Speaking and Communicating Podcast

As long as my intention wasn't to hurt somebody, I can accept that they're going to have a feeling about it and let them have it, and I can move on. And that is the same thing with clients, kids, friends. I can create a boundary and release them.

It's not to bend myself inside out to be something they need me to be, it's to be who I'm called to be. I can love them and let them be and do what they need to do. That gave me such freedom.

Welcome back to The Speaking and Communicating Podcast.

I am your host, Roberta Ndlela. If you are looking to improve your communication skills, both professionally and personally, this is the podcast you should be tuning in to.

Communication and soft skills are crucial for your career growth and leadership development. And by the end of this episode, please log on to Apple and Spotify and leave us a rating and a review. Now let's get communicating.

Now let's get communicating with our guest today, Coach Karen Gray, joining us from Texas.

She is a confidence coder, the founder of Confidence Coding, host of the Confidence Coding Podcast, who helps us rewire our mindsets and especially helps leaders make their brains their greatest assets. I like that.

And before I go any further, please help me welcome her to the show. Hi, Karen.

Hello. So good to meet everyone and be here and have this conversation with you. I love what you're doing.

I appreciate that.

Thank you so much. Welcome. Please introduce yourself to our listeners and viewers.

Yeah.

Well, you did a great introduction. So I'm just excited to be here. I love the topic of communication.

And I think that for me, everything that we communicate starts from within. And that's totally in alignment with what I believe about confidence. So confidence isn't something that we do.

It's a remembering of who we are. And when we come from that place, I think that we're able to communicate so much better. We have better relationships and it just impacts everything about our lives.

So really excited about the conversation today.

I'm excited as well and you're so right. Everything starts from within. But is it okay to also, if you don't have the confidence yet to fake it till you make it?

We've all heard that.

And I think that there's a way to reframe that. And I think that's believe it until you achieve it. Rather than faking it.

Faking means I don't believe that that thing is possible for me. So, I'm going to pretend like it is. And believe it until you achieve it means maybe I'm not there yet, but I know that it's possible.

And I'm going to keep moving towards it until it happens. I believe everything is about the reframe. So if something doesn't feel right, we can reframe it.

How can we reframe this thought? How can we reframe what we're saying? How can we reframe the situation to see it as a positive for us?

Because there can be something good in everything.

Yes. I see where you're going with this because the words that come out of our mouths make us feel a certain way. And so if you say I'm faking it, it's almost like I'm an imposter than you.

100%.

Or if you say I believe that I'm a work in progress in it, but I know it's the truth about me that I am confident once I know exactly who I am.

Yeah.

So it's I'm confident in something. Maybe I'm not confident in everything, but I'm confident in something. Find that and then I can believe if this can be true, then so can something else.

And it just builds our belief. And so we begin to belief stack. And before you know it, you're showing up more confident in more areas.

And that impacts the communication that you have with people because you come from this place of knowing. And I think that's where the best communication comes from, is when you know or trust that even if you don't know, you can figure it out.

So that's back to that, believe it till you achieve it.

Yes. Speaking of communicating with others, if somebody just snaps at you or has this strong temper, and we always go, Oh, I wonder what it could have been that they went through, that they walk around life being angry at everybody.

So we do understand that it starts internally.

Yeah. And it's also okay to say, I don't know what they're going through. There probably is something, but that absolutely has nothing to do with me.

So we don't always have to take other people's garbage on. We don't have to fix them. We don't have to be fixed by other people.

And I think that's where the confidence can rise up from, is that I'm okay just being me. And I was created to have a certain path. I've walked this path.

And now I get to communicate that to others in a way that's just owning and honoring who I am. No explanation. And I don't have to justify it.

I don't have to explain all the good, the bad, the ugly, the indifferent. I just get to be.

Which is quite challenging because that whole thing of just being, we keep getting taught by coaches like yourself that if you are being loved for just being, not because you've done something or you give your family members money when they need it.

That kind of thing.

Yeah. Can I give you a little pushback?

Please.

There's so much in what you just said that it's challenging to this. I heard the word challenging and I immediately tuned out because I just focused in on the challenge. I would say up until now, something has been challenging for me.

But that's again, an opportunity for a reframe. So in the past, maybe this was uncomfortable for me. In the past, maybe this wasn't whatever, but what if?

