Webinar Replay: Find Your Confidence & Networking to Build or Rebuild Your Career

Okay, it says webinar is now streaming live on YouTube.

Yeah, so let's see if it works. Okay. All right, yeah, it looks like we're on. Yes. Looks like we're on YouTube, so yep.

So just tell me when you want me to share the screen.

Okay.

Oh, you know what?

Um, okay, I think we're good now. Let's say something else and then we'll start. Are you ready?

Yep, I'm ready.

Okay, perfect. All right, we will start. 1, 2, 3, here we go.

Go.

And we'll wait, it's connecting. Our attendees are coming in. Well, hi, how are you? Welcome to the live broadcast today. We're going to start in a couple minutes, and just give us a few and we will start. Okay, technology chain, it's working.

I know, that's half the battle.

Half the battle, our technology's working.

Most definitely.

Yeah, so I'm excited. So we're giving everyone a few seconds to populate the webinar, and then Jane Mattson and I will get started. My name is Margaret Spence, and I am the founder and CEO of the Employee to CEO Project. And Jane Mattson is my co-host today, and we are doing this together. We are going to challenge this process. So to tell you a little bit about Jane, for those of you who don't know her, she is the author of You, You, Me, and You. And her book is The Art of Talking to People, Networking, and Building Relationships. Jane is an authentic relationship builder and career management consultant. She's known for cultivating confidence in her clients, allowing them to explore new career options through relationship building and practical job search techniques. A skilled facilitator, an inspirational speaker, Jane speaks frequently on topics that include building confidence as a foundation of career success, um, how to create virtual, uh, relationships using LinkedIn, And today, Jane and I are here. I'll give you our story really quickly before I turn this over to her. I was speaking in Boston in September. And I was speaking at the NERA conference up in Boston. And I was the keynote. And I was doing a workshop on women's leadership. And I happened into this area, lost Margaret, looking around. And Jane was standing there, and we happened to say hello to each other. And Jane was a part of the conference committee, and she was being a beautiful host, a wonderful host. And we started talking, and out of that has sprung this amazing friendship. We actually send each other cards. We handwrite cards and mail them to each other.

Yes.

Just to say hello, to stay in touch, and so on. So the one key takeaway of, um, of our relationship is that we have learned to communicate with each other and stay connected. Um, so today's webinar is Finding Your Voice, Building Your Confidence, and Networking to Build or Rebuild Your Career. Um, without further ado, I'm going to turn this over to Jane, and she's going to take over and and do the presentation.

Wonderful. Thank you, Margaret. So now we're going to test the technology and share the screen. And let me pull the screen up here, Margaret, to make sure that— okay, here we go. Whoops, whoops. Bear with me here.

Okay, yes.

So can we see the screen now, Margaret?

Um, not yet.

Yeah, okay, here we go.

Go ahead and hit the share screen.

Yeah, there we go, there we go. As I said, technology, technology here.

Let me— technology.

Okay, absolutely.

And before Jane starts, I'm going to monitor the chat If you have any questions for Jane as she's going, please go ahead and put them into the chat box or raise your hands if you have Q&A. We're gonna go through her presentation and then start the Q&A, but as she's going, I will be monitoring the chat and/or the Q&A.

