Working On Purpose

What you want out of life can change drastically as the decades of life course by. Many people have a burning desire as college graduates to enter a chosen profession, climb the ladder of success, and enjoy a financially comfortable and respectable career. For many men and women, as they reach their 40s, new or additional longings often accompany this middle age period in life span development. We begin to look for more ways to develop ourselves, realize our potential, and enrich our lives. That’s partly what prompted Annette Anderson to begin taking, and then teaching intensive personal development workshops while having a very successful career as a healthcare executive. Once hooked, that initial taste for personal exploration blossomed into a spiritual calling to help others navigate their sacred path. Today as an ordained teacher, Annette’s ever curious quest for spiritual nurturing and ongoing unfoldment continues along her own path aside those she serves.

Have you ever felt like you couldn’t be your real self at work? Or, do you knowingly hold back or stifle important parts of yourself because you somehow feel pressure or uncertainty? Many people hunger to bring their true selves to the workplace, but when there are so many pressures to fit a certain mold or follow some kind of prescription to get results, how do you dare to be real? And in a world of work that’s rife with change, where all the old rules don’t apply, what do you do? What does it mean to be a truly authentic leader? These are just some of the questions we’ll address with OnStage Leadership Founder and Director Kimberly Davis. Whether she’s speaking to small business owners, Fortune 500 leaders, or leaders of the future, Kimberly is committed to connecting people to the best of who they are; challenging her audiences to consider what they need to do, on a personal level, to authentically and powerfully bring their best selves to work and life for real results.

Many of us go through life unaware of the unique lens through which we experience and interpret the world. We aren’t cognizant of the ways our perspective, attitudes, and values inform the way we navigate life and even do our work. Yet, we have the power to harness powerful mindfulness, which can greatly enhance our day to day lives. And what’s more, when we are able to access our unconscious, many more things become possible, and previously not understood phenomenon in life begin to make sense or become clear. Hypnosis and neuro-linguistic programming are the subject of this episode, as Dr. Michael Harris discusses his work to help transform lives and even cure medical ailments. Not many people can say they’ve helped Olympic athletes, professional and amateur golfers, CEOs, housewives, children, and returning Veterans. Well, Michael Harris has - he’s helped them get focused, win medals, and enjoy their jobs and their families.

What if your job is making you sick? How can you transition out of a career you spent countless hours and dollars to attain? Once upon a time, an attorney had a successful and rising career, winning juicy settlements for the City of New York. Tragically, litigating created a level of toxicity for Nicole Payseur that ultimately catapulted her out of the combative courtroom and into the yoga studio. Her journey is a road less traveled, beginning with a start in yoga 25 years ago when she practiced it for vanity. Then, when the going got really tough at work, she did yoga for her sanity. For the past eight years, she has been teaching yoga for humanity. She now helps balance students' bodies and minds because she experienced the shift herself. Making a career work for the mind and body enables us all to find our place in the world. Your job does not have to pay your bills while robbing your body. Come and listen to a woman who made the switch and now enjoys radiant health.

After purposely choosing a career in the Human Resource field immediately out of college, Mark Mitford spent the last 20 years gaining a global perspective and expertise on how organizations handle their most valuable asset, their people. With an analytical mind and servant heart, he sought to be the trusted advisor to his leadership peers over the years and thoroughly enjoyed knowing he made a difference. Now, armed with those cumulative years of service, Mark knows he has much to offer small to medium sized companies who desperately need an informed perspective on how to hire, develop, engage and lead their workforce. At the same time, his tenure in the field makes him a bountiful source of advice for job seekers looking to land their next position. Join the dialogue and learn how Mark navigated his own career and what he can teach you about managing your own.

Most adults these days have had at least a couple careers over the course of their working lives. And many people go on to try as many as seven or more different careers over their 50 year work lifespan. Wade Cottingham has really only had two but has absolutely made the best of both so far! After a long stint as a computer programmer, he opted to find a way to work in the actual field in which he was schooled, which was Music, and so began giving piano lessons. Several years into this new career, he discovered something pretty magical: how to completely enjoy every private lesson 100 percent of the time and never complain, no matter what the external variables are. That epiphany and concept coincided with renaming his studio Lakewood Piano Lab, and it has led to a meaningful connection to his work that is simply and elegantly directed from a change in his perspective that continues to endure.