So you reframe it and then you get to see the possibilities of being curious. So in this situation, what if I just didn't have to do anything and who I was and what I did was enough just as it was for me?

Because I'm probably never going to be enough for everybody. And can that be okay? Am I enough for the right people?

And then you get to determine who that is. Yes, coaches do talk a lot about the mindset. We do talk about just being and sometimes it's never enough.

Whatever I am is always going to fall short. And as long as I think we put ourselves in circles where people see us that way, that will continue to be true. So maybe it's not a being problem or a confidence problem.

Maybe it's who you're in proximity with problem. Family are some of the best teachers of our triggers, and we really can create boundaries. And that's okay, too.

That curiosity of, let me see what's on the other side of this.

If I reframe it, are we sometimes not keen on going down that path because of fear of, I might be lonely and everybody will leave me?

Sure. Fear is a real valid thing, right? And there are people who have very valid reasons to be fearful of conversations with certain people.

They can escalate, they can become volatile, they can be very triggering for that person and for you. So sometimes you just have to choose, is this a battle I want to fight? Is this a conversation I want to have?

Is this a relationship I want to continue to work on? And sometimes the answer is no. And maybe we can just love them where they are, except we're on different paths, and we're going to just know and honor those boundaries.

So we'll limit the interaction or know when I'm around that person. If I have to be around them or choose to be around them, let's say it's a parent or a sibling or spouse. Those are all choices that we get to make.

When we feel powerless, that's when I think the things can escalate into something really, really toxic, because we're acquiescing our power over to someone else.

So my next question would be, have you had clients who, if you were to recommend that to and say, okay, I understand this is where you're going to create boundaries with those closest to you because this is becoming toxic.

So please, your homework for this week is for you to go and create the boundaries and they come back the following week and they say, coach Karen, this is what happened.

Yeah, so people are funny because sometimes they do things you don't expect at all. And then sometimes they show up exactly as you expected in a way that you almost facilitated that circumstance.

For me, it's recognizing, did you create a boundary that was honoring and loving? Or did you create a boundary that created another situation on purpose?

If, let's say, in your scenario that you just gave me, the immediate first situation that comes up is one of my clients has a teenager. That's very, very unhealthy right now.

They're very angry, there's a divorce, there's a lot of hard things going on in that child's life. And she's the mother.

So, it's not like there's a boundary you can create where you can't be around your child, especially a teenager that is really needing support.

But what had happened in the past was she would bend herself into a pretzel to try to accommodate her child's feelings. And actually what that created was volatility for the child because the child didn't know where the boundaries were.

Kids manipulate because they want to push until they fill a boundary.

And what happened was when she created boundaries for her, the child then knew where those boundaries were, pushed against it, rebelled against it for a little while, and then those boundaries became safe because she didn't give in.

She just stood with love. That's not okay to talk to me like that. That's not how we're going to communicate.

I love you and I'm going to give you space until you calm down. And then we can talk about this. She would walk away.

Rather than sitting there apologizing and trying to make the child happy, and can we go do this instead, and trying to appease like you would a two-year-old. That's what she had done in the past.

And the new boundaries created a safe place for the child. Took a little while to reset, but sometimes the boundaries that we create for us really do allow other people to feel safe in our presence.

Because when we can be safe in our body, being us, it allows other people to do the same. Not always, but sometimes those circumstances just create a new foundation for other people to regulate to.

And then we all get to kind of recalibrate in a safer place. So when we honor ourselves and give ourselves boundaries, it gives other people permission to do the same.

And if they're not open to it, they may not be the right people for us if we can choose.

Like you said, it is uncomfortable at first. So when we make those choices, I call them the short-term fix of, okay, let me give you what you want so you can be quiet because you're crying.

Yeah.

Do we do it to get out of the discomfort? Because what you've just described is a long-term solution, and it's uncomfortable, and it doesn't happen overnight. So all those days leading up to, oh, finally, this is where we are.

Now we're safe, and now there's a problem.

Right.

What do I do before we get to that point?

I think we all have a decision that we get to choose. In this moment, do I need a short-term fix? Do I just need to silence the crying baby, pacify them, or the person that's throwing a fit?

Is it worth the battle? Or am I perpetuating that fight and only kicking the can of this really confrontational situation down the road? So, what serves me the most?

