Peggy Vasquez

When was the last time you thought about what it means to manage yourself?  That’s self-management, and it’s the most essential pillar in your development process. Even if you don’t have a management or leadership title within your organization, you are still a self-manager and self-leader.

Self-management is the practice of understanding who you are, identifying your desired experiences, and intentionally guiding yourself toward them. It spans the determination of what we do, why we do it, and how we do it.  It’s the ability to lead yourself to achieve your personal and professional goals and objectives while also helping the company or organization you work for to be successful – this is what creates a confident contribution.

Learning Outcomes

• Self-Leadership Model: intention, influence, and impact.
• Identifying what you want and how to make your goals a reality.
• Accountability and sitting in the driver’s seat of your life and career.

Empowerment is the act of giving someone more power or control. Unfortunately, all too often, people wait to be empowered.

During this session, Peggy will cover the process for developing personal empowerment. Personal empowerment is not a static thing that you do once in your life. Personal empowerment is about ongoing personal development. As circumstances change, and as we change, so do our needs for development and empowerment.

When you feel empowered, everything changes. Feelings of inadequacy, overwhelm, and work pressures decline. You no longer feel stuck in a cage without a key to free yourself. When you don’t feel empowered, your self-talk is on an endless loop of negativity, telling you that you aren’t enough, that there’s no need to speak up because no one wants to listen to you, and that you don’t deserve a seat at the table. All these feelings cause you to silence your voice and your dreams.

When you are self-empowered, you get things done, making you more confident. You stop holding back and start speaking up. You know you deserve a seat at the table, and you confidently show up with all your capabilities, value, and ideas.

Learning Outcomes

• How to reflect on what’s holding you back
• How to discover what you really want for 2022
• How to develop the confidence you need to go after your goals
• And the big one, how to implement self-leadership to make it all happen

No doubt 2020 was a challenging year. What if you had the tools to harness a positive mindset even during a pandemic? A positive mindset doesn’t mean a life without challenge and hardship; it’s about keeping one regardless of what’s happening in your life.

In this session, Peggy will provide you the tools you need to find positive moments.

Learning Objectives

• Learn how your thoughts impact your daily choices
• The daily ritual that makes all the difference
• How to silence the negative voices in your head and the people in your life

Do you feel insecure when an amazing woman walks into the room? When you lack confidence, you communicate doubt and insecurity. Another word for confidence is self-esteem, it’s one of the most basic human needs. At the deepest level it’s about your belief system. When you know your value, you know your worth and that alone will speak volumes to yourself and others.

The question is, how do you develop a healthy dose of confidence and not become arrogant? Other than your actions and beliefs, the biggest factor in developing confidence are the people closest to you. They either create
confidence in you by challenging you to be courageous and creative, or they make you feel comfortable staying at the status quo.

During this session, Peggy will share the Rudy Principal, the Pygmalion effect and give you 10 ways to increase your confidence.

Learning Objectives

• Discover what is holding you back from having what you want
• Steps for overcoming insecurity and doubt
• 10 ways you can build confidence
• Create a powerful inner circle
• How to get what you want

You recognize powerful partnerships when you encounter them. You may wonder what steps were taken to create the trust and respect that is displayed in their behavior. How did they become confident in one another’s abilities? Powerful partners depend on each other to achieve a common purpose. When in sync, each partner contributes to the other’s accomplishments creating a win-win partnership.

Peggy has had many successful partnerships in her career and she’ll provide you with real life examples of what works and doesn’t work so that you can create a powerful partnership.

Learning Highlights and Outcomes:

• How to build an effective partnership with your manager
• The importance of building relationship capital
• How use strategic questioning to influence your manager
• A partnership assessment tool
• Understanding your manager’s communication and management style
• If you are about ready to throw in the towel, Peggy will also cover a model for ailing partnerships

And you’ll receive a tool you can use to create your own win-win partnerships!

I will teach you how to develop your own powerful inner circle.

Who’s in your inner circle? Are your closest relationships healthy ones? Are they a diverse group or people just like you? Are you modeling behaviors that attract meaningful connection? Would you want to connect with you?

