Check out skilled & fulfilled

A new podcast by Lauren Felter for service-providers, coaches and freelancers.  

listen now

interview

The Future of Work and Prioritizing Your Commitments with Karen Mangia

June 27, 2022

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Success From Anywhere: How to Define Your Version of Success From the Inside Out featuring Karen Mangia

Can you define success without involving your job? How do you prioritize what’s important when everything feels important? What is self-sabotage, and how can we ditch that pesky inner voice when it’s being too negative? All of these questions are answered and much more by Karen Mangia, author, thought leader, speaker, and Salesforce executive.

How to set boundaries

LISTEN IN APPLE PODCASTS | LISTEN IN SPOTIFY | LISTEN IN STITCHER

How do you measure success? Is it getting a big promotion? Hitting a revenue goal for your business? Receiving an award from your boss? All of these are wonderful accomplishments, but notice that they all come from your work. Is there any other way we can feel validated, accomplished, and successful about ourselves outside of work? Yes, there is. 

I’m not saying you should ditch work or stop caring about it — not at all! But why not focus on feeling good about ourselves from within first? When people look inward and realize their full potential, they perform better at their jobs. They unconsciously build a better company culture. They start to transform the future of work.

About Karen Mangia

Karen is an author, an internationally-recognized thought leader, and speaker who’s passionate about customer success and the future of work. She’s also the Vice President of Customer and Market Insights at Salesforce. One of her many responsibilities is serving on the Work from Home Taskforce, which helps the company’s employees around the world adapt to working from home. 

When Karen’s not writing, speaking, or working, you’ll probably find her singing or playing the piano. In fact, she just recently crossed something off her bucket list: a chance to sing at Carnegie Hall! We talk about her rehearsals in this episode, but when this goes live, she’ll already have performed (and killed it, I’m sure).

Core values, making room for what matters, and reducing overwhelm

Karen had so many excellent tidbits of advice to share in this episode, but one of my favorites? “Divest before you invest.” This is a lesson Karen learned the hard way, she says. Basically, before you say “yes” to a new commitment, you gotta figure out what to say “no” to. Saying “yes, and…” — which pretty much means adding more, more, more to your plate — is a surefire way to experience burnout. Instead, prioritize what matters and devote your energy to that.

Back up, though…

How do you choose what’s important? How do you decide what to commit to in the first place? Karen asks herself these three questions:

  1. Does it have to be? 
  2. Does it have to be me?
  3. Does it have to be me right now?

Plus a bonus question: Does it have to be a meeting? 

A lot of the time, Karen says, the answer to these questions is no! Asking yourself these questions helps you get creative and find solutions to your commitments. Instead of having a meeting with a colleague, for example, maybe you record and send a three-minute video to them instead. If it doesn’t have to be you, decide who to outsource your task to. And if it doesn’t have to be at all, strike it off your list.

Karen and I also talk about her new book, discovering core values, giving yourself permission to do what you want, and more in this episode. I found her so grounded, practical, and inspiring — and I know you all will, too.


In my conversation with Karen, she shares…

  • How to make room for new commitments and avoid burnout
  • The three questions Karen asks herself to prioritize what tasks are most important and how your values are reflected in your work life
  • Details on her upcoming book, Success From Anywhere: Create Your Own Future of Work from the Inside Out
  • How to pause, assess, and adjust if you’re feeling overwhelmed in just five minutes
  • How to give yourself permission to do what you want to do

Stay in Touch with Karen

Resources Mentioned in this Episode

Related Episodes

Discover your core values in Finding Your Footing Through A Priority Shift: How To Do The Next Right Thing

Time blocking in Back to Basics: The Three Time Management Strategies Everyone Should Be Using (For More Productivity and Better Work/Life Balance)


Subscribe & Review in Apple Podcasts

If you’re enjoying It’s About Time so far, I hope you’ll take a moment to subscribe if you haven’t yet – I don’t want you to miss an episode! Click here to subscribe on iTunes.

If really like what you hear, I’d be so grateful if you left me a review over on iTunes, too. Your review plays a HUGE role in helping others find out about It’s About Time. And honestly, they’re really fun for me to read! Click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let me know what you’re loving about It’s About Time. Thank you!!

What will it take you to get from chaos to calm?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Hey Anna! I'm looking for an episode about...

Hey Anna! I'm looking for an episode about...