Author: Katy Goshtasbi

Time seems like the villain we are all up against. We “go, go, go” and then collapse when we are worn out. Should it really be this way?

I remember vividly after my mastectomy I had much less of a perception of “time” in my world. It’s as if I was floating and flowing in the world. Odd, right? You would think I would have been in tremendous pain and grief over losing a body part….but just the opposite.

Why?

I was gently waking up to who I truly am- not a lawyer, wife, daughter, sister, nurturer, coach, etc. But a spiritual being and so much more.

What does that have to do with time? I discovered a big secret…

Because I was so keenly aware of my body, I kept focusing on what I was supposed to learn from this event. This deep focus, took me out of the space of time and put my attention on the bigger picture of my life.

Ever since then, if I want to avoid the anxiety and pressure that comes with keeping up with the demands of my world and managing time–I just shift my focus to who I really am and my greater purpose in this world. I choose to see the bigger picture.

What does this mean for you? Perhaps consider:

• How plagued are you with time and time management?
• Is the method you are using to manage your time (and stress) working for you? Are you experiencing inner peace, joy and naturally attracting the right people and opportunities to yourself?
• What’s one small shift you can create in your life that would allow you to more regularly and effectively stop and see the bigger picture for yourself?

Up for coaching? I’m right here for you whenever you are ready to reach out. Or not. You are free and strong and can decide for yourself.

If you do want to connect, I offer only three, free, 1:1 live Degree of Influence brand assessment meetings per month. Sign up here. But only do so if you are serious. I take these meetings seriously and so should you.

If this content doesn’t resonate with you, please consider sharing it with others who may benefit.

Much love,
Katy

PS: Women Lawyers: join me for a free, online event to clarify your ability to manage your time. Go here to learn more and register. One time event only.

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Have you ever accidentally swallowed a giant chunk of ice? I have. The realization that you have to wait for relief until the ice melts is painful. So is the actual pain of the ice stabbing my throat and then the “brain freeze”. If you’ve never experienced it, check it out. Just kidding!

Last week I had a client email me from overseas. He congratulated me on gracefully navigating my breast cancer journey. He said, “[i]t’s a sign of the deep inner work you had already been doing before the diagnosis.”

His kind statement was a sign for me. It made me really stop and take it all in. I have been doing deep inner work for a. very. long. time.

Doing the deep inner work is fruitful. It allows me to access those unconscious trauma points (yes, you have them, too- don’t pretend I’m not talking to you) that would otherwise keep me stuck, stale and unhappy. No one needs a stuck, stale and unhappy brand. Especially not you.

Doing the deep inner work got me through breast cancer…and any other trauma in my life.

For instance, just yesterday I was working on my issues around money and any pain I still have around the concept of money. I unearthed a treasure trove when I realized in my meditation that when I was a young child I overheard my parents talking about not having a particular “thing” that I needed. I heard that statement and made it about me- all these years later.

How is that possible? Really easy. My young mind made it happen to keep me safe. But guess what? “We don’t have X item” does NOT equal “Katy is not worthy”! It may be obvious to you, but it wasn’t obvious to me…until I did the deep inner work on myself.

All that to say, doing deep inner work is also painful. In some ways, it’s easier than choking on ice. In many ways, it’s way worse…

These days, whether you want to or not you are likely to have been doing/should be doing deep inner work on something. Take the overruling of Roe vs. Wade by the US Supreme Court. I believe the ruling was a sign for all of us.

Wherever you fall on the spectrum of this issue, it’s a sign for all of us to wake up and see the humanity in others with whom we may not agree. I may not share the viewpoint that a fetus’ life is more valuable than the mother’s life (and what about these children’s lives after they are born? Will those justices who overturned the law be taking in all the newborns and mothers and paying for their upbringing themselves?). However, I can stop and listen to the other side with compassion and intellect, not pure emotion.

