Happy International Women's Day!

Hello, everyone. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and leadership coach, and I'm here live with you in my beautiful sequin jacket celebrating Women's International Women's Day. You are joining me either on the Facebooks, LinkedIn or YouTube. I'm doing this through Streamyard. And just a little housekeeping tip, sometimes Streamyard doesn't show me all the comments. So I love this being interactive and I love having conversation with you while I'm going live. But if you comment and I don't call you out and I don't answer your question or anything, it is not you. It is just the technology. It is. It is imperfect. Like everyone on this planet. It is imperfect. And we're just going to celebrate it for what it is. Happy International Women's Day. I am really happy to be a woman today and every day. And I'm particularly fired up this year because, you know, it's been a rough year. It's been a rough year for women. Women have been losing jobs at a rate that LinkedIn user. Hey, Katie, I learned about you through Leah Turner. Whoop, whoop. Yeah, sorry. You're showing up as LinkedIn user. I don't know what your name is, but I love Leah. She's one of my. One of my dearest LinkedIn friends. I hope to be spending a Christmas trip in New York with her and her son this year, playing around with that idea, but I'm so happy to have you in my world. Welcome. Talking about Women's Day, let's talk about women, supporting women. Leah is one of the best role models of this. She and I are of the same mind that there's no such thing as competition. There's only lifting each other up because a rising tide lifts all boats. And I think that is so core to what we need to dedicate ourselves to this year and going forward. Oh, my God. I have so many thoughts about Women's Day. How do I make myself? Oh, Juana, I think I'm pronouncing your name correctly. Juana. I'm sorry, Prairie. Oh, sorry. I'm awful at pronouncing names, but tell me if I'm doing it correctly. I think it has to do with your privacy settings. I think if your privacy settings say that people, not everyone can see your picture, then it shows as no picture. But I'm not sure. I'm not 100% sure. Some of my clients were actually having the same problem when they were tuning into my lives, and I think that's what they said. I'LL ask and I'll try to go into that on my life next. But welcome. I'm so happy to have you here. So. Oh, my gosh. So Women's Day, International Women's Day. I have to admit something. Okay? So I'm going to do it in a roundabout way. So I'm that person in a group fitness class that gets annoyed when the teacher goes around and gives you high fives and, like, you're doing great. Good job, good job, good job. I'm like, I find that patronizing. I'm like, I'm doing my work. Leave me alone. This is hard. Let me just do my thing. And I feel the same way about International Women's Day. For me, I, you know, I just, I love the sentiment of, you know, happy International Women's Day. And also, there's part of me that is like that grouchy worker outer in a group, group fitness class. It's like, oh, like, we're all just here doing our work and trying to make it happen. Like, leave us alone. Let us focus on the work. But also, I recognize that there has to be a day of celebrating how far we've come. And I want to give a shout out to organizations like Planned Parenthood, organizations that have historically helped women take agency, take control of how we are able to use our bodies and manage our health in a way that feels good to us. Hi, Steve. Welcome. Thank you for joining us. We're doing a little International Women's Day talk, and I'm giving a shout out to Planned Parenthood. I know there will be people who will be pissed about this. Thank you. I like my. It's a bomber jacket. I got an Amazon. It was like $23, but it has glitter all the way around the back, so I like it, too. Well, I guess it's not glitter at sequins, but anyway, it's not. I'll be honest. It's not the most comfortable jacket, but for special lives like this, I am all about wearing it. But thank you, Steve. I appreciate all the compliments on my outfit. But anyway, I can't imagine doing everything that I've done in my career. I can't imagine running a business. I can't imagine supporting other people in creating their businesses. If I didn't have birth control, if I didn't have the right to control my reproductive rights. Steve. I probably do glow in the dark. We're not going to try it because I'm afraid of the dark. And actually. Oh, my gosh. So when I was a kid and My seventh grade reading teacher had us read a script from. What's that? Science fiction show. Not Stranger Things. That's a new one. You know, you know, the two detectives, they go around, you know, solving all the. The mysteries that are, you know, based in science and kind of creepy. And I. I kid you not, there is this. This script about the episode where mosquitoes were glow in the dark. I swear to God, I had to unplug all of the extension cord things that had, like, a little glowy thing button because I was afraid of glow in the dark mosquitoes that were radioactive. X Files. Yes. Thank you, Justin. The X Files. I'm one of those people. I can't. I can't watch horror. I think. I was only able to watch Ghostbusters about three years ago. It really affects me. It really affects me. And anything with aliens I cannot handle, okay? If there are ever aliens that come to Earth, I just don't want to know about it. You guys just have to lock me away and tell me everything's going to be fine. There's another pandemic. Just tell me something else. I don't want to know. There are aliens. Okay, Justin, thank you. My pleasure. My leash. