I'm back to having guests after two solo episodes! In this week's episode, multipassionate Renaissance Woman, Marika Luneau joined in the fun.

Marika is a fellow solopreneur dedicated to supporting purpose-drive professionals. Like me, she hosts LinkedIn Sprints and is a community builder. Our conversation ranged across numerous topics including LinkedIn strategy (focused on authenticity and community building), the importance of finding our people, neurospicy tendencies amongst Renaissance People, finding the right balance when telling your story and so much more. Speaking of stories, Marika shared a number for her life that even many of her friends and frequent collaborators don't know! So sit back, grab a drink of your choice, and enjoy the show!

Promised Show Notes Materials (take a drink):

1. Sign up for updates on my podcast and what's happening in the Renaissance People Community and find our latest activities on my website.
2. Jenni Gritters: Website, LinkedIn, Instagram
3. Research on ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder) diagnosis differences between girls and boys
4. Research on the overlap between diagnosis of PMDD (premenstrual dysmorphic disorder) and ADHD
5. Sandy (Sandra) Bean: LinkedIn
6. Jamie Cox: Website
7. Andrea Reeves: Website
8. Alex Alcon: Website
9. Maggie Blackburn: Website
10. Jamie Hamre: LinkedIn
11. Michelle Obama says 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' is the worst question you can ask a kid Business Insider article
12. Patrick Meaney’s LinkedIn post about shaping your career like a bramble
13. Marika’s website
14. Videos of Marika performing basketball tricks as a child: spinning a basketball in a show at 1-year-old, doing tricks at 6, spinning 5 balls simultaneously, and dribbling 3 basketballs in a show at 7

Follow Marika on Social Media:

LinkedIn | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube

A few things Marika and I discuss:

1:52 Finding your people

2:53 Jenni Gritters Lovefest

6:28 Repressed women’s voices in STEM and business

10:17 Perfectionism vs good enough

13:35 Repelling people who aren’t right for you

15:38 Fear of visibility while craving community

17:04 LinkedIn strategy

22:14 Secret Life of Marika pt 1 and 2 (end-of-life doula and wedding venue owner)

23:53 Focused messaging using umbrella terms

27:34 Uniting business and non-profit people

28:29 Venn diagram lovefest

30:38 Toxic bureaucratic slowdowns

33:46 Neurospicy tendencies in Renaissance People (and how ChatGPT helped Marika realize she had ADHD)

39:09 Resources for women and non-binary Renaissance People who are entrepreneurs

42:17 Small talk struggles as Renaissance Women

43:17 Embracing our many iterations

48:04 Improv Game

50:00 Rapidish Fire Questions, Secret Life of Marika pt 3 (basketball trick performer)

Quotes from the episode:

Honestly, I think in community with other Renaissance, multi-passionate people, one of the biggest things I've learned about having this personality type and this type of brain is we cannot take advice from people who don't have this type of brain. We cannot take advice from people who are like in the traditional mold, one path, niche down, value prop…all of those really strict guardrails that come with traditional business practices...not good advice for us. (Marika)

(Marika interacting with Chat GPT) I was like, just randomly, do you think I have ADHD or even autism? Like could I be on the spectrum? Just so randomly said it. And it was like, “You might wanna sit down for this…” No joke. That was the line. (Marika)

You've got a saucy ChatGPT there! (Sara)

Yes. She reflects me. She reflects my voice. So she is very sassy and girly for sure. (Marika)

I never wanna be like, 'No Marika, focus. Don't make an archetypes quiz right now. You have bigger fish to fry.' It's like, no, make the types quiz if it feeds your soul. Because your soul is what generates all of this work to begin with. As soon as we lose our buzz and our spark and our motivation, the whole thing kind of fizzles out. (Marika)

It's so funny. Because I'm talking about all these things that I'm like, don't tell anyone you're doing this. But that's what I'm doing! I'll give an example. Like full transparency... (Marika)

This is the space for it, though. (Sara)

Exactly! (Marika)

We're all Renaissance nerds here! (Sara)

Sometimes I've misread the room and I think we're about to go so deep. I'm like, “Yeah, let's talk about…death! Let's talk about the experience of it. What was the most beautiful death you ever witnessed?” And everyone's like, “Uh... uh... What do you do for a living?” (Marika)

“I just came here for the wine and free hors d'oeuvres...” (Sara)

Yeah, I don't know. But again, I think with this type of brain we don't necessarily have an off switch. (Marika)

Follow me on LinkedIn, where I put most of my social media energy and Facebook.

If you're extra curious, check out Renaissance Woman Consulting to learn more about some of the many types of work I do.

