Nicole Bensen

the Tea Time blog

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Are you a morning person? I got up at 5:45 this morning (early for me 🄱) to lead a session ofĀ The Ultimate Vision Board WorkshopĀ for a group at Google. It was a lovely group who asked some great questions. I wanted to share the answers I emailed back, in case they’d be helpful to you […]

If you’ve seen my stories on Instagram the past few days, you know I’m in Vegas on a girls’ trip to see the Backstreet Boys at The Sphere. šŸŽ‰ (Raise your hand if you grew up in the boy band era!) So, while I’m OOO, I wanted to share something from my friend, Sam Sheppard. Sam’s mission is […]

Next month I’m leading several sessions of my Ultimate Vision Board Workshop for one of my corporate clients. It’s a 90-minute workshop, and we spend 75% of the time NOT creating a vision board. Wait, what? Yep, before we even choose the first photo or open the vision board template, we visualize, journal, and dig into what success […]

I just counted 49 networking meetings and events on my calendar that I’ve attended in the past six months. Forty. Nine. (!!!) That’s a lot for me, and I’ve met a lot of people—a few gems, but most of them I’ll probably never talk to again. Maybe we didn’t align on values, or didn’t get past small talk. […]

Last week’s OOO packing list included ruffles and hiking boots: I used to think my dream life was this hazy, sometime-in-the-future milestone. Like I had to quit my job, move countries, totally burn down my current life and rebuild something extraordinary—one luxury vacation, purchase, or experience brick at a time—and then, one day, voilĆ : ā€œdream […]

Have you heard of WIIFM? Last week I led two sessions of my Crafting Your Strengths-Based Personal Brand workshop for Google, with nearly 250 people attending across the sessions. Participants created a polished elevator pitch they can use in places like LinkedIn, at a networking event, in an interview, or with their manager. One of the takeaways […]

This past weekend I had brunch with a new friend, Jen, and I haven’t stopped thinking about a term she used: ROEI. Return on Emotional Investment. We originally bonded over the fact that we both have Korean moms and American dads who served in the military. Then we found out we share the same birthday—including […]

Are you feeling as steamrolled as I am right now? With all the end-of-school-year stuff and summer chaos layered on top of real life, I’ve been feeling stretched way too thin. Teacher gifts, graduations, birthday parties, snack duty, travel planning—not to mention democracy being at stake and doing my best to run a one-woman business—it’s […]

ā€œWait…did we sit on the wrong side?ā€ā€œDo we move? Is it rude to move?!ā€ I whispered to my husband. We were at a wedding this past weekend in beautiful Napa, California, as guests of the bride, a dear friend of mine. So…we sat on the left, following the seating style we’d used at our own […]

I postedĀ this on InstagramĀ a few days ago, and based on the comments and private messages, I thought you’d want to see it too. Here’s an excerpt: Despite these execs having bigger titles and more zeroes in their paycheck, we were all telling ourselves and our families the same lie—likely naively—believing it to be true. And […]