Women on Purpose Thought Leadership Summit

0:05 There are some people that make their work just another thing they have to do, and there are those that make their work something that they want to do. Welcome to Working on Purpose with your host Elise Cortez. In our program, we provide guidance and inspiration from those people who have found deeper meaning and personal connection to their work life. It's beyond nine to five. It's working on Purpose. Now Here is your host, Elise Cortez. Welcome back to the Working on Purpose Show. Thanks for tuning in again this week. I'm your host, Elise Cortez, joining you live from Dallas, Texas, which is home based for me. If you've been tuning in for a while, then you know this program is all about helping people create more meaningful and productive personal and work lives and equipping leaders, insight organizations to cultivate meaning and purpose that elicits passion inspired contribution, innovation, and persevering performance. I talk with my guests, draw on their expertise, and share my own experience consulting, speaking and developing workforces across the globe. Every week. In these conversations, I hope you walk away with something you can immediately put to use in your life that you come alive with a possibility of living with passion, working on purpose, and are inspired to discover for yourself just how big and fulfilling your life, work and leadership can be. And if you do catch far from anything that you hear, reach out and tell me about it. You can email me at Elise Ediles Cortez dot com or just go to my website at least Cortez dot com and use the contact me feature to reach out to me.

1:27 Tell me when you reach out how I can help. Whether you want to join the distribution list to stay informed of these radio show topics, you want to see about joining a catch fire online inspiration, accountability or mastermind community, You want information on the purpose driven leadership programs for individuals or companies that are offered on site or via webcast, or you want to see about having me speak for your company or conference. In any event, I am glad we are connected, and thanks for listening. Now onto this week's program with us Today is Diane McClay. She is a personal empowerment coach for forward thinking, mid level professional women. She has a contributing author to the fourth volume of the book Dreaming Big, Being Bold Inspiring Stories from trailblazers, visionaries and change makers, and we're together, She and our working collaborator collaboratively on a Working on Purpose thought Leadership summit in Portland, Oregon in September of twenty nineteen.

2:16 We're so excited about that. We'll be talking about the importance of developing women as professionals and leaders, how forward thinking companies embrace that are investing in women to grow and elicit their contribution, and of course this summit we're working on together. Diane joins us today from an area outside of Portland, Oregon. Diane, welcome back to Working on Purpose at least my friend. Thank you for having me again. It is so exciting and awesome to be in collaboration with you and lighter fires for the world to see, and it is so amazing. And I want to tell our listeners a little bit. Well, let's just start there. You and I met last year sometime somehow. I think you found me first and asked me to be a guest on what you were working on there, and we had an interview about that, and then I had you on my show. That's how we began, and that's where we just discovered that we had some fantastic synergy and collaboration and that together we could create something bigger than we could by ourselves. And that's really really how the magic began. Yeah. Indeed, and as you say that, you know, literally my heart is racing. I feel like getting up and dancing right now, because I feel like when women as individuals find their purpose and they can live and work in their passion, they can be powerful in and of themselves. But as you and I have discussed offline and in some of our collaborative conversations, is that when we can combine those forces and we can actually help women rise up and occupy a much bigger space than what they could do on their own. And I'm so grateful that I have that opportunity

3:46 to do that with you. Yeah, And likewise, in fact, to that end, Diane, last Friday, I was the keynote speaker for the International Associations on Business Communicators here in Dallas, and what I was talking about my keynote was called charge Living with Passion, working on purpose, and Communicating with potency. But the whole idea was the notion of really the need to be able to get help and step into a space where you can cultivate that passion, that inspiration, that purpose that you do need. It helps to be around other people that are up to similar things and learning and growing from them to get into that space where you can really get access to that, and then when you do live and work from purpose, the difference it's a game changer, right. I Mean, there were women in the in the audience that I ask who in the audience knows you know your purpose? And a couple hands whenever I say what's it like? And they said, oh, my gosh, it's energizing. It gives me courage. It helps me make decisions are that I wouldn't normally make that are bigger and bolder than I normally would make. It's a great place to be well, it is, And I think as thought leaders in our own field and as collaborators with a synergy, I think they have a responsibility to other women in the world.

4:55 You know, I was looking at some statistics about our Congress. So I'm not typically a political person, but I've been struck by how prominent women in Congress and in the Senate this particular year alone have been and it's actually made me want to tune in and listen more and support women in high levels of leadership. And that's awesome in the political environment. It's also working well at a lot of layers in corporations. But we have a lot of women in the United States that can be effective leaders at their own position. They can lead from whatever space they're in. They don't have to be in corporate America, but they often don't feel like they have the voice, or they may not be effective, or they don't feel like they're heard the way they want to be. And I feel like you and I, working with purpose and the thought leadership suwhat that we'll be doing in September gives us an opportunity to lift those women up and let their voices be heard in a way that not only empowers them, but can trickle back into their organizations and agencies that they currently serve. I love what we're up to, Diane, and I too.

