Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 289. Handling the Hurdles: Natalie Kuhn On How to Conquer Tough Moments & Embrace the Unknown
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Choose kind eyes, and so every time I look in
- 0:03Speaker 1: the mirror, I'm reminding myself choose to see in a
- 0:08Speaker 1: kinder way. And that's my way of strengthening the newly
- 0:13Speaker 1: formed lesson.
- 0:28Speaker 2: What's going on?
- 0:29Speaker 3: Everyone, Emily A Body Here. You are listening to episode
- 0:33Speaker 3: two hundred and eighty nine of Hurdle, a wellness focused
- 0:36Speaker 3: podcast where I talk to inspirational people about everything from
- 0:40Speaker 3: their highest ties and toughest moments to essential tips on
- 0:43Speaker 3: how to live a healthier, happier, more motivated life. We
- 0:48Speaker 3: all go through our fair share of hurdles. My goal
- 0:51Speaker 3: through these discussions is to empower you to better navigate
- 0:54Speaker 3: yours and move with intention so that you can stride
- 0:57Speaker 3: towards your own big potential and of course have some
- 1:01Speaker 3: fun along the way. For today's episode, I am bringing
- 1:06Speaker 3: in my girl, Natalie Kune. She is the co CEO
- 1:10Speaker 3: and a founding teacher over at the class.
- 1:14Speaker 2: This isn't her first rodeo here on Hurdle.
- 1:16Speaker 3: In fact, her first episode, which I will link in
- 1:19Speaker 3: the show notes, is truly one of my all time favorites.
- 1:23Speaker 3: In it, she says something I reference often, how does
- 1:27Speaker 3: a muscle strengthen you? Give it something to push up against.
- 1:31Speaker 3: How does your will strengthen you give it something to
- 1:35Speaker 3: push up against.
- 1:37Speaker 2: I think about this all the.
- 1:38Speaker 3: Time, and that's exactly what I brought her back onto
- 1:42Speaker 3: the show to talk about today, This concept of resilience.
- 1:47Speaker 3: How do we make decisions during difficult and turbulent times,
- 1:51Speaker 3: as we call on the show, hurdle moments without attachment
- 1:55Speaker 3: to outcome? How can we live through these more moments
- 2:00Speaker 3: that feel like we are so down and out and
- 2:03Speaker 3: know that there is opportunity within them? Natalie knows a
- 2:08Speaker 3: thing or two herself about navigating tough times. In today's episode,
- 2:13Speaker 3: she opens up about how she has been dealing with
- 2:17Speaker 3: gosh a multitude of hurdles in her personal life as
- 2:22Speaker 3: her partner Kevin, was diagnosed with cancer during the pandemic.
- 2:27Speaker 3: That diagnosis brought the two of them out to the
- 2:30Speaker 3: West Coast from Brooklyn, and not only did they uproot
- 2:34Speaker 3: their entire lives, but in doing so, she was also
- 2:38Speaker 3: taking on new roles professionally. Through it all, she has
- 2:42Speaker 3: done her best to keep a positive perspective, and we
- 2:45Speaker 3: talk exactly about that.
- 2:47Speaker 2: In today's episode.
- 2:49Speaker 3: Natalie shares her three helpful pathways to making difficult decisions,
- 2:54Speaker 3: and I'm.
- 2:55Speaker 2: Going to make a bold statement.
- 2:56Speaker 3: The way that you think about challenge after listening to
- 3:00Speaker 3: this episode will completely change forever. So grateful for Natalie's time,
- 3:06Speaker 3: and truly, I feel so lucky lately that I've been
- 3:09Speaker 3: able to reconnect with people that make my soul happy.
- 3:14Speaker 3: I've had a hectic a few weeks myself, and so
- 3:17Speaker 3: being able to bring up conversations with friends to the
- 3:20Speaker 3: feed and have such wonderful feedback and responses from all
- 3:24Speaker 3: of you, it makes me feel like I'm doing something
- 3:27Speaker 3: right here. Make sure you're following along with the show
- 3:30Speaker 3: over on social It's at Hurdle Podcast. I am over
- 3:33Speaker 3: at Emily a Body And if you're not yet subscribed
- 3:37Speaker 3: to the weekly Hurdle newsletter, I'd love the opportunity to
- 3:40Speaker 3: land in your inbox every single Friday for free with
- 3:45Speaker 3: the same motivation, inspiration and things you love about the show.
- 3:49Speaker 3: The like to subscribe is in the show notes. With that,
- 3:53Speaker 3: let's get to it. Let's get to Hurdling.
- 4:07Speaker 2: Today.
- 4:08Speaker 3: I'm sitting down with the ever lovely Natalie Kune. She's
- 4:13Speaker 3: the co CEO and a founding teacher of the class.
- 4:17Speaker 1: How are you doing that, Emily, I'm so happy to
- 4:20Speaker 1: be on here with you again. I love you, I
- 4:23Speaker 1: admire you. I've been looking forward to this all year. Wow,
- 4:28Speaker 1: all year A good thing. We're twenty six days in.
- 4:30Speaker 1: I understand my enthusiasm for you, and the love is
- 4:36Speaker 1: seriously shared. Natalie and I first connected, i'd say about
- 4:41Speaker 1: four years ago at the class, and then recorded together
- 4:45Speaker 1: the first time in twenty twenty. I'll make sure to
- 4:48Speaker 1: link that episode in the show notes. But when it
- 4:52Speaker 1: comes to people that I look to for a ray
- 4:57Speaker 1: of positivity, like we so often talk about censoring or
- 5:02Speaker 1: maybe being a little bit more cognizant of the people
- 5:05Speaker 1: that were following on social media. Are they energy faucets
- 5:08Speaker 1: versus energy drains? How do you look? How do you
- 5:11Speaker 1: feel when you look at their content? When I look
- 5:13Speaker 1: at Natalie's content, I'm like, we got this. Oh my gosh,
- 5:19Speaker 1: bless your heart.
- 5:21Speaker 2: I have to say.
- 5:21Speaker 1: I mean, I would love to know what social media,
- 5:23Speaker 1: what your relationship to social media is for you, But
- 5:26Speaker 1: for me, it's a place where I'm just putting reminders
- 5:28Speaker 1: for myself. This is the outlook I want that I'm seeking.
- 5:35Speaker 1: I'm draining myself by hopefully showing other people what I
- 5:40Speaker 1: want to be thinking about, what I want to be perceiving.
- 5:43Speaker 1: And I feel that same way about your entire podcast.
- 5:46Speaker 1: I feel like you have the same ethos. How are
- 5:49Speaker 1: we going to get over that hurdle? What have you
- 5:51Speaker 1: learned along the way, and what does it How can
- 5:56Speaker 1: I approach my future in the best way? And you
- 6:00Speaker 1: challenge as a gift. So that's something I see in
- 6:02Speaker 1: you and.
- 6:05Speaker 2: Just a mirror.
- 6:06Speaker 3: Wow, honestly, what a great vibe to start this conversation
- 6:10Speaker 3: off with. So much has happened understandably so in the
- 6:14Speaker 3: past three years since I've had the opportunity to have
- 6:18Speaker 3: you on the show, a lot of which wasn't necessarily
- 6:22Speaker 3: on your BINGO card for twenty twenty one through twenty
- 6:25Speaker 3: twenty three. So catch us up to speed, NAT.
- 6:28Speaker 2: And who's was right?
- 6:29Speaker 1: I mean? If I I think if anybody listening right
- 6:32Speaker 1: now softened their eyes closed and just ask themselves the question,
- 6:39Speaker 1: are you the same person that you were in twenty twenty?
