WFF 2011

In April of this year I was given an amazing opportunity by my former employer to attend a Womens Leadership Conference in Orlando. I went with a co-worker who I admire, BJ. She is very sweet and has always been encouraging of me both personally and professionally. It was great to have her at the conference with me to share notes and talk about how each talk may specifically relate to us or our jobs. I had every intention of reviewing the notes I took and implementing the good ideas into my life and work but I got distracted and so I am finally making it priority so in my new job I can be as effective as possible.


There were a lot of great speakers. The rest of this post will probably be scattered but I'll try to organize as I go through my notes. 


Dr. Bertice Berry: A very hilarious and encouraging speaker. Dr. Berry is a sociologist and author with a very sad life story that she willingly shared. I wrote down a lot of quotes of hers.
-"Our purpose is to feed and to lead... be the change you wish to see"
-"Clean your filter" in regards to a dryer filter, you have to keep it clean or it causes damage. Same with the people you have in your life. "You can't go through life holding somebody else's stuff"
-"Love is not what you get but what you give"
-"Success is not what we have but what we leave behind"
-Being professional doesn't mean being tough but being smart with a heart.
-"When you walk with purpose, you collide with destiny"
-Be constantly learning new things and things we know nothing about.
-Learn from one another.
-The gap between knowledge and wisdom is what we can teach. You're not competent from what you know, but rather what you can teach.
-"When women do well, the world does well"
-You can teach skills but you can't give someone passion or purpose. When someone has it, use it!
-Gratitude is the foundation for all virtues
-"You have friends who do the work and friends who dress up and attend the party. Have both but don't confuse them"


David Rabiner: Gave a talk titled "Mastering the art of influence".
-There are two reasons people say yes. 
1. They have to (management environment). This is the biggest mistake new managers make. Creates resentment.
2. They want to (leadership environment). People will do what you ask. They will do more and they will appreciate you.
-Influence is the understanding that the stimulus creates the response.
-Negativity is the single biggest problem in the workplace. People get fired for being late but often negativity goes undealt with.
-Constantly be working on something. The moment you feel you don't need to learn anything is the moment you become average.
-Take time to fix the qualities you're bad at. Disqualifying characteristics make the good ones not matter. Ex. John Edwards.
-What do you want people to say about your at your retirement party? Start showing it now.
-"Stress is the absence of control"
-Measure your happiness and success on what you put in, not the outcome.
-Make it a point to exert the qualities you like and want whether or not they work. Make qualities values!
-Arnold Palmer story: Still practices for hours on a putt. You don't make it in the PGA to have time to practice, you make time to practice so you belong in the PGA.
-1. Be great in your current career. Build competencies. 2. Have a plan. 3. Have a voice. Be an advocate for yourself.




I will post more later. I realize how much I learned and valued the conference as I'm going through my notes. More later... 

To do list!

Thursday was my last day at Oregon Spice! I will write a separate blog post about all of the changes in our lives later. 

For now, I am embracing unemployed life! I got my first job at 17 at Jamba Juice. I worked as an office assistant for my mom's company before that but as far as continuation of employment, I got my Jamba Juice job 1 week after my 17th birthday. It was an awesome job! And it triggered a sense of work ethic, responsibility, freedom and accomplishment that I loved. I continuously had jobs, sometimes two, all through college and then landed my first "grown up" job a few weeks before I graduated college. The job was at Oregon Spice Company and I was to start the Monday after finals. I reluctantly did not take a break.

Five intense years later, I had my last day and my new job does not start for a week so I am embracing one full week of unemployed life! I worked half a pay period and had some vacation days to cash out so luckily there is no financial loss from me taking a week off. However, I plan to spend my days catching up on projects I haven't had time for since we got the new house a year ago.

So far, my to-do list looks like:

-Clean/Put away all clothes (everything I own smells like spices)

-File all lose paper around our house

-Clean out spare room closet, move stuff to office closet

-Move new dresser upstairs into guest room

-Decorate and clean the office. Johnny's new job allows him to work from home so we're setting up a home office for him. I want it to be a good productive work environment that feels complete so he can concentrate on working and not what needs to be done around the house.

-Paint master bathroom wall/install new mirrors.

-Deep clean master bathroom

-Update blog posts. So much has been happening. Topics so far include: vacation, dad's hospital visit, new jobs, other changes.

Ok I'm off to find paper for our diploma frames so we can get them hung up in the new office!