Hi Lovelies.

Thank for joining me again today for the 10th episode of the show and I thought I'd use that marker to share a bit of what I've learned so far on this amazing, fun journey.

Leading up to the launch of the show, during the development of it in late November and early December, I very explicitly gave myself permission to not know what the show would be exactly.  I declared to myself that I would stick to some general principles and beyond that I would let it reveal itself to me.  Just as Michaelangelo wrote that sculpting was the act of knowing that the block of marble contains with it an image, a statue and that the job of artist was to reveal it, to chip away at it until it was unveiled…so that's how I decided I would approach the podcast.

And just as Michelangelo insisted that this revealing could only happen with contemplation, with consideration by the rational mind, my process requires taking stock.  Just as the sculptor stands back and ponders their work… Maybe with a slight sideways tilted head, examining the evolving project, that block of stone through slightly squinted eyes searching for what works, what's showing up, what parts still need to be chiseled away, my next-level learning requires reflection, seeing what resonates, what there is to improve on, to change, to add.

So, that's what I'm doing this week.  We're going to look at themes, revisit them and do a fast review of some of the topics that keep on showing up…that are basically telling me, “hey lisa this is what the show is about, these are the themes that are important. Pay attention.”

But then I'll also look at the opportunities for growth and new directions and considerations that are calling out for attention.

But first, I'm going to review for myself, and for you…the general principles which guide me, which I believe you too can define for that project you're working on. Get clear on the foundational structures, or first principles which you can consider as you move forward and which you can reflect back at any point in time and make sure you're on track.

Here are the 3 Foundational Principles I use as my guidelines for everything related to the podcast.  The essential rules I follow are:

1) That I be continuously learning: that I consistently be deepening my knowledge or teaching what I've learned, or both because learning and teaching are flip sides of the same coin and the most effective way of really deepening a knowledge base is to help someone who is a few steps behind you.

2) That I show up fully with my own Super Powers fully activated in order to contribute, inspire and support you in doing the same.  That I practice what I want for you…which is to not hold ourselves back….to know and celebrate and use our strengths, our special skills to serve to world in some way that's meaning to you. So in my case, my Super Power is in effortlessly and joyfully make connections…connections between ideas and people and reveling in the synergy, the 1 plus 1 equaling 10 that comes when the right kind of connections are made.

3) That I stay true to myself…that even as my desire and my goal is to serve you, to contribute to you, that ultimately I do so by scratching my own itch.  That means doing the show, featuring the guests exploring the topics that I'm interested in, that I want to learn, that I am fascinated by.  Following my own interest and trusting that doing so will support and nurture and interest you too.

Ok, there you have the First Principles which I use as a guide for producing and editing the show.  As long as I'm learning, expressing my Super Powers and being true to my own vision, the rest is open for discovery. And then I trust that the show will reveal itself to me.  Now, am I always successful at trusting.  No.  No I am not.  Sometimes I wonder if I'm talking to crickets here and sometimes I feel discouraged and the human insecurity that worries about being interesting enough or saying the right thing, in the right way, that checks my iTune download numbers too often instead of what I know is the thing to do and that is to just keep on showing up, every week, and remembering that my job and to keep on going back to those first principles and just surrendering the rest of it, letting the results evolve over time.

Let's move on to what has worked…because I'm jumping ahead a bit.

It has been a blast.  It is so fun.  I am loving this journey and am learning so much.  I'm learning about social media and Facebook pixel and Facebook live and how to use Twitter better not to mention audio editing… and uh, you know what I'm learning about that's really interesting?  I'm learning about the power of words.  I am doing a lot of editing right now…a lot! And that's because I want to really value your time and I want to make sure that if I'm asking you to listen to 20 or 30 or 40 minutes of a show that i am getting to the meat as soon as possible so as a result I'm doing a lot of cutting of empty words, both words that I have used and words that my guests have used like um, and uh and repetitive sentences and phrases and words like “sort of” and “like”.  So what I've learned is that we disempower ourselves by using empty words and meaningless words and filler words that end up being energy and content leaks.  I knew this before because I've taught Public Speaking for a long time but I'm getting it in a whole new way while listening closely over and over again as I edit while trying to cut every interview from 50 or 60 minutes down to 30 or 40.  So that's been a huge learning and a great opportunity for growth.

I have made incredible new connections with people and an amazing new network.  There's a whole world of podcasters out there who are working together to help each other to grow their audience and to support each others growth and being guests on each other's shows.  I've already been on Meg Brunson's FamilyPreneur Podcast and Jesse Kahat's Pearls From My Mom which will be aired soon and I'll be recording two more interviews for other shows this week.  So far I only know my podcasting community from the Facebook groups and classes and from these various interviews, I'm pretty jazzed about the fact that I'll put many faces to names at Social Media Marketing World later this month.

