MINDSET ZONE

Marcia Dawood is an investor in over 200 early-stage private companies. In addition to her own investing, she is a Venture Partner with the international firm, Mindshift Capital (focused on the US and MENA regions) and a part of the investment committee for Next Wave Impact Fund. She also serves as a board member and advisor to Zive and Misfits Bakehouse. SheEO is an organization Marcia actively supports. She currently serves as the Chair of the Board of the Angel Capital Association (ACA). The ACA is the professional society for angel investors in the US and globally.  Marcia also is a founding member and current chair of the Growing Women’s Capital group building syndication and collaboration among US investment groups focused on women-led companies. She received an MBA from the Global Executive program at UNC’s Kenan Flagler’s School of Business, OneMBA.  

Today, Marcia joins me to share her story and her advice. She talks about why most companies don’t make it and shares how she minimized the risks associated with startups. She shares the questions you should be asking yourself about your startup, as well as tips on what investors love to see. She emphasizes the importance of a flexible mindset, explains why an investor’s No doesn’t always mean No, and shares why you should ask for advice if you want money, and vice versa.

“Are you really solving a big problem, or do you have a solution that’s in search of a problem?”

- Marcia Dawood

“It’s not so much what’s happening to you. It’s really how you’re dealing with it.”

- Marcia Dawood

This Week on The Mindset Zone:

• Why most companies don’t make it, and why Marcia’s did
• Why Marcia’s work is important to her
• Investing in women-led companies
• Minimizing the risk in startups
• The importance of knowing how to do a lot with a little
• Why the best founders know what they don’t know
• The marks of a successful leader
• The importance of flexibility
• Why, if you want money or advice, you should ask for the other

Resources Mentioned:

• Podcast: https://the-angel-next-door.simplecast.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marciadawood/
• Website: https://www.marciadawood.com/
• Mindshift Capital https://www.mindshiftcapital.com/
• Angel Capital Association https://www.angelcapitalassociation.org

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Natasha Todorovic-Cowan is the CEO and co-founder of the National Values-Center Consulting (and owner of Spiral Dynamics® brand). For over 25 years, she has been working with leaders, consultants, coaches, and organizations applying her proprietary Spiral Dynamics® cultural DNA survey, leadership assessments, and change readiness index to predict hurdles to change. Her techniques for handling corporate change are rooted in 70 years of research and application in a variety of industries and sectors. She has delivered over 200 Spiral Dynamics® certification programs in 14+ countries and on 5 continents! She has spoken at the World Future Society Conference on the future of work and running online programs since 2010, helping people connect and understand human factors through technological tools as well as in person.

Today, Natasha joins me to talk about Spiral Dynamics®. She explains what it is and why it’s important, sharing clients’ stories. She discusses relationship systems, explaining why they’re important for mutual understanding as we change, evolve, develop, and grow. She shares her experience and memories of former Yugoslavia. She offers her tips on navigating the change and disruption caused by Covid 19, notes the importance of asking how other people hold their beliefs, and shares her 5 Point Model of Change.

“Defining a belief is filling in the gap between knowing and not knowing.”

- Natasha Todorovic-Cowan

This Week on The Mindset Zone:

• What is Spiral Dynamics®
• Human nature and how we change, evolve, develop, and grow
• Why we need to see each other in systems instead of transactionally
• Navigating Covid 19 disruptions
• The 5 Point Model of Change

Resources Mentioned:

• [email protected]
• Levels of Human Existence

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Are negative emotions always bad? What are negative emotions? When something stirs us up in an unpleasant way, we can call it a negative emotion. We feel sad, fearful, mad.

Let's think about situations that cause us to be fearful. Usually, it's something that can put us in danger.

I remember many years ago, in a group adventure, we went rock rappelling.

For those of you who don't know or who have never tried rock rappelling, you lower yourself down the side of a cliff using ropes. If done with care, it's quite safe. Anyway, we ended the day at this natural pool that you could jump into or rappel down to.   

Oh, boy, when I looked downwards, I was afraid, and I asked myself: "Are you really sure you want to do this?" I understood the fear as self-preservation, I managed to rationalize it, and I jumped.

It was terrific falling into the refreshing water–what a contrast between the fear and the joy! A radical emotional shift within seconds.

