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Your Leadership Story or How Did I Get Here and Where the Heck am I going? In this podcast Carol and Katie talk about a powerful workshop they teach about gaining perspective on your life and making the most of ALL of your experiences, good and bad. Empowering women to embrace their life story and create the rest of their lives based on the story they choose to tell. Katie and Carol lead you through some of the powerful exercises to bring out the best parts of your life story. Our leadership story is not so much what happens to us … it is what we make of what happens to us.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION
Hello and welcome to the Skirt Strategies podcast! The podcast for tips and techniques you can use to increase your confidence and project a powerful image to get the job with a client, the raise or the promotion you deserve.
Katie: Welcome to another podcast!
Carol: We are here to bring you something extra special.
Katie: Something in the top down view of – “Where are you with your effectiveness on the world around you? What do you want to be doing better? How are you the knockout you that you are?”
Carol: Katie and I do a lot of workshops. And one of the workshops that we absolutely love doing with women is “Your Leadership Story.”
And this is where we take a look at your past – how it affects who you are today and how it might affect your future.
Katie: A lot of people say – “What do you mean by story? Tell me what you mean by story?”
In our training – and as you’re listening to describe this, you as a listener can tie this into what you would answer these questions for your particular situation.
Your story is the patterns in your life that have been ups and downs, the things that you’ve learned that have been through positive reinforcement, taught you how to do something well, the negative things that you’ve learned to help you avoid how to do something different, how you have habits.
But really, how you leverage yourself to put your best foot forward so that you are the fabulous woman that you are today.
Carol: Absolutely! And it helps you look at those things in your life that you may have thought were tragic or horrible and how they really have helped you become who you are today.
Katie: That’s really what we mean by story. That and what are those themes – because the patterns start to resonate around certain particular themes.
Carol: So the subtitle of this podcast is “Gaining perspective on your life and making the most of all of your experiences.”
And I just think it’s really important that we do look at our lives in a way that we can be proud of – because so often, we beat ourselves up. And so often, beating ourselves up is just totally unproductive. And instead, we should be saying – “Well, you know, that probably happened before and it didn’t hurt me that bad.”
Katie: Right. I mean, beating ourselves up is – As my now passed away stepfather would say. (And he’s a Georgian, he’s from Georgia) He’d say, “Well, honey, that’s just dumb.” (With a whole bunch of u’s in it.)
Carol: Ha-ha-ha!
Katie: It doesn’t make any sense that we do that to ourselves. As women however, we tend to throw ourselves onto the bus.
Carol: We do, and it’s not good. So give us a couple of elements of the training.
Katie: Well, for one – you take a look at that story that has to do with those patterns. That’s probably one of the first pieces. As we take women through the past, we say – “Pick some ups and pick some downs.” And we call them “The swells and the pits.”
Carol: Uh-hmm.
Katie: And those pits can be painful. They can dig up a few things. We’re not trained psychologists to help you through them – we just want you to be able to identify them in what you’ve learned from them.
And then we’d look at those patterns and identify which ones are typical for us. So patterns that have happened while we were in those pits and swells – like “I had an amazing amount of clarity over what I should do” or “I was self-confident” or the opposite – “I was disoriented and frustrated over what I was supposed to do. I didn’t feel like me.”
Those patterns should be identified in the process. “Here’s what I do well and I’d like to repeat this and here’s the others that I want to get rid of.” So as soon as we can label the ones that we want to get rid of, we can move beyond them.
Other pieces we look at – “What was natural that was a strength for a feminine style?” We also look at how you have behavioral patterns that resonates habits (bad habits) and those we can absolutely break.
Carol: Uh-hmm.
Katie: We also use something that we call [Unintelligible][0:04:33.8] – which is a one-liner, “Picture yourself with a cape.”
Carol: Right.
Katie: And “What’s your one-liner that carries you on – carries you through it all?”
Carol: Well, I’m going to do a bit of a commercial here and that is – you will start hearing. Now, we’re going to continue on with the tips from the book – because we think it’s fun and…
Katie: And tactical and educational.
Carol: Exactly! But in these podcasts – so once a month, at the beginning of the month, we’re going to bring you a topic and it’s going to be some great topics.
In March, we’re going to bring you how to identify and overcome the typical pitfalls of feminine leadership. In April, we’ll bring you a crash course in values based leadership.
Katie: And these are – by the way, if you’re listening to this live or in early 2015, that would be coming up. If you’re listening to it later, (which is perfectly fine too – because these are evergreen that will work for you anytime) just know that these might be more historical and they’ll be in our…
Carol: Well, they’ll be coming up next in your podcast downloads.
Katie: True.
Carol: Right. So you’ll get them in order. However, it won’t be April.
Katie: Right.
