Autumn is a time to reignite ambition and transform dreams into reality.
Tag: entrepreneurs
7 Meaningful Fall Bucket List for Leaders
Anyone who thinks fallen leaves are dead has never watched them dancing on a windy day. ~ Shira Tamir
Here are seven meaningful fall bucket-list ideas for leaders. Choose one, two or a few.
- Release one outdated habit
Identify a routine, belief, or responsibility that no longer supports your growth. - Reconnect with your vision
Review your goals and decide what deserves your GreenLight before the year ends. - Have one courageous conversation
Address an issue you have been avoiding with honesty, respect, and empathy. - Recognize someone’s contribution
Personally thank a colleague, employee, mentor, or community partner. - Invest in your development
Attend a workshop, read a leadership book, or schedule a coaching session. - Create space to reflect
Take a quiet walk, journal, or spend time in nature assessing the season behind you. - Plant a seed for the future
Begin one relationship, project, or opportunity that can grow in the coming year.
Fall leadership reminder: Release what has ended, appreciate what has grown, and prepare for what comes next.
Does this resonate with you? Do share, we would love to hear.
Cheers!
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5 Things Organizing Community Events Taught Me About Leadership
Leadership is not always standing at the center of the room. Sometimes it is building the room, opening the doors and giving others a place to be seen.
I’ve spent over two decades studying leadership, coaching leaders, and writing about what it takes to lead well. But organizing our community author showcase is prime.
With more than 40 authors converging at the Fred Lippman Cultural Center in the City of Hollywood, Florida, the lineup includes my own presentation co-partnered with Fort Lauderdale’s Jamaica Brew Festival Co-founder, Dale Mahfood. A panel on building author brand, poetry, and a slate of featured authors, this event has become an unexpected classroom. Here’s what it has taught me.
1. Leadership is Choreography, Not Control
You cannot control 40 authors. You can only choreograph the conditions for them to shine. Every author arrives with a different personality, a different genre, a different idea of what “success” for the day looks like. My job isn’t to manage each of them into compliance, it’s to build a structure flexible enough to hold that many voices without losing coherence. That’s a lesson I’ve taught in leadership development for years. Living it, in real time, with real logistics and real personalities, is a different kind of learning altogether.
2. The Panel is a Microcosm of the Whole Event
Curating the panel on building author brand has been its own leadership exercise. Choosing who sits at that table, what questions get asked, and how the conversation is sequenced is really about clarifying a shared message from different perspectives. That’s what leadership often is: not silencing distinct voices, but helping them harmonize around a purpose bigger than any one of them.
3. Behind-the-Scenes Work is Still Leadership
I’ve long been more comfortable letting the work speak rather than putting myself forward. This event has stretched that. I’m not just organizing from behind the curtain this time, I’m also presenting, which means stepping into visibility while still holding the operational threads together. Leadership doesn’t always look like standing at the podium; sometimes it’s making sure the podium, the poetry reading, and the featured author segment all run on time so everyone else can have their moment.
4. Poetry and Prose Remind Me Leadership Needs Range
Weaving poetry alongside author presentations and a business-minded panel has reminded me that leadership isn’t one register. Sometimes it calls for strategy and structure. Sometimes it calls for space; for feeling, for art, for the parts of a message that a bullet point can’t carry. A good leader, like a good event, knows when to shift registers.
5. Community Events Reveal Leadership at Full Scale
With 40+ authors, a cultural center, and multiple event formats layered into one day, nothing exposes gaps in planning, communication, or delegation faster than a live event with a fixed date. There’s no theoretical framework that substitutes for the real-time problem-solving this requires and that, more than any case study, is where leadership is truly learned.
As the event approaches, I’m struck by how much this process mirrors the leadership principles I’ve spent my career researching and teaching: clarity of purpose, distributed voice, adaptability, and the discipline to serve something larger than yourself. Sometimes the best leadership lessons don’t come from a classroom or a book, they come from the folding chairs and program schedules of a community event.
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Why Does It Hurt So Bad?
To Focus is to Achieve
The shorter way to do many things is to only do one thing at a time. ~ Mozart
Knife in the right. Fruit in the left. Both hands occupied, me attempting to sit on the kitchen bar stool while adjusting its height was a sure recipe for disaster. And so, it did. Multi-tasking doesn’t work in all situations.