Whether you realize it or not, you are part of an inner circle and are likely helping someone else move closer to their goals, dreams and desires. Why not use this successful technique in your own life and develop a powerful inner circle of your own? With the help of your inner circle, you can gain greater momentum to carry you closer to your goals, dreams, and desires.

Learning Highlights and Outcomes:

• Increase your success and happiness
• Raise your level of respect
• How to attract meaningful connections
• Why developing your inner circle is a crucial part of success in ALL areas of your life, not just your career
• What your inner circle really brings to the table.
• How the idea of the inner circle is revolutionary and why it has the power to raise the level of respect for the administrative profession.
• Simple steps and strategies for creating your own inner circle and attracting meaningful connections with the right people.
• Understand how the act of discovery is what leads to connections.

Have you ever said or heard an admin or someone say, “I’m just an admin?” I certainly have! You are more than “just” anything. The truth is, as an administrative professional you are part of a powerful force that has tremendous influence and are crucial to the success of your organization.
After this powerful keynote, you’ll never ever, ever say, I’m just an admin again!

Learning Highlights and Outcomes:

• Increase your value and respect
• Deal with difficult personalities
• Influence others
• Celebrate each other
• Maximize your image through body language
• The difference a mentor can make

Do you have a mentor? If not, where do you go for counsel and advice? If you are waiting for your manager to create a career for you, you’ll be sorely disappointed. The key to growing professionally is effective mentoring and it’s up to you to go get it!

Are you a mentor? Has someone asked you to be their mentor and you have no idea what to do? Would you like a framework that you could utilize to create the best mentoring experience possible for your mentee?

Whether you are a mentee, a mentor, or both – this session is designed for you. Peggy will take attendees through all aspects of mentoring, including the unwritten rules of mentoring. Attendees will walk away with the Top 10 Mentoring Essentials, including:

Learning Highlights and Outcomes:

• Discover how to identify a mentor and ask someone to be your mentor
• Gain clarity around the role and responsibilities of the mentor and mentee
• How to establish an agreed upon structure, milestones and outcomes
• Learn how to support, challenge and provide effective feedback
• Understand the difference between coaching and mentoring

No matter where you may be in your career, a mentor can provide teaching, insight and encouragement to lift you up from where you are and help get you to where we want to be. Never underestimate the power of mentoring – It’s essential for your success!

We all know that networking is important and necessary to be successful.

However, most of us aren’t comfortable talking to people we don’t know.
The purpose of networking is about connecting. Authentic relationships are built on trust and respect, giving and receiving, and mutual added value. Creating a true connection and developing a lasting connection takes time and skill.

In this course, Peggy will teach you how to overcome your fears of networking and start conversations with ease. You’ll discover new tools so you can stop dreading networking and become a “Master Connector.”

Learning Highlights and Outcomes:

• Body Language Do’s and Don’ts
• Introduction Makeover
• Conversation Starters
• What your Handshake Reveals About You
• How to Have a World Class Handshake
• How to Enter a Room
• Business Card Etiquette
• Gender Specifics in Protocol
• The Power of Gratitude
• How to Increase Your Confidence

Change is happening at a faster rate than ever before. Competition is fierce! Reorgs are the new normal. You are expected to accept, support and adapt to changes in leadership, technology, philosophy and policies. But change can only be effective if the employees impacting your bottom line embrace it.

Change is a big part of being successful. Change is difficult for people. Most of us naturally repel it and retreat back into our comfort zone. We don’t like the lack of control or the uncertainty or even worse outcomes such as failing.
Here’s the reality, if you don’t learn to embrace change and move forward, you will be left behind.

Learning Highlights and Outcomes:

• Set yourself up for success through this daily routine
• Harness the power of change and adopt a positive attitude
•  Communication in the midst of change
• How flexibility makes a difference
• Being committed to the team makes a difference
• Evaluate your strengths and challenges
• Staying aligned in the midst of change
• Model for managing transition
• Address your fears of uncertainty
• Staying productive during times of change
• Move from resistance to change agent
• Creating your master plan for change

You’ve been a business support professional for several years and you’re ready to move into the C-Suite. Peggy will share her story of how she began working part time as an assistant and moved up the ranks to work for several top executives. She’ll share what you need to do and what you need to know to be successful. Her background includes financial, agriculture and nuclear industries. For the past ten years she has been the Chief Executive Assistant at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where 4800 staff advance scientific discovery and deliver solutions to America’s most pressing challenges in energy, the environment and national security.

