Donna Duncan-Scott, the former CEO of Jamaica’s largest investment house whose April interview with Flair Magazine was previously covered by Landmark Education News, has shared with the Jamaica Gleaner her vision of what is possible for Jamaica and the difference the Landmark Forum made in her life. To see this story in its original formatting, visit the Jamaica Gleaner site. A dream to transform self, company, country by Camille Taylor

An encounter with Donna Duncan-Scott feels like a reunion with a good old friend. Her easygoing style immediately engages you and her animated mannerisms create such an air of familiarity, that you could easily find yourself kicking off your shoes, putting up your feet and forgetting you’re in a ‘business meeting’.

Five minutes into the conversation, you realise that although she has led one of the most respected financial institutions in Jamaica and is counted among the country’s most powerful business people, there isn’t a pretentious bone in her body.

In 2000, at the age of 36, Duncan-Scott became the CEO of Jamaica Money Market Brokers Limited (JMMB) the country’s largest investment brokerage house and third-largest financial institution. Her ascent to the position of CEO followed the passing of her mother Joan Duncan, JMMB’s founder and first managing director.

"It was scary," Duncan-Scott admits, laughing. "I still remember meeting with the board, and you could feel the nervousness in the room. So much was coming at me that I felt like I had been thrown in at the deep end and I was drowning."

To move past her self-doubt and get to a place where she could develop a clear vision for the company took a complete shift in Duncan-Scott’s way of thinking. She cites her participation in the Landmark Forum as a major turning point in her personal development.

Impressive achievements

"It helped me to get out of the victimhood and shape a possibility for where I wanted to take the company," she said.

The rest is literally history as her five-year tenure at the helm of JMMB was marked by a series of impressive achievements. She spearheaded the company’s expansion into Trinidad and Barbados and piloted successful listings on both the Jamaican and Trinidadian stock exchange. Also, new business lines were added to JMMB’s local operations, including a full-service stock brokerage and an insurance brokerage company.

The company’s stellar performance in 2001 earned Duncan-Scott the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneurial Award and the Jamaica Employers’ Federation Award for Innovative Workplace Practices. She was named Business Leader of the Year by Florida International University’s MBA cohort in 2001 and again in 2003. In 2003, she also became the Northern Caribbean University’s Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs’ first inductee.

Stepped down as CEO

In 2005, when her career was at an all-time high, Duncan-Scott shocked the business world when she stepped down as CEO. She took the decision shortly after she and her husband, actor Alwyn Scott, had their second child.

"I am very intense about my work and I didn’t see myself being able to continue and still be emotionally available for my children, and you cannot short-change your children," she says.

And, while there was pressure on her to maintain the balancing act that modern feminism insists is possible, Duncan-Scott shrugged it off and passed the baton to her brother, Keith, who has been in charge of the JMMB Group ever since.

"My superwoman image took a big hit," she admits, clapping her hands together and erupting in near-raucous laughter at the thought of it. "The superwoman thing got a big blow but I am more committed to my children than to any image."

Comfort in talking about her challenges and strengths is what makes Duncan-Scott endearing. Her down-to-earth personality is an offshoot of her belief that every individual is equal and entitled to respect, a philosophy she learned from her mother and father, Dr D.K. Duncan, member of parliament.

"My mother and father taught me that we were all the same, nobody was better than anyone else and everybody was to be equally valued," she says.

This belief has been the bedrock of JMMB since the company’s inception.

"We respect every client, no matter how much money they have," Duncan-Scott insists. "That is in our DNA, it’s part of who we are."

In an age where ‘cash is king’, JMMB proudly proclaims that it was built on a ‘vision of love’ and exists to help all of its stakeholders – clients, employees and shareholders – to realise their full potential.

"We have a different perspective, so every decision is not about making money; it’s about serving our clients, serving team members and about making money for our shareholders. In everything, all three have to be considered," Duncan-Scott explains.

As the company expanded and the staff complement increased, the challenge has been to ensure that the company’s core values do not get diluted. That task has fallen to Duncan-Scott, who has served as group executive director with responsibility for culture and leadership development since stepping down as CEO.

