Episode 210: How to "Be Better" in 2025, with Mary Fran Bontempo
Release Date: 12/31/2024
Episode 227: How Conflict Offers Opportunities to Build Resilience and Growth, with Ursula Taylor
Brilliantly Resilient
“Every disagreement is an invitation to pause, reflect, and reset before we respond.” Ursula Taylor ~ Founder, The legal profession is basically founded on conflict. One side tries to prove the other wrong in order to "win." A former commercial litigator with 17 years of experience, Ursula Taylor has seen her share of conflict, and she's committed to changing the idea of conflict as a battle to be won into an opportunity to clarify values, adjust perspective and focus on solutions instead of blame. By working with corporations and individuals through Conflict Reimagined,...
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Episode 226: The Power of Sharing Your Story, with Sara Connell
Brilliantly Resilient
“The very thing you’re afraid to say is often what will inspire someone else to keep going.” ~ Sara Connell, Best-selling Author and Founder of Thought Leader Academy Have you ever thought about writing a book but believe you have nothing to say? For those of us living "ordinary" lives, it's easy to feel our stories have little meaning beyond our own lives. Yet Sara Connell holds the opposite to be true. As founder of the Thought Leader Academy and a 5x Bestselling author, Sara knows that even everyday stories can have profound impact. In fact, the experiences that test us...
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Episode 225: How to Reset When Achievement Feels Empty, with Dr. Toni Warner
Brilliantly Resilient
“We get addicted to achievement because it’s how we prove we matter.” ~ Dr. Toni Warner, Certified Trauma Therapist and Author of Achievement. Do more. Be more. Check off more boxes. UGH. Most women feel the need to achieve, which is not a bad thing in itself. But when that need keeps us spinning, working, accomplishing, but still feeling drained, and unfulfilled, somethin' ain't working. Dr. Toni Warner’s has walked the walk, achieving by all of society's standards but feeling something missing. Her work centers on redefining success for high-achieving women as she...
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Episode 224: How to "Graduate" into a Joyful, Fulfilling Retirement, with Author and Retirement Expert Elizabeth Zelinka Parsons
Brilliantly Resilient
“The happiest people in retirement are the ones who stay curious.” Elizabeth Zelinka Parsons ~ Retirement Transition Expert, Former Attorney and Author of When you began your work life, do you remember thinking about retirement? For many decades, retirement was the 65-year-old's goal: the end of the "job" and the entry into leisure and relaxation until...um...the end??? Too often, though, the relaxation didn't materialize--at least not in the way it was intended, especially for those who not only enjoyed working, but whose work life seemed to define them. Too many retirements...
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Episode 223: I Went Back to Therapy, And Here's Why--with Mary Fran Bontempo
Brilliantly Resilient
“Please don’t assume you’ll just talk yourself out of dark places. Help is there—and there’s a reason for it.” ~ Mary Fran Bontempo: Brilliantly Resilient podcast host and author of "" This week on the Brilliantly Resilient Podcast, I’m getting personal. I recorded a solo episode about something we all face—but rarely talk about: knowing when it’s time to ask for help. Lately, I’ve felt overwhelmed, anxious, and just plain out of juice. So I did something both difficult and powerful—I went back to therapy. In this episode, I talk about how I knew it was time, why...
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Episode 222: How to Redefine Success, with "No Half Cakes" Podcast Host and HeartCore Growth Founder Jim Sabellico
Brilliantly Resilient
“I was standing there in front of this half-eaten birthday cake realizing like... what am I doing? This is not success.” Founder and Podcast Host How do you define success? Most of us are or were under the impression that success means money, status, and stuff--all obtained through a brutal amount of work and time. Jim Sabellico thought so too. At least until the night his wife had to relight the candles on his six-year-old son's half-eaten birthday cake so he could sing Happy Birthday to his boy. Jim missed the family moment because he was "busy working." Men have generally been...
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Episode 221: Why your 20's Suck and What to Do About It with Kate Berski and "30 Phobia"
Brilliantly Resilient
"The 20s are not the best days of your life. It is a myth that needs to be busted.” ~ Kate Berski, Author: Ah, to be 20 again, right? After all, the 20s are supposed to be the best time of our lives, right? Not so fast. Kate Berski, author of notes that despite the myth, the 20's are a "tumultuous decade" full of self-doubt, unhealthy comparisons and societal pressure. Saddled with a demanding timeline that prescribes benchmarks that "should" be achieved, Kate recognizes that the To-do list for 20-somethings is not one-size-fits-all. She advises young people to take the...
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Episode 220: How to Reset, Rise, and Scale Your Business, with Ivy Slater, Author of "Best of the Best: Lead Boldly, Scale Rapidly, Create Your Legacy"
Brilliantly Resilient
“Great leadership starts by leading with a mindset that's scalable—being willing to see things bigger. What would this look like if...?” ~ Ivy Slater, CEO of Slater Success and Author of What does the word "scalable" mean to you? If you are an entrepreneur, or work with an organization seeking to build (aren't we all?), the word "scalable" should motivate and inspire. Yet, "scalable" also holds some weight, and can be intimidating. Slater Success CEO and author Ivy Slater reminds us that all businesses are scalable. And if the word intimidates, Ivy says, “Scaling is intimidating to...
