In this episode of Visibility Strategies for Women Entrepreneurs, Tori Barker sits down with business and wellness coach, author, and TEDx speaker Dr. Christiane Schroeter to explore how women can redefine success and build visibility without burnout.

Christiane shares her journey from academic research to global stages — and the lessons she’s learned about how small, intentional actions can lead to massive breakthroughs in confidence, clarity, and sustainable success.

If you’ve ever felt the pressure to “do it all” or struggled to balance visibility with wellness, this conversation will remind you that success isn’t about being everywhere, it’s about being authentic, aligned, and giving yourself grace along the way.

🎙 Hosted by Tori Barker, CEO of Creative Marketing.

Subscribe for new episodes every Thursday and discover the strategies that help women entrepreneurs get seen, heard, and remembered.

welcome to the Visibility

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Strategies for Women Entrepreneurs podcast

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where we empower female business owners

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to step boldly into the spotlight

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and claim the recognition they deserve

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I'm your host Tori Barker

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I'm passionate about helping women like you

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transform your visibility into tangible

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business success each week on this show

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we'll dive deep into game changing strategies

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share inspiring success stories from women

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who've mastered their visibility

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and offer practical

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actionable advice you can implement immediately

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whether you're just starting your entrepreneurial

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journey pivoting your business model

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or ready to elevate your existing presence

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to new heights you'll discover effective approaches

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to create exciting opportunities

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and expand your reach so

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let's harness the power of strategic visibility

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and grow your business together welcome to the show

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we are back on the show

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thank you so much for joining us again

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I am very excited to share our guest today

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Christiana Schroeder welcome to the show

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how are you today

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I'm so excited to be here Tori

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and can't wait to share some of my inside secrets and

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of course some tips on how to get you more visibility

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awesome I can't wait

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I love I love when we

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you know

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are in the groom green room and we're already talking

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about the fun conversation to come

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so let's jump in and let's talk about your journey

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and I know that you have built such a powerful brand

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around helping entrepreneurs thrive without burnout

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so what first inspired you and your journey

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to combine that business success with wellness

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let's start there

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yeah so as I was doing my PhD

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the best time to burn out is probably when you

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when you study at a top tier university

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to get a PhD in a foreign country

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not knowing exactly what you're going to do afterwards

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it's like I have to finish

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I don't really know what I'm going to do

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but at the same time I know that what I'm doing

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I really love and so when I

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when I did my PhD I was just in it

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doing the research on obesity how we

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and use small changes to improve food intake

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well being and of course tie that back to economics

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such as price and income changes

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so my whole life

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I've always looked at small changes and small changes

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meaning that we don't need to do these radical diets

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or overhauls and wellness

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to improve our our well being

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it could just be small incremental changes

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and that was really something that

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when I really look back now

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started my whole journey of what I now have

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petit practice um

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is my trademark small changes leading to big impact

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so doing my PhD I had to take care of myself to finish

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then starting my job and then of course

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as I moved across the country to California

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where I live right now

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I started my job here being pregnant

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so what better time to start a job when you're pregnant

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hahaha

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right

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and to take care of yourself was even more important

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because it was just me

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it was my daughter at that point then too

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with me starting my job

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and I think that my life overall is a fantastic journey

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of we sometimes wish for things

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and when they do happen they don't happen necessarily

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at the time when you think it would be perfect

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but you just have to think

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this is perfect right now

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this is perfect right now because it's happening

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and so I'm just grateful that it's happening

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and I think that is another reminder

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to take care of yourself because

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you don't know when your dreams will become true

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mm hmm you know

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I love I love the focus on wellness

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because

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there's such a correlation between personal wellness

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and business wellness and I

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I was having a conversation with someone

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a couple weeks ago

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and she was talking about a study that she had done

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about that correlation and how

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like the wellness of the business owner

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truly impacts the wellness and success of the

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the business itself

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and so why not focus on that importance

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because you know

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it's gonna be a full circle turn around

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not only for yourself but also for

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for your business your company

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whatever it might be

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so yeah

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it's just amazing to to think about just that

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like you said small

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tiny mindset shift or practice shift

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or whatever it might be

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is gonna make such a big difference

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yeah I always

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because I'm a full time professor