And should you care to support the production of this podcast, I'd love it if you'd buy me an oat milk cappuccino, the caffeinated beverage of my choice.

This podcast is hosted and edited by Sara Kobilka.

Theme music is by Brian Skellenger

Podcast distribution support provided by K.O. Myers of Particular Media

It's just been like accepting that that's part of me and no longer feeling ashamed of it. If anything, feeling proud of it. Feeling like, hey, that's actually really cool that I'm that creative and that I have this many ideas and that I have the ability to pursue them all. Like that's honestly magical.

I am excited for today's show. You're gonna be listening to me and Marika Luneau talking for about an hour. But I wanna tell you, this baby took a lot of work to come into reality. It was a beast to edit! I had all sorts of issues with echoes. And in fact, I recorded the entire thing, hearing an echo of my own voice. Not Marika's, just mine, in my ear.

So if I sound a little bit strange at times or if there's a little mechanical quality to my voice, that's the reason why. But it's here, it exists and we're calling it good enough says the recovering perfectionist.

I wanna throw a couple other things out there. Um, one, there's an acronym that we use that I realized we did not define. That is PMDD. That stands for premenstrual dysphoric disorder. And there's a link to information about that in the show notes. Take a drink. We'll explain that later.

And I also wanna tell you that a bubbler is a drinking fountain. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, go back. Listen to episode 3, my interview with Melissa Vining, and you'll find out. Ahh, what a tease!

But lemme tell you a little bit about today's show. This includes a lovefest about multiple things, including Jenni Gritters and her now closed SUSTAIN program. And Venn diagrams, who doesn't love a good Venn diagram? We're all walking Venn diagrams as Renaissance People, anyways.

We connected the dots with women in STEM and business. And we talked about why bureaucracy bothers us so much. We talked about the neurospicy tendencies in Renaissance People. We discussed LinkedIn strategy and using focused messaging with umbrella terms.

And the importance of finding your people. And if you are looking for your people, hey, they're part of the Renaissance Community. So I encourage you to sign up for updates on this podcast as well as everything going on in the Renaissance People Community.

And you can do that by going to ren woman consulting dot com, that's Ren with one N. And you'll find all sorts of upcoming opportunities to engage with others.

Let's get this thing started. Here we go.

So, I wanna start right off, Marika, with my opening question that I'm asking everyone. So, which term aligns best with your own personal identity? Renaissance Person, maybe Renaissance man... Renaissance woman, versatilist, Jack-, Jill-, Jay-of-all-trades, boundary spanner, or maybe something else.

[00:04:05] Sara Kobilka: Oh, thank you so much. Well, can you tell folks a little bit, you know, what your multiple passions are? What are some of your areas of expertise? Where would you say that you're a known quantity?

[00:04:53] Sara Kobilka: I love those anti niche messages, because I don't like getting stuck in a category and it's so fun to be around people who are feeling that same sort of way. So, Marika, where have you personally thrived as a Renaissance Person? Or where do you see other Renaissance People thriving?

We cannot take advice from people who are like in the traditional mold, one path, niche down, value prop, all of those really strict guardrails that come with traditional business practices... not good advice for us. And I actually went to business school for college, like I majored in entrepreneurship, and I still feel like I'm unlearning some of those things. Some of those very strict guidelines that just don't nourish my soul, you know?

[00:06:15] Marika Luneau: Yeah, I met Jenni at this coworking space that I used to work at in Oregon. We were both at the same coworking space. And she at the time doing these little tiny free 30 minute business model audits and I was like, yeah, I'll do that just for fun. I'm always just taking people up on things and you know, putting myself out there, chatting with people all the time. So of course I see a free offering, I'm doing it, I'm booking it. And I can't explain it in any way other than magic. Watching her take my very vague business idea and actually draw it in a sketchbook like from top to bottom, within 30 minutes. I was like, oh, this is happening. This is fully happening.

And I took advantage of so many of her free resources before I joined. All of her materials of just her Substack, her podcast, all that stuff is so great. I love how soft she is. I love how much she leans into emotional intelligence in the business world. And when I met her, I had only been out of school for a year or two. So again, I was very much coming from this perspective of business is your... what's that framework everyone uses? Oh, um, the like, strength, weaknesses, competition, opportunity. Those frameworks that they use, it's so rigid. And so when I saw Jenni's, you know, kind of anti that, I was like, yeah, I'm all about it.

And I think some of my philosophy on the Renaissance mindset actually came from some of the things that she's been talking about all these years in, like you said, her podcast, her free trainings. I took advantage of all those things as well and it really influenced me a lot.