Yes, thank you, Margaret, because I, um, anytime I do a presentation or a talk, I never like it to be all about me, because I learned from all of you as well, so the more that we can interact, the more that you can share, the more comfortable you are, the more that you will learn not only from me and from Margaret, from each other, so let's begin. In preparing for this talk today, I'm going to go back a bit. In preparing for this talk today about finding your voice, is the most important thing that we want to be able to do and finding our voice. In today's world, we are so driven by technology that we don't often have the chance to talk to people face-to-face, and in my work of career management, because I've had a successful career in career management, so often I would hear people, women in particular, maybe not speak speaking up as much, so today we're going to take a different approach. At least I take an approach on how are you going to be able to find your voice so that you're comfortable not only talking to people but asking for what you want. Networking to build relationships, it's all about the relationship and how do you build them and what is it that you want from your network. So we're— as I said to Margaret, as we were preparing for our other talk today, that I'm a very logical thinker where I start from the beginning knowing the big strategy of what I want to accomplish, but then I break it down because I want all of you to leave today with practical tips on what you really can do as you move forward. Because it is all about you today, and for those of you who are on the call, you took time either out of your workday or you've got time off from work, and so this is really about you, so let's kind of get started where I think this all begins of what we need to be thinking about. It's our beliefs, so we had talked about, if you have saw the actual just a summary of what this was about today. Communication, courage, connections, I believe, beliefs. So we're going to talk about what our beliefs are, and as you can see, there's a puzzle piece. Then we're going to talk about— I don't know, is this— hopefully everybody can see. I don't know if my picture's in the way. We're going to talk about the confidence, about building a strong foundation. The other piece of the puzzle is communication, because I have to learn how to communicate. And then connections. So I believe that these are pieces to the puzzle, and without the pieces connecting together, then you can't really see what the puzzle is all about. So I'm going to take you through a step-by-step process and how I believe all these come together. I want you to participate once again because I want to help you, and Margaret and I want to help you with some situations perhaps that you might be dealing with right now in your work situation or even in your life situation. So here's the question: Was there a situation recently where you wish you had spoken up but didn't? Maybe you can even just even, I don't know, Margaret, can you get like raise your hand? So people just raise your hand if there's a situation that you wish you'd spoken up.

Or enter in the chat. Yeah, yeah.