- 6:43Speaker 1: If I was in real time? Let's see how old
- 6:47Speaker 1: was I then? Thirty four? I feel like I'm sixty
- 6:52Speaker 1: eight now.
- 6:55Speaker 2: You don't look at day over sixty one.
- 6:56Speaker 1: Thank you so much, but we really had to learn
- 6:59Speaker 1: a lot of lessons, and we had to learn them fast,
- 7:01Speaker 1: and we had to learn them in a pressure cooker.
- 7:03Speaker 2: And I think that's true for all of us. Obviously.
- 7:06Speaker 1: Twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two were this period
- 7:09Speaker 1: of time where anyone who saw success during the pandemic
- 7:14Speaker 1: was fighting to keep it and anybody who saw a
- 7:19Speaker 1: kind of devastation was maybe rebuilding. For me, I stepped
- 7:24Speaker 1: into the role of co CEO with Chris Samborn and
- 7:28Speaker 1: tearing Toomey is our founder two years ago in the
- 7:32Speaker 1: spring of twenty twenty two, And you know, twenty twenty
- 7:36Speaker 1: twenty one twenty twenty two were worlds unto themselves. There
- 7:41Speaker 1: were three years packed into one in terms of the macroeconomics.
- 7:45Speaker 1: Every business was facing the total volatility of whatever industry
- 7:50Speaker 1: you were in fill in the blank, you know, and
- 7:53Speaker 1: stepping into this role was it really has been such
- 7:56Speaker 1: an honor of my lifetime because you know this, Emily,
- 8:00Speaker 1: but I'm the first employee of the class ten and
- 8:04Speaker 1: a half years ago. Taran was just formulating the website
- 8:09Speaker 1: at the time and we hit it off, and we
- 8:12Speaker 1: believe in this method and we kept it going with
- 8:15Speaker 1: JC Gossitt, going through all of these different life cycles
- 8:18Speaker 1: and iterations, and those chapters pre pandemic felt like two
- 8:22Speaker 1: and a half years at a time, and then after
- 8:24Speaker 1: the pandemic it was like every nine months. The landscape
- 8:27Speaker 1: was changing, But probably the most dramatic change in my
- 8:32Speaker 1: life was nine months ago. I'm still getting my sea
- 8:38Speaker 1: legs in this new form of leadership and in this
- 8:41Speaker 1: new role, still facing big challenges as somebody navigating the
- 8:49Speaker 1: economic volatility and then trying to figure out what in
- 8:57Speaker 1: the world was going on with my fiance's health. And
- 9:01Speaker 1: on May fifth, we got the diagnosis that it's stage
- 9:07Speaker 1: four metastatic melanoma cancer. It's skin cancer that metastasized in
- 9:11Speaker 1: the lung, and very very quickly, we had to make
- 9:16Speaker 1: some hard decisions under very difficult circumstances, and it had
- 9:21Speaker 1: to be you know, we have a motto at the class,
- 9:24Speaker 1: but it's definitely one that all of us take into
- 9:27Speaker 1: our own personal lives. It's family first. So we had
- 9:30Speaker 1: to shift the ballast from my full concentration going from
- 9:37Speaker 1: learning leadership and leading at the same time into how
- 9:41Speaker 1: do I do that while my personal life is compounding
- 9:48Speaker 1: and the deepest fears that all of us share around
- 9:52Speaker 1: mortality are knocking at the door. What does it mean
- 9:57Speaker 1: for family? What does it mean for our future? What
- 10:00Speaker 1: does it mean for work? What does it mean for love?
- 10:04Speaker 1: And that's really where I think I've seen the most
- 10:08Speaker 1: growth in myself, and that was barely nine months ago.
- 10:15Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks so much for sharing that. I know it's
- 10:17Speaker 3: been truly a difficult journey for the two of you,
- 10:21Speaker 3: and of course as well as your greater community, a
- 10:25Speaker 3: journey that you have very vulnerably shared with that community
- 10:31Speaker 3: myself included. And I would be remissive I didn't say
- 10:37Speaker 3: that your strength outwardly, at the very least, despite this challenge,
- 10:43Speaker 3: has been so awe inspiring to Winnes. You mentioned that
- 10:50Speaker 3: a theme for you emerging from this, which is a
- 10:53Speaker 3: testament to the type of person that you are, is growth.
- 10:59Speaker 3: Talk to me a little bit about that and how
- 11:01Speaker 3: you choose consciously to focus on the growth amidst the uncertainty.
- 11:08Speaker 2: Yes, that is great.
- 11:11Speaker 1: I think you know a lot of the ladies that
- 11:15Speaker 1: I've mentored in my life, I've tried to redirect some
- 11:18Speaker 1: of the conversations. Most of the time, women who are
- 11:22Speaker 1: trying to find their passion, their vocation. Often say you know,
- 11:27Speaker 1: what is the job that's going to make me happy?
- 11:30Speaker 1: And then I often hear the same thing in relationships.
- 11:33Speaker 1: I'm in five years into my marriage, I'm in ten
- 11:36Speaker 1: years into my marriage. You know I'm not happy. And
- 11:40Speaker 1: I actually don't think that that's the right question, because
- 11:44Speaker 1: I do think that happiness is a state of being,
- 11:49Speaker 1: and we are meant to move through states of being
- 11:52Speaker 1: like weather patterns. There's meant to be a seasonality to
- 11:55Speaker 1: our sadness, our grief, our happiness, our joy, our courage.
- 11:59Speaker 1: And I think that if we hold our life to
- 12:03Speaker 1: the standard of happy, we are doing a disservice to
- 12:08Speaker 1: the expansiveness of our human condition. And for me, the
- 12:15Speaker 1: better question that's always resulted in something much more invitational,
- 12:19Speaker 1: an answer that's much more invitational is am I going
- 12:23Speaker 1: to grow? How is this going to evolve me? Can
- 12:26Speaker 1: I see this as an opportunity to mature, to develop,
- 12:29Speaker 1: to learn and under these circumstances personally and professionally. If
- 12:37Speaker 1: I just saw them as happening to me, then I
- 12:42Speaker 1: become a victim of my circumstances. If I see them
- 12:46Speaker 1: as happening for me, then there's some future vision that
- 12:49Speaker 1: I'm holding myself toward on a wider horizon. It's almost
- 12:54Speaker 1: like my future self, the one that's up leveled, the
- 12:57Speaker 1: one that's more capable, the one that's more and more generous,
- 13:01Speaker 1: is calling me forward simply by being able to choose
- 13:06Speaker 1: to perceive this moment as its own form of a
- 13:09Speaker 1: university like.
- 13:12Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean so admirable, right, And I'm sure so
- 13:16Speaker 3: many listening to these sentiments. They hear what you're saying
- 13:20Speaker 3: and think to themselves, well, that sounds ideal. But in
- 13:25Speaker 3: the difficult moments, when you're trying to grasp for that
- 13:30Speaker 3: perspective and the chaos is in your midst, how do
- 13:36Speaker 3: you get to this place where you remember that that
- 13:40Speaker 3: perspective that you so beautifully described is one that could
- 13:44Speaker 3: serve you versus perhaps the victim mindset alternative.
- 13:49Speaker 1: Emily, you are such You're so good at this that
- 13:52Speaker 1: thinks such a great question.
- 13:54Speaker 2: Thank you for it.
- 13:55Speaker 1: I want to just normalize it by saying that the
- 13:59Speaker 1: way we perceive things is a practice. So I didn't
- 14:03Speaker 1: just wake up one day and it's like, oh great,
- 14:05Speaker 1: everything that happens today is going to be a lesson.
- 14:08Speaker 1: This is something that I have built muscle around and
- 14:11Speaker 1: continue to build muscle around. I did not reach some
- 14:14Speaker 1: kind of mountaintop where nothing ever affects me.