She is also leading the team that has been developing a business model with measurable standards and processes that enshrine the core values and desired behaviours in all aspects of the company’s operations. One of the team’s earliest discoveries was that the staff-selection process is critical to the drive to perpetuate the organisation’s culture.

"Behavioural patterns are as important to us as the technical qualification and now we actually select for both," Duncan-Scott says. "When we started out, we would look at experience and skills sets but we soon understood that we also had to look at the behavioural side and consider if a person’s belief system conforms to what we believe and if they would be willing to live the values."

Professional goals

The ultimate goal of Duncan-Scott’s culture and leadership development team is to create an organisation where staff members are "loving, caring, passionate and purposeful" and clients feel "honoured, valued and understood".

There is a concerted effort to have staff members placed in areas where they can best utilise their talents and strengths and also to help them set and achieve personal and professional goals.

She can speak from experience, having had to make a fundamental change in her own thinking in order to go from being the unsure heir apparent to the confident woman in charge.

"I had to take responsibility," she says. "I had to take control of my own destiny, I had to rise to the occasion and I couldn’t give myself any permission to make excuses."

Having undergone her own personal transformation, she feels strongly that Jamaica could make a quantum leap if its people could change their thinking on a national level.

Dominating the world stage

"My long term thing is to try to transform how we see ourselves as a country so we can create a different future for ourselves. I think we got a glimpse of our potential this year in Beijing when you saw a little country like us with meagre resources dominating the world stage," she says.

"Look at what our athletes did and look at what it took; it wasn’t money, it was determination, discipline, their belief in themselves and their coaches believing in them. They have taken away all of our excuses."

Like thousands of people across the world, she has drawn deep inspiration from Barack Obama’s recent victory in the United States’ presidential election, which has literally redefined the possible.

"He had a vision, he took a stand for what he believed in, and it’s a whole new world now," says Duncan-Scott, her voice brimming with excitement.

MaryKay Mullally is the acclaimed wellness coach who used the Landmark Self-Expression and Leadership Program to fulfill her dream of making a difference for other women by having them run marathons and half marathons. Her work with Step up for Life, her organization through which about 1,000 women have completed the San Diego half marathon, attracted the attention of ABC News, where she was one of five finalists for the Good Morning American/Prevention Magazine Picture of Health Contest (all five finalists were eventually deemed winners and awarded $5,000). Since the contest, Mullally continues to inspire others and attract the attention of newspapers in the western hemisphere. This story, written by Barbara Nelson and appearing in the Jamaica Gleaner, tells some of this background and some of what came out of this contest.

MaryKay Mullally is one of those rare persons who genuinely believe that “at the end of the day only a life lived for others is worth living”.

I came across her story, just by chance, leafing through the June 2008 issue of Prevention magazine. She was one of the five women featured who were vying for the top prize in the second annual Prevention/ABC News Now Picture of Health contest. The women were selected because they showed that “life does get better after 40, and that you can find your healthy path no matter how many twists and turns it takes to get there”.

Tired of running a software development team in California, Jamaican-born MaryKay Mullally became involved in self-development seminars. One of her courses involved developing a half-marathon-training group. The result? “I ran my first marathon in January 2002, two months before turning 41,” the now vibrant 47-year-old mother of two said.

“It was one of the most challenging yet exhilarating things I’ve ever done. I had to dig deep physically and mentally to keep going when my muscles were burning and the voices in my head said I wasn’t going to make it. It required that I be present in each moment, focus on the finish line and just take the next step. Completing that marathon made me feel like I could do anything.”

This charming woman, who attended St Andrew High School in Jamaica as a young girl, ran two more marathons in 2003 before creating Step Up For Life in August 2004. Step Up For Life was initially launched as a project in self-expression and leadership, one of the core programmes of Landmark Education. This programme gives people an opportunity to express themselves fully, make a difference, and be a leader. The project was an opportunity for her to make a difference in her community.

