Latest / Mosaic Sparks with Lesley George / I just help!

Transcript

I just help! · Mosaic Sparks with Lesley George

0:02
SPEAKER_00: Welcome, welcome back, sparklers.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: But before we get into today's conversation, I want to pause and celebrate our growing Mosaic Sparks community because our sparklers are listening from places near and far.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: A special shout out goes to our listeners across the United States, especially those tuning in from Oregon and Arizona.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: And I also want to recognize our international sparklers listening in from Frankfurt, Germany, and Soul Hole in the United Kingdom.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: Knowing that these conversations are traveling across states, countries, and time zones reminds me that one spark can reach much further than we sometimes imagine.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: I also want to share a beautiful review from one of our listeners, Jules for All who wrote, Leslie Jores delivers sage advice that will change the world.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: Her voice will envelop you and make you want to do a little bit better and claim the life you deserve.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: Transform like a dragonfly with Leslie.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: You won't regret it, and you won't regret those sparks igniting your soul.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: So, jewels for all our listeners, thank you for taking the time to leave such a thoughtful review.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: Your words mean more than you know because reviews help new listeners discover mosaic sparks and understand the kind of transformation, reflection, and real conversations that can express when they press play.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: Speaking of allowing your voice and your work to travel further, today's episode is about what happens when a woman has been making powerful contributions but has become accustomed to describing them quietly.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: We're stepping into the Marvel universe to examine Pepper Potts from Iron Man and The Avengers, a woman who helped manage and lead the company while Tony Sparks remained the public face.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: When most people think about Iron Man, they immediately think about Tony Spark.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: They remember the suit, the technology, the confidence, the drastic entrances, the press conferences, and don't forget his sarcasm.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: And the kind of personality that can fill a room before the person even walks into it.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: Tony Stark held the spotlight while Pepper Potts held, helped create the structure that allowed the company and the larger operation to function.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: And that is why today's episode is called Stop Whispering Your Winds, what Peppa Potts teaches us about building that empire behind the spotlight.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: So, welcome, welcome, welcome, sparklers, and welcome to another episode of Mosaic Sparks.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: So glad that you are here, the place where we put leadership, confidence, identity, and purpose lessons from movies we already know.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: Then connect these lessons to the lives we are actually living.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: So today, as I said, we are stepping into the Marvel universe.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: And our character is Pepper Potts from Iron Man and the Avengers.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: When most people think about Iron Man, they immediately think about Tony Sparks.
3:46
SPEAKER_00: Tony Stark.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: They think about the suit, the technology, the confidence, his entrances, the sarcasm, the personality that can fill the room before the peop before anyone walks into it.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: Tony Spark, Tony Stark was the public face while Peppa Pot was the structure behind the face.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: Pepper managed responsibilities that were easy for other people to ignore because she handled them so well.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: She kept track of details, answered problems, managed the business operations, protected the organizations, and challenged Tony when necessary, and eventually stepped into formal leadership at Stark Industries.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: Her contribution carried weight, even when the spotlight stayed fixed on someone else.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: That is why today's episode is called Stop Whispering Your Wins.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: This conversation is for the woman who has spent years building, organizing, protecting, managing and solving problems while somebody else received the introduction.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: It is for the woman who knows how to make the vision work, yet struggles to explain what she contributed.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: It is also for the woman who says, I just help.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: When the truth is that she managed the project, built the system, protected the relationship, trained the team, cleaned up the mess, and prevented the whole thing from falling apart.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: Now many women have been taught to support success without naming their place in it.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: They know how to celebrate everyone else, promote the leader, introduce the speaker, prepare the room, manage the schedule, call the conflict and answer the questions, and keep the event moving.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: Then someone asks what they did, and they responded with, Oh, I just helped.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: The word jest has stolen a whole lot of credit from capable women because it makes leadership sound accidental.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: Strategy sounds like assistance, and expertise sounds like a favor.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: It can make the woman who built half the organization sound like she happened to be standing nearby when everything came together.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: Now, Pepper Potts gives us a powerful way to examine this because she didn't need to wear the Iron Man suit to be essential to the story.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: Her contribution was different from Tony's, but different did not mean smaller.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: She brought order to chaos, judgment to impulse, and stability to a man whose brilliance often moved faster than his ability to consider the consequences.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: She understood the business, the people, the risks, and the decisions that had to be made after the cameras were gone.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: So the first lesson I want you to carry with you today is this your contribution does not become less important because it happens behind the scenes.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: Some of the most important work in any business, ministry, family, and community, or organizations happen in places the public never sees.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: The audience sees the events, but they may never see the person who contacted the vendor, corrected the scheduled, follow up with volunteers, solved the seat-in issues, found the missing payment, rewrote the announcement, what about calling the speaker, and stayed late after everyone went home.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: And you know, this brings me to something that I did for well over five years.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: For five years, every Thursday, I ran an event for the network marketing company that I was in.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: And at that time, my confidence was not at the level to be the speaker.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: Now, in that company, I had gotten to the very top position within the first 30 days.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: So, in terms of the business, I knew the business, but I didn't have the confidence to be the speaker.
