Margie’s Insights & Interviews
Welcome to Margie’s blog where she shares personal stories, interviews, tools and more for living bravely.
Failure Isn’t Final
When I sat down to interview Bill Marriott at Marriott’s international headquarters, I hadn’t reckoned on him turning the tables to interview me at the end. As you will see from our exchange, one of the things I shared with him is my belief that failure is never final...
Dial Up Your Courage
I've been writing in a journal off and on since I was eleven. While my entries have evolved since my 'tween' years, a common thread has woven through many of them: COURAGE. Or more precisely, the need to dial it up! Of course, courage comes in many forms and be...
When Bravery Doesn’t Pay Off
Yes, “Fortune favors the bold." But that doesn't mean every risk we take will be immediately rewarded. Sometimes when we take a deep dive out of our comfort zone into the water below, we land flat on our face. The question is, what to do when your best and bravest...
Don’t assume. Ask!
Ever find yourself feeling resentful at people for what they do... or fail to do? Perhaps your boss just puts too much on your plate or doesn’t pay you what you're worth. Maybe a co-worker, friend or family member continually oversteps boundaries, or continually asks...
Build Your Courage Muscles
Courage is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. And in our increasingly fearful world, it's a muscle we must practice daily. Here's 7 ways to help you do just that. Of course while fear often gets a bad rap, without it our cave dwelling ancestors...
Risk More Rejection
When I met Teresa while running a leadership program at her company, she was miserable in her job as a risk analyst and had been for over 12 months. A year earlier she had applied for more senior position in her firm. When it was given to a less experienced analyst,...
Spread Joy, Not Stress
Nearly every person I've spoken to over the last week or so has mentioned to me how much they have on this merry month of December. Holiday parties. School concerts. Travel planning. Teacher gifts. Card writing. Present shopping. Christmas decorating. Gift wrapping....
Make The Best Of Your Mistakes
I’m sure, like me, you’ve made your share of mistakes over the years. Times you’ve made a bad decision or taken too long to make any at all! The word mistake comes from the Latin to “miss-step.” Mistakes are, literally, nothing more or less than a step (or two) in the...
Make Big Plans, Just Use Pencil
I’ve been doing a lot of rejigging of plans this week. I had big plans for a jam packed trip to the US in a few weeks, including day in Vegas to speak at a leadership conference. Due to some pretty major stuff that’s happened with the client organization, the event...
How To Raise Brave Girls
On my 40th birthday my daughter Maddy, 10 at the time, gave me a handcrafted birthday voucher on which she wrote: “This vowcher lets you be my gest at the Oscars when I am nomnated for best actres.” (I figured she stood more chance of that than winning the national...
Don’t Sweat Small Decisions
Is sweating unimportant decisions keeping you from making smarter ones? I’ve just returned to Australia after a very rewarding but not very restful 6 days in the US. As a 'frequent flyer' I’ve learnt the importance of giving myself permission to make imperfect...
Women: Be Bold For Change!
Happy International Women's Day! We are women. Hear us roar. Some days. Other days, not so much. In fact, there’s a lot of days that we spend a large majority of time second guessing our decisions, questioning our value, beating ourselves up or talking ourselves down....
Don’t Be Too Proud
I’m sure that you, like me, are proud of different things in your life. Your children, the goals you’ve achieved, the challenges you’ve overcome or the ways you’ve helped others to overcome their own. As you should be. Yet sometimes we can be too proud for our own...
Lean Toward Discomfort
Whether it's change you choose or change forced upon you, change looms large on the horizon for 2017. You will handle it better and seize it's opportunities when you lean into the discomfort it always holds. As we look out toward the year ahead, change looms large...
How Will You Show Up For Life?
"First say to yourself what would you BE, and then do what you have to DO." - Epiticus It's great to focus on what you want to accomplish in the year ahead. Habits you want to start. Or quit. Goals you want to achieve. Changes you want to make. Money you want to earn....
Five Powerful Questions To End 2016 Strong
As we near the end of the year it’s easy to get so caught up in all that still needs to get done that we fail to look back on the year just gone – to acknowledge how far we’ve come and who we’ve become in the process. I am sure you’ve done plenty this year. And I’m...
Women Going Global
Last week I had the opportunity to facilitate a 'power panel' of female founders at Business Chicks 'Movers and Breakers' conference. It's easy to look at women like Samantha Wills, Emma Isaacs and Lizzy Abegg - three trailblazing Australian entrepreneurs who have...
Be Trust-Worthy: Stand By Your Beliefs
Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending a few hours with former Australian Prime Minister John Howard. We were both keynote speakers at the same conference and ended up having time together between speeches and afterward at a reception. Like every political leader,...
Rethink Possible
When I was living in Washington D.C., I landed a regular advice segment on the national cable show RLTV (Retirement Living TV). I knew their market was 'seniors' but I recall shuddering when the producer defined seniors as "50 plus". While I was further from 50 then...
Run Your Own Best Race
Do not waste time focusing on the gifts or good luck of others. Focus only on making the most of your own. One of my favorite images from the Olympics was of South African Chad Le Clos in the 200m butterfly final glancing across to his arch rival Michael Phelps in the...
