Good News Florida

LIFEWORK LEADERSHIP GoodNewsFL.org 31 MARCH 2018 and then they had a lady from India that spoke about one of the projects. And what they were doing was raising funds to buy sewing machines so these people in India could learn how to sew tomake a living. So I made a donation, and the time there was a group that was training to go to Mount Everest to base camp. These are some Florida gals and I was like, wow, that’s really cool, and I was just kind of thinking I like the hiking.And then 2014 rolls around and Tina Yeager at that time was the executive director, and she knew that I like Colorado to hike and she said, Hey, we’re doing this climb. And I’d never done a 14er and I kind of was like, Ok, I like the challenge. And this was a whole God thing too. So I signed up to do that because of the hike not nec- essarily because of the cause. So here we are in Breckenridge, Colorado, and this was going to be four days of hiking. But they had people fromall over the world. They had people from South Africa, Moldova, India that were run- ning projects and then the first night they showed a video and it had pictures of past climbs like Kilimanjaro and Everest, and it had pictures of the victims in some of the projects, but it was put together to this song. And I listen to Christian radio but for whatever reason I didn’t know this song: MatthewWest, “Do Something.” And so here’s what happens. They are showing this and at one point they put the lyrics on the screen and it said, “I woke up this morning, wondered how the world got so far down. People living in poverty, children sold into slavery, and I shook my first toward heaven and I said, “God why don’t you do something?”And of course the response is, “I did. I created you.” And I’m going to tell you because its so clear, so relevant to me. God broke my heart at that point and it went from the hiking to the cause. So I went ahead and I completed that climb... So then they’re getting ready to do Kilimanjaro, and I said, Tina, look, I’ll write a check. I’ll write a sig- nificant check because now I’m into the cause, but the $50,000 scared me, so I kept saying, no, and God just wouldn’t give me peace. And so at the end of November of 2014, now this climb is in February of 2015, and so I said, yes.And I had a short moment of feeling relief and then the fear set in. I started training.And that was just life changing and God, you know, you do themoun- tain and all you are thinking about is surviving. So it was really the reflection afterwards. Like, wow, there were some deep lessons here ,and again, I give God all the credit for this. I get back and FAU was looking for somebody to be their speaker at their leadership graduation and someone told them, “Gin- ger climbed Kilimanjaro; why don’t you ask her?” And that kind of was the opening for me to speak. And I met Lori at Lifework. So that goes back to you never know who you are going to meet and where it’s going to lead so far as Lifework Class. SP – You are a Lifework Sponsor. You are fully invested. Why? GM – Because it was such a meaningful experience for me, I want to pay that forward. And being a sponsor is one of the ways to do it because even at over $3000 for the tuition, we know that does not cover the cost of the program. I just see the fruit that comes out of Lifework and I want to be a part of that. SP – Who should participate in Lifework and what would you say to someone who is considering it. You said you were fence sitting. You were too busy. GM – I think that the model has evolved because when it first started off they were looking for business owners and C-level people. I think the revelatio is saying it’s more about influence. I’m a huge John Maxwell fan and John Maxwell’s saying is “Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.” So I think we started seeing that people at different places in their career really do have the power to influence. You don’t have to own the business. You don’t have to be a C-suite person in the business to have influence within your business and within the community. So I think that anyone that has that interest in growing, expanding their hori- zons is a candidate regardless of what they do in the company or what their level is… And that whole thing of being too busy, I just think the rewards, the opportunity outweigh that. Sometimes taking that time aside for yourself, what you gain in that half a day can actually take you farther faster than if you hadn’t been there. It goes back to getting new ideas, getting new in- formation, gives you a creativity, you can almost have that renewal or recharging. It refocuses you on what the priorities are so you can use the time better… When I look at the caliber of speakers that we’ve had. These are world class business people and leaders and to have them come and share time with a group of 50 people, you figure that’s more of an intimate environment. I invest a lot of time and energy in leadership training and development both personally and for the bank, so I’ve been to a lot of things. And I just think the quality of Lifework, it is top shelf. It is excellent. Ginger Martin… (Continued from page 16)