Down I went; fruit, knife, bar stool and me! Wham! I felt that sharp pain as the one-legged bar stool knocked sharply into my right rib! My oldest and her hubby ran to the rescue! But the damage was already done. It’s as though the wind was knocked out of me. I lay on the ground writhing in pain beyond 10-minutes.
When I finally accepted help to get up, I felt like I wanted to simply lay flat. I staggered in hasty retreat to bed. But could hardly get in. The pain was too much to bear and I could hardly breathe. Why does it hurt so bad, I pondered?
The night ended with the Emergency Room Physician telling me post X-Ray that I had bruised by rib, and the healing and pain would ease in three weeks! Internet searches recounted with 4-6 weeks recovery. Others who have gone through it, said the pain lingers beyond that.
Left in daily excruciating pain marked by sleepless nights, that’s the tale of my multi-tasking mishap. Work, sleep, appointments all interrupted but it could have been worse.
While there’s life, there’s hope.
The Multi-Tasking Learning
Balance and foresight is important. Multitasking has its limits that leaders should be mindful of. Brown University’s Dr. Jennifer Davis, among others, share hidden costs:
- More mistakes: Dividing your attention can increase your error rate by up to 50%.
- Mental exhaustion: Switching tasks drains your brain’s energy and leaves behind mental blocks.
- Higher stress: Juggling demands raises your heart rate, blood pressure, and anxiety levels.
- Blocked creativity: Constantly shifting focus robs the working memory needed for deep, creative thought.
So self-leaders take heed. Manage multi-tasking. The urge to get things done all at once can lead to sad consequences, like mine.
What are your tales and views on multi-tasking? Do share, we would love to hear.
Cheers!
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What Are You Afraid To Ask For?
Asking for help is not a sign of weakness – it is the greatest sign of strength. ~Kendra Scott
I was walking through Walmart when an older gentleman spotted me passing by and immediately asked for help. His wife was on FaceTime, but he couldn’t hear her. “Why can’t I hear her?” he asked, placing the phone in my hand before I could even respond. I turned up the volume, and just like that, he was back in conversation with his wife. He was so relieved that he never even stopped to say thank you.
I smiled and walked away. What stayed with me wasn’t the missing “thank you.” It was how easily he had asked a complete stranger for help. He had a problem. He saw someone who might be able to help. So he simply asked.
I was happy to help. But the encounter made me think: How often does this happen around us?
Asking for help is not a sign of weakness – it is the greatest sign of strength. ~Kendra Scott
As the world becomes increasingly digital, some people are unintentionally being left behind. Seniors may struggle with technology that was never part of their everyday lives. Employees arrive at work to discover that a familiar system has changed, sometimes with little or no advance training. Even something as routine as paying a bill can now require navigating an online portal, or facing a late fee for not using the new process correctly.
QR codes. Apps. Online registrations. Electronic programs. Digital payments. Even giving our tithes and offerings has increasingly moved online.
Technology may make life more convenient for many of us, but for others, it can make a once-simple task feel unnecessarily complicated.
And sometimes, there is no real choice. Learn the system, ask someone for help, or risk being left behind.
That’s what brought me back to the gentleman in Walmart. He didn’t pretend to understand. He didn’t allow embarrassment to stop him. He had a problem, saw someone who might be able to help, and he asked.
Perhaps there is a lesson in that for us all as leaders.
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When Everything Looks Good But Still Feels Wrong
Broken Crayons still color. ~Lifehack
You have the job. The title. The experience. Maybe even the salary you once hoped for. From the outside, everything looks good.
So why doesn’t it feel right?
This is a question many successful professionals quietly wrestle with. Sometimes we remain in situations because they still look like success. We worked hard to get there. Other people admire what we’ve accomplished. Walking away, or even questioning it, can feel ungrateful or irresponsible.
Growth Has a Way of Making Yesterday’s Dream Feel Different Today
- What once challenged you may now drain you.
- What once excited you may no longer inspire you.
- What once aligned with your goals may no longer align with who you’re becoming.
That doesn’t automatically mean it’s time to leave. It may simply mean it’s time to pause. Before making a major career, business, or life decision, give yourself permission to ask:
What has changed?
Is it the environment, or me?
What am I feeling?
Am I tired, frustrated, burned out, bored, or genuinely ready for something different?
What am I holding onto?
Is it purpose, or is it comfort, fear, status, or other people’s expectations?