- 14:16Speaker 2: Ever, again, it's really.
- 14:18Speaker 1: It really is practice, And there are a lot of
- 14:22Speaker 1: times where a challenge is hitting me personally or professionally.
- 14:26Speaker 1: For example, even the one with cancer, it's like, what, why,
- 14:30Speaker 1: Why is this happening to him?
- 14:33Speaker 2: How are we going to get through? There's just overwhelming panic.
- 14:36Speaker 1: That was absolutely the first month after the diagnosis. But
- 14:42Speaker 1: I do feel like I've started to distill three tips,
- 14:47Speaker 1: three pathways to coming to those hard decisions, to being
- 14:53Speaker 1: able to make those hard decisions in a way that
- 14:57Speaker 1: feels like growth. And I would say that the first
- 15:02Speaker 1: one is, before making any decision, before stepping toward that
- 15:07Speaker 1: challenge or that difficulty, get your self in order, not
- 15:15Speaker 1: get yourself in order, get yourself in order. What is
- 15:19Speaker 1: your state? If you're coming from fear, your decision is
- 15:23Speaker 1: going to be rooted in fear. If you're coming from
- 15:26Speaker 1: a centered place, so will your decision making. And Kevin
- 15:31Speaker 1: and I really had to work through a lot of terror,
- 15:35Speaker 1: really truly, the fear of death before we were able
- 15:39Speaker 1: to make a clear decision about what type of imminotherapy
- 15:45Speaker 1: we were going to attempt, where that was going to
- 15:47Speaker 1: take place, you know, And then professionally, what direction is
- 15:51Speaker 1: the company going to take? What risks are we willing
- 15:55Speaker 1: to stick our necks out for? Right, So the first
- 15:58Speaker 1: one is really just get your state in order.
- 16:02Speaker 3: For those that are approaching a difficult moment as we
- 16:07Speaker 3: talk through these three things, and perhaps they aren't in
- 16:12Speaker 3: the midst of this moment with another Perhaps they're braving
- 16:16Speaker 3: this hurdle moment on their own, whether it could have
- 16:20Speaker 3: been anticipated or it's completely on a whim, regardless of
- 16:24Speaker 3: the circumstance, Do you have any advice when it comes
- 16:28Speaker 3: to the act of getting yourself together for someone who
- 16:32Speaker 3: feels like they're in this one hundred percent solo one
- 16:36Speaker 3: hundred percent.
- 16:37Speaker 2: This is such a great question. Move your body.
- 16:40Speaker 1: This is why I believe in the class so much,
- 16:42Speaker 1: because it's a workout that combines fitness with mindfulness. So
- 16:46Speaker 1: you're really using the workout not for some optical, you know,
- 16:51Speaker 1: cultural idea of perfection, but to understand what emotions and
- 16:56Speaker 1: what mental patterns are coming up so that you can
- 16:59Speaker 1: work with it in a go. If that doesn't resonate
- 17:02Speaker 1: with you. There's a reason why it's called you know,
- 17:04Speaker 1: the runners high.
- 17:05Speaker 2: You know this better than anybody.
- 17:07Speaker 1: Go for a run, shake your body, dance, Move your
- 17:10Speaker 1: body so that the stagnant thoughts and the sharp emotion
- 17:19Speaker 1: doesn't keep you stuck. So you know, and that's that overwhelmed.
- 17:25Speaker 1: That is a paralysis in and of itself. Right, So
- 17:29Speaker 1: move your body in order to address your mind and
- 17:33Speaker 1: your heart.
- 17:34Speaker 3: Yeah, I love that tip, and obviously you and I
- 17:38Speaker 3: both huge fans of utilizing that as regularly as we
- 17:42Speaker 3: can to get through the tough moments. We talk about
- 17:47Speaker 3: here getting yourself set in this practice of setting yourself
- 17:54Speaker 3: up and kind of practicing perhaps a respond instead of
- 17:59Speaker 3: react approach. What would you say is the goal here
- 18:06Speaker 3: in that by setting yourself up? What do you want
- 18:10Speaker 3: to experience when the act quote unquote is done.
- 18:15Speaker 1: Yeah, you'll know that you've gotten yourself in order. You'll
- 18:19Speaker 1: know that your state is ready for decision making when
- 18:25Speaker 1: the emotional charge of the decision itself has released. So
- 18:32Speaker 1: if your decision has to do with like, oh, you know,
- 18:35Speaker 1: for example, us, which healing path are we going to take?
- 18:38Speaker 1: Because you know, the prognosis was you got two years
- 18:41Speaker 1: to live, So it really fucking matters which path you take,
- 18:46Speaker 1: you know, And so we had to work through that
- 18:50Speaker 1: terror to the point where finally when we were like, okay, immunotherapy,
- 18:55Speaker 1: the word doesn't scare me. I've now repeated the word cancer.
- 18:59Speaker 1: I'm looking at that and I okay. You know, even
- 19:02Speaker 1: things like my meeting with the investor, my entrepreneurship, when
- 19:06Speaker 1: I can shake my body free of the emotion that's
- 19:11Speaker 1: clouding it or covering it and see it without an
- 19:14Speaker 1: emotional sweater tenor charge takes It could take a while.
- 19:22Speaker 1: It's it, you know, and it might be a practice
- 19:25Speaker 1: that requires discipline.
- 19:29Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm curious about your experience in the in between,
- 19:35Speaker 3: because you gave it a month timeline, right and understandably,
- 19:41Speaker 3: so when you're told you have two years, was there
- 19:45Speaker 3: judgment about moving before you were ready or feeling as
- 19:50Speaker 3: though you were taking too much time to set yourself
- 19:53Speaker 3: up to move forward resolutely?
- 19:55Speaker 1: It was a ping pong pendulum experience of confus I
- 20:01Speaker 1: think the number of times I took the dog on
- 20:03Speaker 1: a walk just to clear my head, just to try
- 20:06Speaker 1: to work through you know, should we move to la
- 20:09Speaker 1: do we go to Boston? There's only four places in
- 20:11Speaker 1: the whole world that offer this clinical trial. Which one
- 20:14Speaker 1: is going to make sense for him, Which one's going
- 20:15Speaker 1: to keep him alive, Which one is going to allow
- 20:17Speaker 1: me to keep my job because his insurance is on
- 20:19Speaker 1: my company, you know, I mean really it's And the
- 20:23Speaker 1: thing is, you don't have to We really ought not
- 20:27Speaker 1: to wait to do these practices of turning toward the
- 20:31Speaker 1: thing that scares us and moving our body in order
- 20:35Speaker 1: to shift the emotional charge to getting centered, finding our breath,
- 20:41Speaker 1: all of these things. Because the way that we practice
- 20:44Speaker 1: that in real life, the everyday practice of that is
- 20:50Speaker 1: you know, your partner wants to watch a movie and
- 20:55Speaker 1: you want to go to dinner. There's no, oh, mortality
- 21:02Speaker 1: risk in that decision, but how you make that decision
- 21:08Speaker 1: sets the tone for how you're going to make a
- 21:11Speaker 1: decision for the bigger things. So you want to stay
- 21:14Speaker 1: awake and you want to practice these things on the
- 21:17Speaker 1: daily so that you have muscle memory, emotional muscle memory
- 21:23Speaker 1: the next time you're faced with something big.
- 21:26Speaker 3: I love what you said about how you had to
- 21:28Speaker 3: build that muscle memory around your perspective to embrace this
- 21:33Speaker 3: way of approaching difficult moments and tough decisions. I'll never forget.