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. Oh, my God. You sign on for an International Women's Day live and you're getting instructions how to handle me when aliens land. Steve. Oh, I'm off to dinner. I just saw you were live and wanted to stop by and say hi. Oh, thank you so much, Steve. It's lovely to see you. Cheers to you and enjoy your dinner. Thanks for stopping in. Yeah. So I'm a little kooky today. Oh, my gosh. So I was on this networking event and I've been doing a lot of networking because I don't know if you know this. I'm on a goal this year. I am determined to do one speaking event per week this month through the end of the year. So if any of you know of any speaking events, I promise my signature talk is a lot less scattered than it is right here. But anyway, so my goal is to do this. So I'm on all of these networking events now, all the time. And also if you know of any networking events that you'd recommend for me for mission centered entrepreneurs, I would love your recommendations. But anyway, tonight was a complete shit show. Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. I was in this speed networking event and everything technical was going wrong with my computer. I'm getting slack for saying Ghostbusters freaked me out. Yes, it did. When I was five years old, the scene where she turns on the bath and the goop comes out. When I was five years old, this actually turned me off from baths for the rest of my life. This is, to this day, probably why I hate baths, because I was so traumatized by the goop and the slime coming out of the bathtub faucet. It was showers all day long from then on out. And I think that was Ghostbusters, too. My parents really didn't understand my limitations when it came to scary stuff. But anyway, back to the story about this networking fail. So I'm in this, like, speed networking. And so it's this. They have their own proprietary technology, which, of course, is gonna fail for people like me. And so for the first two people I got matched with, they could see me, but we couldn't hear or talk to each other. It was just silence. And we were trying to, like, sign. It just wasn't working. And then finally it started working, and I got matched with someone trying to sell me Forex. So that was fun. Happy Women's Day to me. But anyway, yeah, if you guys know of any. Any events that are looking for speakers, I would love to hear them. Also, if you know of any networking events, I'm all about that right now. As much as I love LinkedIn, I actually want to talk to people and be in rooms, virtual rooms with them. But, yeah. So what are you guys learning about me today? You're learning that Ghostbusters scares me. You're learning. Well, you're learning things I shouldn't be sharing, basically. But anyway, I had so many mixed feelings about Ghost International Women's Day today. Last night, I'm gonna go there. Last night, I watched the interview with Oprah, Megan, and Harry, and I wanted to celebrate Oprah for her masterful interview skills. Okay. I cannot talk about this interview without touching upon that. The way that she doesn't let things go and she circles back and she's gentle, but she wants the dish. She wants the information for us. I so appreciate that woman. And I want to appreciate that woman not just for her skill, but also for the intentional way she's turned her power and her pull and her money to impact the world in some really incredible ways. Just have to go there. Oprah, you are my hero. And. Hi, Jim. Yeah, no horror flicks for me. Thank you, Sharon. Yes, Oprah. Thank you. Thank you. Career goals. Be on Oprah, be on her show, whatever. Just be in her world. Absolutely. And then I also want to celebrate. You know, there were so many things in that interview. I want to celebrate people asking for help when they need help. Okay. Meghan Markle, or the Duchess of Sussex, whatever we call her now, you know, she was going through such a hard time, and she asked for help. And I know how hard it is to ask for help when you're in a hole that deep and you're in that dark place. For her to be shut down twice and then still go for help again. Can we just. Just give a round of applause for that? That takes such courage and such bravery, and I know those are synonyms for the same thing, but I feel like both words are needed here. You know, courage comes from the heart. It's in French. Courage is courage, and then the car is heart. And it took such heart for her to reach out in the way that she did. And it took such heart for Harry and such courage for Harry to then turn around and give up basically his whole life that he's ever known for the woman that he loves. And. And also, like, let's just look at this. So they had. They were living in a palace. They had so, you know, if quote, unquote, everything they could possibly want, and they give it all away. They ask for help, and what shows up, Tyler Perry gives them, you know, one of his homes with security, because they were shut. They were cut off financially. And from their security, all these deals came out of it like, they're. They're going to be fine. They're going to be more than fine. They're going to be affluent. They're going to have influence. They are going to be players in the world. And it would not have happened if she hadn't spoken up, if her friends hadn't had her back and said, hey, these people aren't protecting you. Okay? So, I mean, everything, it just. All of it just proves that when we support each other, when we have each other's backs, you know, from the small thing of, hey, you, I see you have some spinach in your teeth. You got to fix that. Like, having people's back like that. And also, hey, I see you're being bashed by the tabloids. And these people who say they're going to protect you aren't protecting you. You need to protect yourself. You need to call out. Call it out. This is not okay. Like, two ends of the spectrum. We got to do that more often. And I'm seeing it being done more often. I'm seeing it. So for those of you who are doing this, keep it up. It is so needed. We often get Afraid of giving up the glitz and the glamour or like the