Linda Rendleman: "To know what you want requires asking yourself the right questions and listening to your answers."
Linda Rendleman
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M.S.,speaker, facilitator and author, is dedicated to the development of women. As a single mother, cancer survivor and business owner, she brings perspective to the many roles and challenges of today's woman. Founder and CEO of Business Women Connect, Inc., an organization with the mission of developing business and professional women through mentoring, connections and resources, Linda has a background that spans thirty years of real-life experiences speaking, writing and promoting growth for women at home and in the workplace. Her popular editorials, Linda's Views, are read online each week at www.businesswomenconnect.com by thousands of women and are currently being published in book format. She has also hosted her own television show and her own radio show and has made numerous presentations and facilitations on a variety of women's issues to groups and companies throughout the country. Linda has received recognition and numerous awards for her extraordinary speaking and writing abilities. Most recently, she was honored by the Indiana Commission for Women as a 2008 Torchbearer Recipient for leading and inspiring women to greater balance and fulfillment for quality lives.
How did you find your passion for the work you do today?
LR: I guess the best way to answer that is that my passion found me, I did not find it. I think many times our passions are developed in us at a very young age. For me, it is almost like a yearning that sits inside of yourself or your soul and is swelling up for release. Fortunately I was able to find a way to make that happen.
How do you recommend women go about finding their true vocation?
LR: My friend, Janet Attwood, who wrote The Passion Test, says that “When you are clear, what you want will show up in your life, but only to the extent that you are clear.” My interview with her is on my website for anyone who would like to hear about finding her passion. To know what you want requires asking yourself the right questions and listening to your answers. And in order to formulate the questions and hear the answers, you must be dedicated to giving yourself the space to make that happen. Running yourself ragged to fulfill everyone else’s needs keeps you from fulfilling and even identifying your own. There is a great book by Linda Douty which is entitled: “How Can I Let Go If I Don’t Know I’m holding On?” which addresses this.
How did Business Women Connect, your online magazine for the development of business and professional women, get its start?
LR: I will try to make this answer brief, but it could be really long. I founded the original Indianapolis Woman Magazine in the early 1980’s with a friend, Connie Rosenthal, who has since died of brain cancer. Connie and I were young women with a passion but no business experience. We studied the magazine publishing business for about a year, and then started our magazine. Because we both had writing backgrounds, the content was pretty easy. After some time, our magazine was sold because we were underfunded. It is owned by Weiss Communications today and it is great to see it completing the original mission back so long ago. Business Women Connect was developed out of that unfulfilled dream of mine to connect amazing women to one another and offer them resources. When the internet came on the scene in the late 1990’s I saw it as my chance to complete the dream and mission of bringing women together. I literally felt shivers all over my body when the idea came to me. In 2001, BWC was born under the name of Indy Women Connect and eventually Business Women Connect.
Can you describe your leadership style?
LR: I definitely am a nurturer. So my style is much about encouraging and empowering people. I really do not like confrontation at all and I must admit that there are times when I could learn a little about being less conciliatory and more direct. Life is a long learning process, for sure.
What do you value most in your work?
LR: I value being in control of my own time and being in charge of my decisions. Realizing that if the decision is wrong I have no one to blame but myself, I still like it that way. And I love to feel that I am contributing to others lives in a positive manner.
What do you value outside of your work?
LR: Of course my family is at the very top of the list. As I talk about at length in my book, Women Like Us: Real Stories and Strategies for Living Your Best Life, I was a single mother for most of the time my children were growing up. And I can see the gift in that. My children and I are very very close and that includes my beautiful 4 grandchildren. I value that all of my children are good, kind people. Along with that, I am a spiritual person. I lived in an Ashram last year and came back from India with a renewed spirit for meditation, yoga and living in the present. Since I am a cancer survivor, I value my health which is enhanced by love of family and spirit.
How did your education prepare you for your career?
