My Leading from the Heart Experience

by Susan Krohn

Owner, Worth the Wait Consignment Shop

Every once in a while you do something that is totally worthwhile, something that fulfills every expectation, something that actually exceeds your expectations.  That something for me has been participating in a course called “Leading from the Heart—Effective Life Strategies for Women.”

 This 8-week course is led by Cynthia Bischoff, a very accomplished business communications trainer who truly leads from her heart.  It does not do her justice to simply tell you that she has been a consultant and coach since 1980, that she teaches in ODU’s MBA program, that she has been named one of the top ten best instructors in the nation, that she has published three books and has authored a videotape series, that she successfully leads training workshops, does individual coaching to help maximize your personal performance, conducts women’s support groups and weekend retreats.

Cynthia’s true essence is her heart and the way in which she accomplishes asll that she does; her charisma, charm and passion for what she teaches.  She is truly one of the most “evolved” women I have ever met and I am known to be skeptical—just ask some of my friends!  When my good friend, Lynda, implored me to take this course, I was hesitant.  Would this be just another group of women whining?  Getting together to network their business endeavors?  When my friend told me that she had taken the course three times and had continued to learn more and more about herself and how to change behaviors, attitudes, and habits that no longer served her, I started to listen.  I had just made a life altering decision myself, to leave my career for a new business venture and a better quality of life.  A change that meant a certain degree of risk, much less money (at least for the short term), more time with my husband and son, trading in 70 hour weeks for 40 hour weeks, . . .the chance to get back to what I really loved. . . . I was finally listening to my own heart so it seemed exactly the right time to take this course.  Another great decision!

I would have to take several columns to describe what I have learned, not only about myself, but how to access my own truth and to create a plan for making life-long changes toward so many things.  As Cynthia puts it in her first session,  “Accessing Your Truth,” “. . . the heart is the interface of the body, mind, and spirit.  To lead from the heart, you first look deeply into yourself to access your own truth.” 

Cynthia helps you do this in a masterful way as she leads you through this 8 week odyssey of self awareness.  The sessions are limited to no more than 9 women, and in my own group of 8, I have met and heartfully connected to the most amazing, inspiring, and substantial women.  The sharing has been powerful and we have all connected in a very personal and permanent way.  Each of us has the ability to live and lead powerfully.

In this 8-week program, Cynthia Bischoff helps us understand how to find our own personal way to accomplish this.  The 8-week Leading from the Heart program (2 ½ hour sessions) includes a coursepack, program journal, course supplies, refreshments, two individual coaching sessions, and parting gift. It is rare that I recommend something with this much passion, but for me, it has been truly enlightening. 

My Experience in the Leading from the Heart Program

 by

Beth Bilderback

Marketing Assistant, Downtown Norfolk Council

I think probably everyone has gone through at least one part of their lives when they are figuratively spinning a roll of masking tape in their hands, trying desperately to find the end.  Last January I was struggling with just about everything in the canon – a failed marriage, a new identity as an unemployed single parent, returning to my hometown after over a decade away from it.  My sister, who had never heard of Cynthia Bischoff or her Leading from the Heart program, passed along to me a flyer she’d received about an upcoming ‘Heart to Heart’ event and strongly suggested I go to it.  You’re having a hard time right now, she told me.  Maybe this will help you find a job.  And so I did, expecting some sort of networking gathering, and ate hors d’oeuvres and sat on a big comfy couch and listened to the women around me, some of whom were coming for information like I was, some of whom were giving nothing less than testimonials to the power of what they’d experienced in under Cynthia’s tutelage. Something about the power of what I heard made me sign up for the next session.  And thus I began a process that I can say without exaggeration, completely altered my way of thinking.

 Okay, you might be thinking.  Is this like Amway?  Is this some guru cult like situation? And what were in those hors d’ouevres? The basic premise of the program is that all of us have the potential to live and lead powerfully.  In 8 weeks, participants are provided with useful tools for living life more consciously and with greater overall balance.  You may have heard a version of some of the information in Leading from the Heart before.  Many spiritual practices advocate, for example, living with conscious intent and making the most of the present.  There are a lot of people around these days advertising “life coaching” services of one sort or another.  But Cynthia Bischoff is different.  A respected educator who has taught in the Old Dominion MBA program for many years, she is simultaneously warm and professional, charismatic and low-key, in a very real world trustworthy way.  In other words, this is not an 8 week support group led by some whispery voiced New Ager in Stevie Nicks drapery (not that there’s anything wrong with that).  Cynthia is one of the few people I know who possesses deep wisdom but who I can also imagine taking out the garbage.

 The first class met in the evening and it was not the love fest I’d expected from the introduction of a few weeks before.  There were eight of us sitting there nervously on the aforementioned comfy couches trying to briefly describe ourselves.  I broke down while trying to tell who I was personally and professionally.  These can be hard questions and at the time I honestly had no idea of the answers to either one.  But slowly, over the weeks, our little group became tightly interlocked.  We talked about facing our fears, about the effect of our “tribes” on how we behaved, about how hard we tried to let go of what hurt us, about what we kept hidden, about finding our rightful paths.  Leading from the Heart is not group therapy – there are flipcharts and handouts and video clips, all of which I found immensely reassuring in the face of so much vulnerability.  Women, after all, are for the most part natural “sharers” and the classes undeniably provide a safe environment in which to be oneself.  But we were all there not just to vent, but to learn. And the most important lesson I learned, as each week a certain comment, quote or anecdote snapped up more and more tiny window shades in the closed up house of my mind, was to trust myself. And that answers I was searching for lay within me - I had only to access them in order to know the truth of what was to be done.

I took a leap of faith when I took Leading from the Heart and a somewhat bigger one when I continued by taking the follow-up series, the Wisdom of Transformation.  Since then I find that I am calmer and walk with my head up instead of down.  I listen to my intuition and write down my dreams. Mostly, though, I am not so afraid.

 Cynthia also does a Leading from the Heart series for Men, a wide variety of one-day workshops and individual coaching, during which she can help you implement new skills, look at life issues, evaluate behaviors, and move forward toward the life you really want.

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