Creating Safe Spaces and Empowering Voices with Melissa Bauknight

Do you know directly from your employees if you provide them a safe space to come to you when they're struggling, or if they have a conflict with a team member, or simply that they need some advice and they're not sure where to turn? Do you even struggle to feel confident to use your voice openly at the table? Creating safe spaces for someone to feel confident to voice their opinions, raise up an issue, or confront a conflict is paramount as a leader. Without it, you are actually creating a dysfunctional environment that will eat away at the trust, respect, and contribution that you're working so hard to achieve, let alone your employees suffer as a result. And that is a lose-lose for everyone. In this conversation, we are creating a win-win for you. Our guest, Melissa Bach Knight, will help foster safe environments where individuals can find their true voice and feel supported by others. She will share practical approaches for creating spaces where all voices are heard and valued, ensuring psychological safety and mutual respect. Lastly, she will discuss sustainable leadership practices that prioritize personal wellbeing alongside professional responsibilities. You will walk away with an understanding of how to embrace your authentic self by shedding societal expectations and aligning your personal and professional life with your own core values. How to create safe, supported spaces where vulnerability is celebrated and genuine connections thrive. And lastly, strategies for leading with empathy, resilience, and authenticity in ensuring that both you and your team thrive. So stay with us.

Welcome to Shedding the Corporate Bitch, the podcast that transforms today's managers into tomorrow's powerhouse leaders. Your host, Bernadette Boas, executive coach and author, brings you into a world where the corporate grind meets personal growth and success in each and every episode. With more than 25 years in corporate trenches, Bernadette's own journey from being dismissed as a tyrant boss to becoming a sought-after leadership coach and speaker illustrates the very essence of transformation that she She now inspires others with her tips, strategies, and stories. So if you're ready to shed the bitches of fear and insecurity, ditch the imposter syndrome, and step into the role of the powerhouse leader you were born to be, this podcast is for you. Let's do this.

Melissa, welcome, welcome, welcome. I'm thrilled that you're here with us.

Oh, thank you. I'm so happy to be here.

Well, I am happy to learn all about creating safe spaces. And for really for our leaders to empower their voice, but also empower the voices around them. But before we do, I always like our listeners and viewers to get to know the person. So could you share a little bit about who Melissa is, what makes you tick, and all that kind of good stuff?

Yes. And I love that you start with that because at, in my personal life and at the community I run, we are always more interested in who you are versus what you do. So I, I really love your intentionality with that. I am a 41-year-old mother of a 7-year-old boy who lives in Colorado, and I have been on a real soul journey in my adult life. I grew up in a very black and white, right or wrong environment, and I have been doing a lot of shedding over the last 10 years on purpose. Of what are the things that don't belong to me and what are the things that do. And I, and for those listeners who might be familiar with some tools that we might use to get to know ourselves, I love Human Design, if you're familiar with that. So I am a manifesting generator, which means I am kind of like a squirrel that loves to jump from one passion to another and can really move quickly. And so it's got its perks and its minuses being somebody like that, or especially if you're in my life, like my husband, which is the opposite personality of me. But you know, I, I really believe in honoring our unique design and listening to our intuition and going with our gut feelings and living a life that feels true to who you are. So I've been working very hard at doing that for myself.

Good for you. Good for you. But I am gonna ask a question.

Yeah. I do wanna ask.

I do wanna ask a question about that and then we'll get into our subject. I promise. Yeah. But so when you say you hop from one thing to the other, you know, from one passion to the other, but yet you're a manifesting, you know, generator. Generator. Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

Does it stick enough? Are you there in that space on that particular passion? Long enough for that manifestation to actually stick and be realized? I'm just very curious because I love that whole subject.

Yeah, it's— so it's a little bit different. A manifesting generator and manifesting are kind of different things. So manifesting generator is an energy type in this Human Design system, and so what it means is I'm designed to be multi-passionate. And so it's less about like jumping ship when things get hard and more about allowing yourself not to be boxed in. So for example, when I was in, I have a, had a 15-year very successful corporate career, but I had a side hustle because if I was just in corporate, like I need other things to keep me engaged and alive. And so that's more about it is that you are allowed to be multi-passionate. And I think we're often told that we're supposed to just like stick with one thing and not have other passions and, and, or there's something wrong with you if you want to leave something because it's no longer lighting you up. And a big part of when I, when I started to learn more about myself and how I was designed was that I'm actually designed to chase things that light me up, to have more than one thing going on at once. And that's how I actually maximize my existence versus harm myself. Or harm those around me. So it's, it's just pretty fascinating.