8:15
SPEAKER_00: However, I was the one that my credit card paid for the room every week.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: So if we didn't have enough associates coming in, my card was the one that paid for it.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: I had to get the coffee and everything else, set up the chairs.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: And when everyone left, I was the one that was packing up the room, packing up the flip charts and the machine and all the other things that when people came with their guests, they had a room that was ready to go for presentation.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: And until recently, I hadn't reflected on that because, like I said, I had been doing that for five years.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: For five years, every Thursday, I would the meeting starts at seven, I would leave my house because it was like maybe 10-15 minutes away from the house.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: So I would leave my house at five to get everything ready.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: And so I was that person behind the scenes where we would have speakers come in from different places and they will be at the front, but everyone would marvel at the room and everything else and not realize that somebody had to put that together.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: So if that's you that's listening, and you may be that person that you are in the background, and maybe now you may not have the full confidence to be in the front of the room.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: I want to say to you, continue doing what you're doing, but still continue to have that desire that one day you will be in front of the room, one day you will be that speaker.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: But what you're doing now, you're building that consistency, you're building that determination and that discipline as you are doing that, as Pepper Potts has been doing that with Tony Starks.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: But some of the most important work in any business, ministry, family, community, or organizations, like I say, happens in places the public never sees.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: The audience sees the events, but they never see the person connected to the event.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: The client sees the finished product, but they rarely see the woman who checked every page, corrected every mistake, called every person, handled the delay, manage every detail, and carried the pressure to the final result, looked effortless.
10:57
SPEAKER_00: The congregation sees the service, but they never see the person who prepared the graphics, organized the media, communicated with the team, found the missing information, adjusted the program, and made sure the message reached the people.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: I was also in charge of my church media team, where we had to do all of that.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, everybody came to see the pastor, right?
11:25
SPEAKER_00: So we were in charge of the announcement, the graphics, and all of that behind the scenes.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: Work does not get lost.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: Work does not lose its value because it happened quietly.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: Leadership does not disappear because it took place outside the spotlight.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: The impact does not vanish because nobody applauded when it happened.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: Pepper Potts represents women whose competence became so dependable that people stop recognizing it as extraordinary.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: When you are consistently excellent, people can begin to treat your excellence like a basic utility.
12:07
SPEAKER_00: They assume you will handle it because you always handle it.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: They assume you know what to do because you always figure it out.
12:15
SPEAKER_00: And they assume that you will solve the problem because that has become part of how they experience you.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: Nobody remembers the crisis because you prevented it.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: And they don't talk about the confusion because you brought order before it even spread.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: And what about this?
12:34
SPEAKER_00: No one praised the system because it worked so smoothly, and nobody noticed the relationship you protected because the conflict never reached the surface.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: There is a strange burden attached to being dependable.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: The better you become at managing things, the less visible the effort may appear.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: People see the result and assume the result happened naturally while the thinking, the preparing, the experience, and the emotional control required to produce that result remain hidden.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: This is why documenting your wins matter.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: Memory is a poor record keeper because, especially for women who move quickly from one responsibility to the next, you complete the project, then immediately focus on the next deadline.
