These days, we're always sliding into each other's DMs and sharing the highlights of our everyday lives. While technology brings us closer than ever in some ways, in a lot of ways it drives us further apart. As adults, we're not always put in situations that make is easy for us to make new friends. We aren't kicking balls around the neighbourhood and welcoming any and all kids who want to get in on the scrimmage. But we could be! There are ways to leverage online platforms to make new friends IRL. There are also ways to avoid falling out with old friends during life transitions. BUT(!) There are strategies to avoid drifting too far apart and keep those important friendships on track.
That's why we're working with Friendship Expert Miriam Kirmayer (Casual to Close) to tackle these issues in a hands on workshop. I got a sneak peek of the content last night and hoo-boy is it ever good. This is a totally new adventure for me and I hope you come check it out! Buy tickets here.
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Because the first one went so well. This time, we're talking to ladies who are experts in Public Relations and Marketing. I encourage anyone who wants to ring in the new year to attend this event. Not only will it be good for your career, but also for your self confidence, and for the size of your network. Expanding your social circle and making new friends who can bring you to new heights is never a bad idea.
This event is for you if: - You hate standing around mustering up the courage to introduce yourself at networking events (the speed dating formula makes meeting and connecting easy and smooth) - You want to break into marketing, branding, or public relations - You want to increase your connections and Meaningful relationships in the field - You want to make some new, awesome, friends. Early bird pricing is ON until Christmas so get em while they're hot. My business has taken a turn! What started as a podcast and what I thought might be a blog has turned (mostly in my imagination) into an IRL collective. I ran a Speed Mentoring event last week featuring 6 media mentors (women who work in the media- either broadcast journalism, production, or writing). It was, in my humble opinion, an awesome first event that really opened my eyes and helped me get clarity on what my business might look like, how it might take shape, and when it might become fully formed. We want real-life connection, we want to talk about the things that inspire us, that make us want to be better women, in business and at home. The girls at Female Department do this very well, but I think there is room for me, and for Imposter, Interrupted, in that space. First, I'm a hot mess. I'm learning and want to learn with like-minded women who want access to all of the things I never got (and I never got these things because I didn't seek them out, they were always available, but hard to find and not packaged in a way that spoke to me) The image of the hashtag girlboss is slick, put-together, intellectual but also charming and cool- not me. I am weird. I'm great at a party, I've dressed like a soccer mom since I was 14. I love watching reality TV and I do it often. I am offering a space, a co-op, a collective, a network of women like me. I could use help in all departments: fashion, financial, professional, health. I need mentors, I need workshops, I need opportunities and so I am going to create them, seek them out, and share them with you. As I look towards 2019, I am frickin excited.
A speed networking event called Meet Your Media Mentor!
The event is directed at those who want to break into the media space or who want to be represented in the media as experts in their field. The format is small groups of 4 to 6 mentees chatting with 1 mentor for 20 minutes, and then the buzzer rings and the group moves on to the next mentor, kind of like speed dating. There are 6 mentors: Sarah Deshaies, Morning producer at CJAD 800 AM Sophia Salador, Senior Associate Producer at Just for Laughs Jessica Rusnak, Sports Columnist at CBC Kimberley Sullivan, Weather Specialist at Global TV Montreal Karin Eldor, Senior Contributor at Forbes and Teen Vogue Nantali Indongo, Host (The Bridge) at CBC Come to increase your connections in the journalism field in Montreal, meet young professionals of various ages, get answers to your burning questions, and plain old make great connections! Tickets include one drink ticket and entry into a raffle. Space is limited so that we can keep it intime.
I'm baaaack.