6:00 I'm very very excited about it. I'm very proud of it. I feel like this is an important contribution. It's something that's very necessary out there, and to that end, I think probably makes sense for our listeners who maybe don't know you. Would you just start a little bit about your background, Diane, help but help us understand what you did before you got into this space and how what you've learned from that part of your life and career has assisted you. Sure, thank you very much for that. You know. I have some really good fortune in my life where for half of my life, from almost all my career, I literally had the opportunity to work in the dream job that I wanted since I was a kid, and that was being working in the outdoor recreation field. And for nearly twenty two years I worked in a male dominated government agency. And that's not a bad thing.

6:46 I learned a lot from the men that I was working with, and I've learned a lot about how to lead. But I always felt like I had to adapt to kind of a masculine line of thinking. I know we're going to get into this later in the show. But to be able to step away from that when it no longer served me and to find a new fire, a new passion in coaching and writing and empowering other women to connect to themselves and to connect to nature and leverage choice in a way that serves them. I am so fortunate to have a second opportunity to step into a new purpose in the second half of my life. And I'm super excited about that and so applaud that right because there's so many people that I think do need and want to reinvent themselves to continue their journey to growth and empowerment and transformation and really realizing all they can be in this life. And to your point, I mean you work with empowerment as well. We need help with that. I mean, it doesn't usually happen all by itself. We need some kind of a catalyst to stimulus. And that's why I call myself a purpose an engagement catalyst. And in fact, just to share a bit about my background for our listeners that don't know, I've been in the human capital space for about twenty some years now. I started in recruiting and went through the ranks of employee learning and development, and then employee engagement, leadership development, organizational development, organizational transformation, and today everything that I do because of the work that I've done in my own research investigating meaning and work and identity and then hosting this show. What I've learned from all those four years is

8:18 really helping people to develop meaning and purpose in their lives and their work as leaders, as individual contributors, because I know the difference it makes. It's not only good for you know, how we show up in the world. It's good for our physical health, it's good for our relationships, it's good for our longivity. There's just a million ways to be able to come back to why this is a good idea. But so that brings us back then, Diane, In fact, let me see one more thing real quick about my background, just to go back and what you said about bringing up more leaders and helping even to develop some political leaders. Last June of twenty eighteen, one of my friends who I met in a leadership program that I was to thinking for myself. Her name is Kim Olsen. She was running for the Texas Agriculture Commissioner here in Texas, and she convened a group of eighty six women, all Democrats running for a seat and somewhere in the state of Texas. And she asked me, will you come and you know, m see the conference and then you give us also a session on the importance of you know, staying staying true to our purpose. And I did, And I'll tell you, Diane, being around that group of women and a room all up to something but also needing each other right, getting something from each other from the experience of being developed together as they pursued their individual race was an incredible experience. Well, and that's phenomenal. You know that you get to have that opportunity to be in front of those women, to support women that are looking for their own purpose, and then to have that reflected back

9:50 to you, that you that your work is actually meaningful to other people around you. And I think that leads to the point of what we're trying to do, is is that not only can women be thought leaders at whatever level they are in their corporation or their agency, or their family or their community, but there are some women out there who don't know what their purpose is or maybe it's gotten lost in translation, or they forgot or it's not defined. And what's really awesome about being in that type of a space is you get to hear other women's sense of purpose and their sense of meaning and it helps, I think when we integrate that into our own mindspace and heart space.

10:31 I think it also helps us get more clear about what we want to put into the world and what we want to take back out of the world. Oh. I think that was so beautifully articulated. I love that, and then saying one more thing about why this is important at least from my bandage point. Another thing that I really appreciate about what we're up to, Diane, is there are so many organizations that recognize, to our earlier point that the contribution of women as thought leaders, as influencers is so important and they make organizations better. There's a lot that a lot to be said about how women are recognized as more nurturing leaders that know how to raise employee engagement and connection, performance fulfillment. They're good at that, and so more and more organizations, at least the forward thinking ones are starting to really recognize and embrace, Hey, we need to develop women professionally as leaders as influencers as best we can because we need their contribution. And so a big reason for me that I think the work that we're doing is so important is to really start to address and serve that space in the world of really helping organizations to develop leaders like that. Whether they're to your point, thought leaders or influencers, they make a real difference inside organizations and they need to be developed exactly and we can't just rely on high levels of corporation that have lots of money for development programs. We can't just rely on the political environment. We have to start this at our level. It's a grassroots thing, you know, I kind of I've heard a lot of people say this as the Year of