Yeah, no, it is. And you know, for those of you listening and, and watching who might just have thought we made a right turn into like the woo-woo world, and you're like this corporate professional who's, you know, looking for, you know, kind of firm strategic tips. I think it's really important what you're discussing, Melissa, because, you know, life at work or at home, it's about you, the person. And that actually is a great segue into our discussion around our voice. But, and therefore, you know, it's imperative that we get to know ourselves and not just a persona that either other people have of us or that we're, you know, kind of creating, you know, for ourselves, masking possibly, as I did for many, many years, uh, masking what we don't really wanna necessarily recognize. Does that make sense?

Totally. It's, it's true. And I think we all do it. And I, that's, that's been the biggest journey that I've been on and the one that I really support through my work now is the unmasking. Because you can't feel safe, you can't find your voice, you can't create the impact that you wanna make if you don't actually know who you are. And I know that sounds so basic, but you know, I was talking to the superintendent of our school district here with 80,000+ students and we were talking about bringing her leaders into my community, and she's like, you know, they don't need more of this like tactical strategic training. They need more of knowing who they are. They need more of feeling like they have a community to support them so they can take bigger risks.

Right.

They need to know that they're not alone. And so, you know, they need to know how to regulate their nervous system when they get activated in a room and how to like those types of skills. So it's You know, we can call it woo woo, we can call it whatever we want. It's more of a feminine, to me it's more of a feminine approach to business. And a lot of the things that we've been told are not valuable. Right. And that we need to shut down, which I believe the exact opposite.

Yeah. I absolutely am on board with you, but I was that, I was that individual, that corporate professional who was like, don't believe a lot. You know, and I am so thrilled to be here, you know, 12, 14 years later. Getting to know exactly who I am. Yeah. Because you're absolutely right. Which is, like I said, a great segue into our conversation. So is there something in your, from your personal experience where this subject of creating safe spaces and really empowering, you know, one's voice, whether it be your own or team members or people around you, was there an experience that you had that really kind of locked in this to be an area that you wanted to, you know, put your business and all your energy into?

My whole life. My one experience, like the moment I knew, you know, there, there have been so many moments along the way, which I think is very normal. I think we have these big marker moments where we're like, wow, that really transformed the direction of my life. I do recall, actually I did this whole keynote about it on the audacity to be yourself and There was a moment for me when I was a new mom and I was in corporate and I was in medical device sales and I had a 10-month-old baby at the time, so was still nursing. And I had, you know, they, as they do, they're like, oh, your national sales director's coming on town in 2 days. Clear your schedule, go be at this event. And I remember for so much of my life it being fine to do that kind of thing, to just sacrifice myself or be like, oh yeah, this is normal. I'll just drop everything I'm doing to go meet the demands of, these other people. And I, and I scrambled to find a sitter. I went to this dinner, I was sitting at the dinner, and I love men. I've had amazing male role models and mentors and, and managers my whole career. But I was sitting in a pretty male-dominated table and they were talking about things I had no interest, like sports and Formula 1 racing and all of these things. And I was a trained chameleon in sales, and I just sat there so silent. Because it was this moment where I, my, it was like my body had decided I cannot pretend any longer that I care about this. Can I cuss on this show?

Sure.

That I care about this shit. Like, I was like, I don't care about this shit. And I'm normally very chatty and I can show up in any room and I just sat there and I was like, no, nope, I can't do this anymore. And I remember my manager coming to me and asking me if everything was okay and And it was kind of that moment that I decided that I needed to make a change. And it wasn't, I didn't change overnight. It took me about 6 to 8 months to really put my plan in motion. But it was, it was, my body was like stopping me from speaking because I just stopped wanting to mask. I was like, I can't.

