Latest / Daily Influence / 626. Where Purpose Meets Presence: Carolann Valentino on Heart-Centered Leadership

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626. Where Purpose Meets Presence: Carolann Valentino on Heart-Centered Leadership · Daily Influence

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[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the daily influence where our mission is to deliver a daily dose of positive influence that can uplift you personally or be shared within your sphere of influence.
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[SPEAKER_00]: While not every episode may directly apply to your unique circumstances, we strive to provide insights and inspiration relevant to most people's daily, weekly, and monthly lives.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Whether you are tuning in during the morning, noon or night, the daily influence is here for you.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, share, and embrace the power of influence in your life.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to Daily Influence.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I'm your host Greg Collino.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Today I'm thrilled to welcome Carol Ann Valentino, a dynamic force of energy, empowerment, and authenticity.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Carol Ann is a 15-time award-winning entertainer, positive psychology practitioner, and creator of the heart coherence method.
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[SPEAKER_02]: She's known for her sold out off Broadway show,
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[SPEAKER_02]: and her ability to help audiences and organizations reconnect with their purpose, humor, and heart.
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[SPEAKER_02]: From the stage to the boardroom, Carolyn helps people rediscover resilience, lead with authenticity, and live in alignment with their why.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Carolyn, welcome to daily influence.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so, so much.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Hello, people.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I'm so excited.
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[SPEAKER_02]: You're here.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Can you share a bit about your background and what led you to the incredible combination of entertainment, psychology, and empowerment work that you're doing today?
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[SPEAKER_01]: You know what?
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's so awesome because I'm living my purpose and my purpose was always as a child, had a gift of being able to feel people, have a sense of things, very, very in, in
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[SPEAKER_01]: a very powerful sense, I should say.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I was also gifted with this ability to make people laugh and entertain them.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So it's throughout my life, even growing up as a musical theater girl, my mother was a Broadway person.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I was always exposed to performing professionally, but there was always this desire to make it more than just entertaining people.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I would be very deliberate about feeling people and getting to the point where I was moving them from the inside out.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So I spent a lot of time with this intersection of entertainment and emotional truth.
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[SPEAKER_01]: All the way up into the corporate realm and my adult life bridging these two worlds,
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[SPEAKER_01]: of running this multi-million dollar steak house and running these restaurants in the heart of New York City and then bridging my purpose for entertaining.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So I had like two careers going at the same time.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So I would say that I was born knowing what my purpose was because my mother was a very powerful influence to recognize what my purpose was and she would support it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And it led me to this, and in my adult life, to this awareness of the science of human behavior, purpose, and resilience.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So I became like this non-stop learner of anything to do with human flourishing resilience through my studies with applied positive psychology, trauma therapy, positive psychology, coaching,
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[SPEAKER_01]: became award-winning wellness expert in the number one fitness brand.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Anything that I could get my hands on that would help empower people from the inside out mentally and emotionally and physically.
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[SPEAKER_01]: That was my jam.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And so I realized through performance and psychology, you're both about a state change, whether it's on stage or in a boardroom.
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[SPEAKER_01]: same skill set to help people understand their inner, standing ovation, I guess you could say we're, you know, purpose, humor and hard align.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I did that in corporate, like even in meetings, difficult conversations with customers, I always would go for being in the present moment using humor.
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[SPEAKER_01]: and getting people to open up even angry customers.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So I had this for long-wind and answer here.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I had this awareness of just being super present and noticing people getting them to a place where they're really
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[SPEAKER_01]: listening through an emotional state.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Does that make sense?
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[SPEAKER_02]: 100%.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Good.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I love that.
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[SPEAKER_02]: You've led thousands of people through your speaking, coaching, and wellness work.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Can you tell us about a moment of experience where you truly felt you made a positive impact on someone's life when you saw influence in action?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you know what?
