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Endless Possibilities: Unlocking the Growth Mindset with Dr. Carmen Bell-Ross ***HIGHLIGHTS***

The Mindset of Lifelong Learning with Dr. Carmen Bell

See the full conversation at https://youtu.be/v9nuF6CBdic

In this episode of The Science of Self, host Russell welcomes Dr. Carmen Bell to discuss the importance of maintaining a mindset of continuous learning and growth throughout life. Dr. Carmen shares insights on professional and personal development, emphasizing the value of always being open to new opportunities and knowledge. She highlights the differences between formal continuing education and a lifelong learner's mindset. Additionally, Dr. Carmen dives into how to identify and overcome blind spots in your career and personal life, as well as tips for effectively seeking feedback and striving for true leadership. The episode concludes with personal anecdotes about Dr. Carmen's daughter, a successful Harvard student, showcasing the impact of a strategic and supportive upbringing.


00:00 Introduction to Lifelong Learning

00:37 Welcoming Dr. Carmen Bell

01:55 Defining Continuing Professional Education

03:42 The Growth Mindset

04:54 Identifying and Overcoming Blind Spots

07:02 Leadership and Career Advancement

09:33 Discussing Personal Development

12:20 Dr. Carmen's Daughter and Parenting Insights

14:10 Navigating College Admissions

Transcript
Speaker:

Dr. Carmen Bell-Ross:

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I am talking about having the mindset

of a person who understands that as

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long as you are living and breathing,

there's more for you to learn.

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when we focus on, um, problems,

that's why they seem to get bigger

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and bigger and bigger and bigger.

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And when we focus on

opportunities and possibilities.

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They actually become endless, right?

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If you want to move and transition

in your career, you gotta own that.

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You gotta own that space,

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Russell Newton: Hello listeners, and

welcome back to The Science of Self, where

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you improve your life from the inside Out.

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I'm excited to introduce to

you today another guest, Dr.

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Carmen Bell.

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Ross, or conversationally, Dr.

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Carmen, who's gonna take a minute,

introduce herself, and then

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we'll get into the conversation.

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Dr.

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Dr. Carmen Bell-Ross:

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Hi.

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Thank you so much.

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I'm so excited to be here and

talk to you today, Russell.

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My, um, yes, I am Dr.

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Carmen.

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That's what most people call

me and my company is SP Grace.

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And what we really do is

leadership, career and professional

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development solutions and

government, business and industry.

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What we're really excited about is the

work that we're doing with individuals.

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Um, on a more personal level, we're

working with middle school, high school

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students, but also, I mean, this is

the stuff we do with people throughout

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their entire careers, uh, to help

them to navigate to the next level.

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So, I'm really excited about being here.

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My background is in educational psychology

largely, um, also business management, but

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I integrate all of that and that that all

is the lens through which I see the world.

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So I'm really excited to

talk to you all today.

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Russell Newton: I know from the

education side you might prepare

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a lesson differently, but from the

personal side, how do you value, or

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how do you change your approach between

dealing with one versus the other?

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Is that a

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Dr. Carmen Bell-Ross:

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Well, you know, I'm gonna say this.

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So there are official definitions for

continuing professional education,

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and then there's my definition.

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Okay?

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So we're gonna go with my

definition, which is having the.

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Russell Newton: us the, give us

the professional, give us the,

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the actual one first, and then

go with yours and run with it for

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Dr. Carmen Bell-Ross:

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When people talk about continuing

professional education, they are talking

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about formal, structured, um, educational

opportunities that, for example,

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if you are a licensed practitioner

of something, you may have to have

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continuing professional education hours.

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So if you're a nurse, you have

to go back and take additional

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classes so many hours a year.

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Or if you are, um, even a plumber,

you have to, you know, you have to get

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licensing and you have to continue to get,

um, basically they wanna know that you've.

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Stayed on top of your craft and

your field because they evolve.

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Um, and so that's more

in the formal space.

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When I say it, I am talking about having

the mindset of a person who understands

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that as long as you are living and

breathing, there's more for you to learn.

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As long as you are here, there are

new people born into this world.