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Episode 219: How to Navigate AI and the Changing Job Market, with Dr. Joan Palmiter Bajorek
Brilliantly Resilient
“My work directly acknowledges that anxiety (around AI) and talks about what actions we can take to take care of ourselves, our families, our communities, during a time that’s high opportunity but also really high volatility.” ~Dr. Joan Palmiter Bajorek AI Expert and Author of: Your AI Roadmap: Actions to Expand Your Career, Money and Joy" Are you afraid of AI? Artificial Intelligence has long been the stuff of science fiction, with the "artificial" becoming real and taking over the world. Yikes. But AI is here to stay, and according to AI expert, Dr. Joan Palmiter Bajorek, there...
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Episode 218: How to "Live with Courage and Become an Everyday Leader" with Ash Beckham
Brilliantly Resilient
"The hardest thing you've ever done is the hardest thing you've ever done. And it is no easier or harder than the hardest thing I've ever done.... Hard is hard." ~ , Everyday Leadership Coach, Inclusion Activist, TEDx Speaker and Author of Ash Beckham believes that the hardest thing you've ever done is valid simply because it was hard for you. Her approach encourages people to strip away comparison around struggle and instead recognize the commonality of the human experience--we all struggle. When we remember that whatever we are doing in relation to others, we are...
info_outline~ Mary Fran Bontempo, Author 'From Broken to Brilliant: How to Live a Brilliantly Resilient Life'
It's 2025. How are you feeling about that?
I find the time right after Christmas to be a bit challenging. After a month of being jolly buying, planning, decorating, eating, drinking, visiting with family and friends, suddenly it's over. And sure, New Year's Eve is fun, but it's also accompanied by that feeling of 'Oh my God, now I have to improve myself again.'
Enter the dreaded New Year's Resolution.
I've never been a fan of New Year's Resolutions (caps to emphasize the IMPORTANCE of them!). Usually, we end up expecting gargantuan feats of ourselves that we would never ask of anyone else--often dooming us to failure. Given that I'm at an age where I'm tempted to dismiss the whole thing, I'd like to, but I can't. I'm committed to living a Brilliantly Resilient life. Quitting entirely is not in the game plan.
However, I do believe we must be more gentle with ourselves, in all of our human frailty. To that end, I've settled on two words for my 2025 resolution: Be Better.
By simply resolving to be better, I'm afforded endless opportunities each day to improve in small ways, which bundled together, can create profound change. Each time I attempt to be better, I am living the Brilliantly Resilient concept of taking small, imperfect actions to move forward. So much easier and more life-affirming than trying to remake myself, which, let's be honest, isn't going to happen. (I will, however, try to be better when driving behind some soul who seems to have forgotten where the gas pedal is. Patience is not my strong suit.)
As we enter 2025, be kinder to yourself, and resolve to Be Better. It's doable, and will create wins in every day. And do more that makes you happy. We all deserve that.
Finally, thank you with sincere gratitude for your support of me and Brilliantly Resilient. It means more than I can say to share this powerful message for good and I am beyond appreciative.
Tune in to hear more brilliance (yes, mine--remember to pat yourself on the back regularly, too!) on this week's podcast and check out the new book for a great start to 2025.
- For me the time right after Christmas is a little bit hard. We've been so jolly and spirited for a month with buying and planning and family and friends and cooking and the lights and everything else, and then all of a sudden it's over. And sure, New Year's Eve is fun. But it's also accompanied by that feeling of 'Oh my God, now I have to improve myself again.'
- If we can be a little bit better every time we catch ourselves doing something that we don't like about ourselves...we can decide that's not the way we want to live.
- Mindfulness means being where you are. Be in that moment and just in that moment, try to be better.
- Come up with little short questions. Am I being better right now? Is this what I really want for myself right now? Am I here where I am right now? Be here and be better, instead of thinking about remaking yourself.
- Look back through your calendar of the last year. And review that. See the events that you went to see the things that you did and look at the ones that really made you happy. (Thank you, Fran Hauser!)
- I hope you all had a fantastic holiday season. I hope that the new year is full of light and joy and love and purpose and health and happiness for all of us.
As we enter 2025, I thank you again and wish you every joy and blessing. Let's be Brilliantly Resilient together!
XO,
Mary Fran
Mary Fran Bontempo is an award-winning 2-time TEDx and Keynote speaker, workshop presenter, author, humorist and podcast host who teaches audiences to uncover their Brilliance and Resilience 15 minutes at a time. A sought-after speaker for ERGs, BRGs, DEI, conference and association events, Mary Fran is author of From Broken to Brilliant: How to Live a Brilliantly Resilient Life, The 15 Minute Master, The Woman’s Book of Dirty Words and co-founder of the life-changing program Brilliantly Resilient. To bring Mary Fran to your company or organization, visit www.brilliantlyresilient.net.