- 21:39Speaker 3: When I first interviewed you, you said a quote that
- 21:43Speaker 3: I still come back to so regularly, and it was,
- 21:48Speaker 3: how does a muscle strengthen you give it something to
- 21:51Speaker 3: push up against? And then how does your will strengthen
- 21:55Speaker 3: you give it something to push up against? And so
- 21:57Speaker 3: it really is, you know, the crux, the thesis, the
- 22:02Speaker 3: core of the work that I do so much of
- 22:08Speaker 3: understanding that these hard moments, while they won't be easy
- 22:13Speaker 3: and many of them unanticipated, that doesn't mean that they're
- 22:18Speaker 3: not happening for us, and it doesn't mean that you
- 22:23Speaker 3: cannot get through them and then be stronger to handle
- 22:26Speaker 3: the next one. On the other side, I know you
- 22:30Speaker 3: said you had a three things. Oh yes, yes, okay,
- 22:34Speaker 3: So I want to get to number two. But I
- 22:36Speaker 3: could praise you for hours, So let's keep going. Bless
- 22:38Speaker 3: your heart, thank you.
- 22:40Speaker 1: The second one is radically simplify, Radically simplify so that
- 22:48Speaker 1: you really understand the problem that you're really trying to solve. So,
- 22:55Speaker 1: you know, let me explain, because we are often solving
- 22:59Speaker 1: a slightly different problem than the one actually at hand.
- 23:04Speaker 1: We often choose to solve the problem that we think
- 23:07Speaker 1: we have an answer for because it's more relieving, it's
- 23:11Speaker 1: more comfortable, it's more familiar, rather than the problem we
- 23:15Speaker 1: really don't have an answer for, and that's the one
- 23:17Speaker 1: that's actually on the table. So radically simplifying is this
- 23:23Speaker 1: practice of breaking down the complex situation into much more
- 23:27Speaker 1: manageable components that can be like, the economy is stagnant,
- 23:32Speaker 1: why isn't my company growing at the rate that I
- 23:36Speaker 1: need it to? And that can be also which clinical
- 23:40Speaker 1: trial is going to save my partner's life?
- 23:44Speaker 2: But it also starts with the every day.
- 23:46Speaker 1: It starts with like Monday morning, you get up, you
- 23:51Speaker 1: have your coffee or you know, whatever you do with
- 23:54Speaker 1: your lemon water, and then you look at your day
- 23:58Speaker 1: and radically simplify it in to what is the real
- 24:01Speaker 1: problem I'm trying I'm trying to solve, not the problem
- 24:04Speaker 1: I want to solve.
- 24:07Speaker 3: Okay, so let's dive into that even more. Then let's
- 24:13Speaker 3: peel back another layer of the onion. So when someone
- 24:17Speaker 3: is faced with an issue, Let's say the issue is
- 24:22Speaker 3: someone spraying their ankle, and maybe they had a plan
- 24:29Speaker 3: to do a relay race with some friends in two weeks.
- 24:34Speaker 3: This is the most random example I have ever come
- 24:37Speaker 3: up with. And they are in this place now where
- 24:42Speaker 3: they don't know what to do about their sprained ankle
- 24:44Speaker 3: because they were so excited about participating in the relay
- 24:47Speaker 3: race with their friends. So how do we simplify this
- 24:51Speaker 3: in a radical way?
- 24:53Speaker 2: Right?
- 24:53Speaker 1: Well, we're so conditioned to have the answer. Right, So, Okay,
- 24:58Speaker 1: I've sprained my ankle, and in if I do enough
- 25:00Speaker 1: ice packs, then in this amount of day, the inflammation's
- 25:03Speaker 1: going to go down.
- 25:04Speaker 2: I'm going to take to advil.
- 25:05Speaker 1: Well, pause, instead of answering, just setting yourself on an
- 25:12Speaker 1: answer course, what's the question? The question is when is
- 25:17Speaker 1: this going to be over? Well, can you ask the
- 25:19Speaker 1: question in a better way, in a more invitational way,
- 25:23Speaker 1: what is best for my healing? Because that's the real problem,
- 25:27Speaker 1: the real problem to solve is what is the best
- 25:30Speaker 1: course of action for my healing, rather than the one
- 25:34Speaker 1: we want to hear, which is how quickly will I heal? Right,
- 25:39Speaker 1: that's the question we want to answer, Oh two weeks,
- 25:42Speaker 1: I'll be back in a flash.
- 25:44Speaker 3: And understandably so, right, because you had this event that
- 25:47Speaker 3: this person hypothetically was looking forward to. In these instances,
- 25:52Speaker 3: whether it is a hypothetically sprained angle or something else.
- 25:57Speaker 3: What is your advice for getting to this place where
- 25:59Speaker 3: you feel as though you can get to a radically
- 26:03Speaker 3: simplifying mindset, Because this emotion is the problem.
- 26:10Speaker 1: This is why we take care of our state first.
- 26:14Speaker 1: So we get ourselves grounded. We get ourselves centered. Whether
- 26:17Speaker 1: that's meditation or breathwork or the class, or dance or
- 26:21Speaker 1: jogging or whatever it is. You get your state together,
- 26:25Speaker 1: get centered. Next step, you know, you could get a
- 26:28Speaker 1: big piece of paper out and take a pen and
- 26:31Speaker 1: just vent about the problem.
- 26:33Speaker 2: Write all of it down. Da da da da da.
- 26:36Speaker 1: Then pull the piece of paper away from your face
- 26:38Speaker 1: so that you have some more distance and start to
- 26:41Speaker 1: cross out the extraneous words. We always want the essay
- 26:45Speaker 1: to be a little bit longer than it needs to
- 26:47Speaker 1: be because we have a fear of beginning, of really
- 26:51Speaker 1: facing the true start right, So continue to cross things
- 26:56Speaker 1: away until you're whittling down to the essential components. What
- 27:01Speaker 1: are the manageable components that speak to the root of
- 27:06Speaker 1: the true problem.
- 27:12Speaker 3: Taking a break from today's episode to talk to you
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- 28:59Speaker 3: any order today. Curious what does journaling and writing look
- 29:12Speaker 3: like in practice for you these days?
- 29:16Speaker 1: I have one of those journals. It's called one line
- 29:20Speaker 1: a day, and at the end of the day, I
- 29:24Speaker 1: just write what's top of mind from what happened. And
- 29:27Speaker 1: it's a five year journal, so I can sort of
- 29:29Speaker 1: see what happened last year. And the reason why I
- 29:32Speaker 1: do it like that is because I do feel like
- 29:34Speaker 1: Alice in Wonderland. I feel like I've changed ten times,
- 29:37Speaker 1: you know, in the last hour, and it's helpful for
- 29:39Speaker 1: me to see the progress of my journey to reassure
- 29:43Speaker 1: me and validate that I am growing, that I am learning.
- 29:47Speaker 1: The other way that I journal is when I'm preparing
- 29:50Speaker 1: to teach the class, which again is this combination of
- 29:54Speaker 1: mindfulness and strength training. I will journal out it's going
- 30:00Speaker 1: on for me, the things that I'm thinking about, the
- 30:03Speaker 1: things that I want to create more space for, so
- 30:06Speaker 1: that I'm not listening just to my mind, but I
- 30:09Speaker 1: can open up into listening to my intuition. And if
- 30:12Speaker 1: that word doesn't resonate with you, spirit, God, divinity, creativity, shakdi,
- 30:16Speaker 1: you know however your vocabulary feels it. And journaling is
- 30:22Speaker 1: one of those things where it takes the thought out
- 30:25Speaker 1: of the hamster wheel of my mind and places it
- 30:31Speaker 1: literally at a distance from me, so that I remember
- 30:35Speaker 1: that I'm not my thought. I'm the one experiencing it.
