How to Live and Lead from a Place of Balance and Authenticity
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing.)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“The Kid and the King will take you on an epic journey into your soul and will help you come out feeling like you can conquer the world! Read it. Live it. Love it!” — NY Times best-selling author John Assaraf
You’re on the perfect career trajectory. You live in a dream home with a view. You have a beautiful family, and your Insta is populated with pix from exotic locations around the world. Everything — at least on the surface — screams success. Inside, a battle wages. You’re supposed to be on cloud nine. Instead, you’re burned out, disconnected and just going through the motions. Why?
Because these are the unintended negative consequences of goal setting and discipline, of having an adversarial relationship with yourself, and beating yourself up to get results, explains Executive Consultant Shasheen Shah.
In his revolutionary new book, The Kid and the King, Shah opens his field-tested playbook to reveal the approach he has used one-on-one with top executives from companies such as Tesla, LinkedIn, Hewlett Packard, IBM and Ashley HomeStores, as well as many at the helms of startups, to help them realize not only outstanding business results, but also re-warding, balanced personal lives.
“There is an inherent duality within the human psyche: one that seeks to protect and operates from fear (the Kid) and the other that knows no bounds (the King or Queen),” Shasheen explained. “Understanding and allowing this duality to peacefully coexist is the key to living a successful and fulfilling life.”
In The Kid and the King, Shasheen takes readers on a step-by-step journey through the Emotional Mastery Process (EMP™), a system he uses to empower professionals worldwide, and provides compelling success stories that show his methods in action. His proven, life-changing insights and strategies include:
• A 3-minute exercise that immediately reveals the hidden inner struggle that individuals face; • 5 questions that help empower individuals to choose emotions and take actions consistent with outcomes that are most important to them; • Powerful letter writing exercises that reframe the relationships individuals have with themselves and others from adversarial to a truly loving and compassionate perspective; • A series of tactical exercises designed to help individuals eliminate much of the inner struggle, learn what not to do when strong emotions surface and how to move from reaction to action; • And so much more.
Practical, applicable and filled with meaningful life lessons, The Kid and the King equips you with the knowledge and the power you need to break through imagined limitations and propels you into a reengaged and reignited life.
“Ultimately, fighting battles every day is exhausting and has a lot of undesirable side effects,” Shah added. “What is motivating the individual to get to the destination is a promise that life will all work out and they will feel good when they finally get there. I’m here to tell you that without doing the inner work — really doing the inner work — you’ll be chasing that for the rest of your life and never find it ‘out there.’ It’s an inside job and not that complicated. You just have to have the courage to do it.”
About Shasheen Shah As the founder and CEO of Coherent Strategies Consulting and Coaching, Shasheen Shah leads and guides his clients by example. Whether he’s pivoting to a plant-based diet to drop 40 or summiting Mount Kilimanjaro to ring in his 51st, Shasheen embodies and practices his own principles to shatter expectations. For more than 20 years, he has integrated wellness, lifestyle and business leadership strategies to consistently deliver paradigm-shifting results for executives all over the world.
For more information, please visit www.shasheen.com, or connect with him on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at @shasheen.
The Kid and the King: The Hidden Inner Struggle High Achievers Must Conquer to Reignite and Reengage with Life Publisher: Coherent Strategies, LLC ISBN-10: 0578944723 ISBN-13: 978-0578944722 Available from Amazon.com
Trish Stevens Helen Cook Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 903.654.0938 Direct 281.333.3507 Office [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com
Women: Fuel Your Passion to Influence, Impact and Inspire Others
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing.)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Do you feel an innate desire to speak up, take charge and help make your organizations and communities stronger? Don’t ignore your instinct to lead— own it. It’s your superpower, and you should embrace it, nurture it and use it for powerful, positive outcomes, advises Pegine Echevarria, Power Women Worldwide founder.
Pegine, along with Mindy Gibbins-Klein, Diana Watson, Cindy Tschosik plus 14 other successful female leaders from diverse backgrounds share their stories, techniques and actionable tips in Called to Lead: Success Strategies for Women.
