Lesley Michaels was born to feminism. Her foundational ethos was shaped by her audacious paternal grandmother who was a 1st wave feminist and savvy businesswoman. She came of age just as 2nd wave feminism was becoming a significant American social movement. At age 16 she struck out on her own for NYC and the heart of the cultural transformation that was the zeitgeist of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.

She was later one of the first women to break through the glass ceiling in the “old boy” industry of oil and gas. Shortly after leaving the corporate world, she was infected by a latent entrepreneurial spirit. Over the following years Lesley developed and sold several small businesses. In each case her staff was a multicultural representation of women.

During this same period, she became a leader in the coaching industry. Lesley has mentored Fortune 500 C-Suite executives, individuals within the financially privileged sector, and celebrities.

Lesley’s body of unique life experiences have provided her with a first-hand understanding of the daily struggles faced by women of every race, culture, and sexual orientation. On the Shoulders of Mighty Women is a tribute to the power and grace of those who came before and the ones who will follow, the warriors and the fallen. This book is one more way Lesley chooses to amplify the voice, energy, experience-based understandings and compassion of women fighting for equality, diversity, equity and inclusion.

Lesley facilitates virtual programs on topics ranging from Be a Giraffe in a Field of Zebras to Developing Women’s Strategic Alliance. Lesley also hosts the weekly podcast; Women We Should Know, and will be delivering her TED talk early winter of 2023, Lift One With You, As You Rise.

HERE ARE 3 TIPS TO HELP YOU ON YOUR ROAD TO SELF-EMPOWERMENT

1. Realizing that things don’t always go to plan, make good use of those occasions. Always start with what went right, followed by when did you get off track and finally, what course correction can you make now?
2. Full mind breaks. 3 times a day, walk away from your desk/office for 10 minutes. Either close your eyes and focus on your breathing to clear your mind, or walk outside, away from anyone who would want to pull you into a work related conversation.
3. Calling all the way back to early training, women are taught to chase perfection. If you're not making mistakes, then you're not expressing any of your innate genius or creativity. Giving ourselves permission to make mistakes helps us still the critical mind.

CONNECT WITH LESLEY MICHAELS

• Website - lesleymichaels.com
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/lesleyamichaels/
• Twitter - https://twitter.com/LesleyismsWWSK
• Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100074337995634
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesleyamichaels/

Get Lesley’s Book On The Shoulders of Mighty Women: A Modern Feminist’s Guide to an Equitable, Diverse World here - https://amzn.to/3Oryys0

CONNECT WITH BEVERLY PRICE

• Website - www.herselfexpression.com
• Email - beverly@herselfexpression.com
• Facebook - www.facebook.com/HerSelfExpression/
• Instagram - www.instagram.com/her_self_expression/
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/beverly-price/

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If you'd like to move from self-loathing to self-love as Beverly did, stay tuned for today's episode that is Sure to help you take on the world. And now here's Beverly. Enjoy the show!

Most women struggle with their self-image and self-confidence. Her self-expression provides knowledge, support, and insight to help women on their life journey to self-empowerment on the inside and out. So they can confidently take on the world of opportunities. Today, I have these questions for you to consider.

Have you ever experienced the good old boys club or a viciously competitive group of professional women? Do you want to step out of those situations to own your own power? Well, my guest today is Lesley Michaels, who is going to talk with me about how to thrive when men have long had the secret handshake and the old boys club.

Conversely, she'll discuss how women victimize and alienate other women within the professional environment and how we can grow past this. She's witnessed groups of women who have set down the weight of patriarchal training to become truly aligned. These relationships stand as powerful support mechanisms for women to discover their best selves, strengthen their skills, hone their talents, and claim a posture of enhanced self-confidence.

She was later one of the first women to break through the glass ceiling in the old boy industry of oil and gas. Shortly after leaving the corporate world, she was infected by a latent entrepreneurial spirit, that catches many of us. Over the following years, Lesley developed and sold several small businesses in each case, her staff was a multicultural representation of women. During the same period, she became a leader in the coaching industry. Lesley has mentored Fortune 500 C-suite executives, individuals with the financially privileged sector and celebrity.

Her body of unique life experiences has provided her with a firsthand understanding of the daily struggles faced by women of every race, cultural, and sexual orientation on the shoulders of mighty women. Is her book attribute to the power and grace of those who came before and the ones who will follow the Warriors and the Fallen.

The book is one more way Lesley chooses to amplify the voice, energy, experience, space, understandings, and compassion of women fighting for equality, diversity, equity, and inclusion. I love it. Lesley facilitates virtual programs on topics ranging from Be a Giraffe in a Field of Zebras to developing women's strategic alliance.

This was obviously an audacious woman and she was the kind of woman that the most prominent bank president or bank owner at that time was her friend. The governmental people from mayors to governors were at her cocktail parties. Every woman around. Was coming to her for advice. Men were coming to her for business council and so it was a bit intimidating.