Rather than leaning away from pain, can I lean into the discomfort for the long-term fix that you mentioned? So, it's really making that decision.

In this moment, I get to choose, so we're still keeping our power, and I'm choosing to just make this a quick fix. So, we still do it in an empowered way, and sometimes it's just agreeing to disagree. We're not going to continue to create a boundary.

We can fight, we're just going to honor. That person needs this. Okay, here you go.

I'm giving in. You take that. We're done.

I get to move away. They get to move away. We move on.

No more fighting, no more trying to prove a point or anything that we're trying to do with those boundaries. Sometimes it's just that simple. The decision is, am I making it from an empowered safe place?

And if I am, then whatever decision I make next is okay. Even if the decision isn't giving us the outcome we want, if it's made from that empowered place, it's still a decision that we're maintaining that conversation and integrity with us.

And I think that's where the confidence can come from. That's where better communication can come from. And healed relationships can begin to come from that.

Okay.

So we want to reach that level of making decisions from an empowered place. So how do we then rewire our brains? The thing is the confidence to stand up and show up fully and say, hey, this is where we draw the line starting today.

So how do we rewire our brains to have the confidence to show up from that empowered place?

Such a great question. And it's not a one-step, two-step answer. But to give you the kind of the quickest answer, when we can align our decisions with something that matters to us.

And so in this moment, with this decision I have to make right here, right now, what's the best decision I can make that's most aligned with what I believe to be true about me? I have a theory that I use or a little acronym, VIP.

So in this decision, am I aligning this decision with what I value, with what my intention is and with what I believe is my purpose?

And so if I can kind of come back to that VIP quick place, that allows me to just keep owning my space and feeling good about me. And it's those little incremental decisions that begin to reframe.

So it doesn't start out with these monumental, I'm going to change the world and I'm going to show up as this really confident person, it's know what today. What decision today honors me? What today honors who I want to be in this world?

So what moves me a little closer to my goal? What moves me a little closer to my truth? What moves me a little closer to the outcome I want?

Sometimes it's a big decision, sometimes it's a small one. But if we can just take that lens and look at it as if I'm going to rewire a decision today, what is another behavior that I can make or a action I can take that honors me?

Where have I been giving up my power and where can I take it back?

With one decision today, maybe that saying no to social media, maybe that saying no to something that you really didn't want to do, maybe it's saying yes to you, something that you really want to do and in the past, you've never said yes because you

felt guilty, right? It felt selfish.

Maybe I really want to go take a walk, but I don't feel like I can walk away from this because I always go to lunch with my friends and I don't feel like I can go spend time with just me, but I really just need some alone time today.

Something that simple of, you know, thank you for the invitation. I really appreciate it. I think today I just need some R&R with me and I'm going to go take a walk.

I really just need some exercise. That little yes, your soul fills so deeply and that's where we begin re-coding that confidence and honoring the boundaries that we can set for ourselves. So something that small.

Start today, make an empowering decision.

Now you work with leaders and I know even statistics show that women have, I don't want to use the word challenge again, but women leaders, this is the one thing that they still work in progress on. Why do you think that is?

I think that we have bought into the lies of what we should be in corporate spaces, in rooms. Think about two generations ago. I'm part of a women's organization and there are women still alive today who couldn't get things in their name.

They couldn't vote. They couldn't own property in their name. So we have been raised by and grown up in a society that's told us, who we are to be.

And so I think in a great part, we continue to do that and continue to feel like, okay, I have to be the mom and I have to be the breadwinner. And in some cases, you are both. I have to be the everything for everybody around me.

So I have to be the martyr. I have to be the one who's taking care of everybody, just like my grandmother did. But my grandmother didn't work full time, but I have to work full time now.

You know, it's all of these things that we just take on, trying to be the person that everybody thinks we should be in this space.

Probably somewhere along the line, you said yes when you wanted to say no, and it took you on a totally different trajectory and path than what your soul may have been designed to do. And then we begin to feel tired and burnt out and resentful.

And so there's just this perpetuation of that cycle. So long story short, it's when we're not living aligned to who we were created and designed to be. And we've forgotten why we're here.

And we try to fit into a box when we're meant to be in a ball. Or like we're in an oblong box and we're meant to be in a square box. Like we're just trying to fit ourselves into rooms we're not supposed to be in.