Practice makes perfect, and I haven't been practicing so how can I expect to get better? I want to write, create content, and be the BEST version of myself. Like Danijo Otou says in the latest episode of the podcast confidence won't just be ordained on me while I'm lying on my couch. I have to crush my goals and DO the things I want to do. Greatness starts with action. So I have to write- often. September is always the start of something new. September means the start of a new school year, the start of a new season, and a chance to redefine ourselves and have something of a rebirth. I'm really hoping to harness this new fall energy and devote myself to writing, practicing my craft, and becoming hot (this is my goal for 2019- to be unapologetically hot). In other September news, here's an update on my May Cause Miracles program. I have loved this process, though I probably could have been more devoted to it. I stuck to the morning reflection and daily affirmations, but often skipped the nightly journalling in favour of Netflix (WATCH THE SINNER SEASON 1) and then completed each nightly exercise the following morning. Some of my fave affirmations:
And finally here is the first episode of this new season of the podcast! This episode features Danielle-Jocelyne Otou, the founder and co-owner of the Female Department, in addition to being a branding and marketing maven. She's known around the city of Montreal as a tastemaker, a great mom, and a seriously fashionable woman. The Female Department was "created for the dreamers, the innovators, the movers and the shakers. The department is a safe space - a collective - for like-minded women to gather and connect in the common belief that together, we're stronger." Can you say aligned values?! Check her out at @danii__jo www.femaledepartment.com/
This week is my fifth week pursuing this project. The project has many goals but one of the personal ones is to turn my crippling insecurity/ chronic overthinking into a journey of self-reflection and betterment. I listen to self-improvement podcasts and read books on the subject constantly, but this is really the first time I am putting philosophies into action. In the self-development world there are many, many different opinions and many opposing views. There’s Gary Vee, who advocates for scrapping a personal life and just working hard all of the time, his is a sleep-when-you’re-dead philosophy. There’s Arianna Huffington, whose Thrive philosophy puts an emphasis on self-care and sleep, in addition to hustling and working hard (according to Huffington, Thrive is not a laid-back place to work). Then, there are thinkers like Gabrielle Bernstein, who are a little more new-age, or as I prefer to call it, Woo-Woo. It’s more fun to say. Gabrielle Bernstein is relatable in that she looks and sounds like a friend. She makes very abstract, new-age concepts easily consumable. She’s like the Real Housewives version of Deepak Chopra. I love Real Housewives, and I love Gabby.
SO. I am reading (OK Ok I’m listening to it on Audible) her book May Cause Miracles: A 40-Day Guidebook of Subtle Shifts for Radical Change and Unlimited Happiness. A warning here: Gabby Bernstein is very woo-woo. There is a lot of talk of surrendering to the universe, trusting God, surrendering to love, choosing love- so if you are a super skeptic, this book is probably not for you. However, if you grew up with religion and religious ideas around you, you like yoga and meditation and believe in the power of energy and the universe- you will probably get a lot out of a book like this. Even the reminder just to soften your language (I will force myself to do xyz vs I will encourage myself to do xyz) can make a huge difference in mindset. Obviously, every day is a struggle, which is why it is great to work with a 40 -day guide where you check in every day and make positive thinking a habit. I am only on day two. Here are what the first two days of this practice have looked like:
My findings so far are pretty personal and I don’t want to share them on this platform (while they are personal, they’re not unique: Body image! Work! Romantic relationships!) but reach out to me if you’re curious. I’ll check back in with this plan, and feel free to join me- maybe you’ll experience a miracle! Episode 5 of Imposter, interrupted is also up today- I interview Annick Routhier Labadie, an entrepreneur who specializes in Diversity & Inclusion consultancy, developmental coaching, and facilitation. She’s an athlete who won a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford (nbd), worked in STEM and has created a great life for herself working in the service of others. Give it a listen!
Imposter, Interrupted has been alive for one month today! It has been so exciting to finally execute a plan I’ve been considering for months. So far, I’ve had the opportunity to meet and interview a bunch of amazing women, I’ve only had one episode not record due to technical difficulties, and I’ve received countless DMs and e-mails from friends, family, and superstar acquaintances expressing their support and encouragement for this project. I'm incredibly grateful for all of this support, it has touched my heart in ways I didn't know was possible- thank you!