Right, right, right. Well, and that's, that is a problematic system out there. That's not a word at all, but anyway. That is so stereotypical, but I'm curious, did you get any, I'll call it coaching, but did you get any feedback afterwards regarding the fact that you weren't engaged, you weren't contributing, you weren't, you know, kind of ensuring that you're hooking in to the group around you?

I didn't get in trouble, but it was definitely noticed. And it was more of a concern, I think, for me. But at this point in my life, I had been doing personal growth work pretty regularly for about 4 years.

Okay.

And so I'd already started to build, to question a lot of things in my life and to start to really think about like, well, what would I want if it wasn't this? And, and a lot of things that I had never questioned before. I was just on a pretty traditional path, but I, I had been in the inquiry for a little bit, so it wasn't like I just like popped into that room and was like, what am I doing here? I had been in the inquiry and then, you know, as a, it's a buildup of a buildup of things that happen and finally you just, I mean, I didn't snap, but you kind of snap. Oh, hey. You know, it's like the rubber band gets stretched so far that you finally let go and you gotta make a change.

It's so true. But we're hoping that we can help individuals do that before they get to that point.

Totally.

Right. So what do you find to be the biggest challenges in business with professionals, with managers who are struggling themselves, let alone with their people, in providing that safe space, that, that place that they can feel, you know, totally comfortable in coming forward with with a conflict, with an issue, with a, you know, a request for an opportunity. What do you find to be the biggest challenges in, in having that type of environment?

Well, I think it takes a pretty conscious, aware person to be doing that work themselves. So it's very different if you go to a manager. Like if I went back into corporate now and somebody approached me, I would be probably the most approachable person on the planet. Because I've done a lot of inner work. Yes. And so I think it depends on, is that corporate culture conducive to inner work? Do they have executive coaches? Do they have a budget for you to go get curious about yourself in other ways? Are they doing retreats that aren't just like self-serving for the betterment of the, of the company's objectives and their growth metrics?, but is, is that culture there that really says, yeah, we actually care about your wellbeing.

Right, right.

And I think if without that you don't feel safe to do it, or you are the one going first, which is really scary.

Why? Like, where do people get hung up around being that one to do something different, to stand out, to take the initiative, be a leader.

Yeah.

What is so— what do you find to be so scary for them?

Well, I think if we take it back to like the actual structure of our body, our nervous system, I don't think it's like, oh, you're not brave enough, or you don't have courage. I think there's a lot of really bold people that stay quiet because when I think about safety, I think about Safety in my body, safety in my nervous system. Do I have a, an a previous example showing me that this is okay, that the lion's not gonna come eat me, right? That I can step out and not have a huge consequence on myself and my life. And a lot of times we've actually seen the opposite where you've maybe tested it out or you've seen somebody try it out and they got fired or they got in trouble or they got put on plan or whatever that is. So you probably have had more examples in your life of it actually not being safe, that the stakes are really high, and you have less examples of, wow, I saw that person cry in the meeting and nobody shamed her or him. In fact, they got curious about it. Or I saw that person ask for that raise and they were met with curiosity or whatever those examples are.

Right.

We, we need proof that it's gonna be okay. And that can come from other people's experiences and that can come from our own. But it comes back to like, does my nervous system go into like fight or flight? Right. Because I don't know, I'm, I don't feel sure enough how this is gonna go.

Yeah. No, I love that.

I love that.

Now, On all those elements that you said, if they were put into place, do you find any organizations that create those type of environments, even based on goals that they establish for their leaders that they actually define, they put metrics to, they, uh, you know, assess it, they report on it, they really kind of hold them accountable to them. To ensure this shift, whether it be at a team level or the culture itself. Have you ever found that?

