Category Archives: Soul Behind The Steel

3 Ways Your Quiet Confidence Inspires Contagious Excellence

Posted on by

photo-24Your quiet confidence and quiet leadership can be BOLDest of all. 

I was blown away the first time a smart professional told me she didn’t think of herself as a leader because she was not charismatic and not extroverted. She felt those were pre-requisites for being a great leader. Or in fact, for leading at all.

Ah, I smiled. Our conversation ended with a smile on her face too, as she saw for the first time how her inner strength, her quiet confidence *can be BOLDest of all*.  

Since that conversation years ago, when speaking or leading inspired team retreats I often include a segment I created on Valuing Others’ Expressions Of BOLDness.

In reflecting inward, and ultimately broadening our peripheral view to others, we begin to see the beauty in how we each bring BOLD differently… positively impacting our own success, as we create more success (and have more fun!)… individually and together.

3 Ways Your Quiet Confidence & Leadership Can Be BOLDest Of All, Inspiring Contagious Excellence! 

1.  When you step back to shine the spotlight on others, you inspire others forward. 

Be sure you don’t step so far back as to slip under the radar or become invisible. We need to see you. In shifting the spotlight, you’re offering others the opportunity to get known for – and remember by – their positive impact. Inspired by You. You’ve just magnified the impact of your positive leadership by inspiring another to lead, and in turn, inspiring the leader in others they lead…

2.  When you listen closely as you typically and beautifully do, people know you care.

When people know you care about them, they begin to trust that you also care about what matters to them. Imagine the possibilities! Your quiet confidence in listening to others – with genuine interest – can shift the frustration, malaise or disengagement in your team by inspiring them to start tuning in to each other, creating contagious excellence – and new success – as you build a team of people who actually care. About each other as team, customers, clients, community… translating beyond work to home, families, friends…

3.  When you speak, people want to hear what you have to say.

Your quiet confidence is shared in less words. Your select messages inspire what’s needed in this situation, meeting or conversation. The example you set can inspire and build a team of people willing to share their point of view, encouraging others to share theirs, too. Allowing people the opportunity to courageously build new confidence as they practice, develop and share their own points of view… whether quiet or not so quiet… is a gift that lasts a lifetime, contagiously rippling waves of excellence as new success. 

Do you consider yourself a Quiet leader?

Do you bring your BOLD by leading Quietly?

Here’s an important last (or first?!) step for you:

Do One BOLD Thing.

OWN YOUR SUCCESS WITH CONFIDENCE. 

It’s Up To YOU!

________________________________________________________________________

© 1993-2017  Ann Ulrich   AnnUlrich.com

PHOTO:   While keynote speaking in Taiwan, after my sincere effort yet seriously-lackluster results learning to speak Mandarin Chinese, I was rendered helpless on stage if not for the calm confidence of kind Taiwanese Translators. This is when and where I envisioned creating my speaking business, back in 1990, in their year of the Horse. If you’ve been to our condo, you may think I love horses… what I really love is the vision that was born in me in that one experience of a lifetime, in the year of the Horse. And maybe being a Taurus gave me the guts to actually make it happen.

The Risk In Bringing Uncalibrated Passion

Posted on by

IMG_1621To live the life you want… to commit to your dreams… takes Passion.

BRAVO those who bring Passion in a positive-impact way:

Lighting up new smile-inducing possibility! inspiring Passion in others! creating new success together! while passing it on…

As one who admits in her Bio: *I wear my Passion on my sleeve and when I have no sleeve I wear my Passion on my arm* ... 

In my speaking and writing, I’m sharing this lesson I’ve learned the hard way:

Your Passion Must Be Calibrated.

Uncalibrated Passion puts you and others at risk of experiencing and contagiously spreading a sudden and unexpected, potentially-devastating downward spiral, spelled:

S-U-F-F-O-C-A-T-I-O-N.

To lead and love life, don’t risk success and happiness by playing it safe. Don’t stop being Passionate – your Passion makes you come Alive!

Besides, watered-down Passion risks flatlining……..

To bring your Passion effectively: Calibrate accordingly.

So how can you keep Passion alive while Calibrating accordingly?

GO BOLDly! with your eyes, heart and mind – and your peripheral view – wide open.

