Connection starts with you. Don't wait for someone else to take the first step.

As an entrepreneur, Isha Edwards is known for her role as brand marketing manager and owner of EPiC Measures, LLC (EM). Through EM, Isha has garnered recognition in small business commerce, media, and music in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. From working with Grammy award-winning recording artists and producers to being a continuing education instructor, Isha’s reach is as broad as it is deep.

An advocate for social responsibility in media, Isha uses her position to influence business leaders and content creators to further positive change in society, particularly among youth and young adults.



Here is our Q & A with Isha:

1. What does leadership mean to you?
Leadership entails providing vision as well as facilitating and furthering group cohesiveness. To be in leadership is to oversee and be a good steward of all resources. It also means to demonstrate through action more than words.

2. How do you incorporate leadership as well as the essential habits of character (gratitude' responsibility' integrity' unity & service) into your family' business' life?
It takes integrity, being selfless, intuitive and grateful to want what’s best for and actively do your best for others. As a business owner I lead by serving or meeting the needs of clients, contractors, associates and my community. I “on purpose” look for ways to empower people around me to excel personally and professionally.                           

3. What impact do you think character has on children? On communities?
Character is reputation. Through character, trust is established. Children who demonstrate great character through adulthood will help make a stronger, safer society.

4. How can children affect leadership?
Like blank canvases, a child will only reflect what others see. Leaders should consider how what they do and say may define a child.

5. What is one thing you could recommend to others so they' too' can bring character to life?
Perspective has everything to do with your position in life. In order to exhibit character, you have to weigh your values and maintain a moral position.


For more about Isha Edwards, visit: www.ishaedwards.com.

It's the appreciation of the little things that make life extraordinary.

What would you do with a second chance? 

Little did Julie Papievis know that a quick trip to the mall would send her straight to the gates of heaven and back. After her divorce, she struggled to find purpose in life, but a reckless teenage driver caused an accident that would force Julie to reexamine her existence.

After sustaining a traumatic brain injury from the accident—an injury with only a 4% survival rate—Julie finds herself on heaven’s doorstep, greeted by her two grandmothers. Although she wants desperately to follow her grandmothers into heaven, she is told that her body will heal, and to “go back and be happy.”

When Julie wakes from a month-long coma, she finds herself paralyzed. As an athlete, she finds this hard to swallow, but her memory of heaven and what she experienced there have given her new meaning and a new will to recover and get more out of life. Go Back and Be Happy chronicles her amazing journey toward healing—a journey that ends with a 5K race, a triathlon, and an incredible spiritual turn-around.



Here is our Q & A with Julie:

1.  What does leadership mean to you?

Leadership to me means actions more than it means descriptions. A person who is a leader displays qualities that allow and enable people to reach their own potential. That it is not about them, but about what they can in fact bring forth from others around them. I believe that is how you can be the best leader.

2. How do you incorporate leadership as well as the essential habits of character (gratitude' responsibility' integrity' unity & service) into your family' business' life?

Again, refer to #1. Yes I agree that incorporating the essential habits of character; gratitude, responsibility, integrity, unity & service into your family & business life is essential to displaying good leadership through empowering others through some of the experience and knowledge learned through life experiences.

3. What impact do you think character has on children? On communities?

I think that the elements of character is absolutely essential for especially children, as they need/can learn those traits early in life to carry them forth in a more up-right manner to be able to have the confidence to hold their heads high in a world that tends to value less important traits. If their communities have an abundance of leaders who have those same good values, then the community will continue to strengthen itself and its children.

4. How can children affect leadership?

Children's minds are open sponges :) It begins with teaching them responsibility. They have the keenest ability to view situations with an open mind and heart and can bring those ideas forth to the adults that they come in contact with.

5. What is one thing you could recommend to others so they' too' can bring character to life?

People need to step outside of themselves and their comfort zones. That way people more easily show their gratitude is when in fact they feel more grateful for what in fact that they have "achieved" whatever that may be in their lives; work with others to promote service and unity in their lives.


For more about Julie, please visit http://www.gobackandbehappy.com/

"Do or do not. There is no try." ~Yoda

It's not enough to be interested in something. You must be committed.

Imagine a parenting book that doesn't tell parents what to do, but teaches the art of self-discovery using the same methods parents can use to encourage their children's growth and learning. As an experienced language teacher, trial attorney, and parent, Laurie Gray is writing a book inspired by Socrates, Plato's teacher.


A recent Q & A with Laurie:

1. What does leadership mean to you?
For me, there is only one way to lead—by example.  The only person that I can truly discipline or control is myself.  I can disciple others and also empower them by helping them develop their ability to think for themselves and encouraging them to become more aware of their innate abilities and connection to everyone around them. 

