16 minute read
Local Culture
Strong. Fierce. Talented. YOU!
Discovering your natural talents is the first step to your best self
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BY WENDY HOFFORD, WH STRATEGIC DRIVE
Are you living to your full potential? Are you lost and confused about who you are and what your purpose is? To understand who you want to be or what potential you have, you must first understand who you are and how you are wired and what comes to you, naturally.
CliftonStrengths is an online assessment tool that identifies the talents and strengths within. Once you understand your unique and powerful talents, you can begin the journey of learning more about who you are and cultivating your best self.
Results from the ClifftonStrengths assessment tool are measured against 34 different talents. These talents help you understand why you see the world the way you do and what sets you apart from others. When we understand where we shine, we can leverage our natural abilities to grow and reach our goals.
LEARNING ABOUT YOUR NATURAL TALENTS CAN BOOST YOUR CONFIDENCE AND SQUASH IMPOSTER SYNDROME.
Research shows that 79% of women struggle with their confi dence and self-esteem, while 75% of us experience imposter syndrome. What that means is most women struggle to see themselves as capable, talented and worthy of their accomplishments.
With the CliftonStrengths assessment, you will learn about the talents you are naturally gifted with and what makes you unique. Women I have worked with have discovered their natural talents and strengths are exactly what they need to guide them to be the best version of themselves. When we focus on maximizing what we’re good at and where we thrive, our confi dence skyrockets. When we are confi dent in who we are and know our value, we are empowered. When we are empowered, we can believe that our success is deserved and legitimately achieved.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR TALENTS AND STRENGTHS CAN HELP YOU FLOURISH IN YOUR CAREER.
We all have talents and strengths that can help us reach our potential in both our personal and professional lives. It isn’t about what specifi c talent you need, but rather, what specifi c talent you have that you can leverage to reach your potential in your life and career. Learning how to build on what comes natural to you is much easier than trying to become someone you aren’t. So where do you start? The fi rst step is: do the CliftonStrengths assessment. When you get your results, you can study the areas where you shine and gain a bett er understanding of the talents you can nature to become your best self. A strength can also be a weakness – so we need to learn how to use our talents in a positive way. Once you begin to understand how you’re wired and what you’re good at, the work begins. It takes the investment of intention, focus and practice to turn a talent into a strength and become the person you are meant to be.
Dream, grow and prosper.
Made to Grow Project offers entrepreneurial women community, connection and confidence.
BY LISA CRESS PHOTOS BY LYNETTE PHOTOGRAPHER
The landscape of entrepreneurship is changing. While the number of female-owned businesses is on the rise, women still experience a crushing societal pressure to perfectly balance their professional ambitions with family life. A support system is critical – but one of the greatest challenges women in business face is finding that support and building a network of relevant connections, applicable expertise and supportive relationships.
It is this need for community that inspired business owners Nancy Dutiaume and Sherry Sobey to start the Made to Grow Project.
“The Made to Grow Project is about building relationships, networking and gett ing the support relationships, networking and gett ing the support we found has been missing for small, femaleled businesses and startups,” Nancy Dutiaume, Co-Founder of Made to Grow explains. “We are a community of entrepreneurial women who fi ercely support each other’s professional ambitions and celebrate each other’s success.” As an entrepreneur, there are countless existing resources that promise to help you grow your business. While the Made to Grow Project off ers its members mentorships, workshops, meetups and an annual event, the priceless element of the project is the collaborative nature of its community members.
“This is a community you can really lean on and have as your soundboard, which is really something that sets us apart,” Sherry Sobey, Co-Founder of Made to Grow says. “The Made to Grow membership is comprised of peers and is a range of expertise, experience and perspectives. This is a community of experience and perspectives. This is a community of business owners who understand your hurdles and struggles. We can and will collectively help you fi nd solutions to whatever storm you’re weathering.” “The diff erence is that we don’t just tell you where to go or what to do. We’re actually here to be a part of your community and your journey as a business owner,” Dutiaume adds.
The Made to Grow Project launched in March of 2019. In that short time (and in the face of a global pandemic), Dutiaume and Sobey have witnessed the membership thrive. “We’ve had members tell us that the relationships they formed through the Made to Grow Project are what has gott en them through the pandemic,” Sobey says. “And that gives us goosebumps! This has grown to be bigger than we could have imagined.” Members of the Made to Grow Project have an opportunity to fully engage with a community of fellow businesswomen online and in-person. Membership includes marketing opportunities, complimentary meet up invites, member-to-member incentives and a community of support.