Timely topics such as Leading Unexpectedly in a Crisis, Mental Wellness, Cross-Cultural Leadership and Be the Trigger for the Change, plus many others, are covered through thoughtful, uplifting chapters from each contributing author.
The consortium of talented, powerful women featured in Called to Lead have thrived in their respective fields while enjoying vibrant personal lives. Each woman draws upon her unique strengths and experiences to deliver relevant, useful strategies to help other women grow and succeed while balancing family, relationships and self-care.
Called to Lead is organized into five sections, each comprised of several chapters:
The Power of Being Called to Lead;
The Power of Self-Mastery in Leadership;
The Power of Influential Leadership;
The Power of Emotions and The Mind in Leadership; and
The Power of Leadership Love.
Leadership is a calling. The guidance and mentoring from each of the influential female leaders in Called to Lead aims to help readers answer the call with know-how and confidence.
“You are a leader,” says Pegine. “Embrace your gift. Invest in yourself and your leadership skills. The world wants and needs women who lead. Be bold. Be brave. Be seen. Be heard. Be paid well. Be you.”
About the Authors Pegine Echevarria, MSW, HoF, CVP Quoted in The New York Times, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and featured on Speaker and Minority Business Enterprise magazines, Pegine, who goes by her first name, is the only Latina in the Motivational Speakers Hall of Fame, alongside stars like Jack Canfield. Through Power Women Worldwide groups, she focuses on uplifting women in leadership. She is the founder and leader of multi-million-dollar businesses and a sought after speaker and presenter. Pegine has received business recognition from the Women’s Business Minority National Council, the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Small Business Administration, which named her a Women in Business Champion. www.powerwomenworldwide.com
Mindy Gibbins-Klein, MBA, CVP Mindy Gibbins-Klein is a multi-award-winning international speaker, thought leadership strategist, book coach and publisher. She has authored and co-authored 10 books, and has presented to and coached over 50,000 business executives and entrepreneurs in 18 countries. Mindy created The Book Midwife® brand, and designed the methodology that has helped over one thousand leaders to take their ideas and turn them into thought-leading books. www.mindygk.com
Diana Watson, MA, MS, DTM “Am I Strange?” is Diana Watson’s most renowned presentation with over one million views within two weeks. As a bilingual professional, Diana also presents in Mandarin, and this one video transformed how the world views Black people who speak Chinese. Her first book, The Speaking Seed: Secrets to Successful Foreign Language Public Speaking, is the first book ever dedicated to foreign language public speaking. www.dianawatson.net
Cindy Tschosik Cindy Tschosik is a certified ghostwriter, professional speaker and mental wellness advocate. For more than 25 years, Tschosik held leadership roles in legal, corporate, IT and nonprofits. In 2013, she launched SoConnected, a full-service marketing firm for business owners and professional speakers. During a challenging summer in 2008, Tschosik was diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Her mission came out of her mental wellness journey. www.soconnectedllc.com
Called to Lead: Success Strategies for Women Publisher: Panoma Press ISBN-10: 1784529362 ISBN-13: 978-1784529369 Available from Amazon.com
Trish Stevens Cassie Williams Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing.)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“Marie Pizano is an example of how you can overcome challenges to live with passion and purpose, and realize your ambitions. Her story can help empower and motivate others to find their Yes.” — Jack Canfield, Award-winning Author and Life Coach
Marie Pizano was once told that she makes coffee nervous, and for good reason. She has a bottomless well of energy that propels her forward no matter what forces are at work to hold her back.
“I’m generally prepared to jump off the cliff — with my stilettos on — and land on solid ground before I take off and go,” she says in her inspirational memoir, From Barefoot to Stilettos: Finding My Yes.
Her story is one of a woman who seeks purpose-driven endeavors that create change and redefine expectations. As the CEO and founder of MVP3 Entertainment Group, she used her expansive vision to launch a groundbreaking multipurpose complex in Memphis by partnering with Darnell Stitts of ATWEC Technologies to form MVP3 Studios & Partners, LLC. She also partnered with Melissa Harville-Lebron, the first African-American woman to own a NASCAR team, and they are joining forces for the upcoming NASCAR series.
