by Cynthia Calderon

In the spirit of building community and a celebration of summer, my Transcend partners and I recently hosted a concert in my home in Incline Village, NV. 

We were delighted with the enthusiasm and turnout we received for this event!  The house was filled with many new and old friends from all over – including visitors from North and South Lake Tahoe, Reno and the San Francisco Bay Area. 

As an added bonus, we were pleased to showcase a couple of highly-talented, local artists at our event. 

Our musician of the evening, Brad Perry, dazzled and engaged our audience with an amazing range of music from classical to country to pop.  He sang and played both piano and guitar. Brad is the founder of Village Music school in Incline Village.  He also performs at a number of different venues and is endeared by the local residents of Incline Village.  We highly recommend him for your next event or for personal music lessons. Here’s a link to his website:  https://www.inclinevillagemusic.com/

Our other local artist, Cliff Helm, provided a private exhibit of his work throughout the house. His visual artwork is eclectic and stunning, from mixed media using beads and skulls to vivid paintings and photos. Cliff has quite a colorful personal history which you can read in his book, Mayhem – A Life.  It’s a remarkable “comeback kid” type of story.  Here is a link to his website: https://www.Mayhem-Mediums.artistwebsites.com/

We are truly grateful to all of our wonderful guests and to Brad and Cliff for making our event such a great success.

by Cynthia Calderon

One of the challenges we’ve had to overcome as a team is that all of us live in separate locations across the country.  Welcome to the 21st century of virtual teams!  Our top five team values include the importance of relationships and the use of creativity.  With these values in mind, we are committed to open communication and being creative in building our relationships.  Thanks to advanced technology, we are able to stay in constant contact with one another, and with our clients, through cell phones, texting, emails and video chats. But, while all of these techniques are priceless to our ability to conduct business, nothing can replace physical human contact and we take this quite seriously.  That’s why we have mandated it amongst ourselves to have onsite team meetings at least three times a year taking turns at our various locations. This time together is incredibly productive, meaningful and fun.  I mean, think about the areas in which we live -- North Lake Tahoe, SF Bay Area and Philadelphia – who can complain about spending time in any of these places!  

This photo was taken during one of our recent team meetings in North Lake Tahoe.  Breathtaking!

by Cynthia Calderon

I was privileged to attend the recent award ceremony for the 2019 Sierra Nevada Top 20 Most Powerful Women hosted by the Northern Nevada Business View. I was genuinely impressed by the significant turnout of over 500 attendees, of course, mostly women but also a number of men in support of women. The caliber of the finalists and winners was truly remarkable and inspiring.

https://www.nnbusinessview.com/news/and-the-winners-are-2019-top-20-sierra-nevada-powerful-women-revealed/

Key highlights, for me, included the recognition of an amazing high school girl as the 2019 Sierra Nevada Powerful Young Woman. Her accomplishments at her young age already seemed daunting and one can only imagine what success lies ahead in her future. Secondly, there were two awards for the Sierra Nevada Powerful Matriarchs. It was heartening to see the age span of the lives ranging from a budding young high school girl to the wizened matriarchs of our local society and the impact they have had within the community. I was touched that they were honored equally.

I had a chance to talk to one of the nominees before the awards ceremony who shared that, at first, she felt somewhat embarrassed about being nominated as one of the “most powerful” women because the word powerful is not often associated in a positive way for women. It made her think about what being powerful is really about and she had to get comfortable with it. I found this comment very insightful. How many of us women feel the same way and why is that?

Each of the nominees was asked: “what does power mean to you?” Here are some of their responses:

· Power is helping other people rise so we can all shine.

· Power is motivating others to affect change.

· Power is the ability to empower others.

· Power is knowing we accomplish nothing on our own but everything together.

· Power is not your position, but the ability to lead and influence.

· Power is having the confidence to adapt to change.

· Power is the equity we build when we help others achieve their potential.

· Power is the ability to be vulnerable with others.

What an amazing group of women! Keynote speaker, Danyelle Musselman, reminded us that “our passion is our power”. What is your passion and what does power mean to you?

I was glad to see among all the powerful women in the room that the winners often professed gratitude to their husbands who have been supportive in pursuing their passions. This goes along with the theme that we don’t achieve our accomplishments alone, whether it be friends or family, male or female.

On a final note, the funniest quote of the day that resulted in a sea of laughter was: “we (women) need to treat each other like drunk girls in a bathroom”! Isn’t this the truth!? Let’s remember to be kind to one another and that we’re all in this together.

Congratulations to the nominees and winners of this year’s awards! But, in addition, let’s acknowledge all the rest of us unsung heroes who hit the pavement every day striving to make an impact. Give yourself a hand!