262: Mary Fran Bontempo: Stop Talking Yourself Out Of Your Own Brilliance

Mary Fran Bontempo is a two-time TEDx speaker, author, and humorist who teaches audiences to control their most powerful influence: Self-Talk. Author of The Woman’s Book of Dirty Words, and Not Ready for Granny Panties, She’s written for multiple online platforms, including The Huffington Post and Thrive Global. After thirty years’ experience as owner of a full-service recruiting firm, and finding herself in the middle of a perfect life storm—turning 50, a crashing economy, and most devastating, a son with a heroin addiction—she created the blog, Not Ready for Granny Panties, authoring two books in the series and developing a life-affirming brand full of practical wisdom and wit. She proves small changes in self-talk yield big life changes, allowing individuals to redefine their lives both professionally and personally in a rapidly changing world.

In today’s conversation, Mary Fran shares her personal story and how she was able to navigate through the perfect storm that had been stirred up in her life. Reframing words and getting back to their root definitions, Mary Fran enlightens us to the power of words and how even seemingly negative words to be used to move us forward with confidence, clarity and freedom.

Key Takeaways

1. You can’t be married to an outcome. You have to be willing to start something and just see where it’s going to go, be willing to evolve with it, and sometimes be willing to jettison if things don’t work out.
2. You are not going to defeat the negative voice in your head by learning something new. You’re going to defeat it by remembering what you already know about yourself.
3. Many of us do not work in our area of brilliance, because we believe there is not enough struggle in that.
4. Recognize that you’re already a change expert. You rebuild every day.
5. The word “NO” can be both a weapon and a savior, it just depends on how we use it.
6. Stop saying no to your possibilities. Say no to your presumed obligations, which are mostly self-imposed.
7. Not everything has to be awesome. Sometimes it just has to be done.
8. You need to learn to embrace intentional ignorance and use that as a way to de-clutter your life, de-clutter your mind, and learn how to focus on what’s really important.
9. Practiced intentional ignorance can truly be bliss.
10. Turning your preconceived notions upside down.

Resources

• The Woman’s Book of Dirty Words
• Not Ready for Granny Panties
• Blog:  http://www.notreadyforgrannypanties.com

Connect With Mary Fran Bontempo

• Website: https://www.maryfranbontempo.com
• Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/AuthorMaryFranBontempo/
• Twitter:  https://twitter.com/MaryFBontempo
• You Tube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS0vPX-haXfDNFHWOQ1DgFA
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryfranbontempo
• Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/maryfranbontempo/
• Huffington Post:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/maryfran-222