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"Inspired Action at Work" Newsletters

Click on the date below to read the full newsletter issue or select the expert interview of your choice. Each newsletter offers a download on MS Word, too.

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Enjoy, get inspired and see how you can apply one insight. Email Gail for personal assistance to integrate new habits of thought and action.

*Issue Date*	*Feature Article Topic and Guest Interview*
Nov 2010	Overcome the Difficulty of Saying "No" by Saying "Yes" (Guest: Faith Curtis)
Oct 2010	Overcoming negative story-telling (Guest: Noah Blumenthal)
Aug 2010	Overcoming selling obstacles(Guest: Elene Cafasso)
Jul 2010	Overcoming obstacles (Guest: Stephanie Meis)

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November 2010 Inspired Action at Work Newsletter

This is the monthly newsletter published by Inspired Choice called Inspired Action at Work. It offers perspectives and tools to grow your career or business. Read the current issue below or download the MS Word version: November_2010_Inspired_ Action_Letter. To get a copy delivered monthly to your email box, <<--sign up to get inspired in the boxes to the left.

Read the feature article and share what was useful to you by clicking on Comments below. What obstacle is keeping you from moving forward in your career or business today? Email Gail, your Chief Obstacle Buster, to help you get into inspired action.

Inspired Action at Work
Perspectives and tools to grow your career or business
By Gail Sussman Miller

In this issue...

Note from Gail: Gratitude and overcoming the obstacle of setting boundaries
Feature Article: Overcome the Difficulty of Saying "No" by Saying "Yes"
Success Stories: NEW! Leadership and empowerment that saved 3 hours/day
Guest Interview: Faith Curtis on the Power of Aligning "Yes" and "No"
Inspiring Offers: Serious about creating change? 5 no-cost phone consultations
Tips and Tools: Develop Your Success Formula for Habit Change
About Gail

Note from Gail

Dear Reader,

A New Perspective on Giving Thanks during Difficult Times. As we head into the Thanksgiving holiday, many of you are experiencing challenge in your life. Perhaps you are in job search (still!), facing financial or health challenges, and, in today’s environment, we are all living with uncertainty to some extent. What might happen if you embraced the uncertainty?

What about being thankful for the tough things going on in your life?! How might these perceived obstacles actually be bringing you gifts? Not only can it help to be grateful for these experiences, it can help to forgive whatever source(s) you think are responsible for these situations. That might be former bosses/companies, the economy, stock brokers, doctors, or your Self.

Try a little forgiveness as you go into this holiday. Re-purpose the word “forgiving” and fill in the blanks here. “Thank you _____________ (someone’s name, The Universe or Higher Power or YOU) for giving me the opportunity to learn _____________ from this experience.”

Embrace, be grateful and forgiving of the experience. Be gentle with yourself, allow and plan for recovery and adjustment time, forgive others and your Self, stay grounded in this moment and look for small signs of progress. This Thanksgiving holiday I wish you a great feast for your body, mind and spirit.

In this issue of Inspired Action at Work, the feature article offers a new perspective and tool to help you overcome overwhelm and feeling powerless about time, saying “Yes” out of obligation or fear of consequences if you say “No.” Learn how to create a shift in your thinking and begin to say “No” more often by saying “Yes, and…”

This month’s guest interview. I am honored to share the insights and advice of a woman I admire and love, Faith Curtis. She is deeply committed to the development of leadership, spirit and empowerment. Faith is a talented, insightful coach and visionary. Read our discussion on the risks of saying “Yes” when you mean “No.” Faith shares her success story where she created power in a situation completely out of her control and advice for you to do the same.

NEW! Success Stories. Listen to a 23-minute success interview with my buddy, Joe, a financial services senior executive, who has had amazing results with the perspective and tool featured in today’s article. Joe immediately began empowering others and increased the impact of his leadership as a result of saying "No" by saying "Yes, and..." PLUS Joe has reclaimed 3 hours every work day for his mission!

Check out this month’s inspiring offer for those serious about creating positive change and curious about the benefits of working with a dedicated champion to help you get better solutions sooner. See instructions to sign up for one of 5 complimentary telephone consultations with me.

In each issue of Inspired Action at Work, I bring you insights and tools to help you increase your workplace success. My mission is to help you more powerfully show up, speak up, and move up by taking inspired action through inspired choice. I encourage you to be as fully YOU as possible. It makes you more authentic, memorable, referable, successful and response-able! Enjoy this issue.

Here’s to the power of simply connecting with like-minded people for the greater good,

Gail Sussman Miller

Feature Article

Overcome the Difficulty of Saying "No" by Saying "Yes!"

If you are like me, managing time and getting all you have to get done completed is an elusive goal. Fitting in time for what you want to do seems impossible. I used to joke that while I slept at night, little time-stealing gremlins scheduled things on my calendar without my knowledge!

Is this you? As your "to do" list grows and your calendar groans, every day you resolve you are going to work smarter, be more efficient and finally get it all done! And then, not only do you only get a few things done but now you have more tasks on the list! No matter how much you try, day after day is the same! You feel overwhelmed, hopeless, stressed and out of control.