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[SPEAKER_01]: There was this moment after I did it, really big keynote where I was taking a huge risk of taking my one woman's show where I played these 18 characters and then I was also bridging positive psychology teaching points of the science of purpose and resilience.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So I was doing this very difficult thing where I was moving back and forth in and out of these spaces and
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[SPEAKER_01]: reaching the audience and reaching out to them and asking them questions, you know, so there was like a trifecta going on.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm thinking to myself, you know what, what am I doing?
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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, this is, I'm probably scaring these people.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, you know what, no, you just keep doing what you're doing because either people are gonna be open to this or they're not.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And afterward, I, you know, the audience was very generous.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I got,
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[SPEAKER_01]: a huge standing arrangement and people came up to me and I had at least three or four people that stood out the most where they had tears in their eyes and they said, you know what?
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[SPEAKER_01]: I was asking for a aha moment in my life.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I met the verge of a very difficult time of making very difficult decisions of walking away from a career that I built out.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I have a lot of money on the table.
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[SPEAKER_01]: and the burnout and the lack of alignment and disconnected from their why and they talked about how the influence really, really was a huge sign for them and they were crying and it really opened them up to make that decision right then and there that it was not negotiable that it was like a life changing, no going back.
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[SPEAKER_01]: moment and those people followed up with me later and still talk about how that was a very pivotal moment and it broke them open, tears in your eyes, aha moment that gut feeling where you're like there is this is the moment and I have the same thing when I left corporate and it's this what I teach people you know what this keynote was about when people say oh it took a risk you know
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[SPEAKER_01]: Purpose is following the thing you came in here to do, one of them, and following that, and that everything that happens along that path is an amplification of that.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So by the time you're ready to launch, it's not a risk taking moment.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It was, it's an acceleration.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So I feel like those people that came up to me were getting ready to be ready to be ready to launch.
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[SPEAKER_01]: and I help them just continue that blast off.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So it's a very different feeling from doing it from a fear state.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So I feel like those, that's one of my favorite memories.
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[SPEAKER_01]: After this type of keynote where I can really help people pivot.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Is that, does that resonate with you?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Makes sense.
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[SPEAKER_02]: 100% and you obviously had a huge positive influence on them, but I'm sensing they had quite a bit of a positive influence on YouTube.
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[SPEAKER_01]: 100%.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Because here I am taking a risk doing something in the morning, scaring people with like a, you know, a one woman, you know, comedy show and bringing stand up comedy to, you know, doctors and therapists and they're used to, you know, just keynotes.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you know, you know, you know, slideshow.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I was willing to take a risk and just kind of wake people up in a
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[SPEAKER_01]: So they were firming back to me that I'm on purpose in purpose in the moment present and I wasn't in my head talking to them.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I was in my heart.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Otherwise that experience wouldn't happen.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I don't believe.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I would agree.
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[SPEAKER_02]: You know, your heart coherence method beautifully connects emotional alignment and leadership.
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[SPEAKER_02]: How does this approach help people lead and live more responsibly both authentically and awareness?
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[SPEAKER_01]: That's a great question.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's really all about helping people synchronize their head.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Right brain left brain to the heart, matched with their purpose and values.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And it's a science-based framework that helps teach leaders how to regulate their emotions and activate that intuitive intelligence, which we all have.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And communicate from coherent state, you know, instead of the chaos, the chaos.
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[SPEAKER_01]: folks that are C-O-O's, anybody in that high C-Suite role.
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[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of times are spinning their wheels trying to manage the emotions of the office.
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[SPEAKER_01]: This one's afraid to speak to that one.
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[SPEAKER_01]: That one's afraid of that one.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I can't speak mature.
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[SPEAKER_01]: This one is volatile.
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[SPEAKER_01]: This one can't handle the heat.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The moment, the leader is stressed out.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So the leader sets the pace.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And if they're talking at people,
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[SPEAKER_01]: in a fierce state and they're not aware of why they even chose this path and how people produce profit.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And when we approach people from this heart-based intelligence, not from a title, the decisions therefore become more ethical, you know, have more empathy.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's not soft strategy.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's humanity.