Oh good, Gina raised a hand. Absolutely. Anybody else out there raising their hands? So that doesn't mean— Okay, 2 participants. Excellent. So I'm I'm sure there was a situation that we all have that we wish we'd spoken up but didn't. And there are many reasons why. I mean, it could be, "Ugh, it just wasn't worth it," or it was, "I didn't think or I know what to say." So this is all about why we don't speak up. What prevents us from saying what we want and being heard? And that becomes, I think, really the question about who we are and what we really want. And I'm not talking about a selfishness kind of a want. I'm talking more of a self-interest for a healthy and a healthy life. And so why we don't speak up has many, many reasons why that does happen. So is anybody on the call that maybe wants to either speak or maybe put a note in the chat box as to what prevents you from speaking up. So, what really prevents you from speaking up in a situation? Anybody? So, what I'll say from what I have— oh, good, there's a The box. Okay, excellent. There's, we got the chat there. Confidence. Absolutely. Our confidence prevents us from speaking up because I'm a little bit afraid of that. The reporting relationship. Gina, the reporting relationship. And we're gonna talk about that a little bit later on. Not knowing how my thoughts will be perceived. Absolutely. You are concerned about how will they perceive me? Will they think that I'm a know-it-all? Or will I get in trouble? Lack of confidence, and Tricia says, "Not sure how the other person will react." Absolutely, those are very good reasons as to why people don't speak up. That's exactly it. So then now it becomes, okay, okay, let's explore the reasons why. So let's explore the reasons why. One of the things is, as we talked about here, is the confidence. People don't have the confidence to speak up because they just don't feel like they know what to say, so they don't have the courage. And so the confidence and the courage, because to speak up, and I'm talking about maybe speaking up in the sense of, once again, asking what you want or handling a difficult situation, and we'll get into a little bit more of the detail later, but it takes courage. It absolutely takes courage to do that, and it takes the right communication, because if we don't know what to say or how to say it, it's not going to come out the right way, and then you're not going to be heard. And then, of course, the connection. I think it was Gina that said the reporting relationship. Absolutely, if you don't have a reporting structure of open communication, then it isn't necessarily gonna work. So after our time together today, I hope that all of you will see how all of these are connected in some way or another. So let's get on the same page as what confidence is. This is my definition, a simple one. It's the self-assured ability that we will succeed in achieving our goals. So it's the self-assured, I feel that I'm gonna be able to accomplish a goal. So it's like, I feel it and action. So thought and action. That's a foundation that we wanna start off with. So the question becomes, we're gonna talk a little bit about the confidence. And the question I always like to have people think about, do you feel as confident on the outside as you look on the inside? No, excuse me, the other way around. Do you feel as confident on the inside as you look on the outside? So what we're going to talk about a little bit before we get into the beliefs is internal. So there's an internal and there's an external, and we're going to first talk about the internal and some of the characteristics of our internal confidence. It's how do you think about yourself? What is it that you think about yourself? And this is all inside. How do you feel about your self-worth? Your, you know, your self-beliefs, your self-esteem. How do you feel about that? Because how we feel on the inside could prevent us from performing on the outside. How others view you. I believe it was Tricia had said, you know, how you come across to others, and when you are not confident in your ability, you do get concerned about how do others view me? What do they think of me? Because contrary to what we would want to believe, that we do care a little bit about what others think about us, and at times we might care too much about what others think. Internal confidence is how others view has an impact on How will we react? And then, what is your inner critic or champion is saying? We all have them. We have a critic and we have a champion, and for people who are lacking confidence or lacking their sense of worth, they more closely align with their critic, and the champion isn't the one that's necessarily rising to the occasion and saying as much. You're listening to the one that isn't saying a lot. So now we're going to get into, we're going to get into a little bit of what's underneath some of this external things that we have going on and what self-beliefs get in your way. So when I say that, self-beliefs, what I'd love to hear, and once again, you're, you're with a group of people who are attending this webinar maybe to learn a little bit about themselves, about to share, but what self-beliefs have gotten in your way? And the self-beliefs, you know, I'm smart, I'm not smart, I'm pretty, I'm not pretty, I'm incompetent, I'm competent, because we cannot underestimate the power of those self-beliefs. So I'd love to hear perhaps in the chat if we can a little bit of What self-beliefs perhaps get in your way that prevents you from speaking up? Now we got a quiet group here, so if I had you live, I would be looking you in the eye and encouraging you and letting you know it's a safe place to speak up, so I think we have 2 people here. Oh, good. Thank you so much. I don't know enough, Tori says. I don't know enough about this topic. Absolutely. Tend to focus too much on others versus myself. Think more of others. Self-doubt. Not smart enough to participate. I'm getting— This one somehow, Max, this is kind of chuckling me. I'm getting up there in age. So I don't want to assume, Max, that you're a little bit older here, but if you are, good for you for being on this webinar today. Yeah, so we have to acknowledge that, because if we don't acknowledge what gets in its way, then how are we going to get it out of the way? Let's move on. My screen keeps on Bear with me here. Okay, okay. I believe our limited self-beliefs get in our way. It is, so I'm gonna actually, Margaret, I'm just kind of looking at my notes because on my screen here it's kind of, I can't quite see.

It came in fine. See if you can minimize your picture and move it up to the top corner with your mouse. Oh, there we go.

Okay, thank you. There we go.

Yeah, yeah. You know, Jane, this is such a great area. Not to interrupt you, but— Oh, no, I want you absolutely. —self-belief, especially, you know, what do you think about how people grew up, you know, what they were told as a child that may even be impacting them now? Absolutely, Margaret.

Absolutely. And that's where our self-beliefs begin. I taught a course years ago. And actually, as I was preparing for this course, I said I wanted to— Resurrected, and it was about, it was a 6-week course on uncovering your limited self-beliefs to improve upon your self-image. And it was a class that I loved because what I did was I helped people uncover those limited beliefs that got in their way. And in that class, it had someone that was 29, someone was 60, someone that was 70, and I just love the fact that they wanted to continue to work on themselves because it gets in our way. And so they get in our way, and it's what we believe to be true. It's about what we believe to be true about ourselves. But here's the question, and here's the reality. Is it really true? Is it really true? And maybe it was, but more than likely, it's not true today. And that's why they are about the past. They are something we've held on to from experiences from childhood. But as we go older, our experiences now are far different, but somehow we still believe that message. And so we're gonna continue to go through, and I'm gonna continue just to uncover a little bit more deeper, just so that you can know some of the things that you can be thinking about. And I will caution you that I have been known to be a psychologist without a degree. So I love to help people really get a little bit more deeper for their understanding. So we talked a little bit about what prevents us from speaking up. So that's great. I've already asked that question. But now, and this takes some more bravery on all of your parts, that when you think about some of those messages that have not served you well as an adult, but you really are tired of listening to them, because remember, they're the one that's listening, which ones do you want to erase? So I want you to think about that. Which one are you holding on to that you want to erase? I'm going to give you a thought, a moment to think about that.

