Design Yourself

One of the many great legacies of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is that real, transformational change is possible when you stand up for what you believe. The first step in being able to emulate this kind of leadership? You have to know what you stand for. Today Sharon draws inspiration from this visionary leader and offers up questions for you to consider as you hone in on what it is that you believe and how you might best drive that forward. IDEAS SHARED Today we celebrate the profound leadership and long-lasting impact of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. May the questions and quotes offered below inspire you to chase after your own dreams. Questions and Quotes What do you stand for? What are your core beliefs? What are you willing to stand up and fight for? “I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.” – MLK * If you could offer one gift to the world before you die, what would it be? “No one really knows why they are alive until they know what th

What do you want? This question is the core inspiration for setting and moving towards a vision. Sharon believes that the greatest gift we can offer the world is to let our inner lights shine out brightly. To be our own unique selves. Visioning is an amazing resource for stewarding us on this path. Today Sharon shares Point Road Studios’ vision process, the Go Beyond Vision Cycle. Learn about how this process came to be, why visioning isn’t a linear but a cyclical process, and exercises for how you can begin playing with this tool on your own.  Ideas Shared: Sharon distilled her vision process out of a desire to make this resource accessible to those in her community who might not have access to a resource like one-on-one coaching. The PRS Vision Cycle* There are 5 different access points for setting your vision. While you can follow these steps in order, it is not necessary. As you create – and continue to evolve – your vision, the key is going to the access point where your energy is at that point in time.

Happy New Year and welcome to 2017! Today’s show is all about embracing who you are and what you want for the new year. Sharon offers alternatives to setting a New Year’s resolution - because let’s face it, most of us don’t follow through on those anyway! She also shares guidance for how you can focus less on trying to reinvent yourself and more on tapping into what's awesome about you right now - and build from there. Our wish for each listener this year is that you can let go of what’s not needed in order to focus on what makes you uniquely you. There is no greater gift to the world than to be yourself. Ideas Shared: A few questions to consider as you step into the new year Notice if you have been eagerly awaiting the new year (i.e. can’t wait to put 2016 behind you) or if the shift into January from December was a non-event for you? What do you wish that this year ahead holds for you? What do you hope will be different? What do you hope will remain the same? * 3 alternatives to the new year’s resolution: g

Maybe you, like Sharon, love this last week of the year for the quiet inspiration that it inspires in you. Or maybe you are thinking, “what quiet?!?!!” as you wend your way through the transition from 2016 to 2017. Today’s podcast will meet you wherever you may find yourself. In this last episode of our inaugural season, Sharon shares the importance of finding and exploring quiet moments - with a special emphasis on how we can embrace them when they show up naturally and create them on our own when they don’t. Here’s hoping that you will find some magic in them, whenever they do show up. Ideas Shared: Quiet is a gift. It allows the distractions of the everyday to melt away and we can center in on what matters most. To fully appreciate quiet, we must be mindful. And to be mindful is to be present, in the here and now. There are two ways that we might find ourselves spurred on to quiet: 1) A natural prompt like a major life milestone, or 2) An intentional move towards quiet. Quiet Prompted by a Major Milestone

Can it be that the holidays and end of year are really here? Tis so! If you, like Sharon, are finding yourself not yet fully in the holiday spirit, fear not. Today’s episode is designed to help you find just that. Sharon shares 10 questions to get you reflecting on how you’d like to move through the coming weeks. Explore your own answers and see what Sharon’s personal reflections might spark for you. Wishing that the holidays this year bring you just what you hoped for - and a few fun surprises too. Ideas Shared:  Here are 10 questions to help you find your holiday spirit: What are some of your fondest holiday memories? Are there any old traditions that you want to let go of or new ones that you want to start? What’s most important to you this holiday season? What are you most excited about? How can you soak those moment up? What emotion or emotions will serve you as you move through the next week? What 2-3 experiences do you want to sit back and enjoy? What MUST DOs are draining your energy? What opportunit

