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The Importance of Language

After a short walk in the late afternoon sunshine, I found myself praising my noble steeds who come with me almost everywhere; aka my frenchtons. Moose, I’d argue the most sweet and stubborn frenchton, has Intervertebral Disk Disease (IVDD). This means most of what he does has to be monitored carefully as it takes more out of him and can lead to serious injury. It also means he and I …

Embrace Creative Living

“The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them. The hunt to discover those jewels––that's creative living.”
Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

A couple of years ago I was at Huntington Beach State Park in South Carolina pacing up and down the path to the beach. I was talking to my therapist and out came …

How to Set Yourself Up for a Successful Meeting

There are a lot of mugs out there that say “I survived another meeting that should have been an email.” We’ve all been there, and more likely than not we have also facilitated meetings that others may throw in the “should have been an email” bucket. We’re busy and it happens. Meetings are constant, burdensome, and necessary. As a fellow survivor and bucket avoider, I’ve put together a few simple …

Get back on that horse

A few years ago I was diagnosed with a variety of conditions that came with the term “chronic.” Throughout the grief process, my partner encouraged me to write about it. It was uncomfortable to be publicly vulnerable in a professional world where “weakness = bad.” I sat there knowing logically that vulnerability was a sign of strength, but the risk adverse [read: scared] side of me still wasn’t convinced. How …

We're All In This Together

Recently I received a kind email from a client and friend in the Postgres Community. It struck a chord because she had listened to my podcast, hosted by Beautiful Strength, which was about having chronic illnesses while traveling in a bus and working full time.

Within the podcast, I reveal parts of myself that I don’t normally share with my team members, let alone with my clients. Until …

Top 5 Reasons to Move to a Peer Review Focused Business

At Command Prompt, we rely heavily on peer review for the success of our clients. We believe that the best quality work is provided when there is no silo and when team work, no matter how much or how little, is a part of the day-to-day. When a group of individuals is encouraged to work together in an effort to provide high quality work and learn from each other, you’re …

How to Achieve Success When Working From Home, Updated

Now that it’s been over a year, we thought it would be good to revisit the How to Achieve Success When Working From Home blog from March 2020. The idea of the original post was to help those who were challenged by the new work-from-home environment by sharing the knowledge that we’ve gathered over 15 years of working from home ourselves. Much has changed since that post was published, and …

Professional Development: No Box Required

The purpose of professional development is to strive to be better, to perform more effectively, to reach a higher professional level, and to know more in a world full of knowledge. While there are many continuing education classes, training, research, and reading opportunities, often these don’t fit our specific needs. Understanding how one learns may also impact how they should go about professional development. Sometimes thinking outside of the box …

Redefining Badassery

Whether it be movies, books, or social media, we are inundated with the attraction of being a badass. It might be the quiet, humble hero or the “genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.” We look to these people because they are confident in who they are and they make a difference. My stepdaughter’s first swear word was “B.A.” (short for badass because she was terrified of how we’d react if she went …

Keys to Moving Forward In Your Life and Career - How Self Awareness Affects Your Life Pt. II

Finding the right path when moving forward with your career can be challenging. From the difficult subject of compensation increases, to knowing when you are ready to move up into a new role, to refining the skill set you have; there are many steps that have to be put in place in order to further your career. In this article series I’ll provide tips as a COO for what I …