Brag Party!!!

Hello, everyone. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and leadership coach. This evening I want to tackle a topic that I have seen pop up numerous times over the last few days and several times today. And this is apologizing for bragging. And I want to talk about. I just want to dive in tonight. Like, if you have anything to contribute, please do interact in the chat. I will shout you out. By the way, I'm doing this on Streamyard, so if you. You comment something and I don't respond to it or I don't shout you out, it is not you. Sometimes the technology just fails and it doesn't. Let me see all the comments, but let's dive right into it. So I want to talk about bragging. First, I want to talk about what bragging is and what it is not. Okay? Bragging is the verbal celebration of good things happening to you, either caused by goodness in the universe or caused by your own efforts in making it happen. I honestly think mostly it is your own efforts. You are far more powerful than you take credit for, especially if you're one of those people who feels bad about bragging. It's not luck. It's not just chance. You put yourself out there. I guarantee you, you put yourself out there, you maintain good relationships, you work hard, you're smart. All these other things that feed into successes happening to you. So bragging is celebrating good things happening to you. Bragging is telling the universe. Hey, universe, thank you so much. That was just what I wanted. I'm so delighted with what I got. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And also, can I have more, please? Like, I just. I very sincerely want to ask for more. That is what bragging is. It is very clean. It is energetically positive. Okay? If you are bragging from a clean, just very delighted with what has been delivered at your doorstep and just wanting to celebrate and show gratitude and also ask the universe for more. There should not be one person in your circle of people who give an F about you who makes you feel bad about it. Not one person. Because making someone feel bad for bragging is making them feel small for good things happening to them. I'm going to repeat that. Making someone feel bad for bragging about good things happening to them is making them feel small for good things happening to them. I mean, do I have to explain why that is so screwed up? And we all know that there are people out there, people who are in our circles, in our families, in our communities, who can absolutely be with us in our hours of need, who can be there for us when we are falling apart, when we're sad, when we're angry, when things just aren't going right. And some of those people also cannot be with you in your joy. They do not know how to be with you when things are going well for you. Especially. Especially if things aren't going as well for them. If things are going well for you. But it's, you know, their standard is still, you know, above you. They can kind of be there for you, but if you're doing better than them, they don't know how to be happy for you because you're activating all of their insecurities. Okay? There's a saying that gets passed around feminist circles all the time because, you know, women who own their power oftentimes scare people away, okay? But this saying is that they. You are not intimidating, they are intimidated. Okay? So people who will make you feel bad for bragging from a positive standpoint, where you're just showing gratitude and saying, thank you, universe. That is just what I wanted. I'm going to celebrate this. I'm going to share this joy with myself and my community, and I'm just going to be open about this good thing happening to me. And anyone who makes you feel bad about that should not be in your circle or you should not be sharing this joy with them, because guess what? They're just going to poop all over it. I said that. That's true. They will poop all over it. And you're going to be made to feel small and bad for something good happening to you, which is crazy. You don't need that now. Okay? So that's what bragging is and a little context around how it can be managed in the world. Now I'm going to talk about what it's not and what it gets confused for a lot. Bragging is not rubbing other people's face in your good fortune when they don't have access to the same resources to have the same fortune. It is absolutely not that, okay? Bragging is not going. And flaunting how well you're doing. Hi, Gabriel. Welcome. How well you're doing to make other people feel insecure, okay? That is energetically negative, okay? And here's the thing. You know, if you're doing this, you know, if you're just excited about something good happening or if you're like, I'm going to show them, okay? And you know what? We were all children once. We were all adolescents once. And hey, you know what? Like, as a person who owns that, I Have an inner Karen. And who owns that? Sometimes I can be petty af. I'm going to own that. Yes. Sometimes there are moments where you let some good, like some good information about what's going on just slip out in conversation to show off to people, to show them how far you've come, because there's just crunchiness between you and that person. Let's just forgive ourselves for that reason right here and now. Okay, we're going to forgive all of that. But here's the thing. I don't want you doing it anymore. And I don't want to do it anymore because the thing about that is that it actually poisons the pool of bragging. And bragging is actually such a powerful tool for manifesting more of what you want. I don't want you poisoning that pool. I want that pool to be the most pristine, pure water. Just to really dive into this metaphor. Ooh, pun, but a bump. I want to be the most pure, pristine water that you can manifest anything you want out of. Okay? So bragging is not rubbing other people's faces in your success and good fortune. Bragging is also not. Not trying to make yourself look better than other people. Not. It's not, you know, trying to make a case for why you're better than other people. That's not bragging. That's just being a douchebag. And. Hi, Sean. Good evening. Welcome. That's not bragging either. So bragging is not making other people feel smaller. It's not making other people feel less than you. It is not rubbing into other people's face what you have and they don't have. Bragging. Is this magical? Like, truly, I believe there's an element of magic to it. Because when done with a pure intention, when done just out of pure joy and gratitude, and with that. Yes. Thank