CEO DOUG CONANT ON YOUR LEADERSHIP BLUEPRINT

Doug Conant played division 1 collegiate tennis at Northwestern before serving in the corner office as President at Nabisco, President and CEO at the Campbell Soup Company, and Chairman at Avon Products. Today, Doug serves as founder and CEO at ConantLeadership, a mission-driven community of leaders and learners who are championing leadership that works in the 21st century. To learn more, visit https://conantleadership.com.

In this episode of Down 40 Love, former Campbell Soup CEO Doug Conant shares leadership insights from his life story and bestselling book, “The Blueprint: 6 Practical Steps to Lift Your Leadership to New Heights.”

www.renevidal.com | Connect with René on LinkedIn

In this episode of Down 40 Love, private equity expert and Professional EOS Implementer Alex Hodgkin discusses what it takes for leaders in any industry to build a growth mindset, develop resilience, and achieve big goals.

Some key highlights and takeaways:

• "Business athletes characterize themselves as learn-it-alls, not know-it-alls."
• Great leaders practice framing and look at all situations as opportunities for growth.
• A few challenges entrepreneurs face include stress management and time allocation.
• You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. (Tim Ferriss)
• Leadership is the ability to cast vision, find the right people, and align them in the right direction.

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René Vidal

Speaking Inquiries: rvidal@niu.edu or rene@renevidal.com.

Nadene Cherry is a corporate meditation leader and mindfulness speaker. When Nadene’s technology sales business doubled in 2008, one year after practicing meditation, she knew it was time to share this practice with the greater business community.

As the positive impact spread, more companies like Cisco, Salesforce, and Accenture asked Nadene to host workshops and work with their teams.

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Nadene’s Highlight Reel:

• “I gave meditation a try because I was so lost. I wanted to feel more present in my life. I wanted to feel like I was occupying and taking agency over my thoughts and my experience.”
• “My sales at work doubles the same exact year that I started practicing meditation. I went on to win the top President Achievement Award four times at my company out of thousands of sellers.”
• “When I started meditating with a group, it completely changed the experience. You feel a shared connection and support amongst the group.”
• “Your inner peace, top performance, and most authentic self is on the other side of becoming still and taking a pause.”

Nadene's Key Points:

1. Mindfulness is living and knowing that you’re living—it’s awareness.

2. You can incorporate mindfulness anytime, anywhere.

3. When we practice meditation, we’re able to observe our thoughts without becoming them.

4. Being mindful can create stronger resilience. We’re not held back by our limiting beliefs. We don’t believe all of our thoughts.

5. When you meditate, you reconnect with your most authentic self.

6. When you’re authentic at work, you attract people, opportunities, and business.

7. People want to be around real people.

8. Group meditation brings out the authentic gifts of people and gets different parts of the organization talking to each other as human beings.

9. Compassion is our ability to be with our feelings of inadequacy in way that cultivates patience and understanding.

10. If you live life with a tight grip, you’re attached. If you live life with a loose grip and you’re not as attached, you can still have the vision.

Nadene’s Mindfulness Exercise:

Rate on a scale of 1 to 10 your level of calm multiple times throughout the day. What number are you at this moment?

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Connect with Guest Nadene Cherry: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadenecherry/

Connect with Host René Vidal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachvidal/ https://www.instagram.com/down40love/