rise to the demands of any challenging period. Maintaining optimal costs may involve giving up some luxuries; however, the steps you take today will help to increase your chances of success in the future.  Exceptional People Magazine | July-August 2021

How to Successfully Find Exceptional Job Applicants BY JON CRUMP

MINDING MY BUSINESS

ad employees have burned many experienced entrepreneurs. This can cause some business owners to want to avoid hiring anyone. Instead of starting the hiring cycle again, they become determined to do the work themselves. An incompetent or unethical employee is difficult to forget, but it shouldn’t cause you to become fearful of hiring new employees. Many good workers are ready to support your business -- you have to find them. Here are five essential things to consider when bringing on a new employee. DEFINE YOUR BUSINESS CULTURE Have you ever heard the term “workplace culture”? The idea behind it is fundamental. The culture of your company is a combination of:

HIRE PEOPLE OF STRONG INTEGRITY AND CHARACTER Your employees should know your products, but they should also be ethical people who can work well with others. More than anything, you want to avoid hiring toxic people who will cause division or harm fellow employees. Hiring trustworthy employees means you can unburden some of your responsibilities without fear. It also means that you’re providing other employees with a safe work environment. Your workplace should be sensitive to your employee’s unique needs and have a low risk for things like sexual harassment or discrimination. Consider these questions to help determine if your new hire has the kind of integrity you need for your business:

• Values

• Do they have a positive attitude, or are they always complaining and bringing down the morale?

• Traditions

• Are they able to communicate openly?

• Behaviors • Attitudes

• Do they follow through with commitments?

• Beliefs

• If they tell you they will do something, do they try their best to do it?

The culture can be positive or negative, and you have the power to guide it. The people you hire will also have a lot to do with your business’ culture.

• Are they able to hold themselves accountable? In other words, do they continue to do work even when you’re not present?

It’s essential to hire people who will enhance the type of culture you want instead of diminishing it.

• Are they willing to take responsibility for their actions?

Look for people who share your values and understand the vision and branding that you have for your company. For example, imagine that you started a business selling outdoor camping gear. You decided to focus heavily on going green and your company’s eco-impact. When you hire employees for your business, you want to hire knowledgeable people who understand outdoor gear and care about the environment. That’s the culture that you would be cultivating. A person with zero experience in camping or a person who doesn’t care about green living wouldn’t fit into your culture.

• Do they always blame others when something goes wrong? • Do they spend their time building up others or tearing them down? • Are they more concerned with their ego or the good of the company and the team? No employee will be perfect, but a team member who works with integrity will produce ongoing rewards. Almost everyone recognizes a person of character, and this attribute will go well beyond your workforce. Your customer base will also respect a company that hires trustworthy people.

Exceptional People Magazine | July-August 2021

MINDING MY BUSINESS

CREATE A DIVERSE TEAM OF WORKERS Today’s business world is recognizing the need for diversity in the workplace. The business landscape has changed drastically over the past sixty years. Many companies are learning that diversity is a strength rather than a weakness. A diverse work team has many benefits, including: • Increased productivity • More creativity and out-of-the-box thinking • Greater innovation • Faster problem solving • Reduced employee turnover • Marketing that is more inclusive and sensitive to various demographics • Enhanced company reputation Diversifying your business is not necessarily an easy task, however. Similar people tend to spend time with others like themselves. That makes it harder to find new or different types of people. If you want to bring in people from many demographics, there are a few things you can do: 1. Make diversity a part of your business culture. Before you begin hiring new employees, resolve to make your business culture vibrant. You want people who have common goals but avoid confusing that with hiring people who are all the same. 2. Determine your criteria before the interview. To prevent a subconscious bias when interviewing and hiring, choose your criteria before you begin interviewing. That will help you treat all applicants in an unbiased way. 3. Have a diverse group of people interviewing. When you interview, have others on the panel besides yourself. Invite people from different demographics to help you choose employees. 4. Post job opportunities in diverse localities. In addition to where you would typically post a job opening, pick nontraditional places to post your job openings, too, even if they don’t seem like an obvious choice for your business. 5. Attend job fairs in different communities. Go to job fairs in communities and at colleges that have a more diverse 26

July-August 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

population. You can also go to non-profit organizations that advocate for those who are ordinarily underrepresented. USE A VARIETY OF AVENUES TO FIND GOOD PEOPLE You may know what kind of people you want, but how do you find them? The best way to recruit new people is to use a variety of avenues, such as: 1. Personal network. Chances are you’ve built up relationships with customers, clients, and business partners. Use those relationships to ask for referrals and recommendations. They may know the perfect person for your business. 2. Social networks. LinkedIn is a well-known resource for finding good help, but you can also use a social media platform like Facebook. 3. Online job boards. Popular job boards you can try are Flexjobs, Indeed, and CareerBuilder. • If you work in a niche industry, it’s probably better to find a more specific job board. For example, if you work in the technology arena, you may want to try Dice.com. If you’re looking for a writer, you can try ProBlogger’s job board. eFinancial Careers is excellent if you’re looking for people that work in finance. 4. Carry a business card with you. Whether you’re traveling the world for business or just stopping in at your local coffee shop, you never know when there might be an opportunity to reach out to a potential hire. USE YOUR BRANDING IN YOUR RECRUITING ADS When posting an ad for your job opening, such as online, in newspapers, or on a physical job board, remember that branding is essential. You may not be selling a product, but you are selling your company. If you want to attract outstanding applicants, give them a reason to want to apply. Try to think of creative ads that will get them interested in your business, as well as give them a clear idea of your company’s ideals. That will also help lower the number of applicants that are not a good fit. 

Why You Need to Build a Personal

BRAND PROVIDED BY ATELA PRODUCTIONS

MINDING MY BUSINESS

t this point, you might be saying, “Why do I need to build a personal brand? I'm not a big company. I'm not a Hollywood celebrity. Why do I need a brand?”

Here's the reality: every entrepreneur, coach, consultant, freelancer, or business owner should focus on building their brand.

If you are working to build a business of any sort, creating a personal brand is essential. You don't need to be a large company or a Hollywood celebrity to benefit from building a personal brand. Let's talk about some of the benefits of building a personal brand.

You don't have to be well-known or run a Fortune 500 company.

PERSONAL BRANDING ALLOWS YOU TO STAND OUT FROM THE COMPETITION First and foremost, building a personal brand enables you to stand out from the competition in a unique way. Your brand, values, expertise, and story all set you apart from your competitors.

Everything about you is unique, including your: • Experiences • Beliefs • Skills

• Strengths • Perspectives • Insights

Your competitors can't bring what you bring to the table.

All of these things set you apart from everyone else. These are incredibly valuable and distinguish you from your competitors.

They don't have what you have to offer. You're unique.

You bring unique value to the table that no other person can.

BUILDING YOUR PERSONAL BRAND ALLOWS YOU TO HIGHLIGHT YOUR UNIQUENESS It allows you to capitalize on your strengths. It enables you to highlight the best parts of yourself. And as you work to highlight your strengths, it distinguishes you from all your competitors. It gives you a distinct competitive advantage. Think about Rolex and how they've set themselves apart from the competition. Because they've focused on being exclusively a luxury watch brand, they have set themselves apart from other watch companies, like Timex.

By working relentlessly on building their brand, Rolex has distinguished itself from every other watch company.

Rolex is the brand for those who want a luxury watch, while Timex is the brand for people who want a durable, relatively inexpensive watch.

The more you work to build your brand, the more significant edge you'll have over your competition. You'll stand out amidst the crowd.

July-August 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

MINDING MY BUSINESS

PERSONAL BRANDING ALLOWS YOU TO CHARGE A PREMIUM PRICE As noted, personal branding highlights just how unique you are and the incredible value that you offer. Because you bring unique value to the table -- value that no one else offers - you can charge a premium price for your services.

This is why Nike can charge so much for their shoes. They've spent years building their brand into a powerhouse. Nike shoes have become a status symbol, and wearing Nikes says something about who you are.

After all, you're offering something that customers can't buy anywhere else.

The Nike brand automatically equals higher prices for shoes.

When you craft a solid personal brand, you can charge a higher price for your products and services because they're exclusive to you.

You can take a page from Nike's book. By working hard to build your brand and showing how much value you bring to the table, you too can charge a premium price.

The stronger your brand, the more people want your services. The more people who want your services, the higher the price you can charge.

PERSONAL BRANDING HIGHLIGHTS YOUR EXPERTISE Remember, your brand is how you present yourself to the world. This means that a significant amount of personal branding involves the content that you share with the world. The more valuable the content you share, the more you demonstrate that you're an expert whom your prospects should trust. With every piece of content that you share, including: • Social media posts

• Blog posts

• Emails

• Videos

• Inspirational graphics

• Meditations

• Affirmations

• Audiobooks

• Podcasts ...you establish yourself as an expert in your field and as someone who knows and understands your industry. You become a thought leader in your arena.

You are demonstrating your knowledge and insight to the world. You're proving just how much value you offer and that you're the go-to person in your industry. The more you demonstrate your expertise, the more your audience will trust you and come to you to solve their problems.

Exceptional People Magazine | July-August 2021

MINDING MY BUSINESS

PERSONAL BRANDING ALLOWS YOU TO ATTRACT YOUR IDEAL AUDIENCE Being known as an expert in your field brings unique benefits with it.

Over time, he has established himself as one of the go-to people in the self-development arena.

When you're known as the expert in your industry:

The results?

• It attracts your ideal audience - the people who need your help the most.

