Shifting From Skillset To Mindset With Bernadette Boas

With what she called her Pink Slip to Freedom, Bernadette authored her first book, Shedding the Corporate Bitch, and yes, that is the title of her book and part of her brand. We are going to be talking about shifting from skillset to mindset and that’s important because so often, I hear women talk about the fact that they need to get another degree or certification or even that they need to master certain skills before they apply for a job or a promotion.

We’re going to talk about that shift. We’re also going to talk about the Shift to Richest Formula, which is a five-step process that Bernadette’s going to share with us. Finally, how to build your influence. Those are all important topics when you are in the corporate world and you are trying to figure out how to advance in your career. With that, stay tuned for my conversation with Bernadette.

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Bernadette, welcome to the show. I am so happy to have you here. I am going to start right into the conversation. You talk about shifting from a skillset to a mindset. What do you mean by that and what percentages are we talking about?

I’ve learned over the last many years throughout my shedding process that we spend too much time focused on what our resume looks like, how many skills we have, and what are the accolades, certifications, universities, and company logos. Yet, none of those matters if you don’t have the confidence, the security, and the self-appreciation for optimizing and utilizing all those skills and talent.

You could be the most brilliant individual with an impressive resume and yet, if you don’t have the confidence to go out and use it, then it doesn’t mean anything. My philosophy is that life is 80% mindset and 20% skillset. What every one of us should be doing on a daily basis is focusing our time predominantly on mastering who we are, what we want, what we don’t, and what our goals and passions are. Many people call it the why. I call it your why spot. Once you have that, the skills, talent, expertise, and experience will come. That’s where the whole trajectory that I’ve taken is not only for myself but for my clients, for the work that I do, the training that I do, and so forth, and so on.

That makes a lot of sense because I personally have known some women that keep getting certifications or additional degrees, and at the end of the day, they still don’t feel confident enough to apply for that job or to ask for what they want. We’re talking to women in the corporate world that are trying to move up the corporate ladder. When you say 80% mindset, we’re talking about confidence. We’re talking about knowing who you are. What are some concrete things that you think people can do to start working on their mindset?

Have you ever read Eckhart Tolle’s book, The Power of Now? I never got what that meant. What do you mean I should be in the now? I am in the now. I’m here. I’m talking to you. What do you mean I need to be in the now? This is going back many years. I came across that book. I didn’t read it. I didn’t get it. I put it aside, and yet, everything started appearing around being present, being intentional, and being here right now. For instance, you and I are talking and I’m not thinking about the fact that I’m hungry or that I’m not feeling good, or I have a lot of work on my desk to still do.

I’m thinking about what I need to do right now to stay connected with Rosie and have a very powerful conversation. I then decided that I was going to pick that book up again and this was a few years ago. A friend of mine saw that I was reading it out on a pickleball court and she goes, “Be patient with yourself.” I’m like, “What do you mean?” She goes, “Just be patient. It’s very heavy. It’s very deep. It’ll take you a while to get through it.”

I happened to only have read a chapter of it when I spoke to her. The next thing you know, I would say a day and a half later, I was done. I told her that. I was like, “Beth, I finished The Power of Now.” She’s like, “What?” I said, “I’ve been studying it for the past number of years. Therefore, it came so easily.” I would say that someone should each and every day focus on being present. Enjoying the moment that you’re sitting, whether that’s at your desk by yourself, in a meeting, in a tumultuous conversation, or whatever the case might be. Just go inward and ask yourself, “Am I present? Am I alert? Am I actively listening? Am I feeling through this very moment in time?”

I would say that, to begin with. One of the subjects that I talk about is my Shift to Riches Formula. We’re going to talk about that, but then there are steps there that complement and work 80% on your mindset and 20% on your skillset. Make every day, whether you carve it out as intentional time as I do it first thing in the morning. I have about 45 minutes. That’s all about that or you practice it and stay alert throughout the day or you do it before you go to bed. Carve out sometime because the moment you start learning about who you are, what it is you want, and focusing on self-awareness and authenticity, it’s amazing how the universe opens up to you.

