2245 - How Self-Love and Confidence Empower Leaders to Inspire Action with Cynthia Rivard

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1:05with us right now it is cynthia rivard cynthia you are the author of the book hope for a new era turning the tide love and leadership through turbulent times great timing for this book uh you are also the ceo and founder of cynthia rivard strategic consulting and you are the founder of the Global Rising Tide. We'll talk a little bit about the work that you're doing, the Rising Tide Foundation. But Cynthia, it's great to have you. Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here with you, Josh. Absolutely. Listen, before we get talking about the impact you have in the world professionally, Cynthia, I'd love to learn maybe what you do for fun on the side when you're not working and speaking and writing.

1:49Well, I like to say that if you are living your purpose, it fires you up and it's not work. So you can do it 24 seven if you want. But I do have a family and my youngest daughter has special needs. So she's at home and we like to go out and experience nature, go for walks. I recently moved to a more mild climate. So we had a beautiful winter going out and enjoying the woods. You are in your Charlotte area? Yes, North Carolina. I used to live in Massachusetts. That was like 35 years. And I am not a cold weather person. So it's been delightful to enjoy the milder weather. Where have you been? I don't know if you've gotten out to any of the state parks or the mountains or whatever in your area.

2:40But if someone is in Charlotte, where would you recommend they go if they want to see some amazing nature? so i well we've been sticking with the one of the places that is the closest to us uh which is called lotta nature preserve and they've got a whole lot of uh nature trails there and a beautiful really large lake um so that's the most accessible for me but there's a lot of beautiful nature around here you're really spoiled in that part of the world obviously you can kind of head out you know get get over to the mountains. Yeah. We were there not too long ago, went to Carowinds, which is not too far, but anyway, Cynthia, let's talk about the work that you do.

3:22Congratulations. Your book just released as of when this episode goes live, it's called Hope for a New Era. Give us your, you know, kind of your, your three to four minute overview, a la kind of like a mini TED Talk on the message included or that's a part of Hope for a New Era? Oh, boy. Well, basically, my definition of hope is having faith in that better future that we can create together and then taking action. Hope is faith in action. And so that That is a big premise of the book to craft that vision and tap into your inner wisdom or your intuition to know how you can make more of an impact in the world, because it's a mess and there's a lot of ways that we can all do more and to really tap into that.

4:23But then even if it's just a small action to start right away taking action, and that's how we instill hope and empowerment in ourselves. And we start that ripple and other people see us doing something and we encourage them to come along. Most people, we were talking before you hit record a little bit about subconscious programming and the way it inhibits us. And most people have a built-in mechanism to resist change. And, you know, noticing that and being able to just take that first little step to get through the resistance, you create hope and empowerment, and then more ideas will come to you.

5:18And you also, another instinct we have is to look for validation. Are other people doing this or other people like me doing this? Because your brain thinks if no one's doing it, it may not be safe. I'm scared. You know, I mean, your audience probably wouldn't feel that way, but a lot of people do. So when they see you doing it, you're creating the validation that it's safe and they can do it too. and yeah i mean these are such true principles cynthia two quotes come to mind obviously ralph waldo emerson do the thing have the power it's in the doing that we overcome that fear and it might be scary but then that leads me to the martin luther king quote that faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase and and i'm always with that quote i'm always reminded of the, you know, which is probably my favorite Raiders Lost Ark or Indiana Jones movie, the third one, you know, when they're out, you know, and they're trying to get to the Holy Grail and he sees this big chasm and he's supposed to just step out into this chasm.

6:35And it's not until he takes that step that he lands on that bridge that was invisible to him initially. And then all of a sudden it was there. And so much of life is like that. A hundred percent. I, um, I say that a lot in my teachings, you can't, you don't see, especially if you're trying to work something out, that's complex or that's brand new, you can't see the whole journey. You have to start and then you learn and you tweak and then you get a new idea or meet a new acquaintance. And that's how anything overwhelming gets accomplished. But you have to start and you have to be unattached to the initial plan.

7:21Once you get started, you may have to tweak or trash that idea and come up with a whole new plan. But you wouldn't have known that first one didn't work until you started. Yeah. Well, Cynthia, I would imagine in your work with your clients, you've been through a lot of these conversations. Do you mind maybe sharing a little bit? I don't know if there's a particular story or a particular person that you've had experience with. Maybe you could just tell us a story of this, this brought to, you know, kind of real world. um i i'm not sure which concept we want to uh break down but i know my friend let me share and i i first just want to say because i know you've got incredible leaders and business owners who are very innovative and have to be brave and courageous in a lot of ways.

