GSD Factor Podcast

Powerfully Choosing to Keep Living After Tragedy with Jody LaVoie

As a young widow 10 years ago, Jody LaVoie powerfully chose to keep living, not just for herself, but her daughters, and the family business.  Hear her incredible story of how she activated not one but all six attributes on her own transformative journey. 
Jody LaVoie is a widow, mom and ICF certified coach for Widows In The Workplace. She never expected to become a widow when she did. Then at age 47, the unthinkable happened when her husband was shot at work by a disgruntled employee. Overnight, she was running a business, solo parenting three teenage daughters, and grieving. She was able to not only survive but thrive. She found it very difficult to find resources and support for widows that wanted to still excel in their careers and manage all of the new responsibilities of widowhood. What widow has the time for researching while you are trying to juggle it all?
She wanted to change that experience for widows. She is the founder and CEO of Widows In The Workplace and The Grief Company.  Through a transformative journey, Jody empowers widows in the workplace, offering tailored coaching services to guide them toward rediscovering joy and falling in love with life again.
Connect with Jody LaVoie on LinkedIn
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Powerfully Choosing Your Own Success with Kristie Crenshaw

Kristie Crenshaw is powerfully choosing to be insanely successful in 2024!  Join our host Misha Bleymaier-Farrish and her fellow National Speakers Association colleague as they dive into how Kristie is going to get shit done this year.  
Coach & Keynote Speaker Kristie Crenshaw is working with women to reclaim their power to move through life with purpose, direction and accountability, creating more joy and fulfillment and impacting their families and businesses in ways they never thought possible.
With over 20 years of experience in communications, media, sales, and marketing fields, Kristie has developed a passion and skill for helping women achieve deeper relationships, career fulfillment, and personal growth.
Using the Five Pillars of her signature framework, RESOLUTE WOMEN are rising up in their lives and showing up like never before…in relationships, in careers and on stages. And they’re doing so unapologetically grounded in their faith.  Kristie has fine-tuned her ability to read rooms and communicate with authenticity, brevity, and effective humor.
Connect with Kristie Crenshaw on LinkedIn
Visit www.kristiecrenshaw.
Visit us at GSD Factor https://gsdfactor.com/
Purchase the GSD Factor Life book series: https://linktr.ee/GSDFactorLifeBooks
 

Powerfully Choosing Inclusivity with Alexander Ostojic

“I would urge people to remove intentional and unintentional biases about individuals with disabilities especially in the interview and recruiting process. Corporate America should focus on providing employees with educational and informational opportunities about individuals with diverse abilities.” – Alexander Ostojic
In our first episode of the GSD Factor Podcast Season 3 we talk with Alexander Ostojic about his journey of ensuring inclusivity for himself and others.
Alexander Ostojic was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Risk Management and insurance in 2019 from Illinois State University, where he was an active member of Gamma Iota Sigma and the Katie School of Insurance and Risk Management. In 2020, Alex completed the Collegiate Studies for CPCU designation. In January 2010, Alex was diagnosed with a learning disability and later diagnosed with additional medical conditions, including fibromyalgia, chronic pain, and small fiber neuropathy. Alex is accompanied by his service dog, Laney, and in 2022, they became a certified service dog team.
Today, Alex is passionate about diversity and inclusion, professional development, insurance industry, claims transformation, innovation, and robotic process automation. Alex is currently completing coursework toward the Associate in General Insurance (AINS) and additional CPCU designations. Outside the workplace, Alex and Laney are known to be at a bowling alley, pizzeria, ice cream parlor, or on a United airplane.
Connect with Alex on
 
Visit us at GSD Factor https://gsdfactor.com/
Purchase the GSD Factor Life book series: https://linktr.ee/GSDFactorLifeBooks

GSD Factor - Best of Season 2

This is our annual Best of Podcast Season 2 which highlights a few of our listeners favorite nuggets and lessons throughout this 2023 year.
Thank you to each guest for joining us and sharing your perspectives and thoughts on how to live the very best GSD Factor Life.  We hope these stories are encouraging and inspiring as you embark on your own transformational journey.
Be sure to catch the previous season wherever you stream your podcasts.  
Thank you for listening to the GSD Factor Podcast.  Please visit us at gsdfactor.com where you can explore tools and resources to help you ignite that transformation in your professional and personal life.  We appreciate you listening and look forward to helping you get shit done in 2024!

How I Published Three Books In One Year

One year.  Three books.
 
First ever GSD Factor podcast takeover special host Randy Ford brings together author Misha Bleymaier-Farrish and some of her publishing team to share how it came to be, the ups and downs, and some things that aspiring authors can consider.  
 
Connect with Randy Ford on LinkedIn
Connect with Qualia Hendrickson on LinkedIn
Connect with Alacia Reynolds on LinkedIn

Navigating the Professional Pivot with Juliette Foster

Juliette Foster joins us for an encore guest appearance and we are so delighted!  Her first podcast appearance we tackled the topic of A Life Beautifully Paired with Confidence and Resilience.  Now we are tackling the journey of Navigating the Professional Pivot which most of us have or will face. 
 
Juliette Foster is a radio/television journalist and founder of the media services company Magnus Communications. As Managing Director, she brings more than 30 years experience gathered in news, documentaries, and current affairs. Juliette has worked for some of the leading names in UK and international broadcasting including Sky News, Bloomberg Radio & Business Television, BBC Radio, BBC News Channel, BBC World Service Television and Share Radio, the UK’s first national radio station dedicated to business, finance and money matters. As a conference moderator, Juliette has worked with many high-level organisations including The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation & Development (OECD), The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the multi-national professional services company PWC, Swift International Banking Operations Seminar (SIBOS) and King Salman Relief. Juliette is a Fellow of the RSA (Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce).
 
