A lot has been written about “storytelling” and developing your “purpose.” Let’s simplify a bit to get more powerful. Customers, prospects, employees don’t want to hear about what you do as much as they want to hear about why you do it. Every organization has a great story to tell that is based on a powerful why.
But maybe even more important to answer is “what’s your story?” Your own personal story. Every day we tell ourselves dozens of stories about our goals, our dreams, and even our everyday interactions. But the stories we tell ourselves often become self-fulfilling prophecies that determine our success (or “failure”) in our careers, our relationships and the overall quality of our lives.
George Rafeedie and Cynthia-Pike Fuentes, our panel speakers for our November 18 discussion.
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2020
Time: noon – 1:00 PM
Location: Zoom
Price: Members: Free
Non-members: $10
Students: (with valid student ID): $5
RSVP: Register now!
About the Hosts:
Cynthia Pike-Fuentes, M.S., PCC
Cynthia Pike-Fuentes is an ICF-certified PCC and executive coach/partner to high-achieving individuals who want to proactively and successfully manage transition and change in their personal and professional lives. For more than two decades she advised hundreds of Fortune 500 executives on business communications strategy, employee engagement, change management and leadership development, before making the leap to executive coaching.
Cynthia has had a life-long passion for helping others grow through transition. She has proactively and successfully transitioned and transformed her own life and career from a successful television producer and journalist, to a senior-level public relations executive and college professor, before returning to her first passion – applying the practical aspects of psychology and human behavior to help clients craft a creative, fulfilling life on their own terms.
Cynthia shares with her clients a deeply-rooted belief that our personal and professional lives are always intertwined. Her own professional transitions often shaped personal transitions as well and included marriage, caring for aging parents; serious illness and loss of loved ones; the birth and adoption of her children, and relocations from her home in Chicago to Massachusetts, Michigan and Texas.
Cynthia holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Marketing from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and began her coaching career after completing the Coaches’ Training Institute (CTI) core curriculum program.
In 2014, Cynthia graduated with Highest Scholarly Distinction with a Master’s Degree in Organizational Behavior and Executive Coaching from the Naveen Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas – Dallas. She also was selected for Beta Gamma Sigma, the international business society that recognizes superior academic achievement in business studies. Cynthia’s extensive research surrounding intergenerational conflict within organizations established the foundation for her graduate capstone project: Bridging the Generational Divide: How Executive Coaching Creates Collaboration and Increases Productivity and Profitability in the Workplace, which was published in the acclaimed International Journal of Social Science and Business.
Cynthia currently serves as board president of the Woodlands, Texas-based National Charity Roundtable. She also has completed Bridging the Gap – a certified program in family and grief counseling at the Woodlands Church. Cynthia lives in the Houston area with her husband, two teenaged sons and a lovable assortment of furry, four-legged family members.
George Rafeedie
President & Founder, Tell Your Story
George started Tell Your Story after several years on the agency and client side. He started the Chicago office of what is now gyro after a few years in corporate PR and marketing at Baxter Healthcare Corporation and Arthur Andersen. Before that he cut his teeth at a PR firm and B2B marketing firm in Ohio. In between, he received his masters in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University’s Medill School. His undergrad degree in journalism and PR is from THE Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. Besides telling stories, George loves mentoring, networking, speaking and teaching. He is very active with the Business Marketing Association and teaches a strategic communications class at Northwestern, when they let him. His wife, Karen, is in the ad biz on the creative side and keeps him honest. His two young boys keep him hopping and active. In his spare time, he runs an office sharing and networking space in the ‘burbs of Chicago called CoWorkers.