Latest / Authentic Living / Women in Leadership & International Networking with Kristin Engvig (Part II)

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Women in Leadership & International Networking with Kristin Engvig (Part II) · Authentic Living

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  Welcome to authentic living with Roxanne, a place where we have as conversations about
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  things that really matter in our lives.
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  And now here's your host, Roxanne Derhodge.
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  Our interview last week was so good that we decided to turn it into a 2 part series.
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  If you missed last week, you'll find the link in the show notes.
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  It's not mandatory that you listen, but we wanna make sure that you don't miss out on this
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  amazing conversation.
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  Hi, everyone.
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  It's Roxanne Durgesh.
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  Thanks for tuning in again this week.
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  Today, I have a special colleague, Christian Envig, here with us.
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  She's in Switzerland and she's gonna talk to us today about an amazing organization that she
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  started 25 years ago.
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  That's a Kristen, that's a long time to be dealing with women in leadership.
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  So thanks for coming, coming on to have this call.
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  With us today.
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  So to have an objective lens, really, and and and to look at yourself and say, you know, what
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  my strengths with my limitations What are what are the realities of this bureaucratic that I'm
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  wanting to enter?
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  It's really I I, you know, in my new book or war, I talk a little bit about, you know,
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  assessing your own skills as an authentic heart leader.
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  Rating.
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  And we all, you know, as human beings, we love to look at our our our strengths, but we, you
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  know, the I I believe the gift is in looking at your limitations and recognizing those things
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  and figuring out, you know, what steps do I need?
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  And then also who do I need to surround myself with in order to get these skills to?
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  And sometimes there may be a male colleague.
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  That's all.
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  I know.
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  It's also that.
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  You know?
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  And, there was also something else that came to mind just before, and that is that there's
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  many, many, many women now who extremely well educated.
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  So young women do all over the world, at least in countries where you get access to education
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  and so on.
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  They do well at school.
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  They get good grades.
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  We have higher and higher education.
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  So and then we start working many women start working, and it's still about sort of doing the
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  excellent job to get a good grade to and and we ought to be careful.
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  So it's not too much about pleasing in the hope of being one day recognized for that good girl.
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  So this is I mean, I'm telling that.
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  I believe there's a lot of people I know.
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  And then years later, you were, like, exhausted and burned out.
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  And and So I don't know how to how to get the younger women to to to pick that up, but it's
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  an important part of Yeah.
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  This perfection and perfectionism.
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  This being
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  there's something.
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  I think that, you know, the gen Zed and the gen xers are more coming from the space of value
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  alignment.
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  I could see that's, you know, a lot of female leaders at my time we were on that treadmill.
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  Absolutely.
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  Right?
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  And but now I when I meet younger female leaders, they'll say, you know, when I go for
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  situation or a a an interview, I'm looking for what where's that value alignment with me?
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  This is, again, this is so cool now.
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  And this is You know, what earlier in here, I'm thinking I started my career, I was like, okay.
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  Well, I know I wanna get.
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  So which hoops do I have to jump through to get that?
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  And I'm just gonna get it done.
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  And now when I'm talking to younger female leaders, they're like, Well, I wanna see what
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  they're doing with the environments.
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  Or at fact, I'd like to see, you know, how my leadership story which I'm, you know, I'm
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  talking to maybe somebody in their twenties, and they're talking about their leadership
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  story, which is really refreshing to hear because I'm thinking I'm looking at a lot of
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  female leaders that are older that are now figuring out why even though they've been
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  embodying it all along, So I think it's generationally there is I have experienced that
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  I'm sure you have too.
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  They're coming from a a place of strength that says I bring these things.
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  I'm a female.
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  However, I recognize there's limitations, but it's not about me.
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  It wants to have done a bit of you know, coaching and awareness and, you know, an
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  awareness is such the gift that I think, you know, now it's kind of a bit of a given.
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  Right?
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  So you you just have the mentor.
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  You you know, you do your coaching.
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  You have that awareness and you look at yourself holistically.
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  Versus before, it was kinda like, how am I gonna fit into this role?
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  And, you know, what am I gonna do to morph myself?
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  Yeah.
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  You know?
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  I mean, I think and and this is the great thing, and and that's my recommendation for
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  everybody younger also.
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  Make sure there is time for reflection in your life.
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  So that you have that awareness you build on your consciousness of the big picture of things
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  also.
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  And and also this area of specialization.