The moment you start learning about who you are and what you want, and really focusing on self-awareness and authenticity, it's amazing how the universe opens up to you. – Bernadette Boas Click To Tweet

I couldn’t agree with you more. What I typically do in the morning is work out because inevitably, if I don’t work out first thing in the morning, it doesn’t get done because of the busyness of the day. One thing that I love to do is sit and journal. I also do some meditation, whether it’s with music or without music. Interestingly enough, I was challenged to do meditating without music, and you have to tune out all of the noises, whether it’s the house noises or outside of the dog or whatever.

It’s quite challenging but another thing that I love to do is think about what I’m grateful for because that’s when I feel present. Like now, it was beautiful out so I took a walk, and a lot of times I’ll do a show or whatever, and I was like, “It’s so beautiful.” I was looking around and enjoying and being grateful right at that moment. You say 20% skillset, but skillset is still important. How do you interweave the 80% mindset with the 20% skillset?

It’s almost what you said earlier, and I see it all the time as well. People continue to try to get education and training. They take courses. They hire coaches and they’re constantly on this hamster wheel, thinking that they have to improve on their skillset when what they need to be doing is first, take an inventory and understand what your skill set is, what your talents, your experience, your expertise, the accolades, the awards or whatever the case might be.

So many of us, it’s in the past so we keep it in the past and they don’t recall it. I remember when I left corporate and I started down this journey. I went out on my own and I knew I was going to be going into coaching and consulting immediately, but then I started thinking to myself, “Being an entrepreneur, you have to be an HR person. You have to be a marketing person. You have to know all of these things before you start hiring.”

I thought that immediately, I was going to start hiring but why and who? What I am skilled at versus somebody else? What training should I get versus hiring someone? I sat down and took a rampant inventory from the time I was one to the present time because we take so many things for granted. We take the fact that I’ve always been a talker. I’ve always asked a lot of questions. I’ve always been curious about people, and yet, I’ve never ever considered those to be skills or talents that I would then be using. Hence many years later and everything I do is about talking, interviewing, and whatnot.

That also helps you say, “I am ready,” because the problem is that 20% want to make it 50%, 60%, or 70% of their time, especially women. They’re already ready to take the next role, the next opportunity, the next initiative or project but they talk themselves out of it thinking, “I need to have this and this.” I always say to my clients, “If you had it, you’d already have the job. If you already had it, you should be going for a bigger job, not the job or the position or whatever that you’re going for. “

Men feel that they need to be between 30% and 40% ready. Women feel like they need to be between 80% and 92% or something. I don’t know what the exact number is. That’s why I stress minimizing the skill area, not in importance, but before you go out thinking you need all this additional training, assess and take an inventory as to whether or not you have that skill and talent and/or can you learn it easily on the job or do you need some help and some additional training. That’s what I mean by it.

That’s very necessary. There was a Great Resignation with the pandemic and now a lot of those people are starting to go back to work or look for jobs. Now, you said some statistics between men and women. I’ve always heard about the Hewlett-Packard study where they did a study of their staff and the men would apply for jobs having 50% of the skills, and then the women would wait till they have 100% of the skills. It’s similar to what you just said. That changed my life. I heard that years ago and I was shocked. As my readers will know, I try to talk about that as often as I can because that’s a remarkable difference between the way men and women operate. It’s a perfect way for women to hold themselves back.

Absolutely, and maybe it’s because I’m 1 of 12 children, Rosie. I have 6 brothers and 5 sisters. I’m the eighth so I’m down toward the end. Fortunately, our parents didn’t see gender and so I was always very confident in the fact that I could do whatever I wanted to do and I didn’t have to wait around and ask. From the time in my early twenties throughout my career, I would go and find an opportunity, a break in the system, a break in the process, or something that wasn’t being worked on. I would go to the CEO or a senior person, and here I’m like twenty-something. I’m like, “I want to fill that.” They’d be like, “You don’t even know how to do that.”