• He attracts enormous audiences of people who want to fulfill their potential.

• You get more referrals from others in your industry and related industries.

• Millions of people read his books and follow him on social media.

• You can charge a premium price - the kind of price that only an expert can charge.

• He can charge a premium price for his services.

Tony Robbins is a prime example of this. For years, he has been sharing the message of self-empowerment. Everything he says, every video he puts out, every book he writes has the same brand message: you can develop into a powerful individual, and I can help you do that.

By consistently building his personal brand over many years, Tony Robbins now has people flocking to him for advice. Do you want to experience the Tony Robbins effect? If you want to be known as the go-to person in your industry, then it's essential that you begin building your personal brand as soon as possible.

PERSONAL BRANDING PUTS YOU IN CHARGE OF THE NARRATIVE As we noted earlier, your personal brand will evolve, whether you want it to or not. If you: • Use social media • Have an email list • Have a blog • Speak to groups • Record and share videos, then you're already building your personal brand. Everything you put out into the world is part of your brand. The question is whether you're intentionally shaping the narrative of your brand. In other words, are you carefully determining what your brand is all about, or are you letting it happen in an ad-hoc manner?

July-August 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

Are you thoughtfully curating your brand, or are you letting your brand "evolve" on its own? Are you the one crafting people's opinions about you, or are you just letting things happen? The beauty of personal branding is that it ensures that you're actively shaping your own narrative. You're determining what others think about you rather than simply letting them form their own opinions. With every social media post you share, every blog post you put up, every email you send, you're shaping the narrative of who you are. You're in control of the story.

MINDING MY BUSINESS

PERSONAL BRANDING INCREASES YOUR VISIBILITY The more you build your personal brand, the more visible you'll become. • You'll attract more fans on social media. • Those fans will share your content with their tribes. • The more your content gets shared, the more fans you'll attract. It's a powerful, repeatable cycle. As your fan base grows, you can expect to be featured in the media. Media outlets are always looking for experts to comment on particular subjects, and when you become known

as the expert in your field, you'll start generating media requests. The more you're featured in media outlets, the more opportunities you'll have to speak in front of crowds. Conference organizers are always looking for well-known media personalities to speak. The truth is, building your brand and building your platform go hand-in-hand. As your personal brand grows, your platform will get bigger, making your brand stronger. Building your brand is a virtuous cycle that brings more extraordinary results the more you do it.

PERSONAL BRANDING SHAPES WHAT CONTENT YOU SHARE If you don't have a solid personal brand, you don't have any guidelines about what content you should share with your audience. So, you end up sharing either nothing at all or whatever catches your fancy at any given moment. Neither of these strategies contributes to your personal brand.

When you have a solid personal brand, it guides you toward precisely the kinds of content you should share. Simply put, you should only share content that aligns with and promotes the values of your brand. A meme might be funny, but you shouldn't share it if it doesn't add to your brand.

PERSONAL BRANDING CONNECTS YOU MORE WITH INDIVIDUALS The simple truth is, people connect better with people than they do with companies. It's why Elon Musk and Richard Branson have more individual Twitter followers than the companies they founded.

The more connected you are, the more business opportunities you will attract. More speaking requests. More media opportunities. The opportunity to partner with other like-minded people.

The more you work to build your personal brand, the more individuals will want to connect with you, both in-person and online. They become attracted to your values, personality, convictions, and the insights you have to offer.

Building your brand connects you personally with potential customers and clients, which then helps build your business.

Exceptional People Magazine | July-August 2021

MINDING MY BUSINESS

PERSONAL BRANDING ALLOWS YOU TO BECOME AN INFLUENCER The more you develop your personal brand, the more you become known as an "influencer." An influencer significantly shapes the opinions of their followers and has a significant influence on how they behave. There are some significant benefits to being an influencer: • Big brands want to work with influencers with a large audience. This results in more revenue for you. • You often receive free things from companies that are interested in partnering with you. • You receive media requests to speak at or even attend events. If you want to get in on these perks, start working to develop your personal brand.

THE POWER OF THE PERSONAL BRAND Are you starting to see the power of your personal brand? Your brand is what enables you to distinguish yourself from the competition. It allows you to charge a premium price for your services. The more you focus on your personal brand, the more visible you become, and the more you become known as the expert in your field. The more you're known as an expert; the more opportunities come your way.

July-August 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

And the more you build your personal brand, the more you connect with others, which helps build your business even more. It's safe to say that few things are more powerful than your brand. The more you focus on building it, the greater the results you'll see. Now, are you ready to start building your brand? 

Winning Your Partner’s Backing for That New Business Opportunity BY PAT MARKEL

MINDING MY BUSINESS

mbarking on a new business opportunity is challenging enough without being at loggerheads with your spouse or partner about it. It would help if you had your partner's backing to succeed, but this can be not easy to achieve. Perhaps you may feel that your new endeavor is uniquely personal to you, but it involves all those around you as well. Your partner's questions and doubts may sound negative,

Information is power (and it's very reassuring). You can never hope to succeed in business by stumbling around in the dark. You need to do all the research you can to support your business idea and present it convincingly to your other half. Make a step-by-step plan for how you will achieve your goals to show your partner that you know what you're doing. Also, include a Plan B to reassure them that all is not lost if things go off track.

Explain how you're going to get the money to support the business. One of your partner's leading (and very understandable) concerns will be how you will fund your new business and still ensure the bills are paid. Creating a carefully considered plan regarding funding streams (including a Plan B) and being fully transparent about finances will go a long way to winning your partner's support. Part of your financial plan should include diversifying your income streams. Think, for instance, about purchasing

Highlight what your family stands to gain. Don't let your other half think that this business venture is all about you doing what you want. Explain how it will benefit your family. Yes, it may mean more money, but perhaps it also means more time with the kids or as a couple or the chance to move to a different area. Again, it is vital to keep in mind that your business venture will not only impact you but your whole family. Their life may change based on what happens next, so make sure that your new business is a good match for everyone.

July-August 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

but they come from a place of concern about your family's welfare. When you embark on a new business opportunity, your family is going to run the gamut with you, both financially and emotionally. So, how can you help to assuage your partner's worries and get them onside ready to support you? Here are three essential tips to help.

Start your research by checking out reputable websites such as Businessweek.com, Entrepreneur.com, and Forbes.com and learn everything you can. When things are more developed, meet with a business consultant to test your ideas and reassure your partner that you have taken professional advice.

a building in an area with a high footfall that consists of both residential and retail or office space. You can rent out the residential units and use this income to finance your business while setting up your business premises downstairs. Once you are established, you will have two sources of income to support your family. If the worst happens and your business is not profitable, your rental spaces will still generate a reliable income stream. This is your invaluable Plan B. You can then gain additional income by renting your business premises.

You may have a great idea, but any new business venture involves a degree of risk, so don't be surprised if your other half isn't jumping for joy right away. When you talk to your partner about your new business, present it to them clearly and highlight those elements that provide stability and security. By following the tips above, you will have a good chance of winning your partner's valuable support as you embark on what is a challenging and exciting time. 

Phenomenal Women’s Virtual RoundTable A SUCCESSFUL WOMAN SHOULDN’T HAVE TO WALK ALONE. When you join the Phenomenal Women’s RoundTable, you’re getting more than a discussion group—you’re getting your own personal board of directors. Led by executive coach, trainer, and mentor Judy Hoberman, this is a community of strong, like-minded professional women who have been there and done that . . . and want to see YOU succeed. Over the course of 6 months, you’ll have access to: Bi-monthly confidential sessions with your “board of directors” 2 x 45-minute Executive Coaching sessions with Judy Accountability and connection within a small, private group A wealth of resources, including tactics to ignite your leadership strategies, an engaging network, and a problem solving “think tank” Get the support you deserve, from professional women who understand where you’ve been and where you want to go.

Because women want to be treated equally,

NOT IDENTICALLY. ™

To learn more or join the next RoundTable: sellinginaskirt.com/roundtable

judy@sellinginaskirt.com

203.605.3635

July/August 2021

14 Habits

That Make You a Valuable Employee

10 Essential Skills Great

Leaders Possess

How to Reduce Business Costs in Five Simple Steps

Huntley Lawrence

INSPIRING AVIATION YOUTH TO FLY THEIR OWN BETTER PATH

CONTENTS EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

HUNTLEY LAWRENCE Inspiring Aviation Youth to Fly Their Own Better Path

CHARLES LAVERTY Turnaround Entrepreneur Re-Engineers the Future of Fitness

EMPOWER YOURSELF

10 Essential Skills Great Leaders Possess

14 Habits That Make You a Valuable Employee

Structuring Your Life to Help You Achieve Your Goals

Three Money Strategies I Always Use for Debt Reduction

Organize Your Documents for the 2021 Tax Season

Resilience: An Important Quality in the Age of Pandemic or Any Other Adversity

LIGHTER SIDE OF LIFE

70 72

Home Office Jungle Recipes

Each

of us has been given a slate on which we can create our own masterpiece. This slate can become your blueprint for life. Make sure your blueprint is designed in a way that will leave a legacy of greatness and that others will want to follow.

Monica A. Davis

Huntley

Lawrence

Inspiring Aviation Youth TO FLY THEIR OWN BETTER PATH

EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

“A

re you focused on what you don’t have … or what you do have?”