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[SPEAKER_01]: That's something that I learned, you know, helping run a 40 million dollar stay cows in the heart of Manhattan, 1,500 guests a day, we had 225 employees and there was constantly something a fire going, going up that I need to put it out along with my team.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And this this inaction, you know, working through the heart, not the head and my purpose,
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[SPEAKER_01]: I brought that to the workplace and it helped so much.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I was so effective as a leader of
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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, really listening to people, listening to the customer, what they're not saying, and being totally authentic in the moment and dipping down and doing things that, you know, they're not typical for a manager or a leader of a restaurant to do.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I have crazy stories to say, to tell you, but very effective, because we're people.
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[SPEAKER_01]: We have emotions.
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[SPEAKER_01]: We come in and we know that emotions are fleeting.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And so if you can get to the heart of the matter and you as a leader are so aware of your heart and your mental state and your emotional state and walking into the office, you become far more powerful, less reactive and more proactive and your ability to think and strategize completely changes because you're in a broad and state of being and thinking.
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[SPEAKER_01]: everything runs more smoothly.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And the business flourish is more.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Um, so yes.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Hopefully that makes sense as well.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Absolutely.
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[SPEAKER_02]: You know, that in team series, we often talk about the importance of self leadership before leading others.
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[SPEAKER_02]: How have your experiences and entertainer, a speaker, and all the other amazing journeys in your career shaped your understanding of self-awareness and authenticity is tools for influence?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, as a stand-up comic, I highly recommend that everyone at least tries it out because you learn real quick.
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[SPEAKER_01]: What's your main of and what you can handle?
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[SPEAKER_01]: It is the hardest art form known to me and we all talk about it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's like do TV film acting musical theater or whatever.
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[SPEAKER_01]: But stand up, Connie.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's a totally different world and what I've learned is that I,
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[SPEAKER_01]: The instrument is me, my body, my voice, my presence.
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[SPEAKER_01]: There's just no wear to hide.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So, and self-leadership, we talk about this, right?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Talks about, you know, it's all about radical self-awareness.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And how you can influence others.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, it's just taught me to listen far beyond the words, to the energy, to the emotion,
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[SPEAKER_01]: Like I said before, what's not being said, and it really, that awareness translates to leadership and influence, and whether you're managing a team or not, but this whole background and entertainment is 100% allowed me to be even more fearless.
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[SPEAKER_01]: present, raw, and willing to almost make a fool of myself to be as authentic as possible.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, a lot of us have our ego and wanting to say the right thing and buy past certain things because they're difficult to do conversation staff.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And that has background and entertainment is 100% shaped my ability to show up with a lot of courage.
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[SPEAKER_01]: a lot of courage.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And is your true self?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's really boils down to being in the present moment and not being afraid of it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Not living in the future, not the past.
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[SPEAKER_01]: What is being presented right here and now and all every aspect of you is totally in the moment and it's electrifying because people can tell when you're in the moment and when you're not in an order to be an effective
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[SPEAKER_01]: The audience knows when you're not there and it's just a game changer.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's not as powerful as being in the present moment because that is where everything is happening.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I think that's everything in life.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And no matter what you do being in the present moment, it's true that the only moment we're guaranteed, right?
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[SPEAKER_02]: 100%.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And it's the most important to be here.
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[SPEAKER_02]: It's disrespectful to those you're with if you're not there in the present moment.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And it's respectful to yourself.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I feel for, you know, a coach celebrity, you know, Hollywood folks that younger, younger demographic as well.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And noticing the different generations, the shift, social media, and the phones when the kids were raised on it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And those of us who are a bit more mature in our timeline,
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[SPEAKER_01]: being present because, oh, check the phone, the ding, the social media just de-anked you out of the magic of the moment and sometimes I help people manifest their life partners and really good of that.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, your man just walk by.