And that creates this feeling of not enoughness. You know, I'm in this room and I really want to be in that room, but this room's paying the bills.

Like we just make all of these justifications somehow feel like whatever that is that I want, whatever is on my heart to do that thing over there, it's unattainable. And so we quit and settle.

And then we have a problem loving ourselves after we quit and settle.

Yeah, then what follows after that is guilt, shame, anger, bitterness, resentment, all the emotions, the whole spectrum.

And then that carries over to our other relationships because how we feel about us, what's going on on the inside, other relationships start from there too.

So now we're going to come from this place of, I don't have that because obviously I'm not good enough, so then I'm not good enough for everything. We make up all of these stories that really aren't true. They're just stories we've told ourselves.

And we can find the proof. Believe me, you believe something strong enough, you can find proof to back it up.

You will see the evidence.

We always do. I call that the difference between little t and big t. So little t is the truth that I can prove, right?

I can find proof that I'm not good enough. Obviously, I'm not good enough to be on Joe Rogan's podcast because I'm on Roberta's podcast, right?

Right.

But how does that make any sense? That one has nothing to do with the other, but somehow our brains can make sense of things like that. When the truth is, have I ever asked to be on Joe Rogan's podcast?

No, I've never asked. Two, if I was on his podcast, what would I talk about? Have I done the work to be on Joe Rogan's podcast?

Maybe, maybe not. But I haven't even tried because somehow I've convinced myself that because he hasn't, you know, knocked on my door and said, Hey Karen, come do this. Obviously I'm not good enough.

And I have all the evidence right there, but none of it's true. And that's a silly explanation. But sometimes when we go silly, it's like, oh yeah, I get that.

So we can do the same thing with a job we didn't get. You know, I applied for this job and I didn't get it. So obviously it means I have nothing to offer.

I suck, I might as well go eat worms. I'm just gum of the earth. I'm a failure.

I started this business and it failed. So obviously I'm a failure or not. I can never have another business.

I'll never succeed. There's proof that business failed, right? And so we make that story when in truth, that may not have been what you were supposed to do.

Maybe there was a lesson there you were supposed to learn, or maybe, just maybe, you didn't go all in and you played it safe and you didn't even commit to making that business successful.

We can stay really busy and look like we're doing work and look like we're being the CEO when really we're just playing at it. I've lived that. I've done that.

Bought that t-shirt. We can make something true, whether it is true or not.

Which is then what you mentioned earlier, the self-sabotaging. We now have this evidence, so to speak.

Right.

We then sabotage even going forward.

Right.

Because we no longer believe that things can work out better.

Absolutely. And that's where these fears get perpetuated and built up and probably isn't anything to be afraid of. We've now made it the monster in the closet.

And it's the thing holding us back from doing or being what we were here to do or be. And we don't even try.

Because I think a lot of us always ask the question, you know, when someone says, I found my purpose, I found my calling, I know why I'm here.

And then if the rest of us think, I'm not exactly sure what that is, how do we set on a path to find out what that is?

I think it's when, and this is something I've like been on that journey. So I'm living it right now. And that's such a great question, because I feel like that's something that we all are seeking.

Why am I here, right? That's the ultimate answer. Why am I here and what am I supposed to do about it?

I believe it starts with getting honest and real about the things that truly light you up and that you believe at your core and trust to be true. And many of us are too afraid to go in that dark place to discover that.

Because we've been taught that you can't make a living doing that, or that's too big of a dream. We've been influenced by people who aren't doing the thing we want to do, that that's not for us.

Rather than seeking out someone that's doing it, and going to them, and learning from them, or creating something on our own and trying it.

And maybe it works, maybe it doesn't, but maybe that dream is on your heart, and that's what you're designed to do first, so that you can do the thing that you're really here to do next.

You would think that is common sense to ask Coach Karen if I want to be a coach. But I ask my best friend who's never been a coach, and then whatever feedback they give me, I think, nah, it's not gonna work.

They know you so well, and they're like, Roberta, why would you ever be a coach? You can't coach, you've never coached anybody. Why would that ever be something you do?

Or they laugh at you, and then you're like, oh, well, obviously, that was a stupid idea. That's the thing about dreams is that was something that your creator gave you. Why would you make a decision based on somebody that wasn't given in your dream?

Because they don't know better in that regard.

They don't, yeah.