Huntley Lawrence posed this question last month during his commencement address to more than 200 graduates at Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in Queens, New York. He was addressing the specific issues that this class of 2021 has faced over the past year – the impact of hate, racism, and pandemic lockdowns. Lawrence continued, “What if I told you that no matter where you were born, where you started, where you came from, or how much money you have, you have the opportunity to forge your own path. A new path. A better path.” Lawrence knows this truth first hand. Raised only a stone’s throw from New York’s famed LaGuardia Airport in Queens, he was fascinated with flying and planes. At an early age, he set his sights on being a pilot. In high school, he attended the aviation program at PS127 near his home where he learned firsthand about flight at LGA and JFK. Even before he graduated, Lawrence passed his written pilot’s test. But when his plans to fly planes for a major airline were dashed due to a vision

issue, Lawrence didn’t blink. He kept his focus and soon became fascinated with the larger field of aviation, which encompasses nearly all aspects of air travel and the activities that help to facilitate it. Lawrence headed to the Florida Institute of Technology and graduated in 1985, focusing on the college’s new aviation curriculum. Starting his career at an entry-level job at the Port Authority of NY and NJ (PANYNJ), the young man moved continually up the corporate ladder and earned an MBA at Dowling College 2002. Although he knew he couldn’t fly as a career, he kept his mind open to different opportunities and different perspectives, always trusting his gut and his passion. Today, as Acting COO, Lawrence runs all operations at PANYNJ and is responsible for working with the Port Authority’s five lines of business – Aviation, Port, PATH, Tunnels, Bridges and Terminals, and the World Trade Center – as well as the operations services department. He also continues to serve as Director of Aviation, a position he took in 2017, managing John F. Kennedy (JFK) International, Newark Liberty International, LaGuardia, New York Stewart International and Teterboro airports – with revenues of $2.5 billion and a staff of more than 1,500 aviation professionals. He’s also proud to still be a licensed pilot. Speaking to Vaughn’s graduates, Lawrence said, “Your dreams may not come to pass the way you envision them. But never give up on them; simply approach them with an open mind. An open mind always allows for many other opportunities. A closed mind will block them out.” With the increased need for highly skilled aviation professionals, Lawrence is excited about PANYNJ’s partnership with Vaughn College on a new annual scholarship program which took flight this year. The program awards six Queens County high school grads with full four-year scholarships at Vaughn, including paid summer internships at the Port Authority while enrolled at Vaughn and a full-time position in Aviation Operations at the Port Authority airports upon graduation. There’s no question that Queens-bred Lawrence is an outstanding role model to students in the area and beyond. When we spoke with him recently, we were moved

July-August 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

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by his clear enthusiasm to help others achieve their dreams as he did. Monica: Talk about your experiences growing up. How have those experiences led you to the work that you're doing? Huntley: My interest in aviation started at an early age. I started taking flying lessons in high school and continued in college. By my sophomore year in college, I realized that the high cost of flight training and limited airline pilot opportunities were not what I had hoped. I considered a flying career in the military, but my eyesight required correction at that time and I knew that it would be an uphill battle to compete for a military flying career. Two new fields of study were emerging at colleges and universities at that time. One was air traffic management and the other was aviation management. So, while at Florida Tech, I started to take courses to understand more about aviation management, and was quickly drawn to the diversity of experiences that were possible. I was especially interested in the master planning and design of airports. I’d done an internship at the Port Authority in high school and was able to build on those experiences as a result. That gave me a pretty solid level of interest in the business of airports, which touches upon all the areas from technology to air side operations to design, planning, and legal issues. I was really attracted to the diversity of experiences and the opportunities to make an impact. Monica: Who had an impact on you and was your support system as you were moving forward? Huntley: It started at home with the unwavering support of my parents. My parents supported me every step of the way and they wanted to continue to fund my pilot training, even when I changed my focus to aviation management. As I went through different experiences, they continued to provide support. I was also fortunate in coming to the Port Authority for a structured training program as a junior operations supervisor. The Port Authority's training program exposed me to each area of the operational business, the air side, land side, terminals, and administration. In many ways, this

whetted my appetite and level of interest. Within weeks of being out of college, I started as a frontline supervisor at a very low level. I was ill-prepared but fortunately, the workforce, the workers, my colleagues, peers, and supervisors were patient enough to train me and help me build my leadership and supervisory skills. Even more so, I have to credit the people that I encountered. Rosa Nelson was a junior supervisor, but really a motherly figure. I worked with Lorraine Lett and Howie MacArthur who were good at what they did and at sharing their knowledge. I also have to credit John Geddes and many others when I moved to Newark Airport for an administrative role. These people shared a lot of their working knowledge and experience which was very helpful in growing my early career as a junior supervisor. At one point, there was a gentleman by the name of Jerry Fitzgerald. Jerry was a leader ahead of his time when it came to providing development opportunities. I was working as a mid-level supervisor and provided a case study on some of the challenges that we were having with scheduling and managing manpower. I developed a proposal and approach to computerize the entire process. I received widespread support across the department and ended up doing a detailed presentation for the entire aviation department senior leadership team. Exceptional People Magazine | July-August 2021

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Shortly thereafter I had the opportunity to become a properties and commercial representative trainee. During this twelvemonth training program, I learned how to deal with complex commercial issues and property transactions. Within a year and a half, my new manager alowed me to get involved in some of the complex deals. And within two years, he asked me to be the assistant manager of the division. Monica: Would you say that all of these combined experiences enabled you to become the leader that you are today? Huntley: There's no question they have. I think when you're a junior operations supervisor, you learn how to be in a servant role, serving the public. You learn a lot about empathy when you deal with specific issues and circumstances that could affect people. Then you also learn what it takes to get things done, why things get stalled, and how you can accomplish things. Monica: What does serving as a Director of Aviation and Acting COO mean to you personally and professionally for the people you are responsible for guiding?

BEING IN THIS ROLE TODAY MEANS I CAN PREPARE OUR AIRPORTS FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF PEOPLE IN THIS REGION. I CAN PROVIDE WORLD CLASS FACILITIES AND AIRPORTS THAT THE PEOPLE OF THIS REGION DESERVE. 42

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Huntley: Personally, while I exceeded my own expectations, professionally, you’ve got to consider that when I started in the agency, we did not have the best rated airports in the country or even in the world. Our facilities were old, so we were early adopters and builders and innovators because we didn't have the money to invest. We were investing elsewhere in the agency.

You have to continue to work your craft and be good at it. In sports, it's practice; in business, it's training. It's sharpening your skills and also providing value. Every person on a sports team has a stat sheet to show what they're contributing to the overall success. That's what we have to do as employees of a business: Provide that value and contribute to the overall success.

Being in this role today means I can prepare our airports for the next generation of people in this region. I can provide world class facilities and airports that the people of this region deserve. We've got a great metropolitan area. We've got the great city of New York and Newark. They need to have great airports.

Monica: Colin Powell once said that great leaders are almost always great simplifiers who can cut through arguments and doubt, and offer a solution everybody can understand. Can you provide an example of a complex problem that you've been able to simplify so that those that you lead were excited about implementing the solution?

This position allows me, together with my team, to contribute my experience and knowledge to transform our airports and our other transportation facilities and hand them off to the next generation.

Huntley: That's a good question. General Powell is absolutely right. We often look at the issues in business as more challenging and complex than they are, except when it comes to science and finding a cure for cancer, for example, or finding new battery technology to improve the charging.

Monica: Have there been any challenging moments in your life or career that helped prepare you for what you're doing now? Huntley: There were personal challenges related to parking in the basement and being on the 55th floor of One World Trade Center during the 1993 bombing. The significant loss of line and economic and regional impact of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the WTC and the devastating impact and challenge related to COVID 19. No one can prepare you for these events.

Most problems in business can actually be broken down into two or three parts. One of my former colleagues used to say, "The answer is money. What is the problem?"

You work off your experience and the talent from your team but often times, these situations require you to do something new or different. There are challenging moments all the time. Change in business is like trying to pull a rubber band apart. When you're trying to create change, you're stretching the organization. There's always a tendency for folks to look back and do the things that are easy – and for you as a leader to acquiesce and let that pressure pull you back to the snail's pace of progress. But we are all put here for a reason. That's to deliver on a vision – to transform the businesses that we're in. So, the challenge is that momentum to pull you back. Making transformational change is very disruptive. You have to be in this cycle of continuous improvement to be at the top of your game. Exceptional People Magazine | July-August 2021

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Sometimes it's really about solving a problem or having the sufficient funds to resolve the problem. Many people don't understand that the Port Authority does not own or operate virtually any of the terminals at our airports. The terminals are where passengers are greeted, go through screenings, interact with concessions, aircrafts, and airlines. Years ago, we were focused on building an operating model for the new terminal at Newark Airport. And candidly, this was a “triple P” transaction – a public, private partnership at LaGuardia Airport. We decided that the Port Authority would put up a portion of funds, a private sector would provide another portion of funds, and then the private sector would manage the terminal. But at Newark Airport, we decided that it was going to be the Port Authority that was going to be funding. Generally speaking, the staff at the Port Authority at Newark Airport felt that they were going to operate the terminal, given that it was a Port Authority investment. The team was very motivated and in the best position to manage the new terminal A, given the fact that they

were already operating in terminal B. The staff is very experienced, knowledgeable, and best in class. They can really work with the best terminal operators in the country and in the world. But there was a challenge to their thought process in that we needed to be competitive with all of our other private terminals. We needed to have the flexibility to invest when necessary, to be able to address O&M issues, and to address innovation and technology. We needed to have a more flexible operating structure. So I challenged to consider our overall vision and goal and insisted that we use the private sector to operate the terminal on our behalf. We created a new operations, maintenance and concessions arrangement which allows the private sector to bring in their expertise. In this case, we brought Munich International Airport, the operator of one of the few five-star terminals in the world. We brought them in to bring their expertise together with our expertise to create a team that would design, build, operate, and maintain the new facility. This was a challenge. There was an expectation that it would be convenient for the Port Authority to manage it. But the real concern was success in having a world class facility and maintaining that world class facility to the highest standards. I didn't feel that the structure that the team would have to follow within the agency would allow that success. That's why we are now following that path. We're doing a true partnership with a private sector where they're going to operate on our behalf. Monica: How would you describe your leadership style? Huntley: First, I'd like to say: If you want to know what I'm like as a leader, you have to ask the people that I work with. But I can share my perception of myself. I like to take care of my team. Focus on them as individuals. Understand their needs and advocate for them. I consider myself to be inclusive, collaborative, very focused on accomplishment and on getting tangible things done, acknowledging the process, working through processes where necessary, and going around processes where necessary. I’m also focused on having a clear set of business objectives that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time