Mindful of people and aware of situations… caring about what’s happening around you… seeing and feeling… helps keep you calibrating beautifully.

Bring your Passion. Light us up. Make things happen!

How will you bring your Passion?

It’s Up To YOU!

______________________________________________________________________

© 1993-2017  Ann Ulrich  AnnUlrich.com

Photo:  Ah, The BOLD Exclamation Point! All those school years, I was marked down on papers for incessantly over-using it. Years later, when I launched my own business, l claimed it as my Logo, happily over-using it ever since, as my reminder and commitment to keep leading & living passionately *!*

Saying The Unsayable On Leading, Living, Loving Lasting Married Life

Posted on by

photo-41I’m at our cabin on my annual BOLD REV!VAL retreat. Me, myself, and I. Along with a few loons, eagles, critters, cloudy and then sunny breezes, and at least three bears, one stuffed.

Being married 34 years, I have a lot to say on this subject.

 

 

Why now? Because I am willing to say the unsayable when it helps someone get ahead – no longer giving a rat’s asterisk about playing it safe. If you’re reading my writing you are choosing to do so. You can click away. If you’re in a conference, you can step away – altho my clients will tell you in Keynoting their conferences I take great care to understand why I was hired to speak and I respect that responsibility and bring what it takes to thoughtfully inspire your new success! And to my knowledge, over many years, no one has ever walked out of my keynote.

_______________________________________________________________________

photo-5What I Know About Leading, Living, Loving & Lasting Marriage:

1.  In this, my 34th year being married to David, I know for a fact that the time comes again when you are/can be as passionately crazy in love as when you first met. 

2.  In order to love your life together, you have to first love yourself, your own life. No one hands this to you. You claim it. Own it. Cherish it as your own vow to yourself. Did I mention you first need to HAVE a life as you?

3.  The whole of your marriage is going to be as strong as your two pillars, each representing each of you. Marriages of one pillar, with one counting on the other to be your life, risk either tipping over or losing your grip, sinking in unexpected quicksand.

4.  You won’t find happiness in marriage if you can’t find happiness in yourself. Be aware when grass looks greener. Sure, we all make mistakes in our careers, landing work that is not really a right fit, eventually that gets straightened out. Having been fired, I’m pretty sure it’s easier to leave or be fired from not-right-fit work than it is to chase greener grass in marriage and deal with the realities of hurting someone you so deeply loved.

5.  There will be days you can’t stand each other. Just as there are days you can’t stand yourself.

6.  There will be times you are freaked out in fear of *this is my life*? Is this all there is?! Do an honest gut check: are you blaming someone else for your happiness? Owning your part in it? Hmmm. Thought so. How do I know? I’ve been there too.

7.  Keep friends of both sexes. You didn’t come into marriage with your husband/wife as your only friend – why would you stop being friends with others now? I have never enjoyed working with, and being friends with, all women as much as I enjoy working with, and being friends with, both men and women.

8.  If you choose to have kids you will no doubt wake up one day and realize your life has become *kids*. Don’t let it be a surprise when all you talk about any more is kids, their lives, their schedules, their needs, their futures, your friends’ kids… This is all part of your rich tapestry of married life you create together when you choose to have kids. At times, your kids will need to be your utmost top priority. And they deserve to be, and need you to be there for them. Our world needs parents to be there for growing kids, and to do so, our workplaces need to honor and help make work work for young and changing families(!) (We can all help by bringing new solutions, another topic for another day.) Trust this stage is not forever. Altho sometimes we all wish these cherished times could be.

9.  For Moms, remember being scared in the delivery room and then remembering your own Mom and your girlfriends who somehow made it through labor?? You too made it through. And together you’ll make it thru things that seem much tougher than this.

10.  For Dads, remember standing at that recently-assembled crib, now holding your real-life baby, scared to death if you will be able to afford college, much less day care?? You’ll have more financial concerns ahead. Talk it through. You’re not in this alone.

11.  For Couples, remember the first time you saw your husband/wife and what that felt like… and then fast forward to never expecting – never ever expecting a day when the bottom might fall out – for whatever b’gillion reasons bottoms fall out given the realities of everyday life (sheeshta, it’s amazing any of us make it thru!) when it just might suddenly hit you that you are no longer in love?