13:28
SPEAKER_00: You solve the problem, then move on to the next request.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: You reach the goal, then start thinking about what still needs to be done.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: The moment passes before you've taken time to acknowledge what is accomplished and why it mattered.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: That pause is where confidence begins to collect evidence.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: Confidence grows when you can point to real examples of your ability.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: And it becomes stronger when your mind has proof.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: It is difficult to communicate your value when you have not taken the time to identify it or even name it and connect it to a result.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: And this is where Peppa Potts's lesson becomes practical.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: Pepper didn't create her value by becoming CEO.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: The title recognized leadership, the title recognized leadership she had already demonstrated.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: That distinction matters because many women wait for a title before they allow themselves to claim a skill.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: They may say they are not leaders because they don't hold the official position.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: They may say they were only supporting the project, that they were simply part of the team, or that they do not want to take too much credit.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, they're training people, coordinating the work, influencing the decision, solving the problems, and caring responsibilities that directly affect the outcome.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: Now, leadership often appears before recognition.
15:18
SPEAKER_00: The title, it may arrive later, but the evidence usually shows up first.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: Your role may be you may be a coordinator, an assistant.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: What about being a volunteer?
15:31
SPEAKER_00: A team member, a committee member, a parent, or a support staff.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: Yet the work you perform may still demonstrate strategy, influence, communication, and leadership.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to inflate the role, but you don't need, but you do need to describe it accurately.
15:55
SPEAKER_00: Accuracy is the heart of this conversation.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: This is not about exaggerating your contribution, taking credit for work you did not do, or dismissing the value of the team.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: This is about refusing to remove yourself from work that depended on your ability.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: There is room to honor the team and name your contribution.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: There is room to celebrate the leader and explain what you built.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: And there's also room to support the vision and describe the part you carried.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: Humility has room for truth while self-erasure deletes your name from the story so no one else feels uncomfortable with your confidence.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: Pepper Potts could stand besides Tony Stark without pretending she had no value of her own.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: That is the posture many women need to develop.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: You can stand beside a powerful person without shrinking.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: Support someone else's vision without losing your identity.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: Contribute to a team without surrendering the language that explains what you accomplish and remain loyal while still keeping your receipts.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: Because receipts matter.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: Because people can't advocate for what they don't understand.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: Think about the last time you were considered for an opportunity, a promotion, a speaking engagement, a partnership, or even an award.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: Could you clearly explain what you have done?
17:35
SPEAKER_00: Describe the challenge you faced, the identity, the action you took, and explain why that result mattered.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: Many women have impressive experience, yet their language does not carry the weight of that experience.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: You know, they'll say things like, I work with a team, when the truth is they led the team through a major transition.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: What about I helped with an event?
18:06
SPEAKER_00: When they coordinated the vendors, managed the volunteers, handled the promotion, and increased attendance.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: You can you may hear this one.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: I supported the program.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: When they designed the process, trained the staff, built the material, and helped the program serve hundreds of people.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: The words you choose shape the way other people understand your value, and they also shape the way you understand yourself.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: When you repeatedly minimize your contribution, your own mind starts to play tricks on you.
18:47
SPEAKER_00: It begins to believe the smaller version.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: That creates a dangerous gap between your actual experience and your perceived value.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: You've done the work, you've earned the wisdom and gathered the experience, but guess what?
19:07
SPEAKER_00: Your language may not have caught up to it yet.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: And that is why I want to give, that is why I want to give you what I call the pepper pots proof list.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: This is a simple exercise you can use in your career, business, ministry, personal life.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: The first question is what did you manage?
19:32
SPEAKER_00: So think about the people, the projects, the systems, the budgets, the operation.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: Don't dismiss tasks simply because they have become familiar.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: Familiarity does not remove complexity.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: You've managed a household through a different conceit, through a difficult season.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: Coordinated care for a family member.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: Handle the church events, organize a book launch, or kept a business running during a crisis.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: Write down what you manage.
20:10
SPEAKER_00: Because management often reveals the responsibility you have been carrying without naming it.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: Now here's your second question: What did you improve?
20:23
SPEAKER_00: This is where you began to identify the value beyond the activity.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: Did communication improve because of you?
20:32
SPEAKER_00: Did the process become more organized?
20:36
SPEAKER_00: Did attendance increase?
20:38
SPEAKER_00: What about the cost?
20:39
SPEAKER_00: Did the cost decrease?
20:41
SPEAKER_00: Did the event run more effectively?
20:45
SPEAKER_00: Did people understand the message more clearly?
20:49
SPEAKER_00: Improvement gives language to impact.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: The third question is: what did you prevent?
20:58
SPEAKER_00: Now this category is often forgotten because prevention rarely receives applause.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: You may have caught an error before it became expensive, resolved a conflict before it damaged a relationship, corrected a schedule before it created confusion, or protected the organization from embarrassment, financial loss, delay, or poor communication?