golden handcuffs of what we have because we're afraid that we're not going to have as much on the other side. And I think this is just such a perfect example of how that is a complete bullshit story. I can't tell you how many times I have quit a miserable job not having a job lined up after. And literally I just felt like I was jumping off a cliff not knowing if there was a net. And can I just tell you, every single single time I did this, there was a net. It was very, very comfortable. It was more comfortable than where I was before. And usually it bounced me into a way better place. So I don't know how this is showing up in your life right now. I know it's showing up for me in a few different ways. But if you're not happy in something, if things aren't serving you, if it's toxic, don't let that voice in your head fool you into thinking that you're gonna die. If you don't continue interacting with it because it's a lie, you're not going to die. You're going to thrive when you're away from a toxic culture like that. And this open. I mean, gosh, it's Women's Month this month. It was Black History Month last month. We can't just limit these things to months. I'm sorry. This is one of the reasons I have a problem with Women's History Month and International Women's Day. Like really, really just a day, you know, for women, for white women in the United States. We've had the right to vote for 100 years. The United States is far older than that. And that's not okay. And that's just white women. You know, if you were in the south and you were being held to Jim Crow laws, sorry, it was, it was a lot later. And that's not okay. And the ripples of this stuff, you know, women are still being paid less. There's still massive racism in age old institutions. And this isn't a surprise to us, but it's still impacting people today. This is not okay. Yes, let's talk about, talk about racism in February, but let's talk about racism every month. Let's talk about racism every day. Let's talk about how we can make it better for everyone. Because racism doesn't just hurt black people. Racism like, okay, let's, let's turn it to the other end of the spectrum. Racism actually hurts, like the white cops as well, because guess what? They are now seen as the villains. You know, when we, when we heal our relationship, our relationship with our idea of race. Because I don't think race is a thing. I mean, yes, everyone has different colored skin but you know, there is like we're the human race, that is it, when we heal. And I want you to notice I'm not used to talking about this publicly. I'm not used to this, I'm getting flustered, I'm slowing down, I'm turning red. Talking about race is hard. And you know what? There's probably going to be something that comes out of my mouth that isn't quite correct or isn't worded in the right way and I just want to normalize that because you know, we're not going to get better at speaking about race until we start speaking about race. It takes practice and you know, practice makes perfect, but it also makes for some mess ups and I'm okay with that. And so I just want to invite you in if you're wanting to talk about race and you're not sure how to do it. Come on in my friends. You know, we're all here struggling together. But anyway, so to my point, no one's going to be safe and treated fairly and everything until we get comfortable or get used to talking about really tough conversations. And yes, absolutely, I can look into my ancestry and I can see some ancestors who did some, probably did some pretty fucked up shit. I know this is LinkedIn. Sorry, I'm swearing. It's probably bleeping me out. And absolutely I can carry that guilt with me. My ancestors did some bad things and also I get to be part of the solution in marketing for climate solution products like electric vehicles, electric panels, or I'm sorry, solar panels for your roof. Shaming people never works. Telling them, oh, your, your car's guzzling gas or you know, you're using, you're using natural gas, using stuff for your house that's, that's poisoning the planet. You shouldn't do that. That never works. That never tells people that never gets people to change their buying habits. But telling them, they get to be part of the solution. Dus, you know, so for everyone who's leaning away from this race conversation, you know, because it makes them uncomfortable and they're worried about saying the wrong thing. I just want you to pause. Don't worry about saying the wrong thing, worry about being in the conversation. Worry about learning other people's perspectives. What we learned last night is that racism is alive and well in The UK and across the world. We're seeing a system that literally colonized every continent except for Antarctica, because there wasn't really anyone to colonize there. We're seeing that playing out and how it's handling its HR problems today. Guess what? Still having problems. You know, it shouldn't be a surprise to us, but it was a huge shock to many of us. So my point is, it's very rambly point in my sequin jacket, which now feels. Doesn't feel as deferential. I didn't mean for this to go into this, but here we are. You know, the spirit took me. The point is, Women's Month, Black History Month. All the months can't just be months. We need to talk about this all the time. We need to go there all the time. It takes courage. But you know what? If Meghan and Harry can do it, if they can, say, shove it to the royal Family, I think we can do it. I think we can have some uncomfortable conversations together. Pete Medlin, love the jumping off the cliff reference in waiting to find the next job. I totally, really right now. Oh, my gosh. Well, wherever you are in your jumping process, I wish you Godspeed and all the luck. It's honestly, it's a trust fall with the universe. And you know what? The universe has always got your back. And Jim. Oh, Jim, my LinkedIn buddy. Oh, no, take your