by Caroline Leach | Jul 4, 2023 | Leadership, Work/Life
“Who ever walked behind anyone to freedom? If we can’t go hand in hand, I don’t want to go.” 🇺🇸 So said Hazel Scott. A jazz pianist and singer, Scott was the first Black woman to host her own TV show. Throughout her life from 1920 to 1981, she was a force for racial equality.
As the United States celebrates Independence Day, what do freedom and equality mean to you?
And what does it mean to seek freedom, walking hand in hand?
To me it means …
🇺🇸 We are all interdependent. The strength and sustainability of our grand but sometimes fraying experiment in representative democracy rests with linking arms and creating freedom and equality together.
🇺🇸 The only thing we control is our own thoughts and actions. We can’t control court decisions (except via future elections) or the news cycle. Yet we ARE free to take individual and collective actions for an equitable world.
🇺🇸 A powerful lesson about the founding Americans is one of taking a huge risk, when the outcome is uncertain. The signers of the Declaration of Independence risked death in doing so. Despite that, they proceeded.
And while the founding Americans weren’t perfect, and there were paradoxes in the Declaration, there is a basic framework and foundation that we can strive to expand and grow.
As the U.S. marks its 247th birthday, my hope for those who are celebrating is a day of fun, family, friends, food, fireworks … and a little reflection. Let’s remember this amazing gift we have been given. How can we be good stewards for greater freedom and equality?
by Caroline Leach | Jul 3, 2023 | Leadership, Work/Life
What would make today fulfilling for you? ✨
It’s an unusual day. A Monday before a national holiday. Today isn’t a holiday, or a weekend, or even a regular work day.
Perhaps it’s a vacation day for you. Perhaps it’s a work day. Or maybe it’s something in between.
The important thing is to be intentional about how you choose to spend it.
When you reflect on today, at the end of it, what will make it a great one?
For me, it’s a blend of personal time, family business time, and family time.
➡ A strength training workout at the beach (that’s the picture), along with some cardio and a good podcast
➡ A day of mid-year financial assessment and planning with my husband Kevin Leach for our family-owned restaurant Pacific Standard Prime. Being closed on Mondays makes this easier.
➡ A family dinner with my husband and daughter. Monday is our family night tradition.
➡ An evening trip to the airport to pick up our son and his friends after a nearly 3-week trip to Japan. I can’t wait to hear about their experiences!
And I’m so proud of our son for earning the trip money as a brunch chef at our restaurant. He came home from college every weekend to work.
One of the often-unexpected benefits of planning a trip is the anticipation.
I just experienced the same excitement in planning my day.
Seeing it take shape in this post makes me eager to jump into it.
It re-framed my perspective.
Now I see the things I “get” to do, and not “have” to to do.
How will you make YOUR day fulfilling and exciting?
by Caroline Leach | Jul 2, 2023 | Work/Life
What are your favorite ways of having a chill summer weekend? 😎 One where you feel relaxed, refreshed, and reenergized?
Not necessarily so you can be ready for the work week ahead, but to fully enjoy and savor your life in the moment.
A few years ago I visited Vancouver to speak at the IABC world conference for communicators.
While I was there, I took a solitary stroll through the stunning Stanley Park (pictured).
Since then I’ve been captivated by the research that shows spending time in green spaces (among trees) and blue spaces (near water) is invaluable to our health and well being.
To that end, here are a few weekend ideas. Some can be combined and done together …
💕 Spend time with cherished family and friends
🌲 Get out in nature, for some forest bathing
💪 Move your body with a walk or a workout
📚 Exercise your mind with a book, a podcast, or a curious conversation
🎨 Spend time on a hobby you enjoy and lose track of time
🎢 Do something fun for the sheer joy of it
🍦 Help others through volunteering
🖊️ Reflect on what’s most important to you and what’s next
😎 Do nothing at all, and just BE!
What makes a great weekend for you?
by Caroline Leach | Jul 1, 2023 | Careers, Leadership
It’s the middle of the year and a long holiday weekend. 🇺🇸 What better time to reflect on where you are and where you want to go?
Here are 7 reflection questions to supercharge the rest of your year …
👉 What are you proud of so far this year?
👉 How are you performing on the annual goals you set?
👉 What’s working well?
👉 What would you like to do better?