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Every single day, which means that

there's something new, there's somebody

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new, um, there's a new way of moving,

operating and existing in the world.

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And there's an opportunity

for you to learn more even in

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areas where you are an expert.

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Um, and so sometimes when people kind

of get to a place where they think

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they have expertise in something or

they have expertise in something, it's

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easy to kind of rest on that and say,

I already know 'cause I've got a lot of

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experience and I have a lot of formal

knowledge, or whatever the case may be.

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But the reality of it is that.

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Everything changes all the time.

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So when I talk about continuing education,

I'm talking about having the mindset of

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a lifelong learner, having the mindset

that there's always more to know about

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the world, the world around you, people

around you, but also about yourself

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because you're changing in ways that

you may not even realize every day.

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Russell Newton: From your viewpoint,

can you just give us the concept

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of the growth mindset and, uh, you

know, the, what is the opposite?

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Dr. Carmen Bell-Ross:

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That's an interesting question actually,

I think because I've never had anyone

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ask me what's the opposite of that.

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And so what I will tell you is when

I talk to people, I encourage them to

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have the mindset, um, that you're always

growing and developing and changing,

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and there are opportunities for you to

continue to increase your knowledge and

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increase your, your, um, understanding

of our very complex world, right?

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You know, I love to tell people

what we focus on expands.

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And so when we focus on, um, problems,

that's why they seem to get bigger

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and bigger and bigger and bigger.

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And when we focus on

opportunities and possibilities.

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They actually become endless, right?

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And so I prefer that,

that view of the world.

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I prefer the view of the world

that says the opportunities, the

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possibilities for my life and for

who I am and for my next step and

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my next phase are actually endless.

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And I think that's when you are in a

space where you're open to real growth.

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And so, um, being a person who's

not able to see through that lens,

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I think that can be very limiting.

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Yeah, so here's the thing.

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We all have blind spots.

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You know why?

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Because we only see the world

through the lens that we can

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see the world through, right?

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We only see ourselves, uh, through the

lenses that we can see ourselves through.

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And so just being able

to acknowledge, yes.

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I am human, and so therefore, by default

I've got some blind spots somewhere.

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I encourage you to ask questions

of people who you admire.

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You know, somebody who is

in your space, who knows you

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well, who you admire, ask them.

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Like, Hey, do you think

that I'm open-minded?

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Or, how open do you think I am to,

um, seeing, seeing things differently

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or, you know, ask them some open-ended

questions about you and how you engage.

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open-ended questions tend to be good

again with the people that you ask.

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But you need to ask people

you trust too, right?

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People who you know have your good, your

best interest at heart, and so you're

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not looking for someone who wants to

just tell you about yourself, right?

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So you want someone who respects the

question and who cares about you.

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And who cares about your wellbeing and

your self-improvement, and who is gonna

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give you feedback that is constructive

and not just gonna tear you down?

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So when you talk about blind spots,

someone else pointed that out to me and

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it was somebody I cared about and I was

actually kind of ticked off at first.

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I was ticked off and offended.

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Um, but,

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but I did consider it and

I realized, you know what?

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I need to at least be aware, like pay

attention to when I might be doing that.

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Yeah.

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Russell Newton: that can be difficult with

someone where you value the relationship.

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Dr. Carmen Bell-Ross:

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Absolutely.

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And I think when you're talking to

people who you trust and who you want

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to help you, if you tell them, listen,

I am working on myself in this area.

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I wanna grow in this area.

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I wanna move up in my career.

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I want to, um, you know, I

want to do things differently.

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Perhaps I'm not in a job that I love.

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Perhaps I'm not in the career

that excites me when I wake up.

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And so I'm trying to move.

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Closer to that, and I'm looking to

get insight on some of my blind spots.

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I'm looking to get insight on some

areas that maybe I could work on.

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You know, lemme tell you something.

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Having worked in leadership

for so long, I often see that

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people get promoted to leadership

because they're good at their job.

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Leadership is not the same as

whatever skill you may have

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that makes you good at your job.

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If you're good at building seats

and you are the best person in

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the world at building seats.

