I got off the phone with a friend earlier this week feeling so inspired by his story, I just had to share it with you!

I met this friend, let’s call him Steve, when I worked at Honeywell years ago. I had been out-of-touch with him for about 15 years and we recently reconnected.

I was surprised to hear that that he has been battling a rare form of cancer for about eight years. As he told me his story, I was amazed at the resilience he’s shown, especially when his doctors told him that he had only 12-18 months.

I bring this all up, because I believe the way he approaches life can be a model for building resilience in our own lives. Specifically, here are three things I think that can help us towards that end, especially if we choose to do them daily:

1. Choose to Keep Moving Forward, No Matter How Bad Things Appear

I was amazed to find out that during this whole ordeal he hasn’t missed any work.

WHAT?!

If it were me, I probably would have had an multiple queen-size pity parties! But no—​he kept working during all his chemotherapy and radiation treatments as well as his current immunotherapy treatments.

And he’s not out of the woods. He’s on long-term immunotherapy, which helps prevent the cancer from growing. But he just keeps keeping on, not letting it get the best of him.

Lessons Learned: No matter how bad your situation is, just continue showing up in life. Keep putting one foot in front of the other to achieve your goals, no matter how challenging the current state is.

2. Choose an Attitude of Gratitude

I was also amazed at how great Steve’s attitude is, even joyous, while we were talking on the phone. He’s so thankful that he’s been able to participate in a drug trial that has helped extend his life and he’s relishing the moments he has.

This attitude of gratitude has really helped him not only be resilient, but to continue to face his challenges head-on with grit and grace. Not only that, his story is inspiring people along the way (like me).

I’ll share in a bit how this how this great attitude has come back to benefit him…

Lessons Learned: choosing to be thankful in the midst of dark times can transform your attitude and inspire others in the process. A positive attitude can make all the difference in the world.

3. Choose to Help Others in The Process

In the midst of his own personal storm, he made a promise to God that if he survived this whole ordeal that he would pay it forward by helping others along their cancer journey. He is doing this through a non-profit he established that’s dedicated to helping those who also have this rare form of cancer. He’s working with a world-leading oncologist to help find a cure as well. It’s been a dream of his for a long time, but he wasn’t able to afford it.

This is the really cool part of the story, how his attitude of gratitude has benefited him…

Someone pledged money to help fund his non-profit! Now he is able to work full-time at fulfilling his dream and commitment to pay it forward through helping patients and their families. He also is helping to raise funds for finding a cure.

Lessons Learned: when you choose to help others during the midst of your own personal storm, it pays off in so many ways--you’re blessed in the process and you, in turn, can be a blessing to others.


I hope this story inspires you as much as it has inspired me. I also hope these tips can help you become more resilient in your everyday life!

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Speaking of challenging times,​ companies are certainly struggling these days. That's why I love to help them out, be it through process improvement, digital transformation strategies or even through newsletters like this.

I also like to create freebies that help organizations, like a checklist of fun ideas to inspire engagement with remote workforces.

If you're interested in learning more about how to do that, just click the button below to download it!

How many of you have experienced the following sticky situation of telling one of your best customers that what you promised wasn’t going to happen?

[Big sigh]…"Not again," you may have thought. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time.

It’s definitely not a pleasant experience, but there is a solution that can prevent this from happening again…Voice of the Customer (VOC). It’s an invaluable tool for any business leader’s toolbox!

Not sure what that is?

I like this short-and-to-the-point definition…it’s finding out exactly what your customers need so you can give them exactly what they need.

Here’s a great example of how one of my amazing clients turned their own “oops” moment into a multi-million dollar outcome…through using VOC.

The Problem

This local manufacturer didn't have a standard process for gathering customer requirements to ensure they were incorporated before new product development efforts start. They also lacked a consistent way to continually monitor customer needs during the development process.

This became very evident when the following scenario happened…

My client had recently stood up a new innovation arm of their business for developing smart technology products. One day, they called upon an electrical contractor to install a prototype of their first new smart product at a work site.

Much to my client’s chagrin, the contractor informed them that they had made a huge mistake in the housing of the product that made it non-functional in its current state.

This could have caused ALL kinds of serious issues, especially if they had to go back through a lengthy UL approval process. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case!

