36: Living a life of Purpose – Examples of Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things

by | Dec 11, 2017 | Uncategorized

Today we have three amazing guests join us to discuss living a life of purpose and solutions for women in transitions.

 

Our first guest, Christine Garde, shares some inspirational stories about her prior work with gang members in South San Diego and also some of her current work in Mozambique, Africa where she focuses on two primary needs: education and feminine hygiene.

Our second guest, Natasha Todorovic-Cowan, discusses how too much has been made of a thin generation gap but not enough of a very real and wide communication gap, and the elements organizational leaders need to get the most out of their people.

Our new sponsor, Cheri Blair with MJL & Associates, has been serving and empowering women, pre-retirees, business owners, and their families with financial services for over 23 years. Today she talks with us about how women can take control of their finances and avoid “Bag Lady Syndrome.”

 

We Discuss:

  • Ordinary people doing extraordinary things
  • Tangible actions to help people who want to live a life of purpose move into action
  • How to overcome obstacles that seem impossible
  • How to make a difference in the world even when you have limited time or resources
  • Unique ways of looking at transition in individuals, families, organizations, and society
  • What organizations need to do to enable people to work at their maximum potential
  • The things that divide us as people versus what keeps us connected
  • The elements used to impact and shape transition
  • Paying attention to our reaction to change and how it makes us feel
  • Bridging challenges in the work environment and becoming comfortable with emotion
  • The misconceptions of generation gaps and how people can effectively communicate
  • Tips for managers to become more resilient to change and connect in a powerful way
  • Why women should make financial planning a priority
  • The first 3 steps that women need to follow to take control of their finances
  • Putting value into future comfort as well as present comfort
  • The biggest financial challenge that many women face
  • Ways that women can avoid the “Bag Lady Syndrome”

 

“We all can’t do everything, but what if each one of us looked and said what is the one thing I could do? We could make the world a really good place.”  –  Christine Garde

 

About Christine:

Christine Garde is the Founder and CEO of CouldYou? (CouldYou.org) working in Mozambique since 2007.

CY’s mission is to work with African leaders and organizations to develop African solutions to African problems. They work to help individuals find their own unique contribution to impact poverty.

CY focuses on education and literacy, water, health, and entrepreneurship for the inspiring nation of Mozambique.

Christine brings 26 years of experience designing, assessing, and implementing youth, adult, family, and community based social and economic programs (including 15 years working with gang members and at-risk youth and families).

She has worked as a fundraiser and coordinated urban, community, and outreach programs in the inner cities in America and in Mozambique. Christine has a passion to nurture purposeful living in the philanthropic community so as to alleviate poverty in a meaningful way.

In 2016 Christine was chosen as one of the fortyover40 women who is reinventing, disrupting, and making an impact globally. Here is a link to an article about her life and work in Forbes.com.

 

“We get so involved with our own emotions that we don’t see what other people are experiencing and therefore we can’t really empathize with them.”  –  Natasha Todorovic-Cowan

 

About Natasha:

Natasha Todorovic-Cowan is known as the “Corporate Body Count Pro”. Her expertise includes unraveling people messes at all levels of an organization.

Whether it is dysfunctional teams, incongruent leadership, cultures in conflict, change, or strategy implementation, she gets to the heart of what prevents leaders, teams, and organizations from getting the results they are after.

With clients on 5 continents, 2 million flyer miles have taken her to work in more than 16 countries. Natasha has experienced adventures such as finding herself between neo-Nazi’s and riot police in Vienna, being caught between the Russian military and Border Guards in Gorky Park, in a Shabeen in a South African squatter camp, interviewing a medicine man, and going 4 kilometers down into a working gold mine.

Natasha has more than 25 years of experience applying bio-psycho-social-systems insights to a broad range of industries. She has co-trained over 100 Spiral Dynamics Programs and delivered over 50,000 Spiral Dynamics assessments for clients in over 8 different languages.

Natasha is co-editor with NVC Consulting’s late co-founder, Chris Cowan, of Graves: Levels of Human Existence and The Never Ending Quest: Clare W. Graves Explores Human Nature. They also co-authored The Human Spiral.

 

About Cheri:

Cheri L. Blair has been serving and empowering women, pre-retirees, and business owners and their families with financial services for over 23 years.

After joining Metlife Financial Services in 1994, she created and presented empowering informational seminars and workshops to inform, support, and inspire “Women Financially” and developed plans and options for women, their businesses, and families.

Cheri joined Michael J. Lucia & Associates in 2011, welcoming the opportunity to partner with the thriving, comprehensive financial services organization, to provide a level of service that offered a more personal experience for her clients.

Throughout the years, Cheri’s philosophy has remained the same. She believes client relationships must be steeped in trust. She understands her client’s financial goals and what is most important to them.

Maintaining a client-centered practice, her client’s needs come first. Cheri supports, guides, and educates her clients in making informed financial decisions for today and the future! Cheri believes in taking a Holistic approach with her client’s, and that information and education are major cornerstones to their success.

Until marrying Michael DePriest in 2008, Cheri raised her son, Tovia, as a single mother for 15 years. Tovia recently graduated from University of California Santa Cruz with magna cum laude honors, the highest honors in his major.

He is in the process of applying to medical schools to become a physician. Cheri and Michael could not be more proud of him.

 

“Value your future comfort as much as you value your comfort today.”  –  Cheri Blair

 

Resources Mentioned:

Learn More About Hosts Paula Shaw and Ken D Foster

 

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