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at the university in California

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I always tell my students

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you introduce yourself first

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and then I will share a little bit about myself

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because I'm a firm believer

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I want them to know

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people don't really care about how much you know

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I'm not going to tell them

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impress them with my knowledge

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so people don't care about how much you know

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until they know about how much you care

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and I care about them I want them to feel welcome

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I want them to feel included

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and being part of a community

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and I honestly share with them

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what I do to take care of myself

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or what I do that I kind of messed up

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and I'm very transparent and authentic about it

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and I think that makes you a better leader

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because I I care what what

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what my personal journey is like

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the UPS and downs and the little wins along the way

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and I celebrate those with them

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and I think

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that's really what makes my business so successful

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that I look at every small step as something that

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it can be amazing

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or it could be what I call a first attempt in learning

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right a fail

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and that is just something that

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sometimes it's just expensive education

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where you maybe failed with something

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and it's like alright

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well that didn't work

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yeah it's OK you

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just have to keep going

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and you have to keep sharing those moments too

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because that's really

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how you're actually building your business

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that you're making yourself a better leader

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by being more vulnerable yeah

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and I think uh

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along the lines of being a better leader

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and being vulnerable comes with also being aligned

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and feeling aligned with what you're doing

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and so

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I know that many women entrepreneurs specifically

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struggle with being visible

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without that burnout and how

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how how do you help those women embrace the visibility

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in a way that makes them feel aligned

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and a sustainable way to continue moving forward

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I think one of the Miss Con

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misperceptions about visibility really

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is that you have to be everywhere all the time

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and you have to look a certain way

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and your your visibility really only shines through

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if you first figure out what makes you unique

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so the what

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and then

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how you can share that

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and that doesn't mean that you have to be

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necessarily on a stage

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if you don't like public speaking

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then don't do that it could be a podcast right

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or it could be you're writing a book

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and it could even be a journey

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you might start with a book

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and become more comfortable in sharing that on podcast

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and then

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become more comfortable in getting on the stage

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but I think that sometimes

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the burnout comes from the fact that you think

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oh now I write a book

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and I have to do all these things yeah

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actually when I prepared for my Ted talk

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the best advice that I really gave myself

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was that

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there could be a day when my practice was amazing

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and I thought I had it all memorized

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and then the next day I presented

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and it was really not great

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the best advice I gave myself is

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you just have to give yourself Grace

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right and

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and that is something that

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with visibility is so true

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because you're putting yourself out there

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you're becoming

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more comfortable with being uncomfortable

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because it's this new territory

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this new country of visibility

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and everybody looks at you and I think that is real

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really what

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like sometimes needs to burn out that you think oh

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it's just like

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the perfect journey and everything will be great

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it's it's actually really just not no

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yeah you know

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two points I'm thinking about as we're

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as I'm listening to you is

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is what I always talk about with visibility

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is it starts internally right

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you have to be okay with being visible

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and you have to understand your why

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and why you want to be visible

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and then once you understand and feel comfortable

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and get clarity and that confidence

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inside you then

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that's when you can tackle that external visibility

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and then it's also you know

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um finding ways to put yourself out there

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that are going to make a big impact

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while also be aligned with what you wanna do

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and so it's just like you think about all these things

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right external

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internal uh

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highlight highlight reels right

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like you look at other people and their visibility

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and you think oh

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my gosh they've got it all together

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but behind the scenes they may be falling apart or

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or they it's taken them 10 years to get the

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to this point

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and so you can't measure yourself up against somebody

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somebody's now where you are

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you know you have to meet yourself

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where you're at and like you said

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have Grace give yourself Grace

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because you you will get there

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it's just you're on your own time

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yeah and then at the end of the day

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I love that you brought up the why so even

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let's say you are speaking on a stage right

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so I just spoke to on the

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on the Ted stage right

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to an audience a live audience

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you always have to think the reason why you are there

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is to share something that's really vulnerable to you

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yeah and you have to be okay with that

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yeah I knew from the get go that I might cry on stage

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which actually didn't

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but I thought there's a chance I might

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because it's very personal to me

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so the message really has to be your mess

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and you have to be clear with the fact that

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the reason why you're becoming more visible

