Latest / Crafted Connections / EP 32: On-the-Go – Collective Voices on "Alignment"
Transcript
- 0:04SPEAKER_13: Hello, welcome to Crafted Connections.
- 0:07SPEAKER_13: I'm Kaelin Calhoun, and this is a podcast all about storytelling and building genuine community.
- 0:13SPEAKER_13: Here we'll dive into the art of storytelling, unpack strategies for making meaningful connections, and hear from incredible humans who are using their story to create impact.
- 0:23SPEAKER_13: So grab your favorite beverage, settle in, and let's craft some connections.
- 0:30SPEAKER_13: Welcome back.
- 0:31SPEAKER_13: Welcome back to Crafted Connections.
- 0:33SPEAKER_13: Thank you for being here.
- 0:35SPEAKER_13: So if you've been tuned in for the last week and a half, I have been sharing daily episodes on the weekdays of interviews that I conducted back at the Grow Weewo conference in April of this year.
- 0:48SPEAKER_13: Grow is an organization that helps women challenge the status quo of what it's like to be a woman in the workplace.
- 0:54SPEAKER_13: I am the fractional chief content officer over at Grow, and I brought my podcast equipment to the Fort Wayne conference and conducted interviews with the participants, with the attendees, with the vendors, with the speakers, and asked them a few questions.
- 1:08SPEAKER_13: I asked them, you know, what's an impactful story/slash experience that they've had that has changed the trajectory of their life.
- 1:14SPEAKER_13: And I also asked them how they define alignment because that was the theme of Fort Wayne, living in alignment.
- 1:21SPEAKER_13: And the answers were across the board in a very good way.
- 1:25SPEAKER_13: Like it it's fun to take a word, take a theme, and see how everyone approaches it differently.
- 1:31SPEAKER_13: It got me thinking because I do believe that that was people's snapshot of alignment that day.
- 1:37SPEAKER_13: Right.
- 1:38SPEAKER_13: If you look at this day back in April, it's what they defined it as in that moment in time.
- 1:44SPEAKER_13: And I think if you ask yourself, you know, today, tomorrow, three years ago, five years from now, you'll have different definitions for different words and different experiences.
- 1:53SPEAKER_13: And alignment is definitely one of those words that can kind of morph to the situation and the life experience you're having.
- 1:59SPEAKER_13: So I went ahead and I collected everybody's answers into a compilation so you kind of see that that difference.
- 2:05SPEAKER_13: And then uh towards the end of this episode, I will dive in and I'll share a little bit about my take on alignment.
- 2:11SPEAKER_13: But please enjoy these definitions.
- 2:13SPEAKER_13: Maybe you'll connect with one or a few, and I'll talk to you soon.
- 2:19SPEAKER_03: I think for me it means all the aspects of my life are going in the same direction.
- 2:27SPEAKER_03: So personal, professional, health-wise, all the things.
- 2:32SPEAKER_03: But I think a lot of people participate in jobs that don't bring them fulfillment or joy.
- 2:39SPEAKER_03: And I happen to do all things that bring me like fulfillment and joy.
- 2:44SPEAKER_03: So my work aligns with my personal values and beliefs.
- 2:47SPEAKER_03: And I think there's so much satisfaction, life satisfaction in that, and I think it's highly underrated.
- 2:56SPEAKER_09: It's about knowing your values and then living through those values.
- 3:02SPEAKER_09: That when you understand that this is what I'm about and my actions speak for that, then I truly am feeling in alignment with myself and the world around me.
- 3:12SPEAKER_13: Perfect.
- 3:13SPEAKER_13: Thank you so much, Corey.
- 3:14SPEAKER_12: I appreciate you.
- 3:16SPEAKER_12: Thank you.
- 3:19SPEAKER_12: I have a mentor who does this physical movement where her forearms are vertical, both vertical forearms, and she brings them together in front of her body so that they're perfectly in line with her spine.
- 3:33SPEAKER_12: And I feel like that's a really beautiful physical movement for the word alignment.
- 3:37SPEAKER_12: And it also kind of depicts like a gathering almost of like everything that is in my vicinity is coming like into the center.
- 3:46SPEAKER_12: Right.