12:01 the Woman. I mean that there are a lot of stories and examples, both good and bad, that are they're bringing women to have their voice come out and to share their stories, whether it's promotion or family, or trying to balance work life and home life, or whether it's things that have happened to them that have developed them for who they are. And I think that it's important that we have these conversations in a public forum inner communities, so that we were not just waiting for corporations to hand it down to us, that we, as female thought leaders, are creating that environment of nurturing and compassion and raising engagement among our peers and among our mentors and among the people we serve, so that it's not a top down approach, that it's actually being built as a foundation from the bottom up. And women occupy more than fifty percent of the population, and women that are forty five to sixty occupy twenty percent of that, and you know, women they are twenty five or thirty are about thirteen percent, So there's a pretty large need out there, I think for this information to be built from the ground up, which is what you and I are trying to do with the summit in September and what we're doing at the radio show here today. And then to that point, I want to take it just a little bit further down down down the field

13:35 if we can, and that is to say that you know, there's a lot of organizations that are that I that I appreciate an applaud that they oftentimes have a women's development initiative or a women's leadership development initiative within the organization, and that is great and I support that, and I do a lot of work inside organizations to support and contribute to those those initiatives. However, the part that I think that we're contributing uniquely that's really important is to be able to take women outside of those environments that they're in, take them out of that, bring them into a different space together with other women they can learn from and get best practices from, and to get a wholly different perspective from, and then take that back into their workspaces, to cascade that into the organization, to infuse it with really, you know, what's what may be considered some best in thought practices around what we're addressing, the meaning, the purpose, the fact that we're going to be talking about the importance of choice, drawing on feminine and masculine energies, et cetera. There's just some stuff in there that I think a lot of organizations might otherwise miss if they're not bringing their letting the women go to other other summits like what we're offering here to get a fresh perspective to bring back home, right, I mean, the you know, the leaders of the free world meet in summits all the time to forward think you know, nuclear arms, you know, defense economics, how we how we become allies, support each other's as countries. Why would we not as thought leaders follow a similar and yet more effective model bringing

15:09 those types of bringing summits together where we have like minded individuals looking to seek a greater gain for everybody. I completely agree, and I love how you brought that together for us too. That's a perfect analogy and connection to what we're up to here. And with that, Diane, let us grab our first Break, I'm your host, Alice Cortez. We went on the air with Diane McClay. She has a personal empowerment coach to forward thinking mid level professional women. She joins it today from outside of the Portland, Oregon area. Stay with us, We'll be right back. Alice Cortez as a speaker and engagement and development catalyst. She designs and delivers professional development, leadership and engagement workshops and can bring her expertise to your organization. She will help ignite meaningful development within your workforce that will increase employee engagement, performance and retention.

16:04 To learn more or to invite a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her at www dot Elise Cortez dot com. She would welcome the opportunity to help get your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose with Elise Cortez. To reach our program today, send an email to Elise ali Se at Elise Cortez dot com. Now back to working on Purpose. Thanks for staying with us, and welcome back to working on Purpose. If you're just joining us. My guest is Diane McClay. She is a personal apartment coach to forward thinking mid level professional women. She is a contributing author to the fourth volume of the book Dreaming Big, Being Bowled, inspiring stories from trailblazers, visionaries and changemakers, and together she and are working collaboratively to build the Women on Purpose Thought Leadership Summit in Portland, Oregon, in September twenty nineteen. Diane, over the break, you and I were chatting a little bit about your experience earlier, what it was like to work in a male dominated environment, And I think that would be useful for us to talk about here, because, especially for some women who are in that space, what we're up to might be even more useful. Thank you for that, you know, I think that from speaking from my own experience, I know that I viewed myself as a strong, independent woman. And what I'm realizing now, and we're going to get to masculine and feminine energy a little bit later in the show, but what I'm realizing now is that when I can have

17:34 balance and I can feel harmony with my whole self, all the pieces of myself, I actually I functioned much better in all parts of my life, my home life, my local community, and my personal business and the clients that I serve And what I realized is in the twenty two years that I worked in state and federal government, because I felt like I had to figured out myself because I was strong and because I was independent, I thought that that meant I couldn't ask for help or I shouldn't ask for help. And I actually believed that it was my responsibility, as a strong and independent woman to set the example of how other strong and independent women just muscle through things and figured out on their own. And what I realized it took me a long time to figure it out. It actually took me leaving and not being in that environment anymore to realize that asking for help is actually a sign of strength. And it does two things. One, it actually does not push me up against adversity or failure or stress or anxiety. But it also invites someone else to step into their superpowers and to function in their strength. And amazing how holistic both people can feel, whether it's a man or a woman, but in particular women. And that's why I think that it's important.