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[SPEAKER_01]: They're like, what are you talking about?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Since you've been in your phone, you just missed out on 10 opportunities to possibly connect with somebody.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And your man probably is one of them.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's just everything.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Even families are out to dinner and everybody's on their phone.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's, uh, we can't take this moment back.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's everything.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It is the goal that leads to the dreams, to the success of the business.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's the now.
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[SPEAKER_02]: That is so true.
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[SPEAKER_02]: You know, your work with leaders and teams who are often burnout or disconnected from their why, what are some of the practical ways you help people re-agnite purpose and build emotional resilience?
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[SPEAKER_01]: I love that, thank you for asking.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I help people through what I call purpose recalibration, so we use I use tools from applied
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[SPEAKER_01]: strength identification and blend them with this, you know, this embodied practices like movement and humor.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's all part of it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The physiology, you know, as in a fitness background, working in the wellness industry.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The physiology is such a huge part of it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And so that really helps my clients really feel the power of.
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[SPEAKER_01]: being present and their bodies and their emotions and it really, it's a real powerful tool utilizing all of that.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So there's there's there's some spiritual aspect to it, the gratitude, the identifying your strength as I mentioned.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So it's a nice little combination to get them back to their hearts, back to the energy with their physiology, they're training, they're working out, it's all about the resilience and teaching them these science-based tools that and I teach teams, companies and their teams, science-based resilience skills that they can learn, that they can utilize on themselves in real time.
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[SPEAKER_01]: instead of having to, you know, need a manager to intervene or, you know, they're not, not a lot of people have these skills, so they're very, very powerful, you know, working with growth mindset, fix mindset, understanding the science of resilience.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Breathing techniques, so it's, it's a whole mixed bag, powerful stuff.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it is very powerful stuff.
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[SPEAKER_02]: You're journey blends art, humor, wellness, and leadership, all through the lens of service.
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[SPEAKER_02]: What message are words of encouragement?
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[SPEAKER_02]: Would you like to share with our listeners who aspire to make a positive difference in the world?
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[SPEAKER_01]: You know what?
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[SPEAKER_01]: You know what?
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[SPEAKER_01]: As I said before, I think everybody's trying to be perfect.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Social media, women, men,
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[SPEAKER_01]: Instead of being perfect, as I said before, the presence, the present moment, being the greatest influence.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's always about being the most aligned.
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[SPEAKER_01]: At the loudest voice that being aligned and listening to your own intuition, which their science behind our own internal guidance system,
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[SPEAKER_01]: having as hunters and gathers, we've needed that to keep us safe, but you know understanding that listening, being present, knowing things are not supposed to be perfect and leading from the heart and living on purpose and laughing along the way is a game changer when you're
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[SPEAKER_01]: It opens the heart and the heart is open.
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[SPEAKER_01]: That's where everything moves through.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And that in a nutshell is what I stand by.
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[SPEAKER_01]: That's why I blend those two worlds of entertainment and positive psychology.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The heart has to be open in order for anything to change.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Karla, thank you for sharing your light, energy and wisdom with us.
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[SPEAKER_02]: your ability to merge humor and heart and purpose reminds us that influence doesn't have to be complicated.
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[SPEAKER_02]: It just has to be intentional.
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[SPEAKER_02]: If our listeners want to get in touch with you, what will be the best way to do so?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Best way to do so is contact me through my website.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Caroleanvalentino.com, C-A-R-O-L-A-N-N,
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[SPEAKER_01]: T-I-N-O, CaroleaValotino.com.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Perfect.
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[SPEAKER_02]: We'll put that information in the show notes.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Carolem, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your stories and your advice today.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I'm so grateful for you.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I'm so grateful for you.
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[SPEAKER_01]: This is amazing.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Carameizing.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, and to our listeners, thank you for tuning in to Daily Influence.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I hope today's conversation brought you insight and inspiration.
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[SPEAKER_02]: If it's spoke to you, share with someone who could use a little positivity today.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And remember that living with authenticity and compassion can transform not only your own path, but the lives of everyone you touch.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Until next time, stay inspired and keep having a positive responsible influence.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Bye-bye.