- 3:47SPEAKER_12: Um and it is kind of like what I was just talking about, where it's the job, the relationships, the family, the entertainment, the rest, all of those things that you're incorporating into your life, they f feel good.
- 4:04SPEAKER_12: And life doesn't always feel good.
- 4:06SPEAKER_12: Sometimes things are bad, and sometimes things are stressful, and sometimes things are hard.
- 4:10SPEAKER_13: No, but I I like the explanation of like physical movement, right?
- 4:14SPEAKER_13: Because you some of your jobs involve like expressing yourself physically, you know, in physical comedy, and and and that's that's such a big part of you.
- 4:22SPEAKER_13: And it's it's interesting how everybody's definition of alignment has been completely different.
- 4:26SPEAKER_13: Some I'm just like mind-blowed, kind of interesting.
- 4:28SPEAKER_12: Some not mine.
- 4:31SPEAKER_13: Some have been mind-blowing.
- 4:33SPEAKER_13: I'll let people decide whether yours was or not.
- 4:36SPEAKER_13: That's not for me to decide.
- 4:38SPEAKER_13: It's for the listeners.
- 4:43SPEAKER_07: Alignment, I think the definition changes as you progress through life.
- 4:49SPEAKER_13: I've been thinking if I had asked, if I'm asking any of these women two weeks from now what alignment means, they're gonna change their answers because it it's so situational and also specific to the individual.
- 5:01SPEAKER_07: And I do feel like alignment is something that seems more attainable for the younger generations who are entering careers and entrepreneur endeavors.
- 5:14SPEAKER_07: I'm hopeful that alignment is more of a prevalent focus throughout their journey as opposed to maybe women in my generation who were not in all invited to consider their alignment.
- 5:31SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
- 5:34SPEAKER_03: Alignment to me is the process of removing friction.
- 5:39SPEAKER_13: I'm getting the best answers.
- 5:40SPEAKER_13: I've only had three people, and they've all been so amazingly different.
- 5:44SPEAKER_13: That's so cool.
- 5:45SPEAKER_13: You don't even have to expand.
- 5:46SPEAKER_13: Wonderful.
- 5:47SPEAKER_13: Thank you so much, Margaret.
- 5:48SPEAKER_13: You're my favorite.
- 5:49SPEAKER_13: We know that.
- 5:50SPEAKER_13: It's on recording now.
- 5:51SPEAKER_13: I love you too.
- 5:52SPEAKER_13: Bye.
- 5:52SPEAKER_13: Yay, bye.
- 5:55SPEAKER_13: Hey y'all.
- 5:56SPEAKER_13: You know I love telling stories, gathering stories, and finding a way to help people connect their story with the people that will get it.
- 6:05SPEAKER_13: And that's what my story strategy sessions are all about.
- 6:07SPEAKER_13: So over at Calhoun Creative Consulting, my strategic storytelling firm, we do one-on-one and or facilitated workshops in relation to really honing in the strategy around your story.
- 6:20SPEAKER_13: It's a bit of messaging meets content creation, meets storytelling, and then how do we put that out in the world?
- 6:26SPEAKER_13: How do we show up regularly?
- 6:27SPEAKER_13: There's a bit of mindset work around it, right?
- 6:28SPEAKER_13: To actually tell your story.
- 6:30SPEAKER_13: Whether you're launching something new or trying to rework your brand or just feeling a little foggy on how to communicate with your people, this is how to get clear.
- 6:37SPEAKER_13: We'll dig into things like your narrative, how to uncover what matters most, maybe map out a few content pillars while we're at it.
- 6:43SPEAKER_13: You'll also get a recording of our session so you can revisit the conversation anytime you like.
- 6:47SPEAKER_13: Let's shape a story that actually feels like you.
- 6:50SPEAKER_13: So book yours today.
- 6:51SPEAKER_13: There is a link in the show notes.
- 6:52SPEAKER_13: And hey, while you're at it, use the code podcast, all caps, P-O-D-C-A-S-T for 25% off your session.
- 7:00SPEAKER_13: I would be honored to spend time with you and suss out your story.
- 7:04SPEAKER_13: Let's dive back into the episode, shall we?
- 7:09SPEAKER_00: Alignment.
- 7:10SPEAKER_00: Ooh, so many things.
- 7:11SPEAKER_00: So again, for me with OT as my background, alignment to me is really kind of biologically in our bodies and our brains.
