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Ann and Michelle's StoryMany people ask us how we met and how we started the Goal Sister process. Here's our chance to tell you.
Ann: Michelle and I have been Goal Sisters for over ten years. This friendship began in Bloomington, Illinois, where we both worked at the same agency in different departments. We knew each other casually from serving together on agency task forces. Michelle: Back then, I worked full time and traveled a lot for my job. I was a happily married mom with two young children. I liked my job, but spent too many hours each week away from my family. Ann: Didn't you have an AHA moment one day about starting your own business? Michelle: Yep, I did. It was a Sunday. My family had just dropped me off at the office, where I had 8 hours of work facing me. As I watched them drive away, it hurt knowing that I wouldn't see them again until it was dark outside. I knew then that I had to change my job situation so that I had more control of how I spent my time. Starting my own business seemed like the best solution. Problem was - I didn’t know anyone who had taken this kind of leap. So, I began to educate myself about the steps. I quickly became overwhelmed with all the information I had to digest and the decisions I had to make. My husband, Bart, and close friends were supportive of my explorations. But someone was missing from my support network. I yearned to talk with someone who accepted me “as is,” someone who knew that I was crazy to want to leave such a secure, well-paying job – but who would encourage me to do it anyway, someone who had nothing to gain or lose from me starting my own business. That someone was Ann. Ann: So, out of the blue, Michelle asks me out to lunch. As she shared her goal of starting her own business, I remember thinking, “This woman thinks big like I do. She’s not afraid to go out and get what she wants!” I heard her solid plan for action. I wanted to be around that kind of energy. Michelle: Ann's response really inspired me to keep going! We began meeting over lunch every other week to discuss my goals and my progress. Ann gave me helpful resources, cheered me on, and kept me accountable. Our friendship took on a new meaning in my life! Ann: Mine, too! Michelle really inspired me to go after my own dreams. Within a year of Michelle launching her business, I felt a shift in my life. I'd been romantically involved with a man in another state, and I wanted more closeness in that relationship. Michelle helped me set goals and visualize my move and the job that would take me there. Michelle: We continued meeting on a regular basis, writing down our goals, and nudging each other along the way. After Ann moved, we adapted the process and took overnight adventures on a quarterly basis. We kept in contact via email, telephone, and instant messaging. Ann: Because the process worked so well for us, we started setting and achieving goals in other areas of our lives. Being a Goal Sister helped me to start and run my business as a Life Coach, lose more than 50 pounds, and get more clarity in my life. Michelle: Being a Goal Sister helped me to balance my roles as mom, wife, worker bee, sister, daughter, friend, and volunteer. It also helped me to make self-care a priority. One of my biggest goals was to move to Hawaii, and that's where my family and I live today! Ann: Our friends started noticing the changes we were making and heard us talking about the places where we would meet for Goal Sisters. They wanted to know how they could do it! Michelle: So, we decided to write a book to show other women how to become each other's Goal Sisters, and how to have fun and focus while achieving their goals together. Ann: While we wrote our book proposal, I piloted the Goal Sister process with a group of women in Joplin, Missouri. They loved the process - and the results! It helped them to make time to figure out what they wanted to do with their lives and to put their intentions into action. We share more of their achievements in their stories, which are sprinkled throughout the book. Now that we've finished writing the book and that it's available everywhere, our BIG book goal is to empower as many women as possible with the Goal Sister process. Thanks to all of you who have bought the book and are starting to use the process! We're happy to report that we're making great strides daily in meeting our BIG book goal. Onward and upward!! Copyright © 2004-2010 by Michelle Beaulieu Pillen, Ph.D., and Ann Leach. All rights reserved. No part of this Web site may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise. |
Co-authors and
Goal Sisters
Ann Leach and
Michelle Beaulieu Pillen
Book Fact #1We came up with the idea of writing a book about the Goal Sister process in 2001, during one of our overnight adventures in St. Louis.
The 1st GS Group in Joplin MO created this treasure collage for Ann and Michelle as they were writing the book
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