My Graduation to a New Level!

Over five years ago, on a super-hot day in June, I sat in a Las Vegas conference room at the SHRM Annual Conference. The room was filled beyond capacity with people sitting on the floors and leaning against walls around the entire room. All these people were waiting to hear Cy Wakeman speak! I didn’t know Cy at the time but when she took the stage I was immediately awestruck. 

I knew immediately, this woman is who I want to be someday. I was nodding my head up and down, furiously taking notes through her entire speech.

She spoke my language!

What she was saying made total sense - and was totally different than what I’d heard before! 

Cy was explaining accountability in a way that fully resonated, and I knew in my heart was the key to creating an exceptional workplace. 

Cy was the epitome of what I hoped to be one day. 

I was so excited after seeing her speak I decided to get trained and certified in her Reality Based Leadership and Reality Based Rules of the Workplace programs. I had just found out I was pregnant (8 weeks at the time) and flew to a hotel in Nebraska to receive this training. When I arrived, I found out Cy would come on the second day to see us present and approve our certification.

I was so nervous and excited all at the same time! Without alcohol to calm my nerves, that night I ordered the first of many “ice cream cocktails”. With my sugar high, I practiced over and over in my room that night - I wanted to pass but mainly I wanted to be my very best and be successful at covering the material for Cy! 

The next day I told a story (literally that was the assignment) about telling my employee (and friend) I was pregnant only to have her tell me two weeks later she was quitting. The story I made up in my head was “who is this person? this person can’t be my friend? how can my friend the person I trusted do this to me?”  Cy loved it - she laughed so hard and when I told her I was pregnant she congratulated me (I hadn’t told hardly anyone yet!) at the time. 

Fast forward five years, I was finishing my new book The Exceptional Life Revolution and Cy was at the top of my list for requesting endorsements. I knew it was a long shot - but hey what did I have to lose? I thought hard about my pitch and started my email to her with the following… 

Subject: The story I’m telling myself is you will never read and respond to this e-mail…Cy is too busy, famous, and talented to respond to someone like me! 
Dear Cy Wakeman, 

What do I know for sure? Cy is a tremendous thought leader who helped shape my entire philosophy regarding accountability. She is also a mother, wife, and leader, just like I am, who also reads emails in between the chaos of life! When I met her, she was incredibly kind, funny, and down to earth.  

 What’s the next best thing I can do? I can send an email to Cy, see if she remembers me, and if she might be willing to consider endorsing my new book!  

For those who are familiar with Cy and her approach to "edit your story" you will appreciate why this is so funny! I didn’t hear back for awhile. After receiving a few rejections, I was losing hope. Then one night an email came from Cy herself! I was literally jumping on the couch screaming with excitement - she said YES! 

Not only did she say YES to the endorsement - but she also wanted to have me on her podcast! What an amazing opportunity – not just to share my book – but to get to interact with one of the most tremendous thought leaders in the industry! 

Well guess what? 

I am recording the podcast with Cy Wakeman today! 

I’ve grown and evolved my performance from an audience member at a conference, to a leader and author with a book endorsed by Cy Wakeman! I can’t believe where am I am today coming from where I was five years ago!  

I am excited to talk with Cy about the challenges in the workplace and why, now more than ever, we need everyone, everywhere to learn these key principles and strategies to reach their peak performance. If we evolve our performance and our workplaces – we can live better lives, exceptional lives. 

I am certainly living an exceptional life with opportunities I only dreamed about in the past!   Want to learn more about how I did it? Get a copy of my new book The Exceptional Life R-Evolution! 

Get my copy!