- 7:18SPEAKER_00: It's the it's the balance between all of the pieces that make us us.
- 7:24SPEAKER_00: And so that can be, you know, again, physically in our body, mentally in our mind, emotionally, socially, in our environments.
- 7:32SPEAKER_00: It's to me, it's kind of everything.
- 7:34SPEAKER_00: And so I see the world in this big, complicated, complex way.
- 7:38SPEAKER_00: Um, but I think it's all interrelated.
- 7:40SPEAKER_00: And I so alignment to me is really trying to balance all of those pieces to make us really function at our optimal space.
- 7:52SPEAKER_04: Alignment.
- 7:53SPEAKER_04: Well, uh when I think about alignment, it goes back to a chiropractor.
- 8:02SPEAKER_04: So really just wanting everything to be in order.
- 8:06SPEAKER_04: And you think of balance, but I say temperance, and that's in all things in my life.
- 8:12SPEAKER_04: Temperance in in everything, like not giving too much to anything, right?
- 8:16SPEAKER_04: And so that is important to me, God first, and then learning how to give because it's easy to be in balance and give more to the job than the family, or more to the family than, you know, so it it to yourself.
- 8:33SPEAKER_04: Yeah, exactly.
- 8:34SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
- 8:35SPEAKER_04: Thank you.
- 8:36SPEAKER_13: I love that.
- 8:36SPEAKER_13: Temperance is a word that I recently started really like, you know, your brain doesn't really like process an important word until you're like, oh, okay.
- 8:45SPEAKER_13: Because right, you you can be taking on a lot and like you can be balanced between a lot.
- 8:49SPEAKER_13: Like you could be like, I gotta do all this for my kids, I gotta do this all for work, I gotta do this.
- 8:52SPEAKER_13: Oh, I have to do this for me.
- 8:53SPEAKER_13: But it's like if it's too much, it's too much.
- 8:55SPEAKER_13: Exactly.
- 8:55SPEAKER_13: And it's oh, I really like that.
- 8:57SPEAKER_13: That is such a beautiful answer.
- 8:59SPEAKER_13: Yeah.
- 9:04SPEAKER_10: Oh gosh.
- 9:05SPEAKER_10: Alignment.
- 9:06SPEAKER_10: That's a I think for me that's a really tough word because I think we as humans want to have our individuality.
- 9:13SPEAKER_10: So it's hard to say that alignment.
- 9:17SPEAKER_13: For the record, everybody has had completely different definitions.
- 9:21SPEAKER_13: Yeah.
- 9:21SPEAKER_13: Right?
- 9:22SPEAKER_13: Some talked about like physical alignment, some were like, oh, that makes me think of chiropractors.
- 9:25SPEAKER_13: Okay.
- 9:26SPEAKER_13: Like, you know, so it's just really like when the when I say that word, what comes to your mind?
- 9:30SPEAKER_13: Agreement.
- 9:31SPEAKER_13: Yeah, yeah.
- 9:32SPEAKER_13: Being in alignment with thoughts and ideas and whatnot.
- 9:35SPEAKER_13: Very cool.
- 9:36SPEAKER_13: And I mean you're a leader of many different people, right?
- 9:39SPEAKER_13: So, like when you're in a group setting, like how do you how do you bring that together?
- 9:42SPEAKER_10: It's super hard.
- 9:43SPEAKER_10: In fact, I I just had a conversation with our CEO about it, and you know, m m myself, I have three peers, and we're not all in alignment on everything all the time.
- 9:52SPEAKER_10: So he was like, Well, do you agree with your husband all the time?
- 9:55SPEAKER_10: Of course not.
- 9:56SPEAKER_10: No, I don't.
- 9:57SPEAKER_10: So it it was it was an interesting conversation.
- 10:00SPEAKER_10: Yeah.
- 10:01SPEAKER_13: Well, and that's that's what I've found.
- 10:02SPEAKER_13: I'm sure, like, if I asked everybody who I've discussed the word alignment with so far today, two weeks from now, they'd also have different definitions.
- 10:12SPEAKER_13: It's like your current moment in time.
- 10:14SPEAKER_13: Like, yeah, you're like currently on our leadership team, we're like, how do we, you know, make sure we're always on the same page?