It does require a lot of looking in, a lot of introspection. Yeah.

Yes. So as I don't know if we're coming through, but I'll share with you a message that I had when I was very young, and it was the message of Oh, Jane, you are so sensitive. Jane, you are so needy. Jane, you cry easily. But it was more around the needy, sensitive. And oh boy, did I take that to heart. Oh, I thought it was the worst thing in the world because I came from— I come from a family of 5 girls and 1 boy. Not tend to like a lot of families expressing feeling, and I'm the one in the family that expresses it all. And then as I got older, I said, well, wait a minute, I'm sensitive. Isn't that wonderful? I'm needy. I knew how to get my needs met. So the message that I heard as a child and a young adult of being needy and sensitive, I brought it to where I was today and said, "Does it serve me well?" And what I did was take those messages and make a change to it. So I will say that I, throughout my whole life, have done a lot, a lot of work on counseling and reading and practicing as far as helping me get rid of some of these things that potentially held me back. So if we don't have anybody comfortable sharing, that's all right, because I'm here just to open up a dialogue with yourselves, even to think about what messages do you want to erase.

We've got 2 people that commented. We have, um, we have Tricia that says, uh, daydreaming is not productive, my reality is just the opposite, and that was what she was told. Daydreaming leads to creativity, but that's not what she was told. And then, um, Max said she was not hard-nosed, too easy as a manager, wants to be friends with everyone. So she was— that was part of her growing up as well, being, you know.