But she is not all-business. She is also an impassioned community activist who spent the better part of 2020 advocating for a Tennessee amendment requiring divorcing parents to become educated on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) — before being granted a divorce.
Giving back to the community and empowering others to rise up have been her driving forces since she could afford her first pair of stilettos. Finding My Yes is Pizano’s way of sharing the trials she endured and the triumphs she celebrated through humorous and heartfelt vignettes that elucidate simple but powerful life lessons. Ultimately, she hopes to encourage readers to ignore the haters, bolster their moral backbones, and ultimately, find their own “yes.”
“I believe that the universe gives back what you put out there, but I also believe that no matter how positive you are or how much you mediate or pray, some things are just out of your control,” Pizano says. “Sometimes things just happen, and sometimes life is just not fair. Regardless, you cannot give up.”
About the Author Born and raised in Chicago, Marie Valentina Pizano moved to Memphis in 1999. She has served on the boards of the International Children’s Foundation, the Women’s Foundation for Greater Memphis and The Commission on Missing & Exploited Children. She was co-founder of the Tiara Tea Society, chairperson for Go Red for Women and created “ROCK FOR HOPE” for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
She is a devoted mother of two and very passionate about film, music and community. The author, producer, radio/TV host and speaker is building her life and her company, MVP3 Entertainment Group, on truth and integrity.
From Barefoot to Stilettos is being made into a TV series, with Karyme Lozano (best known as an award-winning actress from Mexico) on board as writer. Pizano donates 10 percent of her book sales to charities that raise awareness and funding for survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking: Amanda’s Way (www.AmandasWay.org) and Thistle & Bee (www.ThistleandBee.org); and she is working with www.Rotary-FYI.com to educate the public on ACEs.
For more information, visit http://mariepizano.com/ or www.FromBarefootToStilettos.com.
From Barefoot to Stilettos, Finding My Yes Publisher: WaterSide Publishing ISBN-10: 194763755X ISBN-13: 978-1947637559 Available from Amazon.com
Trish Stevens Teresa Hinojosa Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 832.569.5773 Direct 281.333.3507 Phone [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com
Embrace Your Imperfections and Embark Upon a Healing Journey with God as Your Guide
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing.)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Crippling fear permeated every aspect of Christine Soule’s life from an early age and followed her into adulthood. Her past of brokenness — abuse, dysfunction, addiction and other trauma — could have very well defined her future. But once she turned to God and let Him lead the way, she found a path toward a brighter future.
“The key is discovering who you are in Christ — your true identify. And that’s especially significant if you, like me, have a past of brokenness,” Soule writes in her inspirational story, Broken and Beautiful. “So much of how we see ourselves revolves around the demands our society places on us, insisting we live up to its expectations. Don’t listen to the world. Listen to God.”
Soule’s life was a jumbled pile of broken pieces. Her father was married seven times; her mother four times. Between her parents’ divorce when she was 5 years old and the day she allowed the power and presence of God into her heart, she watched her sister have an affair with her adoptive father; met 15 siblings she never knew at her biological father’s funeral; turned to drugs and alcohol; got pregnant at 17; had twins less than two years later; and became a victim of human trafficking. She had to break the cycle for the sake of her children. With nowhere else to turn, she dropped to her knees and prayed. And that’s when everything changed.
Broken and Beautiful is Soule’s remarkable story of how God took the pieces of her broken, astonishingly dysfunctional life and transformed it all into a breathtaking mosaic of joy and purpose.
“The places where you feel hopeless are exactly what He wants to redeem and fill with beauty, dignity and strength. He has a plan for your pain. A wonderful intention for your failures. A purpose for your hardest, darkest stories,” Soule writes.
Told with honesty and surprising touches of humor, Soule shares her journey from drug- addicted stripper to exuberant Jesus lover with a passion for helping others embrace God’s love. Broken and Beautiful is a raw, authentic story of hope, from a place of experience.
Author Christine Soule lives with the love of her life, Mitch Soule, in Seattle. They have five kids and three wonderful grandchildren. She is the founder and CEO of Providence Heights (www.providenceheights.org), a nonprofit created to house women and children in need and to provide counseling, education and jobs.