What did you want to be when you were a kid? Did you dream of being an astronaut or a police officer? Where did you get the idea and why did you want to pursue this kind of a career, and did you actually do it? A lot of us have a career dream when we’re a kid, and some of us actually see it through to fruition. Many of us change course several times during high school or college, or are derailed into different work in our early work years changing course as new vista open to us. Our fledgling ideas are early yearnings and guideposts as to what we aspire to be and do in our adulthood, and we often measure our life’s worth according to the extent to which we’ve achieved those childhood aims. Join the dialogue as two middle school girls describe their current career interests, where those aspirations came from, and what they anticipate their chosen paths will yield in their day to day lives.

What would your world look like if you managed to find work and develop a career that allowed you to authentically express your personality, draw on your best talents, and feel like you’re making a real difference to the community you live in? How would it affect your attitude about work and the effort you put into it? What kind of impact would doing this kind of work have on your personal life and how you see yourself? And how do you even find a job like that? We’ll learn the answers to these questions and many more in the conversation with Derek Smith, Vice President of Operations at the Metropolitan Fort Worth YMCA in Texas. He’ll share his early experiences with the YMCA, how he’s built a meaningful career within this well known international non profit organization, and why he feels his work matters.

Considering most people will spend a minimum of 40 years in their lives working, chances are if you have not already, you will soon find yourself at a crossroads in your career or personal life. Perhaps you’re beginning to feel the work you’ve been doing for several years no is no longer fulfilling. Or maybe you’re caring for young children, aging parents, and just need more flexibility to juggle everything. Or, just maybe you are ready for a completely different line of work that allows you greater challenge, personal growth, or self expression. According to Ms. Elliott Yeary, each day is a new beginning. You can start fresh, anticipating what today will bring. Or you can just settle for yesterday's doubts and fears. Which road will you take? Do you take the path to your new found future or stay in the shadows of the past? Join the dialogue as Ms. Sherri Elliott Yeary shares her expertise on personal and career crossroads, including her own journey through a few of her own.

Having spent 25 years as a child and adolescent psychotherapist focused on disadvantaged youth and the special needs population, Dr. Patricia Ruiz sees a completely new target for her clinical services: department stores and franchise businesses. Armed with a lifetime of personal experience raising her daughter with cerebral palsy and encountering the spectrum of welcoming to dismissive customer service interactions, Patricia has some unique and valuable business advice to offer companies who just may be interested in the buying power of the extremely brand-loyal disability minority population. Today, we find her at that daunting precipice, aching to see her business dream become a reality in order to improve the lives of those she has served for a quarter century by teaching business better customer service. Join us to hear why Patricia believes in the viability of her new venture and her initial plans to kick it off and transition entirely from psychotherapy.

It seems simple enough, doesn’t it? You’ve known forever that you were born an artist. Over a lifetime, you work in the jewelry business, paint paintings, and create greeting cards. Producing beautiful paintings was nice and people appreciated them, yet that work didn’t seem to register as having the impact on the community in the way you would like. Exactly how do you elevate yourself to living your purpose with those artistic innate talents and make the difference to which you so aspire? Join the conversation to hear how Marty Ruiz did just that, managing to turn his volunteer hobby to sing into a paid, fulfilling vocation that allows him comfortable work-life integration.

What we do to earn a living can have a profound influence on the meaningfulness of our overall lives. Our careers can be a terrific source of joy, or can manifest tremendous disappointment or angst in us. And sometimes, we just need some kind of change but don’t know exactly what it is. What to do, then, when your career has developed over several years, you’ve gained some valuable skills, and you think you might just be ready to make the leap to self-employment? Join the conversation as Chef Tara Anderson of Tara’s Table, who launched two product lines, Half Pint Palates in 2013 and will be launching Mother Meatball in 2015, shares her journey from a successful corporate executive chef to starting her own company. You’ll learn why she felt compelled toward entrepreneurship, how she made the tough decision to leave a great job, the early steps she took to launch the business, and how her life has since changed throughout her odyssey.