CEDIA 2013

Women in CE hosted a breakfast for women (and men) to network on the the last day of CEDIA. The group was founded 5-years ago with a mission of creating an environment to promote professional growth of women in the Consumer Electronics industry. Members range from electronics engineers and designers like Dr. Bonnie Schnitta who has revolutionized the industry with a number of audio patents, to Helen Heneveled of Bedrock Learning whose materials instruct installers on a number of subjects, to founder Carol Campbell, publisher of Custom Retailer magazine.

In line with their mission of promoting professional growth, Nicole Mangina, CEO of The Success Principles talked to the audience about balancing a life (with family or just having fun outside of work) with a successful career.

Mangina’s three tips were 1) Choose to be present. Put the mental chatter on mute and focus on one thing at a time, 2) choose to say no to what’s not a priority so you can say yes to what matters, and 3) choose your pit crew to help because you can’t get everything done yourself.

The success expert suggested that multi-tasking isn’t as efficient as focus. She recommends working in shorter bursts of time. Referring to how much we will complete just before we go on a trip because we are focussed, we can use that same laser focus in our everyday asks. Mangina advocates focussing in 30-minute blocks--work only on your email for 30 minutes, or a report, or Facebook. The mindset is to say to yourself “If this is the only 30 minutes I have to work on this (task) for today, what would I do?”