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In the book The Celestine Prophecy (going back to my self-help phase my girlfriends rescued me from years ago), the authors write about everyone having intuition you just have to learn to listen to it. When I read this is hit me like a hammer…there have been so many times in my career that I felt something in my gut but didn’t share it – thinking, “If I know that everyone probably knows it too.” Not true…you have to trust your instinct…it comes from a place that doesn’t explain the where and the why – just the what. Once you do that the next lesson is learning to seize the CORRECT moment share what your sixth sense. The opportunity to reveal your thoughts are lost in the blink of an eye – HOWEVER I don’t suggest you interrupt your CEO’s presentation to discuss it; but do believe the CEO, your supervisor, your significant other, friend etc. need to hear what you have to say. It may be a game changer – YOU can have the answer that puts your work, project, company, job or relationship on the right path. Have confidence in your gut; those feelings come through for a reason.

I have been told many times, “You are so lucky!”

The truth is…I am!

To “practice what I preach” as a business consultant, I don’t wish for things – I work for them. This may sound like a cliché but it is the truth. When I say working, I don’t mean sitting at my desk pulling an all-nighter or staying on property until the Bar restaurant closes every night; I mean, I listen to my intuition. There have been so many times when I thought to myself, “I’m not going to say anything, ‘so and so’ knows what they are doing.” In truth, sometimes, the most talented and experienced people do not know what they were doing…eventually I began speaking up and guess what happened…my voice was heard and I gained respect and I got the promotion!

I believe I am lucky because I am optimistic…I know I can accomplish things. When the odds are against me and/or my team…my positivity pushes me forward and ultimately I have won the concession; usually as I am bidding against companies 100 times bigger than KC Consulting. Is that luck? No, sir!

In this...

hange is scary. I am constantly talking about the changes I went through when I started my business; that was an internal shift, and as a business consultant, I had to convince the world that this change was meant to happen and I was here to make a difference in people’s lives. After reading Leadership Success: The Real Challenges of Making Change, I found that it really reflected the challenges that I personally faced during this time in my life.

Vision

How do you get people to wrap their heads around your specific vision? In order to effectively get my clients to respond to change, there are specific factors that need to be present. The most powerful influence, for me, is trust. When I meet with a business prospect, my goal is to dissect their situation...

It seems obvious, but when you start a company – it really just starts with an idea or concept, then some money, a plan…and you. Just you! The hardest part of starting KC Consulting has been getting everything that was in my head out. How do I get the word out about my company? How do I set myself and my experience apart from my competitors? Where do I source my clients?

One Door Closes…

My first few months as a business consultant were grueling because the phone just wasn’t ringing and I really had to pound the pavement – this was incredibly humbling. When the door got slammed, it was in MY face – not the face of the company I was working for. I kept at it every day, and slowly (very slowly) things started turning around. Do you know why it turned around? I realized after being tucked under the secure and comfortable wing of a large corporation…I was no longer relevant. I worked very hard but never read anything, went anywhere, or spoke to anyone. I did my work and went home (after a 15 hour day).

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The answer is a big fat YES! As a business consultant, it is up to me to make sure I am properly dressed for the occasion. I don’t have an office ‘dress code’, I have to dress the part everyday. My rule of thumb is anything in a boardroom calls for more formal business attire (conservative dress, business suit, slacks with French cuffs etc); anything in a venue (venue refers to my clients hotel, restaurant, nightclub) can be a little more casual but definitely a lot heavier on the style (button down French cuffs paired with leather leggings); when going to meetings with marketing or PR companies in a restaurant (blouse, jeans or pants with heels) and lastly a construction site is the same as a restaurant meeting just with flats instead of heels. Regardless of what your style or level of comfort is you must always look put together. Got the hipster thing going on – you still have to be clean shaved or grow a full goatee/beard – sloppy stubble is no bueno. You have purple hair and black lipstick – no chipped nail polish please…see where I am going with this?

I pay...

I have used the term, the ‘ninja mentality’ with my teams over the years. What this means to me is the time in your career when you know all of the ‘moves’. For example, I can work any position in a restaurant, (except a cook although I do make a mean banana muffin) I can manage any type of service orientated business, I can set up on office, service station or storage room…those tactical things prepare you to learn. Once you have mastered all of the ‘moves’ you can actually stop moving. Have you ever watched a ninja in battle? They are in hand to hand combat with up to 10 people at a time…everyone is moving around them coming from all directions and they are defeating all opponents but they are standing still. They don’t waste a move…it takes years and years to be able to operate at that level. It relates to your career…if you work at full capacity at all times in everything you do that degree of efficiency will inevitably be yours.

In order to get there…you can’t ever be ‘just okay’ at your job. Doing only what is asked of you makes you a manager, a worker or a...

We humans are a strange collection of emotions, insecurity and self doubt. Most of us are in a state of suspended animation. Floating through life on a raft we have built with all of our relationships and responsibilities. Happiness for some, means staying within the safety of the raft; others dive headfirst into the churning deep. Some surface, others go down in the waves.