- 10:20SPEAKER_13: Like, and it's just like the challenges that you may be facing, right?
- 10:23SPEAKER_13: Like, how do you make sure that you're balanced between your work and your home life?
- 10:27SPEAKER_13: You know, it's there's so many different ways to to approach feeling and the experience.
- 10:34SPEAKER_02: Gosh, alignment really means for me creating a life that I don't feel like I need a vacation from.
- 10:43SPEAKER_02: Love that.
- 10:43SPEAKER_02: And so for me, it really means creating learning opportunities for my child that feel like they're just teaching her how to access the world.
- 10:56SPEAKER_02: Also having a flow in my day that's not so hectic that I wake up the next morning and I'm exhausted from the previous day.
- 11:07SPEAKER_13: Like I need a break.
- 11:08SPEAKER_13: Yeah.
- 11:08SPEAKER_13: Yeah, yeah, totally.
- 11:09SPEAKER_13: Oh, that's perfect.
- 11:10SPEAKER_13: That's so perfect.
- 11:14SPEAKER_11: Oh, that's a good one.
- 11:16SPEAKER_11: So before I started this new venture as a divorce transition coach, you know, in another part of my life, and I still am licensed as a physical therapist.
- 11:29SPEAKER_13: Oh god.
- 11:29SPEAKER_13: Well, yeah, you know what alignment means.
- 11:31SPEAKER_11: So, yes.
- 11:32SPEAKER_11: So, so it's hard for me to not imagine alignment without really encompassing what you define your body to be.
- 11:44SPEAKER_11: And that absolutely includes your spiritual body, but it also did I say spiritual or physical?
- 11:53SPEAKER_13: You said spiritual body.
- 11:55SPEAKER_11: I did.
- 11:56SPEAKER_11: Yeah, yeah.
- 11:57SPEAKER_11: And I totally meant to say physical body.
- 11:59SPEAKER_11: But it's aren't they one?
- 12:00SPEAKER_11: Like, but I think that's where I was going.
- 12:03SPEAKER_11: Yeah.
- 12:03SPEAKER_11: It's your physical body, it's how you embody the things that you love and that are valuable to you, embodying the people that surround you in your life, embodying your spiritual life and how your financial decisions come along with that.
- 12:22SPEAKER_11: So that's when I think about alignment, I think about the body.
- 12:25SPEAKER_11: And when I think about the body, I think about the body of your community and you as a person.
- 12:35SPEAKER_08: I would say just staying true to yourself, showing up.
- 12:39SPEAKER_08: It just ties back to a lot of like what I do for business.
- 12:42SPEAKER_08: Yeah, you know, because I'm all about like to not lose your personality when, you know, branding yourself or whatever.
- 12:47SPEAKER_08: But so really just being in line with what you love to do and the the type of person that you want to be.
- 12:56SPEAKER_08: I recently went to a conference, if you will, and they were like, stop asking what you want to be when you grow up and start asking what kind of person you want to be.
- 13:05SPEAKER_08: So, like, like that was like an amazing like moment.
- 13:09SPEAKER_08: So it was like, okay, who do I want to be?
- 13:11SPEAKER_08: Like, who do I want to teach my k children to be?
- 13:14SPEAKER_08: Yeah, yeah.
- 13:14SPEAKER_13: What's the legacy behind it all?
- 13:16SPEAKER_13: Yeah.
- 13:16SPEAKER_08: So like just show up as that.
- 13:19SPEAKER_08: Yeah.
- 13:20SPEAKER_08: And to stop putting yourself in the corner and hiding.
- 13:23SPEAKER_13: Have you felt like you've been able to do that?
- 13:25SPEAKER_13: Yeah.
- 13:26SPEAKER_13: Yeah.
- 13:26SPEAKER_13: Yeah.
- 13:26SPEAKER_08: It's not easy.
- 13:27SPEAKER_08: From from awareness to action is not an easy journey.
- 13:31SPEAKER_08: Not at all.
- 13:32SPEAKER_08: I would say here recently and within like the past maybe year has probably been like the biggest growth of all.
- 13:39SPEAKER_08: And like not hiding and doing things like this, just showing up in general.
- 13:43SPEAKER_08: Yeah, and having fun.
- 13:44SPEAKER_08: We're having fun.
