Design Yourself

This week's episode introduces our February theme, Focus. You'll learn how Sharon chose this theme despite some initial resistance as well as tools and frameworks for sharpening your own focus. You will hear how to bucket out your own areas of focus, practical tools for rethinking your schedule, how to shape your own goal setting retreat and more. This week's episode is great for anyone who is fee...

The idea of leading slower, less cluttered lives is a deeply resonant concept right now. With good reason. With the barrage of information and stuff at our fingertips, minimalism holds a calming appeal. The shadow side of this trend is that it can leave us paralyzing to pick anything up. The episode addresses this conundrum head on. Host Sharon talks through a few core concepts that unpin her "Pic...

Letting go is a critical process to clear the path to whatever it is that you really want. In this week's episode, Sharon shares 6 steps you can take to ease you through the act of letting go. You will learn how to tap into the power of the present, honor your emotions (especially the tough ones that like to show up and tell you to hold on!), make room for what you want, see things with a differen...

There's something about the start of the new year that makes you want to start with a blank slate, right? Cue the queen of decluttering, Marie Kondo, the Japanese organizational consultant behind The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. In this week's episode, Sharon takes Kondo's framework for decluttering your home and talks about how it can be adapted to living the life you really want. She revie...

This week's episode introduces our January theme, Rituals. These are the actions and behaviors that we do regularly, invariably, without having to think about it. You will learn about why Sharon is introducing themes in 2018 (sneak peek: to avoid the end of year burn out and blues), why rituals is our starting point this year, and how to see, evaluate and simplify your own rituals this year - and...

Happy New Year! Anyone else feeling a little slow as they turn the page on the calendar? In this week's mini-episode, Sharon invites you to stop and wait a second. Don't set your annual goals. Don't commit to your 2018 resolution. Don't dive right in. Not yet. Instead, wait a second. Take a moment of pause before you dive in. Follow your energy. If that takes you to goals and resolutions and plans...

From Sharon and the whole team at PRS, we wish you a very Merry Christmas. To celebrate the holiday we bring you a special mini-episode filled with love, cheer, and a fitting e.e. Cummings poem. Here's to a strong finish to 2017; we look forward to being with you in the new year.  RESOURCES AND LINKS "Little Tree" by e. e. cummings  

It's the end of the year and the holiday season is in full effect. Today Sharon shares 10 questions designed to help inspire you to move through the holidays with intention and choice. Explore your own answers and hear Sharon's personal reflections for each of these inquiries. (Hint: What involves crab marching, a refrigerator, and lots of Christmas lights? Sharon's fondest holiday memory this yea...

2017 is coming to close and that is the ideal time to step back and reflect on what this year has taught you - epistolary style. Sharon shares insights and writing from the annual letters of Warren Buffet and Bill and Melinda Gates and then offers up 7 steps to support you in creating your own Annual Letter. From evergreen support systems like setting clear boundaries and clarifying key measures o...

The marking of time is an important and valuable ritual. And this week's episode will provide you a simple tool to do just that. "Walking around the sun" is a birthday tradition in Montessori education. Every classroom can put its own unique spin on this special occasion, but the core set up is the same. A candle lit to represent the sun, cards with each month named fanned out around the "sun" to...

As we enter into the end of year sprint, Sharon wanted to bring back one of her very first podcast episodes. In this Encore Episode, Sharon talks about why stepping away from your computer and taking a break is one of the best things we can do for ourselves - and our work too. The end of year often seduces us into a flat-out sprint. It's the last month to get your annual goals accomplished. It's a...

May you each be filled with gratitude and peace as we move into the end of year holiday season. In today's episode, Sharon shares 10 questions to inspire you to step into your Thanksgiving (and beyond!) week in an intentional way. She also offers up her own personal reflections for each question, just as she did in Episode 22, the original Let Us Give Thanks episode. In additional to having space...

