Beach author Tammy Heermann’s book Reframe Your Story inspires real talk for women leaders – Beach Metro Community News

By AMANDA GIBB

Local author and leadership expert Tammy Heermann recently published her first book, Reframe your story.

Originally from Saskatchewan, Heermann moved to London, England to complete his graduate studies at the London School of Economics. Eventually she moved to Toronto and has resided in Beach for 15 years.

“I have developed my expertise in leadership development, so it is my daily job, and I have worked both within organizations and in a variety of industries as well as in large consulting firms. Now I own my own business specializing in leadership development, especially with and for women. I fell in love with working with aspiring women leaders, ”said Heermann.

She said writing was part of her job when she worked at a global consulting firm and led leadership development practice nationally, and women in leadership practice globally.

“I started writing articles for the company newsletter, for blogs, for research reports, but now writing is a small part of my job. I enjoy spending my time working with organizations to advance women, and I do this through keynotes, development workshops, and high potential targeted programs for women looking to take it to the next level. executive, ”she said.

Heermann said that over a decade ago, the president of the company she worked for approached her with a project. He wanted her to help an organization, a successful business that hosted networking lunches and inspiring speakers, develop workshops for women looking to advance their careers.

“I realized that the stories of challenges, barriers and prejudices really outweighed the positive stories I heard about people’s victories, progress and promotions, and therefore these stories were uneven and unweighted.” , she said.

Heermann said his good friend reminded him to share his post with the world and that it was important to do so.

“It’s important that I do this because things don’t change fast enough for women, but future generations are counting on us so we can’t keep this representation or this lack of representation of women in leadership. We cannot wait for this to evolve naturally because it will not happen, ”she said.

“My main source of inspiration is my daughter and the book is dedicated to her, but I want to help create a world where she believes in the possibility, that I want her to feel able to achieve whatever she thinks about, that she is confident that her voice is valuable, that she is learning to fill her mind with positive thoughts… I want it for all the girls in the world.

Heermann said she described the feelings she wanted to convey in the reader chapter by chapter and was told her book helps women feel understood.

“I’m talking about this magical combination of warmth and strength that stimulates personal change and a collective call to action. I want women to understand that it’s okay to have self-limiting thoughts, but we also buy into the mainstream narrative and it doesn’t have to be that way anymore, ”she said.

Heermann said writing the book was the most difficult project she took on.

“What I underestimated was the personal journey I was going to pursue, such as reliving key moments of leadership in my own career, reaching leadership levels, the struggles I had, the triumphs . It was emotionally draining writing about women’s leadership and the shit stories we tell ourselves, ”she said.

Each chapter of Reframe your story begins with three unnecessary stories the reader can tell themselves, followed by a brief interactive activity, then tips on how to reframe those stories to feel empowered, strong, and in control.

In the book, Heermann encourages his readers to take an interest in the content and tag it in whatever way suits them.

She said that especially in North America our value is tied to how busy we are and that contributes to a situation where people are increasingly accepting in a way that does not serve them.

“My book is about doing less… the tactical things that we think matter but which in the grand scheme of things aren’t so that we can achieve higher priorities at work but also at home. The book is about doing less, doing more and doing more for yourself. It’s the hitting line, ”she said.

To learn more about Heermann and Reframe your story, please visit https://www.tammyheermann.com/reframeyourstorybook