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based, while really cutting to the chase and simplifying issues so we can get problems solved. I would say my leadership style is competitive. I'm not competing against my workforce or anyone on my team; I'm competing against other airports and airports across the world. I want us to have the best. Monica: What is your vision for the future? Huntley: I have set a vision for the Port Authority airports and the Port Authority to be a world class operator of world class airports. I use world class twice in a sentence for a reason: A world class operator focuses internally on the people and the practices, the standards, the operational excellence, the technology, sustainability practices, integrity, and all the things that we do internally to run our business. That means world class talent, training, communication, and innovation as an entity – being the best that we can be as a world class operator. World class airports really speak to the investment we make in our facilities; providing best in class investments that are centered around the customer. To achieve our vision, there are three pillars that I enforce, share, and collaborate around. The first is to make significant infrastructure investment through our capital plan and transform our airports through our capital improvements: infrastructure investment, building new facilities, and improving facilities.

Monica: How do you describe the culture that you speak to, that you have built and seek to continue to build and promote? Huntley: To me, culture starts with transparency, communication, and intent. Making sure that there's clear connectivity with the overall vision at all levels. Last year alone, I had 11 or 12 town halls directly bringing the agenda to the entire aviation team to make sure there's input, alignment, inclusion and staying open to ideas.

The second pillar is world class customer experience: to provide services that customers need and want, and to measure customer experience using best in class tools.

Monica: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has partnered with Vaughn College on a scholarship program. What is the vision for the program and how do you see it impacting the students and the communities in which they live?

The third pillar has to do with 21st century governance, and that's the realization that we don't operate everything that we have; that we rely on others. So we establish accountable relationships, are clear on the types of initiatives and the work that stakeholders will provide, and provide measurement and expectation on what they need to do. We also provide support and guidance on those measures.

Huntley: The scholarship program provides individuals with opportunities to get support to complete or carry on with their education. In my view, it's really to provide more interest and connection to the aviation industry, to help provide a new generation of leaders. And hopefully provide people that are going to be more impactful; that are going to take the state of the industry that we have today and move it into a better place in the future.

So as an entire entity, we're also focused on providing world class service. Those are the pillars, or foundation, of what we do to become a world class operator of world class airports.

It’s a relatively new partnership within the past five years, in terms of the scholarship opportunities. But we've also had a partnership with Vaughn College around training and hiring, called the Operations Agent Training Program. Exceptional People Magazine | July-August 2021

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Monica: How will you be able to measure the success of the program? Huntley: You measure the success by the individuals who receive the funding and then advance through their careers, and by the folks who want to work in the places at the Port Authority or at airports. Whether you work at airports or airlines or support this business, I think those are the numbers that you use to measure the success of the program. Monica: What words of encouragement can you give young people today, especially young African American men, who may think that what you're doing isn’t an option or an interest for them. Huntley: It doesn't have to be what I'm doing in this industry. You really have to follow your passion, whatever that may be, whether it's sports, music, finance, or law. A lot of it is no different from what we learned in the school yard and being good at what you do: You’ve got to practice and be good at it. Just because you're in the game doesn't mean you're entitled to play. You may be on the bench. If you want to get off the bench, you’ve got to play better.

THE SMARTEST PEOPLE ARE NOT ALWAYS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE. THE PEOPLE WHO ARE THE MOST SUCCESSFUL ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT WHAT THEY DO AND RECOGNIZE THAT THEY HAVE TO CONTINUE TO SHARPEN THEIR SKILLS AND IMPROVE THEIR CRAFT TO BE AMONGST THE BEST. Monica: Would you mind closing with your last word? Huntley: In virtually every encounter you have, there's an opportunity to learn. There's an opportunity to assess and think about whether you want to stay the course or do something different. We have the ability to change any interaction or situation into a positive one, and one that allows us to pivot to a much better place or position. Many of us in business are not always the smartest in the room. In many cases, the smartest people are not always the most successful people. The people who are the most successful are passionate about what they do and recognize that they have to continue to sharpen their skills and improve their craft to be amongst the best. When you are the best, people notice you. People pay attention and look to you for opportunities, advice, and leadership. In contrast, there may be people who aren’t always as talkative as others; don’t assume that these people can’t teach you something. As you're learning, get advice from all people, even those who don't talk so much. Consider many different perspectives. You can learn a lot from them. 

July-August 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

CHARLES

LAVERTY Turnaround Entrepreneur Re-Engineers the

FUTURE OF FITNESS

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f you’re like most Americans, you start each year resolving to improve at least one aspect of your life.

himself. Now he’s on a mission to help others improve their fitness and overall health with this EMS technology.

For many, that resolution is to get in better physical shape, work out more, or lose weight. But 92% of us don’t stick to our resolutions, simply because we don’t have enough time for a good workout in our busy days.

Wearing Laverty’s wireless Nuzuna EMS bodysuit or Powerpants offers the benefits of EMS with electrodes that send real-time body data to a small control box. The suit stimulates muscle contractions, activating more muscle groups and muscle fibers at the same time. He says that this allows the wearer to get the results of a two-hour workout in only 20 minutes.

Charles Laverty is here to change all that – with a new way to get the full benefits of a 2-to-3-hour workout in only 20 minutes. It’s called Electro Muscular Stimulation (EMS), and it’s an FDA-approved physical therapy which uses localized conduction pads to deliver electrical stimulation to specific muscles after surgery or to treat muscle spasms. In the past several years, EMS has also been used as a way to boost the effects of exercise. Studies published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning, Scientific American, and Shape magazine back up claims that EMS can help people improve muscle tone and lose weight. Laverty’s method expands this EMS technology into a fullbody workout suit worn during exercise. He has personally experienced the physical benefits – and even pain relief –

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Laverty is so convinced about the benefits of EMS technology that in 2019 he quit his CEO job to open Nuzuna Wellness Center in Costa Mesa, California. The idea took off like wildfire. Classes and personal training sessions were filling and ramping up monthly sales – until the pandemic forced him to close the center. But Laverty was not discouraged. Instead of sitting on his laurels during lockdown, Laverty scouted out new locations. Today Nuzuna boasts 16 locations throughout California’s Orange

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County, with more slated to open soon. All locations are staffed by elite trainers and offer EMS-enhanced oneon-one personal training, classes, fitness and wellness products. That’s not all Laverty did to lesson lockdown’s impact on his fledgling business. Seeing that physical therapy and chiropractic treatment were considered essential services, Laverty added them to Nuzuna’s slate of offerings – allowing Nuzuna to stay open when most gyms had to remain closed. Laverty is no stranger to leadership positions in the health, wellness, and medical products industries. A Physical Education major at Parsons College, he originally intended to be a teacher. But the young man saw opportunities in business, honing his skills leading diverse teams at Dobuke Corporation, Foster Medical, and InfusionCare Inc. through the 1980s. Before founding Nuzuna Zone Fitness, Laverty served as chairman, president and CEO for Curaflex Health Services. It was during this time that Laverty was named Turnaround Entrepreneur of the Year by Merrill Lynch Inc Magazine and Ernst & Young. He then served as CEO of Southern California’ s Advanced Bifurcation Systems (ABS), a healthcare technology platform offering improved stenting in cardiovascular procedures. Today, Laverty is spreading the word about EMS technology and how it can revolutionize exercise and health. He’s also a firm proponent of sticking to your business goals, even if that means adapting to unforeseen circumstances like a world pandemic. When we recently talked with this seasoned healthcare products leader recently, it was easy to understand his enthusiasm – and his success. Monica: At what point in your life did health and fitness become a core focus to you? Charles: I grew up on Long Island, New York. When I was one or two years old, my dad gave me a basketball, a football, and a baseball – and anything else that had a ball with it. For the first 10 years of my life, nothing was more important than sports, or doing something related to physical activity.

