WEBVTT
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The topics and opinions expressed on the following show are
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solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
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those of W four WN Radio It's employees or affiliates.
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We make no recommendations or endorsement for radio show programs, services,
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or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability,
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explicit or implied shall be extended to W four WN
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Radio It's employees or affiliates. Any questions or common should
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be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
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W four WN Radio.
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This is Beyond Confidence with your host d W Park.
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Do you want to live a more fulfilling life? Do
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you want to live your legacy and achieve your personal, professional,
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and financial goals? Well? Coming up on Dvaparks Beyond Confidence,
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you will hear real stories of leaders, entrepreneurs, and achievers
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who have steps into discomfort, shattered their status quo, and
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are living the life they want. You will learn how
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relationships are the key to achieving your aspirations and financial goals.
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Moving your career business forward does not have to happen
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at the expense of your personal or family life or
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vice versa. Learn more at www dot Divpork dot com
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and you can connect with Diva ants Contact Dants divpark
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dot com. This is beyond confidence and now here's your host,
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div Park.
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Good morning listeners, It's Tuesday morning, and I'm thrilled to
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be here with you because I get to be in
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your presence and spend time with you. So I want
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to share that kind of story. One of our audience
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sent it out to us, Nicola. So Nicola, I want
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to give you a huge, huge shout out. So Nicola
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was just kind of walking by in her neighborhood and
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then she saw a mom just kind of like you know,
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struggling like her to older younger kids like probably around
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like five and three. They were throwing you know, they
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were hungry, tired, sleepy, don't know, but they were like,
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you know, crying and then she's trying to get the
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baby seed out. So what Nicola did was just kind
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of picked up a couple of sticks and sat down
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and like you know, she was like, oh, do you
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see this rock? Do you see this? So she engaged
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those kids and mom was able to get out the
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baby and so it is just amazing, like Mom just
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hurt hugged Nicola and said thank you, and then they
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went inside. And so here's the beauty that when you
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keep that kind of circle going. So even though Nicola
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did not know who her neighbor was, but just extending
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that kindness goes long ways, and now she is friends
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with them. So I invite you to spend one hour
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of your time every month spreading the kind of circle.
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It can be five minutes here, one second here, one
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smile here, one smile there. And I want to thank
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each and every one of you who have got her box,
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because I will tell you, like our books, will make
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a difference, and it goes three ways. One, you're helping
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me spread the message, helping you help yourself. And then
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we also give partial proceeds to keywoo dot org to
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entrepreneurs because entrepreneurs are special. Let's get into today's conversation.
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Let's bring in our guest. Welcome Laura.
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Good to see you.
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Good to see you as well. So share with us
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if you recall a moment from your childhood or youth
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where a person or situation left a positive mark on you.
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So I had a ton of great coaches and mentors
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and people that have guided me throughout my life. One
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of the individuals that I think had just a tremendous
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impact during my upbringing and then definitely as I kind
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of got into adulthood in my career is Scott Taylor.
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He is a family friend and godfather to my little sister.
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He was an entrepreneur himself, and so he built and
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developed an incredible tech company, and throughout that time it
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was interesting, I think, very early on before it became
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kind of common nomenclature, everyone described him as a servant leader,
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that he was always someone to give back and always
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send one to lend welcoming hand or kind words and
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support those around him. And so definitely throughout my playing
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career and as I went into college and as I
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started kind of my work career, he was always there
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to just be a sounding board to provide coach coaching encouragement.
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He definitely was somebody who said, you know, the sky's
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the limit, right, set some goals and expectations and see
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what you're capable of. So he was definitely kind of
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you know, and has been and continues to be kind
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of consistent in my life. I think there's so many
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different coaches that each bring their own little facet of
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what they do. I think it's an interesting dynamic that
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you know, as you kind of curate your ecosystem and
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the people you surround yourself, your goal should be to
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take anything you can from the people around you. So
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I think probably list every soccer coach I've had in
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talk or skill set that they've bestowed upon me. So
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a lot of people in my life that I think
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continue and have always said. You know, you're capable of
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whatever you know you want to do, you just have
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to put your time, effort, and energy behind it.
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Yes, oh, you said something very powerful. Surround yourself with
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someone who's part who can uplift you. And even if
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it is not the way I've seen it is that
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even if a person has their own quirks, which we
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all do, every person has something that we can learn from.
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It's up to us. It's our choice. And as you mentioned,
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you can learn things from anybody surrounding from you. So
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that's a really powerful perspective to have. So as you
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grew up, it sounds like you know, you were playing
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soccer and all of that.
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What were your main interests so interestingly off very early on,
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I would say in high school in early college. I
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whether it's just the dynamic of circumstance, whether it was exposure.
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You know, I had probably very high goals in terms
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of athletics and soccer. I think I don't know that
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I really had a ton of career ambitions. I think
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whether that was circumstances of where I was growing up
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or just kind of the dynamics. I came out of
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college thinking I was going to teach second grade for
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my entire life. So my undergraduate degrees in teaching. I
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was very lucky that I get extra years of eligibility
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to pay for a master's degree. But even still, when
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I came out of college, my initial kind of goal was,
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you know, my parents, being you know, very philanthropic and
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involved in different things, kind of said go get a
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job that's something you're passionate about and you enjoy. Right,
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That was kind of the goals at that time. And
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I came out and taught. And it wasn't until probably
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my second year or my third year of teaching that
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I realized, Wow, I'm more competitive than I than I
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realized growing up. I was an advice to do it,
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and now that I don't have that outlet, I have
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to find other ways and opportunities to really challenge myself.