Overview. Join me as we look at the underlying issues and emotional hooks that contribute to this feeling of powerlessness over your time. Not to mention the bit of resentment (anger) you feel from the pressure that can "leak out" as uncharacteristic impatience in traffic, with your family, co-workers or service people waiting on you.

Below are solutions you can put to immediate use including a proven technique that helps you shift your perspective about saying "No" and take inspired action!

Listen to a 23-minute success interview with my buddy, Joe, a financial services senior executive, who has had amazing results empowering others and himself AND reclaiming 3 hours each day by saying "No" by saying "Yes, and...!" Click here to download the MP3 file.

Click here to continue reading this article online >>

Bonus! 30-Minute Complimentary Consultation. Where are you having difficulty setting boundaries and saying “No?” I have 5 no-cost 30-minute telephone consultations reserved if you are willing to do some inner work and really take action. These calls are to help you learn how working with me as your coach can help you honor your mission and set limits to stay on course for your goals. If you are serious about creating positive change, email me and put “SIGN ME UP FOR 30” in the subject line to grab one of these sessions.

Success Stories

Listen to a 23-minute interview with my buddy, Joe, a financial services senior executive, about his success story. He has had amazing results empowering others and himself AND reclaiming 3 hours each day by saying "No" by saying "Yes, and...!" Click here to download the MP3 file.

Guest Interview

Faith Curtis coaches individuals and groups who are interested in defining their own lives and living the life they were meant to live. She also designs and leads a variety of retreats, workshops and conferences since she started her coaching business over nine years ago.

One of Faith’s passions is coaching people to respect themselves by setting personal and professional boundaries. She helps them become aware of how saying “yes” when their body and soul are screaming “no” is destroying their spirit, vitality and passion. Once this awareness is gained, then she works with them to discover new tools and methods to own their power thereby significantly improving the quality of their lives

Faith is trained and certified by the Coaches Training Institute and the International Coach Federation as a Professional Certified Coach. Her formal education includes a Master’s in Social Work. In addition to her experience as a Clinical Social Worker, Faith led the human resource department for a medical equipment manufacturer for over 13 years.

Special offer from Faith! As a special gift to my newsletter readers, Faith is generously offering a 30-minute complimentary phone consultation to explore creating one new empowering practice to create a more healthy boundary in your work life. Contact Faith via email at faithcurtis@comcast.net to set up a mutually convenient time for this call. http://www.faithcurtis.net

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Gail: Today’s feature article teaches how to overcome the discomfort of saying “No” and setting boundaries. Why is it important to develop this skill for our careers or business?

Faith: When you say “Yes” and feel “No” inside, you are setting your needs aside and not taking care of yourself, and what’s more, you’re not doing anyone a favor. You can easily start resenting the other person and invite negativity into the relationship. When you ignore your own needs, you’re not taking care of yourself. If you don’t take care for yourself, how can you be available and give your gifts and talents to others? Instead, you’re busy giving your energy, time and power away. When you set boundaries you feel better about yourself. This increases confidence and has you feel empowered to make choices. It reminds you that you HAVE choices. If you make one small choice and say “No” during your day or renegotiate, you will feel better throughout the day. You will feel and look like someone who is in control.

Click here to continue reading this interview online »

Inspiring Offers

30-Minute Complimentary Consultation. Where are you having difficulty setting boundaries and saying “No?” I have 5 no-cost 30-minute telephone consultations reserved if you are willing to do some inner work and really take action. These calls are to help you learn how working with me as your coach can help you honor your mission and set limits to stay on course for your goals. If you are serious about creating positive change, email me and put “SIGN ME UP FOR 30” in the subject line to grab one of these sessions.

Chicagoans! ExecuNet Meetings for Senior Executives in Career Transition. Attend one of the two monthly structured networking meetings I facilitate for ExecuNet to get 3-minutes of spotlight attention and assistance from an amazing group of fellow seekers and finders. (Visit www.ExecuNet.com for meetings near you.) We meet the 1^st and 3^rd Wednesdays in Chicago and Oakbrook, respectively. Get details and register for the 12/1 Chicago and 12/15 Oakbrook meetings. REGISTER and find several no-cost networking and job search tools here.

Tips and Tools

How to develop your success formula for habit change. The Success Story about Joe and his new “Yes, and” habit uncovered a success formula Joe didn’t realize he had. This is your opportunity to develop your own path to habit change.

Think of a time you made a successful habit change like quitting smoking, better managing and organizing paper and electronic files, being more responsive to emails, losing weight, designing and living by a budget, etc. How did you go about it, step by step? What kept you motivated to stay on track until this new behavior became a habit? You can leverage past successes to give you a guide for the future.

We’ve all had successes. You may not realize it, but you tend to follow a certain pattern to reach a goal and move through obstacles. Follow the steps below and you’ll have the start of a success formula for habit change to use consciously from an expert you know well… YOU!