19:02 You know, you mentioned before the show about the summit that we're doing is is taking women out of their work environment, putting them into a like minded space where they can feel the freedom and the support of other leaders and then cascade it back into their agency organization when they go. And I just think that's important because sometimes you have to You don't have awareness of something until you recognize that something is missing, and sometimes you have to get out of your environment and be challenged by a new environment to figure out what it is you need or want, beautifully said Diane. Couldn't agree more fantastic, And I thank you for that. That wasn't that was the addition that I was hoping for. Thank you also. Yeah, So I think next to what I want, what I want us to talk about if we can, it's just really considering what's going on in the world of work, and people feel so incredibly overwhelmed, and you know that the schedules are weight, it seems to be way out of hand. People are just burnout a teams and and yet work represents forty percent of a person's overall life and that's a lot. If it's not giving something to us, and it takes more from us and it gives, then there's a problem there. So I think already we want to be able to address that experience for women, which we will in the summit, But then beyond that, we're going to take it one step further from their female advantage point, and that is there's more and more discussion about the workplace being inhospitable to women, especially into their forties, if they want to try to juggle a family with a growing career. It becomes really, you

20:32 know, do I have to choose between going absolutely start raising we're even crazy as a mom running around after kids and getting myself to all my meetings at work, or should I just go ahead and step out of the workplace for a while. And more organizations are losing women in that battle, and so this is part of us addressing for women to be healthy and strong and to contribute their voice in a way that lights them up is what we're after here, because I think it addresses an enormous problem in the word workplace. What are your thoughts about that. You know, I'm not a parent, but I know a lot of people who are. And one of the things that I notice is that if a woman in particular makes a choice to temporarily step away from the workplace in order to be to serve her kids and her family the way she wants to with purpose and meaning. When there's a point where her kids go to college or they graduate college and they don't need mom anymore, it actually creates a big barrier for women to come back into the workplace.

21:27 Absolutely, That's one thing I see is that how do we how do we help women lessen that gap or fill that gap with less stressful ways, but still in meaningful and important ways that makes them viable workers and viable to the community in a paid corporate kind of space. That's one thing. But the second thing is is that even if they try to balance, there's always a push pull your parent. Do you find that to be true with you? Not so much that I now that I work for myself now, but when I did work in corporate America, yes, I very much felt that. And for you personally, did you feel like when you were working in corporate America that you had to support that you needed as a parent to take care of your family life. Do you feel like the expectation was that you show up regardless now? No, absolutely, I mean there was certainly.

22:22 I mean I worked for some amazing organizations over the years, but certainly, you know there were time I mean I missed a lot of tennis matches. I missed a lot of things that happened at my daughter's school when I was working inside corporate America, so and I miss them today too if i'm if I'm I'm on the road speaking or I'm doing a program someplace. But at least I have more of the power of choice, which your of course we're going to talk about too, but see it makes a big difference. Well, I love the fact that you just brought the power of choice, and I would add to that the powerful of the power of deliberate choice or productive choice, because sometimes we can all make choices that aren't really great for us or the people around us. But one of the things I really believe a lot in is that sometimes I think we get lulled into complacency or complacency or we think that we don't have options because this is the way it is.

23:12 But if you look back in history, women didn't have a right to vote, that's the way it was until they did, until they started using their voice to get the vote. Women didn't serve in political positions until they did. Women didn't ascend to leadership and corporations until they did. And I think what we have an opportunity here is to stop the spinning wheel for a minute. And as women, we can say, is it true that the system or the process that has been set up for me is finite and it can't be changed? And if the answer is, well, maybe it could be changed. I think the next step is is that what I coach people on is the first step is awareness. You have to know that something needs to change or has to change. And once you have awareness, you have the ability to start generating options. Can you work one day from home? Can you cut out early on Friday because you put ten hours in Monday through Thursday?

24:12 Is there a project that you can take on for two or three months that fits the need of a growing family but also meets the needs of the corporation. And one thing I've heard you say is that when we can function in balance and when we have meaning and purpose, it actually benefits everybody in the equation. Absolutely, it cascades all over the place, it really does. And so I you know, I know that a big part of your focus and in terms of our collaboration will be in that space and I will learn from you as well. And I love the whole idea of deliberate choice and being intentional about that. And then of course the other piece that I think is just so important is for us to really help the women find their voice. I mean, that's such and contributed learn how to speak it because a lot of women have been conditioned that they need to be asked to speak, or need to be invited to the party or whatever it might be.