Connect with Juliette Foster on LinkedIn.

How Vaco is Being Influential in Corporate with their Working Mom’s Collective

Vaco understands the significance of drawing the circle wider to broaden our perspective, to connect on a deeper level, and to be a force for positive change in our world.  This aligns beautifully with the GSD Factor attribute of Be Influential.  
 
On today’s episode of The GSD Factor podcast we are honored to have the co-chairs of Vaco’s Working Mother’s Collective, Taryn Dicken and Kelly Maxwell.  They will share the why behind this important ESG initiative and provide insights into how other organizations can enhance their own efforts. 
 
Taryn Dicken
Taryn Dicken joined Vaco in 2019 and currently leads Vaco New York’s accounting and finance practice. Taryn began her career at Goldman Sachs and spent over 5 years working in the finance division. After Goldman, Taryn spent over 2 years working at a New York-based hedge fund in investor relations. In 2015, she transitioned to the staffing industry marrying her accounting/finance experience with her passion for client service. Taryn is also a Co-Chair of the Working Mother’s Collective at Vaco. Taryn graduated from Villanova University in 2007 with a BS in Finance and International Business and a minor in French. In her free time, Taryn enjoys working out, traveling to new places and spending time with her two children, family and friends.
 
Kelly Maxwell
Kelly Maxwell is the Managing Director of the Accounting & Finance Direct Hire practice for Vaco Dallas, as well as the Global Line of Business Leader for the Financial Perm Division at Vaco LLC.  She leads a dynamic team that provides talent solutions, client engagement and recruiting in order to creatively solve problems for professionals and companies across DFW.  Additionally, she serves as the co-chair for the Working Mother’s Collective ERG.  She earned her MBA from Southern Methodist University and her BBA in Human Resources/Organizational Behavior from University of North Texas.  Kelly serves as Board President for the Bridge Breast Network, where she has volunteered since 2017.  In her free time, she enjoys reading, embroidery, running and spending time with her family and 2 pups named Bailey and Harley.
 
Connect with Vaco on LinkedIn
Connect with Taryn Dicken on LinkedIn
Connect with Kelly Maxwell on LinkedIn

How Asia is Being Influential in Insurance Theresa Blissing

Asia is not only rising but actively redefining the insurance landscape and trailblazer Theresa Blissing has been front row capturing the lessons and amplifying the stories with the world in her new book, The Future of Insurance, Volume IV. Asia Rising.
Her journey in the insurance landscape began in 2004 with Generali in Frankfurt, Germany. Fast-forward to 2015, intrigued by technological advancements reshaping the industry, Theresa pursued an intensive master's program with a research component. Her research, concentrated on the adoption of big data in Southeast Asian insurance sectors, paved her transition to management consulting. Here, she collaborated with multiple firms and later founded the consulting and research practice, Accelerating Insurance.
In 2019, recognizing the transformative narratives in Asia's insurance sector, Theresa co-launched the Asia InsurTech Podcast. As of 2023, it ranks among the world's top-tier InsurTech podcasts, boasting listeners from over 160 countries.
In 2023, Theresa has unveiled a fresh show, the global podcast, InsurTech Amplified, reiterating her commitment to spotlighting insurance innovation worldwide.
 
Connect with Theresa Blissing on LinkedIn

Connecting with Confidence Raghu Sundara

The GSD Factor's first and possibly most important attribute is Be Confident.  Activating this attribute when connecting and building your network are keys to success.  
 
Raghu Sundara got his first taste of business networking while working in management in the insurance industry where he was exposed to over 15 chambers of commerce.  After spending nearly 20 years working in corporate America, Raghu decided to open his own insurance agency business in 2018.  Raghu immediately started attending as many chamber networking events as possible and saw a trend where too many people cared more about getting referrals and instant gratification rather than building relationships and being a giver.  He realized that networking is a marathon and not a sprint and people should not be expecting instant returns on their time invested in networking.  It also taught him to focus on being a problem solver for people even if it had nothing to do with his occupation.  Before long, Raghu wanted to be known as a connector who happened to own an insurance agency instead of an insurance agent.  To learn more about the people he met, Raghu started organizing 20 meet-ups per month with business owners in his local networking community and met with over 1,000 people in 4 years.  As a result, Raghu was inspired to open Always Be Connecting to assist business owners in growing their networks in a more organic and sustainable way.
 
Connect with Raghu on LinkedIn
 

Real Talk For Working Moms Christine French

Be sure to check out episode 6 which was Christine's first appearance on our GSD Factor Podcast where she shared her story of courage, resiliency, and becoming a Mom.  This has been our most popular and most downloaded episode of all time!  
Now that her tiny human is 1 years old, we are excited to have her back as we have real talk for working moms!
Christine is a corporate finance professional learning to balance her career with navigating new motherhood.  With that comes a wide range of complex feelings, from trusting daycare, staying present in her marriage, becoming more secure in the decision to have one child, and discovering her new identity as a mother.  These feelings are made even more nuanced because her journey to this point has involved an early loss as well as delivery and postpartum complications.  She is passionate about sharing her joys and struggles openly in the hope that it can help other moms feel less alone.
Connect with Christine on LinkedIn or Instagram