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is to help others period

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that's it it's

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it's not necessarily oh

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I want to do this to make money

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that's that's just the outcome

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if you're doing a great job

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you will make money with it

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but the main message is

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that you look at the people in the audience

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and you are there to serve them

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to share something that will help them

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because it helped you and so you're becoming the

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the megaphone of your message by being on these stages

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and I think that sometimes it's disregarded

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it's like oh

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I should talk about that because I know a lot about it

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well

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but I mean

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why do we care right

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and and so it's like huh

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yeah I could talk a lot about different things

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because I know a lot about it

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but really what makes people listen is when you

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when you share like

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a moment that was really the aha moment for you

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because in the way that you will talk about

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it will be the aha moment for the others

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because you're gonna be way more passionate

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than just describing the marketing mix

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or how to run a podcast it's like OK

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get that you know

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yeah when you lead with your heart

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the impact is so much greater

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true yeah

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so so let's

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so you talked about a little bit about the

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the Ted X talk like

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what inspired you to do that

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because I know a lot of times

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I mean that seems to be a Pinnacle of visibility

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and a opportunity for huge visibility

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was that something that was on your kind of roadmap

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or did it fall into your lap

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tell us a little bit about how that came to be

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yeah actually

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I've just researched this yesterday

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so it just happened a couple of days ago

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I gave my talk right

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and yesterday I sat down

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because I want to write a book now

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the runway to the red dot

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and when you give a Ted talk

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you stand on this rug that's red

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and people call it the red dot

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just like FYI

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if you're like what is she talking about

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that's basically it right and

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I always wanted to do that

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but for some reason

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I was actually afraid to verbalize that

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so for me

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it was kind of funny because I felt that I was

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I had it in my in the back of my mind

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but I nearly felt like once I share that

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that people are going to be like yeah right

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because the chances of being accepted are so slim

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and then of course

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people like you already have your job

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why you wanna do this I mean

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you are already a professor

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so what's the deal right

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and I think that frequently when we have dreams

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you have to tell others about it

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because otherwise it will not ever become something

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that will become part of your journey

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because by sharing it by saying it out loud

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you are actually making it real

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and it forces you to make it real

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because you're using words to describe it

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I think for me it was always there

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that I wanted to be on a stage

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and wanted to be a keynote speaker

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and what better stage than Ted

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but I just didn't really verbalize it

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and I have to say

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I probably started thinking more about it

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during the pandemic

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just because I was doing more video creation

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I realized I guess I could be a one to many speakers

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because the video could be shared

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and then when I went back to the classroom

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I was back with my normal group of 40 to 50 students

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at the university I thought

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there is an opportunity here to really share something

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in my message one too many

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that I should really consider

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and then it kind of started living in my mind

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and it finally then at the beginning of this year

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so just like eight months ago

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I really became super active in preparing for it

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and applying for it mm hmm

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and did you always know what you wanted to talk about

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great great question

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I think there is a journey there

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and again in

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in my book I'm going to describe this

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but it ha it's a little bit harder if you

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if you need to try on certain topics and see what fits

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it's like going yeah okay

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let me give you an example

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you're going to a thrift store

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and you're kind of browsing right

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and so you go over to the shoes

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and you go over to the bag

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and you look at jackets and like

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you could probably find a gem

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but you don't even know why you walked in

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and somebody will ask you

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can I help you and you're like oh

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I'm just browsing it will take a while

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maybe until you find something

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but you might find something amazing

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I think it's the same thing with a

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a TikTok or keynote

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if you already know what really changed your life

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or what is a message

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that you want to share with an audience

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the whole preparation will be totally different

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so for me um

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I started my trademark for my petite practice this

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small steps big impact

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in January

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and that's the same time when I started my Ted journey

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so I knew I wanted to talk about that

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because

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that's really what helped thousands of other people

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that's what I use in my personal life

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so there is that vulnerability story there

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there's you know

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there are testimonials there

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there is you know

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a case study there

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and so it just all kind of made sense to use that

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I just had to figure out how to package it up

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and so I was far more focused than like

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oh I wanna give a Ted talk

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I don't know what I'm gonna talk about

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but let's just do that I think that is great too

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but then again it's a little bit more

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you have to browse

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and you have to see what works and what fits