EXERCISE HELPS YOUR MENTAL ACUITY, AND ELECTRO-MUSCLE STIMULATION (EMS) DEFINITELY HAS AN IMPACT UPON MENTAL ACUITY. I played sports in high school, and I went to college on an athletic scholarship. The benefits of exercise and health were always pounded into my head when I was playing an organized sport, whether it was youth soccer, youth basketball, football, or even baseball. I can't pinpoint exactly when, but as I was getting older, I watched my parents get older. They smoked, and I despised the smell of smoking. When I was 15 or 16, I told myself that I would be healthy the rest of my life, no matter what I had to do. After college, I started working in the medical field. To me, exercise and health were always the number one thing. And this may sound a little bit morbid, but I want to live until I'm 190 – and then another 100 years after that. I don't know if that's possible, but it's a nice dream to have. In order to do that, you have to have a good diet. You have to be physically fit. You have to be active. And I think the key to longevity is being busy – keeping your mind going, keeping your body in good shape, watching what you're eating. Not being crazy on diets or exercise, but doing everything in moderation. Monica: It's a combination of health and fitness that helps to extend, at least from the physical standpoint. Charles: Exercise helps your mental acuity, and electromuscle stimulation (EMS) definitely has an impact upon Exceptional People Magazine | July-August 2021

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mental acuity. I have a number of friends who have retired and they played golf every day. I think you have to keep your mind very busy, because I think it deteriorates if you don't keep it busy. There's no scientific evidence to that, but I've seen so many people who end up with either Alzheimer's, or they just forget things. Maybe they have a very mild case of Alzheimer's. But I think that happens when you're not keeping your mind busy. You're not reading, you're not staying up with current events, you're not reading for pleasure, all those things. I think it's all a combination of your physical fitness, wellness, and health. 50

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Monica: Can you describe EMS technology, what makes it a technology, and how it works? Charles: EMS started probably 3,000 years ago in Egypt, believe it or not. Back then we didn't have the footwear that we have today. In fact, we didn't have it in the 1600s. People were basically barefoot or wearing crude sandals. This caused a lot of problems, and they used eels to create electricity that would move throughout the body and heal their feet. It sounds a bit archaic, but it was reality. If you think about how electricity works, you think about a waterfall, or rubbing two sticks together to create a spark.

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So that's really where it first started. Around the 1700s, a couple of scientists improved on it. Around 1975, transneural muscular stimulation, or TENS units, was approved by Medicare for reimbursement. TENS is EMS, electro-muscle stimulation. Two or three little electrodes are placed on a foot, an elbow, an arm, a neck, a shoulder, to send a very low frequency current into the body that relieves pain. The voltage is way too low to cure anything, but it alleviates some pain, and believe it or not, it's reimbursable. So, it really expanded quite a bit. This is a derivative of that. It started in Germany originally. It's expanded so much now but it was basically put into a suit. We call it a power suit, and it's made of a bio-elastic material, sort of like yoga pants. Inside the suit there are 20 different electrodes which work off a power box. The signal is sent to the power box through an IOS system, an Apple system, or through an Android system. Then the current goes through the specific part of the body. The impact is remarkable. I first saw this suit when I was the CEO of a cardiovascular company. I was at a conference in Germany. I was just mesmerized by it. I started to investigate and tried it out myself. I had what's called Dupuytren's contracture. It's in your hands. You might have seen someone with this, where your hands are curled up because the tendons in your hand are shortened up. It's a very painful disease, usually treated through either surgery or needles. I went to a hand surgeon a number of times, but I just didn't want to have surgery. I thought I would live with it, but it was very difficult to even open up a bottle of water because my fingers would curl up. So, I purchased one of those suits myself, and I started using it. I didn't know what the effects would be, but knew that it couldn't be bad for you. I thought it was good for you, and exercise was important. You can use weights, you can ride a bike, or just do any exercise. The electro-muscle stimulation you're getting travels throughout the body. I did this for about six months, a couple of times a week. All of a sudden, I noticed I could open my hands. I told a doctor friend of mine what was going on. He asked, "What have you done differently?" I said, "Well, I'm using

electro-muscle stimulation twice a week in this bodysuit." I kept on doing it, and when I went back to see him about a month later, I could put my hands totally flat on a table. The only answer for that was that EMS had an impact. So, I got very excited, left the CEO job, and I started Nuzuna Wellness Centers. Monica: Would you say that it is considered a medical technology? Charles: Not yet, because we have to complete all these clinical studies. Our theme is “Where technology meets fitness.” We need to get enough clinical studies done at places like MD Anderson, the Cleveland Clinic, and Cedars-Sinai. We have done a study at Cedars-Sinai, a study at University of Tampa, and we're doing a study on Dupuytren's syndrome at Stony Brook University. It's probably going to cost us $20 million and take four or five years. Monica: When you do these clinical studies, do you seek participants who have physical issues and muscle-related illnesses? Charles: Absolutely. Let me give you some examples. Many kids in high school injure their ACLs, or lateral or medial meniscus. Their muscles aren't developed quite enough, and they're doing exercises that help them, but don't really develop the inner muscles. So, they would be candidates. People who have aged a bit, and have shoulder or back problems would be candidates. Also, overweight people. We have another contract with the city of Claremont for their employees in Claremont, California. Claremont is a small community but a big college town. A lady who ran this program for the city in their civic center was also a Ph.D. at the Claremont colleges. She was in her 50s, a bit overweight, and I said, "Anne, you should join these classes. In two and a half months, at twice a week – basically eight sessions a month – her waist size dropped 10 sizes. We asked her to let us take photos with the clothes she had on when she started. It's the most unbelievable thing. Not only did her entire body change, but she looked much younger. So, there's a big physical impact with this. Exceptional People Magazine | July-August 2021

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Monica: Are you concerned that some people might use the technology as a way to lose weight without changing their eating habits, or changing their ways?

Charles: We're developing our distribution channels and starting an advertising program. We have home units now, but we're just manufacturing the units.

Charles: The one thing we know is that the American diet is horrible – a lot of fast food and junk food. What happens is that when you're doing EMS, the electro-muscle stimulation is creating this in your body that you're not really changing your diet too much. What do I mean by that? Well, every 12 to 350 milliseconds, the system measures muscle density, hydration, circulation, temperature, and the kinetic motion within the body.

Monica: You mentioned that insurance companies are aligning themselves with what you are doing.

It sends real time data to a control box that we can show the client, and they see improvement. When you're dieting, you don't see improvement in your body. You can't visualize it. You might see that you look differently, your pants fit better, or your dress fits better, but you can't see what's happening. With this, you feel what's happening. There's feedback to you. Monica: Is there a possibility for someone to overuse this technology? Charles: There's always a possibility for anything. I do this four to five times a week, because I've been doing it for a couple years, and your body gets used to it. You have to be controlled on what you're doing, so the uniqueness about it is that if you have any feeling of cessation, you just push a button and the box shuts off. You really can't overuse it too much, and you wouldn't want to do that. Your body needs about a 72-hour rest between sessions to recover and to regroup a little bit. Monica: The reason I ask is because people have a tendency to overdo things when something becomes the “next big thing.” Charles: Yes, definitely. We have 16 locations in California, and we have a lot of corporate accounts. Our locations have personal trainers, certified trainers, physical therapists. We're just getting into the home market right now. There's a heavy duty training we do with anyone. Once we start in the home market, we’ll have videos to go along with it that takes them through everything from start up to workouts, and what they should do. Monica: When do you anticipate it being available for the average home buyer? 52

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Charles: Insurance companies in general are paying people to exercise. They're working with clubs, and offering it as part of their program. We've been speaking to them, but in order for the insurance companies to recommend us, they have to see the clinical trials. I believe that this company can be acquired in 8 to 10 years by an insurance company, once we complete all of our clinical trials. Monica: What would you say you have accomplished so far with this technology and your wellness centers? Charles: Some days, you're pulling your hair out. We spent almost all of 2018 and more than half of 2019 just developing the strategy and recruiting the right people. We opened the first center in November 2019. That month we did about $30,000, which isn't bad for introducing a new concept. December was unbelievable; we did over $100,000. January 2020 started out tremendously. In the latter part of January, there was a lot of press about COVID in Seattle and in New York. But nothing had hit the coast, and it really wasn't too bad. All of a sudden on February 14th, we were basically closed down by the government. Monica: How did you handle that? Charles: It was very difficult at first, because we were really starting to take off. I thought, like everyone else, that this was going to be 30 days, or 60 days – not a year and a half. It was a terrible situation for so many families. So, in the beginning, we were sort of lost. What were we going to do? About two months into it, I decided to get physical therapy licenses in all the locations, which we did. Physical therapy is a necessary business, so we would be away from the mandate of closing down. We did get, but it didn't matter because people didn't want to go anyplace. They wanted to stay home. I didn't want to sit back and do nothing, so as time went on, around month six, I figured I would take advantage of

EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

certain opportunities. I went out to see places which had closed down, whether they were built out, and what their leases were like. So, during 2020 and through March 2021, we took over another seven locations that had gone out of business, but were all built out with restrooms and locker rooms. Some people just locked the door and left the equipment because they just couldn't pay the rent anymore. And while the government had put things in place for individuals for rent, they didn't do anything for businesses regarding rent. These people were devastated. I negotiated with the landlords and picked up seven more locations. Most of them are almost ready. We refurbished them. I hate to say we took advantage of the situation, but

we didn't sit back and do nothing. We felt that this was a good opportunity to pick up more locations. I hate the fact that it affected so many people’s lives. Monica: Can you offer advice on how to effectively deal with adversity, or a challenge that is not of your making? What mindset should people have? How should they think about their future from that point? Charles: I would tell any entrepreneur that the key to success is always figuring out what to do, learning from your mistakes, and just doing it. Do something. It doesn't matter if it's the right thing. You can fix it, but don't sit back and do nothing. That's the number one critical success factor.