TWO WORDS OF BOLD ADVICE FOR YOU ON THIS ONE… DON’T STOP THERE. TRUST YOUR RELATIONSHIP IS BUILT ON MORE THAN THIS ONE DAY, THIS ONE FEELING, THIS ONE SITUATION, THIS ONE FRUSTRATION, THIS ONE REALITY OF LIFE… TALK IT THROUGH. IF NOT NOW THEN SOON. COMMUNICATE TOGETHER. GO FOR A WALK. BREATHE. AND BY ALL MEANS:  …KEEP GOING!

________________________________________________________________________

Life changes and life keeps changing. Stages come and stages go. I believe in leading, living and loving Life, including Married Life, in Sequenced Stages.

The Sequenced Stages in Married Life look something like this: 

Engagement. / Wedding. / Dating Each Other, Married. / Careers. / Kids. Kids. Kids. / Empty Nest – which I prefer to refer to not as empty or nest – as tho life must be only about kids – rather as: / Dating Each Other Again, Married. / Grandparenting (I have not experienced this stage, and tho I know it is claimed to be magical, I am in no hurry to leave this current stage of Dating Each Other Again, Married as our two recently-married kids enjoy their current exciting stage of Dating Each Other, Married).

_______________________________________________________________________

THE BOLD! FACTOR®: YOUR EXCLAMATION POINT *!* MARRIED LIFE

IMG_1621Want To Lead, Live, Love YOUR Lasting Married Life?

!  Know who YOU are. 

!  Continue to grow as an INDIVIDUAL as you TOGETHER keep growing as a couple.

!  Keep something in your life you are PASSIONATE about. My Mom used to say there needs to be one thing in your life that is only yours. It does not involve your spouse or your work or your family or your friends. What could that be for you, that is only YOURS?

!  Encourage and Allow each other to TAKE TIME OFF, alone. You can’t work without breaks and vacations, why should married life be any different? Whether minutes or hours or days or weekends or – as mine has now grown to (in this 50-something stage of life) time claimed to get away and reflect, re-energize, learn something, create something, or do absolutely nothing – work or life. Claim it early on, so together you can find a way that this can work, based on realities of this stage of life, for both of you.

!  TRUST each other. Expect trust and grant trust. Trust is possibly the underlying KEY SECRET to a happy, lasting marriage. There are others, but this is huge. You’ve earned and granted trust in choosing each other. It’s up to you to keep it.

!  Allow your head to go to that at-times unthinkable place. GO AHEAD: Make your grandiose exit plan – at some time or another most of us have! And then stop and look at what you really have in each other. And then self-check whether you are blaming someone else for your own happiness?

Whether exciting, exhilarating, or inexplicably frustrating… this stage too shall pass! And if there is any one message I used all these words to inspire you with, here it is:

Get To The NEXT Stage Together.  And Then The NEXT.  It’s Definitely NOT Easy.  It IS Absolutely Worth It. 

________________________________________________________________________

photo-19As in Self-Leadership, Confidence and Success… as in Business and Life… Leading and Living and Loving Your Lasting Married Life Takes Each of You… individually and together.

Do One BOLD Thing.  Own It Like You Own It.

(You & Both Of You, Together.)

Choosing To Stay Happily Married?  

It’s Up To YOU!

________________________________________________________________________

© 1993-2017  Ann Ulrich   THE BOLD! FACTOR®  AnnUlrich.com

Photos:  1) An evening glimpse of lake at our cabin… one of the places I love to come for reflection and rejuvenation. Mindful that it doesn’t take any special PLACE to do so, it simply takes an attitude and commitment to create the life we want, right where we’re at… which is up to ME. 2) This is what 34 years of marriage looks like. Some days anyway! And our red eyes? Not blaming the camera. We’re owning ’em as earned in happy tears shared on this special day of our son’s wedding ;) 3) My ever-passionate BOLD red *!* logo. 4) Minneapolis Aquatennial Fireworks exploding over the river in front of our condo.

Feeling Accomplished? Go Be A Rookie Again!

Posted on by

photo-49Creating success?

Flying high?

Soaring at the top of your game?

BRAVO YOU!

We all deserve that fabulous feeling of *accomplished*!

