Preview of POWER WOMEN Day (And we added another one!

Boy, have we got some stuff coming up for you in the next couple of days. I wanted to just pop on for a couple of minutes because originally we had scheduled one day with three powerful women, and we've also added a second day to that. And then we can talk about, about some other things too. I do want to talk a minute about the, the new normal, kind of where I went off on that. Hey, thanks to everybody that responded to the, uh, the Courage inspiration piece we put up yesterday. It was really a joy to put that together and never expected to get that much response from it. You can see that on the feed here just down below, and please go ahead and share that, people. If you can share it, sure, absolutely, if that helps you. I hope it does. Glad to know that that's making the rounds, okay? As always, if you've got any comments or questions going on, just feel free to put them up in the, in the corner there. And of course, we've still got our Black Belt membership available for free at slmjoinfree.com. People still have been questioning, is— are we going to charge after we get through this coronavirus thing? No, no. If you join now at the Black Belt level, your membership will be free. The White Belt level is free. It always is free. Okay. All right, let's talk about Power Women Day. Oh my goodness, tomorrow this is what we've got coming at you. Okay, at 8 o'clock we're going to go all the way to Nairobi, Kenya, and we're going to welcome our dear friend, and she's our Sensei Leader, uh, movement partner over there in, in Kenya and Eastern Africa. It's Nana Wanjau. She's the CEO of Branding Beyond Borders and the founder of an incredible nonprofit called Power Woman International, which obviously has inspired the title here, and her work is just amazing. I don't want to give too much away. I want to make sure you hear it from her. She'll be at 8 o'clock AM Eastern time. That's all the way from Nairobi. It's Nana Wanjau. At 10 o'clock, one of our newer friends and just an incredible person— we ended up spending some time with her online on Monday evening— and she's the CEO of Women in Trucking Association, Ellen Voie. And what an incredible leader she is. And she's helping keeping— not only is she working very, very hard continuing her work to encourage more women to get involved in the trucking industry at all levels, at all levels, Drivers Administration, everything. But she's been a real champion for, for some people who have really been heroes through all this. And that's our, our truckers, those truck drivers. That's the trucks are our lifeblood. And the truck drivers have been putting in extra hours. Of course, the The government has waived some of the restrictions on driving time and whatnot, and these people have just been putting in incredible hours and, you know, direct contact with the public to keep us supplied, make sure we have the food. At 3 o'clock, Dr. Jackie Black, an old and dear friend of ours, she's also the co-author of a book she and I wrote together called Love Like a Black Belt. I'll show that to you in just a second. Love Like a Black Belt. But anyway, Dr. Jackie has a great new initiative. She does private coaching and counseling for couples, couples daring to live happily ever after. Amazing stuff. And she's— you want to go on retreat with her. She's got a retreat down in Panama, and we've seen the pictures. It's pretty, pretty darn nice. So that's what's happening tomorrow, Thursday, April 9th. Starts at 8 o'clock with Nana Wanjau from Nairobi. 10 o'clock, Ellen Voie, Women in Trucking Association, and then 3 o'clock, Dr. Jackie Black, Couples Daring to Live Happily Ever After. Now, we were going to add a fourth to tomorrow, but because of scheduling, we had to, had to make some adjustments. So we've extended this into Friday, and on Friday we're going to welcome Judy Hoberman. Judy is an amazing person. She's the author and founder of a movement called Walking on the Glass Floor. And we're going to be talking a lot about women leadership. She's a great business coach, strategist, and just has all kinds of great information for— she's also going to be talking a lot about working, working from home, remote working. She's an expert in that area, does a lot of pieces on national media for, for that type of stuff. So if you're working at home for the first time, the challenge of remote learning, it's going to be pretty impressive to hear what Judy has to say. Okay, so that's what's happening Thursday and Friday here at the Sensei Leader Movement. For just a minute, if you'll indulge me, I just wanted to talk a little bit about this idea of the new normal. And we're putting together a webinar, we'll have a live webinar up in a week or two to address this. I hate the term, I hate the term the new normal. It's useless. You know, long ago, Pliny the Elder said the only certainty is uncertainty. Lao Tzu said something like the only thing that's absolutely certain in life is change. Right? Whichever philosopher you want to pick, I think Aristotle said something similar to that too. But it doesn't matter. What we need to do is to be flexible, adaptable, and comfortable with uncertainty. And that's one of the things we've been preaching around here ever since we started the Sensei Leader movement. That's one of our key strategies for sensei leaders. So, that's what we'll be talking about in the webinar coming up. That's what we have to do. We just have to be comfortable with it. And the thing is, people have been asking me so much, and we're going to address this in the webinar, obviously, but how do you get comfortable with uncertainty? How do you become more flexible? Well, you're doing it right now, and I keep saying this over and over and over again. It's a challenge like this that really, really hones your skills in that area. There's nothing but uncertainty around us right now, and so this is the time when we have to develop a little more comfort with it. Now, practically, I'll give you a little bit of what we'll be working on in the webinar. It's about putting one foot in front of the other. And I know that sounds all— look, nothing I say around here is anything, you know, new. It's not rocket surgery. It's about taking the things that we know to do and disciplining them, or making them disciplines, disciplining ourselves to do them, because that's the important thing. We can talk about them till the cows come home. What we need to do, and this is why we have this network of support, is to help us, to support us and encourage us and make sure we're sticking to these disciplines. It's about working the problem that's right in front of you. Easy to get overwhelmed right now. Very easy to go overwhelmed right now. So, Ellen Voie is listening. This is one