- 30:38Speaker 1: This is you know, spirituality, mindfulness, one oh one. But
- 30:41Speaker 1: if I'm writing it and I can see it, then
- 30:44Speaker 1: how can I be it?
- 30:46Speaker 2: Oh?
- 30:47Speaker 3: The power in that statement so so true. And the
- 30:52Speaker 3: way that you talked about your process going into what
- 30:56Speaker 3: some people think is just a simple act of teaching
- 31:00Speaker 3: a class, right, it's really a testament to why I
- 31:08Speaker 3: believe your class and the experience within that room is
- 31:12Speaker 3: so special, right because it's something that you walk in
- 31:16Speaker 3: there and you're not just there to help people move,
- 31:19Speaker 3: although of course that's a byproduct, right.
- 31:21Speaker 2: You are there to move the energy.
- 31:23Speaker 3: You are there to deliver thought and be provoking, and
- 31:29Speaker 3: I feel as though there aren't many opportunities like that,
- 31:33Speaker 3: And that is also another reason why I look forward
- 31:36Speaker 3: to keeping up with you regularly. Aside from again here
- 31:40Speaker 3: I am complimenting you time and time again. I appreciate
- 31:45Speaker 3: the steps here and the order of the steps right,
- 31:48Speaker 3: like coming to sell first and then being able to
- 31:52Speaker 3: get radically clear on what has to happen next.
- 31:56Speaker 2: So where do we land then with our third thing?
- 32:00Speaker 1: The third one is I would distill it down to say,
- 32:06Speaker 1: seek input wisely. And here's what I mean by that.
- 32:14Speaker 1: If you're only going to the yes men and the
- 32:17Speaker 1: yes women in your life, whether that's externalized or internalized,
- 32:22Speaker 1: whether that's the people around you that's going to say absolutely,
- 32:25Speaker 1: that's great, or the part of you that's going to
- 32:28Speaker 1: say the opposite. No, No, don't go there, don't try that.
- 32:31Speaker 1: Remember when you failed. If you're only going to the
- 32:34Speaker 1: folks who are just giving you one response repeatedly, that's
- 32:38Speaker 1: not actual advice. That's getting what you want to hear
- 32:43Speaker 1: instead of what you need to hear. So if you
- 32:47Speaker 1: get input from different parts of the business, from different
- 32:54Speaker 1: sectors of your life. Parent, friend, coworker, you know, therapist,
- 33:00Speaker 1: if you get input from different voices within you, different
- 33:06Speaker 1: identities that you hold. I have the identity of co CEO,
- 33:10Speaker 1: I have the identity of fiance, I have the identity
- 33:13Speaker 1: of daughter, a friend of sister, artist, of you know whatever.
- 33:18Speaker 1: And can I host a party in which I'm seeking
- 33:23Speaker 1: input from different parts of me and getting a different
- 33:27Speaker 1: response based on who I'm choosing to share and validate
- 33:33Speaker 1: my decision with. You know, you can't see your own eyes, right,
- 33:36Speaker 1: we know this, So true objectivity is going to require
- 33:42Speaker 1: a combination of outside perspective and that deep inner knowing.
- 33:47Speaker 2: So yeah, seek input. Wisely, some people.
- 33:54Speaker 1: Aren't aren't going to be listening for the sake of
- 33:58Speaker 1: the problem that has to be solved. They're going to
- 34:00Speaker 1: be listening according to their own agenda. So you really
- 34:05Speaker 1: have to be thoughtful and conscious with who you you know,
- 34:13Speaker 1: just like what you were saying, like press up against
- 34:16Speaker 1: what do you.
- 34:17Speaker 3: Do when it becomes clear that one of your stakeholders
- 34:22Speaker 3: may not have your best interest in mind. I know
- 34:26Speaker 3: you mentioned the phrase having their own agenda, right, and
- 34:30Speaker 3: I think especially when you're in the midst of a
- 34:33Speaker 3: difficult conversation a difficult hurdle moment or perhaps.
- 34:38Speaker 2: As we age.
- 34:39Speaker 3: There's so much conversation about friendships and evolving from friendships.
- 34:42Speaker 3: So how do you know when to take the advice
- 34:46Speaker 3: to heart versus move forward on your own path if
- 34:50Speaker 3: it's different?
- 34:51Speaker 2: Mm hm yep.
- 34:52Speaker 1: So many things come up for me. One, you know,
- 34:57Speaker 1: what's the old adage, if somebody shows you who they
- 34:59Speaker 1: are of them the first time, you know. So, if
- 35:02Speaker 1: you've got a stakeholder in your life personally or professionally,
- 35:05Speaker 1: and you know that you can't trust them, don't trust them.
- 35:11Speaker 1: But that takes practice because maybe you've been conditioned to,
- 35:15Speaker 1: maybe you've been programmed to. The Other thing that we
- 35:19Speaker 1: say at the class when we're developing our teachers is
- 35:23Speaker 1: that all feedback is a gift, not all feedback needs
- 35:29Speaker 1: to be taken. So the answer and you know, when
- 35:35Speaker 1: I was in high school and into college, I have
- 35:38Speaker 1: a BFA, I trained as an actor, and one of
- 35:41Speaker 1: the things that my teachers used to say all the
- 35:43Speaker 1: time is the only response to feedback is thank you,
- 35:48Speaker 1: and then you do with it what you will. So,
- 35:50Speaker 1: if you've got a stakeholder and you don't trust them,
- 35:52Speaker 1: but you have to hear them out because of the
- 35:55Speaker 1: nature of the relationship. Then you hear them say thank you,
- 36:01Speaker 1: and that is a gift. I'm happy to hear your perspective.
- 36:05Speaker 1: And then in the privacy of your own intuition, meeting
- 36:10Speaker 1: the validation of the wise inputs, then you decide are
- 36:16Speaker 1: you taking it or not?
- 36:18Speaker 3: You decide. I love these three actionable tips here. Come
- 36:21Speaker 3: back to self. Radically simplify, and then be careful who
- 36:25Speaker 3: you seek advice or input from when it comes to
- 36:31Speaker 3: then putting these into practice and moving through hard decisions.
- 36:38Speaker 3: I know that something that has greatly helped me is
- 36:44Speaker 3: doing myself the service of not attaching myself to a
- 36:50Speaker 3: specific outcome.
- 36:52Speaker 2: Have you experienced that? Oh?
- 36:55Speaker 1: I mean the one that we are in is this
- 36:58Speaker 1: practice in and of itself. The outcome I seek is
- 37:02Speaker 1: for him to live a long life. And honey, I
- 37:07Speaker 1: am attached. I am attached to that outcome. But what's
- 37:12Speaker 1: been amazing is that Kevin has been a teacher for
- 37:17Speaker 1: me in this regard because his relationship to what he's
- 37:21Speaker 1: going through is ultimately I have some skin in this game.
- 37:29Speaker 1: I have decisions, and I have will. And then there's
- 37:33Speaker 1: another aspect of this that's not up to me. So
- 37:36Speaker 1: I'm going to do the most that I can and then,
- 37:39Speaker 1: you know, I don't know if this language resonates with
- 37:42Speaker 1: you or your listeners, but like, but then you have
- 37:45Speaker 1: to give it to God or you have to, you know,
- 37:48Speaker 1: give it to source, give it to divinity, give it
- 37:50Speaker 1: to the unknown, to uncertainty. And that's really really hard
- 37:55Speaker 1: when it's something as when the stakes are as high
- 37:59Speaker 1: as mortality. But it is that practice of give and take.