[00:09:50] Sara Kobilka: I do end up tagging her a lot on social media because I, another thing I believe in is giving other people credit for their ideas. I do a lot of work in women in STEM and one problem that tends to come up, and I know I've heard this is also an issue in business broadly, is that a woman may bring up an idea in a meeting and then it gets kind of ignored.

And then like later on, a man might bring up the same idea and everybody's like, oh, that's such a great idea! And the woman doesn't actually get credit for being the first one to bring that idea up. Did you see that at all in your classes or in your experience with entrepreneurship?

So all of those themes definitely came up. Specifically my last year, I had some really tough moments where I was like, wow, business itself was not, it's still not in a place where it feels good and nourishing to be a woman in business. And so I had like six months post-grad where I was like, I don't even know if I wanna be in the business world at all, because it's just so tiring to deal with this stuff.

And then eventually I came around. But there was definitely a while there where I was feeling so discouraged and I was like, I can't do it. I'm, I'm not the one, I'm not the strongest soldier, you know?

And it's so interesting to see the similarities and do what the title of my show is, which is Connecting the Dots, and seeing those conversations happening in entrepreneurship, and business broadly, with what's happening for women who are operating in STEM spaces as engineers, as technologists, mathematicians, that sort of thing.

Are there any conversations that you're hearing beyond what we hear in SUSTAIN

with Jenni and others in that group, that give you hope and that could be passed on to women in STEM fields?

Like we're putting up memes, we're talking about our emotions. We're being so fully ourselves and feminine and creative and expressive and beautiful. And I love that so much. I actually had, this is like something that no one ever should have felt comfortable saying to me. But I actually had a man basically make a comment about how there are like too many women on LinkedIn and how it's hard for him to navigate.

[00:13:26] Marika Luneau: I was like, good! I'm actually so glad...

[00:13:30] Marika Luneau: ....you feel I'm so glad...

[00:13:35] Marika Luneau: Yes! I'm like, that's a good sign actually. That's awesome!

[00:13:47] Marika Luneau: 10 post visibility challenge. Yeah. I couldn't think of a catchy name for it. So I was like, you know what, we're just gonna make it a descriptive title here.

[00:14:11] Marika Luneau: Yes! I love that. I mean, I think so many people get caught up on the name. I was actually just talking, I hosted a workshop on community building last week. And I was telling them, I was like, number one, you guys, if you wanna build a community, the number one thing I ask is don't get caught up in the name.

Because if someone came to me and said, Marika, there's a local group for female creative solopreneurs and it's all about nourishing each other and building relationships, and we meet up every Tuesday, I'd be like, oh, OK. I'm so in. What's the name of it? And if they said. Oh, it's named Mayonnaise. I'd be like, OK, I'm in! Like a little odd, but I don't care.

And so it was like literally, it could be named mayonnaise. The group could be named mayonnaise. But if it's something that I want and the like, the value is there, it doesn't matter. And I think so many people get caught up in the Canva graphics and the naming and all these little details that don't actually really matter, you know.

And a friend was like, why? Why is that the thing stopping you? But yet it, it does stop us. Why does that stop us? Why do we feel like either that perfectionist need or that societal expectation? Like, where's that coming from?

[00:16:27] Sara Kobilka: Yeah.

[00:16:57] Sara Kobilka: Yep, that's a great idea from the world of startups that others could take and, and really utilize.

And I think one thing that Jamie Cox, who's another person who's leading the SUSTAIN group, she talked about last month in the branding month. That your profile, your about section should actually actively turn off people who are not the right people for you.

Like let's give them the heads up ahead of time. I'm not your person. Go ahead and exit now instead of wasting your time.

And there was someone else in the sprint who was like, I'm gonna play devil's advocate here. Like, what if someone doesn't agree with that?

And I was like, this was like session one, by the way, so why we were like just getting into this idea that, you know, if someone doesn't disagree with that, they're not going to light this woman up to work with.

And I was saying, I'm like, you know what? The more bold statement pieces you have like that, the less draining discovery calls you're gonna get on. You're only gonna get on calls with people who absolutely light you up, you know?

[00:18:40] Marika Luneau: Right!

[00:18:42] Marika Luneau: Right. So let's not advocate for the devil.

Well, can you tell me about another space or time where you find yourself connecting dots for other people and maybe bringing ideas from one space into a different space?

Versus LinkedIn is like specifically LinkedIn strategy. I'm specifically talking to solopreneurs. So again, with the Renaissance piece, those are two very different areas, but I do see so much overlap because a lot of the blocks are the same and a lot of the things that we're craving are the same.