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  I think, no, it's it's it is important with wholeness because otherwise, we almost get
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  them.
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  It's not good for a brain to do only one thing.
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  We need to do several things.
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  So that our brain is stimulated more intelligent and more awake.
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  And that's important at this time.
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  So we don't, you know, become manipulated by news, by corporate bosses, or any of these
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  things.
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  The ways they alert.
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  So I also I I I talked a lot about something I called the Renaissance woman like the of the
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  man that is the modern.
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  She has many different things she can do.
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  And
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  And it's actually refreshing, right, to to to look in from.
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  Right?
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  And now you think, you know, we're in, you know, 2022 and, you know, 10 years from now,
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  what would what will it be the possibilities, versus just focusing on the blocks that still
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  exist?
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  And I think you're like, to your point, we have to look on a macro level to to what are the
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  impair impediments that that stop us till today and how can I become part of that solution in
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  my in my purvey, like, in my tenure, a leader, how is it that I can help others along the way?
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  Because I now I have the skill and knowledge, you know, of wisdom to be able to pass on and
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  for other, you know, leaders that are at the, you know, latter part of the curse, how are
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  they giving back?
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  So let's talk a little bit about that because I think that I know that's what you're about.
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  I know that's what when it's about And I have been, you know, for everybody listening, I've
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  I've been fortunate I've been speaking, at the win conference in 2022 in Rome.
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  So I'm excited and I'll get to meet Kristen and her, you know, her following in Rome.
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  But what is it that you're finding now?
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  Like, we're talking about a leg And I talk a lot about legacy, leadership in my new book.
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  Well, what is it that you're finding now with, kind of leaders that are kinda at the latter
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  end of the career.
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  What is it that they're doing, or what is it that they can do to ensure that this passing of
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  out of knowledge is done in a way that helps us kinda get to where we need to get.
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  Yeah.
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  And that's such an important question.
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  And it's pivotal.
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  It's for the for our future that this happens.
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  And I think what what what I try to do is to mix people at the conference to invite people
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  different generations come together and some sessions be mixed people.
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  Other sessions segmented because not everybody's open to either.
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  So so we need to work on continue to work on the mind sets that working with people
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  different.
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  That can be generational, pigmentation, gender, all the different ones.
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  But what kind of women who have experience do today?
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  I mean, they can be a pillar of support for younger ones listening to them.
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  Sharing with them, but also this capacity of listening.
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  I have noticed over so many years of listening to many women that It's not only about having a
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  voice.
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  Yeah.
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  It's about having a voice.
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  There's a is that somebody listens to you that's even more powerful and and some women
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  are even shocked just by being listening to.
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  They're like, so so that is something we can do for each other, listen to each other.
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  And then I think also if you are a resourceful woman, you know, put also some money into it.
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  Like, we have a whole scholarship program.
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  I invite women from many different countries to come to be in I believe we spend a percentage
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  of what we and to get into even a visa office to get somebody from Himalaya or Cameroon come
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  into another country So there are many things you can do to mentor women in in in situations.
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  So less resource less resource all we meant to actually bring everybody up.
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  So it's one thing you can do and continue to work on your own awareness and then your own
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  consciousness and heal.
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  Because I also meet women who have been around for a while that have given so much, and they
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  were also not heard and seen and valued.
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  So it's it's about just Get that off and and clean up, go out there in the world and share
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  your skills.
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  And and also here, the power of meeting now is also that we can start things any age.
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  I met met the other day, a lady who just became a yoga teacher.
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  She's sixty two.
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  And somebody else does the same.
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  She's twenty two.
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  So it's like, all is possible right now.
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  And of course, there are some limitations and some differences, but if you can somehow be
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  there for each other if I can be inspired by someone young.
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  I feel like I can learn or be held by someone who's been older than me.
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  Or if I can be, like, enter inspired by a dynamic entrepreneurial North American woman,
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  grounded by my friend, charity, Nigeria, heart based by somebody I know in Colombia.
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  So it's we can we can get different.
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  We can we can give and receive different things from different people if we live in this world
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  of inclusion and diversity and mixing with different
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  And and I often think that, you never know where your next teacher comes from.
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  Absolutely.
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  Absolutely.
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  And And and another thing is that I have done a lot,
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  you know, when started up as the name Bimini International Network.
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  That are most important thing is this leadership conference and it's about
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  networking, but it's about so much more than that.
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  But at the core of it is that We've been moving from a very hierarchical way of operating
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  society to a more network base or to a combination of the 2.