Did the justices of the US Supreme Court apply this same logic? Likely not. The conflicting language in the opinion itself shows that neither side really wants to put themselves in the other’s shoes. They bicker like kids…with the lives of others at stake. As a lawyer, it really made me sad. I will never again value the US Supreme Court.

What’s in this for you? Stop and consider any issue you have with someone else.

Maybe it’s a sign for you to do some deep inner work and not have it be as painful as choking on ice:

• Are you willing to stop long enough to hear them out AND to put yourself in their shoes on this issue?
• If not, why?
• How does it make you feel when you don’t choose to allow others the freedom to be who they are? Do you really feel empowered? Or do you just feel more angry and unable to have inner peace?
• How does it make you feel when others don’t allow you the freedom to be who you are?
• What’s one small step you can take next time you find yourself in this situation? I guarantee you that life will keep serving it up to you. Maybe it won’t be the same magnitude as abortion and human rights issues, but still….

Up for coaching? I’m right here for you whenever you are ready to reach out. Or not. You are free and strong and can decide for yourself.

If you do want to connect, I offer only three, free, 1:1 live Degree of Influence brand assessment meetings per month. Sign up here.

If this content doesn’t resonate with you, please consider sharing it with others who may benefit.

Much love,

Katy

Like this post? Buy Me A Coffee.☕

Need collaboration and support with your brand, dealing with changes/transitions to grow your brand? Check out my services page.

Download my Top 5 Action Steps To Easily and Gracefully Master Change

Fifteen years ago, when I was an employee in corporate America, we didn’t understand what community service really meant- for our company or for our community.

I remember being offered the opportunity to run in the Lawyers Have Heart, Georgetown 10K race sponsored by the American Heart Association. I had no notion of what heart disease was about nor why, as lawyers in my law firm, we would want to support the cure for it. All I remember was signing up because I needed the exercise and I liked running through Georgetown. Oh, and there was a big party promised at the finish line. Sign me up! It sounded like fun.

Fast forward all these years and now as a change and branding expert and consultant, I really value community service platform building in my client organizations- for all the right reasons.

Done right, community service platform building by a company is a very powerful tool.

Here are three main results your company derives from having a strong community service platform:

1. It generates goodwill through the local community for your corporate brand– when I build community service platforms for corporate clients, it is with the intentional plan of doing so to increase their brand goodwill and resonance within their community. Like attracts like. If your organization is on a mission to do good, you will gather attention among community members who share your altruistic mission. These same community members who now have affinity for you are also your biggest fan and potential buyers who emotionally resonate with your brand and have high recall for your brand the next time it comes top of mind. They will associate your corporate brand with a positive emotion (i.e., helping the community). That’s all you need to grow and generate more revenues.

2. It helps grow culture internally amongst employees who are now on a shared mission to do good- Everyone wants to do good deep down. Employees would really love it if they worked for an organization that did good, too. Getting a paycheck from a company that shares your innate values and sense of community motivates employees to show up every day and do their job to the best of their abilities. The results are amazing: attrition rates go down, morale is high, employees share their love of working at your organization and thus, organically increase brand awareness. Revenues grow.

3. It helps the community– this is the obvious goal that should be your company focus and only focus. If your company is not in it for the right reasons, the brand suffers even more. Genuine brands win. The other two results discussed here are strong derivative byproducts. You can call it Karma if that works for you. Let’s just say doing good has its own rewards.

Most corporations are waking up to the necessity and value of community service. That’s fantastic and I applaud them all for doing so. It’s a great start.

Yet, I find that the approach most corporations are taking could be streamlined and made easier and therefore, more productive.

What do we do next? Here are my recommended next steps to success in community service platform building:

1. Ten thousand feet approach – many corporations take the same approach to community service building as they do to running the business. They assign this very important task to a committee of interested employees, which is great. But leadership gives the employees no direction. Leadership just feels like it’s good enough to have the group exist. Wrong. What needs to happen is that you have to step back and look at it from a big picture perspective: a) what is the mission and vision and values of your organization? b) how does your community service activities fit within this mission and vision? c) write your community service mission and vision based on this.