Observe a problem area in your life that you complain about. Perhaps it’s your time management, health, relationship, career advancement (or lack thereof). How are you spending your key resources: time, money, energy?
What do you value most in life? What are your priorities? Are you honoring or sabotaging what you value most?
What are your current behaviors or habit? Where might you be unconscious and on autopilot?
What is the impact of this habit? What is it costing you?
What is the benefit and reward to a change in this habit?
Where could you make a positive change even in the smallest way? What are 1 or 2 small steps you can take to shift this habit? Don’t go for big changes!
What value or priority do you need to recommit to?
Imagine 6 months or a year from now and the impact on your life if you change your habit. How will you look and feel? What will you be able to accomplish as a result?
Connect to a goal, purpose or mission that is bigger than you.
Give yourself an anchor or touchstone to keep you on course. Write out a reminder about your vision for your new habit. Measure your progress by observing small changes. Plan a celebration and share your story with someone you trust.

Test this formula out and adapt the process to your style. The key is to work from the inside out using your true purpose or mission in life, at work, and what you value as your guide. Tie your behaviors to the results you want. Would you like my help to customize and really nail this formula and put it to use? Email me at gail@inspirechoice.com.

About Gail

Gail Sussman Miller is the Chief Obstacle Buster at Inspired Choice. She teaches senior executives, women and minority leaders how to more powerfully and successfully show up, speak up and move up in their job search, career or business using a mission-driven heart-centered marketing approach. Gail inspires business leaders and companies to communicate more cleanly and clearly, increase collaboration, and create more meaningful conversations and relationships so they can reach better solutions sooner. She teaches you how to turn obstacles into opportunities by aligning your beliefs, thoughts and actions with your desires and true Self. Gail calls herself a mid-life bloomer Baby Boomer, is a recovering perfectionist, and found true passion in work, marriage, motherhood, and now grandmotherhood, all after the age of 44!

www.InspiredChoice.com
www.InspiredChoice.com/ExecuNet
www.InspiredChoice.com/Emotional-Intelligence
www.HowToLoveNetworking.com
www.HowToLoveSpeaking.com

Let's connect on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/gailsussmanmiller and follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/GailSussmanMill

Privacy statement: We NEVER share your information with anyone. Period.
© 2010 Inspired Choice

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October 2010 Inspired Action at Work Newsletter

This is the monthly newsletter published by Inspired Choice called Inspired Action at Work. It offers perspectives and tools to grow your career or business. Read the current issue below or download the MS Word version: October-3-2010_Inspired_ Action_Letter. To get a copy delivered monthly to your email box, <<--sign up to get inspired in the boxes to the left.

Inspired Action at Work
Perspectives and tools to grow your career or business
By Gail Sussman Miller

In this issue...

Note from Gail: Overcoming the obstacle of limiting self-talk
Feature Article: 10 Tips to Overcome Stories You Tell That Keep You Stuck
Guest Interview: Noah Blumenthal on overcoming negative story-telling
Inspiring Offers: 5 no-cost telephone consultations
Tips and Tools: Develop an inspirational reading habit
About Gail

Note from Gail

Dear Reader,

These are tough times. All around us on the news, in closed store widows, among our co-workers, friends, family and in the privacy of our minds, there is a swirl of “self-talk,” worry and speculation about the economy, change, and challenge. In a time of so many external influences, I believe we need to focus on building internal strength and boost our resilience physically, emotionally and spiritually.

This issue of Inspired Action at Work offers tools and perspectives to help you fortify yourself so you can get re-centered when you get thrown off balance, stay grounded and inspire your Self from within. It’s as if we are in the height of the flu season or in an epidemic… take extra precaution, raise your awareness that it is not business as we used to know it, and practice special self-care. With change also comes new opportunities and new solutions. A clear mind will help you discover your answers, choose a direction and take action.

In this month’s article I offer awareness about the stories we tell ourselves that get us stuck, fuel procrastination, and keep us from acting on our goals and dreams. Read on to find 10 tips to shift your thinking and feelings to clear your mind and take inspired action.

This month’s guest interview. I am lucky that Noah Blumenthal, author of Be The Hero, agreed to be my guest interview. His book is written in a delightful, easy-to-read parable style. He teaches us how to shift from telling stories that put is in a victim frame of mind about people, situations and ourselves and how to shift to the stories the hero would tell. It’s a matter of choice.

Check out this month’s special inspiring offer so you can get personalized help in one of 5 complimentary telephone consultations with me.

Here’s to the power of simply connecting with like-minded people for the greater good,

Gail Sussman Miller

Email me at gail @ inspiredchoice.com with obstacles you want help overcoming and guests you would like to see interviewed!

Feature Article

10 Tips to Overcome Stories You Tell That Keep You Stuck

Think about a time in the last week where you got out of bed or sat down at your desk determined to take action on one of your most important work goals. And it didn't happen.

Perhaps you were going to make a networking call, sending an email to ask for an introduction or follow-up with a prospective client or employer. Instead you found yourself answering emails, surfing online or rearranging the papers in your files to create busy-ness and feel productive. Part of you wants the goal to be achieved and part of you creates a diversion because of a perceived risk, discomfort or fear. Welcome to procrastination!

Here is a new twist on what's going on in that wonderful mind of yours and a new way to think about being stuck AND solutions to help.