Broken and Beautiful: Let God Turn Your Mess into a Masterpiece ISBN-13: 979-8662957619 Available from Amazon.com (Broken and Beautiful), providenceheights.org and christinesoule.com
You Can TRUST Him When Your Life is Spinning Out of Control
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing.)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The disruption and difficulties of 2020 also uprooted our time with the Lord when churches closed their doors and our daily routines changed dramatically. Many people lost their jobs or lost their loved ones, despite praying diligently for different outcomes. As we adjust to a new normal, now is the perfect time to reestablish our faith and rebuild our trust in God.
Joan E. Murray’s inspirational new book, You Can TRUST Him: Anchoring Your Hope in God During Difficult Times, is filled with powerful reminders that God is always working in our favor, even when it seems that he hasn’t heard our prayers.
“We get disappointed with God because our expectations of what He should have done when we prayed is not what He actually did,” Joan said during a recent interview with Prayer on Purpose. “We have to recognize that delays are not denials. They’re simply holding patterns while God is working on the situations in our lives.”
You Can TRUST Him takes an in-depth journey into inspirational, personal and Biblical stories that reveal trust truths in the midst of hardship. Joan takes us into the lives of many people who were unsure they could survive their painful struggles: Hagar, Jeremiah, Caleb, John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene and Leah, just to name a few. She shares how even when they struggled with trusting God, He showed up powerfully in their lives and provided victorious outcomes. You Can TRUST Him brings the Bible alive and aims to help us trust His Word, trust His timing and trust that He will help us navigate through the painful seasons of life.
Author Joan E. Murray is the founder and CEO of Joan Murray Ministries and Seeds of Hope Worldwide Missions. She is an international Bible teacher, pastor, speaker and missionary who loves the Word of God and desires to see people experience freedom, wholeness and victory in all areas of life. She has 25 years of experience in management, counseling and in providing help and humanitarian aid to those who are struggling in life.
She serves the veterans in Houston, provides annual back-to-school outreaches and serves as an advisor to several churches and ministries, locally, nationally and internationally. Joan has travelled the world, sharing the gospel message and serving the needs of vulnerable populations.
Joan has been featured on TBN, Daystar, TCT Network, Destiny TV and on international television networks and in various magazines and newspaper articles. She can be heard daily on BPNRadio.com and weekly on Wilkinsradio.com. You Can TRUST Him is her 16th book.
For more information, please visit www.joanmurrayministries.org, or follow the author on Facebook (Joan Murray or Joan Murray Ministries/Seeds of Hope Worldwide Missions); on Instagram (jmmcontactus); and on Twitter (@jmmseedsofhope). You can also visit her YouTube channel, Joan Murray Ministries.
You Can TRUST Him: Anchoring Your Hope in God During Difficult Times Publisher: Xulon Press/Salem Media Group ISBN-10: 1632216183 ISBN-13: 978-1632216182 Available from Amazon.com, BN.com, Xulon Press, Apple Books, Joanmurrayministries.org and other retailers
Trish Stevens Alice Newbury Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
Providence Heights Brings Renewed Hope to Seattle’s At-Risk Women
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing.)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Seattle spends more than $1 billion per year on fragmented programs to support its homeless, according to Puget Sound Business Journal. This figure is staggering, yet offers no guarantees that these vital services will be available from one year to the next. Too much hinges on donations and government programs — dollars that hang in the balance relative to the local economy. Women and children are especially vulnerable to the dangers of living on the streets or in unsafe environments, and one woman who has survived unthinkable adversity has founded an organization unlike most others.
In 2019, Christine Soule launched Providence Heights, a Christian-based nonprofit designed to empower Seattle’s women in need through housing, employment opportunities and personal development programs. The organization’s business model includes multiple sources of revenue to generate a sustainable income, something Soule likes to call Capitalism for the Poor. Additionally, “Our unique retail space integration will secure revenue as well as provide apprenticeship, jobs and entrepreneurial skills,” Soule explains.