A resilience mindset that can help us re‑evaluate when things feel wrong.
What would alignment look like now?
Not every uncomfortable season requires an exit. Sometimes we need rest. Sometimes we need boundaries. Sometimes we need a new challenge within the same environment. And sometimes, after careful reflection, we realize that we’ve simply outgrown where we are. The goal isn’t to make a quick move.
The goal is to understand the signal before deciding what comes next.
If everything in your life looks good but something still feels wrong, don’t ignore that feeling. Pause. Reflect. Listen. You may not need an immediate answer. You may simply need enough quiet to hear the question you’ve been too busy to ask.
Reflection: What in your life still looks right on paper, but deserves another look? Do share. We would love to hear!
Cheers!
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The Most Important Leader You’ll Ever Lead
I sat in the stillness of the morning dew. Birds chirping quietly. Soft breeze moving through treetops amidst the dew heavy grasses. The cool, still air of sunrise created the perfect moment for my thoughts to breathe.
As I mentally listed the many roles I carry; author, coach, mentor, leadership developer, colleague, mom, and more; I realized someone was missing from the list.
Me.
In the hustle and bustle of life, I had quietly disappeared from my own list. Sadly, that isn’t uncommon. Many leaders become so committed to serving others that they forget to lead themselves.
With trailing thoughts the question arose, “Who is the most important person you will ever lead?” It isn’t your team. It isn’t your organization. It isn’t your family.
It’s You
Yes, you. We spend a great deal of time learning how to lead others: our teams, organizations, and families. But the most important leadership journey begins much closer to home. It begins with leading ourselves.
Self-leadership is the daily practice of managing our thoughts, choices, attitudes, and actions before expecting others to follow our example. It isn’t about perfection. It’s about intentional growth.
The strongest leaders aren’t always the loudest voices in the room. They’re often the ones who have learned to pause before reacting, stay true to their values, admit when they’re wrong, and keep growing long after they have earned the title.
Every day presents us with Choices:
- Will I let fear make this decision?
- Will I choose comfort over growth?
- Will I respond, or simply react?
Those quiet decisions shape our leadership more than our title ever will. As you prepare for the week ahead, take a moment to reflect:
- What habit is helping me become a better leader?
- What mindset do I need to leave behind?
- What one courageous step will I take this week?
Leadership isn’t built in a single moment. It’s built one decision at a time.
The quality of your leadership tomorrow depends on how well you lead yourself today.
What is one self-leadership habit you’re committed to strengthening this week?
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10 Mini Retreats To Help You Unwind & Reboot At Almost No Cost
The start of something new brings hope and excitement. ~ Gabriel Chase
As leaders, we’re often wired to keep going. We push through deadlines, lead teams, solve problems, and pour our energy into everyone else. After weeks, or even months of operating at full speed, it’s easy to find yourself physically exhausted, mentally drained, and creatively depleted.
Perhaps you’re longing for a vacation, but time, responsibilities, or finances make a dream getaway unrealistic right now. The good news is that renewal doesn’t always require a plane ticket or an expensive resort. Sometimes the most meaningful reset comes from intentionally stepping away, even for a few hours.
These 10 simple, budget-friendly mini-retreat ideas are designed to help you slow down, unwind, reconnect with yourself, and reignite your creativity. Whether you need clarity for your next leadership decision, fresh inspiration for your writing, or simply a moment to breathe, these low-cost escapes can help you return refreshed, refocused, and ready for what’s next.
1. Create a “CEO Retreat Day”
Leave home by 8:00 a.m. Pack:
- Your book
- Journal
- Beach chair
- Water
- Simple lunch
- Fruit/snacks
- Favorite music
Spend the day moving slowly.
Morning:
- Beach walk
- No phone except photos
Late morning:
- Journal about life, not business.
Afternoon:
- Sit under a tree or umbrella and simply watch the ocean.
Get home before sunset.
2. Sunrise Beach Therapy
- Go before everyone arrives.
- Bring coffee.
- No agenda.
- Watch the sun come up.
There is something incredibly calming about beginning the day before the world gets noisy.
Even one hour feels restorative.
3. State Parks
Find an amazing state park for only a small entrance fee.
- Take your lunch
- Read
- Walk
- Watch wildlife
- No meetings
4. Botanical Garden
Instead of shopping, spend two or three hours wandering gardens. The slower pace naturally quiets the mind.