- 13:45SPEAKER_08: Yeah, and having fun.
- 13:46SPEAKER_08: But yeah, so really it's just for me, it's just about doing really what you enjoy.
- 13:53SPEAKER_05: 2024 alignment was my word.
- 13:56SPEAKER_13: Oh, nice.
- 13:58SPEAKER_05: So it was for me, it was me making sure that the events that I did, that the people that I was connected to could help me go up and I could help them go up.
- 14:11SPEAKER_05: And it could be this level type of elevation.
- 14:15SPEAKER_05: One of the things that I had struggled with is I was just doing events, efforts or events.
- 14:20SPEAKER_05: And I wasn't making any money, I wasn't getting any repeat customers or anything.
- 14:25SPEAKER_05: And I just was like, I'm out of whack, I'm out of alignment with what God needs me to be doing.
- 14:31SPEAKER_13: Yeah.
- 14:31SPEAKER_05: So how do I get back into alignment?
- 14:34SPEAKER_05: And it I had to stop, pause, and then start really thinking about what are the things that I wanted to be doing.
- 14:42SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
- 14:42SPEAKER_05: It was about making money because that's what we're in business for.
- 14:45SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
- 14:46SPEAKER_05: But it was also about connection and being able to make the connection.
- 14:50SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
- 14:51SPEAKER_05: And then once you're making a connection, then you can kind of build those connections.
- 14:56SPEAKER_05: Because as we talk about networking, networking is relationship building and it doesn't happen overnight.
- 15:02SPEAKER_13: It's interesting to say this to someone who sells a product, right?
- 15:04SPEAKER_13: But it's not transactional.
- 15:06SPEAKER_05: Right.
- 15:08SPEAKER_01: Alignment is where using my imagination, I'm big on that.
- 15:13SPEAKER_01: I'm going to my imagination.
- 15:15SPEAKER_01: I kind of see and observe myself doing it, like a mental movie.
- 15:20SPEAKER_01: I then take the time to actually design it out with a pen and paper and kind of script it out.
- 15:25SPEAKER_01: And then I assume I assume it.
- 15:28SPEAKER_01: Then I just get into the action of it.
- 15:31SPEAKER_01: And somehow the environment wraps around me.
- 15:34SPEAKER_13: Yeah.
- 15:35SPEAKER_13: You take what's in your mind and you make it real.
- 15:37SPEAKER_01: Just become an actor like you know, like any other person with a with a script.
- 15:41SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I just do the same thing.
- 15:43SPEAKER_01: Next step I do it for me and not for a movie budget.
- 15:48SPEAKER_06: The answer I feel like is contextual, depends on what space we're in.
- 15:54SPEAKER_06: What I have a tendency of going back to, especially in this moment, is alignment, aligning with yourself.
- 16:02SPEAKER_06: Aligning with yourself when you're able to do that, when your life is fully integrated, then you are able to live organically.
- 16:12SPEAKER_06: You're able to live generously, right?
- 16:17SPEAKER_06: Through authenticity.
- 16:20SPEAKER_06: Being authentic.
- 16:21SPEAKER_06: I think that we we finally feel safe within ourselves.
- 16:26SPEAKER_06: When we finally know who we are, and that is non-negotiable, right?
- 16:32SPEAKER_06: I think that is when we have been given permission, ourselves permission to step into that ground, that battle, to be our authentic selves, right?
- 16:44SPEAKER_06: Trusting and knowing that it will be fine.
- 16:46SPEAKER_06: And by doing that, I think you walk into your power and your purpose.
- 16:52SPEAKER_06: That's when your power and purpose is fulfilled.
- 16:55SPEAKER_06: So alignment, that's when when Brittany mentioned that out there, I was like, alignment, there's so many various like ways that we could apply alignment.
- 17:03SPEAKER_06: What does this mean?
- 17:04SPEAKER_06: I'm also a 500-hour yoga teacher.
- 17:07SPEAKER_06: So you know, I met Jesus on the mat um and an alignment there in yoga, you know, it's a body, you know, soul spirit, right?
- 17:17SPEAKER_06: But I and and I think that also is it bleeds into our everyday as well.
- 17:23SPEAKER_06: Because I know that was a catalyst for me being able to live fully integrated.