8:19So let me just say, just stay open to the concept I'm sharing without originally thinking, well, this doesn't pertain to you. Even if it doesn't, it probably pertains to a lot of your team. So I will share about how I was a confident leader and successful for the majority of my career. And yet, I had significant self-love, esteem, and worth issues, which I didn't recognize because I was good at masking it and showing up and doing what I knew how to do. And I intuitively had a lot of leadership skills. It was an environment I was comfortable in. So it may not be in every area of your life that you would see an issue playing out, but a lack of self-love is pervasive around the world.

9:20It's a real issue, especially for those of us that were born or raised before the 1990s, because the parenting style was very authoritarian. And it did not imbue a lot of self-love, which is what we need for that self-worth. And we need that in order to be okay with accepting or creating change. And we know the world's always changing, but the really powerful part for us as leaders is to anticipate what's necessary to thrive, you know, for us and our businesses, and also create more impact for our teams and our customers and everyone in our lives. how to be that trailblazer. We have to have self-confidence and self-esteem to know we can do new things, but then you have to look for that in your team and instill that confidence in them.

10:32Because one person being that trailblazer isn't nearly as good as a whole bevy of the workforce being confident and feeling that self-worth that they can stick their neck out and come up or share a new different outside of the box idea. I talk a lot about shifting paradigms and embracing the idea that differences are powerful. We could not make progress if we didn't have differing points of views and perspectives to open up our thinking. Even if we don't end up going that way, frequently the best way forward is a synthesis of all of those great ideas that came in, or maybe one really crazy idea led us down a rabbit hole of more brainstorming.

11:36But you have to have confidence first to be able to share those outside of the box ideas. Yeah. Cynthia, we have just a few minutes left. I wanted to learn just a little bit. I know you're a little bit of sabbatical right now because of the book, but you've worked with clients and obviously a lot of leaders listen to this. What is your work with leaders or leadership teams look like? I would say helping them vision that outside of the box, what's going on, but also what do we anticipate going on and how can we leverage that and embrace innovation to be more of a, to do more good in the world. I think there's a lot of ways businesses can get out of the box of their industry and look beyond that and make more impact, even if it's not related to your product or service.

12:43And I'll just challenge the people listening to look at their sphere of influence beyond their business, because as a business owner or leader in that business, people respect you. You have an automatic authority with a lot of people, maybe not everyone. So what you say has a lot of influence, even if you're not being intentional about what you're sharing out and about in the community, as an example.

13:16So ferreting out all of those ways we can be more impactful and creative in being at the front of the changes that are necessary rather than reactive to them. You know, with the environment, there's just so many changes going on around us. And change, as we discussed, is hard to get buy-in for. Even if you're very innovative and there are things that you want to accomplish, you have to get everybody on board, whether that's your team or your customers or both. I wanted to just kind of last before we kind of close up. I want to mention the work that you do with the Global Rising Tide Foundation.

14:06Be good to the oceans and the oceans will be good to you is, I think, a crush from Finding Nemo. You'll hear that at Disney World often. Sorry, that's kind of stuck in my head. But I'm so grateful that we have our ocean system. And as humans, obviously, we need to work with that so we don't deplete or wreck that resource. But would you mind maybe just sharing just a little bit about the Global Rising Tide Foundation? Sure. Well, all the proceeds from my books are going to the foundation. And it's meant to just fund and send proceeds out to nonprofits that are really fighting to hit to eliminate global warming.

14:59So that's the first purpose. And then in my donor community, I help individuals really learn and tap into their intuition and their life's purpose, because a lot of people are evolving now or pivoting or expanding because the world needs help in new ways. So I do a lot of that in the donor community to help individuals. And then the proceeds go out into the world to save the environment. All right. So Cynthia Rivard, your website is Cynthia Rivard.com. You can click on the book there. It says Hope for a New Era. It's also available on Amazon. It's available everywhere. Cynthia, for a friend that's been listening, what else would you recommend they do after listening to our conversation in terms of engaging with you or getting value from the impact you have in the world?

15:59Yes, well, you can get to know me. I have free articles and a link to my YouTube channel, which has a lot of trainings on it. And there's some free resources on the website as well, in addition to talking about the books that I have coming up. And I would just love to connect to and hear from you. I love it, Cynthia Rivard, your business advisor, author, leadership expert, your website, CynthiaRivard.com. And the book is Hope for a New Era, Turning the Tide, Love and Leadership Through Turbulent Times. Cynthia, thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me.

16:39Thanks for listening to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program, please visit upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. We believe that every person has a message that can positively impact the world. We love our community who listens and shares our program every day. Together, we are empowering one another as thoughtful leaders. And as I mentioned at the beginning of this program, if you're looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, and clients, I have had private conversations with over 2 ,000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from.

17:21I've got a free video that you can watch right now with no opt-in or email required where I'm gonna share the exact steps necessary to be 100 % inbound in your industry over the next six to eight months with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for more than 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high-ticket sales appointments. Make sure to hit subscribe so that tomorrow morning, that's right, seven days a week, you are going to be inspired and motivated to succeed.

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