Carol: Is that right? And I probably shouldn’t have mentioned April.
So our goal here is to give you great training. I mean, really Katie and I – that’s what we do.
We love bringing great training to women and we do it all over our website. If you haven’t been to our website – skirtstrategies.com, you really need to go and figure out what it is we do. But we have lots of great training.
And each of these months’ topic are going to become a significant training area for our members.
Katie: Uh-hmm.
Carol: Now right now, our membership is $8 a month.
Katie: Good God!
Carol: It’s nothing. It’s less than you’d pay for a latte.
And Katie and I had this grandiose idea that we could get millions of women to join at $8 a month and we’d be rich and living on yachts. Well, that hasn’t quite happened.
Katie: Ha-ha-ha!
Carol: We still want to continue doing this and we love you to death. And we’re going to go ahead and offer the $8 a month for the next couple of months.
But then after that, we’re going to close our membership for a while – see what it is, step back, look at our membership, look at what we’re doing and figure out what we can do to start up again.
Katie: Well, the present members will still get monthly content.
Carol: Everybody is going to get the great monthly content.
Katie: Yeah.
Carol: Excuse me – not everybody. Those paying members will get the great monthly content. And if you join now at $8, you will always be on at $8.
Katie: We’ll grandmother you in.
Carol: That’s right.
Katie: You like it?
Carol: I like that! Better than grandfathering.
Katie: I know.
Carol: And again, you’re going to get some great training.
Katie: This is the best value around.
Carol: After a crash course in “Values-based Leadership,” we’re going to be talking about “Communicating effectively without leaving a trail of bloody bodies in your path.” Katie is great at talking about that.
Katie: I thought you’re going to say I’m great at doing that.
Carol: Ha-ha-ha! Katie can do that too. “Managing multiple priorities.” “Fundamental, Financial Fitness for Women.” “Kick-butt Coaching Skills for Managing People” and “Selling Yourself Without Feeling Like A Sellout.”
So we’ve got some great topical areas coming up this year. You’ll get this podcast, but it will just be a little bit of what you would get if you were a member.
Katie: So the 30 minute podcast that they’re listening to now – roughly is 30 minutes and they’re getting it through our website or through iTunes or through Stitcher radios. (Those are presently our mechanisms for delivering them.) Those will still continue and you will never pay for those.
Carol: Yes.
Katie: But beyond those each month – (especially if you dig these podcast) beyond those are some depth for you, some more tactical training, some webinar type base that is on the fly download when you need it, on demands type training.
Carol: Right.
Katie: And remember, “Tiny trainings, Big results.” We will never give you – (I shouldn’t say “never.”)
Usually, we give you training that is in small manageable pieces that don’t put you over the edge so that when you see an assignment that looks like it takes an hour, you don’t flip out.
Carol: Right.
Katie: The assignments do not take an hour. “Small pieces, Big impact.”
Carol: That’s what we get you. Sorry, I’m suffering from a bit of a head cold. So excuse me, I don’t want to put everything on pause and coming back.
Katie: We’re not even sure you’re Carol – we think you’re Carl.
Carol: I’m the sexy Carol.
Katie: Ha-ha-ha! There’s a new and improved.
Carol: So yes – you’ll continue to get these podcasts, but we would love for you to become a member too. And just know it supports the cause and it supports what Katie and I are doing. And again, we love to do it. But at some point, we got to make money for a minute.
Katie: So yeah, help us. Help us to help you.
Carol: Yeah.
Katie: It will only be open for another short time.
Carol: A couple of months.
Katie: At Skirt Strategies, I think we’re going to have it open through the end of March – March 31st.
Carol: March 31st 2015. For those of you who are listening in 2015, it’s done.
Katie: If you’re listening live – skirtstrategies.com/membership. And that will give you a place to log on and join with all the details that we need.
Carol: Yeah.
Katie: Okay, what else Carol?
Carol: Well, I just want to go into “Your Leadership Story” some more and talk about – you know, some of the woman maybe that have gone through this training.
Katie: Leadership?
Carol: We have had such great success with this training. I mean, women just dig it.
And part of what we’re going to be putting on our website for our members only is a three hour workshop that takes you through these steps.
And I got to say – I think Katie explained it very well. But we have women put up a sheet of paper on a wall and they literally draw their pits and swells on this.
Katie: It’s like a lifeline.
Carol: And then they go back and talk about how they got through some of the pits and the swells as well, but it’s always easier to go through good times than it is to go through bad times.
And I mean, we’ve had women cry, we’ve had women have major breakthroughs about how they can face whatever it is – because…
Katie: Because they made it.
Carol: Because they made it through some other things. And I want to say – I want to give you a little plug for the book – “Brave Transitions” too.
Katie: Sure.