“We also have MeetUp Mondays,” Sobey says. “We use the time to kick off our week and discuss things like how our businesses are handling the most current public health orders, how we keep thriving through lockdowns and the importance of a positive mindset.” “This is our passion project,” Dutiaume says. “We do all that we can to spread the word about your business and off er a safe space to share ideas and connect with other women in the small business community.”
Join us at Made To Grow Live Event, May 9, 2022 and learn more about this amazing community of businesswomen at madetogrow.ca.
Made To Grow www.madetogrow.ca
Unlock your potential to succeed
Are you ready to OWN it
BY LISA CRESS PHOTOS BY SAMANTHA CONNELL PHOTOGRAPHY
Heather Lee Chapman is a Holistic Self & Business Mastery Coach, author, podcaster and professional speaker. She is the Owner and Creative Director of Own It Empire (OIE) where they help conscious entrepreneurs to become the best versions of themselves, and live their best lives while leaving a legacy.
Heather lives to inspire, educate and serve. She does so through her free online events such as the incredible business manifesting workshops, Business Bliss, and Cocreating at its best (your 90 day road map to quantum leaps and success). OIE offers top of the line online programs and mentorship through their signature Own It Mastermind (OIM) program & Mindset Shift program. Heather works with a select few at a time through her 1 on 1 VIP Coaching helping people truly own it! She is a co-author in two #1 Amazon Best Sellers, Fitness to Freedom and Dear love, I am ready for you. Plus through her podcast The Own It Show, Heather helps uncommon knowledge become common (this is a must listen to, action packed show)! Heather has been a successful entrepreneur and coach for over 12 years. She has over 16 years experience
HEATHER LEE CHAPMAN
studying human potential and performance from the studies of Human Kinetics, biology, psychology to Holistic Nutrition, Advanced Spiritual Training, Neuro Linguistics Programming, Hypnotherapy education and more. Heather loves to assist individuals to get clear on their purpose and goals and make them a reality. Allowing people to find their purpose, and gifts to share them with the world and then build a business around their dream lives that allows them to leave the legacy and impact they were born to!
Heather Believes we must be treated like a whole, mind, body, soul and spirit and when we miss a pillar we can’t reach our full potential. In Own It Empire through the holistic self and business mastery approach they help conscious entrepreneurs increase their awareness, impact, profits, performance and quality of life. Through their unique techniques of working with the physical and the metaphysical while building the high performance success habits, skill set and mindset, with working masterminds and accountability, you can own whatever life you can dream of.
You see Heather learned early on you are your glass ceiling and you must keep growing. She used to have multiple businesses, multiple contracts, volunteering, healing from multiple injuries and working 18 hour days, 7 days a week and just kept coming up against that ceiling, physically and metaphysically! She literally couldn’t work any harder! Then she learned that most of us are only working with the mechanical and not the metaphysical and when you get into quantum physics you will realize how that no longer serves us! She realized most entrepreneurs were burning out and not working holistically on themselves and their business, getting to the root cause of the problems. She learned you must build a business you love around your life and not the other way around. Heather learned that if you truly want to be a successful entrepreneur you need to have Multiple Streams of Income (MSI), an exceptional team and scalable company that can run like a well oiled machine with and without you. She believes it is time to start building with the end and big vision in mind and work your way back from there so that you are not building in vain. Now Heather lives her life fully on her own terms, doing what she loves, with financial freedom, time freedom, leaving a positive impact, legacy of love and teaching others how to do the same!
If you are ready to take your performance to the next level, increase your impact and profits then this is where you need to be! Heather has created and leads the first ever of its kind full Holistic Performance Program for Conscious Entrepreneurs, Own It Mastermind! She hand selected the perfect team and coaches to help every conscious entrepreneur own their purpose & profits while making this world a better place, creating peace and heaven on earth for the highest good of all because life was meant to be blissful.
Heather Lee Chapman www.ownitempire.com
WOMEN IN WEALTH IN CANADA
BY MICHAEL VAN LIEROP, PRESIDENT NEW OUTLOOK WEALTH MANAGEMENT
f you include retail or branch level banking in Canada, women make up just shy of one-quarter (23%) of financial advisors in Canada. If we exclude these typically salaried positions, the percentage drops precipitously. In other words, the major wealth managers whose compensation models are commissioned or meritbased seem least likely to attract – and especially retain – women advisors. As a consequence, an increasingly large segment of clients with wealth in Canada – female clients with money – are not getting advice from advisors who resemble them. The wealth management industry needs to expand its engagement of women – in terms of client service and especially advice. The financial planning field has more women than ever, but this remains a “man’s world” which puts women advisors, and by extension their clients, at a huge disadvantage. That said, the business case is enormous for greater gender equity: women increasingly make critical financial decisions in households, and in ways that were not even possible a few decades ago. Accessibility to information and technology have provided power to those who want it – information is power and women have equal access to this. Increasingly, mortality rates continue to show a major gap between men and women in Canada, with women living often several years after their partners have died. In many cases, they find themselves solely responsible for their financial well-being and that of their estate (children, grandchildren) without the financial literacy or support they need at a vulnerable time.