I’m like, “I don’t care. I’ll learn it and it needs to be taken care of and no one else is taking care of it.” I probably did that 3 or 4 times in my career and predominantly in my 20s to my late 30s when I just saw something that had a need. I knew I wasn’t ready for it, but I’d pull the people around me. I would pull the resources, the trainings, and whatever I needed. I would learn it on the job. As I went, ask for a lot of forgiveness but I wouldn’t hesitate to do it. I try to instill that confidence and that self-belief into the work that I do and the people I work with.

What you said is so powerful because many women do not operate that way. You said you’re 1 of 12 children. You had to be vocal to be heard when you’re 1 of 12. That was part of your upbringing. What would you say to someone that is struggling with being vocal in their corporate career right now?

First off, speak up. You won’t get what you don’t ask for. All they could do was say no. I’ll back that up though to say, it’s not as if I just went in with a blank piece of paper and said, “I see that there’s no business analytics for all of us buyers. There’s no reporting. There’s nothing online and I want to solve that problem. I want to pull a team together to pull together the analytics.” I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t go in with only that. I went in building a business case.

I always thought about what was in it for them. What are they going to be looking for that they’re going to need in order to make this decision in the way I want them to make it? I would put a business case together. What’s the problem? What’s the impact on the business? What are the benefits of solving it? What’s the solution? It happened to be me.

I think, too, women often will go and speak up or ask or whatnot, but they’re not well-prepared. Now, I’m not talking about the 50%, 100% of being ready. I’m talking about simply the fact that you want something but you’re only blanket asking for it without thinking about what’s in it for the other person so you build a case to where they can’t say no.

If they say no, they’re not saying no to you. They’re saying no, that it’s not the right time, it’s not the right initiative, and so forth and so on. Whether you are struggling or whether you’re confident, you need to push through that fear for those that aren’t confident. Recognize that you’ve been through a lot of noes and crap before and you’ve made it to the other side. You’re still breathing, living, existing, and probably thriving. Continue to do it.

I love that you went in with the problem, but you also had a plan and you said, “I’m the solution.” That’s great. One of the things that I typically recommend for people that are looking for jobs, especially if they’re in the company that they want to advance to, if you are looking to go into a position, as you said, come in with a plan, but I typically say, “You need to have a 90-day plan.”

What is going to be your transition plan? It’s like your own onboarding plan that you’re going to have but also have a succession plan. For the person that’s going to be stepping into your role, give them their 90-day plan so that you are ultra-prepared and people can see that you are thinking about the needs of the company and not just your own. This way, you’re covering them on both ends.

I wasn’t thinking to cover that, but yes, absolutely I do. I would always do that and I would propose to anybody else to do that as well. You don’t want to push yourself out because that is selfish and only worry about what this new opportunity is. You definitely need to, again, make it as easy as possible for other people to adopt what it is that you want.

I’m not going to say you’re not going to get a no but you’re going to make it hard for them to say no, even as far as budgeting. In my twenties, I was going to talk to the CFO or the IT department. “What is it going to take for me to pull together a team of fifteen people? They were all like, “What is she doing?” but it all went into that. Do your homework and build a case, but step up and ask. I’ll even make it simple even when you’re sitting at the table, never walk out of a meeting without saying something. Contributing to the conversation, asking a question, or adding to someone else’s commentary but if you want to get comfortable with using your voice, use it on a regular basis.

If you want to really get comfortable with using your voice, use it on a regular basis. – Bernadette Boas Click To Tweet

I read a statistic that women in college are two and a half times less likely to ask a question than their male counterparts in the same classroom so ask your question. Let’s shift a little bit to the Shift to Riches Formula. There are five steps and I want to cover those five steps.

It came out of my shedding journey that I went on when I was fired by my mentor of twelve years in late 2007. I lost my entire 25-year career, my identity, and everything. I had to go off and pretty much go on an excavation of my soul journey to learn about who I was. I wasn’t in touch with who I was either prior to this period. For the past years, I have, but before that, I have not. I did for several years and I continued.