The initial Phase I launch will provide housing and resilient growth programs for approximately 100 women at risk of going under who simply need an opportunity to regroup and equip themselves to not just survive but to thrive. Also for those who have come out of a program such as the Union Gospel Mission and are fully prepared to commit to changing the trajectory of their lives.
Phase II aims to more than double the capacity and provide housing for more than 200 women, including those with children. Once the revenue stream is firmly established in this phase, Providence Heights will enter Phase III — the final phase — when the organization will replicate this model from city to city. They hope to also empower similar organizations to use its successful blueprint to help those they serve.
Providence Heights Founder and Chief Executive Officer Christine Soule is a lover of people and passionate about leading them toward a restored and dignified life. From her personal experience, she has great compassion for homeless and abused women. She co-founded The Purpose and is a philanthropist, author and inventor. Her recently released book, Broken and Beautiful, chronicles her remarkable journey from trauma to triumph. Christine is also a mother of five and married to Mitch, the love of her life.
Trish Stevens Claire Downing Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone 800.854.2207 Fax
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Code-At-Home Tech Toys Keep Girls Engaged, Away From Computer Screens, During COVID-19 School Closures
Are you looking for constructive ways to keep your children stimulated and engaged during the COVID-19 school shutdown? SmartGurlz founder Sharmi Albrechtsen beat out 40,000 other entrepreneurs on ABC’s Shark Tank and negotiated with guest “shark” Richard Branson, before closing a deal with Daymond John on her line of groundbreaking toys that use an award-winning robotics platform to teach basic coding skills to girls as young as 6.
“Many girls’ toys lag behind in the development of spatial skills, hands-on problem solving skills, and confidence with coding and computer science,” explains SmartGurlz founder Sharmi Albrechtsen. “These are exactly the skills that SmartGurlz aims to develop.”
The SmartGurlz line of unique, interactive, self-balancing robots and dolls are controlled with the SugarCoded™ App than can be downloaded onto an IOS or android phone or tablet that once downloaded requires no Wi-Fi, just Bluetooth.
A full, step-by-step tutorial teaches basic coding strategies so young girls can maneuver the toys around obstacle courses of their own design. With several levels of learning and chal-lenges, the toy keeps kids occupied several hours a week for 4-6 months.
The company is also offering a free weekly webinar for parents and kids affected by COVID- 19 that includes getting started, tips and tricks, and weekly home assignments.
Girls playing with SmartGurlz products learn three key concepts:
Spatial Reasoning. Girls learn how to direct/orient their robots in new environments and in-terpret maps.
Computer Programming. Girls learn to program their robots using our kid-friendly coding App called SugarCodedTM.
Storytelling & Problem Solving. Girls learn to tell stories and solve missions via coding.
The SmartGurlz product line also includes an e-book series available through the App that focuses on the everyday adventures of four talented young women studying at the fictional New York Institute of Technology — N.I.T.
We’re all adjusting to a new normal. You can use this extra time at home to inspire the female tech leaders of tomorrow with toys that integrate the power of play with the power of technology.
SmartGurlz CEO Sharmi Albrechtsen is a robotics aficionado, educator, author and mom with a passion for closing the diversity gap in technology.
In 2015, Sharmi started SmartGurlz after becoming frustrated with the lack of STEM toys available for her daughter. The SmartGurlz flagship product, Siggy, was the first robotics product designed specifically for girls. More than 30,000 girls have been educated with SmartGurlz. SmartGurlz partners include BlackGirlsCode, Girl Scouts of America and Morrison Mentors.
SmartGurlz recently expanded its product line to include Smart Buddies (a joint-venture with Pitsco Education), which features a diverse set of characters suitable for both girls and boys, targeted towards schools.
Sharmi was recently given AdWeek’s Disruptor Award in Championing Gender Diversity in Advertising and Tech. She has also been named Women Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 by the Asian Chamber of Commerce as well as named a Morgan Stanley Multi-Cultural Innovation Lab fellow. Sharmi has been featured in Forbes, Huffington Post, Financial Times, Fox Business News, Fox and Friends and CNN. She is also a featured TEDx speaker.