2. How do you incorporate leadership as well as the essential habits of character into your family, business, life? 
-By feeling grateful for the life and resources we’ve been given and finding the passions that are ours to pursue. 
-By choosing always to act with kindness and compassion. 
-By recognizing that the “ends” never justify the “means.”  Anytime you use the negative tools of fear, force or manipulation the end you achieve isn’t really an end, but the beginning of a new revolution.  Revolution is a revolving door that leads you right back to where you were:  in a power struggle or conflict.  Effective leaders guide us toward positive EVOLUTION, not REVOLUTION. 

3. What impact do you think character has on children? On communities?
Human beings learn character the same way that they learn language—from the people around them.  The ability exists innately, but is initially learned and expressed by imitation.  My daughter was born with the innate ability to learn any language, but she thinks and speaks in English because that’s the language she’s been submerged in her whole life.  Too often we try to teach character as a “foreign language.”  Do as I say, not as I do.  Or just do as I tell you because I said so…because I know what’s right and what’s best for you.  That’s not how character works.

4. How can children affect leadership? 
By knowing, embracing and loving themselves and by recognizing and appreciating their connection to others.  

My two favorite teachers in the order of their appearance on earth are Socrates and Jesus.  Socrates believed in the Delphic Oracle’s commission to “Know yourself.”  Jesus said the two great commandments were to love God with all your heart, soul and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself.  Regardless of religion, children need to know that there is a source of Life, call it God or the Universe or whatever, that is beyond human comprehension and control.  When you allow that source to be your inspiration and commit your whole self—body, mind and spirit—to the exploration of that source, you naturally develop leadership potential.  I think people generally do love their neighbors as themselves, the problem being that they don’t really know and love themselves.  When children are taught to truly love and accept themselves, they will develop their natural ability to love others and become better leaders in the process.   

5. What is one thing you could recommend to others so they, too, can bring
character to life?
In a word:  THINK.  Our ability to think for ourselves is the key to character.  There’s nothing more useless than a mind full of someone else’s thoughts.  Descartes said, “I think; therefore, I am.”  When we raise our children to be obedient and conform to our expectations, we rob them of the character that is innately theirs, just waiting to be developed.

 

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An experienced trial attorney and child advocate, Laurie is the founder of Socratic Parenting, LLC (www.SocraticParenting.com), co-creator of Token of Change™ (www.TokenofChange.com)  and a consultant for Sophie’s Café (www.SophiesCafe.org).  She is a former columnist for Fort Wayne Woman magazine and has published numerous articles.  Laurie also served on the faculty at the 25^th and 26^th National Symposiums on Child Abuse in Huntsville, Alabama in 2009 and 2010. 

Do everything in your power to support a cause you believe in. I believe in you.

What were you doing earlier today? What are you doing right now? What are you doing with your life?
How many times throughout the day, week or month do you respond, “I don’t know”? Think about it for a moment.

If you are like most people, you may have lost count after the first ten, right? So, let me ask…why don’t you know? Have your daily tasks become automatic? Are you bored and unmotivated? Has your resistance worn you down?

Being aware of what you are doing is a fundamental step in developing strong habits of character and aligning your family, your business and your life. As you increase your awareness, you better understand your motivations, your purpose and your potential. You begin to consciously design your life with purposeful action.

So, how do you become more aware? Go to the experts, that’s how! In this instance, though, solid information won’t be delivered by your friend, colleague or even mentor or coach. No, this time, the expert is you.

You are the expert when it comes to your motivators, your purpose and your potential. You live with(in) yourself day in and day out. That’s 60 minutes an hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. There is no one that is closer to you than you! You hold all your own answers; you just need to activate your awareness to know the questions to ask. 

To activate your awareness, consider:

1.    Know who and where you are: Identify who and where you are in this moment. Consider important influences in your daily life such as family, friends, finances, fun, spirituality, and work. What is it in your life that directs you to feel what you feel and behave as you behave. This understanding offers not just the opportunity to consciously choose what aspects of you life you’d like to change.

2.    Know who and where you want to be: If you could glimpse into a crystal ball and see your ideal life, what would it look like? Be creative and think big. There are no limitations here. Be sure to consider all aspects of your life including family, recreation, where you live, volunteer work, career – whatever you can think of that makes your heart spark. This awareness illuminates your purpose and direct you to say “I know exactly why I am doing this!”

3.    Consciously create habits of character: We are creatures of habit. Consciously creating habits that support rather than limit you is essential in squashing the “I don’t knows.” The habits that support are habits of character. The five habits that build and strengthen your foundation are Gratitude, Responsibility, Integrity, Unity and Service. These five habits direct your actions at home, work and beyond for ultimate success.

From the moment you wake in the morning to the time when you lay your head to rest at night, direct your actions with enlightened awareness. Doing so will open you, your family and your business to a world of possibilities – a world of inspiration. Imagine the possibilities. They are so vast that it makes you think that everyone should take steps to become more aware. I agree. Why aren’t they doing it? Well, my friend, I don’t know.

Find something you would do for free and then get paid. (That's what Character Coaches do!)