And sometimes when we share our dreams, our passions with someone who doesn't have that same inspiration or that same motivation to do things, we make their thing that they want to do feel so small that they will come back and crush ours in order to

feel better about theirs. And that's a human response. If they knew they were crushing yours, they probably wouldn't intentionally do it, maybe, if they care about you.

But sometimes people intentionally do it just to make themselves feel better, because whatever you did or said just triggered the snot out of them. I think that's one of the biggest lessons I've learned over the past two years.

I kept running into these women who were doing things I wanted to do, and feeling a certain way about them. I would make it an assumption, oh, she's not very friendly. Oh, she's a snob.

Oh, I don't like her. I don't like her. Look at her.

She's like, that was the internal dialogue I was having to feel better about my own lack of action and why I wasn't showing up. Those negative thoughts allowed me to stay small. And one day I was like, why are you saying that you don't even know her?

So I just made this decision. I am going to lean in to get to know any woman that makes me feel small. I'm just going to commit to getting to know her.

I'm going to follow her. I'm going to introduce myself to her. I'm going to just strike up a conversation.

If she's local, I'm going to try to show up. If she's at an event I'm at, I'm going to just show up and get to know her. What has transpired from that is I have a whole new circle of friends.

I have learned that those women were just steps ahead of me. They weren't any better. They weren't any worse.

They were just humans figuring it out messy. I just got to see their great moments on social media, see the things that they wanted to share. But when I got to see behind the curtain, they're just people and they're beautiful people.

And they've received me and loved me and taken me in and been the best friends. And everything I assumed about them was wrong. That was me talking to me that had nothing to do with them.

And they proved you wrong.

The evidence was not there of what you thought about them prior to that.

No.

So I was focused on the little T, which was the truth, the story that I was telling myself, that they were better than me, that I was less than, that they could have something I couldn't have, that it wasn't attainable for me because they were better

than me. When the truth was, they had done the work, I had not done it. They had put in the time, they had taken the risk, put themselves out there to be seen, to go through the uncomfortable times, and I was avoiding being uncomfortable.

Do you think taking more action builds the confidence as well? 100%.

So we all think that if we got more clarity, we could then take the steps and then have the success. And that's not true. That's not how the real world works.

What happens is we take action, messy action, very often, and then we figure out what doesn't work, what does work, and then we just repeat the things that work. And then all of a sudden, that action becomes and evolves into, oh, now I have clarity.

Oh, now I get to have repetition and clarity, and now I get to have success. Sometimes it happens faster. Sometimes it happens, you know, clarity comes first.

We just have an epiphany, or something that we've been doing in the works over here, now brings clarity in a new way, and we get to step forward. But action always has to come first. You have to decide, and you have to take a step.

And sometimes that's just pure faith.

Somebody said something along the lines of, when you don't take action, you betray yourself. My friend likes to use the word betray yourself. Because then your confidence decreases, because you know you haven't kept the promise you made to yourself.

I love that, yeah.

I really believe confidence comes from the place of remembering your truth. How do you know what's true if you haven't taken any action to validate the truth? You have to either look in a mirror.

You know bats have this sonograph or whatever they echo, and it tells them how far something is. If they never made the sound, and they just flew in the dark, they'd run into all the walls. I think that's part of us being human and trying stuff.

We're sending out that sound to find out where the boundaries are. And sometimes it's messy, and sometimes it doesn't work, and you, oh, okay, well, there's a wall now. I need to pivot and go this way.

I've never used that analogy before, but it just came up like we really are just experiencing life and figuring out things along the way. That's the human being. We're just showing up being us.

Part of that is doing us. It's not doing things to get a certain result. It's doing the things that we were created to do on purpose, with intention.

The VIP.

Back to the VIP, yeah.

That has been one of the core processes for my confidence, in part because I cared so much about what people thought and pleasing people. I wanted them to like me because my core wound is abandonment.

So I was abandoned and orphaned at birth and I was adopted at two months old. And when I found out I was adopted, I was around six. And from that moment on, I was afraid that I wouldn't be good enough and they would somehow not want me.

And so from that moment on, I wanted people to want me. I had to be good enough for them to keep me. That was how I stayed safe in my little kid brain, right?

That that trauma wound was just cemented in and showed up in the rest of my life. Up until my 40s.