“I wanted to empower women with this programme by helping them to do something they would never have done and never thought they could, so they could take that into other areas of their lives and know they could do anything, by taking one step at a time with the support of other women, just like themselves. I wanted women to experience the freedom I felt when I ran and have a tool they could use to reclaim their health. I had 50 people sign up and had to turn people away,” she said.

Of the original 50 women, 40 made it to the starting line at the inaugural Nike Women’s Half Marathon in San Francisco, and all finished. For many, it was the most empowering experience of their lives.

In January of 2005 MaryKay launched Step Up as a business, running three sessions per year to train for local San Diego Half marathons. Just fewer than 1,000 women have participated to date.

“I have now expanded my business into a wellness coaching practice and have helped hundreds of men and women to lose weight and reclaim their health and well-being. So my focus is more on this aspect of my business,” she explained.

MaryKay also coaches people via the phone over a period and helps them to achieve their individual health, weight or fitness goals. “I can work with practically anyone anywhere,” she said.

So why did she enter the Prevention/ABC News Now Picture of Health competition? “I wanted to touch more people through the media. Being in the best shape of my life at 47 years of age I get to uplift others by being an example of vibrant health,” she said.

Since the competition began, people from all over the country have contacted her. She has also re-connected with high school and other friends with whom she had lost touch, and that has been both rewarding and an unexpected benefit.

“One phone call I will never forget,” MaryKay said, “came from a woman in Texas on the morning the competition was announced on Good Morning America. She told me that she weighed 300 lb and had tried every diet in the book and had failed miserably. She said she hated herself and the night before had gone to bed hopeless and resigned. That morning she turned the TV on to the segment and for the first time in months she had hope through my story. At that point she immediately went to her computer, cast her vote for me, looked me up on Google and called me. When I hung up, realising that my dream to impact millions of people was already being fulfilled, it was all I could do to not breakdown and cry.”

ABC News declared all five finalists winners and MaryKay donated her winning cheque of US$5,000 to NEADS (Dogs for Deaf and Disabled Americans), of Princeton MA. The organisation trains rescued dogs to assist persons who are deaf or physically disabled in leading more independent lives.

“I chose NEADS because this was the original charity I donated money to when Step Up was first founded, and because I think that it is very important to empower the disabled and give them the gift of independence, while giving animals that may have otherwise been destroyed a valuable purpose,” she said.

To learn more about MaryKay’s wellness programme visit www.stepupforlife.com.

To read more about MaryKay, read Landmark Education News’ first story about Mullally and Step up for Life.

 In 2004, Jamaican MaryKay Mullally used Landmark Education's Self-Expression and Leadership Program to found Step Up For Life, which began as half-marathon training program for women. Soon, her project became her life–Mullally gave up her old career and in addition to supporting women run, has turned Step Up For Life into a wellness coaching practice.

The difference she made in people's lives led ABC and Prevention magazine to select her as one of finalists for their Picture of Health Contest. Mullally's participation in the contest drew the attention of the Jamaica Daily Gleaner, a leading Jamaican newspaper. The story appears below.

Mary Kay Mullally – Taking on the Health of the World

5/12/08

Jamaican MaryKay Mullally is one of five finalists in this year's ABC and Prevention magazine's Picture of Health contest. The competition focuses on women over 40 who have made healthy choices and inspire others to do likewise.

In 1999, Mullally went to San Diego, California, to head a software development team. Four years ago, she walked away from that and a 20-year career in technology, and became a personal health, wellness, cleansing and weight management coach through her organisation, Step Up For Life.

"I reached a point where I had a demanding schedule. After four years of doing that, I had made an impact on the company and it was rewarding but I wasn't enjoying it," she explained. "I wanted to see what else was available for me. My children were in high school and would soon be off, so my life wasn't centred around them anymore."

New beginning

Mullally attended a personal development seminar, the Landmark Forum, and realised her true passion. "I was able to see the barriers that were in the way of me having the kind of life I wanted. It showed me what my passion was and it was people's health. It was a complete 180-degree turn for me."