I think B corporations are great examples of that. Now, it's not like I've been involved in a lot of B corporations to be like, oh, every one of 'em does this, but they have very strict metrics to meet that show that you care about the people, profit, and the planet. And so, and it's very, challenging to get a B Corp certification. And in fact, you're held to these pretty high metrics over and over and over again to prove that you put your money where your mouth is, for lack of better saying. And so I think that type of organization is designed to be set up that way. So I worked with Beautycounter for about 9 years as a consultant for them, and that was my first experience for, of a B Corporation. And I loved it. I loved it. I loved the true compassion for the people working for the company. I love the compassion for the environment. I love how thoughtful their decisions were, from like, you know, every detail to like the brand of tampons they put in the bathroom for our conferences. We're like, oh, this is helping women in third world countries and this is why we chose them. It was like every single detail showed that they cared. And so it wasn't just, oh, we have these values on our website or these you know, with these, these values that we were told to make as part of our brand kit, it was like a real embodiment of what they stood for.

Yeah. And for those watching or listening that may not understand what B corporations are, mm-hmm.

I'm not an expert on that, but essentially it is a business with a triple bottom line. There's a, a rigid certification process that a corporation has to go through in order to be part of that. So like Patagonia, Ben Jerry's, oh my gosh. Well, Beautycounter was one of, there's so many, but if you'd go to like B, I think it's bcorporations.com, you can see a list of them.

And I wanna put that in our, uh, uh, show notes for everyone because I think that's imp— that would be a great read and great education, uh, for any, any, you know, leader within a business. And, you know, take out what you might not be going for the certification, but you can take out some elements of it that you can then feel safe about possibly implementing in your, yeah. In your own culture. So let's talk about the, the safety, the psychological safety of, you know, employees in setting up that type of culture. What does that take? And/or what, what is the biggest impact that you find when there isn't that psychological safety?

I'm sure you've felt that in your life of what that, what the impact is. I think everyone If we asked anybody listening, tell me a time where you haven't felt safe, everyone would have an answer and probably more than one. So I think what it takes is— this is gonna oversimplify it, but it takes vulnerability and it takes, especially from a leader. So now I run my own business, I'm learning a lot about this. I have a small team, so I've been in, you know, big big huge corporations to network marketing to now running my own business. So it's been interesting crossing the, the gamut of different types of companies and, and having those experiences. And, and so what I do now is, you know, I lead by example. So I don't pretend to be somebody that I'm not. I'm pretty vulnerable, obviously within, within guardrails. I'm not like airing my dirty laundry to my team, but you know, I take the time to know who they are, what they care about, what's going on in their personal life. I give them grace when things are going on. On and life is lifing very hard, that to be like, do you need space? Do you need a different kind of support here? Do you have the capacity to do your job? Do you need, do you need to take a break? Like, what do you need? And really to see them is the key component. So when you feel seen, it's almost like an exhale. Like you feel like, you know, I, I say these at, this at our events, I want you to take your mask off and set it at the door. You can pick it back up when you leave if you feel like you want to. But take it off and set it down. You have permission to show up exactly as you are today. If you're having a great day, you wanna celebrate something, bring it to the table. If you are a hot mess and you are wondering why you even showed up today and you're terrified, you're perfect as you are. You don't need to pretend that you're any different than exactly as you are today. So there's that like permission to be yourself, that leading with vulnerability and really embodying that, right? It's really that, that your actions match your words. And I think when that's not there, I had chronic anxiety for decades, so that was the impact of me not having it there. I think you get into burnout, which I have fortunately gotten my own personal taste of lately. I think when, when you're, you're pushing too hard or you're ignoring your own personal needs, your body will let you know. So you'll probably have a health issue. Not probably. You will have a health issue and your body will start yelling at you. It'll get louder and louder and louder until you're no longer able to plow through it.

Yeah. Yeah. My, uh, body yelled at me so much cuz I put on like 30 pounds. I grew my hair down to here. It was ragged and messy.

I look like a heffa.

And someone makes a comment to me who I adore and love, and I was just like, Oh my God, I need to kind of like clean the mirror and get a really good look at myself. And when I saw myself, not only physically, but even just emotionally, yeah, it was, it was devastating. At the same time, I think we have to recognize too that, would you agree, you know, happy people make for happy results. You know, and you know, those that are, you know, taking care of themselves, taking care of their, you know, fellow team members in this case for business, you know, create that space just easily and naturally by simply allowing everybody to be themselves and making sure that everyone's taking care of themselves. And therefore, would you agree that that result, that ends in higher productivity, You know, lower, you know, lower attrition, increased, you know, satisfaction and ultimately results, right?