5. Library + Coffee + Beach
This one sounds simple but is surprisingly restorative.
Morning:
- Browse a library
- Pick up one inspiring book (not work)
Then:
- Local coffee shop
Then:
- Beach
Read for pleasure. No notetaking.
6. Picnic by the Water
Instead of eating inside: Pack:
- Fresh fruit
- Sandwiches
- Sparkling water
- Blanket
Find:
- An inlet
- Marina
- Quiet beach
- Lake
Stay three hours. Leave your laptop at home.
7. Artist Day
If you’re a creator. Spend a day doing things that feed creativity instead of productivity. Maybe:
- Visit an art museum
- Photograph interesting doors
- Photograph waves
- Collect shells
- Write one poem
- Sketch
No pressure to produce anything.
8. Sunset Reset
Instead of watching TV, drive to the beach. Watch the sunset. Leave. One hour. Sometimes that’s enough.
9. Personal Silent Retreat
One day.
- No email.
- No LinkedIn.
- No Instagram.
- No writing projects.
- No work.
Only:
- Prayer
- Reading Scripture
- Journaling
- Gratitude
- Walking
- Listening
If you’re a person of faith, and have a daily walk with God, this may be the most renewing option of all.
10. “Dream Again” Day
This may be especially useful for someone like you.
- Not planning.
- Not budgeting.
- Not working.
- Just dreaming.
Take your notebook and write:
- Where do I want to be in five years?
- What types of engagements would bring me joy?
- Which organizations would I love to serve?
- What legacy do I want to leave?
- What would make this next chapter lighter?
- Other
No action plans. Just possibility.
One More Thought
If you’re a Giver, very few goals may be about giving something back to yourself. The GreenLight Factor teaches people to recognize the right signal before moving forward. This may be your YellowLight season; a reminder to pause, regain clarity and replenish your energy before the next GreenLight (see Chapter 4)
My challenge to you is simple:
Schedule one full “CEO Retreat Day” during the next two weeks. Don’t wait until you can afford a formal vacation. A quiet day with the ocean, a journal, and no agenda may give you exactly the reset you need for everything that’s coming next.
Cheers!
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What Freedom Means to Leaders
Every year on the Fourth of July, we celebrate freedom. Yet as I reflect on Independence Day this year, I find myself thinking about another kind of freedom. One that rarely makes headlines but shapes our lives every day.
We remember the courage of those who envisioned a future different from the one they inherited. We celebrate the principles of liberty, opportunity, and the right to choose our own path.
It is the freedom to lead.
Not leadership defined by a title or position, but leadership defined by the decisions we make when no one else can make them for us.
Professionals are Held Back by Hesitation
Throughout my years in leadership development, I’ve discovered that many talented professionals are not held back by a lack of ability. They are held back by hesitation.
- The hesitation to apply for the role.
- The hesitation to launch the business.
- The hesitation to write the book.
- The hesitation to have the difficult conversation.
- The hesitation to leave what is comfortable for what is possible.
Ironically, many of us are free by every external measure, yet remain imprisoned by uncertainty, fear, or the opinions of others.
Leadership begins the moment we recognize that no one else can grant us permission to move forward.
That realization became one of the inspirations behind The GreenLight Factor. In studying leadership transitions, I observed that successful leaders were not simply those who moved quickly. They were those who learned to recognize the right signal at the right time.
- Sometimes leadership requires a RedLight. The discipline to stop before making a costly decision.
- Sometimes leadership requires a YellowLight. The wisdom to pause, gather information, and prepare before moving forward.
- And sometimes leadership requires a GreenLight. The courage to act with confidence when the opportunity is aligned with purpose, preparation, and timing.
Freedom is not the absence of responsibility. Freedom is the ability to make wise choices.
As leaders, we are constantly navigating intersections: career transitions, organizational change, family responsibilities, new opportunities, and unexpected challenges. At each intersection, we are making decisions that shape not only our own future, but also the lives of those who trust us to lead.
Perhaps the greatest independence we can experience is freedom from the beliefs that tell us:
“I’m not ready.”
“Someone else is more qualified.”
“Maybe next year.”
Leadership asks Different Questions
What if now is the time?
What if this opportunity was placed before you for a reason?
What if your next GreenLight has already appeared, and all that remains is the decision to move?