So what are the themes?!  It's clear that it can be difficult to know what our Super Powers because the very nature of a Super Power is that it comes so easily to us we might not even notice it.  Like Tiago Forte said in Episode #7 a Super Power is “the thing that you do that to you feels effortless and natural and fun, that to everyone else looks like you're walking up a vertical wall”.  So luckily, synergistically one of my Super Powers is laser vision and the ability to see the strengths, beauty and gifts in others…so one way or another we get to those Super Powers.  But it is definitely to know that if you don't know what your Super Power is yet, or you think you don't have one…it's probably right under your nose…and you're probably using it every day in every area of life.  It's probably that skill set that has shown up over and over in again in all stages of your life.

Here's another learning, I've seen is how desperately our culture needs more feminine leadership in all of it's incarnations…and that in order to make that happen as fully as it needs to…And by this I do not mean leadership by women only we got to be vigilant at supporting each other and encouraging and nurturing the qualities of feminine power wherever it is showing up in women or being modeled by men. The best leadership is leadership that honors collaboration and inclusion, communication, community and connection.  So, while I don't want the show to miss out on the amazing men I know who we can learn from too, I am going and will continue to go the extra distance to make sure women's voices are amplified big-time. Historically and systemically we have not fully stood up and spoken up.  I want us to change that because it's important and because it's time.

Another pattern I see is that so many of the amazing people I know and most of my guests are extraordinarily multi-dimensional.  Christine Marie Mason in episode 1 is the epitome of this.  If you remember Christine is a visionary entrepreneur with businesses in a wide range of fields, she an artist, an author and singer, an amazing mother and step-mother, a yogi who does service work in prison reform and is now in development on a retreat center in Hawaii.  It's my belief that multi-potentiality is a Super Power and that in spite of the fact that we live in a culture that professes a kind of romantic notion that we should all find our one true passion in reality, while specialization is great for some, my tribe tends to either be Supertaskers and synergizers or multipotentialites.  We'll be exploring more on this topic and you can expect to see more polymaths featured.  In case you don't know that term a polymath is someone who is highly knowledgable and learned in a wide range of topic areas.

The themes of self-awareness including tactical approaches to self-reflection like Yoga and meditation, and journaling and showed up again and again in my conversations.  Marli Williams in episode 3 talked about the whisper of intuition and a few different ways to get in touch with it.  Three of my guests that I know of Christine, Susan Washington from Episode 2 and Melissa Monte in episode #8 are all serious practitioners of yoga.

We have themes of order and organization and the reminder that developing systems is a creative act, not a dry and boring necessity as was illustrated in my conversation with Tiago Forte in Episode #7 which is a great episode to listen to if you'd like to hear more about Tiago's approach to creating a second brain or strategically dealing with the information flow we all face and especially his three-part approach to it which involves Capturing, Organizing and Sharing.

It's also at the heart of the year planning structures I reviewed in Episodes 4 and 5 which incidentally could be used or revisited at any time of the year.  And again in Episode #8 Melissa Monte goes into detail about the process of using Deliberate Practice for learning new skills.  Personally, I've been applying that in my dance practice and I've found that insight to be compelling and useful.  So, if you have physical practice that involved learning and challenge and you haven't listened to that episode consider going back to it and starting to applying  There is also a great article about Deliberate Practice on Wikopedia which I'll link to in the show notes explaining the core findings of Anders Ericsson research on the Deliberate Practice, specifically the degree of expertise we can develop at any given skill depends more on how we practice it than on much we repeat it and that an expert breaks the skills down into small chunks and focuses on improving them ideally with immediate feedback.  Ok, I'm going off on that one a bit because I love it so much.  There are some great book recommendations on the topic which I'll also include in the show notes.  Books like Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else (affliate) by Geoff Colvin^[5] and Outliers: The Story of Success (affiliate) by Malcolm Gladwell.^[8]

Taking action…came up over and over again as did avoiding perfection.  Good is good enough and perfection is a ruse. Do it even if it's imperfect or small.  Tiago talks about making incremental improvement over the long term can have massive impact and points out that actionable goals are of the utmost importance.  And many of my friends suggested doing something, anything as quickly as possible as the antidote to Facing Hiccups in Episode #6 when I had to create a show at the very last minute and my community came together to offer suggestions that could be applied to anyone confronting a challenge.  Taking action is important for creating momentum, getting feedback and being able to iterate or change what you're doing and how you're doing it.  Last week's episode with Sophia FitzMedrud who is a 14-year old deep into modeling taking action.  In spite of being only 14 years old Sophia has already published one book and written a number of others and is an active advocate for Ocean conservation how participates in lobbying and education.  That episode is not even a week old as of now and has already been inspirational to many listeners.  So, yes, act, create, apply, do, make.  Even if in small steps if we can all replace a bit of consumption with a bit of action we'll be making a real contribution.

The other theme that came up in the Facing Hiccups episode and again in others too is the idea that facing adversity often makes us bigger and better.  That we grow from it.  Just keep going…

Also, friends help.  We need a tribe.

