Purpose Podcast 027 — Sabrina Parsons (MommyCEO): To Be The Best Person That I Can Be

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I start this episode talking about how I hate the term work-life balance. Is your work not part of your life? Just because people think of work as being 40 hours per week (or 60, 70 or 80 for entrepreneurs), does not mean it has to be that way. You can create your life. I give some examples.  Then I introduced my guest this week, Sabrina Parsons.

Sabrina Parsons is the CEO of Palo Alto Software, based in Eugene, Oregon.  Palo Alto Software is focused on helping entrepreneurs and small business succeed.  The business mission is to provide high quality low cost tools to small businesses.

Sabrina blogs at Forbes.com and MommyCEO.org and is the President of the Princeton Entrepreneurs Network.  She balances her business life with her husband and 3 sons.

During our conversation she talked about one role of the CEO as Kool-Aid dispenser (develop and share a vision in such a way that people buy into where the company is going).

She mentioned a couple of articles she’s written:

Do you have to pretend you’re sick because your child is sick?  At Palo Alto Software, no one has to pretend anything.

We focus not on hours or minutes in the office, but instead on productivity.  That means we need to spend more time and energy defining, “What does success look like?”

When I asked Sabrina about purpose, she first answered: “My ultimate purpose is always going to be to be the best person that I can be.”  Then she went further to say it is to be a successful person and be a person who lives by her moral values.  This means that when she’s a mom, she’s 100% present and working to be the best mom possible and when she’s taking on something at work, she won’t do it unless she can give 100% to it. 

Contact Sabrina

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After the interview I related how systems can help reduce the hourly requirement.  Mastering the Rockefeller Habits is a book by Verne Harnish that lays out such a system.  I can help you implement or customize your practices to dramatically reduce the day to day requirements on your executives, helping you maximize the impact you’re making per unit of effort.