Yeah. And I think in, in the environment that we're in post-COVID, I think it's almost a non-negotiable because people are, not everyone, but I think people are done. Like, I think people are done just pushing relentlessly just for the sake of pushing. I think we, there's a shift happening where we— this is incredibly important, and people are leaving for more meaning. They're leaving for companies that care more. And so I don't think it's something that we can ignore for very long because the employee demand is going to be there for it. Yes.

And are you talking particular age groups or the whole gamut? Everyone from the young, new, up-and-coming to the seasoned professional, they're just done and they're looking for more supportive environments.

I would say younger, we'll call it like post-grad to maybe 35, are pretty intolerant of it. I, I'm in the middle bracket and that's who I spend a lot of my time with is more of the like 35 to 55-year-olds who a lot of times have already made a meaningful transition, are really considering making a meaningful transition that they are now, you know, we weren't necessarily raised in that environment where you had that, or you felt like you had a lot of role models showing you that there was a different way to exist in the workplace. And I think this, this goes for men and women. I spend most of my time with pretty ambitious women. And so I think there's this growing desire. In fact, I have, I've never talked to a woman that can't relate to this in one way, shape, or form where they're like, they've been silenced, they've been just sacrificing themselves, they've had a health issue, they haven't been felt balanced in their life, they've felt siloed or unsupported. I mean, 100% of women I've spoken to, and I speak to a lot of women about this, can relate to this. So I think there's a growing desire in that middle age, we'll call a middle age, let's call it seasoned. I like your plan.

Seasoned.

Lots of wisdom. Yeah. There's a, a lot of us with wisdom that are just kind of like starting to get more and more examples and proof that it's possible to do something a different way.

Yeah, absolutely. And it doesn't necessarily, or are you saying, you know, are you seeing the shift, you know, being from corporate to doing something on their own or they're just changing even within the corporate environment, but just seeking out other cultures that are more conducive to a, you know, to a happy employee?

A little bit of both. I mean, a lot of the women I see have, but they've gone on a journey to really start to get curious about what else it could be for them. They may go back to corporate, they may find a different company. Right. But it's interesting how many women I've seen take a pretty intentional pause to do some self-reflection. To make a new choice moving forward.

I had mentioned earlier that we don't want them to get to the point where, you know, it's kind of like their back's up against the wall. You know, we wanna kind of be proactive and catch 'em earlier. But are you finding, but are you finding that that self-awareness isn't in the earlier stage? It's in that time when someone hits a wall.

I think oftentimes it is because we're so trained to override ourselves. You know, we think we can just keep going or doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. Or maybe it feels too scary to look at it because the stakes are pretty high. Maybe you're the sole provider. Maybe you can't afford to leave your job tomorrow. Maybe you're really invested and you are, you feel a little bit trapped. I think there's a lot of reasons we don't wanna look at it, but I also do think that I'll just use a catch-all. Well-being is more mainstream, right? These, these things that we're talking about are no longer hidden under a rock.

Right.

And so I think access to information is so much more readily available that people can, they're reading books, they're hiring coaches, they're seeing like naturopathic doctors, they're doing some different type of holistic care to, to start to educate themselves. So I, I think that. It doesn't have to get to the point where you're, you're so burnt out, you just, you know, flip the table over and run. I think that there's a lot of things that you can do to really start to educate yourself and ask for support, which is, I would say, the number one most important thing that we need to learn to do is to ask for probably 100 times more support than we think we need.

I mean, okay, still on that, um, when we think about some steps, even proactively and hopefully proactively, that one of our listeners and viewers could be taking, and maybe they're not completely, totally aware, you know, of, of what they're feeling, but yet they do wanna get in touch with it. What do you suggest that they start doing?

I would say hire a coach or a mentor or somebody like that. I love, so I was an elite athlete and I, I relate a lot to sports. And I would never try to be an elite athlete without a coach. I would never try to be elite in my career without a coach. I just think that this, this idea, I think maybe step one is accepting that you, you shouldn't and can't go it alone.

Right.

And that's very lonely and a lot of people feel that.