This week we are celebrating the 4th birthday of Point Road Studios with the launch of our new website (www.pointroadstudios.com) and some reflections on key lessons learned in our first 4 years. Come reminisce and learn with Sharon as she reflects on topics like quitting your day job, demanding your worth, taking a stand, and more. Ideas Shared: Celebrating our 4th birthday at Point Road this past week was a real milestone. There is something about 4 years that feels a little like a “graduation.” I took the time to pause and reflect on some of my key lessons learned. Hope you will enjoy! 10 Lessons Learned from My First 4 Years as an Entrepreneur Quitting Can Be A Great Start Entrepreneurship Can Meet Your Professional AND Personal Goals Build Your Energy as You Go Identify Your Ideal Client Demand Your Worth (!) Experiment Boundaries are Expansive (Not Limiting) Don’t Go It Alone Stand for Something Change is the Only Constant Resources and Links: Louis Barajas is the financial planner with a holistic ap

You know what’s not possible? Being perfect. But man does it still have a magnetic force that draws us towards it. In today’s episode Sharon shares some of her favorite resources for countering this pull as she discusses how to embrace imperfection. You’ll learn also about some of the many imperfect things Sharon’s experiencing right now (hint: it involves a lot of home renovations) and get a sneak peak into the launch of the new pointroadstudios.com which goes live at the end of this week. Enjoy! Ideas Shared: None of us are perfect. We are human. Perfectly imperfect in our humanness. And even though we can “know” this intellectually, it’s still hard to accept. ADVICE FOR EMBRACING YOUR OWN IMPERFECTION: Choose your focus for this season Do C-level work Get better with time See the gifts in your vulnerability Learn from the missteps Resources and Links: Brene Brown’s TED Talk on The Power of Vulnerability and her book The Gifts of Imperfection Interest in learning more about how multitasking doesn’t exi

This week Sharon shares one of the most helpful pieces of wisdom she’s ever received: “It’s more important to be present than prepared.” Learn how she has come to understand this adage over the years and how she’s added on to it as well. As part of this process, Sharon shares some questions you might consider if you find yourself holding on tightly to a desire to be in control and tips for bringing yourself back to centered awareness. May today’s episode steward you in stepping into your full presence, regardless of how well prepared you might feel. Ideas Shared: Today’s show really focuses in on two core ideas: It is more important to be present than prepared. Everyone requires a different level of preparation to be present. As we discussed it is more important to be present than prepared, we also looked at two ways of stewarding this mindset: A) Letting go of control To aid this process, you might try and understand your impulse to control, but reflecting on questions like: What’s important to me

The Thanksgiving season is upon us! Whether you are hitting the roads to travel to loved ones or embracing the opportunity to stay put, this week is often the start of a frenetic holiday pace. But it doesn’t have to be. In today’s episode, Sharon offers listeners a chance to settle into a spirit of peace and gratitude for the holiday season. Take in the 10 questions she shares to build up your own spirit of gratitude and hear her share how she is answering these prompts herself. Ideas Shared: 10 Questions to Get into the Thanksgiving Spirit As you reflect upon the 2016 year, consider… What makes you happy? What have you overcome this past year? What are you most proud of professionally and personally? Consider something that has been difficult for you this year…what have you learned from this situation? What’s one thing that you could let go of that would bring you a greater sense of peace and gratitude? What are your greatest gifts? If you could give one gift to the world, what would you want it to be? If y

Ever found yourself in a place where your head keeps spinning on the same question (or set of questions)? But no matter how much energy you expend thinking about it, you just can’t seem to come to a confident conclusion? You are not alone. We often get stuck on “unanswerable questions” because they are rooted in a way of seeing the problem that is limiting our ability to move forward. In today’s episode, Sharon shares a simple process for moving from question to action. Learn what it means to “live in the question” and why this practice is powerful for helping us shift from stuck to transformation. Ideas Shared:  Let us all remember to be in the practice of resilience together. resilience, noun: 1. the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; 2. the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness Process for Living in the Question Write down the unknowable questions Capture the questions underneath each question Probe Deeper Gather information Watch your questions evolve Give you