Creativity, resilience and a darn good sense of humor are at the heart of Katie Blattner's story. In this week's episode we learn the story of the seamstress and entrepreneur extraordinaire behind Three Little Birds Sewing Co., a place that is part fabric shop, part instructional space and part community hang out. It's not quite the career and life she imagined for herself when she majored in chem...

Ever found yourself wishing for a job that just felt like you? That felt like you'd found a work home? If you are anything like host Sharon and this week's guest, Jennifer Bangoura, the answer is yes. We spend so much of our waking life at work that it ought to be an endeavor that feels meaningful - whether in the work itself or what the work creates for the rest of your life - and ideally both. J...

In today's episode Sharon shares some of her transformational reading experiences and a way for us to think about the things that shape us (be they books, experience or people). Hear what children's book characters have stuck with her and which one actually changed her. (Hint: She's a very skilled teacher!) Listen as she reads from Lydia Davis and talks about why she really appreciates reading pro...

Carpe diem. Live in the now. Heck, even be here now. There are so many expressions out there calling us to focus on getting present. And that probably has something to do with just how easy it is to get distracted these days from exactly where we are right now. In this week's podcast, Sharon offers up her own reflections on different flavors of NOT being present and then shares 10 ways to get your...

We often think of vision as that thing that happens out way in the future. And there is a time for imagining all that is possible; a time for answering where are we headed. But today Sharon offers up a different approach to vision. One that allows you to lead from a visionary stance in the present. From meditation to emotional resilience to asking for help, we will explore tips and resources to he...

This week Sharon offers up a 10 Step Guide to Creative Living. If you are already jamming on all the ways that you need to be creative, awesome! But if you are like a lot of us and need a little kickstart to your creativity, this week's episode is for you. Explore options for how to choose creativity over consumption (take a walk!), learn the difference between copying and appropriating (mindset!)...

Special announcement: Sharon is hosting a free webinar series on how You Can Design Yourself this fall. Details can be found at https://pointroadstudios.com/classes/fall-17-webinars/ Itching to try something new, but feeling stuck? Cue this week's episode. Sharon shares a behind the scenes look into launching the Classes arm of Point Road Studios along with tips and resources for how you too can t...

Joanna Andreae of Wandering Wellness from Episode 62 is back with us for a special bonus episode. Joanna runs a successful business that is as much of her as it is run by her. And as clear as she is on who she is and what she offers, she was struggling with figuring out what to call herself. With permission, Sharon steps into to coach Joanna through this question. This short episode offers a glimp...

What does it mean to live and be well? How can you do so while also fully owning your own sense of creative power? These are just a few of the questions that today's guest Joanna Andreae, the healer behind Wandering Wellness, ponders. You will hear about how Joanna pushed herself to the brink with the intensity and stress of her work and her job before realizing that there was - thank goodness! -...

Visionary leadership isn't just for corporate boardrooms - it is for everywhere. It can be satisfying sometimes to imagine getting to where we want to go all by ourselves, but that is not reality. To walk through the world is to interact with others - whether strangers or friends, colleagues or clients, skeptics or supporters. Visionary leadership is the essential skill to get us where we want to...

Only 19% of girls have a positive association with the phrase "Like a Girl." Katey Comerford, Executive Director of Girls on the Run of NOVA, is a person out to change that. In today's show we learn about this international organization focused on making girls strong and Katey's own story of strong female leadership - where we discuss everything from how to find intellectual frameworks to put behi...

Boundaries on work are increasingly blurring. We can work anytime and anywhere. And sometimes we want to. And sometimes we don't. In this week's episode, Sharon explores the question "when does work stop?" She reflects on the changing landscape of work (and how this is not a new phenomenon), provides tips for setting your own boundaries on work (because work stops when we decide to stop it) and of...

Emmanuel Yamoah is a person who defies the traditional approach. Not satisfied by what has always been, he's always pushing for something more. As a young boy you might have found him deconstructing his sneakers to see what made them work. Today he leads a global Research and Development team at Duracell. He is an engineer, an artist, and a problem solver. He understands that to really drive produ...