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And then, um, I work in the

auto industry a lot, so that's

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what my brain went to, but.

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Russell Newton: Okay.

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Dr. Carmen Bell-Ross:

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Um, and then you, you get promoted 'cause

you're the best person at building seats.

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And they say, now you're

over 60 seat builders.

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Right?

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That's a different skillset.

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Leadership is not the same.

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It is not the same.

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And so people get frustrated sometimes

when they get promoted to one level

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of leadership and then they get stuck.

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Because they wanna go further and

they can't understand why other people

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are given opportunities over them.

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Um, but that's a blind spot, right?

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Because you haven't necessarily.

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Ask the right kinds of questions, like,

how good are you at engaging with people?

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How good are you at listening?

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How good are you at, um, being empathetic?

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How good are you at, um,

showing people that you are

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authentic in your communications?

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And how good are you at, uh, mediating

conflict and all these other things that

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come along with being a people leader.

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Um, and believe it or not,

people who don't work with you

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can give you insight on that.

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You know, they don't, it doesn't have

to be somebody who works with you or

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works for you, or who is your boss.

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This could be a friend who tells

you something about kind of how you

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integrate, engage interpersonally

with other people that can give

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you insight that's helpful on your

own leadership development journey.

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Nobody else is responsible

for your journey.

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I don't care what perks and

benefits your job offers or.

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You know what kind of training

they might say they can give you.

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If you want to move and transition

in your career, you gotta own that.

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You gotta own that space, and

you have to own that process

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because it is unique to you.

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And yes, of course, if somebody

is giving you a bunch of money.

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To be able to do that, you know, to

go to conferences and all that, that's

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great, but it doesn't require that,

like we have resources that can help us.

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People who are logging into your

podcast, people who are, you know, able

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to look online, listen chat, GPT might

even give you some great insights.

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Like, you know, um, you

gotta own that journey.

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And you'd be amazed at, again, when you

focus on that, if that's what you wanna

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do, the opportunities start to open up.

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You start to see them differently.

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They get bigger.

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Russell Newton: open-ended questions

will stay kind of in this topic for a

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minute because they're very important.

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when someone comes to you, uh, uh,

with a difficult, with a question

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like that, what are some things that

we should keep in mind as we deal

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with others in that relationship?

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Trying to be helpful.

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Trying to be honest, but

trying not to be hurtful.

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Dr. Carmen Bell-Ross:

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Sure.

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So one, there's nothing wrong with

you telling somebody, you know what?

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I would really, uh, I, I

wanna, I want to answer that.

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Let me think about that a little

bit and then, and then get back to

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you because the urge, you know, to

just respond right away is not gonna

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always give us the best insight.

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And we kind of ramble and we kind of

are searching for our thoughts and

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then later on we might think of things.

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So there's nothing wrong with, with

saying, give me a pause on that because I

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think that's a great question and I wanna

be able to give you some helpful insight.

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Russell Newton: That's

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Dr. Carmen Bell-Ross:

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then that gives you time to think about

what you would like to share with the

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person, and then ask yourself some of

the feedback that you want to offer.

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Is this something that can be changed?

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Right?

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Or is it something that can be

changed in a reasonable time period?

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So, you know, it's the kind of thing.

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If you think of it kind of in really

simple terms, if you're out with a

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friend and the friend has, um, let's say

something in their nose, you know it, tell

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'em like there's something in your nose.

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You know why they can fix that

and they can fix it right now.

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So go ahead and they go to the restroom.

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That's a quick, quick fix.

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Right?

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But if you are out with a friend and

you notice that, let's say, um, the

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back of their pants are see through

or that, you know what I mean?

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Like think about is this something

that can be fixed right now?

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Yeah.

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And, and you know what I do?

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It's funny when you said like

there's a point at which people

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can't, um, they kind of get stuck.

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And it's interesting because I think

at this stage in my own career, I think

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about all this striving that we do.

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I wanna go higher, I wanna

go higher, I wanna go higher.

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And we don't necessarily always stop

to ask ourselves the why, right?