For several years, I went through this process, and through it, I discovered these very distinct phases that I was walking through, and it’s almost like the stages of grief. However, it was a stage of transformation. The five high-level ones are discover, confront, and shed so you can create and accelerate. What I needed to do first is I needed to discover who I was. That landed me in that parking lot with a pink slip in my hand.

It was a matter of asking myself a boatload of questions, and this isn’t like in one sitting, such as, “Who am I? Who do I want to be? Who do I not want to be?” Those were the big questions I had to be answering. “What did I want? What did I not want?” The what is people, places, things, all of it, and it’s also your inner stuff. The discover phase went on and on. “What are my goals? What are my passions?”

I’ll turn it to the readers, “What is important to you? What are your values? What are your morals? What are your traits? What are those skills and talents that you have?” I have 145 questions and certainly, you start on the very surface. Even when I ask my clients, “Who are you? Tell me about yourself.” It’s very demographic and psychographic. It’s like, “I’m Bernadette Boas from Philadelphia. I am 1 of 12 kids. I live in Atlanta, Georgia.” It’s very surface and then it’s like, “Now, let’s go to the next level.”

You keep peeling the onion, so to speak. The discovery phase is critical because trust me when I say that the minute you tap into who you truly are, it’s amazing what happens. It’s just exhilarating. It’s like Aqua Seltzer that starts bubbling and tingling. You move on to confront because there’s going to be a lot to unpack in this discovery phase. You have to start confronting it all, the good, bad, and the ugly. We want to look at the good first, and I refer to that as Honor Your Riches, which women don’t do. That is all those skills, talents, qualities, traits, experiences, and expertise that you have.

Don’t only state them. Sit in them and appreciate how much good you make up because I have them focus there first because then when you start looking at all the junk, it becomes less dramatic when you’re focused on your riches. I call them Riches in Bitches. It’s your riches first, and then you look at confronting all of your inner fears, insecurities, doubts, negativities, self-doubt, and impostor syndrome, all of it. You confront it. “Where is this stuff coming from?”

I never felt like I fit in my entire life until I was about 48 because as a child, being 1 of the 12, I was the milkman’s daughter, the postman’s daughter. I was 1 of 12 kids that had blonde hair, blue eye, and fair skin, and didn’t sound like, act like, and look like nothing. Until about 10 or 12 years old, I had family, friends, and strangers asking if I was adopted.

Even though it was innocent teasing, it festered to the point where I felt I never fit in. I did all this work and started recognizing that all of those limiting beliefs I was telling myself were all lies. You have to have a heart-to-heart with yourself. It’s not easy. It’s not fun. It’s not fast. At the same time, it is the most liberating and freeing experience you’ll ever have. If you sit in that confront phase and look at all of it. You then move on and you start making decisions. In the shed phase, you start making decisions about, “What about all of this do I not want? What do I want to keep?”

Again, I need to say that what is not only your inner beliefs. What I had to start discovering and confronting is that there were people, places, and things in my life that were complementing my nastiness and who I was because we attract in our lives who we are. Here, I’m this corporate b**** for a long time and I was attracting that type of person around me, those types of experiences, encounters, and relationships. A lot of ugliness was happening in my life for a long time because I was ugly inside.

There comes a point where you have to make decisions about the people, places, and even things. I’ll also never forget, it was October of 2008 of their recession and I had a party of 60 people at my house, helping everyone recognize that everybody was losing their jobs. I had just gotten fired eight months earlier and this was a networking event to help everybody find jobs, connect, and whatnot.

I shared with them everything I’d been going through and what I was going to be doing. By Christmas, I was by myself sitting on the couch with my dog. It gave them the opportunity to recognize that I wasn’t the person they wanted in their life, and I recognized that there was a large group of people that I didn’t want any longer in my life.

That is so interesting. Let me go back to one thing that you said. You said, “Discover, confront, and shed.” You said that when you were young, you were proactive. You were a go-getter; you created this team and did all these things but you called yourself a corporate b****. The reason why I want to go back to that is that men can be super aggressive at work and it’s perfectly fine, but women can’t be aggressive.

