How To Become A Powerful Woman

Achieving goals is really hard when you have no power. Hello, everyone. Kathy Cabrino here, and welcome to my new series, the Most Powerful you Mondays. I have a goal for this series, which is hopefully I will come to every week with what I call hacks, short videos, five minutes or under, where I'm offering a tip, a strategy, a solution, an idea, an approach, a mindset shift. Something that will help you move forward to what you really want. And that could be in your career, in your personal life, in your family life, in your communication, in how you are coming forward and connecting with other people. It's across the board, and I am bringing to you as much as I can that I'm learning from my Finding Brave podcast interviews and my Forbes interviews and from coaching a lot of people and hearing from a lot of people on LinkedIn and beyond. So let's. Let's start with this. You know, I've written a book about this. I talk about this, I train about this, but I really want to start here. And it is about the issue of power. So this is what I want to share. So many people, particularly women, say to me, I don't want power. So I say to them, okay, what do you want instead? And they say, influence and impact. And I want to make a positive difference, and I want to be an uplifting presence and role model. And, and this is what I have to say to that. You can't do that without power. And I sound emphatic about it because I have lived a life for 18 years in corporate life with no power, with no passion, with no purpose. And I can tell you this, achieving goals is really hard when you have no power. So I want to talk a little bit about what I mean by power and why I think so many women shun it, which is dangerous. And here's what I mean. To me, power is the ability to be your own change agent, to take the reins and make changes in your life, to be your own author of your life. You cannot do that without power. But what women tell me when I dig deeper in is, okay, what I ask them, what's wrong with power? Well, they say these words, manipulative, abusive, harsh, quote, critical, aggressive. And this is what I want to say about that. I. I was an English major and, you know, a writer back when I was, you know, early on teens and in my 20s. And I adore Shakespeare. I feel like Shakespeare said so much about what life is truly about, and he said this. Nothing is but thinking makes it so, so great. What does he mean or what? How do I interpret that when you're talking about power. Power in and of itself is nothing. It's how you wield it that is going to make the difference. So I know why women shun power. Because pretty much all of us, if I may make a gross generalization, have been under the thumb of power. We live in a patriarchal world, if even in the business world. What percentage of women are Fortune 500 CEOs? Very little. I believe it's under 10. We know what it is to be manipulated. We know what it is. I've been sexually harassed. I faced gender discrimination, gender bias, toxic colleagues were narcissistic bosses. I faced it all. And a lot of it had to do with negative power. But what I need to share is just because it was wielded negatively doesn't mean you're going to wield it negatively. So what I love you to think about is if I could demonstrate, exhibit, wield, share power in a positive way, what would that look like? Who could I help? How could I help my kids? How could I help my partners? How can I help my family? How can I help my business? If I were more powerful, and I would want you to, as Shakespeare said, think of it this way. It can be gentle, compassionate, kind, open, loving, spiritual. I know quite a few very spiritual people, I don't mean religious, I mean spiritual, who are powerful, and they uplift you. Just by listening to them, you feel changed. I'm talking about that kind of power. So here's my question to you. If you could have that, if you truly could change people for the better by the positive, compassionate, loving power that you had, what would you want to do? What would you want to change? Because if you can answer that, I believe that two things will happen. You will get on the road to doing that and you will stop shunning power. Now, if you want all sorts of ways to become more powerful and become more brave, they're all, in my book, the most powerful you. But this is not about pitching something. This is about inspiring you to think a little differently, to see if you can overcome an impediment, a block of fear, so that you can have more of what you want. So, question is, if you could have the most beautiful, loving power that could change things for the better, what would that feel like? What would you want to change? And how can you start that in the smallest little way today? I hope that's helpful. Check the links below and you can find out more. We're all about my book, my podcast, my website. Kathy Caprino.com. and I hope you'll come back for next Monday's most powerful you Monday series. Thank you for joining me. Bye.