Indeed, massive amounts of wealth (hundreds of billions of dollars) will transition in Canada in the next decade that will be largely managed by widowed (or divorced) women in their 60s, 70s and 80s. Over 70% of estates are inherited by women. Who will be best able to provide the support, empathy, and understanding they need to make the best decisions possible? Research has demonstrated that female investors are 2.5x more likely to take investment risk if they are being coached and advised by a female advisor. Arguably, despite awareness, not enough is being done to support women. In an industry which likes to present itself as purely meritocratic, sales organizations (of which every large wealth management firm is, whether they acknowledge this or not) are loathe to do anything that may favour someone over another. In theory this is all fine and dandy, but in practice it’s another story. While other businesses have gone to great lengths to encourage and support (ie: with dollars) those who may be disadvantaged for racial, ethnic, cultural or gender reasons, the business of wealth management in Canada seems unable – or unwilling – to do more than pay lip service to the issue. And while the “old boy’s club” mentality of the industry has largely dissipated in the last decade, the make-up of the industry is so heavily skewed towards older men (the average age of advisors in Canada is nearing 60) it’s difficult to imagine this male dominance is a legacy of an industry desperate for modernization. Even the metrics for success in the industry remain male-centric. It’s not as though the industry isn’t acutely aware of the challenges – the fact is, there are many extremely successful women advisors in Canada, but they are a tiny minority of the total number of advice professionals in the industry.
Virtue signalling corporate behemoths
Lots of big companies in the wealth management space in Canada make grandiose pronouncements on social media and in their marketing of how progressive and inclusive they are. The “token” successful women – who often fit a very narrow definition of beauty and success – are aggressively showcased. They exude success and prosperity. Meanwhile, the reality – an aging, predominantly male workforce – continues to run the show. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t powerful women on boards and inside the C suite as senior executives, it just means there remains a certain degree of showmanship relating to women’s inclusion that just fails to match up with the day-to-day reality. The bottom line is this: the financial industry in Canada needs to address this issue with urgency – and the business case for doing so is compelling. The decisionmakers increasingly are women. High net worth clients – the ideal target for most wealth firms – are increasingly women. If the industry is truly working in the best interests of clients, having a comparable and suitable advice capacity (in terms of women advisors) will help ensure that women with wealth – and those without it – can still get proper financial planning advice.
Statistics Source: “Why there are so few female financial advisors: and what needs to happen to grow the numbers” by Judy Paradi, Paulette Filion (https:// www.strategymarketing.ca/wp-content/uploads/Femalefinancial-advisors-why-so-few-2020.pdf)
One woman’s discovery of enlightenment
Istepped into the hot yoga room with the humid heat hitting my face and the warmth of the floor under my feet thawing my frozen toes. I placed my yoga mat in front of the mirror with my yoga strap, water bottle, and yoga block at the top of my mat. Sitting down in lotus pose on a yoga block; one leg in front of the other. I relaxed my shoulders to pull them away from my ears and took a look in the mirror at myself. I noticed my skin was clear and glowing, the whites of my eyes looked clear and white, and the blue in my eyes radiated like the southern blue ocean. My posture was tall with confidence, but soft, with peace emanating through it. I hadn’t seen myself look so healthy and happy in such a long time. For three years, I’d looked at myself in the mirror, and had started to gradually lose sight of who I was, to the point of not being able to recognize myself. This was the first time I was able to really recognize me—to really see me.
The yoga teacher scheduled to teach the class entered the room. She was a colleague of mine and a friend; I always knew taking her class would be a spiritually welcoming treat. She walked in with a grounded and soft presence. Her intention for the class inspired us to let go of anything we were holding onto from 2019, and to embrace the new year of 2020. She told us, “Let this class be about letting go and creating space to be open for what is to come”; it was exactly what I needed to hear.
I started to dive into my thoughts. I realized that all the pain and suffering I’d gone through had brought me to this moment, right here. That all the memories filled with tears, loss of hope, loss of love, and confused identity had driven my soul to a higher purpose. It was a balance of love and loss, pain and laughter, drive and insecurity, ego and humbleness.
Every one of us in class had all come to our yoga mat for different reasons that day. We all had a different story that brought us together as a community for this one-hour yoga practice. This community felt like home; a safe space to own my story and to cultivate the courage to express it. This is my story.
Diamond Lotus Book can be purchased on Amazon.ca
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