Hey there and welcome to Piper Harris Coaching, a podcast where I share how you can embrace your poema, your masterfully created purpose. Poema is a foundational anchor that defines your character, directs your decisions, supports your growth, provides protection and healing, engages resilience, and serves those in your lives. Harnessing your uniquely created poema and putting it into action is necessary for healing, actualizing goals, and living a full and content life. We will dive into topics surrounding positive psychology, shifting your mindset, and how to overcome behaviors that are holding you hostage. My name is Piper Harris, and I use my 20 years of experience as a mental health counselor, coach, business owner, mother, and wife and dig into deep and complex issues that you are facing and empower you to overcome and harness the courage to chase after your best life. Thanks for joining us today and welcome to Piper Harris Coaching Podcast. Well, hey everyone. I recognized with my graduate studies and the amount of work that that takes, managing a household, running the kids around, and uh running a business that I had to step away from some of this stuff. You know, like um I step away from writing my newsletter uh and really have stepped away from the podcast just simply because I just didn't have the bandwidth. But it's funny today, um, speaking of bandwidth, this afternoon or this morning, I have this big paper that's due, and I'm just struggling to write this stinking paper. Um, but I had an event um this afternoon that I had to look forward to, and it was just so life-giving and was really what I needed to kind of just jostle me out of the, oh my gosh, this is so much work mindset. And I know you guys know that feeling where it's just you're so overwhelmed with everything that you have ahead of you, and it just seems like you cannot get up. That's really how I've been feeling. Uh, so some exciting news. Um, my event that I had today um was with or is with an organization, and um, it's called the National Society of Leadership and Success. And I woke up on, I guess it was Thursday morning. Doesn't make a difference if you listeners are tuning in later, but I woke up bright and early and I saw this email in my um university email, and I thought, oh, it's just spam or something. But lo and behold, um, I had been nominated based on my exemplary academic success, which was pretty ridiculous to see say. Um, you know, my undergraduate uh has left my undergraduate experience, has left a pretty big, embarrassing ache in my heart, I have to say. Um it was over 20 years ago. I recognized I was a kid. Um, but you know, it just it was uh actually a really hard thing to work past trying to get into a graduate school because my GPA was so low. Yet, you know, I really wouldn't turn back time simply because I was working two full-time jobs, trying to get my bachelor's degree, but I was with in field in the applied psych field. And the amount of experiences that I learned, uh, I mean, it's just I I cannot replace them. So there is an ache in my heart because academically speaking, it was pretty darn embarrassing. But on the other hand of it, there's always two sides to a coin. Um, there's some really wonderful experiences. But all that to be said, um, apparently I'm doing okay in graduate school. And so um I've joined the NSLS and am working through their advanced and executive programs. And what I love about this honor society is that they're really focused on leadership and success development. And if you've followed me for a while, you know in the last two years, you've seen the transformation, the development of who I am and what I bring to you as a uh coach has gone through these last few years. So when I first came out of the gate, I called myself sneakered life um success. And really what it was is focused on that leadership success that every woman should harness to have success in her life. But the problem with that um name was people thought, well, why is it just sneakered life? Well, I I know that's confusing. It's because I just love to wear sneakers. Um, and so then I transitioned um and um, you know, was really focusing on um, you know, then I went into Poimal Women's Success Coaching. And again, it was still the success. How do women find success in their lives? And a lot of it was rooted in leadership. And the problem, again, was when I spoke to women, they're like, but I'm not coming to you for leadership. And so there was just this disconnect between my name and what I was trying to help women reach in their lives. And so you probably listened to the new intro this morning, and this is really about, you know, it's Piper Harris coaching now. I mean, I'm getting super, super easy, people. So there's no confusion about anything that I discuss. But really, what it's about, number one, number one, is that I believe that every single woman as um is created with a poema or this thing that's masterfully created inside of her. And that leads her life, that helps her break free from addictions, from you know, those behaviors that are holding her hostage from anxiety, from depression. It keeps her resilient and strong and courageous. And so my goal as a coach and subsequently soon in about 16 months as a counselor is to empower women into finding that poema, harnessing it for her life. Now, here's the interesting thing. I'm I'm in this meeting today with NSLS and I'm meeting some of my cohort and just really enjoying the conversations we're having. And we were discussing about um, you know, what are some of the top leadership tips that we have? And it just really was an amazing conversation that actually just kind of inspired me and energized me to uh do a podcast. And I think so many times, you know, NSLS is about leadership qualities. It is about getting out there and in your profession and leading. But I do personally believe, and this is what I tried to teach the women that come to me for coaching and in counseling, is that we have to learn interpersonal, um, intrapersonal, excuse me, leadership before we can interpersonally