Meet Carol Van Den Hende

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Carol Van Den Hende. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Carol below.

Carol, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

I found my purpose by asking myself the inspiring purpose question: “why do I do what I do, beyond the obvious profit and functional purposes?”

It helps to dig deep. For each initial answer, ask yourself “why” as many as 7 times, until you identify a resonant insight that feels right, feels authentic to you, and inspires you!

For me, it became clear that my writing and work are guided by my purpose “to inspire hope and empathy for people and planet.”

One way to assess whether your purpose statement rings true for you is whether you can quote it by heart, and find it useful for checking whether to accept an opportunity or not. For instance, this interview makes sense because Bold Journey’s values of resilience, optimism and self-acceptance are consistent with mine!

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I’m fortunate to have many fulfilling parts to my life. I believe this can be true for everyone. We’re not just one thing. Our potential can span many areas.

By day, I leverage my expertise as a professional marketer, strategist and digital transformation leader to chair my company’s Global Responsible AI Governance Board.

Outside of work, I shine a light on characters with disabilities through my writing. I’m proud that my Goodbye Orchid trilogy has won awards for Multicultural Fiction, Disability Awareness, Women’s Fiction, Contemporary Fiction and more. Springboard Consulting named me Disability Hero of the Year for my Goodbye Orchid series. My writing is inspired by wounded veterans and Purple Heart decorated veterans like Sgt. Bryan Anderson have endorsed my books.

Here’s a peek into my stories. My trilogy asks the question “what happens when life changes in an instant?” In Orchid Blooming, you’ll meet half-Asian orphan Orchid Paige who, more than anything, wants to travel to China to feel closer to the memory of her mother. Handsome Phoenix Walker helps her but in Goodbye Orchid, a disabling accident makes him believe he may be the exact wrong person for her. The explosive finale to the trilogy, Always Orchid, was recommended by Kirkus Reviews and named a “Book Club Pick” by Woman’s World. If you like heartwarming, heartbreaking stories, you’ll love the 40-time award-winning Goodbye Orchid series.

Excitingly, my first book of short stories will release this year. Echoes of Orchid explores what happens when we make the wrong decisions for the ones we love. Readers call the collection “heartwarming and emotional” and insightful for “how a person faces tragedies and refuses to come undone.”

Beyond all of that, I’m grateful to be a passionate Climate Reality Leader, Board Trustee, and mom of twins!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I love speaking to people who are along the journey to their self-actualized selves. And aren’t we all?

For me, I’ve found several practices to be incredibly clarifying:

1) know your “inspiring why” and periodically assess whether your time is aligned with that mission

2) if you’re faced with a difficult decision, ask yourself “what would you regret more?” This question helped me when my company offered me a multi-year assignment to China. It was a daunting opportunity, but the question helped me realize that I’d regret not trying and knowing whether I could live up to the high expectations (spoiler alert: it worked out beautifully!)

3) cultivate the optimism of possibility. Famous astronomer Carl Sagan once said “The visions we offer our children shape the future. It matters what those visions are. Often they become self-fulfilling prophecies.” It’s true. Once we paint a picture of possible futures, we often move towards that vision. When there’s a choice, why not imagine a brighter future and then find ways to make that a reality?

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

Happiness research has found that the presence of community is one of the keys to a fulfilled life. Likewise, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs calls out humans’ need for “Belonging” just above physiological and safety needs.

So if you find that you’re seeking a like-minded community or resonate with anything from this interview, please connect with me in any of these places:
* Join my readers community https://www.facebook.com/groups/carolvdh
* Sign up for my monthly newsletter https://substack.com/@carolvdh
* Follow my journey on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolvandenhende/

I’d love to hear where you are on your journey of purpose, possibility, and living a life with no regrets!

P.S. Authors really appreciate reviews so if you find solace or value in the Goodbye Orchid series, please let others know via Amazon, Goodreads and/or Bookbub. Happy reading!

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Image credit: Sgt. Bryan Anderson (for the photo with the man in the wheelchair)

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