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  But in a network based way of organizing society organizations in our own varied life,
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  relationships are so important.
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  And and, yeah, so basically that's And
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  at the end of the day, like, you know, the title of my book is ROR, which is return on
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  relationships.
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  Right?
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  So how is it that you Yes.
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  Right?
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  And you're the leader, and I think oftentimes you think what are the what are the things that
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  I'm looking for from others to perform But with the concept that I've come up with, which is
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  based on a lot of, research that already exists with authentic leadership, but I include
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  authentic heart readership is Absolutely.
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  You are you are, you know, the beacon, but you have to take care of your light first in order
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  to be able to spread.
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  That accordingly.
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  And it's a reciprocal, back and forth.
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  Right?
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  It's not a one way, which is very, like you said, you know, autocratic and old school male
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  perspective.
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  Now we're recognizing that, you know, in fact, It could be some one of the youngest people on
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  your team or around you that may have the solution.
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  So to create that piece, which takes a lot but it it starts with the leader.
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  It starts with the leader.
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  Yeah.
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  And
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  the so it's and then another thing that I work on a lot, and I share a lot is this too.
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  This is about so we have this authentic leadership and authenticity means also that I
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  can be true to myself, which is an exploration every day.
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  You know, we discover something.
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  But to dare to be treated yourself means also certain level of courage sometimes and to take
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  the stab or ethical ethics and aesthetics.
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  I think either take a stand for beauty, for nature, for a lot of these things, and and I
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  think that if all the women all over the world could could be aware or not and and strong
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  enough to say no to what's unacceptable immediately.
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  The world will change.
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  Just by that one action.
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  Just by that one action.
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  Yeah.
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  You know, I know, when I was introduced to to to Kristen, she, was at the UN.
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  So I'm I'd like to talk a little bit about that and because I think, you know, what a what a
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  platform, and it's amazing.
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  That you were there.
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  Yeah.
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  What what what happened to the UN and and how did that now that we talk about your story,
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  which has been amazing.
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  Legacy of women and authenticity and and being true to yourself.
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  What happened that the UN.
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  Yeah.
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  I think maybe that goes into so when you are as treats yourself as you can be and authentic.
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  And when your relationships are not necessarily transactional, but more synchronistic, So
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  working in a family way, attracting things or receiving things or being awake to whoever sits
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  next to you.
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  That maybe you talked to and you don't know, but maybe later that could mean something.
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  Things start happening to you also.
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  So I was, by chance, introduced to someone in India who introduced me to somebody else and so
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  I started to work with a group called global citizen forum together with VIN, then the head
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  of the global citizen forum, and we got together and said, let's do something the UN.
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  And then somebody else came along.
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  There we were in the US.
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  Well, it doesn't exactly like that.
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  There was a lot of things happening from the 80 set of being in the event, but but we were
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  there in in the in the big venue together also with you and organization.
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  So we help in May timely event on inspiring women, to create a more peaceful and
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  sustainable future.
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  And, and this was a collaboration where wind and myself was in charge of directing and then
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  producing events together with these 2 other sessions.
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  And what happened was that we had a chance to look and and bring in also a lot of women from
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  businesses, from companies, and and Yeah.
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  And that I think was also important that it's not only NGO and political leaders that meet in
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  UN, but we can bring along also women and some men from what they could call in the UN, the
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  private sector, to also see how they can more be a part of creating this change for a more
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  sustainable and more fuse peaceful future.
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  And and this was really step 1.
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  We we plan to take next step was in Geneva.
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  Next step is in New York.
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  And of 23 or maybe probably 2024 now.
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  Amazing.
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  Amazing.
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  Just, you know, when I listen to your path, you know, you must sometimes step back.
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  I'm sure, you know, in in applying your awareness and say, I'm sure you had this vision
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  embodied in you, of something that you wanted to feel.
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  And I, you know, I'm just thinking about you know, and being lucky enough to be at the 25th,
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  anniversary of when in Rome, when you look back now and if you could kind of, you know, say
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  what you feel right now about not just women, but women.
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  Yeah, I feel like, when it comes to women, I feel it's almost like a It's been a pilgrimage.
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  It sounds strange, but that's the word it comes to me because it's been along dedication and a
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  journey that I felt was my inner journey, and it has been a collective journey because
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  related with so many women that have come along in this uprising.
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  So where we are right now, it's both and And at 25 years, it's often referred to as generation.