To your point, and I’m only saying it because you said it, you were called a corporate b**** or you felt like it. You also said you were ugly inside. I completely understand that you can be called a corporate b**** when you are not because you’re super aggressive but because you were not liking who you were. That’s two different distinctions and I wanted to make sure that there was that distinction there.

There is, however, and I’m asked this all the time. My transition from a precocious young sweet girl into a nasty individual in my early twenties was not because of the corporate. I’m accustomed to hanging out with men and a very dynamic, tough group of people, and I never felt threatened to be able to stand up next to the next person. What I did was made a decision in college. I moved from Philadelphia from a lower middle class to a middle-class family down in Boca Raton, Florida to go to college.

All of my friends had a lot of money, and the one common denominator with all of them is they used their money to get what they wanted but they also did it in such an overt, aggressive, nasty, demanding curt, abrasive, demeaning, and diminishing way. It wasn’t 100% of them, but I’m observing. I was so desperate to want the power position and prosperity that I thought, “If I have to do that to achieve what I want, then I’ll do that.”

A mask that I chose to wear part-time while I was trying to get what I wanted all of a sudden seeped into my skin and became part of me for many years. That’s where the hall shedding the corporate b****. Now, I should fast forward and say my awakening to whom I had become was because of the fact that I was fired by my mentor of twelve years. I went on this excavation of my soul journey and through that process and recalling over and over again like a constant film the events, the encounters, the relationships, and the situations that I put myself in and/or I created, all of a sudden, was what brought me face to face with who I am.

All of a sudden, I realized that I was not fired because I wasn’t producing, I wasn’t a contributor, I wasn’t hard-working or I wasn’t loyal. It was because of the fact that I was a nasty corporate tyrant and that wasn’t the type of leader that the company wants and companies now even want. That’s when I was like, “I was such a nasty individual. How am I going to change? How am I going to shift? How am I going to shed who I was to become whom I want to be?” I said to myself, “How can I help others not go down that same path?” and that’s where the book came from.

It is so refreshing to me that you are talking about your story because I know people like yourself in the corporate world, and it’s not a relationship that I would ever want to have with a person like that. I make it a point to not have relationships with those kinds of people, but you have so much courage and bravery for sharing your story and being truly authentic, and letting us know that you saw yourself be that nasty person. To me, the most amazing thing is that you recognize it eventually and that you worked on it. Now, you’re this beautiful person and are completely different. So far, we said discover, confront, and shed. What’s the fourth step?

This isn’t a serial type of process. It’s very iterative. As you’re learning about yourself and that in itself is creating some confidence and new energy. You’re confronting things and you’re letting things go. Now, you feel lighter, brighter, and more vibrant. You’re shedding and all of a sudden, you want to create. You want to start creating something new, something bigger, something better, or something different. New goals, new aspirations, new relationships, and new self-love for yourself. Without getting too wooed, I never saw myself as a woo-woo individual, but you do you.

All of a sudden, you want to start creating new things. I’ve experienced it time and time again, especially over the last many years. As you’re creating them and you’re receiving new, big, different, and better, you want to accelerate all of that greatness, all that wonder, and all those riches, and therefore, you accelerate. You put the pedal to the metal and you start accelerating wanting to change, grow, create and transform. That’s those five steps.

That is a huge shift there and you have your book, Shedding the Corporate Bitch.

Shifting Your Bitches to Riches in Life and Business.

Your story is phenomenal because you go through so many different phases in that five-step process, but in the end, you’re working on your person, and your personal development in not even a corporate way, but a personal way. That’s wonderful that you were able to shed all that stuff and then, in the end, create, and accelerate.

I do need to add. I welcome anyone to buy the book and read it. The book is more a memoir than anything. It’s a memoir with some tips. It’s got a corporate b**** test in it at the end to test whether or not you are. Yet, over the last few years, the number one question I get after a speech or from a client is, “How did you do it? How did you change?”