And the more Accomplished we get, the more we need to go be a Rookie again. 

Being a Rookie keeps us Real.

It builds Empathy, Compassion, Awareness and Humility.

Ah, Humility. That’s a tricky one. Brings to mind Golda Meir’s brilliant quote: *Don’t be so humble, you’re not that great.*  (Ouch!)

Can’t figure out how to actually be a Rookie again?

Go Mentor One.

When it comes to creating ripples of new Success… 

It’s Up To YOU!

______________________________________________________________________

© 1993-2013  Ann Ulrich  THE BOLD! FACTOR®   AnnUlrich.com

Photo: I came across this jewel of a scene on a walk near our cabin last Fall. Leafy green trees are certainly *accomplished*. After 20+ years of cabin life, to never have seen this long-standing tree stump of mossy mushrooms formed into gorgeous peachy pinky orange bouquets, opened my eyes. I guess you could say in that moment I became a Rookie at finding new beauty in the familiar.

3 Simple Ways To Put Your Own Skip Back In Your SkippidyDoDa!

Posted on by

photo-67Next time you crave jumpstarting your work or waking up your life…

to get back on top of your game…

flying high again…

feeling that fabulous feeling of owning it like you own it…

Put Your Own Skip Back In Your SkippidyDoDa! 

(it’s easier than you think)

1.  Be Your Own Caffeine! 

The great news? You don’t need that extra cup of coffee, or that next stream of someone else’s inspiration flashing by, it’s not even about, you know, *willpower*. Simply decide any moment you choose to yes, be your own caffeine. Get going! See what happens!

2. Practice Social Generosity.

Social Generosity is The BOLD! Factor way of spreading contagious excellence. When you need to feel alive again, try taking the focus off yourself: find a simple way to help someone else get ahead!  Quick start: rather than deleting that next great article, post or email that comes your way, share it with a quick thought from you, hoping it helps make their day!

3. Dance Through The Commercials!

Watching TV can make you feel like life is happening around you, and before you know it, you’re glad they’re doing all the heavy lifting so you can just sink. in. further… Enjoy the show and then Get Up and Dance! through every commercial. Trust me. This works. It will change the way you feel! How many minutes of commercials in an hour of TV? Do the Math! SMILE: You just fit in a great little workout! And don’t you feel terrific?!

___________________________________________________________________

I’m on a mission… to inspire you to create your own Success with Self-Leadership & Confidence… championing you to: 

Take one inspired thought, apply courageous action and move your own mountains! 

___________________________________________________________________

Go ahead. Put the Skip back in YOUR SkippidyDoDa:

Do One BOLD Thing. 

Own It Like You Own It. 

It’s Up To YOU!

_________________________________________________________

© 1993-2013    Ann Ulrich   THE BOLD! FACTOR®   AnnUlrich.com

Photo: Fresh new box of BOLD! bookmarks. Thanks to two of my favorite business partners:  Ian Ulrich and Sergio Castro at OnlineproZ.com and Cindy and Tim Trainor at Printing Enterprises Inc. I’d love to introduce you!

Fear And Your Non-Negotiable Dream You Will Make Happen Even If It Takes A Lifetime

Posted on by

photo-35Sometimes, dreams really can take a lifetime.

After a few waves of *what the heck was that?!* of the recent past…

…one thing has become crystal clear:

No more waiting (for any of us!) before claiming and creating our next *it*. 

If you’re waiting until you’re, you know, just a bit further along… or a little more experienced… just that much more *ready*… before you go for it and make your next move… or if you’re holding off on moving forward until the time is finally just right… ask yourself:

Is FEAR holding you back from leading and living the work and/or life you crave?

Life is too precious to waste one moment by not exhaling out of fear.

Try this instead: Risk falling on your face – or stubbing your toe trying – by moving forward one step at a time directly into whatever you’re most afraid of… so you can stop that slowly-sinking-in-quicksand feeling called fear… and start breathing life into your life again… coming ALIVE again!

I hope this favorite quote inspires you as it inspires me, everyday:

“It’s no longer about asking what our world needs. Ask what makes you come Alive and go do that. Our world needs people who come ALIVE!”  –Thurman/Ulrich

Put yourself out there and make something happen.

Claim your dream and make it non-negotiable.