Like on both sides, everyone's craving community. And so, you can like connect those dots to be like, whether it's in-person, community or community on LinkedIn, whatever it is.

And then there's also this huge fear of visibility across both environments. Like no matter the industry, no matter the sector, no matter the context, a lot of people are really scared to be seen. But then they're also craving community. So it's like a little bit of a oxymoron.

[00:20:25] Marika Luneau: Exactly.

And I try to help them understand that... I like to describe the algorithm on LinkedIn as like an old dog. And you gotta train the dog. And so based on what you engage with and who you talk to and what you talk about, that kind of dictates what LinkedIn is gonna show you.

And so if you don't want to just see the bros talking about like the seven-figure business they're building and the hustle they're doing, you engage with people who are talking about other things. And you have genuine conversations. And I know I do what you also do, which is, you respond to all the comments that you get on your LinkedIn posts authentically and have a like a two-way conversation with those people.

But it is easy to think that LinkedIn is a very evil, cold, corporate place when that's what's being shown to you. But if you just hit not interested, unfollow not interested, unfollow, nobody has to know. But slowly, over time, your feed will become beautiful because mine has become actually addictive.

It's like Twitter or Instagram, like there's so much fun and humorous stuff on there that I'm like, I actually am to the point where I need to monitor my screen time on LinkedIn. Which is so funny because it used to be like a challenge to even get myself to open the app, and now I'm like, I can't close it.

And then of course knowing that because of the way that it works, it's best to go and kind of like warm up the platform a little bit and start engaging with other posts before you make a post.

But then you get so engaged with everything that you don't get to making your post and you like run out of time. And you're like, oops, I was supposed to be doing something else. But I was having such an enjoyable time actually interacting with other people.

I do career coaching for folks and I love being able to show job openings or job listings. And I get those all the time in my feed and I'm able to reshare all the time.

And I know a lot of people are like, I don't see any jobs being listed, but I'm seeing them come up a lot in my feed and I'm not necessarily looking for myself. Certainly not for full-time positions, just kind of freelance and projects. But it feels so good to be able to see these things and share them. And then tell people there are things out there and you can connect, directly in some cases, with the people who are listing those positions. And find your opportunities through... I know networking, that four letter word. I just think of it as building community. Like by building community you can get a better chance at getting a job in a really hard market.

Like you can use it how you just said, literally spreading hope, spreading the information that people need to hear. Or you can use it to make people feel bad about not making as much money as you do. You know, like there, one of my friends, Sam Hinman was speaking to my sprint the other day. And she's like, yeah, there's people on LinkedIn who were like, I made $1 million last month and you could too if you weren't such an idiot.

And I thought that was such a funny line.

[00:24:31] Marika Luneau: Like you could too if you weren't such an idiot. And it's true. It's like you could use LinkedIn to just talk about how amazing you are and how everyone else is doing everything wrong. Or you can use it like you just said, to like actually build community and make people feel good. Like I always try to come back to how do I want people to feel when they see my profile? I don't want them to feel like they're not doing enough or like they're falling behind. I want them to feel like supported and like they can actually be themselves and they can be, you know, yeah, authentic on LinkedIn and not have to hide any part of themselves is really kind of the vibe I'm going for.

Well, I wanna get back to the idea of being a multipotentialite and being interested, as both of us are, in a lot of things. So, when you're being authentically yourself, either in person or on the platform, and you want to describe yourself and how multifaceted your background is, how do you do that without overwhelming people?

Like I don't need to talk about the fact that, well, I'm talking about it right now. But, like for example, I got my certification in end-of-life doula training. And it's like I am not really doing that work. I would do that work, I'll probably return to that throughout my life. But it has absolutely zip, nothing, zero, to do with what I'm doing right now other than maybe like basic empathy skills and communication and that kind of stuff.

Like sure there's some transference, but it's not really worth mentioning this entire journey about how like I had this beautiful death experience with my grandpa. And then I ended up doing it. Like it's just not, it's kind of a distraction.

And then same thing with like how I've very first got into entrepreneurship was actually through turning my backyard into a quote unquote wedding venue, like a super intimate little thing. And it was like such a, like, the way that I marketed, it was like quirky little outdoor venue, and it was literally just like my backyard. And that was like my first ever entrepreneurial venture. I never, ever, ever talk about that.

Maybe one day I will if it comes up, but I just don't think it's super saying. Like, no, I never, I never did death doula stuff. I, I never opened a wedding venue. Like I, I'll own that stuff if it comes up, but I just like, don't really bring it up on a day-to-day basis because think it adds more confusion than clarity.