Exceptional People Magazine | July-August 2021

EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

The other thing is: When raising capital, people have great ideas, but they're often afraid to give something to get capital. Monica: If you find someone to add to your team who can help you reach your goal, then it behooves you to consider giving away a bit of equity to get that person. Charles: You're absolutely right. There are a couple of really important things you have to do in building a company. First, you have to hire people who are better than you. If you have a team that is not better than you, you're going to have a lot of “yes people.” You need to have people who are going to tell you “no,” be constructively critical, tell you if your ideas are right or wrong in their opinion, and give you solutions. Hire people who are energetic. You want to give them part of the equity of the company, so they can have something to work for, like you're working for. Often you can't give them the compensation they want because you don't have that capital. Give them part of equity, and keep reminding them about what we're doing here. It's important to drill down to the lowest common denominator of every element you're dealing with. If you do something right the first time, you can make that a standard operating procedure (SOP) within the company, and move on to the next issue. You have to address every single thing. From the first person that you hire, make sure that they have the same culture or the same goals that you have. We often don't share our thoughts, or we're worried that someone might steal an idea. As long as you're the one who makes things happen, get people around you who can make things happen. That's critical for starting up a company. Monica: Earlier you mentioned you have to do clinical studies. How important is it for entrepreneurs to do research; especially those who have discovered something new, or have come up with a product that combines with something else, and they claim it can have a totally different impact? Charles: There are about seven or eight critical success factors that have to take place to make a company

July-August 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

THE BEST WAY TO BE SUCCESSFUL IS NEVER GIVE UP. THERE'S ALWAYS AN ANSWER FOR EVERYTHING, AND YOU JUST HAVE TO KEEP DOING IT. IF THAT DOESN'T WORK, TRY SOMETHING ELSE.

successful. One of them is knowing the competition better than you know yourself. You have to be very cognizant about what's happening around you, who's doing it, and where. Be different from everyone else; you can't be the same. Know everything about the sector you're in. Understand the pricing and the personnel. It takes a lot of time and energy. You can get so caught up in your own technology thinking that it is the greatest thing ever. There's always something better out there, or there's always something coming to the market. I think that the most important thing in life, in every facet besides your business, is: Never give up. No matter what. Every day's a new day. Monica: Yes, it is. Another day to change your mindset and put your best foot forward. Would you mind closing this interview with your last word? Charles: The best way to be successful is never give up. There's always an answer for everything, and you just have to keep doing it. If that doesn't work, try something else. If you give up, or you get too tired, then you're not the right person for either running the company or being in the company. The only thing that matters is your character. 

Start Your Business Right

A Comprehensive Guide to Entrepreneurship Success SECOND EDITION Monica Davis’ book ‘Start Your Business Right, A Comprehensive Guide to Entrepreneurship Success’ is a musthave tool for every entrepreneur and anyone contemplating that decision. She gives you the tools first and follows it with the roadmap. Your journey is mapped out. Judy Hoberman, President, Selling In A Skirt

Ever wondered what it would be like to read a relevant guide that can take you through each step of starting your business the right way? Monica Davis has brilliantly written that guide. If you want to start your business the right way or turn an existing business around in the right direction, I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU READ THIS INSTRUCTIONAL GUIDE. THANK YOU, MONICA, FOR THIS MARVELOUS RESOURCE! Faye Hill, CEO, The Hill Agency International LLC

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EMPOWER YOURSELF “If you think you can, you can. If you think you can, you’re right.” –Mary Kay Ash Your thoughts and beliefs have a powerful impact on your daily outcomes. If you want to experience life’s best, believe that you can, and be inspired to take the actions necessary that result in those extraordinary experiences. You have the ability to reach new heights.

10 Essential Skills GREAT LEADERS POSSESS BY KATHY KENTTY

EMPOWER YOURSELF

he jury is still out on whether you can learn how to be a great leader or if it’s something you are born with. What we can all agree on is that great leaders all have specific skills. If you are looking to move forward in your career, working on your leadership skills is vital to achieving this. To help you, we have compiled a list of the top 10 skills shared by great leaders. You will undoubtedly recognize a few areas where you excel, but there are probably a few others that you could improve.

6. INSPIRING YOUR TEAM

1. SETTING AN EXAMPLE

7. DEVELOPING OTHERS

If you want those around you to behave in a certain way, display a specific attitude, and adopt particular approaches, show them how it’s done. For example, by being proactive, dedicated, and well-organized, you can be an example to others and inspire them to follow your lead. Think about your behavior at work and what it says about you.

Giving others a helping hand and supporting them to improve their leadership skills is another sign of a great leader. If your team is constantly developing, your outcomes can only get better if their skills are continually improving. Great leaders understand this and put the hours into nurturing followers.

2. ACCOUNTABILITY

8. PROJECTING CONFIDENCE

The buck never stops with a lousy leader. Ineffective leaders always try to blame others when things go wrong but influential leaders understand that obstacles arise. If something does go wrong, great leaders will put up their hand, acknowledge that they set the agenda, and be accountable for what has happened. A great leader takes responsibility for the outcomes of their leadership, good or bad.

For people to buy into your vision and work to help you achieve it, they must believe in you and have faith that you will succeed. Projecting confidence and, in turn, winning the confidence of those around you is thus key to outstanding leadership.

3. DIRECTION

People do not follow anyone they do not trust. Building trust and behaving with integrity will ensure that your team believes what you tell them and can commit to your leadership. If your team questions you, they will never buy into your plans.

To be a great leader, you need to know where you’re leading your people. Establishing a solid vision and direction that can be effectively communicated to your team is vital. This direction should be focused and easy to comprehend. If you don’t know where you are headed, why should anyone follow you? 4. PLANNING So, you have set a direction and vision for your team; now it’s time to think about achieving this vision. What do you and your team need to do? In short, what’s the plan? Make sure that your plan is realistic to get everyone on board. 5. COMMUNICATION Communicating what you want from people, what the team’s goals are, and how to get there demands excellent communication skills. If you can’t explain things to others in a way they understand and accept, you will struggle to lead effectively. Communication is often where great leaders stand out. 58

July-August 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

Achieving great things is never easy. It demands time, commitment, hard work, and stamina and can often be extremely difficult, even unpleasant. So, how do great leaders get their teams to give it everything they’ve got — by inspiring and motivating them to achieve. In this way, they walk the path with their leader rather than resisting them.

9. BUILDING TRUST

10. TAKING TURMOIL IN STRIDE When you are working on a large project, the stakes will be high, many people will be involved, and unrest may strike. An issue with the project itself may precipitate this, an unexpected (or indeed expected) change, or even personal issues within the team, but whatever happens, great leaders remain calm. Instead of being derailed, a great leader will stay the course when disaster strikes and deal with the issue with purpose and poise, guiding others through the chaos. The above are the top 10 skills shared by great leaders. What do you recognize in yourself, and where are you lacking? If you seek out ways to develop your leadership skills, you will be doing all you can to join the ranks of truly great leaders. Where could you do better? 

14 Habits

That Make You a Valuable Employee BY MARLA GEM

EMPOWER YOURSELF

our career is more likely to succeed when you become more valuable to your employer. If your resume makes an excellent first impression and you're known as a team player, more opportunities will become available to you.

6. Strive for balance. A star employee knows how to avoid burnout. Breaks and vacation days are essential. Be mindful of your personal and spiritual well-being as well as your professional goals.

You'll likely feel more satisfied at work as well. Being productive will make you feel more accomplished than simply engaging in clock-watching and counting down the minutes until it's finally time to go home.

Being a Good Team Player

Regardless of the priorities of individual employers and companies, some traits are valued highly in almost any workplace. Review this checklist of habits that can help you become a more valuable employee. Enhancing Your Competence The contribution you make at work is heavily influenced by how well you perform. Consistently strive for high-quality work and ensure you meet all your goals on time, every time. The following strategies will help you become valuable: 1. Set goals. Clarifying your career goals will help you to determine the steps you need to take to get from where you are to where you want to be. For instance, you might want to increase your sales or enhance your leadership skills. Set the bar high but make sure your goals are realistic and achievable. 2. Engage in continual learning and development. Learn more and develop your skills. Subscribe to industry magazines and read books and case studies. Engage with the thought leaders who are prominent in your field. Register for online training courses and certifications. 3. Master technology. Get the most out of your time and reduce mental fatigue by using time management apps and devices. Maintaining computer skills will ensure you remain relevant and collaborate effectively with colleagues and customers. 4. Being proactive is critical. Do you passively wait around for your next task? Volunteer for projects that will have a high level of visibility. Actively seek methods to simplify work processes and reduce costs. 5. Elicit feedback. Your performance and professional development can be significantly improved if you act on feedback from your boss and coworkers. Thank others for giving you their input and put what you learn into practice. 60

July-August 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

Soft skills are also necessary. These are the types of qualities you need to make others enjoy working with you. Strengthen your soft skills by using these techniques: 7. Be reliable. Be the type of team player other people can rely on. Meet all deadlines and provide your teammates with regular updates on your progress. 8. Concentrate on solutions. Maintain your calm under pressure. Instead of pointing fingers at others when challenges arise, propose strategies for overcoming them. Learn from the experience and move on. 9. Give credit to others. Don't forget to acknowledge the contributions of your coworkers. Thank them for their innovations and ideas. Take pride in their accomplishments. 10. Conflicts must be resolved. Disagreements with others are inevitable when you work so closely with them. Resolve disputes as quickly as possible. Try to find common ground and treat one another with respect. 11. Be of assistance to others. Creating conditions that enable others to excel makes you a more valuable employee. Whenever a coworker is overwhelmed, jump in and help out. In areas where you have specialized knowledge and experience, show them how to accomplish tasks. 12. Empathize. It's also possible to help others just by expressing interest in them. Spend time talking to people. Make them feel validated. 13. Be your own advocate. You cannot give to others if you do not take care of yourself first. Identify what you want and ask for it. Keep your principles in mind. 14. Embrace positivity. Keep a positive attitude. Try to find humor in challenging situations. Keep a smile on your face and be kind. Make use of motivational words. Stand out no matter what you do. You will be more successful in your career and achieve your goals if you are recognized as a valuable employee. 

