In this episode of the Marli Williams Podcast, Marli Williams reflects on her recent birthday and shares a heartfelt solo episode. With wisdom gained over 41 years, she offers advice to her younger self that resonates with listeners of all ages. From lessons about patience and trusting the unfolding of life to discovering your true purpose and overcoming self-doubt, Marli dives deep into the personal struggles and triumphs that have shaped her as a leader, facilitator, and speaker. As she encourages listeners to embrace their mission and trust the greatness within, Marli's vulnerability and authenticity create a powerful connection with her audience. Tune in for a profound and inspiring pep talk that's both relatable and thought-provoking.

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Marli Williams is an international keynote speaker, master facilitator, and joy instigator who has worked with organizations such as Nike, United Way, Doordash, along with many colleges and schools across the United States. She first fell in love with transformational leadership as a camp counselor when she was 19 years old. After getting two degrees and 15 years of leadership training, Marli decided to give herself permission to be the “Professional Camp Counselor” she knew she was born to be. Now she helps incredible people and organizations stop waiting for permission and start taking bold action to be the leaders and changemakers they’ve always wanted to be through the power of play and cultivating joy everyday. She loves helping people go from stuck to STOKED and actually created her own deck of inspirational messages called StokeQuotes™ which was then followed by The Connect Deck™ to inspire more meaningful conversations. Her ultimate mission in the world is to help others say YES to themselves and their big crazy dreams (while having fun doing it!) To learn more about Marli’s work go to www.marliwilliams.com and follow her on Instagram @marliwilliams

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Hey, everybody. What is happening? Welcome back to the Marli Williams podcast where this week, I'm coming to you solo style. Yesterday was my birthday, and I thought it would be fun to take some time to do some reflection on what advice I would give to my younger self. So, today is a pep talk from my heart to your heart to my past self's heart. Feel free to listen, dive in, tune in, and I cannot wait to hear what advice landed for you. Alright, team. Let's do this.

Hey, everyone. What's happening? I am super stoked to welcome you to the Marli Williams podcast, where we will explore authentic leadership, transformational facilitation, and how to create epic experiences for your audiences every single time. I am your host, Marli Williams, bringing you thought provoking insights, expert interviews, and actionable strategies to unlock your potential as a leader, facilitator, and speaker. Thank you for joining me on this journey of growth, transformation, and impact. Let's Lead Together. The Marli Williams podcast begins now. Let's dive in.

Well, hey, everybody. What is happening? I would love to welcome you back to the Marli Williams podcast, where it's all about leading together, knowing that we are in this together, you are not alone. And I am just so honored to be alongside you and encouraging you, sharing with you, supporting you. And today is a solo episode that I am bringing to you. And yesterday was my birthday. I turned 41 years old, years young, whatever you want to call it. And what I thought I would do on this solo episode of the podcast today is to think about and reflect on some advice that I would give my younger self based on what I have learned over the past 41 years around the sun, being a human in this world, navigating the ups and downs, the challenges, being on the journey of becoming an entrepreneur, and really reflecting on thinking about what I would want to tell my younger self.

So, my hope is that even if you're older than me, if you're younger than me, if you're the same age as me, that this advice that I would give my younger self is probably advice that I would give myself today, right here, right now. Because even as someone who is the person who gives the pep talks, I also need my own pep talks. And when I give a pep talk, it's usually to myself. And I hope that when I'm sharing that, it also lands with you. Because I like to think of the personal is universal. The personal is universal. Meaning, like, when I share from my heart and my own personal challenges or struggles or my own journey, that that is when we can connect. That's when you can resonate with what I'm saying because I'm not just shouting at you from the rooftop saying, here's how to do the thing. I'm saying, I'm figuring it out every day, just like you are. And as we navigate our life, again, there's going to be amazing peak moments that are amazing and epic and magical and beautiful. And there's going to be moments where we are in the valley going through the dark night of the soul as we learn the lessons that we are here to learn.