Instead, I was like, hi, I'm Sara Kobilka and I've been a reporter and a meteorologist, and I work nonprofit and I've worked in higher education. I do science communication. And then it just goes on and on. And people are like looking at their watch and they're like, is she done introducing herself yet?

And so that ability to focus, I think is one of the struggles that we as Renaissance People have, and we have to find that language, like multi-passionate, to explain to people that we are multidimensional.

But like you said, we're not giving them everything. We're not actively withholding and hiding things. But we are just acting with intention and sharing the right amount of detail about ourselves.

Or if people are like, how do you use LinkedIn as an event planner or someone who owns a venue? I'm like, “Hey, again, never mentioned this before, but lemme tell you something”.

Um, but secondly, I think for me, a huge part of accepting that I'm built this way is actually creating, like you said, kind of these umbrella terms that allow me to explore.

Like Purpose-driven Professionals is an in-person meetup group. And under the framework of Purpose-driven Professionals, I feel like I can explore so much. Like I've kind of been wanting to do some pop-up coworking sessions in cafes. And I thought to myself, Ooh, should I start a series in a new meetup group, like Coworking in Cafes or... And then I'm realizing, oh, I can just throw that under Purpose-driven Professionals. If I wanna have a creator's meetup, I can throw that under Purpose-Drive Professionals. Like it's nice to have an umbrella brand that I accept that I'm gonna bring random things into instead of establishing a new brand every single time, which is kind of what I used to do.

So, I think accepting this reality about myself has made me build frameworks around it. Like I'm not going to have a super niche name. Even like my LinkedIn strategy business is technically named, I usually just use my name. But it's technically named Design Bend. And anything goes under the name Design Bend. But if I had specifically named it, LinkedIn Strategy Bend or something, then it's like, I'm fully limited to LinkedIn strategy, but under Design Bend I can talk about community building, I can talk about visibility, I can talk about all these things.

So, I think it's just like giving yourself room to expand and know that you're gonna have some random, crazy ideas pop into your head and how can you incorporate those in what you currently have without it being all over the place.

What originally drew you to the idea of purpose-driven people?

And so I noticed that there was kind of this gap. Because business professionals are going into these networking events and they're very transactional. A lot of times they're really masculine. And it's just, I always say like, Mr. Krabs, gimme money. Gimme money. Like that's what I picture with a lot of traditional business networking events. But as a business owner, you're kind of blocked from these nonprofit only events.

So it's like, OK, where am I welcome to bring my heart and soul? Like I don't wanna just toss out business cards and talk about the ROI of my services and be so Shark Tank businesslike.

But I also, again, am not necessarily welcome or fit into these nonprofit only meetups. So, I wanted something that was like in between, like it brings passionate people together on both sides, especially because there are passionate people on both sides. Like there are kind-hearted people in the business world and in the nonprofit world. And yeah, I just wanted to bring 'em all together.

[00:32:58] Marika Luneau: I cannot tell you how excited I am that you used the word Venn diagram because that is exactly the graphic that I use. I literally have a graphic up somewhere on my LinkedIn that's a Venn diagram showing Purpose-driven Professionals. And whenever I'm at these events explaining the concept to people like opening up the floor, I literally take my hands and illustrate a Venn diagram by doing like two circles with my hands.

So the fact that you said that without me even having to say it is beautiful.

[00:33:34] Marika Luneau: Love a good Venn diagram! I really do.

So this kind of gets into this next question that I have, which is, what do you do when you encounter boundaries? When you see like these barriers that are separating different things or separating you from what's next?

How do you address them?

No, I just wanna start now. Especially 'cause it's like, I feel like with our type of brains when we think of something, we're like, this is happening now. Not next week, not next month. Like we are starting now. It's actually, I just wrapped up the campaign like I thought of it two seconds ago and it's done. Like so...

[00:34:57] Marika Luneau: Yes. So, to have to like wait to hear approval from the board or from the city or whatever is like torture for me. And I always end up, um, leaving those environments and either starting my own thing or just being like, sorry, we're done. We're not, I'm not even dealing with it.

And I've worked in higher education in two universities since graduating. And again, it's that hierarchical structure that said, you have to go through this hoop and this hoop and this person has to sign off and then maybe like two months later it will actually happen. And that was one of the most frustrating things for me. I'm like, this is not how I operate. We have to move things forward faster. We're not keeping up with society. We're not keeping up with how things are moving forward.

And that's been a struggle I think for like higher education right now. When so many changes have happened in the last year. They're not catching up with it very quickly.

