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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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directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W
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four WN Radios.
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Success, Successful, Hoard, suzet.
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Rise successful Women.
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Did you know women represent just three percent of Fortune
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five hundred CEOs and less than fifteen percent of corporate
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executives at top companies worldwide? Have you wondered what the
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secrets are to getting into the top ranks, whether in
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the private or public sector. Do you want to figure
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out how to stop being held back in your career?
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Are pasted over for promotion? Then you're in the right place. Hi,
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I'm doctor Mattlanann lewis, President and CEO of the Executive
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Women's Success Institute. I have decades of experience in the military,
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the federal government, and corporate America. And my mission is
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to help women succeed and tap into their full potential.
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I want to reach a million plus women around the
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world to become the leaders they are meant to be.
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So if you want to move into a management or
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executive level position, or maybe you are a female veteran
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transitioning out of the military into business entrepreneurship, and then
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reach out to the Executive Women's Success Institute at three
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zero one six nine three three two eight four let
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us get you on the fast track to success. Well, Hello,
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and welcome to the Success for Women's Show, where you
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can view us on Talk for TV and listen to
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us on the Women for Women Network. I am doctor
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Madeline Ann Lewis your host, and my mission is to
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help women accelerate the path to success. Well, today's topic
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is choose Yourself, Identity, Power and Purpose and my guest
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is Miss You're me Jssin and I tell you what.
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I am honored to have her here because she is
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coming to us from Canada to day. But before I
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bring her on, let me just give you a little
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bit about her. Ermi is a self published author, speaker,
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podcast host, and finance professional based in Canada. She holds
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the Chartered Financial Analyst and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designations,
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and she works in financial in the financial services industry
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while using her platform to advocate for women's empowerment, identify identity,
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and self leadership. Her book, Discovering Your Identity, A Rebirth
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from Interracial Struggle explores her journey as a third culture
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woman navigating belonging, culture and self worth. Ermi also hosts
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Stories Beyond Borders, which is a podcast that amplifies diverse
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voices on identity, migration, language, and the meaning of home.
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It is such a pleasure to bring to the Successful
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Women's show, Ermi Hassan Hi Hi, it is such a
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pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you. I
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know your schedule is probably really busy. Our goal to
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just be glad to hear some of your journey and
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also talk about your book a little bit. So tell
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me something you you know from your bio. I can
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tell that you wear Mani hats, finance, professional, author, speaker,
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podcast hosts. So how do you personally define success at
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this stage in your life?
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I define success with one word, which is alignment. It's
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something that took me and why to understand. I think
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as a society, we think the success it's about career, reputation,
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financial status, your perception that people have about you in
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the society. But it realized for me it's about doing
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the things that make me happy and doing the things
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that I am most I feel most fulfilled, and for me,
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it's really about finding things that are online with my
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goals and values.
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Now, your book discovering your identity, Now I can tell
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that it's deeply personal. What moment or realization inspired you
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to finally tell your story.
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It was basically a couple of years ago when I
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was invited to different podcasts and every single time they
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would everyone was so fascinated about my story of being
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at our culture key, and I saw this as an
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opportunity to basically write my book. I didn't think it
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was going to come at that moment in my life.
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I didn't think it was going to come that soon.
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I knew that I was going to write a book eventually,
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but it came literally like four years ago, and so
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I saw this as an opportunity to make those conversations
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into a more concrete thing by writing my book, and
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I so published it.
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Mm hmm wow.
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And you know what, like I said, it seems like
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it's very personal to you because as a third world
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or as a third culture woman, you've navigated, i know,
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questions of belonging and self work. When did you begin
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to see your identity not as a struggle but more
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is strength.
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And even that it happened a couple of years ago,
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I think I had to do a couple of internal
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work and a lot of reflection, and a lot of
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understanding of myself and my identity and how I wanted
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to be portrayed in the world and what kind of
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cultures I wanted to represent. And so after having a
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lot of conversations, open dialogues, finding community of people similar
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to me, I finally came to the realization with me
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exposure to multiple cultures, it's it's an asset. It is
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more like a strength, something that I can use as
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my storytelling. And so me having exposure to, you know,
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two cultures to begin with the Bengali Titanian one, it's
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it's an asset. It's quite powerful, powerful, and it means
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you know that I can speak to languages. It means
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that I have exposure to two cultures. It means that
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I have exposure to to different transitions to different cuisines,
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and so that it was in that moment that I
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saw this more like a like an asset and not
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a weakness.
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Wow.
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Now know we all know that many women they feel
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pressure to kind of shrink back or maybe conformed to
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fit into professional or cultural spaces. How did you learn
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to choose yourself instead?