Now let's consider a more common situation. If we are crossing a road, and we suddenly notice a car coming fast. We quickly react out of fear of being run over and bring ourselves to the safety of the sidewalk.

We feel our hearts beating fast. We realize how close we've come to danger. We feel fear, a negative emotion that can be a good thing in this type of scenario, even a great thing because it allows our bodies to react quickly to save our lives. Yes, this is an example of how a negative emotion can be good.

Fear is there to protect us from danger. The capacity to experience that emotion is there because it helped our ancestors to survive dangers.

Negative emotions only become bad when we don't let them go. When we stay stuck in a negative emotional state, for instance, remaining all day long thinking about what could have been? Holding on to this kind of negativity is detrimental to us mentally and physically because we keep that state of high activation going without allowing our body to recover and relax.

Consider another situation.

Did you ever witness a kid being accused of something they didn't do? Something they consider an unjust accusation. Oh! They can get mad, even have an angry outburst, screaming, crying, kicking. Definitely not a pleasurable experience for anyone involved.

Anger has that characteristic of energizing us to fight.

For instance, if we witness someone we love (or even a stranger) being mistreated, we feel our heart racing, and we get in action mode to do something about it. In this case, anger can be a good thing.

Of course, there are many occasions where anger can lead to awful consequences, such as violence, injuries, and harm. But this happens not because of the emotion itself. More often than not, it's because of how everyone involved reacts to their negative emotions.

Let's consider yet another situation–sadness.

When we lose a loved one, we feel sad. A totally normal emotion and I will argue, a healthy emotion that just shows how connected we are with significant others, and if those connections are broken, it hurts like hell.

But it can also connect us to good memories of that relationship, with all we learn from that person, even energize our determination to keep their legacy alive. In that case, it can be a good thing too.

My point is that negative emotions can be a good thing in certain circumstances. Negative emotions are part of our lives, and how we respond to them determines their goodness or badness.

Toddlers wear their emotions on their skins. They go from laughing to crying in a New York minute.

As we grow older, we can become so good at self-regulating our emotions that we become numb to feeling them. "Thick skin," we call it.

But we can sweep too many emotions under the rug, and they will find ways to come out and cause trouble. Or we can reduce our emotional range, which once again can numb us and prevents us from feeling even the good things in our lives.

This numbing can have dire consequences. Our bodies are wired for negative emotions. We're meant to feel them and quickly. It's like when we are eating and bite a hot spicy chili pepper. Oh, boy, we know what happened; we feel it in every cell in our body–well, at least in our mouth.

Still, as human beings, we have this amazing capacity to numb ourselves to feel these strong emotions—quite incredible.

The issue is that desensitization doesn't discriminate. It prevents us from perceiving the good stuff too. By nature, positive emotions are more subtle, like a nice meal with friends that we thoroughly enjoy but aren't totally aware of the bliss. If we are numbed, it much harder to feel the joy of the great things in our lives.

We need to allow ourselves to feel the full spectrum of emotions.

Can you imagine a good book without the emotional ups and downs? I don't want to imagine a good l...

In The How of Happiness, Sonja Lyubomirsky introduces the concept of the Happiness Pie. She explains that, while research suggests that 50% of our well-being is determined by our genetics, only 10% is determined by life circumstances. The remaining 40% can be determined by intentional activity—what we think and what we do.

Today, I talk about the power of this 40%. I point out that happiness is a choice, I speak about Viktor Frankl, and I talk about the contributions of positive psychology. I share Seligman’s PERMA acronym for what allows us to flourish: Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment. I share the history of the theory of positivity, I note the power of relaxation, and I emphasize that you cannot force happiness.

“We cannot force positivity. Yet, we can create conditions that facilitate positive emotions to happen.”

- Ana Melikian

This Week on The Mindset Zone:

• The Happiness Pie
• Why happiness doesn’t have to be a goal; it can be a way of life
• Happiness as a choice
• Positive Psychology
• The 5 components that allow us to flourish
• The history of the theory of positivity
• The danger of toxic positivity

Resources Mentioned:

• The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want by Sonja Lyubomirsky

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Subscribe to the show and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts:

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Be sure to share your favorite episodes on social media to help me reach more people like you, and don’t forget to connect with me:

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