[00:36:56] Sara Kobilka: You missed your chance folks. Sorry.

[00:37:08] Sara Kobilka: Yeah. Some industries are much better at that than others.

I do have a question that comes up now from what you're talking about. So in the last episode, I was talking with someone who is a career coach and we were talking about neurodivergence and how so many Renaissance People would describe themselves as being neurospicy, at least. If not having an official diagnosis, do you tend to see that as well? And why do you think that happens?

[00:37:44] Sara Kobilka: Will she do it? Elephant in the room.

[00:38:10] Sara Kobilka: I have some gay friends who, when they came out it's like, yeah... I knew.

But hearing it from such a like, uh, I don't know, like, I don't wanna say grounded source 'cause that feels kind of crazy to say, but hearing it from such a, I guess, objective source maybe...

[00:38:48] Marika Luneau: For whatever reason, it was able to point out, like, here's what you've said to me over the past however many years we've had ChatGPT. Here are all the things you've said and all the phases that you've gone through that perfectly align with this.

And I was like. Ohhhhhhhhh, OK.

[00:39:07] Marika Luneau: So random. But I just so happen to have PMDD. And I read an article that said that there was a huge overlap between PMDD and ADHD. And I was solely just interested in the article and the facts. So I was like, tell me more about this.

And then it was explaining it and I was like, just randomly, do you think I have ADHD or even autism? Like could I be on the spectrum? Just so randomly like said it. And it was like, “You might wanna sit down for this.” No joke. That was the line.

[00:39:42] Marika Luneau: Yes. She reflects me. She reflects my voice. Um, so she is very sassy and girly for sure.

But it's seeing someone else diagnosed and then they're like, wait, but that person's like me. And it sounds kind of like a similar sort of experience for you.

And then there were a couple women. One was Jenni Gritters, and then the other was a woman named Sandy Bean, who you should definitely connect with if you haven't, she's awesome. Um But hearing from both of them, who I feel like I have a lot of similarities with, and both of them are women that I really look up to. And being like, oh, you are talking about this experience that you have. That means you have ADHD, and I also have that experience. Does that mean I maybe have this? That was what kind of first like opened my mind to it, I think. Um, but I, I really didn't have the full realization until genuinely ChatGPT was like, “Hey, listen,” but...

Well, I haven't said it yet, but, uh, everyone get ready to take your drink because we're gonna throw that in the show notes. I'll have you send me some links to some of your favorite things that you've read that kind of helped you understand and maybe begin to ask those questions of ChatGPT or reach out to a professional to kind of get a diagnosis.

So we'll throw it in the chat. Take a drink everybody.

[00:42:31] Sara Kobilka: I will put it in the show notes. Take a drink! There's a lot of great resources out there.

What are some of your other favorite resources for people who are entrepreneurs, in particular women or non-binary folks or Renaissance Men? 'cause they're part of our crew too. What are some good resources that you've come across for them as they're maybe rejecting the message of niching. Or rejecting the hyper-masculinity, hyper-competitive language of entrepreneurship?

[00:43:07] Sara Kobilka: Oh, thank you.

Um, there's gotta be some others that I'm forgetting and so sorry...

[00:43:47] Marika Luneau: Yes!

[00:43:57] Marika Luneau: I think Maggie Blackburn also...

[00:44:01] Marika Luneau: ...Also touched on multipassionate...

[00:44:03] Marika Luneau: ...Which is cool.

And you and I have both actually talked about this quite a bit on LinkedIn, which is that we have this epidemic of loneliness going on in our country and worldwide.

And while not everyone can gather in person or can gather in person as much as they might want to, there is that digital space, that virtual space where we can make at least a good enough community where we're actively supporting and encouraging each other.

[00:44:55] Sara Kobilka: yes!

[00:44:59] Sara Kobilka: That's who I was trying to think of.

So, SUSTAIN friends, we're gonna be throwing all of you in the show notes.

[00:45:27] Sara Kobilka: We are magnetically attracted to each other.

[00:45:31] Sara Kobilka: I think there's a lot to it.

I once gave a talk "Normal People Bore Me"...

[00:45:37] Sara Kobilka: ...and it's true!

[00:45:39] Sara Kobilka: Cause I can chat with them, I can do small talk, just not about weather. Uh, as a meteorologist, I don't do small talk about weather very well.

But give me a person who's lived in another country... who has been a doula...who is teaching workout classes... who loves to garden... who is a theater nerd... who also is a scientist... Like those are my people.

[00:46:25] Sara Kobilka: “I just came here for the wine and free hor d'oeuvres...”

[00:46:37] Sara Kobilka: Yeah.