As fireworks light the evening sky this Independence Day, they will remind us of moments worth celebrating. But when the celebration ends and ordinary life resumes, our leadership journey continues.
- Each new day presents another intersection:
- Another decision
- Another opportunity to lead with clarity rather than fear
- Another chance to become the kind of leader who doesn’t simply wait for change but helps create it.
This Independence Day, I encourage you to celebrate more than the freedom of a nation. Celebrate the freedom to choose courage over comfort. Purpose over procrastination. Leadership over hesitation.
Because sometimes the most important declaration we make is not written on paper. It is the quiet decision to move forward when our GreenLight appears.
What is one GreenLight decision you’re ready to make this season? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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What Happens When Your Leaders Don’t Know Their Next Move?
One of the leaders I worked with was exceptionally talented. She was respected by her team, consistently delivered results, and had recently been promoted into a larger role. Yet despite her success, she found herself overwhelmed by competing priorities, difficult decisions
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Leadership Lessons: The Devil Wears Prada
Not every opportunity is aligned
What if one of the most powerful leadership lessons didn’t come from a boardroom but from a fashion magazine?
I recently revisited Just Stuff, an observation written based on the movie, The Devil Wears Prada and saw it differently. Not as a story about fashion or ambition, but as a case study in leadership decision-making.
At its core, it reflects what many leaders experience every day: standing at critical intersections, navigating pressure, identity, and expectations. Through the lens of my GreenLight Leadership Framework, three signals stood out:
🔴 RED LIGHT: When to Stop
Not every opportunity, no matter how prestigious, is aligned.
Sometimes the greatest leadership decision is recognizing when something is costing you too much.
🟡 YELLOW LIGHT: When to Assess
Growth can be deceptive. You may be advancing externally while becoming disconnected internally. Pause long enough to ask: Is this who I want to become?
🟢 GREEN LIGHT: When to Move
The most powerful moment in the film wasn’t success, it was clarity.
Choosing alignment over approval.
Purpose over pressure.
Developing leadership is a poignant process because leadership isn’t just about moving forward. It’s about moving forward at the right time, for the right reasons.
Many leaders today aren’t stuck because they lack ability. They are stuck because they are navigating the wrong signal.
So I’ll leave you with this:
Where are you right now?
🔴 Stopping
🟡 Assessing
🟢 Moving
Do share, we would love to hear.
Wish to learn more? Sign up for a greenlight leadership lab or get your copy of the book.
Cheers!
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Get Up And Move
All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Get up and move. That’s me. Finally selected a ‘walking’ friend in another state. I’d have her as an accountability partner for my need-to-move decision. To exercise. To stay healthy. To think. To write. My goal was simple. Walk at minimum twice weekly as a start (secretly hoping for more). But two times per week was manageable. After-all, the week has 7 days. I drive out of town a lot so twice should be achievable.
And We’re Off!
Walked 30 minutes! Yea! I did it. Before our midweek check-in, my friend sent me a video on the 2nd day. I screamed by text. “Don’t rush me or don’t bother with the accountability.”
Then I looked at the video. It was doing sit ups. Rolled my eyes since of late I have been experiencing a bit of back pain. There’s no way I can go that low much less to do the sit up.
Then I did it. Oh so satisfying! Yippee!
Next Steps
I snuck away. The weather wasn’t great. Cold. Windy. But I walked. Went a slightly longer route to get to the regular route. Why? Because there was a lady slowly running ahead of me. Not wanting to bump into her space (or more-so she into mine), I walked around. She ran ahead, then disappeared. Nowhere in sight.
I walked along. It worked to my benefit because I added another 10 minutes to my stretch. Horrible back pains but I did it slowly, but surely. Stopping to stretch along the way.
Got home. Did what I love. Wrote about my steps in this medium. Hmm, what if this is an inspiration to write, to put it in a journal of sorts?
Climbed the stairs. Then looked at the wide-open space between rooms and laid on the floor. Guess what I did? 30 sit-ups in blocks of 5 and 10. I’m so very proud of me!!!
I think I can do this! Again. I’ll keep going. One would never believe I was a track and field athlete (smirk).
So that’s how you do all things uncomfortable. No matter what it is. Career, education, financial, relationship, homeownership. Whatever your goal, you accomplish it one step at a time. One day at a time. Bigger goals become accomplished.
Cheers!