- 38:05Speaker 1: I can bring myself to this hard decision as fully
- 38:09Speaker 1: as I possibly can, and then something else, different power,
- 38:17Speaker 1: a different seasonality, a different energy is going to have
- 38:20Speaker 1: to meet me there.
- 38:23Speaker 3: It's like doing the best you can with what you
- 38:25Speaker 3: have in the moment and not judging that decision based
- 38:29Speaker 3: on the things that you are without. Clearly, this is
- 38:34Speaker 3: really truly a life or death situation for you. Oftentimes
- 38:39Speaker 3: we deal with decisions that have less severity attached to them,
- 38:45Speaker 3: and in making these difficult decisions, I have found it
- 38:51Speaker 3: difficult to not judge myself based on the outcome. But
- 38:58Speaker 3: over the years have come to understand that not getting
- 39:02Speaker 3: the outcome that I'd hoped for, Let's say, if it's
- 39:05Speaker 3: a specific job or it's nailing down a certain rate
- 39:09Speaker 3: on a contract, or if it's being able to take
- 39:13Speaker 3: a trip at this certain time of year, and then
- 39:15Speaker 3: something pops up. I then have the opportunity to take
- 39:20Speaker 3: these outcomes, although they are less desirable as information.
- 39:25Speaker 2: And oh my God, has not hurts me.
- 39:29Speaker 3: As I've moved forward knowing that it doesn't mean that
- 39:34Speaker 3: I am one way or another way because I didn't
- 39:37Speaker 3: get what I was after. It's just the information that
- 39:40Speaker 3: I need so that when I go after the next
- 39:43Speaker 3: thing that I'm excited about or try to face the
- 39:45Speaker 3: next difficult hurdle moment, that I know what could happen
- 39:50Speaker 3: and how I may handle that situation.
- 39:53Speaker 1: So good, so good, bold, im talentsized, underscore, double click.
- 40:00Speaker 1: But the other thing I would say, Emily that came
- 40:02Speaker 1: to me when you were talking was, you know, we
- 40:05Speaker 1: can practice in low steaks all the time. And the
- 40:10Speaker 1: one the example I just thought of was cooking right. So,
- 40:14Speaker 1: if you have a new recipe, get yourself together, If
- 40:19Speaker 1: you right so, get yourself in order. If you are
- 40:22Speaker 1: in a rush, if you are scared, if you are
- 40:25Speaker 1: da da da da, You're probably gonna tip over the pans,
- 40:27Speaker 1: the sauce is going to go everywhere. Okay, so get
- 40:29Speaker 1: yourself grounded, radically, simplify, make your grocery list, choose when
- 40:36Speaker 1: you're going to go to get your stuff, bring it back.
- 40:39Speaker 1: What's the first thing you have to do? Boil the water.
- 40:44Speaker 1: And once you get to that place where you are,
- 40:47Speaker 1: you know, tasting the soup as it were. If you
- 40:51Speaker 1: know that the person that you are sitting across from
- 40:54Speaker 1: hate salt, and you put a lot of salt in it,
- 40:58Speaker 1: well we already know what outcome you're going to. We
- 41:01Speaker 1: already know the advice of the person sitting across the way.
- 41:03Speaker 1: So see who you're bringing to dinner, you know, wisely,
- 41:08Speaker 1: choose who you're inviting to dinner wisely, and then once
- 41:12Speaker 1: you taste that soup, learn from what didn't didn't work,
- 41:18Speaker 1: too much salt, not enough, and adapt. So that here's
- 41:21Speaker 1: number four. Adapt based on your current reality, not your
- 41:26Speaker 1: old one. It's not every other time you've made this soup.
- 41:31Speaker 1: Based off of this experience of tasting your MINESTRONI learn
- 41:36Speaker 1: from it.
- 41:37Speaker 2: At first I thought we were making pasta, and I
- 41:39Speaker 2: got excited. Well, Minestroni has post.
- 41:44Speaker 3: On the note of adapting that also incorporates with who
- 41:49Speaker 3: you are now. There are so many things that I
- 41:52Speaker 3: go after that I experience, and it is so easy
- 41:57Speaker 3: to compare how it feels now now or what's not
- 42:01Speaker 3: happening now or xyz based on a previous version of myself.
- 42:08Speaker 3: And while that can be frustrating at times, the mindset
- 42:11Speaker 3: that I've chosen to adopt is that how lucky am
- 42:15Speaker 3: I to be this version of myself now and to
- 42:18Speaker 3: be able to then find the joys in a different way,
- 42:22Speaker 3: not diminishing my accomplishments or what I am capable now
- 42:26Speaker 3: because they capable of now because they look different.
- 42:30Speaker 2: Different does not equate too bad.
- 42:34Speaker 3: Hard stop, period exclamation point, done.
- 42:38Speaker 1: Louder for the back, louder for the back, say it again,
- 42:43Speaker 1: put it on a bumper sticker, Let's make t shirts.
- 42:46Speaker 2: Different is not bad.
- 42:48Speaker 3: And it's so challenging right to learn that lesson, especially
- 42:53Speaker 3: when you liked whatever was happening in that previous version.
- 42:59Speaker 2: We get attached too.
- 43:01Speaker 3: Just because it's different doesn't mean it's bad.
- 43:05Speaker 2: I got nothing to adswer that.
- 43:08Speaker 3: Period exclamation point in these hurdle moments as we as
- 43:13Speaker 3: we face them, and you know, we're putting all of
- 43:16Speaker 3: these actionable tips into practice, there will be Trust me,
- 43:22Speaker 3: I can promise you this a moment where the hurdle
- 43:27Speaker 3: is behind us, or the circumstances have dramatically changed, and
- 43:32Speaker 3: maybe the problem that you were trying to solve that
- 43:35Speaker 3: the get go from the get go that was at
- 43:37Speaker 3: one point so.
- 43:38Speaker 2: Clear, isn't the same problem anymore.
- 43:42Speaker 3: So once someone is on the other side of this challenge,
- 43:47Speaker 3: do you have any advice for then implementing whatever it
- 43:52Speaker 3: is that they've learned along the way.
- 43:56Speaker 1: That's a great question. I personally have a I have
- 44:03Speaker 1: a very unique relationship to the bathroom mirror because you know,
- 44:11Speaker 1: one of the things that I really had to work
- 44:14Speaker 1: on growing up is a better self image? Right who
- 44:18Speaker 1: didn't Who wasn't?
- 44:20Speaker 3: You know?
- 44:20Speaker 2: Were we all teenagers at one point?
- 44:21Speaker 1: Come on, I'm still there, Natalie girl, We're all We're
- 44:25Speaker 1: working on it. We're working on it this entire lifetime.
- 44:29Speaker 1: But one of the things that I started to do
- 44:31Speaker 1: was a I created my own series of mirrors, art
- 44:36Speaker 1: mirrors for this whole reason, stemming from this, where I
- 44:40Speaker 1: would write the reminder on a sticky note and I
- 44:44Speaker 1: would put it on the bathroom mirror, where I see
- 44:46Speaker 1: it all the time, so that that thing that I learned,
- 44:49Speaker 1: that mantra, that realization, that remembrance isn't it needs repetition
- 44:56Speaker 1: in order to strengthen. Right, we say this at the
- 44:58Speaker 1: class all the time. What you were eat, you strengthen.
- 45:02Speaker 1: So be careful what you're repeating. Be careful, be full
- 45:05Speaker 1: of care with what you're repeating. So if I just
- 45:09Speaker 1: came into a new revelation, a new muscle was discovered,
- 45:13Speaker 1: a new thought pattern that I want to foster and feed,
- 45:17Speaker 1: I need to give it the gift of my attention. Well,
- 45:20Speaker 1: every single day I look in the bathroom mirror twice
- 45:23Speaker 1: a day brushing my teeth. So at minimum, right, so
- 45:27Speaker 1: if I put the sticky note on the bathroom mirror,
- 45:30Speaker 1: I at least know that there's a minimum of two
- 45:32Speaker 1: touch points in my day where I'm strengthening the mantra,
- 45:36Speaker 1: the reminder of the invitation, the blessing, whatever word speaks
- 45:39Speaker 1: to you. And that's how I developed. It's this mirror series.
