Day 221: Ruth Klein
“I think what fuels me and others is heart-centered listening without judgment. I think I really thrive … when I feel someone’s really listening without any judgment and there’s acceptance without making anyone wrong or stupid for their thinking or their thoughts. And it’s also a lot of recognition and validation, and recognition in terms of acknowledgement. I am who I am.”
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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Ruth, for agreeing to be part of the Project today, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?
Ruth Klein: Certainly. I’m Ruth Klein, and I’m a Brand Strategist and Productivity Coach.
Toni: Well thank you, and thank you for being here. Ruth, when you think of that word inspiration, who do you think you inspire and how might that happen?
Ruth: You know, that’s an excellent question. I think what happens sometimes — and I know this happens to me — is I don’t even realize how many people I inspire, and I think this is the beautiful thing on the one hand, that if we can live the way we share with our clients, that’s all the better. Walk your walk, talk your talk. And so I think the way that I help them most is that I’m able to really see a person’s brilliance within a few minutes of meeting them. It just comes naturally to me.
Toni: And can you define what that brilliance is? What … what does that mean to you when you see someone’s brilliance?
Ruth: Yeah. That brilliance really is their essence. It’s really their essence. I mean, I’m working with clients, and many times within 20 minutes I’ll have them in tears, and not because they’re sad, but in terms of really getting down to the most inner soulful piece. I just get it, and sometimes – many times – that piece is hidden, that brilliance, that shine, that light, that essence is hidden. And I check it out, I see it, I check it out with them, and this is … you know, this is when they’ll say “Yeah, how did you know that,” and I help them, you know, help them put that dream or that brilliance in a safe place. Once they can acknowledge it, that for many people is most difficult.
It’s interesting, because most recently I’ve been working … it’s just incredible … three people that have had careers on hold for 20 years … 20 years … and so what I’m able to do is I’m able to see their brilliance. And I have a psychology background, a Master’s in Clinical Psychology, and I’ve written several books.
I’m able to help them get through some of those blockages. Those blockages are nothing more than just layers of stuff that have been put there, created in their experience. And so once we can uncover that, then they start to see … they start to see their light, their brilliance, and it helps immeasurably in getting them to start believing in what they can do, again, that they are resourceful even though they may not have all their resources themselves. They become resourceful and know where to look for those resources.
So it helps just to take those dreams … and I help place it in a safe place for them, and then I hold that dream for them, which is really their brilliance, and I help pave a path for them to reach it. And that path might consist of writing a book, it might consist of getting a brand that’s much stronger out there, it might consist of creating marketing strategies that will help them get to where they want to go. It might help them … it might be some publicity vehicles that would help them. It might be starting to get their message on the internet out. It just depends on who it is and where they want to go.
Toni: That leads beautifully – which you’ve just described already – into the second question, which is what do you do to help explore the potential in others? So you tap into this brilliance, and you see this brilliance, and you hold that in a safe place, and what happens? How do you correlate that brilliance to their potential?
Ruth: It’s amazing. I’ll give you an example. There is a gal who is a phenomenal writer, and she is a multi-lyricist Grammy Award winner, and her career for whatever reason has been put on … had been on hold. It’s not now; she’s going gangbusters again. And so it’s just a matter of really being honest and supportive and compassionate and loving around what some of those emotional blockages have been, to the point where they get to see it. See, it doesn’t work until they get it.
And so I’ll use different strategies with them, and one is I … you know, the answer is only as good as the question. So the question really becomes the most important piece, so I will ask them pivotal difficult questions, and then I listen. I am silent, and I listen, which allows them to hear themselves. It allows them to just start talking. It allows them to really start going a little deeper and deeper and knowing that they’re not going to be interrupted.
Toni: Now, Ruth, what do you need to be inspired?
Ruth: What I need to be … to be inspired, I need the ocean.
Toni: Lotion?
Ruth: I’m very fortunate. I always had this dream that I would live overlooking the ocean with white waters, and that’s where I am today, and so it is a great, great … it’s a great home, and I have several clients that come here to my home office, and it’s just … it’s set up so perfectly for writing or creating and direction, so that’s what fuels me.
And in addition to that, I think what fuels me and others is heart-centered listening without judgment. I think I really thrive when someone is … when I feel someone’s really listening without any judgment and there’s acceptance without making anyone wrong or stupid for their thinking or their thoughts. And it’s also a lot of recognition and validation, and recognition in terms of acknowledgement. I am who I am. I am … you know, this brilliant person. I am … and to have that validation.