lead, meaning that we have to understand how we lead our lives, what are our values and our beliefs, and how are they navigating our life before we're capable of leading others? And so it was just really a lot of fun to just kind of talk with these women, hear their inspiring stories. Um, one woman was so exciting to hear she's finishing her PhD. She's just she's at the home stretch, and she was sharing that the statistics were just like, I don't know if I could do this. Um, and uh, you know, it was just incredible to hear her story um in the nursing field. Another woman is also in healthcare and she's in health administration. So hearing her perspective and hers was unique in the sense that she leads um an entire practice and she's the youngest of the bunch. And so those things that she faces there. Um, and so we were just kind of talking about what are those, you know, successful tips that we have in uh if you're in leadership. And, you know, we came up with some of the typical ones, right? You need to listen to learn, not listen to hurry up and speak. Um, you need to have humility and self-reflection, you have to be goal-oriented, um, you need to communicate well, you share the glory, all of those things make a good leader, make a good leader. But as I was talking with them, you know, we talked about the importance of being bold and courageous as a leader. And I said to them, you know, I have a client and she is in a situation where um she's not necessarily leading a group of people, but she is leading herself, meaning every action that we take in our lives shows, represents who we are as leaders, who we are as human beings, regardless if you think you're not in this defined leadership role, how you're living your life is leading. And so this woman and I have been coaching through how to be bold and courageous in professional settings when she feels like, ah, I can't really speak up to this individual. And so, you know, she and I have been working through what does courage look like? How how can we be bold, you know, within the parameters of our professions? And you know, what's really interesting with her and the multitude of other women that I speak with is that it really comes back to, it really comes back to how do you see yourself? Because it's hard to embrace uh, you know, being bold and being courageous if you don't think you're worth it, if you don't truly believe that you were created for a purpose. How can you be bold and courageous if you're fearful of what's gonna happen? Fear is a good thing, but sometimes it can stop you. And so it's so very important for you to work through those things to harness boldness and courageousness, but you've got to do the nitty-gritty work before I believe you can lead anybody else. Because unfortunately, I think all of us can think of a leader in our life, and I don't like calling them leaders, I'll just say that. I think there's a leader and there's a manager, right? Um, I believe leaders are those people that boldly lead us, that they're courageous, you know, all of those things. And then I think they're those managers in life that they're just getting by. And I think there's managers personally, right? I mean, we know people that maybe they're stuck, maybe they're stuck in the rut and they're okay with status quo. They're uncomfortable breaking free from the box that they've created or has contained them. Um, and maybe we can kind of title those managers, and I hate to slap on labels, but um, you know, try to bring someone to your mind that you think might feel that. Um, and then there's those individuals that we see, and man, they're killing it, right? They're they're leading their lives. They're those people that are inspiring, they're enthusiastic, they seem to have everything put together. Um, but then when you get to know them, gosh, you know, they're very authentic and vulnerable and share, oh my gosh, I've had so many failures and, you know, but they also have this great support system. So again, I think there's such a difference between leaders and managers, both personally and professionally. So we were discussing, you know, the need for courage, that we need to have that intrapersonal courage before we can reflect that outwardly as a good leader. And I think the crux of that is um, you know, with self-reflection and harnessing that courage and saying, okay, I I'm gonna fail courageously because failure hurts. It's hard, it's gonna happen to all of us, but that's how we learn. And okay, I'm gonna courageously step into some painful things so that I can overcome them. And it's that self-reflection, it's that self-work that will continue to build the leader within us. And that takes humility, doesn't it? Um, I think all of us know um individuals as well that um claim to be these leaders, and yet they lack so much humility or authenticity, and we don't want to follow their lead. You know, we sometimes we don't have a choice professionally. Sometimes we don't have a choice within our families. Um, and it's tough, isn't it, to see these individuals that lack the humility and the self-reflection that really comes along with that authentic leader, that authentic individual. And really, authenticity is what it, you know, brings people to you. It's a magnet, it's it's magnetic. And that should be something that all of us strive for. Um, in authenticity, can be found by courageously reflecting, by courageously saying, I need help, by courageously stepping into things and trying things and failing and saying, okay, I'm gonna get back up again and I'm I'm gonna learn. And so it was just a lot of fun today with the NSLS um cohort discussing these, you know, success tips for leadership. And just the more I thought about it is these are success tips that we need to apply to ourselves personally before we start thinking that we can apply them, you know, outside of ourselves. I think um so many times I do have women, you know, come to me and say, Well, I want to make this big move in my career. And I say, Okay, well, how are we gonna get there? And so they routinely have kind of these