It could, on the surface look like, oh, you had the red carpet rolled out for you, but it was a little intimidating to have such a mighty presence. Yes. So I had to go ahead and find my own way and. I was quite fortunate to be on the younger end of the boomer generation, be a little hippy kid because that meant I was a little bit fearless myself.

So when the second wave of feminism broke out in New York, or and DC and around the world, but hubs were in New York and DC I did what hippy kids do. I stuck out my thumb and hitch height to New York, and that was the beginning of me figuring out. What my voice was and what I cared about, and I saw things there that inspired me and I saw things among women that appalled me and that set me on the path that continued right up to today where we are now.

Wow.

Two girls on the schoolyard in the elementary school get a fight. They're told they're bad girls. They are not told it is bad behavior. They're bad girls. Yes. Now all the girls around them are going to distance from them and they're going to start picking on them. Two little boys on the playground. Get in a fight and boys will, boy, boys, they're learning how to be men.

They have to be able to protect themselves. So from the time women set their feet on the ground, or females, we aren't women back then from that time forward, we are taught that we are small and that we are given limited space. I am absolutely committed to working with women. It's helping them to understand and inspiring them to take chances and to move forward in ways they haven't, because as we do this, as many, many of us do this and increasing numbers of us do this, women are going to cease to feel so alone. Women are going to cease to feel so outside of the mainstream, whether it's in work or in certain social situations or what have you. They're going to find a security base much like the men have with their secret handshake and their old boys network.

Way, way back in the beginning of my corporate career, I've experienced professional women competing and alienating and being nasty to other women. When you mentioned appalling, what's your personal experience

Now, I give those years because it gives a point of reference because there weren't a lot of us out there doing what I was doing at that time. And most people when I, they find out I was in that arena, in that era, ask, Oh, how bad was it with the men? Oh, Oh no, not at all. They dismissed me. I was like a fruit net.

Well, if they dismissed me, they were also getting out of my way. I was able to do what I needed to do, learn what I needed to do, learn and excel. And many of them I finally offered begrudging admiration for what I had accomplished. Right. But the women, the women, Nasty. They were mean. They were vicious.

They were actively and intentionally undermining whether it was the message that was not put on my desk that was said to have been put on my desk, whether it was. The diminishing words that were said right before I would go into a big presentation, there was this continual attempt to make me feel as small as I was capable of feeling.

And I will tell you, Beverly, there were days I felt pretty small, but I never stopped getting back up. And that's what counted. And ultimately I said, Hmm, this is not for me. And I left. Fell into entrepreneurialism.

Gotcha. Not getting at, just didn't feel like an option. And so I got back up probably a little bit of my grandmother's genes and influence. Yeah. Mm-hmm. .

I don't like working with women. I don't want to work with women. I think men are superior. And of course my response is good for you. Carry on.

I have found that this is the majority of the women I encounter. Oh, and then there's a small group of women like you who are out there helping women to connect. My approach is to just disregard the first group. If they don't want anything to do with women, that's fine. Go over there and do your own thing.

My focus is being in alignment with the women such as yourself who are already out there helping women to find that internal value and also, Working with and addressing the very large majority in the center who would be open to a strategic alliance, who would be open to a support network, but haven't found one where they feel valued.

Or haven't dared to engage in one because they were kicked through the fences at another time and they're afraid. But as we can speak to that majority of women, one at a time or three or five or 10 at a time, and empower them to understand that we are each other's power. Well, we can completely shift the paradigm around equity, equality, inclusion. Completely shift the paradigm of how women are being treated.

We could say the same about women. There are always going to be those absolutely patriarch-y women. So to me, the point is not wasting energy focusing on them, because then we beat ourselves before we ever get in the game. We look at this and we say, Oh, there's this impression for men. There's this impression for women.

I can't, No, no. There's this big group of women. And let me align with the ones of those that I inherently connect with. And then as we build more and more groups and those groups interact with each other, that's where true lasting sustainable change can come about and come about much more quickly than. What is predicted based on the patterns that we are using now.

They may have been, the seeds may have been planted by someone else, but you watered and fertilized the garden. So now let's move beyond that. And look at what is true, what have you, what you accomplished last year. How much did you accomplish last week? I like to invite women when I first start working with them to start to keep a log, a daily log of everything they do.

I don't care how small it is and, and I know they're not gonna write everything down, but I encourage them to anyway, every single thing they do. And then they had a one to five, Did you complete this well? Did you feel that you succeeded here? I get them to create something they can look at and say, No, wait a minute.

I'm doing pretty darn good here. We start there and then we can expand from that point.

Well everyone stay tuned. We'll be back in a moment when Lesley will share her three actionable tips to discovering yourself and becoming more successful. We'll be right back.

Hi, beautiful Beverly Price here.

If you want personalized guidance on your journey to confidence and empowerment. From someone who's been there and don't want to go it alone, then my signature coaching may be just right for you. With a confidential approach and one-on-one personal support that has helped hundreds of women will work together to move you forward.

Whether you are looking to deal with a major life change or an overall life over. Schedule a free discovery call with me today at her self-expression dot com to learn more and say yes to the ride of your lifetime. Now, let's get back to the show.

