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Episode #63 Speechless No More with Linda Brogan

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Today we are taking a little break from talking about finances and I am happy to welcome the fantastic Linda Brogan. Linda is an award winning playwright, director and dramaturg. I met Linda in Selena Soo’s Impacting Millions Facebook group and we really connected over each other’s writing. She has been super encouraging of my writing and projects and I was really interested in hers.

Her professional bio is very impressive: In 1999 Brogan took part in the North West Playwrights’ course, and won the 2001 Alfred Fagon Award for her play The Well. This was followed by an attachment at the National Theatre Studio in 2002. Brogan’s first play What’s In The Cat was produced by Contact Theatre, Manchester and transferred to the Royal Court in 2005. Brogan’s other plays include Basil and Beattie presented at Royal Exchange/Liverpool Everyman, and The Very Thought of You, commissioned by Wolsey and Tricycle Theatre. Her last play Speechless did a critically acclaimed four star UK tour.

Her focus is in being born a slave to her colour, gender and class. The political, emotional and day to day ramifications of this topic are what we discuss in this episode, as well as her upcoming project with the restoration of the Reno Club in Manchester.

Quotes

  • “Because I’m working class, half black, and because I was born poor, I have a lot of beliefs that make it difficult to work in the theater, even though those beliefs aren’t that strange.” – Linda
  • “Everyone in the theater was white and middle class, so even if they were being as nice as pie to me, I would take it as if they were trying to be nice to me because I was black.” – Linda
  • “I was talented and I tied that together with a ‘fuck you’ attitude.” – Linda
  • “All I’ve been saying since I’ve been a playwright is that black people have feelings too. Their feelings are intricate, they don’t just need to be helped, and they have every day lives.” – Linda
  • “You know, I’ve read loads of so called ‘authentic” slave narratives and there’s nothing about the people that they left behind… the upset that there must be about the brother or the sister, there are no feelings and no emotions. They are never allowed.” – Linda
  • “There are no authentic slave narratives, not a one.” – Linda
  • “I was on my knees to the arts, and I didn’t think I was, but I was, telling my story in a certain way.” – Linda

Connect with Linda Brogan: http://theagency.co.uk/the-clients/linda-brogan/

More about the Reno Club: http://www.mancky.co.uk/?p=4075

More about Speechless: http://www.sharedexperience.org.uk/speechless.html

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linda-broganManchester born Linda Brogan is an award winning playwright, director and dramaturg. In 1999 Brogan took part in the North West Playwrights’ course, and won the 2001 Alfred Fagon Award for her play The Well. This was followed by an attachment at the National Theatre Studio in 2002. Brogan’s first play What’s In The Cat was produced by Contact Theatre, Manchester and transferred to the Royal Court in 2005. Brogan’s other plays include Basil and Beattie presented at Royal Exchange/Liverpool Everyman, and The Very Thought of You, commissioned by Wolsey and Tricycle Theatre. Her last play Speechless did a critically acclaimed four star UK tour. Her focus is in being born a slave to her colour, gender and class.

Linda Brogan is a playwright of real significance.   Her plays capture the unspoken complexities of human relationships – the things we say, the things we hide, the secrets that shape us – in a way that few contemporary dramatists manage.  Immensely subtle and beautifully observed, Linda’s work gives voice to unforgettable characters and leaves us mysteriously changed.

 

Episode #62 Women in the IT Workplace with Cat Lam

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When it comes to women in the IT workplace, Cat Lam is here as living proof that it doesn’t take anyone especially talented, brainy, or extra-special to go into business for themselves as an independent IT contractor or freelancer. There is a way that you can use your current expertise, make a bunch more money, and have a whole lot more control over your own time and career.

This year marks her 12th year as an independent IT contractor / freelancer. She now call the shots. The day she became self-employed, and got that first contract, she instantly more than doubled her income, and was 100% accountable for her own career. Now, she assists others in finding their own way in that transition.

We speak about her career evolution, how she helps those starting out in an IT workplace, especially women going through the negotiation process, and the value of developing multiple income streams, no matter your industry.

In our conversation about negotiation and income equality, Jen mentioned the 3/5ths compromise, read more about that here.

Quotes

  • “I’ve actually had to learn a lot of stuff on my own.” – Cat Lam
  • “Being in IT, there aren’t a lot of “people” people, so if you have the soft skills you will be that much better than the rest of your peers.” – Cat
  • “Sometimes being a freelancer with multiple clients is more secure than having one job, because if you lose one of them, it’s not like a pink slip and all your income is gone.” – Jen
  • “It’s so easy online now to read bad reviews.” -Jen
  • “The art of the negotiating to being able to read people and figure out what is important to them in order to get what you want.” – Cat
  • “Pair your passion with money making potential, then you get to do what you love almost on somebody else’s dime.” – Cat

To connect with Cat Lam, follow her on her blog at itsolopreneurs.com, and catch up with her on Twitter or Facebook.

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Cat Lam 11Cat Lam is living proof that it doesn’t take anyone especially talented, brainy, or extra-special to go into business for themselves as an independent IT contractor or freelancer. There is way that you can use your current expertise, make a bunch more money, and have a whole lot more control over your own time and career.

