Category Archives: Uncategorized

When does a leader emerge?

Usually, a situation, perhaps a crisis, demands a leader to merge. In the banking crises of the last 2 week, the FDIC, the Fed, and the President, all who have designated roles, emerged to address the situation. Top bank leaders emerged to back up First Republic (albeit with the deposits that fled to them from First Republic and other regional banks). >

Matching risk

What caused the demise of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)? Basically, they got caught not matching risk. Huh, what? Their loans were underwritten by long term bond investments which had fixed low return. As interest rates rose, they needed more assets to match risk and their customers were not depositing more cash since the VC spigot was turned off last summer again due to rising interest rates. >

Inflation hacks? Ask a boomer

1980 had to be the worst year for inflation rates in the last 100 years. They were over 10% and some months were over 14%. Home mortgages rates were over 18% for fixed and lots of home sellers were taking back a note at 12% -betting that rates would come down which they did a few years later. How do I know all this? I lived it. >

Cash is king

You’ve heard this before haven’t you? When it comes down to starting a business or surviving as a business – cash is king. Do you and your team do all the tricks and tweaks needed to make enough profit to keep you alive? Think of it like your own health. When you are feeling healthy life is good. Cash is the health of your company. And, like your own health, there are steps you can take to make it better. >

Achieving goals with “BE-DO-HAVE” exercise

Have you ever set a goal year after year and not achieved it? Losing 10 pounds shows up for many people as sure as the sun comes up in the morning. Why is that? For most of us, we know what to do, we just don’t actually do it because it is really hard, it requires more thought and careful planning than we have allotted, or other habits trump this goal. >

Fear of being seen

From the time we are born, we are instructed in who we should be to be accepted. We learn not to cry for no reason, how to walk, where and when to eat and pee. Once we learn to talk, we are told when we can talk, when not to talk. As grown ups, we show the world that part of ourselves that is acceptable per our training. All of this leads into a fear of being seen for who we truly are. >

Traveling once again

So many people are traveling once again for work, pleasure, time with family, I guess it was time for us to do the same. We flew in early to Nashville for the Vistage Chairworld conference, and convinced my husband Paul’s brother Tom and his wife Judy to join us from their home in NE Tennessee. First up, we tried some of the local beers and enjoyed the music scene. By days end, when we returned to the hotel, Chairs were arriving from all over the world and the energy that comes from being with your most respected and loved peers was flowing.

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Managing your speed

Skiing down a wide intermediate run at June Mountain. our friend Denis was topping 46 mph on a beautiful bluebird day. I didn’t try to keep up but was not far behind. Non-skiers would ask if that was safe, and if we were wearing helmets. Yes and yes. It is all about managing your speed. >

Get granular

If you want to brand your organization in a way that sets you apart from the crowd, if you want to attract new customers, get more business from existing customers and be one of the top 3 in organic SEO search, you must get granular. Vistage Speaker Stacey Crowley explained how to do this to my 3 groups this week. >

Tricky to forecast 2023

For the last month, I have been repeatedly asked my guess on the economy in 2023. Will we go into recession? Should the business leaders I coach go all out, stay on course or pull back severely? It is tricky to forecast 2023. Depending on the industry, and the company any of the above could be correct. >