This happens to ALL of us... full disclosure. As I wrote this article, I had some not-so-quiet self talk going on saying things like, "I'm not feeling creative enough to write, so this article won't be good" or "This isn't going to interest my readers and maybe a nap is a better idea!" See how active that inner critic can be? Two or three times I had to laugh out loud and ask myself, "So what story are YOU telling yourself, Gail? And what story would you rather tell?!" It was like a big DUH moment. It turned out to be great research! So even in the midst of writing to tell you how to overcome negative self talk by changing the stories you tell yourself, it happened to me!

For more on the value we get from acknowledging the voice of fear and how to make it work for you, go to my article here. For more on the impact of judgment in the workplace (and in your head), how it protects you and how to work with it, go here for another oldie but goodie.

What are the stories you tell your Self that keep you stuck? Isolate a recent procrastination moment and imagine that your thought processes where spoken out loud and recorded. If you could replay your inner dialogue, what would you hear?

Click here to get your 10 tips to help you move past negative stories and take action

Bonus! What stories are you telling yourself that keep you stuck in your career? I have 5 no-cost 30-minute telephone consultations reserved for business professionals to help you explore how you can move through obstacles and begin to shift your self-talk. Where are you today in your career or business? Where would you like to be? What obstacles seem to be standing in the way? If you are serious about creating positive change, email me and put “SIGN ME UP FOR 30” in the subject line to grab one of these sessions. You’ll learn what your beginning steps might be and how working with me as your coach can grow your career or business with greater ease, less stress and more success.

Guest Interview

Noah Blumenthal is author of the nationally bestselling book Be the Hero and was named by Leadership Excellence Magazine as one of the world’s “Top 100 Minds in Personal Development.” As a keynote speaker and executive coach Noah has worked with diverse clients including Goldman Sachs, Frito Lay, MTV Networks, Columbia University, Brandeis University, the Clinton School for Public Service, the International Coaching Federation, the American Society of Training and Development, and the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. Visit him at www.be-the-hero.com to view an inspirational video and sign up for free weekly hero tips. Here is a link to Noah's blog referencing this interview!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

How do you describe your process of overcoming negative story-telling related to career or business and why is it an important skill to develop? Psychology, philosophy and neuroscience all agree that the way we choose to interpret our world, what I call our stories, determines our happiness, energy, creativity, decision making, productivity and success. Even sports science has conducted studies showing that up-tempo music leads to a better and more enjoyable workout. Your stories are just like the music you play during your workout. They are playing in the background of your mind all day, every day. Up-tempo stories lead to better performance.

There are many processes and techniques to change your stories. In my book, Be the Hero, and in my keynotes I ask my audiences to ask themselves, "What would the hero see?"

Click here to continue reading how one woman’s success story changed her life! »

Inspiring Offers

30-Minute Complimentary Consultation. What stories are you telling yourself that keep you stuck in your career? I have 5 no-cost telephone consultations set aside for business professionals to explore how you can move through obstacles and begin to shift your self-talk. Where are you today in your career or business? Where would you like to be? What obstacles seem to be standing in the way? If you are serious about creating positive change, email me and put “SIGN ME UP FOR 30” in the subject line to grab one of these sessions. You’ll learn what your beginning steps might be and how working with me as your coach can grow your career or business with greater ease, less stress and more success.

Chicagoans! ExecuNet Meetings for Senior Executives in Career Transition. Attend one of the two monthly structured networking meetings I facilitate for ExecuNet to get 3-minutes of spotlight attention and assistance from an amazing group of fellow seekers and finders. (Visit www.ExecuNet.com for meetings near you.) We meet the 1^st and 3^rd Wednesdays in Chicago and Oakbrook, respectively. Get details and register for the 10/6 Chicago meeting where I will teach and demo how to leverage LinkedIn for your job search. REGISTER and find several no-cost networking and job search tools here.

Tips and Tools

Develop an inspirational reading habit. To support your awareness about the stories you tell your Self and to choose a different story, consider developing a regular habit of reading short inspirational pieces once a day. This might be a small book or one poem you keep in your desk. This can be just the thing to bring you back to what matters in the midst of a hectic, challenging day. You might choose bedtime to create calm and better dreams and sleep.

Here are links to two short favorite poems. What do the messages say to you? Reply here.

“The Guest House” is a poem by Rumi offers a perspective about welcoming whatever comes into your life for the deeper gifts it might offer, especially when things are dark and painful.

“Autobiography in 5 Short Chapters” teaches us to be gentle and forgiving of our habits and what we judge as mistakes we make over and over. It strikes me that what I do in my work and strive to do in this newsletter is captured in this poem. I’m here to help you to increase awareness, take responsibility, forgive yourself and make different choices.

I’m also a big fan of Eckhart Tolle’s book, “Stillness Speaks,” because it has very short (4-7 lines) isolated readings, organized by areas of life, that are best read and reflected on one at a time. Read the excerpt below and see how you can move away from conscious thought to, well, stillness! Read it and then experience it.

“Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rooted in Being. Allow nature to teach you stillness.” (THAT is why we love being in nature!)