Yeah, so that's exactly— yeah, thank you. And I will say this, some of you on the call might be saying, well, I don't really have any old messages, because maybe you haven't been on a webinar or talking to Jane and Margaret about this topic. And what I would not want you to be thinking of is that you don't have any. On the same token, I don't want to assume that you have many, but I do— we all have something that we need to be thinking, and so it really is about how has that affected our behaviors and what we do. So let's continue. So I always have this analogy of everything that I do is about foundation. And what we're talking about is building a foundation in your worth and your beliefs. And think of if you were to be building a house, that if you were to build the house on concrete and someone said to you that you're not smart enough, would you crumble? If you built your house on quicksand and someone said that would you crumble? And so it's all about us working toward creating a foundation that's strong, that can withstand adversity, withstand challenges that happen in our lives, because we all will experience it. So this foundation is going to be a theme throughout the rest of our talk today, because we— it's about building this strong foundation as we go and as we go along. And please feel free if there's anything that I'm talking about that you want to comment or question, please do that as well, because I really would love to have a dialogue with Margaret and myself about this because we're both passionate about helping women and men. And I'm glad to see that we have some men on the call as well because it is just It's bravery to acknowledge that I'm— there's some things I want to do to work on myself. So good for you. So in order to build a strong foundation of self-worth is— it's another term for self-esteem. So it's about the opinion you have of yourself and the overall value you place on yourself. So that becomes important, the value that you place on yourself. So to build this foundation, it is about uncovering your limited self-beliefs, and that's what we've talked about. And it's about being honest with yourself about what gets in your way. I'll share another example. Now, this, this may sound to be a little trivial, but for women on the call, you can probably relate that when I was younger, I had very curly— I still do have curly hair. Now curly hair back when I was in my teens was not popular. My bestest friend had long blonde hair and Jane had short curly hair, and I didn't have a really good self-image of how I looked anyways, and then add that to the hair, and what got in my way was really not being comfortable, perhaps, around a lot of people that were pretty because I felt self-conscious. And so, as I think of it, when I was younger, it got in my way of being as outgoing as I turned out, as I really am, as I got older. And that was something that I knew was there, And uncovering it and calling it and understanding it is a little different. And I'll, I'll show you an example of what I did in order for me to get to release that limited self-belief. And it's about understanding the origin, that it's so important for all of us to understand where did this come from? Where did you get this belief that you weren't smart enough, happy enough, I'm not deserving enough. You've got to understand where that comes from. And when you can understand it from a place and a time, then whether it's right or wrong, it just is. It's not passing judgment on it. It's just sort of naming it. Now, I'm talking about beliefs, but as well as where I'm identifying some of the ones that get in your way. You know, we could spend a whole session if I was to ask every one of you some of the positive and strong beliefs that hopefully you would give me as many in that area. How good of a human being you are, how smart you are, or how talented you are. But we're talking here of understanding the origin and a point in time of where they are. That will certainly help you move forward because what you want to work on is letting go. It is about letting go. As the example that I gave you about the hair. So now we go fast forward, and now we're in the age where, guess what's in style? Perms. I'm gonna curl my hair. And all of a sudden now, everybody is paying money to get that beautiful straight hair that I loved permed. And Jane just needed to kind of wash her hair, and I could just shake it out, and I would get the curl. Then I started listening to other people who would say, "Oh, I wish I had your hair. I'd kill for your hair." And I'm thinking, wait a minute here, this is a little bit different message. The message that my hair was uglier curly, yeah, that probably was back in that time, but in this time it's different. Now, it may sound trivial, but women, we know how important our hair is. That it's, if we have a bad hair day, you don't wanna come near us. Add that on to one of my self-limiting beliefs. And so now today I can go out and just really think, you know what, I got a good head of hair here. Yeah. Now I give you a simple example, but I want you all to be thinking, what is it that I need to finally let go that's holding me back from being the best I can? Because this is about finding your voice. This is all about your ability to be your authentic self, to be the best you can be. And so, you know, these are some of the things— counseling. I went into counseling in my— I was always interested in this topic, but I went into counseling in my early 30s when my father had a stroke, and it compounded me. I had lost my mother at a very, very young age of 13, who suddenly just passed away, leaving home with 6 children. And so imagine having someone losing their mother at a tender age where, am I okay? Am I not okay? What am I doing? So I had that going on, and then all some of these some insecurities, and I had a father who I love, love, love, love dearly. And so now it's a time to say, I need to let go. I need to let go. So, and then I continued the journey, and that's why I love to do and have an audience for you to come to want to help and work on yourself. There are podcasts out there. There are books that can help you. And there's also friends that you can talk to. Don't underestimate the power of a really good, strong friendship. So now, okay, so now you get a sense of where I'm going with this, that we've got this internal thing going. I love this quote. Some of you might have heard it before. "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk to "blossom," which means it's more painful to stay inside than it is taking the risks to go outside. That quote always resonated with me to do some of the internal work. Okay, so now let's move on. So do we have any questions or any comments that people want to make at this point? Are you still with me? Okay, 2 participants raised their hand. Good, love to hear that. Gina raised her hand. Wonderful. Great, great, thank you. Okay, you're all with me here. Good. So now, develop the sound foundation of self-worth. So this is the important. You gotta work on some of the inside because now this is gonna help you. That leads to a solid foundation of confidence. Now we're talking a foundation of confidence. So we talked about the internal. Now we're going to talk about the external, because the external confident characteristics is what you see on the outside is not always what is going on in the inside. So the example that I gave you about me, No one would have ever, ever, ever known that I felt that way about myself. So as I, as I talk about a little bit about my father and my sort of growing up, that what my father did instill in me and everyone else is confidence. So I, fortunately for me, I had a good foundation, but that didn't mean I still didn't have these things to work on. And so, I had the belief that there was nothing that I couldn't do. And so, I had a lot of external confidence. And so, external, what does that mean? It means pride in your appearance. And it's not about that you have to look as cute as you can be every day. It's not really about that, but it is about taking pride in what you look like. I get so saddened these days when I see how the dress code is at work. That, you know, I was in a corporate environment, two different type of roles, and corporate, yeah, it could be a little stiff, and then it lightened with business casual, and that's great. But so many companies now, you can go to work in whatever you want. And I just, I really believe that those companies that aren't encouraging to have some code of maybe, and this is maybe the key, at least have pride in your appearance. I think it diminishes our sense of self. I think it diminishes our ability to be as confident as we can. And that's just my own personal opinion. And even if you think about it, today we're on the Zoom things. There's so much that says, make sure you get dressed, right? Make sure that you maybe put on earrings or a little bit of makeup, or make sure you're here. And so they're saying something here. When you're confined, your appearance is important. External is good posture, strides purposely. So you stand up tall and You know, your shoulders are back and you just feel like good. You're standing in your own sense of self. That's what it looks like. Shakes hand. We will go back to shaking hands. I am confident about that because that's one way that we show how confident we are. Shake that hand firmly. Look me in the eye. When I do a seminar, I absolutely go around the room and you know, randomly shake people's hands and look them in the eye, and there are a couple that I go, "Well, bring that hand back. Let me shake it a little bit firmly. Look me in the eye," because that's gonna just right off the bat demonstrate that you're confident, and that's really what you want, because if you look confident, then people are gonna be reacting to you in a different way. A confident person speaks with clarity, upbeat tones, and pace. Now, this does not come overnight. The speaking and the clarity, the upbeat tone. I mean, there are people out there that don't have any experience at all teaching. And so this all takes time. This all takes time in what you're going to be doing. So these are some of the characteristics of an external characteristic there. So now what is it that we have? We, so this is where I, Once again, I feel that it's important— bear with me here. So we're talking sustainable confidence. Does anybody want to comment on what I mean by sustainable confidence? What do I mean by sustainable confidence? What do you think I mean from that? Anybody? And I would love to challenge someone to Because Margaret, I believe that someone can unmute themselves, right?