Carol: Because I think a lot of that came from seeing women who had been through major transition, major changes in their lives and they got through it and they’re a better person on the other end, but it’s so hard to remember that when you’re going through it.
Katie: You can look up the “Brave Transitions” book at our website at Skirt Strategies. We’ve got a link to it – /brave-transition. But it’s also available on Amazon.
Carol: And I don’t mean to sound very salesy – it’s really not what we’re about. But this is a great book. It’s written as a guide so you can write in it. And as you’re going through a change, you can write down the things that you’re experiencing.
I think it’s a fabulous book and I think it’s really for people who are going through a change.
Katie: It’s helpful.
Carol: Very helpful.
Katie: It’s just good, helpful stuff.
Carol: Yeah.
Katie: Well, it will give you the inspiration and the focus that you need if you are indeed, going through some sort of transition.
I wanted to mention that when women go through these ups and downs and maybe you’re stuck or maybe you’re in a spot where you’re not sure how to go forward or you just don’t feel like you’ve made the forward advances that you know you’re capable of, you’re not living up to your capacity.
Here’s a lesson learned. One of the most powerful things that I’ve noticed from the women that do this leadership story is that they see those downsides that they’ve had – they’ve seen those negative phases.
And instead of feeling more depressed by it, they know this because it’s in the past. They know this as big “Aha! I did that. I got through that. While I was in the midst of it, it seem like I was spinning my wheels. While I was in the midst of it, I thought it was never going to end. While I was in the midst of it, I hated myself and I was disoriented.” – Whatever it might be.
Now they look at it in the past and it’s this huge “Aha!” over “You have done this before.” Hello? Find what got you through that and replicate it.
Carol: You have the strength. Now the other part of “Your Leadership Story” is writing your story forward. So we look at the past, we say – “What are our strengths?” And then we write our story forward. And that’s about goal setting and what do you think you can do and how do you think you can get there from here.
And I think that’s terribly powerful – especially once you’ve gone through the other part of that workshop to come out on the other end and say, “Okay. Now this is it. This is what I’m going to do. This is what I’m capable of.”
Katie: Listen to what it does for you mentally. So as you’re listening – if you think, “Well, if I can look at some of the things I’ve learned from the past and from some of my failures or some of those doldrums that I’ve been in…” And just take the punch out of them so that they’re not so painful.
Now when you look forward, you suddenly have courage and you’re really ready to take some risks. Because if you come up to those pits again or those periods of where you’re not really getting what you want, you can so know that you can get through it, you could so know that you’ve got it in you to just zip through it quickly.
You might not be able to completely avoid them, but you can accelerate through them and you can do it, knowing that there will be another side, the outside of it – coming to the other side of it rather.
Carol: Yes. Being on the other end of a major change in your life is always better. I’m like, “I just want to get through it.”
Katie: You know, remember the Lion King? – One of my favorite kid movies.
Carol: Uh-hmm.
Katie: Rafiki? Rafiki was the monkey in the Lion King.
Carol: Yes.
Katie: And at one point, he had some sort of a staff or whip that he kept. He whacked Simba on the top of the head with it.
Carol: Uh-hmm.
Katie: And Simba said, “Aw! What did you do that for?” Remember Rafiki’s answer?
Carol: No.
Katie: “It doesn’t matter. It’s in the past.”
Carol: Ha-ha-ha!
Katie: That’s really what happens to us.
Carol: That’s hilarious.
Katie: When you’re in the middle of it, it’s going to be in the past soon.
Carol: Alright. “It doesn’t matter, it’s in the past.” That’s hilarious.
Katie: So we encourage you to stick with us. And hopefully, even just out of this brief podcast, you’ve gotten a feel for – “What is it about my leadership story? What do I want to know more about?”
We will put the upcoming topics. They’re always on the homepage of skirtstrategies.com. So we always have a monthly topic that we dig into and you can see what’s coming down the pike.
And jump on board! That $8 a month is screaming-good! And if you think you can’t pay $8 a month, then you shouldn’t be wearing spanks because they caused a heck of a lot more than that. And then they rip of whatever.
Carol: Ha-ha-ha!
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Katie: So those topics that are laid in front of you – I will guarantee that there will be something in there that you can use. If not, then you have permission to email me directly at katie@skirtstrategies.com and say, “None of this is [Unintelligible][0:16:43.8] to me.”
I’m pretty sure that we’re giving woman what they need and we love having our followers support us. So we’re hoping that if you’re listening and you’re not one of those followers – that you’ll jump in and be one of those.
Carol: Thanks so much!
We’re so glad you joined us for this episode of the Skirt Strategies podcast. We’d love to hear from you with questions or comments. Email us at info@skirtstrategies.com or interact with us on Facebook. Now more than ever, the world needs powerful, confident female leaders – and that’s what we are.
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