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  So it's as if there was an end of an ebook, and it's also incredible beginning of the new where
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  so many of these young women are coming up with confidence and courage.
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  So It's like, wow, it's an amazing time on the one hand.
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  But then also looking at the world with the board with many, many different challenges
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  right now.
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  We are also so needed.
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  And I've had for a few years now an extreme deep sense that the world depends on women's
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  dreams being realized.
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  And by dreams, obviously, I mean, the vision or so.
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  And if we can make ord dreams or yearnings or wishes or goals, all the regions happen, we
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  will be alright.
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  And if you don't, I don't know.
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  I don't know even, but I don't wanna go there.
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  But more, there's something now that is a critical moment, and and and it's critical that
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  that that women have a place.
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  And if Emily is happening, I'm not saying it's happening on its own.
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  It's happening because of people like yourself, myself, all the women have been working from
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  this.
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  But, it's, it's an important
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  And, no, I I love that thought.
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  Right?
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  It's like, what is it that I can do?
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  Right?
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  Like, what is it that I can do in my you know, 10 meter radius around me and to live my
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  passion and I think of myself, you know, becoming a psychologist and wanting to because
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  I recognize that I needed a voice.
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  And then I also in turn wanted to ensure that anybody that I could interface with and I
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  decided this, I think, quite young, that I wanted to ensure that I chose a path that
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  allowed others likes to be Yeah.
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  And I did that a angel.
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  You know, I don't know.
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  I think that can take what eleven year was thinking that.
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  But because I had had experiences, where I felt that I wasn't my light wasn't shining and the
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  environmental context going back to the original was not affording that light.
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  To shine, I wanted to ensure that whatever path I took in life that in fact, I would be a vain
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  to others
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  to be
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  able to have that.
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  And that was my that's my legacy and my leadership story because I really wanted to
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  have voice, but I wanted others to have voice.
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  So it's, you know, yes.
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  It's it's it's stuff.
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  It's like, yeah, it's like when I was up there in the Northern Russia, you know, on my own
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  back 20 26 on the year ago, and that's when this women, they are so smart, but they can't
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  they don't have choice, and I wanted them to have choice.
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  So it's it's and and the more I travel, the more I thought, so I want people have choice.
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  That was the case of the economy and freedom freedom freedom.
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  And, and I wanna treat them too.
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  I moved from a little town in Norway.
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  I started to travel.
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  So it's it's so it's, of course, we do it for ourselves.
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  Yeah, it's interesting.
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  So I this has been amazing.
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  What a what a exchange.
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  This has been a space that anybody listening will enjoy and take something away from it.
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  So Is there any last words you'd like to share, before we kind of sign off?
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  Yeah.
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  I think, like, the last thing's for all of women, don't take shortcuts.
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  Like, be be, do the right things.
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  I think the time of the good people is here now.
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  It's like to the right things.
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  It's it's hard sometimes.
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  And still, it just walked up.
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  Uh-uh.
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  Don't don't deviate.
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  From your dreams, from what you want to do, from what you dream to do, and what you long to
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  do.
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  And and Do the good things?
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  Some people say, no.
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  It's not possible.
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  And it is possible.
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  That's what I hope is better.
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  And I would say before I sign off, I think of I'm a little girl from Trinidad and Tobago.
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  I grew up in a little village called Diamond Village.
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  And I had a dream of wanting to do and make a difference in people's lives.
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  And here I came from that little island to, Canada and anything is possible once you set
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  your it's not it's not an easy road, but don't lose track of of your dreams and know that with
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  the right synchronicity around you to your point earlier, anything is possible.
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  And together, we're so powerful but in isolation, it would, you know, we take away the
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  gift of, light and and possibility to really keep that in mind as you go out there and don't
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  don't lose track of what that vision to look like for you.
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  So I'm excited about Rome.
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  I look forward to meeting you for anybody that happens to be in Rome.
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  Roundly, it's the is the 20th to the 22nd September of this year.
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  Come and come and join us and spend some time.
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  I'll do be doing a a workshop and awareness and and and being involved in plenary is talking
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  about some of the things that Kristen and I have talked about today.
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  So, Kristen, Thank you.
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  Thank you.
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  And for everyone.
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  Thank you.
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  Yeah.
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  Thanks so much.
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  Thank you.
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  Bye.
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  Thank you.
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  Welcome to authentic living with Roxanne, a place where we have as conversations about
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  things that really matter in our lives.
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  And now here's your host, Roxanne Derhodge.