It’s time for your weekly trip to the virtual break room with Balsom. Fix yourself a coffee, grab a seat and get to know us.
What’s the best piece of advice you ever received?
Krista Balsom, President:
The best piece of advice I ever got was from my grandmother Hilda Blanche Balsom – she told me to “just say yes”. Figure out the how later, but to take every opportunity you possibly can. Sometimes I think I say yes too often, but generally, this principle has served me well. I’m strategic about saying yes, but I’m even more strategic about saying no to something. There is fun and growth in saying yes to things, and the most growth comes from being uncomfortable.
Kerri Johnson, Marketing and Communications Manager:
I’m totally paraphrasing this, but the best piece of advice I have ever received was: Sometimes it’s wise to just hold your tongue. My Grandpa Bill — my most revered influence— counselled me to measure my words and use them sparingly when encountering fools who just can’t zip it. Although I haven’t always heeded his advice, I’ve found I can learn an awful lot when sitting back and listening, and giving myself the opportunity to calculate a response. Sometimes that response is no response, and sometimes it’s spicy verbal diarrhea.
Kelsey Stanley, Marketing and Communications Coordinator:
The best piece of advice I ever received was to realize that I can do hard things even when I don’t want to. A lot of times I find myself putting off the hard work or workout or stressor but now when I think of this advice I find the hard things manageable and try to enjoy it to the fullest!
Dawn Booth, Editor in Chief of Your McMurray Magazine & YMM Parent:
Sometimes people ask: “What advice would you give to your younger self?” My best advice is to rethink this question. Instead ask, “What would your older self tell you?” It switches the focus on past negatives that you can’t change and allows you to focus on the present. Try switching this focus and, you may find yourself tapping into wiser answers.
Andrew Johnstone, Lead Designer:
Probably two pieces of advice really. The first is simple: respond, don’t react. Saved me a lot of grief! Also, that nervousness and excitement are basically the same reactions within the body, so the advice is to feel the fear and jump right in.
Michael Jesso, News Consultant:
The best advice I ever heard was from Grace Coddington. “If you don’t demand, you’ll be blamed. You have to learn the way to beat your path through to make yourself felt and make yourself necessary and find a way that works for you. A lot of people come and a lot of people have gone and you have to be fairly tough to withstand that.
Steve Auty, Special Projects Coordinator
Study Stephen Covey. Wonderful words to live by.
Emma Carter, Accounts Representative & Special Projects Manager:
A two-parter from a mentor. I asked him to share with me the best and worst pieces of advice he had ever received, and his answer has always stayed with me. The worst piece of advice he had ever received was: follow to your heart. Contrasting this, the best advice he ever received was: do the thing that scares you most.
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