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and what feels good and and

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and let me make sure this is really

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really clear

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every stage of Ted has their own theme

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so it's not like you are

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yeah the quality matters

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it's just that the topic matters

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does it fit what they are looking for

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so it's not really they don't like you or your talk

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they just at that particular moment

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weren't looking for that right

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it's again

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it's just like going into a thrift store

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you might find something amazing

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but you're like

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I don't know when I'm going to wear that

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and so do I really buy it

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maybe not today it's exactly the same thing

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and I think you just need to be aware about that

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I mean I seriously

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I was on the stage

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there were people there with me

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that applied to 290 other stages

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some people have been trying

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this for 15 years and so what helps is to maybe

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in your mind become a little bit clear

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is that the best time

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do I need to work more on my visibility now

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do I have all the pieces in place

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and I think that's really what matters so much

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in a visibility journey and kind of like figuring out

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who am I why do I want to do this

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and what do I care about

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yeah do you feel like your

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your visibility and success prior to applying

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helped you secure that speaking opportunity

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is that really like

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the difference maker in your application

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versus

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the hundreds of others that came across their desk

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well what

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what ultimately changed their mind to accept me

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we will never know hahaha

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that one I don't know

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it was my my second application and it was accepted

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so um

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I don't I don't know that right

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but what I do know but sometimes it's just timing right

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it's it's divine timing

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you just never know

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they were looking for a certain conversation or topic

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and that's what you know your application spoke to them

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and you had this burning desire to share this story

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that matched what they were looking for

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it's everything happens for a reason

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we talk about this so much completely

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but it's truly truly

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and I think what helped me

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was that I was really intentional

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so again

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petite practice are small steps that lead to big impact

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and I was really intentional

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I was basically looking at a river

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that I wanted to cross a Ted being on the other side

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and I was really intentional and putting all

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the steps in place that get me to the other side

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and sometimes it was small steps

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and sometimes

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I thought I was actually slipping off my little rock

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into the water and I was like oh

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I don't know if this is going to work out or not

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um and that's okay too

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you'd I

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but I knew I wanted to get to the other side

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and so I talked about it a lot

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and I also felt that everything else leading up to it

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was um

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making it a little bit closer

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so I I

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I wrote my three books about it

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I have my podcast about it

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and I used the small steps

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big impact in each of those visibility elements

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right so I have my audio

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my podcast

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I have my print my books

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and then of course

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I have my life coaching in the classroom

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and so I used the same principle all over the place

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and it became something that was becoming so unique

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in terms of my brand that I felt that

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that really what set me apart that I

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that

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I had this whole system of visibility already set up

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and I think that helped a lot

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yeah so you talked a little bit about like

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what's next after you've reached this

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what I call visibility Pinnacle

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yeah right

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you talked a little bit about writing another book

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but what else do you see you know

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now that you've you've reached this level

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I mean obviously

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the sky's the limit for you and for anyone

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but what's on your radar for that next level

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in your visibility journey

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in your business journey in your personal journey

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yeah

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so the first thing I thought when I met everybody there

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the community was amazing

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I would love to give another TikTok

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because it was just such an amazing experience

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to be there to meet these other change makers

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these other ideators that come to this stage

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and share what they are passionate about

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to really feel that

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is something that I would love to experience again

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and then of course

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I would love to keep sharing my message on keynotes

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so now I'm writing my keynote

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and I'm also thinking of course

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how can I benefit people the most

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is it doing life trainings

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to where they come to my beautiful corner of the world

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here in California

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and I share that with them in the classroom

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is it via zoom is it being um

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incorporate settings so that's really what next for me

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that I I now know what

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what message I want to share

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and I'm going to basically look at this is like

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I made this this beautiful little burger

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and now I just need to figure out what the buns are

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that I can package it up

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and make it in different places

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I always call it a tomato sauce right

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so I have a really good tomato sauce

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and I even like

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grew the tomatoes myself

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because I trademark the petite practice

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and now I'm just going to reuse that tomato sauce

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in different settings so

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you know last night we made spaghetti

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but today maybe lasagna

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maybe tomorrow it's going to be pizza

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and so I'm basically looking at it as like

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alright to have something really good here