21:26
SPEAKER_00: Prevention is a win because a crisis that never happened may be evidence of your leadership.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: And the fourth question is: what changed because you were there?
21:40
SPEAKER_00: Now this question forces you to connect your presence to the outcome.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: What became possible?
21:48
SPEAKER_00: Who was helped?
21:49
SPEAKER_00: What moved forward?
21:52
SPEAKER_00: And what became clearer?
21:55
SPEAKER_00: What would have been delayed, lost, confused, or damaged?
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Without your involvement.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: And the final question may feel uncomfortable because it requires you to demand what your presence made a difference.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: That discomfort is worth examining.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: Why does it feel easier to say everyone else mattered than to admit you mattered to?
22:24
SPEAKER_00: Why does naming your contribution feel like arrogance?
22:29
SPEAKER_00: Who taught you that confidence was dangerous?
22:34
SPEAKER_00: Who benefited from your silence?
22:37
SPEAKER_00: And who became more comfortable when you made yourself smaller?
22:43
SPEAKER_00: Some women learned to minimize themselves very early.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: They were told not to brag, warned not to think too highly of themselves, and praised for being quiet, agreeable, helpful, and this is one of my favorites, low maintenance.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: They learned that being easy to work with sometimes meant avoiding disagreement, recognition, and language that made other people confront their ability.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: Those lessons can follow a woman into adulthood.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: She may earn degrees, build businesses, manage a team, raise a family, lead an organization, and still hesitate when asked to describe what makes her qualified.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: She may tell everybody else's story beautifully while mumbling through her own introduction.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: She may promote her clients with energy, then feel embarrassed promoting herself.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: She may tell another woman to celebrate her success, then hide her own announcement.
23:59
SPEAKER_00: She may encourage the room to speak up, then whisper when is her turn.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: That is why stop whispering your wins reaches beyond career advice.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: This conversation touches identity, emotional conditioning, visibility, and the process of giving yourself permission to stand in the full truth of what you have done.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: Pepper Potts gives us another important lesson because she operated beside a very dominant personality.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: Tony Stark was brilliant, charismatic, impulsive, and highly visible.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: People like that, people like that can unintentionally absorb the attention around a ship's shared success, which allows the louder personality to become the story while the quieter contribution contributor becomes a footnote.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: Many women know this experience.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: They have worked besides founders, executives, had spouses, pastors, community leaders, or highly charismatic colleagues.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: They helped those people succeed, protected the work, made the ideas practical, and handle the consequences.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: But over time, their contributions blended into the larger person's image.
25:38
SPEAKER_00: This does not always happen because someone deliberately stole credit.
25:42
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it happens because a quieter person never corrected the story.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: She may remain silent when people thanked only the leader, smiled when someone described the work as if it happened magically, accepted the label of helper when she had been the strategist, and told herself the important thing was the work got done.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: The work did get done, but the question remains whether your name stayed connected to it.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: Your name matters because history has a habit of remembering public faces and forgetting the people who made the public success possible.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: Your career, income, authority, and next opportunity may depend on whether people can trace the result back to your contribution.
26:30
SPEAKER_00: Silence has can have a financial cost.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: It can affect promotions, compensation, partnership.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: What about credibility?
26:41
SPEAKER_00: And whether someone thinks of you when an opportunity appears.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: People can't recommend you for work they don't know you performed.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: This is why your wins need more than private pride.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: They need language, documentation, visibility, context, and evidence.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: Let us talk about the word helped, because this word is not always wrong.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you did help.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you supported someone else's leadership, and sometimes your contribution was one part of the larger effort.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: The problem begins when help becomes your automatic word for everything.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: You led the project, but you say you helped.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: You created the program, but you say you helped.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: You managed the team, developed the strategy, delivered the results, and carried responsibility.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: But guess what you said?