When she moved from accounting into the IT workplace, it meant a big change for her. When you sign up for Oracle, or any consulting company for that matter, you sign up for 100% travel. It was fun at the beginning. But eventually, you start to schedule your life months in advance. Marriage meant a big change, and a break from consulting to work briefly with her husband and in the fitness industry. She grew bored of that and returned to her previous work as her own boss.

This year marks her 12th year as an independent IT contractor / freelancer. The day she became self-employed, and got that first contract, she instantly more than doubled her income, and was finally accountable for her own career. Now, she assists others in finding their own way in that transition. 

Episode #61 Build Your Money Muscles with Joan Sotkin

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Today I have the truly inspiring Joan Sotkin with me! Joan has been working people on their finances for over 20 years, she is the author of Build Your Money Muscles: Nine Simple Exercises for Improving Your Relationship with Money and the host of the Prosperity Show podcast. She has a story that you will not want miss, and has learned trust like no one I have ever met.

She shares with us the connection between our financial choices and our emotions. Years of working to release her own repressed emotions helped deepen her understanding of how we act out family-of-origin issues through our businesses and finances.

She loves working with forward-thinking individuals who are willing to implement new ways of being with themselves and their commercial ventures. As she continues to learn and grow, her passion is sharing with others and helping them find both peace of mind and prosperity.

A major portion of Joan’s work is helping people change the habits in their emotions so they can change the habits in their money management. This involves rewiring the way that your brain works.

Rewiring your brain for prosperity

When you move into a new way of being, you get the Moving Stupids!

How to deal with the Moving Stupids

  1. Recognize you are dealing with the Moving Stupids – acceptance IS the first step with this too!
  2. Become ok with the discomfort of being there – Go through the Tunnel of Transition – it can be dark and disorienting inside, but once you start to see the light at the other end, you get your footing
  3. Have a Prosperity Buddy, going through the same process you are – company makes all the difference!

Quotes

  • “I learned how to be ok with whatever was going on.” – Joan
  • “Money problems, like weight problems and a lot of other things, have an emotional base.” – Joan
  • “I was doing what people want to do, but I learned that you have learn how to manage the money.” – Joan
  • “If there wasn’t an emotional component, anyone could just read a book [about money] and be successful.” – Jen
  • “What I’ve come to understand is that everything about us is a habit.” – Joan
  • “It’s your emotions that inform your decisions that are behind your behaviors.” – Joan
  • “You have to be able to recognize what you’re doing, decide if you want to change it, and have a plan for changing it.” – Joan
  • “Underearning and overearning are both expressions of longing.” – Joan
  • “Getting rid of that longing means you are threatening your identity.” – Joan
  • “It’s the process of change that’s the problem, not creating new financial habits. The amygdala is saying you are walking into the unknown, danger! danger!” – Joan
  • “People who have billions of dollars and need more very possibly don’t feel wealthy because they are trying to get to that point of enough.” – Joan
  • “I think it’s also important to eat right, I have not had sugar since August 11th, 1973.” – Joan
  • “This is why it’s so important to meditate: it teaches you to focus on the moment, not the future.” – Joan
  • “Fear doesn’t solve any problems.” – Joan
  • “Losing money is not bad, it’s just uncomfortable. What does it take to accept where I am and take action to move some place else? When you are in fear it’s hard to take action.” – Joan
  • “If someone comes and says that they need more money, I help them understand that they need more people. Because money comes from people.” – Joan
  • “The feeling alone doesn’t come from the financial issues, the financial issues come from feeling alone.” – Joan
  • “Money by itself has no power at all, it’s just coins or paper, or numbers on a spreadsheet, it’s when it passes between two people or entities that it gets it’s power.” – Joan
  • “Money is actually a symbol of relationships, how you deal with your money is similar to how you deal with your relationship to yourself and others.” – Joan
  • “So many people want their lives to change, but they don’t want to change.” – Joan

Joan has several main programs running right now: Rewire Your Brain for Prosperity and Financial Freedom,  Financial Freedom Formula, a holistic blueprint for success and Simple Meditation for Busy Entrepreneurs. Both of which can be found on her website at prosperityplace.com/programs.

Joan’s website: www.prosperityplace.com

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Book Resources

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

Build Your Money Muscles: Nine Simple Exercises for Improving Your Relationship with Money

Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal

joan-long-500For the past 30 years, Joan Sotkin has been examining alternative ways of dealing with life on many different levels. Defining success as merely making a lot of money and having social or career status has never made sense to her. As a result, she has been looking for something deeper and more meaningful and learning to integrate what she discovers into her business and personal life.

In the early 1980s, while attending 12-step programs including Debtors Anonymous and Codependents Anonymous, she began to understand the connection between emotions and the life stories we create for ourselves, including our finances. Years of working to release her own repressed emotions helped deepen her understanding of how we act out family-of-origin issues through our businesses and finances.

She loves working with forward-thinking individuals who are willing to implement new ways of being with themselves and their commercial ventures. As she continues to learn and grow, her passion is sharing with others and helping them find both peace of mind and prosperity.

She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. With its expansive skies, friendly people, and abundance of healers, it provides her with the comfort and peace she has always craved. Thanks to the Internet, which she has been using since 1995, she can live in this wonderful town with her precious dog, Angel, and reach out to clients around the world.