Courage is what brings us together today.
Leadership is our relationship with relationships. Our greatest joys and our greatest pains are our relationships. Relationships matter.
Leadership is the skillset of success.
Courage is the skillset of significance.
Transformational Leadership is the foundation of a life fully lived.
This weekend was a mile marker on many levels, seen and unseen.
Our culminations of celebrations are also the death of a season prior. Time to celebrate and time to renew.
A dear friend wisely shared a gift of secret wisdom, which is called a book, with me that was not on my radar. Raising Brows (My story of building a billion-dollar beauty empire) by Anastasia Soare.
It’s been such a beautiful asset, already delivering ROI for me and my tower of other incredible female leaders who are owning their courage and leadership at levels like none other. Side note, there’s nothing like running full speed with other giraffes in the wind towards purpose and community. My heart sings!!!!!
However, today, I have deeply resonated with the specific waves of wisdom that Anastasia was communicating about how, as women, we often have unique challenges toward our stewardship of courage that were timely, as I have been building organizations that are women helping women, and having nuanced experience shares has been elusive in seasons past.
Today I was listening to Anastasia share her personal challenges as she strategically owned her courage at a pivotal moment in her life. A key principle in leadership I like to call is The Oxygen Mask. The most important and effective way we can impact this world and have the greatest ROI of significance is to learn how to put on our own oxygen mask at a mastery level.
This is probably one of the greatest paradoxes in the liminal moments of life that is most challenging to understand and embrace. I have met the enemy and she is me. The most important relationship to prioritize in the midst of the goo is with ourselves. AND there is a vital piece of investing in me that is a skillset.
This was echoed on page 102 of the book. I have taken a gamble on myself; now I need to invest in myself as well. I hesitated like most women do. I believe that investing in ourselves and in our deepest yearnings is one of the biggest challenges women face in business and in life. We tend to be the keepers of the practical. Dreams are elements of air, not of earth. They emerge from the intangible realms of yearnings, aspirations, and intuition. Yet, often, even before we begin to dream, the imagination-killer voice in our head whispers, “Who are you to spend money on yourself? Who are you to want more?” It whispered to me too.
Yet this has been the secret sauce of the principle: Rejection is my protection. The gift of not fitting in meant that I prioritized investing in myself, my leadership, the leadership of other women that others disregarded and/or could not see. AND this weekend we celebrated the success of investment in the significance of others who are most overlooked. Leadership matters.
This weekend, I was able to pause (and share with my kiddos) to celebrate the fruit of practicing owning my own oxygen mask and my team’s. We had Carpe Diem Cleaning‘s annual Thanksgiving celebration. A mile marker of our lives spent this past year together, for our families, for the work of our hands, for community. It truly was an honor to connect and play with the team. We celebrated with annual family photos, delicious authentic food supporting other local businesses, a bouncy house for the kids to have fun, face painting, balloon animals, and raffles rewarding our team for their hard work. Gratitude at its best.
Today: We start the season of holiday rush as we joyfully serve our clients in their moments of celebration.
Learning the art and science and trust of putting on our own oxygen mask of courage is not for the faint at heart. May this be your Monday Morning cheer as we all have those moments of prioritizing courage that takes our breath away.