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I agree with what you just said. I feel like
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we just shrink ourselves more often than not to fit
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an ideology of what's considered to be the perfect daughter,
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the perfect women, for women working for a company. But
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for me, really, I came to a realization that I
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didn't want to like follow that, and I put myself
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first by basically putting boundaries and protecting my energy, protecting my.
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Aura.
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And it was at that moment that I decided that,
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you know it, it's okay to think differently. It's okay
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to uh to follow the unconventional, It's okay to put
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yourself first. It's okay to follow your own path because
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at the end of the day, you you cannot always
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make everyone happy, and so it's more important that you
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make yourself happy before making you know happy someone else.
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Absolutely, and that is definitely key and what you said
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about you know, like I said, shrinking back, that's that's
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something women tend to do a lot. And so I think,
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you know, reading your book is would be a perfect
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example to help them to move past and beyond that
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type of uh you know, behavior conforming too and just
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realize that, hey, you have to do what's best for you.
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That's right.
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Mm hmm.
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So what does self leadership mean to you and why
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is it especially important for women today?
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Do you think.
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So? For me?
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When I think about leadership, I truly think that it's
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all about impact, influence, and it's about sustainability. I think
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that women are typically leading in a way where they're
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creating impact and inspiring other women to do the same.
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It's no longer about titles. I think I used to
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have that notion that leadership is all about, you know,
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climbing the corporate ladder and being the CEO of a company,
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being the VP, the SVP of a company. And honestly,
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that's how I used to think the success was going
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to be that if I can become a manager of
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a company, it means all of the successful women. But
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I realized that I was developing those leadership skills even
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by being in a lower level positions and it wasn't
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you know about my title. Well, it was about the
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fact that I was part of a community, building a community,
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giving back to the community. It was about inspiring other people.
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And that's how I started to see leadership. It's about
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leading by example and being an inspiration to other people
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and making sure that you are creating an impact. And
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when I think about big names, most important leaders that
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for me were true, true leaders, that's what they did.
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You know, Like if I think about Gandhi, who is
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someone dra I very much admire. I think he was
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a true leader, very charismatic, he was giving back to
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the community, he was helping people. And so for me,
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that's what it means when it comes to when it
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comes to leadership.
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Absolutely and you're absolutely correct when you say, you know,
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a lot of people look at leadership as having a
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certain title and that gives them that, you know, I'm
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the leader, But it's really not about titles. It's about
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you and how you handle yourself, the way that you
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like you said, impact you make, and how you're you know,
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the people that are looking at you, just what exactly
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are they thinking of you as the person they want
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to follow you know so, and and and all those things.
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That plays a big part in in in leadership. And again,
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like I said, a lot of people don't realize that
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it's not about the title.
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That's it.
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That's it. For women.
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Who feel caught between cultures, expectations, are are certain roles.
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What do you think is the first step toward reclaiming
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their own authentic identity.
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I think it's about finding good allies, finding like partners
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or trusted people. I call them partner meaning that I
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always say, it's like any kind of like network that
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you do. It's about partnership. And I think that finding allies,
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finding mentors, finding finding people that advocate for yourself are
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the first step to reclaim yourself because I think sometimes
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we're the we are our worst critiques. We don't believe
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in ourselves, we don't we don't trust ourselves. And I
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think sometimes if you have the right kind of people
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around you who support your ideas and who encourage you,
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they will help you to find that power that it's
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sitting there but it's waiting.
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To be used.
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And so for me, I think it's about finding the
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right people around you mentors, allies, partners, people that advocate
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for you. And I think it's also important to don't
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just rely on your group of people. I think it's
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okay to go out and find other kinds of people
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that are like similar to you in terms of like
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values and who has your same interests. So, for instance,
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like there are so many like local events that happen
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in every single city that you have, conferences, you have
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social events, networking events, you know, especially now with international
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rooms and you have you have so many just go
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ahead and participate to some of these events and network
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with like mine, like like like people. So that would
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be my advice for for anyone who's like reclaiming, who's
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looking to reclaim themselves.
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You know, I totally agree with that, because if you
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stay in that same little box, then you know, where's
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the stretch, Where's.
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How are you going to?
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You know know what how you should you know look
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at In other words, have different perspectives too, because when
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you meet different people from different places, like for example,
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here I am, I'm here in Maryland and you're in Canada,
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so we're kind of reached the cross here to network,
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and that's pretty much what it's all about. And you
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have to and I think That's why I like to
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bring guests on from different areas of you know, around
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the country, different things like that, because.
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It's always a different perspective.
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You can always see, uh, what how they look at things,
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even with leadership, even with success. You know, everybody have
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their own definition of those things, how leadership should be,
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how success You know how to define success. But if
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you stay in the same little box, then you're gonna
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keep that same opinion. You won't have a you know,
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you won't have that different perspective.
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That's it.
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I agree, and it's and I think that's how you
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that's that's how you get like different ideas and different