Um, no, not in, not in the webinar series you can't. Okay, yeah, okay, okay. But what I would say, you know, and I think it's critical, um, in fact, because even now, and I think now it's even more important, um, right now everybody has gone home, and during this COVID-19 period you've gone home, um, your organization may be going through some you know, upheaval. And so you're, you're often now wondering, is this the place when, when this is all over, will I be able to go back to this? And being able to sustain your confidence now is even more important than it was, let's say, 8 to 10 weeks ago. You know, 10 weeks ago, we could confidently put on a cute outfit, jump in our beautiful cars, and drive to wherever we were going. And we could exude our confidence based on our stuff. A lot of times, people find confidence in the fact that they drive a Mercedes, or they drive a BMW, or they drive a fancy car, or they live in a great neighborhood, or they work for a big brand name company. Right now, sustainable confidence is even more imperative. How do I— stay focused, find my confidence, sustain it long-term. And for those of you who are managing teams, how do you sustain their confidence when we can't see them face-to-face anymore? We can't walk into the cubicle and say, hey, how you doing? And you could see that facial expression on their face to say, oh, they're not doing good today. So this topic is huge. Thank you, Margaret.

And I believe we have some people that did chat. Do they have a question in the chat room?

Because I saw them raise their hand. Tricia said, I love the phrase being truly confident regarding the situation. And Michael said, build from inside for the long term. Gina said, constant. So yeah.