time. You're being open and that is refreshing. Oh, thank you, Jim. Jim, you've been such a good ally to me in learning how to talk about this and becoming comfortable. So my, My heartfelt thanks goes to you, Sharon. We can only do better if we're willing to make mistakes. Thanks for normalizing this. Yeah, no, totally. What, I mean, what's the. What was the quote like? What's the thing that you'd be willing to suck at for years to do? Yeah, you know, let's own that. We're all busy. We all have to make money. We have to, you know, feed ourselves, maybe feed some mini humans or some dogs like I do. We're also, you know, trying not to get, you know, really, really out of shape in, in the pandemic. And we can't focus on it all. Okay, I'm not saying you have to focus on it all, but just focus on a little part. And when you find a conversation that makes you aware of something you weren't aware of, lean into the conversation, ask more questions, get curious, and really try to understand. And don't worry about screwing it up. Just make it clear that you're open to being corrected. I am very open about if I ever use the wrong word for anything, I want to be told about it. Because the last thing I ever want is to have unintended impact that hurts anyone. And if I ever do end up in that position, believe me, there will be an apology that goes out. But, you know, cancel culture doesn't leave room for that. It doesn't leave room for people to use the wrong word and, you know, make it right. And I'm not talking about really bad words that are obviously bad, obviously not going there. But I'm just saying, you know, the vocabulary changes from generation to generation, and that creates a lot of crunchy and like, I'm even getting crunchy right now. It creates a lot of crunchiness for people, and they're more likely to lean out than lean in if they're worried about their vocabulary being out of date. Pete Medlin, Real talk about real topics. These are the things we all need to be talking about. Yes. And you know what? I want to own. I don't talk about them enough. I really don't. I'm a privileged white woman. I get to choose what I focus on. It is not thrown in my face when I'm driving down the road. If. If I get pulled over. I feel perfectly safe. That is not the case. I want to do a shout out this week, too. You know, the George Floyd case is coming up. That is coming back into the newsreel. And gosh, I mean, I haven't even processed my thoughts about this. I know. I mean, I don't know. I can imagine how damaging it is to watch that as a black person and see that that could absolutely happen to you. I can't. I. There. There's a trauma that happened when that happened to the whole country and to the whole world. I mean, everyone stood up, everyone marched, everyone went out and made signs and, you know, stood up for. This is not okay. And that band aid, that band aid of time since that, that occurrence is about to get ripped off. It's about to get ripped off in a real way. And it could be. It could be very healing, but it can also be very devastating if it goes to the normal rhythm of how this goes in the United States, which is also not okay. So I guess my message for everyone on this International Women's Day is that, you know what? Women, women do not need a pat on the back. We appreciate it. We want it every day, but we don't need it. We need help. We need help. We need to get to work. And we need the issues that we're facing. Everyone, everyone who is not privileged needs the issues that they are facing addressed on a daily basis. Not just one month and not just one day. And for those of you who may be having a hard time, who want help and are afraid to ask for it, please just ask for it. Please. I don't even know you. I don't know if you're watching. I don't know any of the things, but I know there are people in your life who want you to ask them for help if you need help. This pandemic has been so hard on so many people. And, you know, just. Just being a woman is hard. Just being. Just being black is hard. Just being different at all is hard from the heteronormative patriarchy. Wow, my feminist is really coming up tonight. Justin. Practical solutions for Real people. Yeah, asking. I wrote about this this morning. You know, the truest measure of strength is asking for help and being willing to accept help when it's offered. That is the true nature of strength. I don't know of one country that won a war that didn't ask its people, its neighbors, its allies for help. I don't know of any family that successfully raises children without asking their community for help and such some way, shape or form. I also don't know of a single successful business that hasn't asked for help. I mean, I wrote about this this morning. You know, Jeff Bezos, he had to ask his parents to if he could use their garage. He also asked them for $300,000 of loan to get Amazon up and running. You know, there. And Meghan Markle, you know, she was on the verge of suicide, and she kept asking for help until she got it. That is the true measure of strength. It is not how much you can lift. It is not how buff you are. Not that I am at all buff right now. It is none of those things. It is all about, you know, are you willing to ask for help when you need it, and are you willing to accept it when it's offered? Because guess what? With help, you can do absolutely anything. So. Wow. We got real. We. We covered the whole gambit. So, yes, I'm afraid of Ghostbusters. I have a glittery jacket, and we're gonna take down the patriarchy. Anyway, I'm Katie McManus. I'm gonna end it there. Thank you all for joining me. This has been such a lovely time and, like, a half hour. Holy smokes. I hope some. Some of that made sense. It was a little rambly. I understand. Anyway, happy International Women's Day. To my women and my women loving humans out there. I love you all and I wish you all the best and I'll talk soon. Bye.