2. Poll your employee pool – if community service is to lead to the results I describe above, every employee must give their input and express their community service desires.

3. Deliberate Plan – you next must take what you developed in the first step and write a deliberate plan of action including: a) where do you want to do outreach in the community b) why? c) how often d) how will this be messaged out to resonate the brand value of the organization in keeping with results #1 and #2 above? This item requires you to not think small. For example, don’t invite a massage therapist to come and talk to your community service group about the benefits of massage and what you can do with it in the community. That’s not outreach. That’s allowing someone to come into your organization and sell to you directly. It’s essentially an infomercial.

Above all else, remember community service building is a long-term plan and not so easy to do well. You must be patient and willing to get creative and be curious and courageous. You must also be willing to ask for support from experts.

As an expert in this area, I’m always ready to lend you my expertise and support to guide you in developing the right community service platform to reach the results listed above.

Got questions? Got feedback? Want support? Email me at Katy@purisconsulting.com.

My breast cancer journey led me to many places. Feeling weak and useless wasn’t one of them.

Well, at first when I was diagnosed that’s how I felt. Can’t lie to you.

BUT, as time went on and I had treatment AND really got to exploring who I am now, something super interesting happened…..

I came to realize a few HUGE things about myself and about all of us human beings:

1. Asking for help is ok: I needed real help after my mastectomy. I mean, I couldn’t even get out of bed at first. That was humbling. I couldn’t shower by myself for a while, let alone drive. I came to realize that asking for help brings you closer to your world and your divinity. It wasn’t easy at first. But I had no choice. Try it out.

2. Do what your heart desires: Not only is asking for help allowed, but doing what you desire is ok. As I healed, I came to realize that I didn’t want to (or need to) please others. When people would ask me to do something with them, I often responded with: “Thanks for asking. I’ll have to sit on that and think it over. Please make plans without me and if I do join, then that will be great.” I felt freedom and a deep emotional connection with the other person. No one ever walked away and got offended. Instead, they felt my deep presence, thought and regard to their invitation.

3. Vulnerability does not equal weak: Most of us think that if we ask for help or say “no” then we are acting weak and exposing ourselves, thereby being vulnerable. I discovered just the opposite. The more I genuinely asked for help and did what my heart desired, the more powerful and strong I became. Amazingly, my strength and power started spreading to those around me, too.

4. I’ve got your back. I’m not your caretaker: During my recovery period, the more people I asked for help the more I realized there is a big difference between supporting others and being there for them versus waiting hand and foot on others. During my recovery, I often heard my husband say to me, “I’m right here if you need me, but you’ve got to practice bending over and picking up your socks by yourself.” He was encouraging me to move past my old limitations and practice getting stronger and more able. There’s a big difference between literally waiting hand and foot on others versus making sure you are supported/supporting others. It’s way harder to support and encourage, I’ve discovered. Why? Because I could see the pain and sadness on my husband’s face when he had to stop himself from doing what I needed to do for myself.

What does all this mean for you?

• Perhaps consider going through each of the four points above.

• Sit with each idea for 3 to 5 minutes in silence.

• What comes up for you? Resistance? Acknowledgement?

• What needs to change in your world so you are living your authentic brand and sharing it with others personally and professionally?

Need support? I’m right here for you whenever you are ready to reach out. Or not. You are free and strong and can decide for yourself.

If you do want my support, I offer only three free 1:1 live Degree of Influence brand assessment meetings per month. Sign up here.

If this content doesn’t resonate with you, please consider sharing it with others who may benefit.

Much love,

Katy

Like this post? Buy Me A Coffee.

Need collaboration and support with your brand, dealing with changes/transitions to grow your brand? Check out my services page.

Download my Top 5 Action Steps To Easily and Gracefully Master Change