In one of her courses, she created a half-marathon training group. What began as a class project became a calling. In 2004, she founded Step Up for Life, a beginners' half-marathon training programme for women. While in the corporate world, Mullally had started running as a form of stress release in 2001. "Three months before my 41st birthday, I ran my first marathon and I was as pleased as punch. Since then, I've done five marathons and several half marathons".

She has also led more than 600 women across the finish line and is currently developing a wellness coaching practice.

NEADS

Part of the award for 'picture of health' is a monetary contribution to the winner's favourite charity. For Mullally, this would be NEADS (Dogs For Deaf and Disabled Americans). She was introduced to the association while on holiday in Hawaii. She met a woman who was wheelchair-bound and whose service dog had just died. She organised a marathon to help raise funds to replace the dog, and was able to provide three women with service dogs.

"Whether I win this contest or not, it's just the beginning. I want to win to share my secret of how you can have vibrant health. I want to teach people how to overcome self-sabotage and live healthy, balanced lives, with physical and emotional well-being," said Mullally.

She says most people don't take the time to look inside themselves and their lives. "We just go through life and roll with the punches. I reinvented myself and saw that my life was making a difference in health of the world."

To see the original newspaper story, go to the Daily Gleaner website. Also, check out Mullally's own website for Step Up for Life.

Beverly Manley, the former first lady of Jamaica, Jamaica’s former representative to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, and a graduate of Landmark Education’s Landmark Forum program, recently interviewed Deb Beroset, a spokesperson and program leader for Landmark Education, on her ‘Today with Beverly Manley’ radio show. Wesley Morris, also a Landmark Forum graduate, was also interviewed as part of the program. A transcript of the program follows below:

Beverly [Host]: What a better way to celebrate a birthday, than looking at ourselves and seeing just what keeps us going, what stops us, and what we can do about it at an individual level. Dr. Wesley Morris, who’s a fairly regular contributor to the program, transformational coach, joins us. Good morning Wesley, how are you?

Wesley: Good morning Beverly, I’m fine, thank you – and you? What a better way to celbrate a birthday, than looking at ourselves and seeing just what keeps us going, what stops us, and what we can do about it at an individual level. Dr. Wesley Morris, who’s a fairly regular contributor to the program, transformational coach, joins us. Good morning Wesley, how are you?

Beverly: Wonderful. And we have Deb Beroset from Landmark Education, and she’s a spokesperson for Landmark and program leader coming to us from the United States.  Good morning, Deb.

Deb: Good morning, Beverly.

Beverly: Welcome, and thank you for joining us. Wesley? Question on behavioral change at the individual level. And what I want to do in the short time we have today is talk about your personal experience with change. Any way you want to do it. Use an example, any way you want to do it.

Wesley: Ok, so I’m going to say that the first time I did the Landmark Forum was in 1994. One of the things I saw on it was there was a lady being coached about her relationship with her mother. And if one’s relationship with one’s parents is very, very important. And she was saying that my parents don’t, my mother doesn’t, love me. And each person in the room could see that what she was using as evidence that her mother didn’t love her, for them wouldn’t be evidence that their parents didn’t love them. And I really got that, because I had a little bit of an issue whether or not my mom loved me or not or whether she loved my brother. And I really saw that my mother loved me, and that was a really major change for me in terms of my relationship with my mother, which improved from that moment on. And it wasn’t that we were in a daggers drawn or anything. It’s just that there’s a quality of the relationship that, seeing this person being coached in that way that made a very big difference.

Beverly: So let me get what you’re saying. You’re saying that seeing the person being coached in that way allowed you to see something for yourself in your own life. Deb, share with us a personal experience you have had in terms of transformation of yourself.