But what I've learned is that there are going to be people, no matter what I do, no matter how hard I try to be loving and supportive and kind, and their biggest cheerleader and supporter, they're never going to see me the way I want to be seen.

They're never going to show up for me the way I need them to show up for me. The truth of that is, that's not my fault. That has nothing to do with me.

That has everything to do with their journey, right? Their situation, their heart, their path, their traumas, their wounds. That has nothing to do with me.

So because they don't like me or because they don't like what I said, or they don't want to be around me, there's nothing I can do about that.

And it would break my heart, like fracture my soul, break my heart until I realized I can control what I can control.

I can control my choices, who I show up as long as my intention wasn't to hurt somebody or piss them off or disappoint them or do something destructive.

I can accept that they're going to have a feeling about it and let them have it, and I can move on because I know what my intention was. And that is the same thing with clients. If clients don't want to stay with me, I can only do what I can do.

Kids aren't happy with my choices, I can only do what I can do. Friends don't want to show up for me the way I want to show up for them and have shown up for them.

I can create a boundary and release them because I know what my heart is, I know what my intentions are, I know what I value, and I know why I'm here now.

It's not to bend myself inside out to be something they need me to be, it's to be who I'm called to be. And if that's not what they need right now, that's okay. I can love them and let them be and do what they need to do.

That gave me such freedom. It took the ownership of their happiness and gave it back to them. And I took the ownership of my happiness back.

And that just was like, oh, so freeing, so much weight off my shoulders when I just made that decision. And it clicked finally one day after really grieving over a friendship because I didn't know what I had done wrong.

And then it was like, I didn't do anything wrong. It just wasn't what they needed. And that has to be okay.

Send them with love.

Yeah, and I can still love them, and I can still be me and honor me.

And if they ever needed me, if they called me today, I would be there. But I wouldn't sacrifice myself to make them happy when they were determined to be miserable.

My grandma used to say, you are the driver of this car. We are gonna support you, but we cannot fight the battle for you.

Yeah, oh, your grandmother's so wise. I think the boundary that when I say, you know, we get to create a boundary, it's I get to fight my battles and I don't have to put them on somebody else. It's nobody else's responsibility to fight them.

And it's not my responsibility to fight theirs. Get to be the warrior of my life and allow them to be the warrior of theirs. Warrior, W-A, not warrior, W-O.

That is so powerful.

Coach Karen Gray, the confidence coder and founder of Confidence Coding. I believe you have a podcast. Would you like to tell our listeners where they can find you?

Absolutely.

So for the last seven seasons, I have hosted the Rock Movers Podcast and we have rebranded. Now our platform is going to be under Confidence Coding. Rock moving is the process of taking the burdens that we choose to carry and letting them go.

And really that is the premise of my Confidence Coding program. And so now you get to hear more about Confidence Coding as a process.

We're going to have a different platform, not as many of yous, where you get to hear other people's story, but you really get to hear and learn about this process, how you can become more confident and what that could look like for you through the

Remember why we hear a quest that so many of us have.

Thank you so much, Coach Karen. And one last thing, where can our listeners find you online? Because I believe you have freebies on your website.

I do.

So everything is under Coach Karen Gray and that's spelled like you see on the screen, but if you're listening, it's K-A-R-E-N-G-R-A-Y. And from there, you can find all my social links.

And I just launched a Confidence Coding Instagram, where you can get little daily affirmations and daily encouragement. And then you'll be able to get to the Confidence Coding Podcast from there as well.

So just really want to fulfill my purpose, which is to love big and help people see how truly valuable and worthy they are, and to confidently step into their power and their dreams.

coachkarengray.com, thank you so much, Coach Karen, for being here today. There's so much that we learned from you, and I know that our listeners truly benefited from what you shared today. So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for this opportunity. And would love to share this on our Confidence Coding platform as well, because I think what you're doing with communication is so key.

And it's taking everything with the Confidence Coding program and just partnering it with how you show up in those really important conversations. So I love that. Love that.

Excited to collaborate and partner with you too.

Thank you. Thank you for joining us on the Speaking and Communicating Podcast once again. Please log on to Apple and Spotify.

Leave us a rating and a review and what you'd like for us to discuss on the show that will be of benefit to you.

We encourage you to continue to get communicating and let us know how communication skills continue to improve your life professionally and personally. And stay tuned for more episodes to come.