With less than 3 weeks until Thanksgiving, the joyful and jam-packed end of year season is upon us. Offices are budgeting and planning for next year while simultaneously focused on ending this calendar year with a bang. In our personal lives, invitations to holiday open houses begin to hit our mailboxes (or more likely, inboxes) while we also plan out how we’d like to celebrate the holiday season with our loved ones. All this makes for a fast-paced season. Beautiful chaos, as I like to embrace it. To help keep your energies and spirits high as you wend your way to the end of the year, Sharon offers 5 actions you can take to seize hold of the white noise buzzing around you and begin to eliminate it in the process. Ideas Shared: 5 Actions to Eliminate White Noise Action 1 – Write down everything that’s on your mind. Action 2 – Look at Your List for Themes and Patterns Action 3 – Set Your Priorities Action 4 – Get Another Perspective Action 5 – Set a Clear Intention AND Goal

Life is too short not to spend your time doing what you really feel called to do. In today’s episode Sharon offers up tips and resources for just letting go of the excuses and going for it - whatever it might be for you. Learn 5 simple steps to move from where you are today to where you want to be. Ideas Shared: This week I had fun playing with Adam Kurtz’s new book Pick Me Up: A Pep Talk for Now & Later. It is a fun book-journal-workbook-guide thing with pages of prompts for you to fill out. One page in the book offered the space to “write some good advice.” Here’s what I was inspired to scribble down: There are two tracks that I see people on as they set out to go after the things they really want in their lives: Track 1: If you already know what you want Track 2: If you don’t know what you want Track 1: 5 Steps for Going For It…if you already know what you want… Be present Name the prep/steps required to get you there Do the leg work Name and cultivate the emotion that will serve you

Sharon comes to you today from the peaceful setting of the Hudson Valley to share some reflections and resources related to rest and stillness. Learn what’s different about intentionally choosing to hold something (and not act) versus feeling stuck. Hear how we all need to take rest after we birth something new into the world - be it a new little baby or a brand new business. And get Point Road’s take on the steps you can take to realize your current habits around rest to making changes. May this episode be a good steward for you finding stillness in whatever way works for you. Ideas Shared:  Below are a few tips discussed in the episode on how to find rest amidst “busy” times. 5 Steps to Help You Downshift to Rest Get clear on your current habits Do a habits assessment  Set an intention around rest or stillness Interrupt your addictions Find an accountability partner Resources and Links: Today’s episode was recorded in the midst of a beautiful family retreat to the Hudson Valley. Here is the space where

I know, I know: Death, Grief and Chickens isn’t, well, sexy. But this week Design Yourself foregoes sexy for a whole lot of getting real. With light hearted humor (hello, chickens!) and a deep well of grace, Sharon opens up about her own observations on the topics of death and grief. This is not a show designed to give you the answers on what’s right or wrong when it comes to these gritty topics. Instead it’s one person’s reflections and observations as she comes to appreciate not just what’s possible in this life, but what’s possible when we honor the full life cycle. Resources and Links The inspiration for this episodes’ title? Anna Sale’s podcast Death, Sex, and Money, which is all about the big choices and hard questions that are often left out of polite conversation. If you already know the podcast or just find you want to learn a bit more behind its managing editor and host Ms. Sale, I can highly recommend episode 94 of Grace Bonney’s After the Jump where she interviews this podcast hero/childhood frie

Think about it. When was the last time someone asked you how you were doing or how things were going at work and you leaned on this go to answer: Busy! In this episode Sharon shares what happens when we open ourselves up to the possibility of the spontaneous (for her it was a magical trip through Slovakia to discover the hometowns of her Great Grandparents!) as well as strategies for how to shift out of the default habit of “busy.” May you be surprised by what opens up to you in the process. Cheers! Ideas Shared: 5 Strategies for Letting Go of the Busyness Paradigm Stop saying “I’m busy” Name the real issue Gather Data Model ideal behavior Take a break When discussing the power of naming the real issue, I shared an impactful framework I picked up at a conference recently from Juliet Funt at WhiteSpace at Work. Here are her 4 thieves of productivity: DRIVE (Shadow side: Overdrive) Ask yourself: Is there anything I can let go of? 2. EXCELLENCE (Shadow side: Perfection) Ask yourself: Where is “good