25:07 And helping them find their voice and then share it is part of what, of course we're up to as well, and from my perspective, I know the importance of that, especially when we know that women, for the most part, what they're looking for is they do want to create an environment at work that is compelling and fulfilling for others to work in. They want to nurture people that are in their stead and they've got more of a chance to do that when they start using their voice, finding more of their voice, which is also connected of course to their passion, their inspiration and their purpose. But the voice piece is really important. Will you say a little bit more about that from your vanage poment, because you also bring a fresh perspective on that, well, I think, thank you. I think there's a couple of things there. I think there's a difference between finding your voice and using it. I think there's a difference between using it and being really effective when you use it. And so some of this is about how can we be more effective? And I'll give you a quick brief example. I have a niece who's twenty. She's starting the job application process and the cover letter writing. And you know, I coached her a little bit on you have about four to six seconds in a cover letter to get someone's attention. So it's important to my niece right now is explaining who she is and why this is important, and she wants to be seen and her as a young woman emerging into the workforce. But quite honestly, her first sentence is all about that and not the purpose of why she's writing. So what I've coached her

26:37 on a little bit is you can use your voice a little bit more effectively. Make the first statement in your cover letter, what is it you want? I'm applying for this job. Here's my resume. There's nothing wrong with being that forward thinking, that blunt, and just blatantly stating to somebody I want a job from you, you know, in a little bit better way, of course, But I think sometimes women have, We feel like we have to explain ourselves. We have to justify why we're even at the table, why we're even having a conversation. So one of the first places is where can we how can we cut through some of the noise or the static that surrounds us or comes from our own head, and how do we do that in a direct way so that the first thing we say can get heard by a male dominated organization or structure, And then what happens after that once we get their attention, how do we structure what we say so that one we're asking for what we want and we do it with integrity and strength and also in a way that can be a win win for everybody. Does that make sense the way? Absolutely? Absolutely beautiful. Yes, I completely agree with that. In fact, from my work and my vanish point, Diane, I've done a lot of work over the years convening groups of women specifically, so when you get women together, one they can better understand and be free to speak and share their vulnerabilities and speak their mind. And two we really want to be able to help bring them up together. And when women

28:10 come together, there's there's an incredible force that happens, and I've seen it over and over again, and women stand stronger shoulders shoulder, They learn from each other, they support each other. As I've been out speaking Diane over the last several several months, especially when I'm speaking on what will you do through one precious life and in the importance of cultivating passion, inspiration and purpose. Invariably, when I finished speaking, I get a few women that will come up and tell me some of their stories, some of those really important things that have happened in their lives that have been you know, real trials for them, real adversity. And they then say, this is how I've either helped me become who I am today or whatever else happened along the way, but what I've come from that too, just those things bringing women together.

28:55 From that, Diane emerge, this this great idea that I had. I think Matt, I said, you know what, now that I've heard a few of these stories, I'm going to start And I did. I started a monthly women's storytelling session here in the Dallas Fort Worth area. And yeah, and it started by tearing these these women who told me there were stories, and you know, one was about and you know, a major after divorce reinvention situation, and the other one was about surviving and now thriving after a horrible sexual assault. And the reason I'm can I've begun to commune these these these events, it's because I know that when women come together about things like that one there, the connection is so strong and women need that.

29:37 That's that's nurturing for the soul. And something about storytelling and sharing experiences with others of people say oh, she got through that, I can do it too. I'm inspired by that is so important. You know. I'm smiling right now because as I looked to the right of my desk, I have when I go out into nature, sometimes I find pieces of water bark that just feel they speak to me, and I have the words storyteller wood burned onto this piece of bark, and it's to my right where I can see it all the time, and it reminds me that it's a piece of who I am, not just as a woman, but a person, a human. We all have stories, women in particular, and I think, you know, we've seen a lot of political and social events come to light in the last two or three years about women's stories, and I think There's something really magical and powerful about telling a story. Not only can if you tell a story, well you obviously, if you're speaking, you're probably saying something that ten or twenty or one hundred or a million other people want to say but don't feel like they have the strength. That's the first thing.

30:48 But the second thing is, regardless of what culture you're in, regardless of what gender you are, what race you are, storytelling is inherently part of the the fabric of being human. Uh. You know, That's why we have history. It's why you know we can move forward into the future because based on stories, we learn and we grow, and we can effectively literally like this, Uh you know, this, this global change. By telling our stories, and when we can feel safe, when we can feel like we've been heard, that we've been respected, that we feel safe, and that we can contribute in a positive way, human kind wins regardless of what you're a man or a woman. I completely agree with that, Diana.

