“That's the hard conversation because you got to be vulnerable enough and humble enough to say, there's something more there's something I can do better. Maybe I missed it.” - Melissa Dawn Simkins


Welcome to Stay a While with Tommi Vincent! The hardest conversation to have is a truthful one with yourself. The truth helps and we must be willing to go there to get where we desire to go. Once you have mastered being honest with yourself, external communications come easy. Guest Melissa Dawn-Simkins takes her seat at the table to help us get real with the most important person in our life, ourselves.

Melissa Dawn Simkins, affectionately known as "The First Lady of Personal Branding," is a pioneer in personal brand leadership with a proven track record of advising Fortune 100 organizations, CEOs, C-suite executives and influencers. She is a sought-after strategist on how to lead change in the face of adversity. As a mother, wife and leader she resets the standard to define a new success paradigm called "whole life leadership" focused on purpose-driven work and well-being. Relevance and readiness are core to her approach as she gives insight around future-ready talent development, whole life leadership and brand leadership innovation.

She is CEO of Velvet Suite® (www.velvetsuite.com) an award-winning leadership innovation firm advancing the future of profit through people. She is the Founder of The She-Suite®, the female-focused platform of Velvet Suite on a mission to break the outdated paradigm of work by empowering working women to boldly design a career and life with purpose (theshesuite.com). The She-Suite Brand Leadership Institute (BLI), is the only online leadership readiness platform community with proven results to ready, retain and advance all women and women of color who work for large enterprises.


In this episode we cover

[00:01 - 02:35] Serving Up Some Truth: Being Honest with Yourself
[02:36 - 07:31] Introducing Melissa Dawn Simkins’ Thoughts on Food
[07:32 - 27:44] The Toughest Conversation to Have: Are You Being Truthful to Yourself?
[27:45 - 35:55] Becoming Better Communicators for Ourselves and Others
[35:56 - 40:47] Closing Segment

Key Quotes

“The toughest conversation to have is the truthful one that is necessary for us to have with ourselves in order for us to shed anything in our life that is prohibiting us from becoming everything that God created us to be.” - Tommi Vincent

“There's the saying, ‘The truth hurts.’ And I believe quite the opposite, ‘The truth helps.’ And when we're able to be truthful with ourselves, we are laying a foundation for some serious healing, some serious development.” - Tommi Vincent

“It starts with embracing being different and not only embracing being different, but the perspective that difference is valuable. Difference adds more value.” - Melissa Dawn Simkins

“It is work, even all of that grace, the loving on you, that's work. Because it's not something that comes a lot of times intuitively… We're quick to critique ourselves with each other, but loving on yourself, that's work.” - Melissa Dawn Simkins


Connect with Melissa Dawn Simkins
Website: https://www.melissadawnsimkins.com/
Book: https://www.amazon.com/Brand-Me-Make-Your-Mark/dp/1514409399




Connect with Me!
You can reach Tommi on Instagram @cheftommiv
Visit https://vincentcountry.com and get connected with us on Vincent Country’s Instagram @vincentcountry

This episode was Produced By: Tommi Vincent, Tanner Vincent, and Skai Blue Media

Music By: Stichiz - Big T. Music /Roj&TwinkiE

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