STRUCTURING YOUR LIFE TO HELP YOU ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS BY PAT MARKEL

EMPOWER YOURSELF

ou have big goals, and big goals require significant effort. Doing a little bit when you can spare the time is never going to be enough. However, there are several ways in which you can organize your life to help

you achieve even the most ambitious goals. If your life is structured to help you reach your objectives, this can create a remarkable synergy to get you to exactly where you want to be.

1. CLARIFY YOUR GOALS: This is step one of any endeavor. What do you want to achieve? Figure out precisely what you are aiming for and try to fill in the details as much as possible until you can imagine what success would feel like. People don’t accidentally find success. You need a direction.

5. MANAGE YOUR TIME EFFECTIVELY. Distractions are easy to come by and hard to eliminate. Make a record of how you spend your time to get a better understanding of what you do every day. Are you a procrastinator? When you think you are working towards your goals, are you getting anything meaningful done? See what your time record reveals.

2. REVIEW THE COMPANY YOU KEEP. No one is an island. The people we associate with can significantly impact us, so it is essential to think about the people around us. Do they support your ambitions? Would your chances of finding support and thus success be improved if you spent time with other people? What sort of network do you need around you to achieve your goals? Think about inviting people into your life that can help further your success, such as marketers, bankers, or business consultants. There are only a certain number of hours in the day, so you need to be selective about whom you spend your time with.

6. THINK ABOUT WHERE YOU LIVE. Living the life you want starts at home. Are your goals best served by living in the city, neighborhood, or household you currently live in? Do you need space of your own, or do you thrive in a busy home? Do you need to be closer to the city center or out in the countryside? In short, what environment is most conducive to you achieving your ambitions? Alaska may be a beautiful place, but not if you want to launch a swimwear brand.

3. EAT WELL. A sprinter will need to eat differently from a bodybuilder, and you, too, need to be eating a diet that sets you up to achieve your unique goals. Think about the foods and drinks that enable you to excel at work. For example, which is more important, a diet that gives you an energy boost or helps you concentrate? Play around with different foods and see how they make you feel in body and mind.

7. THINK ABOUT YOUR CAREER. Your goals may have nothing to do with your career, so you need to take a careful look at whether your job is helping or hindering your ambitions. Does it offer you the finances you need to work toward your goals? Does it take up every moment of your time? You have options. For example, evening work and flexible working hours can help free up your days. You need to do the research and find employment to complement your efforts to achieve your long-term ambitions.

4. SLEEP WELL. Success requires a holistic approach. Thus, alongside the proper diet, you need the right amount of sleep. Working every hour of the day and night may be doing more harm than good. Typically, people need seven or eight hours of sleep every night to be at their optimum. A couple of hours more sleep may help you to perform better.

There are no shortcuts to attaining great things. If you want to achieve big goals, you need to make sure that every element of your daily existence contributes to your success. By implementing the above strategies, you can organize your life around your goals and maximize your chances of realizing your loftiest ambitions. 

July-August 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

Three Money

Strategies

I Always Use for

Debt Reduction BY CHRISTOPHER POWELL

EMPOWER YOURSELF

s a mathematician, speaker, and entrepreneur with cerebral palsy, I clearly understand the day-today struggles of life. Challenges for me, such as walking, brushing my teeth, or just getting a drink of water, can be pretty daunting. Beyond my own physical personal challenges, I face other realities in terms of being an adult. Issues such as work, maintaining good health, and overall day-to-day stresses can also be exhausting.

handling our debts. Personal debt can be one of the most complicated aspects of everyday life. If not carefully controlled and managed, it can have devastating consequences and effects on our lives. Utilizing a system of techniques or strategies that assists in our financial journey could set us on a path towards independence, happiness, and success. There are three strategies I always use for debt reduction.

One of the most significant issues and obstacles for most of us is personal finances, especially when

BRAINSTORM A FEW IDEAS AND CREATE A WORKABLE PLAN

The first strategy I implement is brainstorming and forward or situational thinking. Wanting to reduce your debt is honorable, but you must be sure that certain bases are covered beforehand. Situational thinking provides immediate insight into potential outcomes that may come about due to your decision. My experiences have taught me to always think about the implications of a financial decision before taking action.

unexpectedly arise?" Are you willing to make sacrifices? Ask, "Am I willing to forgo pizza on Tuesday nights to make an important payment?" Life can throw us curveballs, and we have to be prepared for uncertainty, although we can't prepare for everything. Also, our temptations can influence our emotions and decisions from time to time. It would help if you scrutinized all of these situations.

Go through at least two or three mental scenarios that could happen and their impact on your finances if you make them. The more time you take, the better. Have patience until you come up with a sound decision. Ask yourself questions such as, "Will I have enough in my account to cover any extra expenses that may

Another thought is always to make sure that if you have additional checking or savings accounts, they are well equipped to back you up if you need extra cash. Once you believe you have made the appropriate decision based on your possible scenarios, you can proceed with your plan.

July-August 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

EMPOWER YOURSELF

START SMALL AND ACHIEVE BIG GAINS OVER TIME

The second strategy I use is the "small chunks/big chunks" cash technique. Small chunks of money are amounts such as $10, $20, or $25. Big chunks could be $50 or more. You may not think such small amounts of money can make a big difference in reducing your overall debt. Not true! Applying consecutive small amounts of money over time can result in significant gains.

gift, and you can allocate a more considerable amount

For example, if you were to pay your lender $25 a day for four consecutive days, a $100 deduction would result. Your accumulations of four successive days of paying $25 just gave you a $100 reduction by the end of the week on your debt.

and time. The more payments you can send, the less

Applying bigger chunks of money may be more appropriate when you receive your paycheck or a financial

reduction process. It can be great motivation, no matter

to your lender. One of the most important things I have realized is the more payments you can make, the better. Paying your credit card or student loan once a month on time is excellent. Making additional payments is even better! Sending in more than one payment is beneficial because it benefits you from a perspective of interest interest you will pay, and the faster you will pay off your loan or debt. Always check with your lender to see if extra payments are allowed without a penalty. If it's allowable, you will be well on your way to starting your debt the size of the additional payments you make.

BUNDLE MONTHLY BILLS FOR CLARITY

The last strategy involves paying your other monthly bills at the same time and on the same day. Most of us have recurring bills such as internet, gas, electricity, and cell phone. Get into the habit of paying them all early and on the same day. Of course, please make sure that you have the funds available. Bundling your monthly bills and paying them early in one fell swoop will give you a clearer vision for the rest of the month. Knowing that these expenses are paid ahead of time can allow you to refocus on your debt and possibly create additional revenues that you can send to your debtor. Using this method eliminates the stress and worry for those bills and can allow you to continue and concentrate on your main objective.

Remember your debt reduction journey should not occur only once a month when payments are due. Every day, you should be thinking, strategizing, and even developing ideas to help you move forward towards your quest for financial freedom. The hardest part is getting started. Once you see the benefits of your labor, it will motivate and inspire you to continue. No matter how small or large your payments may be, you will begin to see a faster reduction of your debts. The key is sustained consistency over time. I encourage you to get started on your journey towards financial independence. There is nothing like seeing the fruits of your labor. Try the above strategies and also think about creating some of your own. 

Exceptional People Magazine | July-August 2021

Organize Your Documents for the 2021 Tax Season

EMPOWER YOURSELF

ach year, millions of Americans scramble to locate every receipt, form, pay stub, and piece of documentation they need to maximize their income tax refunds or minimize the amount they owe to the United States government. If this sounds like you, it’s time to adopt a new way to prepare for the 2021 tax year starting now. According to Turbo Tax, the best way to maintain a good record of receipts and expenses is to handle them regularly, so you can avoid tracking down months-old materials. They recommend color-coded folders in an easy-to-access

location. Folders might include home and office expenses, vehicle expenses and mileage, education costs, child care expenses, medical expenses, and other items, such as charitable donations, work uniform purchase and cleaning costs (for work-only attire), and work-related expenses. Turbo Tax also recommends that you scan each receipt and maintain both electronic and paper copies. If the multi-folder system sounds like too much hassle, The Motley Fool recommends a more straightforward threefolder tax filing system.

Folder number one:

INCOME

Log every penny you earn on a sheet in this folder. Store other related documents, like 1099 and W-2 forms, in this folder as well.

Folder number two:

EXPENSES AND DEDUCTIONS If you choose to itemize your deduction instead of taking the standard deduction that Uncle Sam offers to most taxpayers, you’ll need to maintain a file of every receipt, mortgage statement, investment-related expense, medical bill, child care costs, and other employment-related expenses. Be careful, though: This folder can get fat in a hurry, so it may be worth your time to organize it into more sub-folders or use envelopes for each expense category.

Folder number three:

INVESTMENTS Use this folder for statements, purchase receipts, sales confirmations, year-end overviews, and dividend notices. You’ll probably want to create sub-folders for deductible/tax-deferred investments, non-deductible investments, and taxable investments.