31:40 Of course, as you know, you and I have spoken about making that part of the inerpiece of the summit is also important because it's a really important art and skill to be able to learn how to do well. You mentioned using your voice well, telling your story well is really important. And also I'll just quickly share to that end, I've all started up a monthly lunch and learn series here in collaboration with a company called in Premise, and we call it the munch, Mingle and mus Series. I love it. And this speaker on May twenty feet is talking about storytelling, so just that it's really important. So let's grab our last break here. Diane, it's happening so fast. I'm Elise Cortez, your host. We've been on the air with Diane McClay. She is a personal empowerment coach to forward thinking, mid level professional women. He joins us today from outside the Port Portland, Oregon area. Stay with us, we will be right back. Alis Cortez is a speaker and engagement and development catalyst. She designs and delivers professional development, leadership and engagement workshops and can bring her expertise to your organization. She will help ignite meaningful development within your workforce that will increase employee engagement, performance and retention. To learn more or to invite Elise to speak to your organization, please visit her at www dot Elise Cortez dot com. She would welcome the opportunity to help get your employees working on purpose. This is Working on Purpose

33:17 with Elise Cortez. To reach our program today, send an email to Elise ali se at Elise Cortez dot com. Now back to working on Purpose. Thanks for staying with us, and welcome back to working on Purpose if you're just tuning in. My guest is Diane McClay, who is a personal environment coach to forward thinking mid level professional women. She's a contributing author to the fourth volume of the book Dreaming Big, Being Bold, inspiring stories from trailblazers, visionaries, and changemakers. Together, she and I are working collaborative to create the Woman on Purpose Without Leadership summat in September twenty nineteen in Portland, Oregon. Okay, Diane, So for we've got to our last segment here, and I want to if we can spend a little bit of time talking about the the inquiry into masculine and feminine energy as part of the summit.

34:09 Sure, And I think that's a great invitation, And I'll be transparent that I feel like this is a space that's evolving for me. But in my story, you know, I always felt like I had to figure it out. I had to force a solution, I had to make it work. And what I'm realizing is, you know, I've had a shoulder injury and that kind of laid me up for a little bit, and I've had to kind of learn more patients and I had to learn to accept what is coming at me and work with it in that moment. And as I'm as I'm doing my own personal work, I'm running into lots of thought leaders about masculine and feminine energy, and the two are not exclusive. In fact, there's a lot of men who have feminine energy and that doesn't mean they're gay.

34:49 But there's a lot of women who have masculine energy and that doesn't mean that they that they can't be reasoned with. There's a balance that has to come in order for us to feel whole and really true. We live in our purpose, and I feel like exploring that and understanding the difference between those can be really helpful for the people who come to the summit and for our listeners. Agreed. Let me add on that from my rent my Banner's point. What I find so often in the workplace and when I'm inside organizations doing leadership development work, or whether it's more employee engagement, collaboration kind of work, or culture work. I am amazed, especially when I'm in this space of talking about passion and inspiration. So many women are like, oh no, I definitely can't show emotion at work. Nope, I know, well I don't do that. They've been so conditioned not to show emotion at work.

35:39 So this whole beautiful array of that spectrum of human emotion that we've been given to stand in that lets us bring our passion, our inspiration, and live in our purpose. For a lot of women, has they cut that off when they come into the front door. And yet men don't seem to be hampered by that. They they're okay to be moved to tears when they get inspired, But women are like, I'm not doing that. So I think there's a real opportunity here to help us bring back humanity into the workplace by helping both men and women get access to both their masculine and feminine energies. Sure, and I think you know, it's not just about like the physical sense of coming to tears if something makes us sad. But I think it's about being present with whatever is happening in the moment, you know, for me personally, I know I've apologized to my peers. Oh I'm sorry, I'm crying, you know, right right, And so first of all, not being apologetic for actually having feelings, but secondly understanding, okay, what's why is that serving me or what's happening at a different level, and how can I work with it and how can I engage it? So that's it helps me help my voice be heard rather than keeps my voice from being heard.

36:55 Yes, and I as from my space of purpose and meaning is in so doing it gives us more access to the beauty of life and frankly, our own purpose or whatever our connection to our spirituality is. It gives us access to that. And it's just it's so important it is. And I think, you know, I can't quote who I got this from, but you know, we're in our work worlds, we're typically human producers. We make things, we have a budget, we get things done on time, we turn things out. We're always pushing to make something or create something. But in reality, we're human beings. We have an opportunity to be and appreciate and see and receive and not always be in high production mode. And I know it's been a shift for me stepping into the coaching world and into the writing world. Is that often my coach tells me, staying the step you're in, and you know, the masculine energy side of me would be like, have to get this done. I've got more things to do.

