1.Be authentic – Authenticity is essential for connecting with today’s children.
Connect with your child individually – Good connection is a process which takes time, don’t try to rush it. Seek to create an environment of trust as you connect. Seek first to understand them rather than trying to get them to understand you.
Have Fun – Don’t be afraid to be kid-like with them especially if they are younger.
Demonstrate you care – Maintain a humble servant’s heart with empathy. Let your kids know you value them, their time and their ideas all while demonstrating genuine unconditional love. Keeping this in mind will prevent you from being judgmental, condescending or critical while interacting with them.
Be Teachable – Start where you are and always learn and grow. Be open and willing to learn from them. Let them know we need them, their development and contributions to make the world better.
Keep it Simple – Don’t try to share everything.
Be willing to fail and share your failures – Failure is part of the growing process. Take a risk and laugh at yourself. Do something even if it is not perfect. Even if you mess up in front of them either they will not know or if they do notice laugh at yourself and you will earn their respect.
Get out of your comfort zone – We didn’t learn to walk in a day, do it now and see what happens. Remember: we are all works in progress.
Be patient – Both your children and ourselves are a works in process. Be patient with the growth process and when working with them be patient with them.
Invest time in learning the issues they face and how to serve them.
Our children are our future ❤
For more information about how to create a better environment for your children do not hesitate to let me know. I have great workshops, one on one coaching with parents, and great valuable lessons that depending on where you are in your journey of parenthood I can share with you.
God Bless,
Janitza Rivera, Executive Business Coach, Speaker and Trainer
I believe it was sometime in November or early December of last year when I had my yearly mammogram. I really can’t remember the exact date but what I can’t forget is the phone call that followed that appointment. Since I have been getting my mammograms in my early thirties I have never had a phone call. I always get my results in the mail. That day was different. They asked me to comeback for another appointment to have another mammogram done. You probably now by now my anxiety started to kick in, but being a person of faith wasn’t as bad as I thought I would react. You should never let your nerves take over. I just kept praying and kept focusing on what they said, they needed to do another mammogram to get a better view of my breasts, right? No need to get too excited.
I make it to my appointment and my mammogram gets completed. The nurse, was so sweet, she asked me to step outside and wait for the doctor to take a look before she lets me go. She comes back to let me know after few minutes that the doctor is running behind and that it may take a little longer than expected that she is going to transfer me to another room so she can continue on with her patients. Haha! I laughed because I’m thinking, I have been in this field for a long time and I know something here is not good, however this nurse is doing such a great job trying to ease my mind but unfortunately it wasn’t working. I asked how long it may be and she said 15 to 20 minutes. Those 15 to 20 mins became hours to me. I slowly started to cry. The only thing I could think of was my precious daughter. I really started questioning God. Why would he be so gracious and send me my baby if I wasn’t going to be able to enjoy her? At that point I wish you would’ve been in my mind. I completely mapped out how I wanted to spend my days with her if I had cancer. Then I said to myself, wait a minute Janitza what are you going to do if thats not the case? Since that day I decided to plan how I wanted to spend my time purposely with her and my loved ones because life is so precious and we can’t start letting life happen to us, we have to intentionally live our lives in a meaningful way.
Nothing was found in my breasts. Everything came negative, it was just small cyst and we have nothing to worry about. We tend to wait to make plans when obstacles and adversity knock on our doors instead of being proactive. I hope you can join me in living a meaningful life with your loved ones and be intentional about how you want to spend the rest of your days and make it happen. My intentions were to have some pictures taken of the two of us and she ended up taking pictures of me. She had a great time and I had a great time watching her enjoy her photo session.
God Bless,
Janitza Rivera Executive Business Coach, Speaker and Trainer
Part of my job is to seat down with patients and do an intake interview as to why they are in our office and see what it is they are looking for and how can we better help them get what they want.
I can say that I do love what I do and eventhough this is something I do not do full time is something I truly enjoy when I get to do it.
First I want to tell you that eventhough everyone that step in our office have a common purpose, everyone’s story is very different.
I often ask why do I work in a field that people hate. But at the same time I can relate to them because I have been in their shoes. The more I think about this and the more I tell myself not to take it personal still makes me wonder why? Why do you still come for help when you hate us so much? Yes “hate” such a strong word. They hate us, people tells me all the time “I hate you”, “I hate the dentist”.
The more questions I ask, the more I get to learn and hear that behind that strong word there is a story.
Today I am going to use the name of Pepe just to not mention the real name of the patient for confidentiality purposes.