Maintaining a year-round system for tax documents may sound annoying, but it pays off big. According to CNBC, in 2015, taxpayers left about $1.4 billion in tax refunds on the table with failure to file returns and other tax mishaps. With

a bit of planning and experimentation, you can save the frantic search of tax season -- and maybe even get a more significant return. 

Exceptional People Magazine | July-August 2021

Resilience:

An Important Quality in the Age of Pandemic or Any Other Adversity

n the era of pandemics and lockdowns, resilience is the key to coping with changing demands of business and the office.

The Workforce Institute recommends that employees cultivate resilience by learning specific skills.

Regulate emotion. Facing difficult customers and coping with customer satisfaction demands that employees learn to stay calm.

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elieve in yourself. Address setbacks -- or significant B work changes -- by seeing yourself as competent to succeed.

Balanced optimism. It's the ability to realistically assess what can go wrong or deter success while remaining optimistic.

Understand others. Understanding what others think and feel.

ontrol impulses. Learn to moderate behavior when C you face challenges. Don't press 'send' impulsively. Learn not to burn bridges with inappropriate emotional reactions.

See the reasons for the problems. Learn to look carefully for the causes of problems. Work out what you can change or control and what you can't. Put your energy into the things you can control.

From a psychological perspective, resilience also means adopting positive emotion, according to Psychology Today. That may mean you have to seek out the things and situations that have made you feel positive, happy, engaged, or grateful. Exercising could help you feel joy. Completing a home project might help stir a sense of competence. 

July-August 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

Adaptability. Willingness to change in the face of adversity or circumstance.

Lighter Side

of Life

HOME OFFICE

Jungle

By Dorothy Rosby

’m on my hands and knees under my computer desk holding the phone against my ear with my shoulder while Mr. Patient Technical Support Guy waits for me to determine if my modem is plugged in. I sincerely hope it is. You feel foolish when a repairman tells you whatever it is you ask him to fix isn’t working because it’s not plugged in. I do anyway. But determining if our modem is unplugged is harder than you’d think. Turns out there’s a jungle behind my home computer; a tangle of cords connecting hard drive,

printer, speakers, monitor, keyboard, lamp, power strip, telephone, electric mixer, coffeemaker and blender. Yes, I’m exaggerating; we don’t own a coffeemaker. Starting at the modem, I try to follow the cord to the power strip, but three times I get lost in the tangle and have to start over. Then I bump my head, drop the phone and swear out loud before remembering the call is being monitored for quality control purposes. I finally determine that the cord is indeed plugged in. Mr. Patient Technical Support Guy says, “Yep, I figured that would be too easy.” Easy? It turns out that the jungle behind my computer is only slightly worse than the jungle in front of and to the sides of my computer. Shortly after we replace the modem, my husband and I decide our home office and our guest room should trade places. The thought of unplugging all those cords behind the computer and plugging them in elsewhere is as appealing to me as carrying my four-drawer filing cabinet down two flights of stairs. So, I ask my husband to do it. I go to work in the corner beside the computer. We gave away our first few computers years ago, but we’ve maintained a shrine to them, made up of all their manuals, operating discs, cords and miscellaneous accessories. If the people we gave the computers to can get along without all of it this long, I think we can too.

July-August 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

LIGHTER SIDE OF LIFE

After clearing out the shrine, I start in on the filing cabinet and then the desk. It seems to me that before we can move them, it would be wise to clean them off, file what must be filed and toss what can be tossed. That includes coupons for products I don’t use, bills that were paid long ago and warranties for items I’m not sure we even own any more. But I can’t throw a piece of paper away without the nagging feeling that I or the IRS may need it again, though why the IRS will need a receipt from my car’s last oil change, I’m not sure. I can’t get my shredder to work so I start tearing documents into tiny pieces. Then I sprinkle them into separate trash cans, including the kitchen trash where they’ll soon be covered in egg shells and leftover spaghetti. Hopefully this will deter identity thieves from stealing my life savings. It would deter me. Speaking of life savings, my financial life is more complicated than it is successful. My husband and I bank

at three different banks; and each one has changed names at least once, without our permission or input. Several different investment companies hold our retirement and college savings. And all of these have been sold, or for other reasons changed their names, some more than once. The ensuing confusion has led to lackadaisical filing in our home. Well, something has led to lackadaisical filing in our home, and that’s what I prefer to blame it on. I wade through this disaster before taking on the various knick-knacks and thing-a-ma-jigs sitting around the office. I find it easier to give things away rather than to throw them away. So I pack all but a few into boxes to be donated to someone who will quite likely throw them away for me. After a great deal of sweat, some tears and even a few drops of blood thanks to a mishap with an errant stapler, we give away three boxes of stuff, throw away two bags of junk and put away the rest. And our computer looks great in its new home—unless you look behind it.  Exceptional People Magazine | July-August 2021

RECIPES

Strawberry and Oats Streusel Bars

INGREDIENTS:

DIRECTIONS:

1½ C quick cooking rolled oats

1. Set the oven temperature at 350 degrees and allow the oven to preheat.

1 C + 2 T of flour, divided

2. Line an 8 x 8 pan with foil extending the foil over the edges of the pan.

¾ C brown sugar, packed

3. Place the oats into a mixing bowl.

¾ C butter

4. Add 1 C of the flour and the brown sugar and toss to combine.

¼ C sugar ½ t + ½ t ground ginger, divided

5. Use a pastry blender and cut in the butter until the mixture resembles small peas.

2 C fresh strawberries, sliced

6. Remove 1 C of the mixture and set aside.

¾ C powdered sugar

7. Press the remaining oat mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan.

3 t apricot nectar

8. Bake 25 minutes or until nicely browned. 9. Place the sugar in a mixing bowl. 10. Add the 2 T of flour and ½ t of the ground ginger. 11. Stir in the strawberry slices until well coated.

MAKES 16 BARS PREPARATION TIME: APPROXIMATELY 25 MINUTES BAKING TIME: APPROXIMATELY 57 MINUTES COOLING TIME: 2 HOURS

12. Spread the strawberry mixture over the hot crust. 13. Sprinkle the top evenly with the reserved crust mixture. 14. Return to the oven and bake 32 minutes or until the topping has turned a golden brown and the filling is bubbly around the edges. 15. Remove and place on a wire rack to cool completely. 16. Sift the powdered sugar into a large bowl. 17. Add the remaining ginger and the apricot nectar and stir until blended together well. 18. Drizzle the icing over the top of the streusel bars before cutting.

July-August 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

Sweet and Spicy Turkey Breast

INGREDIENTS: 1 tbsp black peppercorn 1 tbsp cumin 1 tbsp chili powder 1 tbsp oregano 1 tbsp minced garlic ¼ C lime juice 2 tbsp olive oil

DIRECTIONS: 1. Crush the peppercorn seeds as fine as possible. 2. Add the cumin, chili powder, oregano, minced garlic, lime juice and olive oil and stir into a paste. 3. Coat the turkey completely with the paste. 4. Place the turkey into a large zip lock bag, remove as much air as possible, seal tight and refrigerate overnight. 5. In a saucepan over medium high heat mix together the peaches, preserves, peach juice, sugar and vinegar.

6 firm peaches, peeled and chopped fine

6. Bring to a rapid boil then reduce the heat to medium low.

1 C peach preserves

8. Remove the mixture from the heat and allow cooling at least 10 minutes.

2/ 3

C peach juice

7. Stirring often simmer the mixture for about 30 minutes or until the sauce thickens. 9. Place the cooled mixture into the food processor and process until very smooth.

¼ C sugar

10. Add the jalapeno peppers and cilantro and mix well.

2 tbsp cider vinegar

11. Allow mixture to come to room temperature then refrigerate until ready to use.

4 jalapeno peppers, stemmed, seeded and chopped fine

12. Heat the grill on medium high.

1 tbsp cilantro, chopped fine 1 (4 lb) turkey breast Canola oil

13. Brush the turkey breast completely with the canola oil. 14. Grill skin side up over indirect heat for 1 hour 15 minutes. 15. Remove and allow cooling before slicing and serving with the peach mixture. If you like your turkey breasts to be a little crispy on the outside place it on direct heat for 10 minutes before removing from the grill. Exceptional People Magazine | July-August 2021

RECIPES

Zesty Fruit Salad

INGREDIENTS:

DIRECTIONS:

1 C of blueberries 1 C of plums, sliced

1. In a 2 quart glass bowl layer the fruit in the order they are listed above.

1 C pitted cherries, sliced

2. Cover the bowl and chill 3 hours.

1 C cantaloupe, chopped

3. Just before serving place the lime juice into a small bowl.

1 C strawberries, sliced

4. Whisk in the honey and lime peel.

1 C peaches, sliced

5. Add the sparkling water and stir until blended in well.

1 C of small green grapes

6. Pour the mixture over the layered fruit.

1 C of raspberries

7. Garnish the top with the mint sprigs.

¼ C of lime juice 2 tbsp of honey 1 tsp grated lime peel 1 C lemon lime flavored sparkling water, chilled Mint sprigs

July-August 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

MAKES 8 SERVINGS

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DR. KAREN SEIMEN-MCBRIDE https://www.mkcircle.com/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ZDw3_Iy0JAhadEaUT5Iqg https://www.linkedin.com/in/drkarenexecoach/ https://www.instagram.com/drkarenexecoach/ Photo Credits: Kait McKay Photography

CHARLES LAVERTY https://nuzunafit.com/ https://www.facebook.com/NuzunaWellness https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCldhhKtxxWR2hUbXDT2uUow https://www.instagram.com/nuzunafitness/

HUNTLEY LAWRENCE

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