I, yep, I love the, um, love them all. And build confidence in the inside for the long term, absolutely. And so all those are absolutely great examples of a sustainability, because when, when we truly release the limited, um, beliefs, um, that's one, one area, that's just one area, um, it prevents you from being confident in most situations. And so The sustainability is about, in most situations, 'cause you hear us saying, I'm confident in this, I'm confident in that, and that's experience. But I'm talking once again, this foundation of confidence. To give you an example of what I mean for the action, that Margaret, when she first reached out to me, said, we've gotta do some work together. And we just said, oh, it's gotta happen, gotta happen. And so when she called up to say, Jane, I was thinking of a webinar And we were just brainstorming ideas. And I didn't even care what she was gonna ask me to do. I said, "Yes, let's do it." Now, it was the confidence that she wasn't going to ask me to do something that I was not gonna be knowledgeable about. She wasn't gonna ask me to talk about her, "Can you get on a webinar to talk about risk management?" Well, I wouldn't have known anything about that, but she wouldn't have asked me. And so the confidence comes that I am confident in most situations because I have a foundation. And that's really what I hope for others is that they're able to sustain it. But Margaret, I love the fact that you brought up something so important, and that's about us being at home. That, you know, for, for people that might be on the call, let's say you were in your working environment and you were making progress on building up confidence and relationships with people at work, and now you're home alone, and now you don't see them, as Margaret said, face to face. You know, how am I going to keep that up? And so our confidence can wane. Our confidence can wane. And so it's all about how do we keep that going? How do we keep our confidence going? So to build a strong foundation of confidence, so Confidence is the ability to think, feel, and act in a way we're able to achieve our goals. Remember, we had talked about that. That's what it, you know, that's sort of the foundation. And now, how can I build confidence? Practice, practice, practice. It's so, it's really about, as we're building confidence in certain areas, we want to take one step at a time toward more confident you. And limit your expectations, and what I mean by that is, please don't anyone, you know, if you are an overachiever, an A-type person, which does prevent people from trying to do new things because they want to do it perfectly, is don't expect that you will do it perfectly, because then you're going to be disappointed. Remember, you're learning something new. You're finding you to be a new you. Um, yesterday, um, I was on a— I'll give you an example. I was, um, I wanted to— we're all using Zoom, right? We're all using Zoom, most of us are. And I have, um, the girls— we do girls club on the weekend, and I wanted to get my sister on from the audio so we could see each other. So I had a friend do a test with me And she said, Jane, I just wanna let you be aware, I am the most non-technological person you will meet. I said, no problem, no problem. So I get on the phone with her and we're going through and she says, remember what I told you? And in my mind I'm thinking, boy, was she right, but didn't let it bother me. And we worked through it and it was one step at a time. And she said, can I call you back? I gotta get my mind in the game. No problem. Well, she spent 45 minutes with me and we didn't 100% achieve the goal, but what we did achieve, I said, Elaine, you absolutely helped me. You helped me troubleshoot what could be wrong. And I want to thank you for that. And I said, and now you know a little bit more of how to set up the call. And she said, I want to thank you because now I am more confident. And that to me was just like, okay, love it, win-win. And I hoped I helped her with— it's whatever you're helping me with is you're helping me with. I don't expect you to know all those things, but I said it just takes practice. That's just what I said to her. So be easy on yourself because it is practice. Visualization. I'm sure that at times in our lives we have wanted to, maybe have used this skill. It's, you know, athletes use it, so many people use it, but if you use it for when you know what it looks like, that's why it's so important for all of us to visualize what we want success to be. So if you, if someone on the call has to be given a presentation, let's say in a couple of, you know, weeks, maybe even you have to do it for Zoom, What do you want it to look like? What do you want them to say? What do you want them to say at the end of the presentation? Boy, you know, Tom, you did a great job on that presentation. Visualize success and feel what it will be, feel like, because it will help make it come a reality. Now I'm gonna go back to the visualization. That in your mind about our beliefs, that you're, as you start to visualize, maybe that little inner critic to the left side comes in and says, you can't do that, or gee, the last time I did it, it didn't do well. Who's going to be your champion? Who's going to be a champion? Um, and, um, I probably should have mentioned this, um, when we were talking about the beliefs, but, um, I can say I very rarely had a critic. Maybe as it came to, you know, my hair or my looks, I didn't, but in general, as I said, I was really blessed with a wonderful father and a foundation, so I had more of a positive, a champion, and the champion in my ear would be, "Honey, honey, honey, of course you can do it." So for all of you on this call, if you don't have a champion, I'm gonna let you take Al Matthews, and Al Matthews would say, "Honey, honey, honey, of course you can do it." And this is about the visualizing success. So hopefully all of you now are just feeling more confident in your standing, see, even sitting in your seat feeling more confident. And as I just said, challenge the inner critic because it will creep up. It just will creep up because it's a natural as we evolve into a different person and we want to let go and we're building a new sense of self and we're working along the way, that the critic may come in, but challenge it. Challenge it. Anything, Margaret, with you?