Pepe came to the office after not being at the dental office for 25 years. Pepe was petrified of the dentist. Last time he remembers when he was at a dentist office was at 16 years old. Why that was the only time he remembers? Well, let me tell you why. It was the day he had a BAD EXPERIENCE. He was getting his wisdom teeth extracted and felt every little movement the dentist made while working on him, but he was numbed, he couldn’t understand why. That experience itself made him “hate us”. This awful experience prevented him from going to the dentist and he went to see a dentist just when he was having a problem and would ask for the teeth be extracted so he didn’t have to deal with anything else.
Remember when I mentioned earlier that everyone always have a story. I wasn’t to convinced that was the full story. Just by the look in his eyes. I am never afraid to ask questions, it always takes me to the bottom of things. My family always make fun of me because I sure ask a lot of questions. I am also not embarrassed to accept the truth but it is necessary to ask.
Well, I decided to ask him about his country. Pepe had an accent so I wanted to know where he was from. Pepe replied that he was from Iraq and that he has been in the states for 2 years now and he loves it.
Pepe is married. Has three children and is a journalist. He deals a lot with the public. Pepe was bullied when he was a child at school because of how his teeth looked. He feels absolutely embarrassed and he would like to be able to eat healthy because he would like to live a lot of years. I went back to his childhood and I wanted to know what it was like to be made fun of. He replied it was not fun, but that made him tough. He was able to hide all of those emotions and later in adulthood didn’t care. Ok, but why didn’t he care? I find that hard to believe. There is a reason he is in my chair today. Right?
I’m very excited for Pepe. I am not sure if he would pursue anything with us. He came for a free consultation to see what his options are and get some prices. He wanted to discuss with his wife if treatment in our office is something he can afford before getting any commitment. I don’t care if he goes to another office to seek dental care. I want him to purse his happiness and that consist of a new smile. I hope he comes back to us, but I also keep in mind not everyone can afford us.
Now let me tell you one thing I am supper proud of, and that is Pepe. Pepe showed me his vulnerable side and as a man I respect that. I let him know how proud I am of him for making the decision to come to our office. I know that was a big step for him.
If you think that bullying does not affect people you are wrong. People have feelings and if you are reading me today please don’t make fun of other people. I encourage you to not put people down. Be more compassionate. This is Pepe’s story. He wants to eat well and smile big and be proud of his smile. He wants to replace his missing teeth with implants and have a fixed prosthesis. I hope I get to see Pepe again. I also hope you do not get to be that one person that made fun of Pepe in school.
If you want to have a nice smile, eat better, get a new job, gain more confidence, date, be in pictures, and have a better health style please seek help there are a lot of people like me, actually there are a lot of people like us while we get to be accused of being bad, rough and careless, the reality is that we are very nice people with a wonderful heart trying to help you get the smile you deserve.
This Sunday morning Keyani and I went to Starbucks for a light breakfast and then we went for a walk.
We enjoyed mother nature and had a lot of fun going to a different place we have never been at the JMU Arboretum.
We played with rocks, sticks, flowers and leaves. Every new step ♂️ of the way I kept sharing with her positive affirmations. If she was trying to walk by rocks I would make sure she knew she could do it without holding my hands and that if she fell it was ok to get back up. It was funny to hear her repeat my words. I know she is listening.
She would say hello to people that would walk by her, she would say “have a good day”. “Good morning”. It was just great to hear her trying to interact with adults since she has been spending most of her time just with us and no much contact with other kids. She is learning a lot. I’m so proud of her.
What things do you share with your kids to show positivism?
Crown Council is a place where fellow dentists and team members genuinely celebrate and encourage their fellow practitioners success. Their principles and fundamentals are essential to making any practice successful.
This is my second year and I enjoyed their speakers as much as I did last year. One tradition that I started is to purchase their books at their registration day.
If you are one of the countless people who don’t make a habit of reading regularly you may be missing out.
Everything you read fills your head with new bits of information, and you never know when it might come in handy. Food for thought. Knowledge can never be taken away from you.
The outward Mindset by The Arbinger Institute will be teaching me how to change lives and transform organizations.
The ROI of Kindness by Biro and Mac Anderson will be teaching me how to help me teach others how to put a little kindness in our culture. My goal is to help others make the world a better place.
The apprentice model by Dr. David Phelps DDS will be teaching me how to help young leaders to have an exceptional life if they are willing to stand out from the crowd and aim for higher than average.
Lastly I have the Finish book by Jon Acuff, excellent and funny speaker. This book will help me to give myself the gift of done. When you are a leader one of your biggest hopes is that your team will finish its goals, but with thousands of distractions it gets harder and harder every year. I’m hoping this book helps me help others fix that problem.
Lastly I have my notebook where all of my notes were taken. Lots of wisdom is written down there and I just need to continue to get better so I can help my team and our patients.
Let's Be Real Authentic with Janitza 