27:41
SPEAKER_00: You still reduce the entire experience to helping.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: That language hides your expertise.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: Choose the verb that matches the word.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: You may have led, created, developed, managed, coordinated, increased, reduced, or even solved.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: Specific language creates clarity.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: Consider the difference between these two statements that I'm going to give you right now.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: The first statement says, I helped with a community event.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: The second statement says I coordinated the volunteer team, managed vendor communication, supported promotion, and helped the event serve more than 300 community members.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: The second statement gives the listener a bigger picture.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: It explains responsibility, identifies skills, and shows impact.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: It allows someone to imagine you handling a similar responsibility again, which is exactly what strong accomplishment language should be.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to speak directly to you who have spent much of your life being the dependable one.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: So you may be the person everyone calls because you know what to do.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: You can handle pressure and will figure things out.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: You can carry the family, manage the event, solve the conflict, and keep moving while everyone else is confused.
29:26
SPEAKER_00: Your strength has become part of the atmosphere around you, which means people rely on it without acknowledging the costs.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: Now you may become so accustomed to care and responsibility that you no longer recognize those moments as wins.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: You tell yourself, this is just what I do.
29:46
SPEAKER_00: That statement deserves a second look.
29:49
SPEAKER_00: The things that come naturally to you may still be valuable.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: Ease can be the result of experience, and what looks effortless may have taken years to develop.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: You may stay calm during a crisis because you've survived many of them.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: You can organize quickly because you have built strong systems.
30:12
SPEAKER_00: You can understand people because you've spent years learning how to communicate, and you can solve problems faster because you have seen patterns others have not yet encountered.
30:25
SPEAKER_00: Natural ability and earned wisdom often work together.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: So do not undervalue a strength simply because you know how to use it.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: Now, Peppa Potts did not Peppa Potts did not need dramatic music every time she solved a problem.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: Her effectiveness appeared in the fact that things functioned.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: Some of your greatest wins may look ordinary because you are the one performing them, but they may not look ordinary if someone without your experience tried to do the same work.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: And that is your reminder to take inventory.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: Think about what people consistently trust you to handle, what becomes easier when you enter the room, which problems people bring to you, what kind of confusion you organize well, and what work you have performed across several roles, organizations, or seasons.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: Patterns often reveal strengths, and your wins may be hidden inside the things you keep doing well.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: This is another emotional layer to our conversation because some women are afraid that owning their contribution will damage a relationship.
31:51
SPEAKER_00: They worry that the leader will feel threatened, the team will think they're selfish, family members will say they have changed, friends will accuse them of showing off, or people will question their humility.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: That fear can make invisibility feel like safety, but invisibility becomes a barrier when opportunity requires visibility.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: You can't build authority without constantly denying your expertise.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: You can't become known for your work while refusing to speak about it.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: And you can't ask people to trust your ability while acting uncomfortable with evidence of that ability.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: And you can't build a strong personal brand around silence.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: Visibility requires emotional courage because you have to tolerate the possibility that someone may misunderstand your confidence.
32:47
SPEAKER_00: You have to accept that your growth may make certain people uncomfortable and recognize that self-representation is not a personal attack on anyone else.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: Another woman's win does not shrink yours, and your win does not erase the team's contribution.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: Your confidence does not remove anyone else's value.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: There's enough room in the story for everyone who helped built it, but your responsibility is to make sure you don't write yourself out.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: This is where the brag becomes practical.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: Brag is connected to responsibility.
33:34
SPEAKER_00: You are responsible for amplifying the greatest, the gifts, the evidence that God has put in you, and the impact that has been placed in you.
33:44
SPEAKER_00: The responsibility changed the tone of self-promotion because you're not speaking about your work simply to receive applause.
33:53
SPEAKER_00: You're speaking because the right people need to need to know what you do.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: Your experience may help someone, your leadership may strengthen a team.
34:03
SPEAKER_00: Your story may give another woman language for her own life.
34:07
SPEAKER_00: And your results may qualify you for the room where you can create greater impact.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: Silence can prevent your brilliance from reaching the place where it belongs.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: Unboxing your brilliance means removing the package that has kept your gifts hidden, including false humility, fear of judgment, lack of documentation, and the habit of waiting for someone else to introduce you properly.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: You need to know how to introduce yourself, explain what you've built, describe your results, speak about your work without apologizing and enter the room with evidence.
34:58
SPEAKER_00: So here's a simple formula that you can use.
35:00
SPEAKER_00: Start with the challenge, what needed to be solved, then name your contribution.
35:07
SPEAKER_00: What did you personally do?
35:09
SPEAKER_00: Next, identify the result, what changed, and finally explain the value.
35:15
SPEAKER_00: Why did the result matter?
35:18
SPEAKER_00: So let's use an example.