rote steps. Well, I have to get a resume, I have to do interviews, you know. And then I ask them, well, what's been getting in your way to this point? And the more we we dig into that and we dig deeper into that, it I'm telling you, 99.9% of the time, what we fall into is that self-worth is just not there because they haven't identified those values and beliefs that lead their lives. And they're fearful of stepping into that deep reflection that it takes to, you know, lead professionally. You've got to learn those things to lead yourself personally. And leading yourself personally again, getting back to it is harnessing that poema, recognizing it, defining it because it really creates resilience in your life and allows healing to take place. So super excited um to have this opportunity um with the NSLS ladies, and um, you know, just discussing success tips. What does leadership look like for us? How can we apply these to ourselves? Um, you know, and it just it was just a lot of fun. It was just a lot of fun and really energized me. And um, and I needed that too. You know, I'm, you know, nose to the grindstone. I'm constantly in the books and typing papers and just barely keeping my head above water. And I forget that um, yes, I'm doing this for an end goal. I'm doing this so I can serve you as a licensed professional counselor. But today reaffirmed in me that and energized me that I've also been given um something else to do, and that's to share with you how to lead yourselves personally, how to find that that learning and that healing um and that courage so that once you find that and you create that foundation, anything else in front of you you can tackle. Anything, truly, anything else you can tackle. And so uh today was just an invigoration that, gosh, you know, I have people that rely on me, you know, to talk to them. And and granted, this is not one of my normal podcasts where I give you, you know, steps to take and and tips and all of that. This is just me sharing with you my passion for you, my passion for helping you to live this life that I believe you deserve. And and try to invigorate some passion in you, some hope that you can break free of those things that are holding you back and harness courage and bravery and self-worth so that you can really tackle those things that are coming in life. Um, it's just it, you know, I can't even tell you. It just was one of those wonderful um times with individuals that really um spoke back into uh what I was created for. You know, uh I have said this and I'll say it again. Um, I believe I was created with a specific poema and I live it every day of my life. In fact, one of the things that NLS asks you to do is, well, how how have you um, you know, lived out your vision or lived out your purpose or have you yet? And I thought, heck yes, I do this every stinkle, stinking day. And the reason being is my vision and my mission is not based on anything outward. None of it. My vision and mission for me is based in in that foundation of my poema, my uniquely created purpose. And so it doesn't matter what I have ahead of me. It doesn't matter my task, the paper, the, you know, whatever project I have ahead of me, you know, doing business stuff, whatever it may be. It doesn't matter the task because I have been given this purpose. And that's my harness that holds holds me down, that's that that keeps me rooted. You know, and I've always said that, you know, I do not have a choice with living out my my mission and my vision because I've been chosen, I've been chosen through my poema. And when you feel that, it's it's invigorating. It's um it's something that really buoys you. You know, when you when you feel like you can't keep your head above water, it's something that you turn around and you say, Okay, all right, I've got this. I've been chosen for this, I've been given this. It doesn't matter this task that I have ahead of me, I've got this. And it really does make an enormous, enormous difference in my life. It really, it just, it really does. So it's a short one today. I've really um just wanted to share my excitement, you know, and um let you all know that I'm thinking of you all the time. If you don't hear from me as much, you know why. Um, but do know that um this poema that I'm talking about, you've got it. And um, you might need help in discovering it. And I know it can be scary, it's not a fast process, I can promise you that. But it will give you that courage um that you need, and it'll allow you to heal, it'll give you the ability to self-reflect, um, and it'll allow you to live authentically and abundantly. Um, it can happen. It really can happen. And so if you have questions about coaching, working with me, please head over to my website at piperharris.net. I do have limited space for clients just simply because I want to make sure I'm 100% for you and 100% for school. So I have to be very and 100% for my family and forget them, but I have to be very judicious with um how many clients I bring on. So if you're interested, or maybe you just have a question, like, hey, Piper, how did you find this? Or I'm stuck here, you know, whatever it may be. Let's talk. I'd love to talk with you. And if I can just give you some hope, um, that's what I want to do. That's what I want to do. So thanks again, everyone. It's wonderful to be back. Welcome to spring. I know this year is going to be a fantastic year. We have the choice. We have the choice uh to face what's coming ahead in our new year. We have the choice to face what's ahead in our lives because we have been chosen and given our poima. Hey there. Thank you for joining me today on the Piper Harris Coaching Podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, please be sure to share it on your social media. Share it with your friends and your family. And if something really spurred, stirred something inside of you, send me a message. I'd love to chat with you about how you can find your poema and harness it for healing and vitality in your life. Thanks so much. I appreciate you, and you'll hear from me soon in future episodes.