- 17:27SPEAKER_13: Yeah, because if something's out of alignment and you're just ignoring it, it will get louder.
- 17:32SPEAKER_06: Well, and it causes pain.
- 17:34SPEAKER_06: Right.
- 17:35SPEAKER_13: Yeah, it does.
- 17:36SPEAKER_13: It really does.
- 17:40SPEAKER_13: So again, the cool thing about all these is they are so vast, so different.
- 17:45SPEAKER_13: And I I stand by my argument that if we ask those folks today what their definition of alignment is, was, whatever, it would change over time.
- 17:56SPEAKER_13: And so I want to share my take on alignment literally today.
- 18:00SPEAKER_13: Uh being recorded on September 23rd, 2025, how I define alignment.
- 18:06SPEAKER_13: And currently I'm looking at alignment in the sense of kind of aligning all the parts of myself.
- 18:12SPEAKER_13: I had a coaching call with a good friend of mine, uh, Kimberly Hudson.
- 18:18SPEAKER_13: She has been on the podcast before.
- 18:20SPEAKER_13: What I expected our call to be about was, hey, let's look at your pipeline, hey, let's look at your leads, let's crush Q4.
- 18:28SPEAKER_13: And it ended up being about an hour of us talking about the dominant part of myself, which is this this hustling part and my relationship with that part of myself.
- 18:38SPEAKER_13: And it it ended up being like a long conversation about simultaneously like having that part of myself so prevalent, so strong in my daily actions, and how I I still push that part of myself down, right?
- 18:51SPEAKER_13: Don't really love on it.
- 18:52SPEAKER_13: And uh simultaneously it has taken me so far, and it also is a part of myself that I just hate on it a little bit sometimes, right?
- 19:00SPEAKER_13: So, all to say, where does this hook up with alignment?
- 19:03SPEAKER_13: A few things I would say number one, it's super unaligned for me to be like wanting to achieve, having this part of myself that honestly is responsible for a lot of the achieving, and then also hate on that part.
- 19:17SPEAKER_13: So that's something I'm I'm leaning into, kind of trying to click into place.
- 19:21SPEAKER_13: How do I get this part of myself, this hustler part, to to be loved, you know, to to be accepted and also be appreciated so that it's not this like it doesn't want to like take over the rest of the parts of myself, which you know, that's the second part of this.
- 19:36SPEAKER_13: How do I align to create space for for all these other parts and then align those parts into my life to to plug them in, to click them in in such a way.
- 19:46SPEAKER_13: So, you know, it is definitely in process, but as I've been spending the last few weeks editing these pieces of everyone else's definition from the conference back in April, I've been wondering where where do I stand with the word and the theme currently and uh you know, perfect timing.
- 20:03SPEAKER_13: Earlier this week, I I had a a chat with with my pal Kimberly, and and that's where we went.
- 20:08SPEAKER_13: It was not where I expected to go, but it was absolutely where I needed to go.
- 20:12SPEAKER_13: And so I'll check back in on that because again, we are a work in progress here.
- 20:17SPEAKER_13: Feel free to share what your definition of alignment is.
- 20:20SPEAKER_13: I'd love to hear what stood out for you in these episodes, you know, which definition feels really fresh and delicious to you.
- 20:27SPEAKER_13: And then also like what are you in progress on?
- 20:30SPEAKER_13: What could we what can we talk about in relation to that and how can we how can we always be growing?
- 20:35SPEAKER_13: So thank you so much for listening.
- 20:37SPEAKER_13: If you connected with any of these definitions of alignment with folks, I have put in the show notes everybody's individual episodes because a lot of the definitions come from their story, right?
- 20:48SPEAKER_13: So I started each little episode with the people's story and then it went into their definition of alignment.
- 20:53SPEAKER_13: But until next time, my friends, I am so grateful for your existence and I hope that you have the best week and you know find a little bit more alignment in your life.
- 21:04SPEAKER_13: So thank you.
- 21:08SPEAKER_13: Crafted Connections is lovingly produced by Calhoun Creative Consulting, a strategic storytelling firm dedicated to helping people and brands tell their stories in a way that resonates.
- 21:19SPEAKER_13: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe and connect with us on Instagram at Crafted Connections Pod.
- 21:26SPEAKER_13: Keep creating, keep connecting, until we meet again.