you. More, please. What bragging does is it cues the universe that whatever it sent your way or whatever it allowed for you to achieve or allowed for you to accomplish that you are so ready to take on more of that thing. Okay? And when I say universe. Yes. I mean that in the full woo woo sense of the word universe, creator, God, whatever your. Your divine belief is, I also mean it in a very literal sense. Okay? So when you go on and you brag that, oh, your business is booming, or that you're writing a book, or this, that or the other thing you're. Your universe is made up of humans, okay? Humans in your world who may or may not be paying attention to you. Okay? But imagine you announce this to your Community, that this good thing is happening to you, and you're so excited for it and you're so happy about it. Maybe you just got a new job. Maybe you're bragging about this new job and you just got a promotion within that job and you have all these responsibilities, and this is your territory, and this is what you help people do in that job. Oh, my God. You've just beautifully announced to your community, the people in your world, that you are open for business. You've announced to them that you are so on fire and on purpose in this job that actually serves them in a specific way that of course they're going to want to lean in. Of course they're going to want to come and talk to you and say, hey, by the way, I saw you're doing this thing. I think I want some of that. I think I need some help there. Can I be your client? Can I work with you? Do you mind taking me on as an account? Whatever it is you bragging about, all that stuff invites more of that into you. As humans, we're always scanning the world for, are you useful to me? Are you useful to me? Is this tool useful to me? Is this environment useful to me? If I'm in the desert and I'm looking to, you know, I don't know, grow rice, that environment is not useful to me. I'm going to move on. Okay? If I am an accountant looking for clients and I go to, I don't know, a networking event, it's all other accountants. I'm sorry, you're just not useful to me. We're all. We're competitors and we can. We can support each other. Yes. But if that's the purpose of me being there, then it's not useful to me. If I run my own shop and I'm talking to someone at a networking event, and they are a corporate attorney who helps with, I don't know, contracts, litigation or whatever, but they work with, like, Fortune 500 companies. You may not be useful to me, but you may be useful to some people I know. So that kind of usefulness, like, you can brag about your job and, like, all the wins you have. And I may not understand it, but I may understand, oh, my friend Jeff over there who works for that company, and they just had to fire their litigator. I think I need to introduce you to him. Because if I introduce you to, that ups my social capital. So you bragging and you going out and just celebrating verbally what is going on in your life and what you've achieved and what you're hoping to achieve more of it just is this beautiful invitation to everyone around you to pay attention to what you're up to, see if there's any way that you're useful to them, and then opt into you. Okay, if. Sean, I know. I think I remember this. You're a real estate agent in Las Vegas. If you start going on and bragging about, like, doing this, like, closing this deal for one client and then signing this new homeowner who wants to buy a new building or whatever and so on and so forth, oh, my God. What a beautiful way to call attention to the successes you're having in your business, to call attention to the care that you put into taking care of your clients, and also to invite more. More business into you. Because everyone wants to be with someone who's on fire, who's lit up by what they do, who is obviously good at what they do, and you're obviously good at what you do. If you have anything to brag about, I also want to talk about bragging about things that really are small. You know, I can brag that, like, I remembered to shampoo my hair today. You know, sometimes I forget. Sometimes I, like, turn off the water and I'm like, oh, no, I forgot. Bragging about stuff like that is giving yourself a little rush of, I think it's dopamine. So whenever you complete a task, whenever you achieve something big, whenever you, you know, I think it's exercise or hug someone, any of those things, you give yourself a hit of dopamine. What happens when you have a hit of dopamine? You are more creative. You can access more ideas. You can think on your feet faster. You can learn faster. Okay? Bragging about small things throughout your day is actually super powerful. Like, I brag that I remembered to have lunch today. I brag that I had tiramisu today. I brag that I got to play with my puppy for two hours this afternoon. Oh, my God. It just. It gives you a little. A little shock of dopamine, which opens you up to so many more opportunities, which makes you just that much more versatile and Creative. Corky Nelson, MSN Family Nurse Practitioner Bragging Gratitude 101.1.0 Totally agree. Thank you. Yes. Bragging is just being open about being happy about the good things in your life. Like, why? And here's the thing. Like, first of all, can we just say how crazy that is that we would even not be open about being happy about the good things in our lives? Why would we do that unless we're afraid other people are going to come in and take them away. And if you're afraid of that, that's a belief system to look at. It really is. I work with a lot of my clients on their money stories, and a lot of a surprising amount of people have a money story that if they accumulate a great amount of wealth, that someone's going to swoop in and take it from them, maybe take it from them through dishonest means, maybe ask them for a loan, never pay it back, whatever. It's one of the reasons a lot of lottery winners refuse to tell people that they won the lottery. I had another point and it went somewhere. It's been a day. What was the point? Shoot. Gratitude, bragging. Oh, here's the other thing. And this isn't the point. This is a different point. When you train your brain to brag about things, when you train your brain to look for things to celebrate in your life, life gets a lot better. When you're training your brain to look for stuff to celebrate, guess what? You're going to find more stuff, okay? If you're looking for stuff to complain about, you're absolutely going to find more stuff of that. If you're looking for things that are blue, look around right