LR: Early on I knew I wanted to speak and write. So my education at Indiana University is in Public Speaking and English. My master’s degree from Butler University is in Counseling. So, fortunately, although I did not know that I would be eventually working with motivating and inspiring women, my education was a marvelous background to prepare me for my life passion.
You are also a speaker and facilitator, how do you captivate your audiences?
LR: Real stories and humor are critical to engaging an audience, in my opinion. I love including the audience in my presentations and taking on a bit of a self-deprecating demeanor puts them at ease and creates a bond between us.
What public speaking tips can you provide for the women leaders that visit this site?
LR: Great question. Know your audience, know your subject matter, and know yourself. Don’t try to get in front of a group and be someone you are not. If you are giving a speech, rehearse, rehearse, and rehearse.
Do you have any great mentors in your life? How have they impacted you?
LR: This is an interesting question. Considering the fact that I mentor younger women I can say that I have had many women in my life that I have been fortunate to be around and takes cues from. Women like Dr. Sally Brown, the founder of Ambassadors for Children and once president of Ambassadair Travel Club who I admire for her work with children in third world countries. Without Sally, I may have never taken the most meaningful trip of my life to an orphanage in Rishikesh, India and had the opportunity to work with the children; Lorene Burkhart, philanthropist, writer and basically a trailblazer who has shared with me the wisdom of being female through her 70+ years; and my own mother, who mentored me by demonstrating her own frustrations and fears in an honest manner, helping me to learn to never let fears and self-limiting thoughts interfere with what you want in life. The only formal mentoring relationship I have had was with Dr. Kathleen Brehony, author and speaker who assisted me with the creation of my first book. Kathleen taught me that writing a book takes dedication and patience. She helped me to believe that I had something to say.
What is your philosophy on work/life balance?
LR: I really think everyone needs to develop his or her own definition of what balance means to them. For example, for me, balance doesn’t necessarily mean limiting my work to 8 hours per day. I will work long days in a row, but then pull back and give myself rest. I also recognize that my work is my passion, but if I work continually without respite with my family, my books and travel I get unbalanced. I just don’t feel that work/life balance is a regimen but rather recognition.
What challenges are young professionals facing today? How can they overcome these challenges?
LR: First of all, I think young professional women are really much savvier than we were. They seem to know what they want and understand that working for it is part of the process. But they still deal with the difference in treatment between men and women in many fields. For instance, I know a very bright young woman who is in the financial industry. At her bank, there are 20 women and 132 men in the department. Her superiors are all men and no women, which concerns her as she wants to become a regional manager. She told me that her boss recently had a team building day at the Kentucky Derby but only the men were invited. Another concern is losing career ground when having babies. I believe the way has been paved somewhat for young women by my generation, but we must not give up the goal of equality. The voices of young women need to be heard.
What advice do you have for young women?
LR: The first section at the beginning of my book is titled: Living with No Regrets. And that is my advice. Think about your decisions and how you conduct your life so that you can look back on it with no regrets. A choice is always available to us to do the right thing or the wrong thing whether it is our behaviors and attitudes toward ourselves or others. In a split second we make choices that can be good for us or not so good. Make your decisions on the way you conduct your life count. And don’t allow yourself to be a victim. Your thoughts and feelings are important because they belong to you. And you matter. Also, keep promoting and supporting other women in the cause for equality in the workplace and in the life place. Don’t ignore your sister bonds but always nurture them, both for your personal growth and as an example for your children. Finally, make it a life practice to give to others in some meaningful way.
What if one of our readers has questions, can they contact you?
LR: Certainly, my email is best for starters. linda@businesswomenconnect.com or linda@lindarendleman.com
What websites and resources do you recommend?
LR: Of course, my own website, www.businesswomenconnect.com. Among the rest I think that AlterNet is very good, www.alternet.org. I also like www.womensEnews.org. They do a lot of reporting on the equality of women and I enjoy reading their comments. They are a little to the left, but for me, that is good.