Well, we're back, Lesley. What three actionable steps would you give to our audience to discover themselves and be more successful?

Create a chart for yourself. Write down three things that you are repeatedly saying you're going to do for yourself, and you just never get around to it. Three things, okay? Then write down two things that are more significant that you've really wanted to get to, but it's going to be a little bit more time, a little bit more money.

Write those two down.

We all have big dreams. Most of them sit in the top of the closet and collect dust, which one, which you truly most like to fulfill, which is the one that in the last moment of your life, you're going to say, I am so glad I did that. Yeah, okay. You have your chart now. On the first one, these are things that you're wanting to regularly employ.

Every time you do this for yourself, put a little date. That's all you have to do is just put a little date. If you have a whiteboard that you can hang this in your closet, that's a great place to put it because you'll see it when you're getting dressed every day and when you're changing out of work clothes.

That's all right, but you're gonna value yourself enough to give yourself permission to start on those dates. So you got started.

Put little stars. Every time, whether it's a, Let's say you decide to take a class, you wrote a paper, actually got commended on this paper. So you're going to put some kind of little mark with a little tiny date to remind yourself of that success, and you're just going to keep going. Now, you haven't forgotten about the top one.

Just because you're focusing on the second row doesn't mean you're forgetting the top row. Now, the third row, that big dream, set a timeline. It doesn't matter if it's next week or if it's far more realistically. If it's a big dream, two or three years out, doesn't matter. Every time you look at your chart and have all of this on the same chart and you see that date.

Pause and notice it. That's the one that it's very easy to start glazing past and not paying any attention to. Just look at that date. It doesn't mean you have to do anything except know that that is true. No, you have given yourself permission to give yourself that. And over time what you will see occurring, and this is a a brain science truth, is suddenly you pick up some brochures, they sit on your desk for a month, but then you're going through them and you find yourself taking these microsteps, and here you are three years.

In Tuscany. Wow. Or wherever is you wanted to go or doing whatever it is you wanted to do. That's a really great beginning chart that I found works for every woman from every walk of life and in every circumstance.

I won't get into all the brain science of this, but it truly is essential that we give our brain a break three times a day and, and set a timer to remind you three times a day. Stand up walk way from your desk. Go outside. If it's appealing weather

not like my rainy day today, but walk outside . All you do is walk around your office building three or four times and breathe and to not think. About what's on your desk. This is why I invite people to go outside or to take in a different visual environment. The point is to give the brain a break. You're not pacing around saying, What am I going to do?

What am I going to do? You're smelling the air, you're looking at the fall leaves. You are whatever is in your environment, and when you sit down, exhale three times. Just let it all go and then start fresh. Gotcha. Don't approach it from, Okay, let me see if I can finish this. No, you're starting fresh. Even when it's with the same project, you'll find yourself being hugely more productive and far less exhausted and stressed as you develop this tradition and this habit.

When my alarm goes off, I hit snooze, but I only give myself permission to hit snooze once, one time, Noah, to be regimented with myself, but to value and respect myself that much so that. The reason that we are doing these things, the last thing that I encourage everyone to do for expanding their self awareness, for discovering their best self, for nurturing themselves is at least one time a week, reach out to someone.

New email. What have you. As you do this, there will be those you have one conversation with, and that's it for the rest of your life. There will be those who become. Friendly colleagues who share information, but you're going to encounter those individuals who you truly connect with, and you get to become part of each other's support system.

We do not actively build out our support. Probably after college. That's probably about the last time we really focus on building out the support system. It is absolutely essential, especially for women. Mm-hmm. , because to be able to have that support system where we can speak truths that are uncomfortable, where we can get our dirty little secrets out of the closet and then have somebody else at the table, some other woman say, Oh, me too.

Oh, me too. Everything you get out of your way brings you more deeply into yourself, and that's where our authenticity is. That's where our greatest strength and our greatest power is.

We're not going to be comfortable when we're sharing with our expanded network. You see each one of these feeds on each other, and if we don't take those brain breaks, we're not going to give ourselves permission to know we have the time that we have the energy. I actually stack these this way because each one supports the one before it.

And the one after it. And so they can come. Just one body of fluid movement after a period of time, a period of consistency.

So . Yeah. So we have to all remember

Yep. That is actually imprinted into our neurology at a very young age.

I would say it means being honest with myself and the more honest with myself that I am, the more honest I can be with another individual or with the world and the more honest with myself I am, the more I'm going to realize that. I'm pretty good. I'm pretty good. And that's important for all of us to realize, I think.

But I, I believe that would be it, the, that ability to be really present and candid with myself so that that becomes the, the foundation pretty much everything else.

Virtual classes, my coaching, my podcast, I have it all right there so that it's easy to. Just go to one spot.

I love connecting you with incredible women that can provide actionable steps for you to take on your journey. You can find our podcast through links at Apple, Spotify, and more. Please download and share it with your friends so we can help other women. I want to carry this message of empowerment to 100,000 women wherever they are.

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I'm here to help. Thank you and take care.

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