When we think of play, what usually emerges are signs of childhood: playgrounds, kids running around, perhaps a cape, lego or magic wand thrown in for good measure. But here’s the thing, adults can - and need! - play, too. In this episode Sharon explores some of the research behind why play is important, leveraging the lessons of the great scientist and play advocate Stuart Brown. You will learn three simple insights that will challenge you and spur you on to play. Sharon also shares a few questions you might consider to evaluate what play currently looks like for you - and what might be possible if you brought more of it into your life. Let the fun commence! Ideas Shared: It’s important to build distinctions around play. Here are a few of the different types of play that are out there: Curiosity, safe exploration Social play – creates belonging Rough and tumble play Spectator play Ritual play Imaginitative (solo) play Body Object Transformational Questions for you to consider: What do you look like when

Some events seem to call more naturally for a celebration - birthdays, graduations, major events in our lives. But there is a huge opportunity to bring the celebratory spirit to those things in our life that no one is measuring or observing. Today’s episode looks at 4 simple tips for how to bring the spirit of celebration into the things you are working for in your life that might be unseen or unnoticed by the casual observer. Why bother doing this? Work is great for getting to goals AND celebration is great for replenishing our energy to keep working hard. You get to decide what a celebration looks like for you, but I’m here to remind you that you’ve got to make sure you are doing so. Enjoy! Today’s episode really pushes us to celebrate and to understand that there are a host of opportunities to celebrate BEYOND those moments that are externally placed on us (e.g. report cards, performance reviews, graduations, promotions, etc). The trick is learning how to create and move towards those moments that we choos

“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.” So says Epictetus. In this episode Sharon discusses money, money, money. Learn about the difference between operating from a sufficiency ("there is enough”) vs. a scarcity (“there isn’t enough”) mindset and explore the 5 guiding steps to ensure that money isn’t what holds you back from going after what you really want. Money ultimately only has the value that we give it; learn how to make sure that your values and your spending are aligned. Ideas Shared: There is a lot of chatter out there on money. Here are some quotes that really struck me as I was doing research into this topic… “Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.” ― Oscar Wilde “If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.” ― Dorothy Parker “As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all – the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely t

What’s possible? What’s next? We close out our 4-part miniseries on Storytelling by looking to the space of the future. Being able to set a future direction gives a sense of purpose in your here and now and draws you forward with intention. But this doesn’t mean it comes naturally. In fact, even though research indicates that simply focusing on the future causes us to be perceived as “leaders,” most of us aren’t in the practice of doing this. Sharon shares her 5 tips for stepping into a future-oriented stance and the gifts it offers. Enjoy! Started out today with a birthday shout out to my most fabulous mama. Happy birthday mom! This episode marks the close of our Storytelling series and we finish up in this series with a look to the future. In that spirit I shared a few of my favorite tips for getting into the future-oriented/visionary mindset (see below). Fun fact: Simply taking a future-oriented stance will cause others to perceive you as a leader.  (What does this look like in practice? It can be as

Carpe diem, baby. In part 3 of our 4-part miniseries on Storytelling, we go deep on the role the present in shaping our stories. We explore the power of being able to bring new awareness to what you see right now using the wise words of the late writer David Foster Wallace (this is water!). We also learn about how being really clear about what’s real in your present is key not just to telling the Story of You but to feeling sane in the process. Sharon also dishes on some of her favorite shopping destinations around DC. Oh and there are some crazy prancing deer that show up which lead Sharon to record the this episode in two-parts. Seriously? Seriously! Enjoy!   I so loved that the recording of this show kicked off with me being surprised by seeing a doe and 3 fawns prance around the shallow waters of Lake Wallenpaupack. The fawns were living it up –  jumping here, there and everywhere seemingly enjoying the splashing and fun of it as much as my own little toddlers are on this Labor Day weekend trip. In