Deb: Absolutely, Beverly, thank you. And by the way I’m very moved by what Wesley just shared with us. The wonderful thing about this, Beverly, this education, and I’ll share a personal example. You mentioned a little bit about seeing transformation, and we really do take for granted that things are a particular way, and we are a particular way – and then we try to change ourselves, or we go to work on altering our circumstances and the people around us. When I first participated in The Landmark Forum, I saw that that is essentially all about comparing to something that’s previously existed and, by its very nature, is past-based. Transformation is an act of bringing forth or inventing. It’s actually something created, and it is just inherently expansive. So one of the big things that I got, actually, was the degree to which how I was being in life was stressed and tense and always looking at what was the next thing I needed to be doing. I was a single parent with two young daughters, I was self employed as a writer. And I had a lot of circumstances, as we all do, that for me seemed to point to that ‘This is the best that I can experience in life.’ And what I saw in The Landmark Forum was that that wasn’t necessarily the case – it was simply how I was viewing life – and I saw that it was actually possible for me to be happy and to have peace of mind regardless of my circumstances. And what happened, Beverly, is that I actually became someone who had peace of mind, even when things appeared to be going wrong, I would just see ‘Oh, ok, there’s not a big story about this. This is just simply what’s happening right now. What am I going to do about it?’ And it didn’t rob me of my sense of my fulfillment, satisfaction, and happiness in the moment.

Beverly: Wesley, talk a little bit about, just following on from what Deb just said, talk a little bit about the distinction between what is actually happening – the facts – and the meaning we give to those facts.

Wesley: Ok, um. One of the things that um. Okay, so one of the things that troubled me before I experienced transformation. And I’m going to make transformation not just in terms of what I experienced within Landmark Education.

Beverly: Yes, generally.

Wesley: But what I’ve experienced in other areas as well. So I met someone, a coach, he hadn’t done anything in Landmark. He was actually a new linguistics programming coach.  And he had all these really massive claims of what he could do with his coaching. And I attended a two weekend, I think Saturday and Sunday, two weekends with him, and he actually took me through a process. A process called timeline. And what that process did, was that, for about two or three days after I did that process I was calm, like completely quiet. The thought of aggression, and some people may still think I’m aggressive, but the thought of aggression that I had before that just completely disappeared. My wife said ‘What’s the matter with you?’ And I just noticed that I was behaving completely differently from the way I’d been behaving before. So it’s like it did something to an early incident that I had. I put an interpretation on life, and that came when I was probably about 3, that somehow there was something wrong with me.  And it almost just disappeared it and my whole relationship with people has completely shifted since that.

Beverly: And has it lasted, Wesley?

Wesley: It’s lasted, it really has lasted.

Beverly: Deb Beroset, what is…can you share with us maybe the tool that you use in Landmark to distinguish between what actually happens, the facts, and the interpretation?

Deb: Sure, we actually call that distinction ‘The Vicious Circle,’ Beverly. Basically it’s where we suggest that it’s the human tendency that we all have – everyone tends to collapse what actually happened with our interpretation of what happened. There’s a story that we tell others or ourselves about what happened. That collapsing happens so fast, that it becomes very difficult – if not nearly impossible – to separate the two, and we think of them as one and the same. So almost immediately, and absolutely over time, the story that we tell ourselves becomes the way it is, the reality that we know, and it limits what’s possible in our lives.  Which robs us of a lot of our joy and our effectiveness. So when we are able to separate what happened from our story or  interpretation, we discover that much of what we’ve considered already determined, already given, already fixed – my boss is this way, my husband is this way, I am this way – may in fact not be that way.  And then situations that could have been very difficult and challenging, they actually become more fluid and open to change. We find ourselves no longer limited by that finite set of options, and we’re able to achieve what we want with a new kind of ease and enjoyment.

Beverly: Can you give us a specific kind of example, Deb, just to make sure our listeners really get it. Because I remember when I got that, it really changed my life.

Deb: Oh yes, absolutely. Well, I mentioned that I had been divorced and had two daughters. Well, there was a father of those two daughters, my former husband. And what had happened was there had been a day when he had been very angry with me during our divorce meetings and had basically said that this whole thing was my fault. And that’s just what he said in the moment. And what I…how I interpreted that is, he would always be angry with me. And so my interactions with him, when the phone rang, and I saw on the caller ID it was him calling, I braced myself to speak to an angry man. And I kept conversations as short as possible. I think this is not an unfamiliar situation?