[00:46:38] Sara Kobilka: It is true.

I thought that it reflected really badly on me and I was really embarrassed of it

[00:47:00] Marika Luneau: Really honestly, genuinely very embarrassed of all the different iterations and different pivots I've taken.

Especially because in the past, every time that I've taken a pivot, I've come out so confident with it. Like I've been like, this is me now. This is fully what I'm doing, and then six months later I'm doing something slightly different.

So again, it's just been like accepting that that's part of me and no longer feeling ashamed of it, if anything, feeling proud of it. Feeling like, hey, that's actually really cool that I'm that creative and that I have this many ideas and that I have the ability to pursue them all. Like that's honestly magical.

And also, knowing that I am the way that I am no longer coming out with this confidence of, I found the thing I'm gonna do for the rest of my life, because I probably will have never found one thing that I'm gonna do for the rest of my life. There will always be more iterations.

I'll throw the link in the show notes, take a drink, for an article where she just rips it apart because it's a singular. Kids are supposed to answer with like some sort of occupation.

And I am so big about saying to my own kids, like, what things are you gonna do? It's always plural. It's like what kinds of jobs are you gonna have? What kind of fun things do you wanna do when you grow up? Or as you're growing up.

And when my daughter says I'm gonna be a meteorologist, and a chemist, and a ballet dancer, and a care bear, and I'm like, you go girl! You're gonna be all those things!

[00:48:40] Sara Kobilka: Yep. And you can be many things at the same time.

[00:48:44] Sara Kobilka: You don't have to limit yourself. You have to focus. There's that really difficult balance that we have to play between having all those ideas, but focusing enough energy into a certain project at a certain time that it moves forward. But you can still have all those ideas in your head or in a notebook, in a sketch that Jenni has made out.

[00:49:06] Sara Kobilka: They can all exist.

For example, I'm, it's so funny 'cause I'm talking about all these things that I'm like, don't tell anyone you're doing this, but here's what I'm doing. But like, I that's what I'm doing.

I'll give an example. Like full transparency...

[00:49:30] Marika Luneau: Exactly!

[00:49:32] Marika Luneau: Exactly. So, like full transparency. I have, like, so many little free like lead gen 'cause it's so fun for me to create those free offers. Like freebies, lead gens, whatever. For whatever reason, I just, I, that's like my bread and butter. I love creating little free offerings.

[00:50:00] Marika Luneau: Yes, exactly. I could come up with like three hundred different little free offerings. Like that's one of my places that I'm very, I don't know, I just love doing that.

And so anyways, I recently made a LinkedIn archetypes quiz, and I haven't like shown it to anybody yet because I'm like, I have so many offerings out right now and so many freebies that like, there really just isn't space for this in my ecosystem right now. But eventually it'll probably come out even if it doesn't. I just had this urge in my soul to make a fun little archetypes quiz and I made it, and that fed my soul. Whether I tell anybody about it or not, I mean now I have, 'cause I'm saying it, but whether I ever like actually publish it and have people use it or not, I've still like, I've sent it to my friends just for fun. And like I can still let it nourish my soul and my creativity without having it distract from my business.

[00:50:58] Marika Luneau: Yes! Because I would love to see yours! It's genuinely so fun for me. And so not wanting to limit myself. Like I never wanna be like, no Marika focus. Don't make an archetypes quiz right now. You have bigger fish to fry.

It's like, no, make the types quiz if it feeds your soul, because your soul is what generates all of this work to begin with. Like as soon as we lose our buzz and our spark and our motivation, the whole thing kind of fizzles out. So, yeah...

[00:51:24] Improve Game

So, here's what we're doing for our game. It's a fill-in-the-blank game. You, and I'll go back and forth. So, I will go first with the example. You know, you're a Renaissance Person if, when someone says, tell me about yourself... give me your elevator pitch, you say, how tall is the building? Your turn.

[00:52:07] Sara Kobilka: Oh my goodness yes!

I actually have a giant stack of post-it notes where I was trying to make like a... representation of the bramble that is my career. And the term bramble comes from my friend, Renaissance Man, Patrick Meaney. I'll put in the show notes (Take a drink!) a link to his LinkedIn post on that. It took a lot of Post-it notes.

OK, here, I'll go again. You know, you're a Renaissance Person if, when you see a family member you haven't seen for a long time, they say, what are you doing now? I can't keep up with you.

[00:52:54] Sara Kobilka: Yep!

[00:52:57] Sara Kobilka: I stole it. Sorry!

[00:52:58] Sara Kobilka: We have two of the same mind.