Movie fans, I highly recommend seeing “Secretariat” to witness the power of real commitment to a dream, no matter what. True stories like this one remind me that even when the odds seem against us, we find a new solution or new words to convey our fierce belief and commitment and that opens doors. View the trailer here.

About Gail

Gail Sussman Miller is the Chief Obstacle Buster at Inspired Choice where senior executives in career transition and women leaders grow their career or business using a mission-driven heart-centered marketing approach. Gail inspires business leaders and companies to communicate more cleanly and clearly, increase collaboration, and create more meaningful conversations and relationships so they can reach better solutions sooner. She teaches you how to turn obstacles into opportunities by aligning your beliefs, thoughts and actions with your desires and true Self. Gail calls herself a mid-life bloomer Baby Boomer, is a recovering perfectionist, and found true passion in work, marriage, motherhood, and now grandmotherhood, after the age of 44!

www.InspiredChoice.com
www.InspiredChoice.com/ExecuNet
www.InspiredChoice.com/Emotional-Intelligence
www.HowToLoveNetworking.com
www.HowToLoveSpeaking.com

Let's connect on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/gailsussmanmiller and follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/GailSussmanMill

Privacy statement: We NEVER share your information with anyone. Period.
© 2010 Inspired Choice

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August 2010 Inspired Action at Work Newsletter

This is the monthly newsletter published by Inspired Choice called Inspired Action at Work. It offers perspectives and tools to grow your career or business. Read the new issue below or download the MS Word version: August_Inspired_ Action_Letter. To get a copy delivered monthly to your email box, <<--sign up to get inspired in the boxes to the left.

Inspired Action at Work
Perspectives and tools to grow your career or business
By Gail Sussman Miller --- August 28, 2010

In this issue...

Note from Gail: Overcoming obstacles: Selling!
Feature Article: How to Love Selling Your Skills with 4 Perspective Shifts
Guest Interview: Elene Cafasso on selling made easier
Inspiring Offers: No-cost “How to Love Selling” 2-part teleclass
Tips and Tools: How to start defining your mission statement
About Gail

Note from Gail

Dear Reader,

The theme of this issue of Inspired Action at Work is overcoming and moving through the obstacle of selling. I’ve been down the path, as a business owner, of saying “all I want to do is coach and train, not sell!” The executives I help with their job search, the women leaders I help seek career advancement, and the teams I help reach better solutions sooner ALL have in common the need to sell and most don’t like it, lack confidence and procrastinate to avoid it! Do you relate?

In the article in this issue I share 4 hard-learned major perspective shifts I discovered that helped me let go of selling obstacles. These alternative ways of thinking will help you increase your comfort and confidence whether it is selling to grow your business, promoting your skills in job search, seeking to get promoted, or selling an idea to your team on the job. What might be different in your work world if selling was easy?

While writing this article, I had proof of how powerful mindfulness of your mission is because it helped me uncover a business opportunity! Read on to experience a powerful shift.

This month’s guest interview is with Elene Cafasso, Executive Coach and President of Enerpace, Inc., who offers her expertise on how to overcome selling obstacles including a great client success story you can learn from.

Check out this bonus article that is too important to wait til next month’s newsletter! Read “Tips to Stop the Frenzy and Dis-ease of Too Much DOING” to get some immediate relief and start a mindfulness habit at this link.

Here’s to the power of simply connecting with like-minded people for the greater good,

Gail Sussman Miller

Feature Article

How to Love Selling Your Skills with 4 Perspective Shifts

What feelings come to mind when you think about the word “selling” or “sales” or “salesperson?” How do you feel when you imagine selling your skills, services and value in the market place? Can you feeling the “ick factor” kicking in?

Attitudes about sales. Whether you are a job seeker, career builder or entrepreneur, you may experience a lack of confidence, discomfort and negative self talk when you think about selling. Some people think sales must include trickery, sleaze, canned sales pitches, manipulation, and pressure. Some believe sales means having to “make” someone do something or that people have to be convinced, coerced, incented, and lulled into participation.

We all sell, even you! Selling is at the core of most activities in your life that involve relationships. You are selling when you, ask your team to help you complete a project, tell your prospects what you offer, enlist a co-worker (child or parent) in letting you help them, negotiate a choice of restaurants with friends or design a change in a fitness habit to be healthier (relationship with Self).

It’s all a matter of perspective. Get ready to experience a shift in thinking, beliefs and your mindset about selling! Read the 4 perspective shifts below with an open mind and allow yourself to experience a new perspective. NOTE: These are deep concepts. The ideas are simple. Applying them in your life and making these thoughts and practices habit will take some effort.

Bonus! To help make this easier and avoid writing a 10-page article, join me for a 2-part no-cost “How to Love Selling” teleclasses. I’ll teach you how to apply these perspectives so you can engage people in your mission and sell without selling to boost your career or business! Go here to get dates, details and sign up.

Perspective Shift #1 – Be Mission-Driven. Ask yourself, “Why am I on this planet?” (I told you this is deep!) Companies have mission statements to guide operations, investments, marketing, and direction. The same can be true for you and your life.