Join Peggy for an honest discussion, the type you don’t typically hear unless it’s behind closed doors or in a one-on-one coaching environment. She will share what it takes to make it in the C-Suite, including:

Learning Highlights and Outcomes:

• What worked and what didn’t work along the journey
• Why feedback is a gift and how you can use it to propel you forward
• Why your values need to align with your company and your executive
• What it means to be a leader
• Why selecting and being a mentor is important
• How your style and presence impacts your promotion
• Why respect is crucial to your success

You’ll leave feeling empowered and knowing what it takes to move forward in your career forward.

Join Peggy for an interactive, highly applicable session where she will answer: Why do I have a hard time communicating with some people and not others? Why do some people misunderstand my intentions or vice-versa? How can I improve my work environment through effective communication? How can I more effectively partner with my manager?

Whether you are communicating down, up or across, two things are essential: you must listen and you want to be heard. In order to truly hear another you must understand their drivers, motives and communication styles. To take your communication to the next level, it’s not just about being heard, it is that you are understood and it inspires action and that you are understanding what is being said both verbally and non-verbally.

Learning Highlights and Outcomes:

• Identify your particular style
• Gain a better understanding of yourself and others
• Predict how you and others might respond in given situations
• Improve your communication with others who have a different style than yours
• How to read others through non verbal communication

This is a great tool for better understanding and working with the diverse personalities which make up our different organizations.

Are you waiting for someone to notice you, promote you or invite you into an opportunity? Are you experiencing all the opportunity you desire? Do you wish you were being asked to engage at a higher level or contribute differently?

All too often people miss out on the opportunities. Most opportunities don’t knock at your door, instead you have to go boldly toward the opportunities that exist.

Learning Highlights and Outcomes:

• Strength assessment and utilization
• How to strategically and positively speak to your strengths
• Take charge of your own career
• Overcome your fears and increasing your confidence
• Taking initiative vs waiting for an invitation
• Raise your level of respect and awareness
• How to discover and attract meaningful opportunities
• Attitude of gratitude
• Understand that relationships matter
• Simple steps and strategies for creating your own board of directors and attracting meaningful connections with the right people.

Have you ever noticed when you complain about something that isn’t going well, there’s always someone who will jump on board with you?  Have you ever noticed how good you feel when you are around someone who is genuinely grateful?  Who would you rather work with, hire or promote?

Peggy will teach you how you can always find something to be grateful for – even in the most difficult moments.  You’ll learn what it means to bloom where you are planted and get a new perspective through a gratitude challenge.

Learning Highlights and Outcomes:

• Positivity attracts positive results
• Relationship assessment
• Focus on the future through an exercise that will finally help you let of the past
• Discover your impact on other people, are you lifting them up or the opposite?
• Gratitude helps you grow and expand
• Gratitude brings joy and laughter into your life
• Increase your respect and compassion towards yourself and others
• 30 day attitude of gratitude challenge

Change is happening at a faster rate than ever before.  Competition is fierce!  Reorgs are the new normal.  You are expected to accept, support and adapt to changes in leadership, technology, philosophy and policies.  But change can only be effective if the employees impacting your bottom line embrace it. Change is a big part of being successful.  Change is difficult for people.  Most of us naturally repel it and retreat back into our comfort zone.  We don’t like the lack of control or the uncertainty or even worse outcomes such as failing.

Here’s the reality, if you don’t learn to embrace change and move forward, you will be left behind.

Learning Highlights and Outcomes:

• Set yourself up for success through this daily routine
• Harness the power of change and adopt a positive attitude
• Communication in the midst of change
• How flexibility makes a difference
• Being committed to the team makes a difference
• Evaluate your strengths and challenges
• Staying aligned in the midst of change
• Address your fears of uncertainty
• Staying productive during times of change
• Move from resistance to change agent
• Creating your master plan for change

Change is happening at a faster rate than ever before.  Competition is fierce!  Reorgs are the new normal.  You are expected to accept, support and adapt to changes in leadership, technology, philosophy and policies.  But change can only be effective if the employees impacting your bottom line embrace it. Change is a big part of being successful.  Change is difficult for people.  Most of us naturally repel it and retreat back into our comfort zone.  We don’t like the lack of control or the uncertainty or even worse outcomes such as failing.