And do you have a, a process for, let's look at that, do you have a process for helping someone reconcile that point about that they don't have to do it alone and what their fears are around them? Do you have any, you know, process you send your clients through that would help them understand and uncover what maybe those things are?

Yeah. I mean, I, I, I do more of a customized approach to people just depending on, on what they're dealing with. I think First and foremost, if you identify your core values and you can start to say, hey, these are the things that matter most to me, and these are the things that don't matter most to me. I have a, a Life Alignment worksheet that I love to use that really has you just start to an inner journey and you can just rate yourself like, how do I feel about these different areas of my life on 0 to 10? And how much time am I spending on the areas that I care most about? And, you know, what are my values and am I actually living by them or am I totally abandoning them? And then it takes them through different areas of their life. So I think that like having some sort of self-reflection tool like that is incredibly important. And then the first thing I do when, whenever somebody works with me is I actually refer them to a friend who does Human Design readings. I'm bringing it back to that. And because I think it's the most effective tool to understand how you operate in the world in a very specific way that's unique to you. And it helps you feel incredibly seen and gives you permission to stop trying to be the person that you never have been all along. Mm-hmm. And usually people are in tears just from hearing that because they've been, you know, like forced into being in a very analytical position, but in fact they're actually really intuitive. Mm-hmm. And they've been told to ignore their intuition their entire life and thought something was wrong with them. Or like me when it was, oh, you, something's wrong with you because you have lots of passions all at once. Can't you just stick to one thing?, and it was like, well, no, that's not actually how I'm supposed to be. So I think doing that first on that inner self-reflection and then having an external tool that's pretty objective, that's almost a mirror for you to see yourself as a great starting point. Yeah. To just get a gauge for how are you showing up in your life right now.

I love that. Now, I don't wanna overlook what you mentioned, the Life Alignment Worksheet. How would one go about getting that?

If you go to thenovaglobal.com, it's on our homepage. It's a free download that we offer to you. And in fact, we are, we have a bigger freebie that's called the Inner Nova Kit. That is some of my and our community's favorite resources. So it gives you some nervous system education. It gives you the life alignment worksheet. It gives you how to actually form more meaningful connections so that you can feel like you have these deep meaningful relationships with other people versus surface level.

Right.

And, and then it has an ebook that it, that I wrote that is all about the journey to the audacity to be you, which I mentioned earlier. So it's some of our favorite tools to help you really start to see what we call your inner Nova, that star, that, that uniqueness that is you. And so that is also available on our website as well. Okay.

And that website is thenovaglobal.com for all of our listeners. So definitely go and check that out. All right. So I want to get into the voice. Is it just business factors that squashes one's voice, or what is it that they need to kind of pay attention to as to why they, their voices are being silenced and, or at least, you know, diminished?

Well, I think this can be an inner child conversation. But if you— I mean, it does start when you're little, right? Did you grow up with parents that told you to be quiet and sit there? You know, what were you taught? How were you taught to use your voice when you were little? Because that's carried over your entire— that carries through to your entire life. So, you know, were you taught— like, I, I am really conscious with my son around getting curious and letting him speak up and not just being an authoritative parent that's like This is, I'm the boss here and you gotta listen to me no matter what, you know, which is love my dad, but how my dad was, it was like, this is right, this is wrong. You gotta listen to me. And so I learned to hide and be sneaky and lie. That's what I learned. That if you hid it and you did it anyway, then maybe it's okay, but you'd get caught sometime. Like, so I mean, I think that a lot of it goes back into how we were raised and how we were taught to, to use our voice or not use our voice. I think some of it is our innate personalities. I don't believe in like introvert versus extrovert, but I think there's some of us that are designed to be more like louder than others just by nature. I know in the beginning we were talking about even just like how loud our voices are, right? Right. Like I don't, I don't walk into a room and I'm not small in a room. I take up a lot of space in a room.

Me too.

