About El

A little bit about the author

After 13 years as a stay-at-home Mom, El began her next career in 1993 at Progressive Medical in central Ohio. The opportunity to contribute to a company rooted in the entrepreneurial spirit helped El grow and evolve right along with the business. By the time she left in 2014, the company had grown from five employees to twelve hundred; twice merging with other companies. Those experiences helped El hone her abilities to lead change, inspire commitment, and move a diverse group of people forward as a team toward a common goal.

El’s belief in heart-based leadership and her passion for developing emerging leaders drives her still today. Through her company, Leading Fully Present Consulting, El has strengthened her commitment to elevate emerging leaders and support the organizations who value them. To that end, in 2015, El successfully completed the coursework required to be an Extreme Leadership Institute Certified Facilitator.

El has been recognized for her leadership by the local Chamber of Commerce (past Professional Development Chair) and the Ohio Diversity Council (Board of Directors; Editorial Board member, named one Ohio’s Most Powerful Women in 2011). She serves her alma mater as a member of the Leadership Studies Advisory Committee. As a volunteer and past Board member of the Ohio Business Week Foundation, El helps develop future leaders in Ohio High Schools discover the entrepreneurual spirit within. She has also been recognized by several community organizations for her leadership and commitment of time and talents.

El’s life experiences help her relate to many different people; she lost her Dad to cancer and her Mom to Alzheimer’s disease. El’s son served in the 82nd Airborne, deploying to both Iraq and Afghanistan; her daughter started a successful public relations firm. El graduated from Otterbein University in 2013 with a degree in Leadership Studies and Organizational Communication. El and her husband of over 35 years are blessed with wonderful grandchildren who bring new meaning to life’s possibilities.

All of these professional, community and personal experiences have led El to where she is today, being fully present to all that life has to offer.

El Biddulph

About Being Fully Present

Why Being Fully Present?

Through a series of exercises in one of my leadership core classes at Otterbein University, we had to declare how we will show up in the world. My declaration was:

Be the possibility of peace through a compassionate heart.

El Biddulph

Declare is an important word. It’s a verb, an action word, meaning “to say something in a strong and confident way.” It’s not a passive statement but, rather, a commitment to a way of being.

The possibility of peace means that no matter what you are going through right now, there is calm on the other side. A compassionate heart means that while I know your story is unique to you, it touches me, too.

Together, we can get through today’s circumstance and see tomorrow’s promise.

To live into my declaration I choose to dwell in possibility and gratitude; empathy and compassion, love and kindness. I honor the random moments of life because that is where the joy is often missed.

I call that being fully present.

I hope that my words will help you see joy in this life we live, deeper meanings in the ordinary and move you toward a sense of peace. I hope that you come away feeling that the world is truly brimming with possibility – if only we are fully present to it.