Continue reading here to read evidence of the power of all 4 perspective shifts…

Guest Interview

Elene Cafasso is an Executive Coach, and President of Enerpace, Inc. Elene is a professionally trained and certified Executive and Personal Coach who helps over-stressed and over-busy executives and entrepreneurs gain more balance in their professional and personal lives while building their businesses and achieving their highest goals. She holds an MBA in Marketing and Finance from the University of Chicago, and worked in the corporate world for 14 years where she held executive level positions in the banking and telecommunications industries. Elene is professionally trained as a coach and is certified through the International Coach Federation. Learn more about Elene at www.enerpace.com and access some of her wonderful articles and resources.

EXTRA! EXTRA! Elene will be our speaker at the September 15^th Chicago ExecuNet networking meeting! For more information and to register go here.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Gail: How do you describe the process of overcoming the obstacle of selling in their career or business? Why is it an important skill to develop?

Elene: First, folks need awareness that they are in a situation that requires selling. Some business owners believe that if they just do their best work, clients will magically appear. While it IS true that happy clients provide referrals of new clients, you can't count on that for your only source of income or you may not be in business very long. In a corporation, those who communicate their results get promoted, while those who expect to be noticed are usually passed over. And in a career transition, you have the most important and best product of all to sell - yourself!

Once it's clear you need to sell, what do you want to say? You want to tell folks "why you." Why you for the job? Why you for the promotion? Why you for their accountant, lawyer, restaurant, etc.

Next, we need to get in touch with our internal reaction when we tell someone "why us." Many still feel that if they try to sell anything, even the most valuable of products, they'll be perceived as a used car salesman. Some feel slimy even saying the "S word"!

So, I work with clients to find THEIR way of selling. THEIR way of talking about themselves, their product or their service. Basically, it's about being convinced enough of your own value that you can tell people about it in an authentic and non-annoying way!

And like any other skill, you do NOT come out of the womb inherently knowing how to do this! It takes practice and at first, it will feel strange. But like building a muscle, it gets easier as you go. And once you see that nobody runs screaming from the room in horror when you acknowledge what you do and why you do it well, it is less scary the next time you're in a similar situation. Eventually, like any other skill, it will become automatic!

Click here to read how one man’s success story is resulting in a banner sales year!

Inspiring Offers

How to Love Selling No-Cost Teleclasses. To help you really learn and use the 4 perspective shifts in today’s article, so selling is organic and easy for you, I’m offering a no-cost 2-part telephone class on 9/8 and 9/22 at noon CT. This call is designed especially for those of you in career transition, career or business building. How are your discomfort, dislike and avoidance of selling YOU and what you offer holding you back? Part 1 covers being mission-driven and creating consultive conversations. Part 2 teaches how to take your Self out of the formula for the sake of others and seek agreement instead of selling. Go here to register and get call instructions.

30-Minute Complimentary Consultation. Every month I reserve no-cost telephone consultations for a limited number of business professionals to explore where you are today in your career or business, where you'd like to be and the obstacles that seem to be standing in the way. If you are serious about creating positive change, email me to grab one of these sessions. You’ll learn what your beginning steps might be and how working with me as your coach can grow your career or business with greater ease, less stress and more success.

Chicago ExecuNet Meetings for Senior Executives in Career Transition. Attend two monthly structured networking meetings I facilitate for ExecuNet to get your 3-minutes of spotlight attention and assistance from an amazing group of fellow seekers and finders. We meet the 1^st and 3^rd Wednesdays in Chicago and Oakbrook, respectively. Get details and register for the 9/1 Chicago meeting where we’ll focus on bringing your mission into your elevator speech. Today’s guest interviewee, Elene Cafasso, is our speaker at the 9/15 Oakbrook meeting on how to change the messages in your head so you can successfully sell YOU! REGISTER and find several no-cost networking and job search tools here.

All You Need is Love. Watch this inspiring You Tube from 2009 as people from 156 countries sing this song at the same moment! It’s a wonderful reminder of how we are all connected. It fits my belief and mission! http://youtu.be/TBbZ-aHu9do

Tips and Tools

Today’s article covered 4 wonderful big shifts in thinking to help you learn to love selling more to ask and receive boosts to your career or business. Here are some coaching questions to help you start developing a mission statement.

Start by getting quiet and asking yourself a few questions. Don’t think the answers, feel them. Listen and allow to the answers to come as a whisper. Ask yourself,

Why am I on this planet?
What do you want your life to stand for? (Imagine toasts to you on your 90^th birthday)
What is meaningful to you at the end of the day, at the end of your life?
What do you love to do?
What patterns do you see or a common thread in all your jobs and meaningful achievements? These often line up with your natural abilities and talent.

As you get a wisp of a mission taking shape, start to make choices during the day using your mission as a guide. Ask yourself if the activity you are engaged in or considering will HONOR your deepest mission!

Join me for the special no-cost How to Love Selling teleclass series or email me for a private session to develop your mission statement and learn to use it as a filter leading to inspired choices and actions.