of our guests for tomorrow. Thanks so much for popping on and seeing what's happening. Yeah, like I said, it's about putting one foot in front of the other. See what the problems are. When you manage those small problems, then the bigger ones start to diminish. You in scale. And all the great problems, anyway, all the biggest problems have to be faced one step at a time. Like I said, easy to get overwhelmed, easy to look too much at the big picture and not focus on what steps. Now, how do you choose those steps? Here's what you need to do. You need to decide what you can do here and now with the resources you have available here and now. And this is— it sounds like a simple step, but that's the step I see too many people passing over. Okay, they go right to some sort of grand plan without ever considering, do they have the resources to do it? When I'm talking about resources, I'm talking about emotional, spiritual, and material resources. So real quick, I'll just cover those. When I'm talking about material resources, that's easy. Do you have enough money to do what you need to do? And yes, go ahead and put your comments in. Thanks, you guys, for joining, or give me a thumbs up to let me know you're listening. Um, But yes, please share your comments and your ideas too. All right, questions if you have them as well. Like I said, you got to analyze what are these resources you have now. Uh, before people— well, once in a while people challenge me, yeah, it sounds simple. Look, I am one of those people that say, if I can do it, you can do it. Those of you who know my backstory, I came from, uh, from that experience of drug addiction, okay, uh, suicide attempts, these types of things when I was younger. I lived in abject poverty. It was my own fault. I'm not blaming anybody. I did it to myself. But poverty is poverty. And having had that experience, I can tell you that I learned how to do this. And if I can do it, you can do it. I'm one of these people that authentically can say this: if I can do it, you can do it. All right, so it's looking at those resources. When I had very little resources, that's when I learned how to do it. I had a roof over my head. I had food for the next meal anyway. Okay. And I just learned to approach things that way and to be grateful for them. That I'm not talking about the attitude of gratitude and all that monkey stuff, but I'm talking about a practical inventory, taking a look at what you have. Like I said, material, very simple, very easy. Okay, do you have enough money to go forward? You have the equipment you need in place, that type of thing. Uh, emotional, that's your network of support. Who are the people around you? Who are the people who— who are the people you've earned trust, respect, and loyalty from. That's your front line as a leader. Those are the people, and that's why we spend so much time investing in building that respect, trust, and loyalty. These are not just nice words. These are a leader's most important assets, most valuable assets. So, and when the poop hits the fan like it is now, that's when you see which leaders have these assets in the bank and which don't, right? Because if you've just been a manager, as we use that evil term, You probably don't, and people are gonna, gonna respond in kind. If you've earned that respect, trust, and loyalty, now you've got a reserve to draw on, then people are much more likely to follow you in the tough times. And also, emotional support means friends, family, people at home that we need to stay in touch with, even if it's just virtually right now. The spiritual component, to me, it doesn't mean religion. It can to you, that's— it's completely up to you. But what we talk about when we talk about spiritual, from my martial arts background, it's really we're talking about intangible things we we can't readily measure. Courage is a big one. We've been talking a lot about courage lately. You know, that idea that it's something that, you know, you can't see courage. You see people display courage, act courageously, and you only see that under fire. You only see that when these situations are happening, right? We can train, we can prepare, and believe me, I learned this one as a firefighter. I was talking about this in an interview the other day. We trained, we prepared, We knew what we were getting into, but I'm telling you, it's a whole different experience the first time you're in a major fire and you're on the line and there's, you know, heat and smoke and everything all around you. You can't see, but you know, can't even see the hand in front of your face really, and you're relying on the people around you. That, that's a different experience. So that's how you test your courage. You're testing your courage right now. And again, that's why we put that video together. Just scroll down my thread here and you'll see it, um, where I shared my thoughts on that a little in a little more depth. So that's it. That's what we'll be talking about on that webinar, and we're titling it actually There is no new normal. Be flexible, adaptable, and comfortable with uncertainty, and we'll walk you through that process in detail. All right, now before I leave you, I want to make sure we get back and we're going to talk a little bit about these people that are coming up tomorrow and Friday. I'm so excited about this, seriously. Okay, tomorrow, Thursday, April 9th, 3 powerful women, 1 powerful day. Of course, we just extended to 2 days, but 8 AM from Kenya, Nana Wanjau. She's the CEO of Branding Beyond Borders and the founder of Power Women International. 10 AM, Ellen Voie, who's on the call right now. Amazing, amazing leader. And like I said, we got to know her even more, uh, Monday we were on a call together. She's a really incredible person, CEO of Women in Trucking Association. She's one of the leaders that are helping, you know, our lifeline, uh, keep operating during this. And 3 PM, Dr. Jackie Black, dear friend, old friend, uh, Couples Daring to Live Happily. Ever After. And then once more, on Friday, okay, we've got Judy Hoberman, another dear friend, uh, author and founder of Walking on the Glass Floor. And you might also know her from Selling in a Skirt, and she's done major media for years. I'm sure you've seen her on CNN, Fox, uh, major radio stations, any number of things. Okay, so there you have it, two great days, four incredibly powerful leaders, and, uh, we're going to have some great conversations. Okay, as always, thanks again for supporting the movement. If you haven't joined already, slmjoinfree.com, uh, if I can find it there. Not that one, this one, slmjoinfree.com, and get our Black Belt membership for free right now. Okay, thanks again for chiming in, and, uh, we'll see you tomorrow and Thursday right here on Sensei Leader Live.