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now I just need to figure out how to move on

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and use that and make it different

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um and again

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help others in service of others

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like how can I help others to get there

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which is why people kept asking like oh

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how do you get to the Ted stage

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and I was like well

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I documented everything in my calendar

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in my journal in my notepads

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and I certainly took some very

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unconventional ways of preparing for it

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so I can't wait to write all this down ha ha ha

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yes I meant the people were like

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sometimes like

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you did what and I'm like yep

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it's gonna go uh yeah

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I'm definitely in the book

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yeah yeah

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so it's a it's not like

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you know it was just like um

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Barbie slipping into her little heels

583

and stepping on the stage

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it wasn't quite like that

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not at all no yeah never

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that's amazing I can't wait to

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I can't wait to read that book

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so let's kind of wrap things up a little bit

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and I want to

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I want you to give some advice to the women listening

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who maybe feel invisible right now

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like what's one simple

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powerful step that they can take today

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to boost their presence their visibility

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their success or their confidence

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oh that's brilliant

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and that's exactly what I talked about in my

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in my TikTok right

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so I have this four part system that helps us

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and the first one is

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you have to simplify what your goal is

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I think the the overwhelm and the burnout

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frequently comes from looking at a goal

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and not even getting started

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because it seems so big so simplify

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break it down into little steps

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and then choose the one you wanna get started with

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and secondly

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honestly when my Ted talk will become live

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of course you will share it

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but I think the second step

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is nearly the most important one

613

which is you have to tell somebody

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so if you're listening right now and you're like

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well I have this thing in the back of my mind simplify

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and then you have to tell others what that thing is

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right whether that's writing a book

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being on a podcast starting a podcast

619

giving a keynote

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starting a workshop in your

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in your city I mean

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who knows what that is

623

you have to tell others because then it becomes real

624

and then you have to also

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and that's the third step examine

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you have to look a little bit on

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on your past month or even week

628

and figure out what worked and toss what doesn't work

629

and do more of what worked

630

that's really the recipe

631

you don't want to just keep looking forward

632

just actually reflect back

633

and then lastly that's the most important thing

634

is praising your progress

635

frequently

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we are so hard on ourselves and where we are like

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well so here she is

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you know like

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she's speaking at Ted

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and I don't even know how to get started

641

and things like that um

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and again I I said

643

you know

644

this is obviously like an eight month journey for me

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but there were other people

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it took them 15 years so the

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the progress doesn't necessarily mean

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there's a prescription for a time that works

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I think it's just step by step

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so every day doing something on

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it is really what the magic is

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so if you're listening to this and you're like

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well I always wanted to do X y Z

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then look at that four step system

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you know the simplifying

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the telling the examining

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and the praising progress

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and try it out and I guarantee you will see results

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I guarantee you will see results

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it doesn't even have to be an hour

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just 15 minutes on each of those tasks

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and I know things will happen for you

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I love that oh

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it has been so amazing to have you on the podcast

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sharing your story talking to you

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learning from you just hearing your journey

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has not only impacted me

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but I know it will impact our listeners

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and so I just want to say thank you for

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for being a guest and having you here today

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um how can people get in touch with you

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follow you to see that Ted talk

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um where can they learn more about you

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check out my website it's doctor with now

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so it's d O C t o r and then my first name Christiana

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uh so that's C H R I s t I N E

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and that's my my main page

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where I'm going to also of course

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post the Ted talk and the books are available there

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you can look on Instagram

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Doctor Dot Christiana and of course

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my YouTube channel similar name

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Doctor Christiana is where I'm going to share

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some clips and everything of it

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and then my books on Amazon

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I'm working now on getting them out to more publishers

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I'm going to speak

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we get a big writers conference

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so they are curious about my publishing journey as well

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and again it's a little bit less conventional than

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maybe what other authors are doing

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and I'm also going to share that in my upcoming book

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but I think that if you have a question

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just email me that's the simplest thing

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I check my email box very um methodically

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um I am a professor

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so I need to make sure that I answer questions

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that's my full time job right

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it's info at doctor Christiana dot com

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and I would love to hear from you and help you

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amazing once again

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thank you so much for taking the time

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thank you for being here

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and I appreciate having you as a guest thank you