About Gail

Gail Sussman Miller is the Chief Obstacle Buster at Inspired Choice where senior executives in career transition and women leaders grow their career or business using a mission-driven heart-centered marketing approach. Gail inspires business leaders and companies to communicate more cleanly and clearly, increase collaboration, and create more meaningful conversations and relationships so they can reach better solutions sooner. She teaches you how to turn obstacles into opportunities by aligning your beliefs, thoughts and actions with your desires and true Self. She calls herself a mid-life bloomer Baby Boomer, is a recovering perfectionist, and found true passion in work, marriage, motherhood, and now grandmotherhood, after the age of 44!

www.InspiredChoice.com
www.InspiredChoice.com/ExecuNet
www.InspiredChoice.com/Emotional-Intelligence
www.HowToLoveNetworking.com
www.HowToLoveSpeaking.com

Let's connect on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/gailsussmanmiller and follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/GailSussmanMill

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July 28, 2010 Inspired Action at Work Newsletter

This is the first issue of a new newsletter published by Inspired Choice called Inspired Action at Work. It offers perspectives and tools to grow your career or business. Read the new issue below or download the MS Word version: July Inspired_Action_Letter. To get a copy delivered monthly to your email, <<--sign up to get inspired in the boxes to the left.

Read the feature article and share your story of letting go of struggle and finding an easy solution. Click Comments below to share your lesson. What obstacle is keeping you from moving forward in your career or business today? Email Gail, your Chief Obstacle Buster, to help you move through and get into inspired action.

Inspired Action at Work
Perspectives and tools to grow your career or business
By Gail Sussman Miller --- July 28, 2010

In this issue...

Note from Gail: Overcoming obstacles
Feature Article: Giving up the struggle. Nature’s lesson on freedom
Guest Interview: Stephanie Meis on overcoming obstacles
Inspiring Offers: 30-minute complimentary consultation and more
Tips and Tools: Marketing actions steps for summer success
About Gail

Note from Gail

I am honored and proud to bring you Inspired Action at Work, this month’s issue of the new and improved monthly newsletter from Inspired Choice. In a time when the world of work is experiencing increased stress, conflict, and fear I am committed to bringing my unique insights, experience, passion and spirit to light to stimulate more meaningful conversations, strengthen trust and collaboration, and increase acceptance of self and others in the business world.

Each month I’ll help you increase your workplace success by offering stimulating perspectives, guest interviews, and encouragement to be as fully YOU as possible. That is THE single most important key to your success. It makes you more authentic, memorable, referable, desirable and response-able! I’ll offer you motivating insights, tips and tools to show up, speak up, and take action based on inspired choice.

The theme of this issue is overcoming and moving through obstacles. I am the Chief Obstacle Buster for Inspired Choice! The core of this work involves awareness, acceptance, a perspective shift, making an inspired choice and then taking inspired action through small steps. I know first-hand as the experience of getting this newsletter to “press” will reveal.

I am a recovering perfectionist. To get this newsletter in front of your eyes, I needed to accept, forgive and move through serious bouts of procrastination, tight spaces, over thinking, and analysis paralysis. I went through months of getting near the commitment line and stepping back for weeks, repeatedly. Like the duckling in this month’s feature article, I found the answer by stepping back, choosing my own freedom and going through the opening that was always there. There was no magic or change in my newsletter methods or technology or new learning to explain this issue. I did the inner work and recommitted to connection with you, my reader, and to my mission to improve the world of work through honoring and teaching my top 3 values: Choice, Connection and Love.

Special thanks for unconditional support and lovingly firm moments of truth goes first to my 3 best friends; my husband, my sister, and close girlfriend. I am grateful for my professional helpers Linda Claire Puig, marketing and newsletter expert, who offers articles or even newsletters done for you at Claire Communications and Andrea Lee, my amazing coach, visionary and thought leader, who got me through the storm on more than one occasion can be found at www.andreajlee.com.

In today’s article I’ll share a lesson I learned from Nature and a 2-week old duckling. Be sure to read the article for the inspiration and lesson. Read to the end to see how to sign up for my special offer of a no-cost 30-minute complimentary consultation. See the Inspiring Offers section for this and two other action-minded tools.

This month’s guest interview is with Stephanie Meis, M.A., friend and Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and Reiki Master-Teacher. Stephanie is not only a powerful healer; she is a sweet, amazing woman. She shares her perspective and approach to overcoming obstacles and has an offer of her own for you.

Here’s to the power of simply connecting with like-minded people for the greater good,
Gail Sussman Miller

Feature Article

Giving up the struggle. Nature's lesson on freedom.

On a recent walk around the newly renovated South Pond in Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo, I was gifted with a lesson from Nature, taught to me by a baby duck. See my special no-cost offer below, inspired by this story, so YOU can benefit from Nature's lesson, too!

While strolling along the gorgeous new boardwalk, my husband and I came upon a family of ducks. A mom and 3 babies maybe 2 weeks old, about 5 inches long, all cute and fuzzy. What wasn't so warm and fuzzy is that the 3 ducklings were trapped on the wrong side of a continuous circuit of chicken wire set up on wooden stakes to protect the newly planted seeds on the edge of the pond!

We watched intrigued and concerned as these 3 babies tried to get back to their mother. The longer they struggled, the more we thought of ways to intervene.

