In this 15th episode of Ethical Leaders LIVE, I welcomed client and fellow world-changer, Rob Huge to the show.

Happy Father’s Day! Celebrating all of the dad-figures, both biological and metaphorically out there! Leadership is one thing that reminds me of “dad”!  Now, let’s get to the Sunday Intentions: 

As always, we start off with a quote that helps support today’s lesson. Today is slighted toward my “weakness” but I hope it can help you today as well.

You are who you are. And there are some really powerful things you just shouldn't need to feel like you have to stick your nose in. Don't feel bad- get intentional instead!

“If you try to please all, you please none.”

— Aesop

Intentionality is crucial for us to become more thoughtful, compassionate, and caring leaders of businesses and in touch with our ethics - we are taking action on what our heart is guiding us to do. We truly help people and lead them into something BETTER that they can experience in their lives!

For you newcomers, welcome! Here’s where these Sunday intentions come from:

Each Saturday, although my alarm is turned off, black-out curtains are sealing every crack of light in our quaint 800 sq. foot Chicago apartment, something really powerful wakes me up.

But something rips me out of bed every morning that isn’t a chime, chirp, or blinding light. It’s my brain. It wakes up at the same time every morning and just rushes my frontal cortex with ideas. 

After a week-long of creating content, meeting with my clients, problem-solving social media strategies, and networking with new leaders - I still want to live out my mission further with ways to make the world a better place. Starting with the intentions we set for ourselves. 

I feel like being intentional & aware of who we are, what we are capable of becoming, and how we can really turn dreams into reality gives us a sense of control. As an enneagram 8w7, control is not a bad thing, it’s the way I see the world.

I tighten things up out of all of my reflective thoughts to polish up a key takeaway for you to receive at the same time, same day, or every week. Sunday Intentions. 

Why do we create intentions?

Take a few minutes to read this & instill “intentionality” into your life.

Running a business and leading an idea-generating role, you may always be looking to do MORE MORE MORE, which can take us on the fastest route to get confused, overwhelmed, & can lose sight of the purpose we are on this planet.

Before kicking off the Monday rush of all of the distractions and figure out why you are starting the week- practice answering these questions:

• What is my real purpose in being a CEO?

• Who am I truly serving?

• What can I teach, lead, or inspire?

• What does all of this work, time, and effort really stand for at the end of this journey?

This is important for me to share with you because life gets confusing when we surround ourselves with the external world around us. 

This week’s intention: Everything we do can be Intentional or it flops. 

I’m going to be vulnerable- as I often do in these weekly excerpts- about where I messed up big time. 

On Friday of this past week, I hosted my very first meetup for the Your Ethical Business Group. I was pressured by someone that I SHOULD make this a political conversation around current events. I’m not a leader in political discussion, mind you. Not at the very least! Also, I have tendencies to be a people pleaser (my enneagram type 7 trait) which wanted to make everyone have a good time & make it look like their time was well spent.

As an honest reflection to you- the meeting had WAY too much going on and this meeting was not at all what I had intended originally. Getting to know one another for the very first time in-person (on Zoom), introducing our businesses, and then answering 3 discussion questions around racism and Juneteenth. 

That person didn’t even show up, which I thought, why did I change the direction of the meeting to make it something I wasn’t trying to do?

I was trying to please someone thinking that’s what they wanted?!  I was NOT being intentional. 

Something I’m working on today with this week’s intentional reminder with you. We all mess up sometimes- but we learn and spending time to get intentional helps us resurface those amazing life lessons we sometimes forget. 

Here’s where Intentionality gives me that level of control to make things better

For the next meet up, I am intentional space for ethical leaders to create a new level of pressure-less discussion around how they navigate the challenging conversations they have with their clients, their community and their peers about doing the most challenging thing- the ethical & unpopular thing at times. It’s a really big weight to carry on our shoulders. Interested in joining? Your Ethical Business awaits you!

I know that I was doing my best to show up as a light on the Juneteenth topic, but I could have been intentional about incorporating a speaker, while I was the host of the meeting. 

I just wanted to demonstrate a real-life example of how important setting intentions are! 

For this week, I hope that you find something HUGE you are launching, teaching, speaking about, or a meeting with a client you may have to get even more intentional. Find out what you really want out of the experience and design it accordingly! 

This week’s Intention: 

There is a reason I am in the driver's seat of my business & the voice of my movement. I sometimes have a tendency to give in and not always live out my leadership as fully as I'd like to. This week, I intend to be mindful of what my default weaknesses are, but not let them overpower me!

Thank you again for yet another week of letting me uplift the way you start your week by reminding you to be a little more intentional today than you were yesterday. 

Have a fantastic summer solstice week,

Dana

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SUNDAY INTENTIONS
Each Sunday, I kick-off an intention-setting email to get centered on how to show up for the week as the world as a leader of your movement!