👉 What are you excited about?
👉 What’s one action that would increase your leadership impact?
👉 How can you make the most of second half of the year?
Sometimes it’s all too easy to focus on what’s NOT working well. That’s how our brains work. We go right to the negative. (And this week’s news cycle certainly lends itself to that.)
Yet when you take the time to reflect on what you’re proud of, it’s easier to see how much progress you HAVE made.
And what you’re EXCITED about is what gives you energy.
That energy is so necessary to navigate daily challenges, bounce back from rejection, and keep going toward your biggest and most exciting goals.
How will you make the most of the second half of the year?
by Caroline Leach | Jun 28, 2023 | Careers, Social Media
Get your Social Media Success Roadmap workbook, newly updated for 2023!
You’ll find 50 questions, actions, and ideas to build and 
boost your career through social media.
The workbook now includes a LinkedIn profile checklist, to make the most of your digital presence and help people find YOU.
It’s a companion piece of my book, What Successful People Do on Social Media: A Short Guide to Boosting Your Career (available on Amazon).
Here’s to your success![Download not found]
by Caroline Leach | Jun 6, 2023 | Careers, Work/Life
With all the news about return-to-office policies, a middle ground of hybrid work seems optimal in many cases.
This gets the best of collaboration and culture building with a few days in the office, balanced with a few days of remote work for better focus, productivity, and work/life integration.
As an example, I’m working in Mammoth Lakes, California this week, a five-hour drive from my home base in Los Angeles.
My dad is visiting from the East Coast to attend meetings in Mammoth. While he’s a pretty active 80-something-year-old, I jumped in as the driver and travel companion.
How is this working out?
🔴 Coaching and consulting client meetings continued on as usual via Teams and Zoom
🔴 New client proposals got created and delivered as usual
🔴 Admissions committee work for the graduate program I teach in continued on
🔴 Event and catering inquiries for my family’s Redondo Beach restaurant Pacific Standard Prime got responses
🔴 Driving from LAX to Mammoth, my dad and I met my son for lunch at UCLA between his classes
🔴 My dad and I spent time together and caught up on each other’s lives
🔴 The change of scenery in the stunning and still-snowy Eastern Sierras brought new perspectives and ideas
Overall, it’s been an integrated and effective way to combine work and life.
Of course, having my own coaching, consulting, and speaking business The Carrelle Company means I can work wherever and whenever I need and want to.
Doing restaurant-related work remotely was a bit trickier, however, and more limited in scope.
There are many ways to do great work from anywhere. There are many ways to combine the best of being in the workplace at times and being remote at times.
What works well for you?
by Caroline Leach | Apr 28, 2023 | Social Media
And they’re off and running! Congrats to the talented students in my final project capstone course.
During the spring semester, they designed and developed websites, apps, and topical content series including podcasts. To promote their work, they created digital marketing campaigns.
Soon they’ll graduate with MS degrees in Digital Social Media from the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Can’t wait to see the amazing things they’ll do in their careers and lives.
In a recent class meeting, I shared my 10 career lessons as a Fortune 100 VP turned entrepreneur.
⭐ Just start. You don’t have to map out the whole journey to take the first step.
⭐ Look for hidden opportunities. Do what needs to be done that no one else is doing.
⭐ Meet hiring managers before a job is posted. How? Build and nurture a network over time.
⭐ Always be connecting. Every time you meet someone new, connect on LinkedIn.
⭐ Keep in touch and be of help. Share info and insight, connect people, and encourage them.
⭐ Be patient. Success takes time. Take steps every day and build momentum.
⭐ Think of every project as an audition to do more. Great work leads to more opportunity.
⭐ Know your worth, expect it, and ask for it. Ask for more in every salary negotiation.
⭐ Savor every day. Enjoy your life right now, while you’re on the journey.
⭐ Make the world a better place by how you show up. You can lead from any position.
What’s your career advice?
by Caroline Leach | Mar 31, 2023 | Social Media
Rather than a “pile on” at the end of each day, with everything that went wrong, try these questions instead:
- What went well today?
- What do I want to do better tomorrow?
by Caroline Leach | Feb 28, 2023 | Careers
When people ask about my career background, I tell them I spent 30 years in the corporate world, and I’m now into 30 years of entrepreneurship.