Let us know so we can cheer you on!

What’s your non-negotiable dream you will make happen… even if it takes a lifetime?

________________________________________________________________________

© 1993-2013  Ann Ulrich Inc.    THE BOLD! FACTOR®      AnnUlrich.com

Photo: I love noticing dreamy light fixtures. This lights up a favorite downtown Minneapolis restaurant, Zelo.

Overwhelmed? Stop For 2 Minutes. Read This.

Posted on by

IMAGINE YOURSELF… on a seaside vacation in Sri Lanka, with your husband, your young sons and your parents. It’s the day after Christmas, and life is rich and good, you and your husband are still in love, your parents still healthy, your boys bright, interested, loved by all. And then imagine, out the window, a wave where no wave should be and the dawning realization that you must run, must leap with your family into a Jeep, which speeds toward safety until the wave swamps it, tumbles it, tearing from you your husband, your boys, leveling the hotel where your parents wait, leaving you clinging to a branch, alive when the wave recedes but stripped of everything. How do you, left utterly alone, go on? Sonali Deraniyagala’s unmitigatedly honest, immeasurably potent memoir recounts the eight dark years since the 2004 tsunami erased her life, and her reluctant progress toward rejoining the living. Relentless in its explication of grief, this massively courageous, tenaciously unsentimental chronicle of unthinkable loss and incremental recovery explodes – and then expands – our notion of what love really means.

– Pam Houston on the mesmerizing memoir, WAVE.

________________________________________________________________________

IMG_1621Feeling Sad?  Stressed?

Overwhelmed with YOUR life?

Exhale…

In Gratitude.

________________________________________________________________________

© 1993-2013 Ann Ulrich  THE BOLD! FACTOR®   AnnUlrich.com

Open Heart, Open Mind

Posted on by

photo-11A few years back, Seth Godin challenged me to prove him wrong related to one of my business concepts.

Hard as I tried, I could not prove him wrong.

He is Brilliant.

He’s willing to say the unsayable.

In a positive impact kind of way. And somehow his wisdom seems perfectly timed. Another thank you email headed his way today… his wisdom is always worth sharing:

With An Open Heart And An Open Mind – by Seth Godin

It might not be warranted, but you won’t get far without it.

Don’t bother going to that meeting or reading that book (and I’ll add: or re-thinking that conversation) unless you can momentarily assume the message comes from a place of goodwill and generosity.

Skepticism doesn’t help you hear.

_____________________________________________________________________

© 1993-2012 Ann Ulrich   THE BOLD! FACTOR®  ANNULRICH.COM

Photo:  I love capturing pictures as simple parts of a whole. This is a favorite vase.

Swing Like A Kid Again

Posted on by

Next time you’re starting a new project, meeting a new client, building a new dream, blossoming a new relationship, creating a new strategy, putting a fresh new spin on a tired old program, or re-imagining a confident new YOU…

Swing Like A Kid Again!

Free yourself from old expectations you know are holding you back.

Stop caring what other people think.

Toss the instruction manual … pick the beginning, middle, or end … and simply START.

Let yourself Swing Like A Kid Again! Remember the feeling?! Push me higher! Run under my swing Daddy! Let me Soar till my feet touch the clouds!

Let’s free ourselves to Swing Like Kids Again.

Why did we ever stop?!

_____________________________________________________________________

© 1993-2012. Ann Ulrich  THE BOLD! FACTOR®  ANNULRICH.COM

The Antidote To Your Rat-Race-Rush Life? Social Generosity.

Posted on by

photo-7So where in this Rat Race are we all Rushing to?

And when we eventually get there… then what?!

An unintended consequence of our choice to live a Rat-Race-Rush Life (and yes, it is our choice!)

We risk misusing our personal power to get ahead of each other…

instead of helping each other get ahead.

The antidote?  Practice Social Generosity.

The beauty of practicing Social Generosity lies in its simplicity:

Do One BOLD Thing Today… To Help One Person Get Ahead.

_____________________________________________________________________

© 1993-2013 Ann Ulrich  THE BOLD! FACTOR®  AnnUlrich.com

Photo:  This wire art just looked like a rat race rush(!) to me when I wrote this post. It’s a wire bowl hanging in our kitchen – where it looks much calmer ;)