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Why do we wanna go higher?

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Well, I wanna go hire because

I wanna be a director.

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Okay.

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Why do you wanna be a director?

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Well, I wanna be a director 'cause

I wanna be in charge of people.

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Why do you wanna be in charge of people?

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Like sometimes once you ask yourself, you

know how to talk about the five why's,

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like once you dig deep enough, sometimes

you might realize like maybe that's

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not exactly what I really, really want.

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Cedric: Due to difficulties, the

remainder of the program is incomplete.

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We present the video and

audio as possible, and

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apologize for the disruption.

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Russell Newton: Uh, tell

us about your daughter.

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Dr. Carmen Bell-Ross:

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So, um, my daughter is

a junior at Harvard.

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She is majoring in neuroscience

and she is the captain of

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their competitive dance team.

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And she is an overall happy person.

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She has lots of great friends and

she does lots of exciting things.

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She volunteers at, um, at a place where

they teach children with Down syndrome.

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Um, she teaches them

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Russell Newton: Wow.

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Dr. Carmen Bell-Ross:

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Language.

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To help them communicate

if they're nonverbal.

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So she's teaching the, the kids and the

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Russell Newton: Wow.

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Dr. Carmen Bell-Ross:

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Uh, sign language.

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And she is currently decided that she

wants to try out emergency medicine.

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So this summer she's getting her

EMT license to work on the, uh.

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Oh, on the ambulance.

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I said, why would you do that?

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that just sounds really dangerous.

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I'm like, you can get into med

school without doing this, you know?

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And she goes, no, mom, but

every day is a great day to save

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lives and I just wanna do it.

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So she's just a great person.

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I'm, I love the person that

I raise, not because she's.

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Accomplished, and she's

on this great path.

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She's doing research, she's like

doing research on mouse brains and

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she's gonna be published in some

academic journals and stuff like that.

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But love that she's a good person who

I actually really like as a human.

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you know, you can't ask

people about their kids.

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We just go on and on and on and on.

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Russell, we get excited.

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Russell Newton: Absolutely

congratulations to her and to you.

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Uh, that's a lot, that's a lot

of work to parent, uh, anybody.

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And when someone is, uh, that well

adjusted and that successful, there's

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a lot of things that, that have to

come back, uh, to their, uh, childhood

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and how they were raised, that the way

they were taught to make decisions.

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So many things involved there.

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So that's great to hear Now.

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She's in, uh, enrolled in Harvard.

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So obviously you are very familiar

with the process and that's part

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of your, your business approach.

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Did you do this before wa, was

your business involved in this

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before you went through it?

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Uh, I'm assuming you were very

involved with her admissions to

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Harvard, or was it something that

developed Uh, after seeing the process?

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Dr. Carmen Bell-Ross:

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So actually about 15 years ago I was

working for a company that does, um,

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they do like staff and, and it's a global

brand that you, that people know, right.

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And I was in their speakers bureau, so I

would travel to high schools and colleges.

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Talking to students about what to do for

their next step in, you know, in high

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school or college and career, right?

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So the whole goal was to help them

get off to a great strong start.

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And what I learned from that experience,

particularly when it comes to the college

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admissions landscape and the things that

I was talking to them about, that at,

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you know, at that time, which was based

on the research that this company did,

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um, and the survey data they had from.

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Thousands and thousands and

thousands of their employer partners.

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Um, they had a great program and

what I realized then was you have

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to have a strategy for this thing.

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You know, this is not the same

admissions process that I went

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through 30 years ago, right?

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This is very, very different.

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And, um, and so I started to see

that, and at that time I decided

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I need a strategy for my kid.

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So that we can shape her

path all the way to college.

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And it wasn't about Harvard for me.

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Um, it was about, I want her

to have all the choices that

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make sense for who she is.

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I want her to be happy and whole and

into a career that gives her joy.

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And I want her to be able to

call the shots and her to be

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empowered to decide what's next.

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I didn't want her to feel limited by

the options she thought she had, and so.

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You know, from that point I

started there and it was really

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strictly about me helping her.

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To navigate that space.

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