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I don't know that I would have said in high school, Wow,
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I'm smarter than I thought I was, and I can
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learn at a fast rate, and I'm really outgoing or
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you know, a strong, you know, time manager and organized,
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you know individual. I don't know that I would have
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come out in my twenties and ever been able to
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do articulate here's my strengths as a human. I would
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have been able to describe a bunch of ways I
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spend my time. But I think it definitely took into
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my thirties to really realize, Okay, wait a minute, I'm
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capable of more than I thought I was.
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And that's a powerful insight to have. So so many times,
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as you mentioned that, it takes us time to find
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our way through what we are capable of, what are
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our true passion and you know, where do we want
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our lives to go? So gen Z is already in
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workforce and you have gone through several different careers in
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your life. Define the norms? What would you tell that
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gen Z generation while they're in their twenties currently, Like,
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what could they do differently so that they don't have
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to wait till they're in thirties to direct the.
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Guidance absolutely, you know, I tell people all the time,
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figure out, really hone in on what you're good at.
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And I know that sounds very simple, but I think
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we get stuck too often at very high level superficial
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taglines or tag words.
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Right.
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We talk about all the time that people say they're
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a good communicator. Everyone on my team is an exceptional communicator,
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but they all have very different strengths and how that
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comes to the table. We have some people that are
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very articulate and very clear and concise, their nomenclature, the
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vernacular is really strong. We have other people that come
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across as very empathetic and engaging, and so because of
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it they can get in from and collect information from others.
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But even the skill of taking a very complex topic
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and making it easy for people to understand is really
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the underlying aspect of being a strong communicator.
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Right.
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I think I'm a storyteller, so I am an open book.
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I share stories all the time. That is kind of
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my facet within being a strong communicator. And I think
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what our young people need to do is really kind
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of dissect and have some self reflection to say, what
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do I think are really my best assets, my best astributes,
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my best skills, how can I develop and home those?
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And then I think that the opposite is really dissect
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your biggest weaknesses. Right, So I'm very transparent, and I
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had the opportunity to do some three sixties in my
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thirties where I knew my weaknesses or I knew what
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I thought my weaknesses are. But having somebody else really
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articulate them to you helps, and that's a fraighting experience.
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I think there's sometimes all too often in our early
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career we are too concerned about getting negative feedback. We
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are too concerned about telling us everything that we could
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improve upon. And I think the complete opposite now, right,
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you should lean in on where your weaknesses are so
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you can improve on those, or hone on those, or
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quite frankly, find people around you that can balance you out.
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So if you are not going to be good at
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one aspect of you know, for example, in my career
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in the consulting space, if there's something I need support
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on from a technical perspective or it's outside of my depth,
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then every call or engagement or interaction I'm going to
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make somebody and sure we have somebody from the provolest
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team on that call to balance out where my strengths
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and weaknesses are on our team in general, like our
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direct team. If you look at the personalities of each
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of our resources and each of our individuals, and each
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of my teammates Kayla and Sam and Shay and Ryan,
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couldn't be further personalities from each other and further from me.
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And that brings kind of a very dynamic, engageing opportunity
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to grow as an individual because you're constantly learning from
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those people and rounding out your weaknesses definitely.
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And here's the thing. So many times we are so
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positivity driven that we forget that it's important to know
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our shortcomings as well, and these are how we label them.
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Sometimes what happens is, so I'm just gonna share, Like recently,
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what happened with one of my clients. He was given
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constructive feedback because nowadays, you know, people can be a
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little bit sensitive about criticisms. Like let's drop the word
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criticism and say, okay, constructive feedback. And he's like, oh, gosh,
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I did not know this. This I was blindsided. So
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we took, like, you know, a moment, and then he realized, oh,
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this can be a strength in certain circumstances, and it
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can be so for example, like he's in sales, so
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when he is he has salespeople will have to be
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a little assertive and aggressive and doing the follow up,
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so it becomes a strength there. But you're doing the
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same thing with your younger gen Z, it doesn't work.
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So then he realized he had this insight all on
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his own. Oh, it can be a strength, it can
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be a weakness. So what you're saying is that knowing
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your assets there it is it's important to lean into it.
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And you have leaned into your life multiple places, so
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you have changed multiple careers. Can you walk us down
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that path? Yeah?
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Absolutely, So, as I shared, I came out of college
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and I had a job offer before I graduated, so
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I took it, which was teaching second grade. And while
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I was teaching, I think realized, Okay, I need something else.
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I have this fix on the side that I need
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to really feel this you know, competitive dynamic and challenge myself.
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And so I started at the time, which was in
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a different league that exists today, but was a pro
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women's soccer team. That team did incredibly well and had
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a great kind of you know launch. We got sponsors
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and donors and made money our first year, which is
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unheard of, and by kind of, I say, the grace
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of God, I ended up getting invited to present to
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what was the larger league that owned a mix of
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teams men's, women's, different levels, the USL and presented and
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was offered an opportunity at that point in time to
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leave my teaching and my team in Detroit and come
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and run the team in Atlanta. And it was an
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interesting dynamic because it was a massively of faith. I
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say all the time that I had no family, no friends,