- 45:43Speaker 1: It's called Make the Sun, and it's these art mirrors
- 45:46Speaker 1: that are you know. My favorite one says choose kind eyes.
- 45:50Speaker 1: And so every time I look in the mirror, I'm
- 45:52Speaker 1: reminding myself choose to see in a kinder way, and
- 45:58Speaker 1: that's my way of strengthing the newly formed lesson.
- 46:04Speaker 3: That is a beautiful mantra toose kind eyes. And I
- 46:07Speaker 3: have a feeling I'll be writing that myself in a
- 46:11Speaker 3: what's that type of sharpie that rubs off dry erase, I'll.
- 46:15Speaker 2: Be writing, get it in sharpie, girl.
- 46:17Speaker 1: Oh.
- 46:19Speaker 3: I don't think my rental my rental building would like
- 46:22Speaker 3: that so much, but I really appreciate that.
- 46:27Speaker 2: And it's a simple step, right.
- 46:29Speaker 3: It doesn't need to be a complete life overhaul to
- 46:33Speaker 3: integrate these lessons. And the other thing I will say
- 46:36Speaker 3: that may have to happen before you even get to
- 46:39Speaker 3: this point of taking the sharpie or the dry erase
- 46:42Speaker 3: marker to your bathroom mirror is doing yourself the favor
- 46:47Speaker 3: and often something that can be very difficult and reflect right.
- 46:53Speaker 3: Sometimes when we get to the other side of these
- 46:56Speaker 3: hard moments, the last thing that we want to do
- 46:59Speaker 3: is go back over things that caused us pain. But
- 47:03Speaker 3: in the execution of reflecting, and in the execution of
- 47:08Speaker 3: taking the time to think about how you felt, is
- 47:13Speaker 3: arguably the hardest part. You can then look at it
- 47:18Speaker 3: with less emotion attached to it now that you're on
- 47:22Speaker 3: the other side. Again, It's not easy, right, and no
- 47:26Speaker 3: one expects it to be. But whether that exercise is
- 47:29Speaker 3: done on your own, or with the help of friends,
- 47:32Speaker 3: or perhaps with the help of a therapist or a
- 47:35Speaker 3: life coach, however you choose to do that reflecting, I
- 47:38Speaker 3: encourage you to do it because that is truly how
- 47:41Speaker 3: you strengthen, and that is truly how you then take
- 47:44Speaker 3: those lessons into whatever it is that you'll face moving forward.
- 47:49Speaker 3: You are saying it, you are saying it. I actually
- 47:53Speaker 3: cannot sing, Can I tell you that? People ask me
- 47:56Speaker 3: all the times when they hear like this voice, they're
- 47:58Speaker 3: like 'or.
- 47:59Speaker 2: Just thank you? You do as well? I can't sing,
- 48:04Speaker 2: not for the life of me. I can't even whistle.
- 48:06Speaker 1: Actually, I often say that if I could have one
- 48:09Speaker 1: superpower other people want to fly, I want to sing.
- 48:12Speaker 2: I think singing as a superpower. I missed out on
- 48:15Speaker 2: that one didn't get in that DNA line. Something I want.
- 48:18Speaker 3: To double click on from earlier in our conversation was
- 48:21Speaker 3: you were talking about, as you were navigating the initial
- 48:26Speaker 3: blunt trauma of finding out about your partner's condition, that
- 48:30Speaker 3: you were also learning leadership and leading at the same time.
- 48:37Speaker 3: Flush that out a little bit for me and what
- 48:40Speaker 3: that experience was.
- 48:41Speaker 2: Like for you.
- 48:43Speaker 1: I was one year into the new role of co
- 48:48Speaker 1: CEO when this happened, and admittedly, I think I spent
- 48:54Speaker 1: a lot of that first year bullied by my own
- 48:59Speaker 1: impossible or syndrome and really had intuitions about things that
- 49:07Speaker 1: I let either my mind or different opinions overshadow and eclipse.
- 49:15Speaker 1: And it wasn't until this rude awakening of the diagnosis
- 49:21Speaker 1: where I had to get strong inside myself and I was,
- 49:26Speaker 1: you know, my heart had something to push up against
- 49:30Speaker 1: right that I started to find a new level of
- 49:38Speaker 1: my voice, of standing up from my voice, of using
- 49:43Speaker 1: my voice, of meeting my intuition with data and bringing
- 49:50Speaker 1: that to the team, and you know, practicing becoming much
- 49:54Speaker 1: more objective, and practicing not people pleasing my way through
- 50:01Speaker 1: a hard decision or through leadership, but rather doing exactly
- 50:07Speaker 1: what we just talked about, getting centered, radically, simplifying choosing
- 50:11Speaker 1: who I'm inviting to the dinner table or the boardroom
- 50:14Speaker 1: or the decision or the conference room, and then standing
- 50:20Speaker 1: up for that decision and seeing it through, getting behind it,
- 50:25Speaker 1: and now you know, two years into it, so much
- 50:29Speaker 1: you know, challenge and so much that's been harrowing. I
- 50:33Speaker 1: feel more capable and more able to create a good
- 50:40Speaker 1: environment for myself and for the team, to get it
- 50:46Speaker 1: all out on the table, choose what's most strategic and execute.
- 50:53Speaker 3: I want to talk a little bit about leading with vulnerability,
- 50:57Speaker 3: truly like the act of leading, not just like starting
- 51:04Speaker 3: with And I say this because I feel as though
- 51:07Speaker 3: there are multiple perspectives on whether or not it can
- 51:13Speaker 3: be a beneficial thing, and that there is such a
- 51:17Speaker 3: thing if you choose to be vulnerable in a work
- 51:21Speaker 3: capacity as responsible vulnerability, right, Can you share a little
- 51:28Speaker 3: bit about what that has looked like in practice for
- 51:30Speaker 3: you as you've really adopted and adapted into this role.
- 51:36Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 51:36Speaker 1: Absolutely, that's such a great question. I think if you
- 51:40Speaker 1: are centered in your vulnerability, then your leadership becomes relatable
- 51:46Speaker 1: and accessible. If you are caustic in your vulnerability, you're
- 51:52Speaker 1: throwing it around, you're not centered in it. It's chaotic
- 51:56Speaker 1: in the I don't know, then it's irresponsible vulnerable ability.
- 52:01Speaker 1: Now you've just made your vulnerability somebody else's problem and
- 52:05Speaker 1: they feel like they have to caretake potentially, And so
- 52:08Speaker 1: it's about owning your sense of vulnerability rather than like
- 52:15Speaker 1: proselytizing it. So how do you own your sense of vulnerability? Well,
- 52:20Speaker 1: this is the same three steps, get your state and order. Okay,
- 52:25Speaker 1: So let's drop out of the nervousness, the insecurity, let's
- 52:30Speaker 1: drop into the truth is I don't know, let's find
- 52:34Speaker 1: out together. But if you're walking around the office with
- 52:38Speaker 1: your head cut off.
- 52:39Speaker 2: I don't know, I don't know. What are we going
- 52:41Speaker 2: to do?
- 52:42Speaker 3: Now?