37:58 The sooner I get it done, the more I can get done. And it's kind of this destructive cycle that we can stay in. But when my coach says to me, die, stay in the step, be in the space you are, where do you age, where do you need to be? It's okay. That's inviting a softer, more open family approach to problem solving. That's beautiful and that and that brings me to where I wanted to go to next to the conversation for what we're up to in the summit. There's there's a reason that this summit is going to be happening in the outside of the Portland, Oregon area, somewhere in the Portland area as we as we look at venues, and that is I'm from Portland or from Oregon. I spent many many years there. And of course you live in that space too, and you actually are further grounded in really the environment than I am.

38:45 But what I know about the whole world of the of well being and certainly passionate inspiration, is the importance of finding being connected to nature. There's magical and mystical experience that comes from being connected to nature, and and so that's such an important reason that people understand that there's a reason we're bringing people from across the nation to Portland, Oregon to be able to connect in that outdoor space. Not that we're going to be camping outdoors per se, but there will be activities that are designed to dance with nature. And I'll just quickly share a couple weeks ago, I was getting ready to all right, I came home at eight o'clock at night, and I got out of my car and I immediately over my head there was an owl in the tree and he sang to me, and I looked right up and I returned his song.

39:34 Oh, and we had this exchange for like I don't know, six times back and forth. And I was just in awe of that. And when you can let that feeling and when you get connected to nature wash over you, it gives you something. It really gives you something and it's not that hart, but you gotta plug into it. And so I'm really excited that part of what we're up to here is providing that kind of opportunity to connect with nature. Will you say a bit about your perspective on that too, sure? And I you know, your story gave me jewels and goosebumps at the shame and it made me literally just look up, look up in my office at the feathers that I have above me, and in the words like trust and adapt and empower and persistent and those are all things that nature just does. And to be able to first of all, hear something and pause and receive it, that's standing in that feminine energy, you know, the masculine energy might say, oh, this is crazy, this sounds crazy.

40:31 We have to define this more scientifically. But you have a curiosity, a childlike curiosity, which you embraced and that brought you a sense of peace. So nature isn't just about magical and mystical connections. It's literally physically. You can calm your heartbeat by sitting next to a tree, listening to a stream, turning off your cell phone, turning off email, and sometimes the biggest connection can happen when we disconnect, literally disconnect from electronics, disconnect from the busy mind of ourselves. One of my favorite things to do is just go sit in the middle of the forest and there's a spot where there's an old cedar log that served its purposes of a tree at one point, and it's now a nursery log for a bunch of other small cedar and hemlock trees, and I just like to sit right next to it and just sort of narrow my vision. First I see trees, and then I see little saplings, and then I see pine cones, and then I see an ant carrying a seed. And I could literally be there for five minutes and have it feel like an hour or an hour, and have it be like five minutes.

41:43 And I think that the muses we talked about, you know, munch and mingling and muses, And I think that when we can touch base with nature, I think it opens a way that we can think about things differently, and the muses come in and we feel permission to be creative. And that's what I like about it. I love that, and also too, what I also know from the work that I've been doing and the research that I've been doing is is that part of what we're losing in today's fast and furious, uber connected technology world is that connection to nature. And it's one of the things that we can when we step back, we step back into it and connect with it. It gives us that that access to a vital life force, and it gives us a way to be able to shut down the rest of the world, as you were saying, and step into that sacred space, which is where we can get access to our own purpose, what lights us up, our own inspiration, and those are today really vital resources that you bring back into the work world and make all the difference in the world. But you've got to develop them. Just like exercising and taking your vitemin to every day and brushing your teeth should be on that level.

42:51 But people, you know, they're not. They're not. They're not having a nice nutritious diet on a regular basis of that. And so for us to be able to give a path to be able to get access to that and start a way forward connected to nature, I think is so important. Well, I agree, and you know, the three words that pop into my mind that are kind of pillars are discovery and transformation and connection. And I know you've got a couple of pillars for you know, you for purpose and finding your fire. But when when we can stop and look around and see what there is, then there's there's more. You know, we get we get bigger when we when we pause. I completely agree with that.