At first, it felt a little strange. Do I want to work another three decades? Can I work another 30 years? And how will technology change my work?
It’s year 5 of my coaching, consulting, and speaking business. It’s year 3 of my husband Kevin’s steakhouse, Pacific Standard Prime. And while it hasn’t been an easy road (pandemic, anyone?), the momentum continues to build. Entrepreneurship increasingly feels like a sustainable path for both of us.
While I’ve been busy pursuing my 60-year career, I had no idea it was a broader trend. Until I read Here Comes the 60-Year Career in The Wall Street Journal this month.
The ancillary lesson here? You could be part of a bigger trend without even knowing it. What are you doing or thinking in your own life that could be part of a societal shift? What trends are you setting?
by Caroline Leach | Jan 25, 2023 | Leadership, Work/Life
Even when we leave companies, or companies leave us, the relationships with our colleagues remain.
The highs, the lows, and the in betweens of our work fade away. What sticks around? Special connections, if we choose to spend time with people who are important to us.
It was fun to gather recently with DIRECTV alums, and hear what’s new with everyone.
It was the ride of a lifetime to work together, and it’s even better to stay in touch.
A group of us gathered for dinner last week (pictured above), and another group gathered for drinks last month during the holidays (pictured below).
Last fall, I became intrigued by what makes us happy and contributes to our well-being. It has been a challenging few years, for a variety of reasons, including the pandemic. This is true for me, and I suspect is true for all of us.
My husband Kevin and I each launched our own businesses in 2018. My consulting/coaching/speaking business The Carrelle Company LLC and his restaurant Pacific Standard Prime steakhouse were both established that fall.
In a stroke of randomly poor timing, the restaurant opened in August 2020, a few months into the pandemic. To say it’s been a rocky road is a major understatement.
A quote attributed to Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th U.S. President, gives me great comfort and guidance (and which Roosevelt credits to Squire Bill Widener): “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
This has been my daily mantra, to focus on each day only. Instead of wishing the road was easier, I ask myself what I can do, with what I have, where I am.
It turns out, a lot.
Here we are in 2023. The road isn’t necessarily easier.
Yet the restaurant is still open, and people on Yelp give the team a lot of love. Major credit to Kevin for following his dream and keeping at it every day, along with an amazing team of employees and wonderful guests who come back time after time.
And my business continues to grow, more quickly each year. This is thanks in part to friends and colleagues who have provided encouragement and made referrals.
Back to my question about what makes us happy. It started with a Hello, Monday podcast episode from LinkedIn with Dr. Laurie Santos on the topic of increasing happiness. I wanted to know the secret.
Can you guess?
Turns out it’s social connections.
The Harvard Study of Human Development underscores this finding. Launched in 1938, it’s followed the lives of more than 700 initial participants, and later, their families.
What has it found so far? More than following a healthy diet, exercising regularly, or getting enough sleep, it turns out that cultivating relationships has the biggest impact on our happiness and well being.
So I reflected on what I could do, with what I have, where I am.
And I thought, my family owns a restaurant. Why don’t I invite different groups of people to dinner? It started with some high school friends in November (pictured below). And continued with former work colleagues this month. Who knows where this will go, but it’s sure a lot of fun!
One of the people invited to the dinner was Pat Doyle, the former CFO of DIRECTV. Even though I didn’t work in Finance (I led Corporate Communications as part of the amazing HR team led by Joe Bosch), both Pat and Joe opened a door for me to work on a major M&A integration team led by my colleague and now friend Jennifer Cho.
Heartbreakingly, the day I confirmed the dinner plans with the group, I learned about Pat’s untimely passing the day before. Pat was a gentle, smart, and kind leader, with incredible integrity. He was a father and a grandfather, and way too young to leave us. Pat will be missed by so many people for whom he was a role model and a shining light. What a legacy he leaves for his own family, for the DIRECTV family, and for the larger community.
This brought into sharp relief a mantra from another colleague, Linda Simon. She ends every email with “enjoy every day!” This could not be more sage advice. Today is all we have. Let’s enjoy it, and let’s enjoy our relationships with the special people in our lives.
So if you’re struggling with the loss of a loved one, an unexpected layoff, a business setback, concern about the future, or anything else, here are two questions to ask yourself.
What can you do, with what you have, where you are?
And who can you reach out to and connect with today?
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