now. You're gonna see a bunch of things that are blue. Your brain is finely, finely tuned to look for stuff that it's, it's, it's looking for. So this is why when you think about getting a yellow Jeep, okay, I've always wanted a yellow Jeep. Oh, my God. It's not a real. It's not like a useful car to me. If I'm living in a city because of the soft top, someone could break in. It's of kind, kind of a pain to drive and you know, the gas mileage is crap, but it just looks like so much fun and so cheerful and wouldn't I look cute in a yellow Jeep? I think, Come on. So, but, you know, imagine that you really want a yellow Jeep. And you know this. You've all like, thought about getting a car before and you have that car that like really lights you up and you really want it. All of a sudden when you want that thing, it just shows up everywhere. Your brain. It's like a flip got switched in your brain or a switch got flipped. Yeah. Yes. Which got flipped in your brain and your brain is just looking for this. It's also why when you say, I have this goal, doing this thing, and you have no idea how you're going to get it, but you've made it the goal. Opportunities to achieve it, to learn how to do it. Mentors, they just come out of the woodworks. And it's not because they weren't there before. They were always there, but because you have flipped that switch. I can say it. Flip the switch. Not switch the switch. Flip, flip that switch. To tell your brain we need to scan the world for this. It just appears. Joseph Kane, Dopamine. I think you're agreeing with my point around dopamine. Thank you, Sean. David McArlan. A positive mindset always shows and attracts other like minded individuals. Yes. Yes. Here's the other thing. You don't want miserable, miserable mics all over. I don't know, I just made that up. Miserable Minervas in your life. There we go. That's a fun little thing. If you don't want them, start being really positive. It'll piss them off and they'll run away. Absolutely. You know, positive people like being around positive people. Positive people also don't really have the bandwidth for negativity or for drama and all that stuff. So if you're positive and you want to draw more of that in, start bragging. Start bragging from a very clean, energetic place. Lace. I still can't remember that point I was going to make. And it was brilliant and it was really smart and it would have changed your life. And I can't remember what it was. Oh, well, this happens sometimes on, on the lives of Katie McManus. Because, you know, I don't write things down before I write before I talk about them. Not always. Anyway, so here is my challenge to you. Pick some stuff in your life that you want to brag about. Like just today, go and make a list of everything that happened today that you can brag about. And as an above and beyond challenge, go and post about it. Build it into family dinners. At the very beginning of the dinner, you're going to be grateful. You're going to have everyone go around and brag about something they did that day or something that happened or just, you know, know, something they saw. It doesn't even have to be a big thing. It could literally be that they remembered to shampoo their hair. And don't make people feel small when they brag. Call them out if you're noticing that they're doing it in a way that feels energetically dirty. And you know what, it's so obvious when people do this. Call it out. But if someone is just genuinely happy and celebrating verbally by bragging about it, you know what? Pat them on the back. That's kind of a lame way to celebrate someone. No, like give them a big hug. Tell them, way to go. Like, you know, just celebrate them. Be there with them in their joy. I can tell you, the best friends I have, the people that I trust with my life, the ones that I go to for everything and I am always there for and I'm always willing to stand up for, are the ones who can be with me in my joy and also in my sadness. There is an intimacy that happens when you're able to share joy with people. It just makes your relationships that much stronger. You have to invite people in, though. You have to be willing to be vulnerable in that way. Joseph Kane. I want to know what the life changing point was. I thought maybe it was about dopamine, but I guess not. Yeah, Joseph, I don't remember what it was there. It was brilliant and then it went away. I don't know if it comes back, I'll. I'll ping you and let you know. But please don't feel bad if you're bragging. Please don't apologize for bragging. Like there is a term going around like backhanded brag or whatever, you know, like a non brag. No, screw that. Own your bragging. I want to brag about something right now because I'm really proud of myself. I worked really hard for this. I set myself up in the right industry. I cultivated relationships with incredible people that helped me make this happen. You know, bragging does not necessarily mean that you take all the credit. It means you can share credit with other people. Go and start bragging. It is so powerful. And also brag with intention if you want more of that thing. Brag about the progress you've made so far. Think about what you want to manifest in your life and brag about the things that are close to it, that are adjacent to it, that lead to it. Okay? Because remember, this is your signal to the universe. Thank you so much. I want more of that. Please just keep bragging. Keep saying thank you so much. More of that, please. It's a beautiful practice and gratitude that allows for other people to join in and both help you towards your goals and celebrate with you and feel closer and more intimate with you anyway. And for those of you who've been with me and have watched the end, I will let you know if I remember the point that I was going to make. It literally was in my mind and then I got sidetracked and then it was gone, as is the story of my life. So I brag that I'm done for the day. The 6:30. I had a bunch of calls today. I got the evening to myself. I'm going to go play with my puppy and I'm going to sleep early. So excited for that. Anyway. And Sean Joseph, Corky Gabriel, thank you so much for tuning in this evening. And anyone else who I can't see who's here, thank you for tuning in. I hope this is you useful. And I hope you'll be incorporating bragging into your life more going forward. Anyway, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and leadership coach. Thanks for joining me. And I will be going live every day the rest of this week. So I will see you then. Okay. Thanks, everyone. Bye.