Those are the kinds of things that I know really inspire me, and I try and turn those around to help others be inspired. Because so many times people will be inspired and they’ll start talking, and then they’re cut off because the person listening gets so excited and they just start asking too many questions or they stop their thought process or they stop the flow. And so, you know, it requires some really careful and close listening as to are they finished yet, or is that caused just because they’re gaining their … another breath. And so these kinds of things, I believe, help inspire people and really help them get to the place where they need to start seeing their brilliance by answering certain pivotal questions.
Toni: When it comes to you, when it comes to Ruth, what do you find yourself reaching for, doing, on a consistent basis when maybe you need to be re-inspired or ignited towards that inspiration?
Ruth: I read a lot, so for example, my perfect morning is waking up, going for a walk at 6 until about 7, 6:45, then taking a Wall Street Journal, going to a coffee shop, reading it — and to me, the Wall Street Journal is like my research buddy. It’s like my colleague. I bring my pen out, and I just go to town; there’s just some wonderful, wonderful pieces. And when you are an entrepreneur and when you can keep those gates open of creativity, the more I find that I read, the more ideas come to me, and they come to me for me and my business and they also come for my clients, and so it just works so incredibly well.
This morning, for example, I was at the coffee shop, I was reading my paper, and I happened to see a client, and I really didn’t want to talk at that moment, and so I didn’t. And then about 5, 10 minutes later when I finished the article, I went up to her and started talking. One of her colleagues comes. We all start talking. I hook up her colleague with her in a new project that neither one had realized before, and then some third person, a gentleman, heard us saying that we needed professional portraits taken, photographs, and he came up and gave us his card. He does professional photographs.
Toni: Synchronicity at its best, isn’t it?
Ruth: And so … yeah … and that’s what … that’s the perfect word for it, because when you’re truly inspired you let off so many … you give out so many intentions and, you know, the important thing I find is to be able to send out the intentions without being attached to the outcome. So it’s kind of the excitement of not knowing exactly how it’s going to turn out but knowing …,having the belief and the trust that it will.
It’s interesting, because I personally wanted to get another photograph taken, and I share with my client I’d like her to get a professional photograph taken before we go to New York for a business trip the end of May, and he heard that. That is just … now it’s just … that’s when I know that I’m in … that’s when I know I’m in that place of inspiration. That place of inspiration is really an open heart, is excitement, is enthusiasm, is creativity at its brilliance. It’s allowing … it’s allowing that essence down there to shine.
There are times when I go for my walk … and I don’t like to walk with someone in the morning. I like to have that really quiet time, and they are many times when I come back where I kind of have to run back home to write ideas down.
Toni: So how do you continue to explore your own potential in order for you to continue to do the work that you do?
Ruth: I read books. For example, I just read … I’m reading right now Crush It!, and it’s excellent, and it just has inspired me to a whole new level of online presence, a whole new level. And I meditate every day many times during the day. I do bedtime intentions without attachment. Many times in the morning I forget what they are, but I know that they’re working. I do not work 24/7. I take off most Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and that’s my rejuvenation. I don’t work usually past most days 5 except Thursday is my long day, which is 6, and then I’m with friends or family.
I do exercise. I do those kinds of things of self-care every single day, because I know that I can’t depend on another person to rejuvenate me. I’ve got to be able to rejuvenate myself. And the thing is I, you know … we as women so many times we give so much because we want to, and we don’t realize how much we’ve given until we’re exhausted and we’re literally … by the time we realize we’re exhausted, we’re usually burnt out, which is past exhaustion, and it takes twice to three times as long.
I have found … or my experience has been to get refreshed, and so I know how important it is for me, and I always, when I work with any client on anything, I help them with their time and their de-stressing, because it’s that important. It really … it only makes me more creative to help others when I am … when I know that I can be refreshed.
Toni: That’s a great piece of advice for everyone to hear very, very clearly. And Ruth, it’s been an absolute pleasure to meet you and also talk to you about the interesting work that you do, the way that you come at it, and that beautiful word of brilliance, and then also what you need so that your own brilliance stays intact and shines even brighter. So thank you so very much, Ruth, for being part of the Get Inspired! Project.
Ruth: Thank you, and I think what you’re doing is fantastic.
Toni: Thank you.
Ruth: I wish you much success.
Toni: Thank you so much. Take care of yourself, Ruth, and it’s been a pleasure.
Ruth: Thank you.
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For more information about Ruth Klein: www.RuthKlein.com
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