And that's, I guess, the first piece of advice I would give my younger self is that I know that I remember being 20 years old and being in college and having all of these incredible mentors of mine that were just phenomenal facilitators and teachers and guides. And I was like, I just want to be there now. Like, I want to be that amazing right now. What advice I would give to myself back then is that there are lessons that I have to learn in order to become the type of leader that I wanted to be. Like, I wanted to be a mentor, wanted to help inspire, and motivate, and coach, and guide, and facilitate transformation. And I wasn't ready yet to do that in the way that I do it now, and that's okay. I think sometimes we want to be further along than we are in our process. And I think that be patient with yourself and trust the unfolding of your life.

Trust the people that you need to meet, you will meet. One of the biggest advices that I would tell my younger self is what is meant for you won't miss you. What is meant for you won't miss you. You can't mess it up. You can't get it wrong. And figuring out your path, finding your thing, whatever that thing is, is your thing. There's a quote in my box of stow quotes here that says, your work is to find your work. And then with all of your heart, give yourself to it. And I think for a long time, I'm asking this question of like, what's my thing? I just want to know what my thing is. Is it coaching? Is it speaking? Is it facilitating? Is it retreats? Is it big events? What is it? What is my thing? And, like, you know, all these business programs that I've signed up for and I've done, it's like, you know, what do you want to be known for, and what do people come to you for, and who's your niche, and who's your audience, and who do you serve, and how do you serve them, and what's the transformation that you create in people's lives? And I feel like that is still a hard question for me to answer. And there are so many days and so many moments where I get frustrated. I get discouraged. I get disappointed in myself that, like, I've been a full-time entrepreneur now for the past 8 years, and I'm like, I'm still asking these questions. I'm still trying to figure this out. Like, when will I get to a point where in my bones, in my being, in my body, like, no. Like, this is my thing.

And, you know, when I was 19 years old, some of you have heard this story before, but I went on a 50-day outward bound course. And on that course, I had a journal. And during that course, we had a 3-day solo where I was dropped off in the middle of the wilderness in Colorado to be by myself for 3 days. And asking myself some big questions. What's the meaning of life? What's my purpose? What's my thing, right? And I wrote my mission on this course and in my life is to help people realize their full potential. I think the advice that I would give my younger self, that 19-year-old who wrote that in a journal is how much can you trust that? How much can you lean into that mission? Own it, embody it, embrace it, be it, and stop being so freaking hard on yourself. Stop questioning yourself. Stop doubting yourself because you have magic and medicine that is meant to be shared, and you have a gift that is inside you, that is just waiting and ready to be unleashed into the world.

The advice that I would, again, give my past self, give my current self, give my future self is how much can you trust yourself? And can you trust that that mission and that calling to help people realize their full potential is enough. I'll come up with these taglines or these statements or even write that in my journal in this, like, kind of epic experience in the middle of the woods when I was 19, and then I'll question it. Is that really it? Is that my thing? Is that enough? Is there something more that I am meant for? And I think the advice is just to lean in, to trust the enoughness of that, to also know that your message and your mission will continue to evolve as you evolve. And the more that you lean in and cultivate this capacity to really trust yourself and feel worthy of success, feel worthy of the impact that you are here to make, and give yourself permission to, like, show up and play full out. And, again, I think it's just as long as you're in the arena doing your thing, whatever it is that you're doing in that moment is enough. And that's your thing at that time, at that moment. And you will learn, and you will grow, and you will figure it out. And coming back to that line that I love so much, what is meant for you will not miss you.

And as an Aries and a 7 and a fire starter and a, like, ENFP, I'm a make shit happen person. And there are so many times where I can force things to happen. And I can push through, and I can figure shit out. But can I trust the unfolding? Can I trust that as long as I am moving in the direction of my vision, of making a positive impact in the world, helping people realize their full potential. That doors will open where there once were walls. I will meet the right people at the right moment. The right opportunities will come at the right time. The experiences that I meant to have in this life are for my growth and evolution. And even the hardest moments are things that were unavoidable. As I look back, you know, at certain choices or decisions that I made, I'm like, how could I let myself do that? How could I let myself abandon myself or not believe in myself when I help people believe in themselves? That is my mission. That is what I do.