[00:53:15] Sara Kobilka: Yep, that's happened. It's true. We're hard to handle and we're not gonna simplify ourselves for anybody too much.

[00:53:23] Sara Kobilka: OK. so here's our rapidish fire questions.

What is one metaphor you find yourself using frequently? And my example is, I use gardening as a metaphor for community building and networking all the time.

[00:54:16] Sara Kobilka: You know what? I will forward you some of the emails from my LinkedIn sprint. Because almost every one of them uses the analogy of a sprint and a marathon and how like your social media presence is either a sprint or a marathon. So I'm onto that with you!

[00:54:48] Sara Kobilka: You are my person, so it's all good! We'll post and then we'll tag each other and we'll be like, yes!! I like take pictures of my shoes while I'm running. 'cause I'm like, someday I'm gonna make another post using the metaphor of running for something. And now I have the picture for it.

And then afterwards I'm like, NEVER!

OK, here's another question. What's one rabbit hole that you've gone down recently? Great question! I have gone down a branding rabbit hole recently. I've been looking at branding and messaging and I've been looking at the people that I aspire to.

And I've recently, just yesterday, actually on a Sunday, which I was like, this is again such a wild thing to be doing on a Sunday, but I spent like four hours making a mood board of all these people that I aspire to be like and their branding and their photos and all that kind of stuff. And so that's something I've been really into recently is like branding and messaging specifically because I’m kind of wanting to elevate mine just a little bit, so it's something that I'm pretty obsessed with.

OK. Here's the final question, and you've already given us two juicy nuggets, so I hope you have more. What's another thing from your background that might surprise people?

And so I grew up doing that stuff and not many people know that, but I can dribble four basketballs at once. I can dribble while standing on a balance board. I can like do all these crazy basketball tricks and confidently perform them in front of hundreds of people.

[00:57:08] Marika Luneau: It's so true! I should use that more. See, this is another that it's just in the back of my mind. I never talk about it because I know it's not very relatable. Like I've never had someone say to me, oh, same.

[00:57:27] Marika Luneau: OK, I believe it.

[00:57:45] Marika Luneau: That was my mom's dream was to perform in Cirque de Soleil. They actually had like an application open up and I was like, mom, like they're accepting applications. And she was like, don't even say that. Like, don't get me excited. I don't wanna have my heart broken. Like, no, she just, and same thing with, um, America's Got Talent. There's just some crazy...

[00:58:05] Marika Luneau: Yeah, She was like almost made it on America's Got Talent year, after year. She made like a clip on there. But that was also like a tough one because it was like a huge dream. And then it was like always like just out of reach. Until eventually she was like, this is too like emotionally draining to, I don't know, go back and forth with.

But um, yeah, my parents actually, weirdly enough, my mom especially, 'cause that's like what my mom does to this day. And she doesn't really like to be associated with jugglers, believe it or not. I don't know what the beef is there. I have no idea. She gets offended when people categorize her as a juggler.

She's more so, actually uses the term motivational speaker 'cause she pairs motivational speaking with her basketball tricks. So I don't know. She does juggle though...

[00:58:55] Marika Luneau: That would be really cool, actually!

[00:59:01] Marika Luneau: Yes! Like TEDx. That is such a good point. That is such a good point. I don't know if we have TEDx in Vermont 'cause my mom lives in Vermont. But it's possible...

[00:59:14] Marika Luneau: Boston.

Well, thank you so much for joining me. This is super fun. And we'll keep chatting on places like LinkedIn. I know that's one of the big places for people to follow you. Is there any other way that they can connect with you or that you recommend them learning more about you?

[00:59:46] Sara Kobilka: Excellent. Well then I'll see you there and I wanna thank you again, especially, we had some tech problems at the beginning and you powered through.

[00:59:55] Sara Kobilka: So thank you so much for being with me and for being an amazing multipotentialite Renaissance Woman.

Like I also just do have to throw in that I'm so grateful that you're even doing this. I think that the world needs this and I'm so excited to see where this podcast goes. Um, because I just think that it can be so comforting, especially in my mind, I picture like younger girls who are maybe just realizing these things about themselves and feeling like weirdos and feeling like they're flaky or whatever. Like to be able to hear from people who are a little bit more seasoned or just have like come to terms with things. It's, I just think it's beautiful. I honestly would've loved to have heard this podcast like three years ago. I think it would've been a huge comfort, but now, it's like the best time to plant a tree was 10 years ago. The best next best time is today, or whatever. I'm just, I think it's awesome. So thank you.

[01:01:01] Marika Luneau: Alright, sounds good. Thank you so much. Bye.