I, some of that, and that's innate to us. And, and again, I think it's those having the places to practice where you can try to elevate your voice or speak your truth at me more. So I always look at our community meet, our community events and gatherings. And in fact, this is how I learned to find my voice. I started show, showing up in small groups of people that were held in a very specific way that were the facilitator. Knew, was probably trauma-informed and they knew how to hold space. And, and I was not judged for what I said. In fact, oftentimes I was told, me too. Um, you're not alone. You're not crazy. And I just, for 10 years have been practicing in these spaces where it's not the exception, it's the norm. And then you go out into the big scary world and you try it, right? You say that thing and then it goes better than you thought. It does. You do it again, and then you do it again, and then you find an ally in the company that's like, hey, I see you, I got your back, let's go, you know? And so it's just about like, I think start small, start small with one person, a small group, and work your way up to the highest stakes environment as you're learning to practice finding your voice in a bigger way.

Yes, I love that. Practice finding your voice. Love it.

Totally.

Because the impact to them as leaders You know, they'll often hear me say, you know, that without your voice, you're not really a leader. You're not, if you, you know, aren't kind of leading your people and giving them that direction confidently and willingly to stand up for them, to have their back, to defend them, whatever the case might be, to put them, you know, in the front and let them be recognized, then they could be struggling to be a real effective leader.

Yeah.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, absolutely. It is because it's— being a leader is not about you. Being a leader is how do you empower other people to show up in their, their whole lives, their work, their personal lives. And, you know, what, what opportunities are you granting for them? And, and I will tell you that my experience, I've always had pretty great leadership. I've had a few sour apples along the way, but I've had a lot of great leaders. And now being an entrepreneur, the amount of what I would call leadership generosity that I have been the recipient of is what has allowed me to take big, bold steps, to be the bravest I've ever been in my entire life, to do the thing that is the scariest thing to me is because I have surrounded, I've gotten in the rooms with the, what I would put in quotes, the right kind of leader that wants to see me win and is like, how do we link arms? How do I run with you? How do I take my experience, reach back, pull you up with me? How can I introduce you to somebody? And, and I have been overwhelmed with the level of love and care that that kind of a leader has shown me. And I will tell you, it, it is— I mean, full body goosebumps. It is life-changing.

I do too.

Absolutely life-changing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's so true. It's so true. There's nothing better than finding that person or persons, and there's nothing better than becoming Yeah. Oh my God. When you become that person, it is the most freeing, liberating experience.

Yeah.

Melissa, this has been fabulous. Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

But before I totally let you go, looking at what we've talked about around creating spaces and, and finding your voice, empowering your voice, what would be that one big thing that you would wanna leave our listeners and viewers with?

That you really deserve it. I, I don't believe worth is something that we have to earn or that some people are more worthy than others to get to have that. I think that it's our birthright to get to exist in places that feel like that and to have people that surround us that feel like that. And so I would say you, if you don't have it, you're worthy of it and you deserve it and it's out there and it's way easier to find than you think.

That is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. And you're so right. You're so right. Thank you so much, Melissa. This has been fabulous. And I'll be sure to make sure that everyone knows where they can go and get their life alignment worksheet and or the kit. @thenovaglobal.com. So thank you so much. What a powerhouse conversation with Melissa Bocknight of The Nova Global. She really kind of drilled it down to getting to know you, getting to know yourself, ensuring that if you do wanna create a safe environment, be in a safe environment for yourself and your team members as well, to really empower a confident bold and powerful voice, then you need to ensure that you are getting to know you. What's important? What's not important? What core values do you have? And do they align with the work that you're doing, the company you're working with, the people that you're socializing and/or working with? And therefore, is it a healthy, is it a productive, is, is it a fulfilling environment and lifestyle that you are building for yourself. I am thrilled that you were here with us for this powerful conversation, and I'll look forward to having you right back here for another episode of Shedding the Corporate Bitch. Bye.

Thank you for tuning into today's episode of Shedding the Corporate Bitch. Every journey taken together is another step towards unleashing the powerhouse leader within you. Don't miss any of our weekly episodes. Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you love to listen. And for those who thrive on visual content, catch us on our Shedding the Bitch YouTube channel. Want to dive deeper with Bernadette on becoming a powerhouse leader? Visit balloffirecoaching.com to learn more about how she helps professionals, HR executives, and team leaders elevate overall team performance. You've been listening to Shedding the Corporate Bitch with Bernadette Boas. Until next time, keep shedding, keep growing, and keep leading.