And yet, the medicine that we are meant to share is often the medicine that we need the most. Meaning, the reason I am here to help people realize their full potential, to help people believe in themselves, to help cultivate this sense of confidence from the inside out is because that is the medicine that I need. Oftentimes, the medicine we carry for others is the medicine that we need for ourselves. So, you know, as much as it's easy to give someone else a pep talk and cheer someone else on and believe in them and see the greatness inside of them. I think my ultimate calling or mission is to really see the greatness in me. And I know that, you know, some of you who are listening to this, you might be like, Marli, you seem like one of the most confident people I know. And yet, on a day-to-day basis, there is fear. There is self-doubt. There's second guessing. There's, I don't know what I'm doing with my life moments. And so, I think my advice is just like, can I be a better patient of my own medicine and keep doing the reps, keep taking the doses of all of the things that I help other people with? How can I open myself up to receive that even more? And so, as I think about the advice that I would give myself, you know, right now, as I look to the next 41 years of my life is, how much can you trust yourself? How much can you lean into the greatness inside of you? Trust the unfolding. Trust that the right experiences, moments, opportunities will come when they are meant to, and that all you need to do is keep moving forward. Keep saying yes. Keep showing up. Keep shining your light. And, like, how much brighter and bigger can it be? And to allow yourself, allow myself to be fully expressed in the world, to not hide, to not shrink, to not hold back, to not play small, to let go of having it all figured out, letting go of getting it right, and just be in the unfolding of this magical ride that we get to go on called life.

So, my hope today is that there was a golden nugget of advice for you as you navigate the ups and downs, the twists and turns that life will show us. And my invitation is how much can we learn and grow from each and every experience that we have, knowing that it is for our own evolution as we continue this journey of, I think, just coming back to ourselves and experiencing ourselves for the first time. So, with that, my friends, I am so, so grateful to get to be on this beautiful journey with you. Thank you for your love, your energy, your support. Thank you for believing in me. If this landed for you, if you thought of somebody who needed to hear this pep talk, feel free to share it with them. Rate, review, subscribe, all the things.

And a little plug here at the end, this is the 23rd episode of the Marli Williams podcast. And I haven't really made any plugs, any pitches as it were. So, couple asks. Number 1, if you are part of a team, a company, an organization, you have an event or conference coming up, I would love to connect with you and share what it would be like to partner and work together to help build meaningful connection and community in your workplaces, at your live events. I'm deeming myself a community building strategist. That is the new language that I'm using to really help nurture and build meaningful connections at high level events, organizations, and retreats. So, feel free. I'll put a link to book a time on my calendar. We can connect about that.

And the second is I have a retreat coming up in May in Bend, Oregon called The Retreat Retreat. So, if you have had the desire to lead and create your own transformational retreat, but you've let the logistics, the mindset, you've let something get in your way, I have designed an immersive training experience to help you go from just an idea of a retreat to creating it, designing it, and launching it out into the world, combined with facilitation training, where you're going to level up how you hold space for transformation. It's going to be magical. It's going to be powerful. I got 5 spots left for that. I will put a link in the show notes to where to sign up. And birthday special, birthday special, $500 off The Retreat Retreat if you are listening for the next week. I don't know what this is coming out on April 3rd. So, by April 10th, $500 off. Use the promo code birthday, because it was my birthday yesterday on April 2nd. April 2nd was my birthday. So, whenever you're listening to it, feel free to send me a happy birthday message because April is my birthday month. Aries in the house. So, if that speaks to you, awesome. Maybe you thought of someone who might be a good fit for hiring me as a speaker or coming to The Retreat Retreat, feel free to spread the love, my friends.

So that is my bold ask request for our podcast today. And I would love for you to reach out, share with me any golden nuggets that you got from our time together today, and I cannot wait to connect with you all so soon. Sending you all so much love. Until next time. Take care.

Thank you for joining us on another inspiring episode of the Marli Williams Podcast. We hope you’re leaving here with renewed energy, and valuable insights to fuel your leadership, coaching and speaking endeavors. I'd love to invite you to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast to help us reach more aspiring leaders and speakers like you. We have more exciting episodes and remarkable guests lined up, so make sure to tune in next time. Until then, keep leading with purpose, coaching with heart, and speaking with conviction. This is Marli Williams, signing off. See you next week.