43:34 Absolutely. I've had some this weekend. In fact, I ran twelve and a half miles around White Rock like here in Dallas, and for the last three miles, Diane, literally I spent them in tears of gratitude. I don't care who sees me crying, I don't care. It was so beautiful and I was so grateful to see all the interaction and the birds and the squirrels and everything else, and I was just it just washed over me, and I was overcome by the beauty and really, frankly, how grateful I am for my own life. I hear you, you know, and I keep thinking like it's a ripple and a pond, right. You know, you take a little moment of time to reward yourself and be curious, to have appreciation and gratitude, and next thing you know, you're bringing that back to your peers and your subordinates and your supervisors in your community and your workplace, and somebody else you know, says, oh, I want what she has, and then they go and they do the same thing, and next thing you know, we're a ripple has been you know, stone has been cast into a pond. And we don't know where the ripple is going to end up, but we know that there's movement and there's forward action in that space. Absolutely right, And I love how you've really, you've really encapsulated.

44:39 Is just why we're doing this right, is to be able to convene a group of women from across the nation to Portland, Oregon, bring them together in a way that is powerful, that lifts them up, supports them, gives them tools, helps them stand in their passion, inspiration, purpose, helps him understand their their intentional choice, drawing from their masculine and feminine energies, et cetera, and all kinds of other amazing things, because we want desperately for them to be those thought leaders, to bring that back into their communities, their families, the organizations they work for, and begin to deposit that beautiful contribution back in That's exactly it. Right, when we were talking about creating this, we were like, what do what what service do we want to provide? And that's it exactly in your words, you know, when when you and I first met, you shared of you said, passion is what we put in and inspiration is what we take out. M M. That's what we put into the world, you know when we when we do all of these things and we do them with purpose and with passion and holistically. M Yeah. And what's so great about that is we give our passions, right, So what is it we're giving up ourselves and we want these women to be to be to be really effective and fulfilled women out there in the world of work and to across their lives. They we need to develop and to nurture those passions, to give them out to the world because that that itself is energy. And at the same time, to keep ourselves fueled and strong and also childlike, as you say, we need to be able to see and be present to what it is about the world and

46:12 our experiences that inspire us, give us energy, give us life in order to keep that cycle of energy moving. It's just so important. Indeed, Hey, would you mind? I just opened my book and I came across the what if poem that I shared with you while ago, would you mind if I share that with your listeners and we can cut up the rest of the day. Let's do it. So this was inspired by my seed or log And the question is what if? What if this moment created a ripple in the pond. What if the idea in your head spread to your heart and beyond? What if you adapted ever so slight And what if this moment could change your story overnight? What if the smallest change created the most significant effect. What if you choose how to show up and you choose what happens next. Oh, that is gorgeous, Diane, That's beautiful. That's what we're inviting women to do, right, is special ext choice that they can change and create an impact that can cascade and ripple back into their communities and their families and their places of work with passion and purpose. Yes, and that is worthy of their one precious life. Well, like, we could talk forever on this. I know I know what we can right. And that's the great thing is We're is going to keep these conversations going and keep bringing in more other people that want to be in the conversation and want to be part of the process. So coming down to the end here at Diane,

47:42 I want to first make sure that people know how to find you if they if they want to engage you with conversations. So how would you direct them to reach out to you? They can find me. They can send me an email Coach with Diane at Diane McClay dot com and that's d I A n E dot mc c l a y dot Coach with Diane at Diane McClay dot com. I have a Twitter account at coach with Diane, Instagram coach with Diane, and I'm on LinkedIn Diane McClay. Awesome, well, my friend, and I really so enjoy you and I so enjoy collaborating with you. I can't wait to bring this summit to life in September of twenty nineteen Woman on Purpose Thought Leadership Summit in Portland, Oregon. So thank you very much, Diane for being here with me talking about what we're up to and sharing our hearts with our listeners, and thank you for the opportunity.

48:32 And I would just say the listeners if they have an interest in attending that summit, drop Lisa I and email I'm sure a leasa. We'll give you her credentials at the end of the show. We don't have it completely worked out yet, but we'd love to see if this lands with you, see what kind of interest is out there, and we'd like to connect with you to serve you the best way we can. Awesome, Yes, listeners, you can find me, as I said at the beginning of the show, a lease at at least Cortez dot com. Okay, so, if you missed the show last week, I had a really interesting conversation with Karen Hoyo's. She wrote a book called Purpose, the Ultimate Quest, and she is a personal transformation expert that's helped more than forty million people across the globe on their paths to purpose. She was an amazing little spark plug thirty nine years old. She's just awesome. So if you miss the show, go find the podcast. Next week we are going to be on the show with Get This Rabbi Daniel Cohen talking about his book What Will They Say About You When You're Gone? All about really creating a legacy for yourself and reverse engineering your life. It'll be awesome see you. Then, remember that work is at least one third of our life, so let's work on Purpose. We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to tune in to Working on Purpose, featuring your host, Alice Cortez, each week on the Voice America Empowerment Channel. This week, find your life's purpose at work.