As a Flashback Friday, let’s take a look back at my first podcast episode, Christie Taraborelli, whose story is both heartbreaking and awe-inspiring. She lived through a great tragedy and came out of it not unscathed, but motivated to make an important impact on the lives of thousands of Canadians. Women are having a moment. We’ve been having this moment for a long time. We’ve been Leaning In, we’ve been Girl Bossing, Girl Coding, and Leaving our Marks. The literature, podcasts, television shows and YouTube channels devoted to empowering women and creating community among them are piling up and up and up. They all have one goal in common, sometimes explicit, sometimes implicit. They are all seeking to redefine success to better suit women’s needs and desires. For us, success is not all about money and power. For more and more women, and men, success is about happiness. It is about feeling that the work we do every day is meaningful, that we are making impactful human connections every day, and that we’ve achieved a harmonious work-life balance. What this looks like is definitely different from person to person. Here are four new ways to define success from average young women to our idols. Which resonates the most with you? 1. “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” -Maya Angelou 2. “Having balance in life” – Alexandra Pakis, Social Media Specialist According to Alexandra, balance is really hard to achieve, and to achieve it you need to implement a consistent routine that works for you and is informed by your values. Achieving success is not easy, but to do it you have to do a complete audit of your value system and then be honest with yourself about what your values are and how the things and people in your life line up with those values. Also- achieving success means implementing boundaries. This is very hard, especially for Alexandra who comes from a huge Greek family where the word “Selfish” is wielded like a weapon. 3. “This is a great moment…to acknowledge that the current male-dominated model of success isn’t working for women, and it’s not working for men, either.”- Ariana Huffington Ariana Huffington argues that the current measures of success- money, power, and crushingly busy work schedules, are actually toxic. You end up paying the price for all of the “success” you achieve with overwork, exhaustion, and loneliness. Huffington believes in a third metric, beyond dollar bills and followers, that makes us happy, and so makes all of the hard work worth it. This third metric is based on well-being and health, wisdom, wonder, and giving. Ariana Huffington defines success as having the freedom to sleep eight hours each night, to having the wisdom to listen to our gut and follow our intuition when it comes to making important decisions. The third metric also includes having the strength to be giving of money, time, love and affection. Vulnerability = Success. Here are three examples she gives on how to achieve her definition of success: a. Get 30 minutes more sleep per night. Getting more sleep each night will help you wake up refreshed and ready to take on the day’s challenges. b. Create a device-free zone at bedtime. You probably sleep with your phone by your bed. Not good, says Huffington, and there’s science to back that up. When you wake up in the middle of night and look at the blue light, it takes longer to get back to sleep and the sleep you do get isn’t as refreshing. c. Do regular life audits. “How many projects do we start in our heads that we don’t do anything about?” she asked. “It’s very liberating to know you can complete a project by dropping it. Then it doesn’t clutter your inner drive anymore, and you can focus your energy elsewhere.” 4. “Success is subjective “– Samantha Rogers, Co-Founder, Relate Social Capital “For me success is if I can keep doing what I love to do and continually hit my goals, then I am successful. If I can go paddleboard in the afternoons and then work my butt off for the rest of the day- I feel that I am successful. I am scared that when people are seeing abstract and fake ideas of success plastered all over social media they just end up chasing their tail” It’s been three months since I decided to take charge of my life and pursue passions and projects that don’t provide instant gratification or pad my bank account. I’m trying to play the long game, giving consistency and grit a try. When I started this process, I went to see a therapist-slash-leadership coach who told me about a book called Mindset by psychologist and researcher Carol Dweck. The book explores how some people have growth mindsets and others have fixed mindsets. Those with fixed mindsets believe that things like intelligence and personality are pre-determined and unchanging, while those with growth mindsets believe that with hard work and resilience those things can be changed and improved upon. After the first three pages of this book, I knew which camp i fell into: fixed mindset. If I have to put effort into something, it must not be “for me”, and so I should move on to something else. This book resonated with me HARD.CORE. This podcast and blog have already challenged my mindset and my behaviour in ways that have made me feel deeply uncomfortable. The sound on the first podcasts is echoey and bad, my voice is meek and insecure compared to those of my guests, my equipment has failed, I’ve had a hard time making time to write and stick to my goals. But I’m persevering, doing the things I told myself I would do, being consistent. So now, after all of this hard work, I’m at the beginning. Follow me as I try to become the person I want to be, and please reach out to me if you want to embark on a similar journey, if you’re already on one, or if you’ve been on this road before and come out the other side, yourself 2.0. XO Sophie What is Agency and How Can I Get Some?Hi! Welcome to Imposter, Interrupted. This project is a collection of stories and an opportunity to share knowledge and spread compassion among professional women. This is a place where hard work, balance and community come together to interrupt insecurity and get us to where we aspire to be. My name is Sophie. I work in Alumni Relations at a notable Canadian University. I like my job, I love my colleagues. I’m lucky and I’m happy. I’m in my late twenties and have been in the workforce for about four years. Since I first made my debut as a full-time worker bee I’ve been going where life takes me, not really following any sort of preconceived path, not really taking the reigns. Luckily, life has taken me to a pretty good place. As I approach my thirties, though, I have been thinking more and more about ownership and agency and how to achieve those things. Agency can be defined as “the capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power”. When I look back on the short four years I have been working, I can certainly say that I have not acted. I have taken opportunities when they come my way, but have not sought any out. I have not taken ownership of my career, even though I am its owner! Not only do I own my career, I also own my body, my spiritual life, my love life, my family life- everything. I want- no, I need- to take ownership of all of these things, and I want everything I own to thrive. I know I am not alone, that we all want to exceed our own expectations and, for lack of a better phrase, become boss ladies. This project is about women shaking off imposter syndrome, taking ownership, and finding balance. They say you are who you surround yourself with. I want to meet you, to be surrounded by you, and to work with you to build a fierce future for women everywhere- at work and at home. |