I understand this Shift to Riches formula, but where is it written down and how can I go through it, and so forth and so on? I’m currently working on Excavating Your Soul: The Guide to Shift from Bitch to Rich in Life and Business. That’ll be a workbook where all these questions and steps that we’ve been talking about will be laid out for you very gingerly, so you can work through them yourself.

This is a different topic. We also said we were going to talk about how to build your influence. Everything that we’ve talked about is great but this falls more into the skillset. How do you build your influence?

It involves both your mindset and your skillset because building your influence is about being confident. It is about feeling empowered. It is about taking risks. It is about knowing who you are and not dealing with impostor syndrome or self-doubt. Not to say that even as you are advancing in your careers and building that influence, you still don’t have insecurities and doubts. I would say that first.

Building your influence is about being confident. It is about feeling empowered. It is about taking risks. – Bernadette Boas Click To Tweet

Continue to work on yourself no matter what role, title, and office size you have and that’ll build your influence. Influence comes from trust. Influence comes from building trust in yourself from others. It means to show up and follow through. Engage, develop, coach, praise, and advance. Build your influence by contributing and asking those questions that we were talking about, not being afraid of rejection or saying no, or being silenced. Through all of those behaviors, you will be able to build influence.

Where the skills come in is if all of a sudden, you’re working on and/or you’re displaying your ability to communicate very effectively, negotiate, collaborate, deal with conflict and be accountable. All of those things also will have you standing out and being seen as influential to other people. It doesn’t have anything to do with how loud you are or how much you talk. It comes down to how you show up.

I was going to say that. It almost seems like it’s how you show up. You want some visibility, but you also want to operate from a place of integrity. Do what you say you’re going to do, follow through, and volunteer for different things, but in a good way. As you said at the very beginning, how can you serve others? When you serve others, you serve yourself. That’s the key.

I will also say that what you just said is to get more visibility, it is to ask. I have a client who would never have asked to be put in the front, so to speak. I’ve been working with her to do that. She has a new CEO and the next thing you know, she asked. She said, “Yes.” My client was scared to death, but she practiced and she worked on it. She went and took action and it was a magnificent outcome. You have to ask. You have to be prepared. When I say that, it’s to be complete. Know why you’re asking and what value you’re bringing to it but look for opportunities. Many people wait until someone taps them on the shoulder.

I did that, Bernadette.

No one’s going to walk into your office and tap you on the shoulder. Go and find it. Seek something out that you don’t even know that you want.

I tell the story where I was working on my career and once I was a top performer, I’m like, “All right.” I remember being at my keyboard thinking, “Any day now someone’s going to notice my hard work and tap me on the shoulder.” Nobody ever came for that day, which is one of the reasons why I do the work that I do now.

That reminds me of what I wanted to say, and that was going back to honor your riches. What I have my clients do because again, we take it for granted. We’re so busy throughout the year. I have my clients get a journal for documenting accomplishments, achievements, accolades, and praises. At the same, where did you screw up and what happened?

Because I think, too, without being arrogant or while you’re still maintaining some humility, you also need to let people know what it is you’re accomplishing. As much as you need to take accountability for what you might have screwed up, you need to find those places to insert what you’ve contributed in your role to the team, to the company, and to the business. The easy way to do that is through your performance review if you’re self-assessed before someone else assesses you. At the same time, it needs to be when you are with the team and when people are given statuses.

Men don’t hesitate to tell everybody what a great job they did on X, Y, and Z. Women need to find those places, whether it’s one-on-one with their boss, whether it’s with the team, or whether it’s to the senior group. People need to know and you can do it in such a way, even like a case study. I was big on case studies too because of the kind of work I did. I would build a case study on what was the problem, what was the solution, how did I solve it, and what was the result. It’s similar to the business plan, but now it’s the results. You share those with people, but you have to honor your riches and make sure others know. That will build also your influence.

