Time to embrace the F word

This week I am thrilled to have my colleague and awesome friend Amy Slater as my guest blogger. This powerhouse speaker is in demand and has spoken all over the world! Amy continues to share her greatness and be a trailblazer to shift paradigms. Enjoy her blog and prepare yourself to embrace the F word and unleash it for good! Grateful to be in The Change Book Series as co-authors together! #womenempoweringwomen

Unleashing the Power of Fear

Think about the last time you thought about doing something new. Did you embrace the uncertainty with joy and excitement, or did you hesitate? Were you overcome with a fear so strong that you couldn’t move forward? If you answered the latter, you are not alone.

Over the course of the last several years of coaching, the most common theme among men and women is fear. The fear manifests itself in paralysis, anxiety, and self-doubt. Eleanor Roosevelt said “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.” What she states here is a universal truth that has withstood the test of time. In my coaching sessions, we work to peel back the layers of uncertainty to expose fear. Once exposed, fear is no longer as mysterious.

The question that comes up most is “what are you afraid of as it relates to…?” Often, we cannot pinpoint exactly what it is, so we must explore the stories we tell ourselves. It is human nature for people to believe the lies they tell themselves. This belief fuels the fire of fear, and the fear becomes more powerful as a result. When we face fear, and replace the lies with truth, we can use that power to rewrite our stories. The new stories give us the strength, confidence, and inspiration to accomplish things we never thought possible.

I encourage my clients to become comfortable with vulnerability and to be open to uncertainty. In my coaching, I leverage the writings of best-selling author, Brené Brown, who writes, “Vulnerability is not weakness, and the uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure we face every day are not optional. Our only choice is a question of engagement. Our willingness to own and engage with our vulnerability determines the depth of our courage and the clarity of our purpose; the level to which we protect ourselves from being vulnerable is a measure of our fear and disconnection.”  Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

Push yourself outside of your comfort zone, and I am confident that, over time, you will harness the power of fear and uncertainty to catapult you into a life without limits.

Bio – Amy Slater, Founder and CEO of Amy Slater Consulting, (www.amyslaterconsulting.com) has more than 25 years of leadership and global sales experience, with an unyielding focus on customer value and expertise in business and marketing transformation through technology. Her mission is to improve and transform culture wherever she is.

She has a passion for helping and empowering people, to get extraordinary results and ultimately grow revenue. In addition to sales strategy and operations, Amy provides personal and professional coaching services to create an integrated life fueled by the power of positivity and authenticity. Prior to joining Rovi in August 2014, Amy was Sales, Group Vice President for Media, Entertainment, Telecom, and Technology at Acxiom Corporation. She was responsible for the company’s client relationships, P&L, business development, delivery leadership, and ultimately success for its customers and prospects. Before Acxiom, Amy was Vice President, Enterprise Corporate Sales for Salesforce.com, where she developed and managed teams to generate revenue and achieve individual, team and organizational quotas. She contributed to field sales strategy, defined and implemented plans for an assigned region to exceed enterprise sales targets. Prior to Salesforce.com, Amy worked at Cisco, with responsibility for hiring and training sales teams who sold Cisco solutions across core platforms, collaboration solutions, video as well as advanced and emerging technologies such as WebEx and cloud offerings. Her portfolio of expertise also includes over 15 years in telecommunications sales and sales leadership with companies such as Cable and Wireless, Qwest and AT&T.

Amy is a sought after speaker in the Bay Area who delivers messages on building your professional brand and leading through the cultivation of culture. Amy was a keynote speaker at the 2014 Forrester research conference in San Francisco, a panelist at the Domo Women in Business Tour: Executive Series, a keynote speaker at the 2016 Apttus Accelerate Conference in San Francisco, and a featured speaker at LinkedIn’s Sales Connect Conference 2016.

She is a member of Advancing Women Executives (AWE) and Women in Technology International (WITI). In October 2016, Amy was awarded a spot on the list of the Top 100 Sales Operations and Sales Enablement leaders. Amy is an Amazon best-selling author of Moments: Magic, Miracles, and Martinis. How to move forward in time of uncertainty. She holds an undergraduate degree in political science and economics from the University of California, Berkeley. She and her three daughters live in the Bay Area.