Danielle LaPorte's Desire Map was mentioned in 2 of 3 different shows by Marli, Tiago and in my year planning show.  And of course goal-setting shows up again and again, too.  But that well could be because I'm such a lover of goals.

That's just a few of the many themes showing up in the first 10 shows.  There are more but I really don't want to turn this into a two show…you're welcome.

I mentioned that I'm doing a lot of editing and I told you the reason why…I want to distill the essential meaning and content as much as possible and in some ways I think that is useful and it's the kind of show I like to listen to.  However, there's inherent tension between controlled content that comes from editing that's distilled and refined and the authenticity and naturalness that comes from a more rough unedited approach.  I'm walking that line and I'll be exploring where to sweet is.  Stay tuned.

Related is the concept of showing oneself and the power of being authentic which can be quite vulnerable.

And this a growth area for me, an edge.  There is room for me to keep on growing and nurturing my courage to be real and authentic and true.  That requires making yourself vulnerable and luckily Brene Brown has made vulnerability hugely popular.  Her Ted talk, The Power of Vulnerability has over 33 million views has radically altered our collective acceptance of being vulnerable so I know I'm not alone.   But I'm speaking it into existence here and now because one thing I've found in my life is that when I feel something I don't like…embarrassment, shame, disappointment, depression, sadness…the faster and the more fully I can shine a light on it, the quicker it morphs into the next thing…the fast it dissipates or transforms.  Also, the more I'm willing to courageously show myself fully, including my weakness or the part of me that is delicate, raw the less possible it is for me to numb out and avoid it.  But it does take courage because I, like you perhaps, want nothing more than to hide when things are tough or when I feel bad.

So, this something else I have learned and which I'll be deepening it.  My guests are supremely committed to growing and changing and most have had huge transformational experiences in their lives, which I'm going to hazard a guess is true for most of us.  And sometimes those experience, whether we originally wanted them to show up in our lives or not, often take us to know our next stage, chapter or act.  And that is a topic I want to delve deeper into.  It's become clear to me that we need to talk more about life stages and transitions.  Transitions are a huge experience that is of interest to many people in my community.  Some are women who have kids poised to leave the nest and some are in a quarter life transformation stage but for the most part they're looking to take their wisdom and their experience and to make more meaning as they head out into the world in possibly a new way, or in a new role.

So does that mean we need to completely reveal every single inner thought, pain and limiting belief as it shows up?  No!  And it also doesn't mean that you have to get on a podcast or blog your inner demons or deepest thoughts.  We all have our own style and own capacity for living out loud, sharing and being transparent or public.  But for each of us, I think we need to find a way to be vulnerable.  Whether we're building a business or a brand, nurturing kids, a family or a relationship or in the middle of a big life transition, vulnerability is a part of the deal so use it. Sink in.

In the coming weeks you can look forward to a conversation with Kacy Qua who talks about her experience with X-Prize and the power competitions, Ankit Shah the founder of Tea with Strangers. We talk about random acts of kindness and asking powerful questions, Christine Peterson of Foresight Institute who is women in science impacting public understanding of nan0technology and longevity, and KC Baker of WomanSpeak who is brilliant at helping Women share their message with the world…and so many more.  Please do subscribe to the show on iTunes and if you can, leave us a review. If you don't know how there's information in the shownotes at the link “Review a Podcast“.  And if there's anything in this or other episode you think a friend or family member would appreciate people send it to them so we reach and contribute to more amazing Super Power People.

I've heard here and there that it's too late to do a podcast, that the market is saturated but truly I believe we've barely scratched the surface of reaching listeners.  There are still very few people who actually listen to podcasts but I believe that number is going to grow quickly.  I'll make a little video in the next few weeks to help explain how exactly to go about listening to podcasts and how to subscribe and review…because seriously there is so many amazing stories out here in podsphere and so many amazing people telling their stories, having deep conversations and building communities.  In the meantime there's a very cute video from Ira Glass featuring his 85 year old friend, Mary who appreciates podcasts as much as I do.   She says “Try it.  It's wonderful. It's a whole new world.  I love it.  I do.  I truly do.”  It's so incredibly dear.  I'll link to that little video in the show notes.

I really, really want to know what you are thinking about.  What's challenging you?  What could help?  What topics are of interest and who do you know who has an interesting story to tell.  I know life is busy and taking time out to tell me how I can do better is a lot to ask.

So, I thought I'd add a little fun and gamify my ask.  By next week you can look for a survey and everyone who takes a minute to give me input will be entered in to win a prize.  I'll be giving away two Super Power U Tank tops and one $50 Amazon gift card.  So please stay tuned and let's go for win-win-win.  You tell me what you think, I'll learn to serve you better and maybe you get one of these special gifts to celebrate.

Return to: EPISODE #10 SHOW NOTES