- 52:42Speaker 1: You've just injected fear into all of your teammates. Yeah,
- 52:47Speaker 1: if you center your feet, you take a deep breath,
- 52:49Speaker 1: and you look somebody in the eye and you say
- 52:52Speaker 1: with confidence, I don't know, let's find out together, that's
- 52:57Speaker 1: entirely different.
- 53:00Speaker 2: It is entirely different.
- 53:01Speaker 3: And it also beckons the question, are there landmark moments
- 53:08Speaker 3: that have taught you this approach previous to the last
- 53:16Speaker 3: two years? What has helped you get to this place
- 53:21Speaker 3: of radical understanding?
- 53:24Speaker 2: Making mistakes?
- 53:27Speaker 1: What's helped me get here is falling on my face
- 53:30Speaker 1: and having to get back up of being the chicken
- 53:34Speaker 1: with the head cut off, being the person who's overly
- 53:37Speaker 1: protected intense, being the one who is completely overwhelmed. And
- 53:46Speaker 1: it is that process. This is really full circle of reflecting.
- 53:50Speaker 1: Once I'm out of the woods and out of the
- 53:52Speaker 1: mist and I look back at that, you know, at
- 53:54Speaker 1: the forest or the weather system. Wow, Okay, what happened there?
- 53:58Speaker 1: Where did I lose myself? Where did I lose myself?
- 54:04Speaker 1: And what tools do I have now to relocate myself?
- 54:09Speaker 2: Yeah?
- 54:10Speaker 1: And I'm grateful that, you know, we've really cultivated a
- 54:15Speaker 1: kind and communicative and generous environment behind the scenes of
- 54:20Speaker 1: the class because we can have those honest conversations, and
- 54:23Speaker 1: I can go to certain teammates and say, like, let's
- 54:26Speaker 1: do a Roses and Thorns. Let's go back into not
- 54:29Speaker 1: only how that initiative moved through it, but how did
- 54:33Speaker 1: we move with that initiative, and how can we get
- 54:37Speaker 1: better and stronger and more conscious for the next one.
- 54:42Speaker 3: January twenty twenty four, Roses and Thorns, you go first.
- 54:48Speaker 1: So in the last couple of weeks, the thorn I
- 54:52Speaker 1: would say is that I believed my doubt about myself.
- 55:00Speaker 1: I had really a long essay about all the reasons
- 55:04Speaker 1: why I wasn't good enough or should be worried. And
- 55:09Speaker 1: for a while there I really let that color, my perception,
- 55:15Speaker 1: and my rose is that I had pockets where the
- 55:21Speaker 1: sun shone through that weather system, and it was the
- 55:26Speaker 1: reminder and continually looking for that ray of light, really
- 55:31Speaker 1: continually taking my attention and placing it on. I know
- 55:37Speaker 1: that's not true. That's my old self realignment. My rose
- 55:42Speaker 1: is my ability, my continued practice in realigning myself to
- 55:46Speaker 1: what's true instead of what's fictional.
- 55:49Speaker 3: Alignment a strong word for twenty twenty four. What about
- 55:53Speaker 3: you give me your roses and thorns. My thorn is
- 55:57Speaker 3: a little bit more literal. I would say there's a
- 56:01Speaker 3: spill that I took running two to three weeks ago.
- 56:04Speaker 3: I went flying and really did a doozy on my ribs.
- 56:12Speaker 2: I think they're just bruised.
- 56:13Speaker 3: Admittedly I didn't get imaging because every doctor and my
- 56:18Speaker 3: physical therapist, so doctors and my physical therapists told me
- 56:23Speaker 3: that you really do the exact same thing for a
- 56:25Speaker 3: bruised rib as you do for a broken one. And
- 56:28Speaker 3: I've slowly been healing, but still things like lying down
- 56:31Speaker 3: and coughing don't feel stellar, and that in itself is frustrating.
- 56:37Speaker 3: I was briefly quite concerned about being able to move
- 56:42Speaker 3: forward with my plan to run a marathon not too
- 56:46Speaker 3: far from now, and I'm very thankful that my body
- 56:50Speaker 3: has enabled me to continue on with that plan. Either way,
- 56:54Speaker 3: we certainly would have figured it out. My rose, I
- 56:58Speaker 3: would say, has been rerealization of truly how supported I am.
- 57:06Speaker 3: Aside from the unexpected trip, fall, whatever, launch into the
- 57:13Speaker 3: abyss that we want to call it, I've been dealing
- 57:15Speaker 3: with just some other health stuff that has been frustrating
- 57:20Speaker 3: at times, in addition to just life is lifing, and
- 57:24Speaker 3: I am so grateful for the individuals that are in
- 57:28Speaker 3: my corner everywhere I turn, relationships that are so real
- 57:35Speaker 3: and so pure and so beautiful. And the older I get,
- 57:40Speaker 3: the more mature and wonderful.
- 57:42Speaker 2: And deep they get.
- 57:44Speaker 3: And for that, I am so so so just blessed
- 57:49Speaker 3: to say.
- 57:49Speaker 1: Out loud, that's so beautiful. And Emily, that fictional story
- 57:56Speaker 1: that you told us about the gal who took a
- 57:58Speaker 1: spill just you.
- 57:59Speaker 3: Know, asking for a friend, Oh my god, fact versus fiction, right, Like,
- 58:04Speaker 3: let's just pretend I drummed that three nights ago and
- 58:06Speaker 3: it didn't really happen. I'm reminded of it every single
- 58:09Speaker 3: day when I like sneeze or call or try to
- 58:13Speaker 3: lay down in Shivasna.
- 58:14Speaker 1: Oh well, truly, Emily, you are one of those beacons
- 58:19Speaker 1: of light and that support system and that friend. I
- 58:22Speaker 1: know that I could knock on your door and you'd
- 58:24Speaker 1: give me the real, real And I'm just so grateful
- 58:28Speaker 1: to be to have crossed paths with you in this
- 58:31Speaker 1: lifetime and to be in conversation with you really truly.
- 58:34Speaker 2: Oh wait, I forgot.
- 58:36Speaker 1: I wanted to offer your listeners a month on the
- 58:41Speaker 1: Class's digital platform if they wanted to try it.
- 58:44Speaker 2: What a sweetie, How nice are you?
- 58:47Speaker 1: It would be a gift if you care to check
- 58:50Speaker 1: it out the class dot com backslash Natalie and at
- 58:55Speaker 1: a l I E and.
- 58:57Speaker 2: Check it out. Thirty days to practice your practice.
- 59:01Speaker 3: You're already doing my job for me here as we
- 59:04Speaker 3: wind down, I would be remiss if I didn't ask
- 59:07Speaker 3: you how's Kevin doing these days?
- 59:09Speaker 2: Oh?
- 59:10Speaker 1: Wow, yeah, thank you for tying up that looseen, because
- 59:12Speaker 1: that would have been maybe potentially scary. He is healing,
- 59:17Speaker 1: his cancer is shrinking, it is retracting, and we have
- 59:22Speaker 1: our mind is set on full recovery, full remission, and
- 59:27Speaker 1: we're going to get there.
- 59:28Speaker 3: And now you have a few thousand understatement, people that
- 59:33Speaker 3: are hoping that you get there too.
- 59:35Speaker 2: I'm so happy to hear that, Natalie.
- 59:37Speaker 3: For those that don't follow along with you just yet,
- 59:40Speaker 3: give us your info. How do they do that? How
- 59:42Speaker 3: do they keep up with you? How do they follow
- 59:44Speaker 3: the class? We want to know it all. Bless your heart.
- 59:46Speaker 1: On Instagram at the Class and on Instagram at this
- 59:52Speaker 1: is Natalie Beautiful. I'm over at Emiabadi and at Hurdle
- 59:57Speaker 1: Podcast Another Hurdle Conquer Catch you guys next time