I always tell people that you have to be able to articulate your worth with massive confidence and conviction and that’s exactly what you said. This has been a wonderful conversation. I love the five-step process. That’s perfect. We’re coming to the end here, but I always want to leave the readers with two tips that you can provide us in order to advance in their careers or as we’ve been talking, to enhance your mindset. Can you give us two tips? You’ve already given us a lot of great information.

First thing in the morning, the minute you open up your eyes, don’t get out of bed. Just lay there. Do an assessment from your toes to your head and from your head to your toes. How are you feeling physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and all of it? If there’s any part of it that you’re not going to be excited, energetic, optimistic, and positive when you get out and put your feet on the ground, stay there until you shift, whether that’s through prayer, meditation, affirmations, or music.

Work until you shift it so that when your feet hit the ground, you’re in the state of being that you want to be when you go out. Trust me, you all know it. You may not pay attention to it. What you put out during your day is what you’re getting back. I don’t think we all intentionally want to go out and get misery, frustration, and angst.

What you put out during your day is what you're getting back. – Bernadette Boas Click To Tweet

A second tip would be to seek feedback. Go and ask. It could be your family, friends, colleagues, peers, or employees. It is similar to a 360 assessment, but it’s not that formal. It could be your boss. Seek a mentor or a coach you might have, but seek feedback as to not only how you’re doing but more so on what you think you’re not contributing, leveraging, or optimizing fully.

I even say that exploiting fully who I am, my skills, my talents, my expertise, and my experiences and therefore would enhance who I am and how I’m contributing to my work. I did this first with my five sisters and my mother, and that’s a story in itself. I went and I started asking the small circle of friends I then still had, coworkers and whatnot. It blew my mind, good, bad, and ugly. However, it was such great information for me to then use that to continue moving toward the person I wanted to be.

Bernadette, this has been a fantastic conversation. I can’t thank you enough for you taking the time to come on the show. Any final words?

I love No Woman Left Behind and let’s all focus on that because too often we do, and we are leaving women behind. If you want a legacy to be remembered by, especially from a professional perspective, look at the women that are around you, coming up or above you, and support all of them.

I couldn’t agree with you more, Bernadette, because that’s exactly why I started the whole show because I wanted to help primarily women that are coming up behind me. I also always want to support women in general. With that, you have been fantastic. Thank you so much for your time.

You’re welcome.

I appreciate you so much, Bernadette.

Certainly, I loved it. Thank you for having me.

—

That was such an insightful conversation with Bernadette because she talks about shifting from the skillset to the mindset. It means that we’re so worried about the skills that we have and whether we have enough skills. Do we have all the skills in the job description? Instead, we should be focusing on our mindset, how we’re thinking about ourselves, and how we are being with ourselves and with other people.

When we shift that to building your confidence or being a better person, a better collaborator, that’s how you get ahead more than only focusing on your skill set. We also talked to her about the Shift to Riches formula. We talked about the five-step process. Bernadette gave us a ton of good information. Bernadette talked about two tips. Tip number one, she said, “Stay in bed and do an assessment of your mind and your body, and don’t get out of bed until you’re ready.” She went into that a little bit more.

Tip number two, she said is to seek feedback on optimizing yourself fully. You can talk to your loved ones, family, and friends and ask for that feedback. I’ve said this before, and we’ve mentioned this as a tip before as well, but you don’t see yourself as others see you. It uncovers your blind spots about yourself. Bernadette talked about this. She was a person. She got fired because of the nasty person that she was and she was able to recognize that.

From the feedback that she got, she went through this whole evolution and she was able to shed that personality that she didn’t like. She is now a beautiful person and you can totally tell that she now realizes and understand the importance of being out there in the world doing good instead of being that nasty person that she used to be. Thank goodness that she was able to go through that evolution. With that, I want you to remember to be brave, bold, and take action.

Important Links

• https://www.LinkedIn.com/in/BernadetteBoas
• https://BallOfFireCoaching.com
• https://www.Instagram.com/BallOfFireBernadette/
• https://www.Facebook.com/BernadetteBoas
• Shedding the Corporate Bitch
• The Power of Now