Here’s the reality, if you don’t learn to embrace change and move forward, you will be left behind.

Learning Highlights and Outcomes:

• Set yourself up for success through this daily routine
• Harness the power of change and adopt a positive attitude
• Communication in the midst of change
• How flexibility makes a difference
• Being committed to the team makes a difference
• Evaluate your strengths and challenges
• Staying aligned in the midst of change
• Address your fears of uncertainty
• Staying productive during times of change
• Move from resistance to change agent
• Creating your master plan for change

Have you made a New Year’s resolution before?  Did it fade away with the gray days of January?   Are you sitting in the land of good intentions waiting for your life to change by wishing it so?  No matter how you answered those questions, I have good news for you!  You can make this year a year to remember.  It all starts with a vision.  It’s the vision that will make all the difference.

This will be a creative, fun, interactive and thought-provoking session. You’ll identify what you want and how you want to feel, and then create a picture for your life.  Its time to focus on you for a change and to push all those negative limitations and boundaries aside and consider the possibilities for your life.  This is the essence where visions are made and dreams are realized.  Once a vision is cast firmly in your mind, once you can see it, feel it, touch it, and describe it, the possibility of it becoming a reality is only a matter of time. You’ll leave with a vision board and the tools to make this year the best year yet!  Remember, we are limited, not by our abilities, but by our vision.

Learning Highlights and Outcomes:

• Discover what is most important to you in the core areas of your life by completing the Be True to You Model
• Values Exercise
• Removing negativity, boundaries and limitations
• Create a vision for your life and plan to get there
• Identifying what’s in the way, what are you going to do about it
• Discovering who you need to support you and help you get to where you want to go.
• Determining a date for achievement.

Be The Person You Want To Work With

How often do you hear your co-workers complaining about their boss or another co-worker? For most of us, it’s an everyday occurrence. It’s easy to find fault in others. The truth is we all have strengths and shortcomings. What would happen if we made a mental shift and started focusing on “being the person we want to work with” instead of criticizing people in our office. Imagine how different our work-space would be if we practiced being the right person for just one week.

Let’s connect and start a conversation to create a mental shift. What is one thing you would do differently? What would you stop or start doing to be the person you want to work with?

We had the pleasure of having Peggy as the guest speaker at our administration retreat. Peggy’s workshop highlighted many facets of the administration field that are often taken for granted, but require an acute attention to detail and the ability to wear many hats at the same time. The information she was able to pass to our administrators was presented in a thoughtful and creative way that made the day quite enjoyable for all involved.

More than that, Peggy interacted with our administrators before and after the workshop. She took the time to speak with each person one on one, answer any questions they may have had, and inquire about their unique administrative experiences.

Since her workshop, we have seen a dramatic increase in our administrative productivity as well as the morale among our team. I definitely feel that the material learned at the workshop directly impacted the way each administrator felt about the way they view their position and the integral part they are to the team.

Personable. That is what describes Peggy Vasquez best. We selected her to be the guest speaker at our Administrative Retreat but she was more than that. She took a personal interest in our individual Admins…not just as a collective whole. She spent time sitting and talking with them one on one. She has a gift of making everyone feel like more than “Just an Admin”. I don’t know that anyone else could have touched our team like she did. Since our weekend session, our Administrators have shown vast improvement in their performance levels. I thank Peggy for not only her time but giving our team a new window to look through with regard to their self worth and value.

On behalf of the Energy Northwest Administrative Development Committee (ADC) I would like to thank you for taking part in our Quarterly Admin Session.  Both of your talks “Powerful Partnerships” and “Interviewing Skills” were very informative and engaging.  By any measure you are a very effective speaker and educator.  It was an honor to have you come and share your ideas. Thank you for the outstanding presentations and I hope we have the opportunity to have you visit again.

I took your workshop “Strengthening your Partnership with your Manager” at the APC conference in Chicago. I must say that your workshop was by far the most helpful and I am implementing a lot of what you touched on in my work with my new manager. Thanks so much.