Then we decided to see what Nature would figure out.

Continue reading here to be amazed by the outcome and see my special offer to you…

Guest Interview

Stephanie Meis works with clients, using psychotherapy and energy work, to address the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of issues in their lives. She helps her clients look beyond issues, pains and distress to get to the root of what’s causing them, and then working from there to heal them using Reiki Healing and meditation. Stephanie is generously offering the Meditation CD "Transforming Fear into Growth," at no cost, to tap into your calm, wise inner center so you can creatively move through tough times. Go to http://stephaniemeis.dominicdagradi.com.

Gail: How do you describe the process of overcoming obstacles related to career or business and why is it an important skill to develop?

Stephanie: Actually, the idea of overcoming obstacles is antithetical to the way I understand human growth and development. In working with my clients' inner worlds, I see fragments of consciousness that are stuck in old traumas, beliefs, ancestral patterns or even past lives. The only way "in" toward healing is in softly understanding and working gently with how these patterns have come to be. This is how people change their lives in my opinion.

Gail: Can you share a personal obstacle-busting success story with our readers?

Stephanie: I met once with a client who had severe headaches and depression following her divorce. She was so lonely and debilitated by this pain that she felt unable to muster the energy to turn her life around.

When she focused deeply on her headaches, she saw stained glass windows in her head, and from these we found a lot of guilt coming from conflict with beliefs from her family who were a long line of ministers. We spent an entire session educating her "headache energy" that there was a reality that she was living in the present that didn't necessarily line up with the old beliefs from the past!

At the session's end, this client experienced forgiveness for herself, her former husband, and a softening inside that made her feel that the old information from her parents was different from what was current and good for her now. No more headaches and happily remarried within a year!

Gail: What is a tip or advice you recommend to help people overcome fear and obstacles in the workplace?

Stephanie: See the obstacles and fear as gifts or signals that you are getting ready to grow and clear old consciousness. Always focus on what you want!

Inspiring Offers

30-Minute Complimentary Consultation. My story of Nature’s lesson for giving up struggle and overcoming obstacles includes an offer for a limited number of no-cost consultations. In this 30-minute phone session, we will explore where you are today, where you'd like to be and the obstacles that seem to be in the way. Learn what your beginning steps might be and how working with me as your coach can grow your career or business with greater ease, less stress and more success. (Instructions to prepare and sign up are at the end of the article here.)

Leveraging LinkedIn Private Training. One-hour customized session to learn to Leverage LinkedIn during the month of August for your specific business goals, whether in job search, career advancement or business building, in a private one-hour training, available by telephone or in person in Chicago. Improve your chances of being found by making yourself visible in today's social media world. Recruiters, hiring managers and customers rely on LinkedIn to find people they need! Learn how to be real in a virtual world and warm things up online and off. Learn to use LinkedIn to find contacts and then create conversations that are personal and effective. Take advantage of the special newsletter reader rate of 25% off through Labor Day. Enter the coupon code “Inspired Action” when you shop and click the Apply button. (Get details and register here.)

Chicago ExecuNet Meetings for Senior Executives in Career Transition. Attend one of two structured networking meetings I facilitate each month for ExecuNet to get your 3-minutes of spotlight attention and assistance from an amazing group of fellow seekers and finders. We meet the 1^st and 3^rd Wednesdays in Chicago and Oakbrook, respectively. Get details and register for the 8/4 meeting (speaker on becoming a subject matter expert!) and the 8/18 meeting plus several no-cost networking and job search tools here.

Tips and Tools

Does it seem like the summer months are a time when business is moving slower and prospects and job search leads don’t seem to respond? For some, this external influence has an internal impact and can trigger questions about your skills and confidence. The good news is, it’s not about you.

Time for a perspective shift! Consider this as an opportunity to get some behind-the-scenes “maintenance” done on your marketing efforts. Here is a pick list of 30-60-minute action steps any one of which will move your campaign forward.

Make those changes to your resume, LinkedIn profile, product brochure, website or social media profiles that you’ve been planning to make one day. Choose ONE of these and let it inspire you to standardize your brand in other places. (See LinkedIn Inspiring Offer above)
Increase your virtual exposure and position yourself as a subject matter expert by writing and publishing articles on online newsletters, posting comments on blogs on your subject, book yourself as a speaker (Ask me how! Chicagoans, see 8/4 offer)
Reconnect by email or phone with employers and clients you have not talked to in 2 years or more. They’ll be so flattered you remembered them and unaware of your current mission. Inform them and ask for introductions.

About Gail

Gail Sussman Miller is the Chief Obstacle Buster at Inspired Choice where senior executives in career transition and women solopreneurs grow their career or business using a mission-driven heart-centered marketing approach. Gail inspires business leaders and companies to communicate more cleanly and clearly, increase collaboration, and create more meaningful conversations and relationships so they can reach better solutions sooner. She teaches how to turn obstacles into opportunities by aligning your perspective and actions with your desires and true Self. She calls herself a mid-life bloomer Baby Boomer, is a recovering perfectionist, and found true passion in work, marriage, motherhood, and now grandmotherhood, after the age of 44!