Just what is happiness and how do we quantify such a complex notion? Those who stay in the raft… are they more happy than those who dive in, some not surviving? Or do those in the water pity the souls in the raft as unable to attain happiness?

As a business consultant, I have seen a variety of personalities who all chase happiness in their own way. Some are conservative with risk, treating it as if they are holding an angry rattlesnake, then there are those who seek out the challenge of the unknown, defiant against the gathering storm. Their differences are great, their goal is the same: Happiness.

Humans do not generally chase a dream to fail, the ultimate goal is happiness. I recently came...

You may find yourself putting out flames at work, but you can take solace in knowing that certain business moves you use are standard practice for firefighters… In this article published on Inc, Josh Linkner discusses powerful strategies we can borrow from firefighters. These tactics pay off in both a world ablaze, and the world of business. Linkner’s interviewee – Chris Poisella, ex-department lieutenant and corporate executive – offers us his seven step strategy:

1. Train
2. Pre-Plan
3. Assess
4. Plan
5. Arrive & Reassess
6. Act
7. Debrief

Let’s focus on the first phase of this strategy, as I feel training is often neglected, forgotten, skipped, overlooked, or rushed through in the professional...

This is Happy Hour. I will not be offering free drinks in order to get you to start imbibing much earlier in the day than what is considered respectable. My focus is anything and everything that is REAL in life, leadership and the pursuit of good food & drink – the goal is make all of us happy for that one minute or one hour once a week on my blog.

Native Brooklynite and lifer in the restaurant/hotel/hospitality business, I am fortunate to have worked at some of the most exciting ventures (http://kcconsulting.nyc/who-we-are/). I was Corporate Director of Hotel F&B for a publicly traded company; a change in situation within the company meant my position would no longer be NY based forcing me to join the travel team; on the road internationally for up to 6 weeks at a time. Already asking so much of my family with the treacherous hours and overall commitment to my work…this would be too much so I resigned. Scary? Yes! but not for reasons of a paycheck…I knew it was time to take everything this amazing industry has given me and leverage it…so here I am living the...

“I don’t know.” Seems easy enough to say, but I can’t tell you how long it took me to learn how to own up and say those three words.

When young in your career, I can understand not wanting to admit that you are not familiar with something. Not knowing means I’m not qualified. The big test is how you handle the moment when someone asks you a question and you honestly cannot think of the appropriate response. In the past, I have made up stories, talked around the answer, and changed the subject – all without realizing that I was frustrating those doing the asking; and in addition I was insulting my own intelligence.

This doesn’t just pertain to leadership or your career… I have gotten into so many conflicts with loved ones causing so much heartache and stress simply because I was completely steadfast on not confessing to not fully understanding something. Now, I’m proud to divulge that it was my husband that finally broke me…when I finally said “I don’t effing know!!” He yelled back, “that is the perfect answer.”

Again, this does pertain to leadership and...

I have really never been into motivational speaking (although I did go through a self-help book phase – I drove my friends crazy until one of them bought me a novel and saved me from it); I just didn’t think I needed it. It’s kind of like yoga… when I was younger and doing martial arts and running, to me yoga was for people who were naturally skinny, and just want to be able to say they ‘work out,’ it just wasn’t enough of a work out for me; the final relaxation at the end of a yoga session was torture… my mind and body were going too fast.

Now I crave yoga, and that final relaxation is now my favorite part!

The same is true of motivational speeches and quotes… I ignored them; now they ignite me. They truly help. Making the decision to give up the job search and start my consulting firm was scary (at times it still is) and I just feel like a good motivational quote gives me affirmation that I made the right decision. Here are a few favorites to take with you, alongside a blurb about what to get out of them:

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I have always thought of myself as one of the hardest workers I know. No doubt my commitment and drive were at the core of this, but was I working harder than I needed to? Time management has been a lifelong journey for me; My biggest enemy, believe it or not is…email. If you send me a message, I’ll get back to you in a flash…I wore that like a badge! I even held it as a standard for my teams to aspire to… but why? Answering too many emails can throw off your focus sending you into a completely different direction…the next thing you know – you have been at work for 12 hours with at least 5 more to go. Sure, sometimes questions need to be answered ASAP but other than that why couldn’t it wait until the end of their day or the time set aside for it?

Another enemy?…Unnecessary distractions. I took pride in my open door policy: “I am available whenever you need me.” That opened me up to many brainstorming sessions that I didn’t need to be involved in. It actually limited the growth of my people…not everything needed my involvement. Now that I have my own business...

Long lasting contributions to a specific trade don’t happen every day. Think of Sigmund Freud’s analysis of dreams, or J. Presper Eckert & John Mauchly’s engineering of the first computer…creating something long lasting comes along so rarely. When these innovative inventions are introduced some may not be able to see that they are setting the stage for which many will be inspired and to which many will look to adapt their creation and flourish into an industry and style in and of itself.

This brings me to The Four Seasons, opened in 1959, whose design has been virtually untouched since its inception. We see a lot of amazing trends come and go but when you are timeless, like the Four Seasons, you are a Master of your field. They are associated with a number of milestones in the hospitality industry. It is credited...