The Solution

That’s when the CEO decided to bring in a VOC expert (me)...to develop a new approach they could integrate into their product development process. 

We got right to work! I teamed with them to create “how-to kits” for each different VOC type: surveys, focus groups, customer visits, to name a few. Then we integrated the how-to kits into different phases of their product development process. That way, end users would know exactly how to gather the customer feedback…at the right times and in the right places. Not only that, they would know how to incorporate that feedback into developing products.

The Results

The outcome was amazing! The first new product that used the VOC process experienced the following:

• A significant increase in product safety
• A 40% increase in revenue over previous similar products
• The opening of a new market in a foreign country worth millions of dollars

Needless to say, my client has been thrilled with the results!

There’s another great thing about this process…it’s a drop-in system that can be easily adapted to other product development processes, and it even works for service delivery models. This can really benefit a company…it allows for quicker and less costly implementations.

And when it comes to process deployments, who doesn’t want that?

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If you are facing any of the challenges above and/or would like to do a better job of delighting your customers, I’d love to have a chat!

In the meantime, here’s a freebie I’d like to share with you...a Product Development Checklist that can get you started down the road of developing such a process or to help you improve the one you already have.

Either way, I'd love to have you check it out! Just click the button below to download it. 

Years ago, I dabbled in the wedding singer world. I say “dabbled”, because I had sung at several friend’s weddings for free, so when I was offered a paying gig, I jumped on the chance!

What fun, I thought! Little did I know this would be a BIG lesson in perseverance.

Murphy’s Law was at play from the very beginning. I came down with bronchitis two days before the wedding rehearsal. Then once I got there, I realized I had left my music for one of the songs at home, which was a two-hour drive away.

So, the pianist and I decided we’d practice that one song on the day of the wedding…certainly not an ideal situation!

The day of the wedding came, and I was able to sing, but I still wasn’t in the greatest shape. Unfortunately, my being unprepared and not feeling well got the best of me.

Let me explain….

While I was singing that one song during the wedding, I unfortunately forgot to change keys during one section and I kept singing that same key throughout the rest of the song.  

Ugh! Needless to say, it sounded horrible! But I kept forging ahead, acting as if nothing were wrong at all, but inside I was mortified. Eventually, the pianist caught up with me and thankfully I nailed the next song.

Then the funniest thing happened during the reception. The groom said to me: “You sounded great, Kathy, but the pianist sure screwed up!”

I almost burst out laughing, but instead I thanked him and didn’t say a word about what actually happened. I was so relieved that I had covered my tracks so well!

However, the bride refused to talk to me. And then she refused to pay me!

Although this experience wasn't fun at the time, I can laugh now. Also, I learned several lessons on how to persevere during difficult situations, especially if you're in the spotlight.

Let’s dive into what those are!

1. Fake It Until You Make It

When I made that mistake, I made a conscious decision to stay committed to my direction, knowing that doing anything else would only make it worse. I pretended I knew exactly what I was doing, even if it was wrong.

Lessons Learned: We all make bad decisions, but sometimes the best course of action is to stick to your guns…IF the fall-out could be worse if you suddenly change course. This may be especially true if you’re in a new role and need to inspire those around you to follow your direction. Be confident in whatever choice you make.

2. Have a “Don’t Give Up Attitude”

I made a commitment to sing at this wedding, and I wasn’t going to let anything stop me from doing that. I also didn’t let the mistake I made to limit myself from nailing the next song.

Lessons Learned: Make a firm decision that when you say you’re going to do something, you do it, even if the going is tough.
 
3. Be Tenacious at Getting the Results You Want

My perseverance in bugging the bride to pay me finally paid off…I got a check in the mail six months later. Even more important, the lessons I learned in perseverance with this gig were worth all the time, effort and even embarrassment I experienced.

Lessons Learned: Tenaciously pursue your goals. Then take stock of what you learned…knowing that you can overcome certain challenges can help build in a deeper ability to persevere under fire in the future. This builds even great tenacity.
 

Speaking of challenges, are you in the midst of some that you’re not sure how to overcome? Could you use an outside perspective on how to tackle them?

If that's the case, I’d love to have a conversation with you! If it’s not something I can solve, I have a whole network of alliance partners that I’d love to connect you with.

​Sound good? Then click the button below to schedule a chat.