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SPEAKER_00: The challenge was that a community event had low participation and poor communication.
35:28
SPEAKER_00: Your contribution was developing a clear personal plan, promotional plan, organizing volunteers and coordinating outreach.
35:37
SPEAKER_00: The results was increased attendance and stronger community engagement, while the value was that more residents receive services, resources, and information.
35:51
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that a win?
35:52
SPEAKER_00: That's a complete win.
35:54
SPEAKER_00: It sounds clear because clarity carries weight.
35:58
SPEAKER_00: It helps other people understand your capability and give them a reason to trust you with similar responsibilities again.
36:08
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to practice this with your own work.
36:12
SPEAKER_00: Think about one accomplishment from the last six months.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: Do not choose the biggest accomplishment of your life.
36:21
SPEAKER_00: Choose something recent and real, then ask yourself what the challenge was, what you did, what changed, and why it mattered.
36:34
SPEAKER_00: Now say it without the word, just remove the apology, the nervous laugh, and the sentence that gives everyone else credit before you mention yourself.
36:47
SPEAKER_00: Now you can acknowledge others after you clearly identify your role.
36:53
SPEAKER_00: You might say I led the project and worked with a strong team to deliver the results.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: Or I developed the strategy and coordinated with others during the implementation.
37:06
SPEAKER_00: You could also say I managed a process and helped the organization reach its goal, or I created the program, then partner with the team to launch it.
37:18
SPEAKER_00: The language remains collaborative while preserving ownership.
37:24
SPEAKER_00: So you don't have to become Tony Stark to stop whispering your wins.
37:29
SPEAKER_00: You don't need his personality, his dramatic entrances, or the ability to turn every accomplishment into a press conference.
37:38
SPEAKER_00: You need Pepper Potts level clarity, which means knowing what you manage, improved, prevented, and changed through your presence.
37:52
SPEAKER_00: Calm confidence carries weight because it doesn't beg for attention, compare, or attack.
38:00
SPEAKER_00: It simply presents evidence.
38:04
SPEAKER_00: So before we close, I want to challenge you with these five questions.
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SPEAKER_00: Got a pen and a piece of paper?
38:14
SPEAKER_00: What have you built that other people now assume appeared poof on its own?
38:22
SPEAKER_00: Where are you using the word helped when the truth is that you led, managed, created, or delivered?
38:32
SPEAKER_00: What problem do people constantly bring to you because they trust your ability?
38:39
SPEAKER_00: What success story includes your visible labor?
38:45
SPEAKER_00: And what would change if you describe your contribution with the same confidence you use when praising someone else?
38:55
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't want you to rush through these questions because you it may reveal patterns that have shaped your career, your business, your relationships, and your identity.
39:06
SPEAKER_00: So your assignment this week is to create your own pepper pots proof list.
39:11
SPEAKER_00: Write down your three wins and identify what you manage, what you improve, what you prevented, and what changed because you were there.
39:21
SPEAKER_00: Choose one of those wins.
39:23
SPEAKER_00: Share it in a place that supports your next step.
39:27
SPEAKER_00: You may bring it to a meeting, add it to your resume, your bio, include it in a proposal, post it on LinkedIn, social media, repeat it to yourself until the words stop feeling uncomfortable.
39:45
SPEAKER_00: The platform matters less than the practice because you're building the habit of owning your contribution.
39:53
SPEAKER_00: Peppa Potts did not need to become Tony Stark's to prove that she mattered.
39:57
SPEAKER_00: Her intelligence, her judgment, her leadership, and ability were already present while the title eventually matched the evidence.
40:09
SPEAKER_00: So, Tony Stark may have been the public face, but Peppa Pot helped protect, manage, and lead the empire.
40:18
SPEAKER_00: So stop whispering.
40:21
SPEAKER_00: This is your reminder to unbox your brilliance, collect your receipts, and brag with truth, confidence, and responsibility.
40:32
SPEAKER_00: So, sparklers, thank you so much for listening to this episode of Mosaic Sparks with me, Leslie George, and share this episode with a woman who've been doing leadership level work while calling it helping.
40:49
SPEAKER_00: Then come back next week because we're going to pull out another lesson that you already know how we connect the characters for you.
40:58
SPEAKER_00: So look forward to seeing you next week.
41:01
SPEAKER_00: So have an incredible week.
41:04
SPEAKER_00: Until when we meet next time.