Beverly: Not at all

Deb: Yes. When I realized, oh, this is just another human being, and he was just upset that day – and this situation has a lot of people upset. And I actually created the possibility of being a powerful co-parent with him. And Beverly, I have to tell you, it’s altered.  It’s not like we never had any things that we disagreed on after that, but today, Michael and I – he is my absolute partner in parenting our two teenaged daughters. There’s an ease and a connectedness there that absolutely was not possible until I realized I was responsible for how I had been being with him.

Beverly: We’re going to have to leave it there. Deb Beroset, thank you so much for sharing that thoughtfully. Thank you Wesley, Wesley Morris.  Thank you both very much.

To read more about Beverly Manley, go to her website.

Prominent Jamaican Landmark Forum graduate Donna Duncan-Scott, who is the an executive and former CEO of Jamaica Money Market Brokers Ltd. (JMMB), the largest investment house in Jamaica, has been honored by the First Global Bank(one of six commercial banks operating in Jamaica) and Flair Magazine with their Woman of Vision Award. In an interview with the Jamaican Daily Gleaner newspaper, of which Flair Magazine is a part of, Duncan-Scott talks about the difference the Landmark Forum made in her life.

Here are excerpts from the story in the Daily Gleaner:

Donna’s Dream

By Nashauna Drummond, Lifestyle Coordinator

April 7, 2008 

Donna Duncan-Scott is one of five Jamaican women who will be receiving the First Global Bank/Flair Woman of Vision Award. Over the next few weeks Flair will highlight the Jamaican women who have made tremendous contributions to our country.

Her laughter frequently pierces the atmosphere as she rocks in her chair with vigorous head movements. She has a vibrant personality and we notice that the pattern on her skirt is in harmony with the accent wall in her office. Donna Duncan-Scott is relaxed, comfortable, and happy.

In her new role as executive director of culture and leadership development at Jamaica Money Market Brokers (JMBB), she passed of the reins of the company to her twin brother, Keith Duncan. This freed her up to spend the formative years of developemnt with her daughters, five and three years old. “I now only come in to JMMB three days week; I am more present with them.”

“At the CEO level, you are always thinking about the company. Now I don’t have to have the whole company on my head.”

It wasn’t a difficult decision to make, but adjusting was. “To see the company discussing something and making decisions without telling me was very hard and then I had to shape a new role.” She is now focused on sustaining a culture so that people are happy and clients get the best services.

A career in the financial world wasn’t always what Duncan-Scott had in mind. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial engineering at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, in Trinidad. “I went on a government scholarship as my parents couldn’t afford tuition on their own as it was five of us. Engineering attracted me because I could get a scholarship and I didn’t want to do medicine or teach.”

It was while at the university that she began the healing process after being sexually abused as a child. “I love telling people about it to let them know they can get over it. I was very, very reserved with very low self esteem I wasn’t happy.”

“It was then I began coming out of my shell; it was a very important experience. I began talking about what happened and to explore that part of me.”

At a Landmark Forum in 2001, Duncan-Scott completed the healing process. The Landmark Forum is an intense personal transformation seminar, during which participants are provided with the tools to live in a new vision for their lives. “A lightbulb went off and I saw that I was living in the belief that I was unworthy of having a healthy relationship,” she explained.

After the seminar, she broke away for the third time from a very unhealthy relationship she had been involved in for five years.

“I met my husband through friends who were trying to set us up but I kept telling them I was in a relationship and they kept saying ‘Yeah, one that isn’t good for you’. So ater the third breakup, I called him (Alwyn) up and said, ‘Let’s go have a drink”, and it was great. And then he tells me he had started dating someone three weeks agao. I said, ‘when you are ready, give me a call; this thing has potential.’ A few weeks later, he called and said, ‘I’m ready to face life.’ I didn’t know what that meant but I was ready too. We had common values and everything.”

With a very successful organization that now has associated companies in Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia, Barbados and The Dominican Republic, Duncan-Scott can now spread her wings.

“I would like to set up an organization focusing on helping Jamaica to let go of the limiting beliefs that we have.