Yeah, go please. You know, one of the things that I've been telling folks that I work with, and even for myself, I had one of my mentors say to me, you have a hard time telling people the price that you want to charge them. Right. And he says, you've got to get comfortable saying that number. And I thought, OK, I think I can say it. He's like, no, no, no, no. You need— because what was happening, and I'll give you the story, is, you know, a customer would call up or a company would call and they'd want services. And I would have my price list right there in front of me. And they would start talking. And then I would sort of pick up what I felt they were really saying, like, I don't have the budget. And so instead of sticking to my price list, I would hear what I thought they said. And then my confidence in my worth and my pricing would be different. And I would give them this lower price. And then I'd hang up the phone. And they'd say quickly, yes. And I'd hang up the phone being very upset. That I had basically given my services away. And my mentor said to me that I needed to not only visualize success, but I need to visualize what I want from my own confidence. So I wrote out a strip of sayings, and I stick them onto the mirrors in my house. So when I'm brushing my teeth, I have this little script sitting on my mirror. And it sits on all the mirrors, and I have it on the side of my laptop. So now I'm not, I'm not afraid to visualize the success that I'm wanting. I'm not afraid to visualize this or even say what I want because I have it right there. So when I'm feeling my confidence waning and I'm, I'm stressed out about it, I immediately go back to, oh, this is what I want. Here it is. And so that's always a great tool of visualizing your success is just writing it down, having it on a mirror. And being clear about what you want to say. Yeah. And Tricia, thank you for saying that. You're so not alone. I loved about writing out the messages. Yeah. Because I often would be on a call with somebody, and you know you want to say $10, and then your confidence goes, well, they don't sound like they have the budget. Maybe I should say $5. Well— I don't think I should say 10, I should say 5. And maybe I shouldn't say 5, maybe I should say 2. And so you keep going down the list because as they talk, your own confidence is diminishing, you know? And so that's what I've done is I literally have it. If you were able to see my mirrors, you would see this script and I have, and I say it over and over to myself. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

And that, you know, the affirmations become real important in that. Is any— so once again, maybe in the chat, I'd love to hear, does anybody have a situation where they're dealing with confidence and they want to get some advice? Because you get two women that are on the call here that have a lot of experience, and, you know, as I said, part of what we want today is have it be as interactive Or do they want to share, you know, write, if it's quickly, a little success story of something that you have overcome? Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

You know, we'll give everybody a chance. I think if you're wanting to work through a specific problem, this is a great time to put it into the chat, and Jane and I can banter it through with you. You. So that way you have at least, you know, working through that. I think it was, it was really hard. And I'll give my other story, and this is a really important one, especially for all of us. You know, when we're trying to do something new, when we're not— let's say we're at work and we've been handed this new task, or even in this time, maybe we're taking on 3 or 2 or 3 different different roles that we aren't as strong in those roles and we're taking them on, we may not have the ability to practice, but we do have the ability to visualize the success and the way we do it. And so rather than having this inner critic inside of us saying, I'm not good enough, I can't do this, I don't know how, I'm not at the right place, I don't have all the tools, I need more tools. Rather than saying that, if we just start off by saying, I'm doing the best I can do. I'm doing the best I can with what I have. And that alone is a great place for me to start from. Confidence, I often say— and you could even affirm this, Jane— confidence is like when you're building a house and you're putting the bricks on one by one. No house started out being fully built. You have to add the brick first, you've got to add the second one, and then we put in windows and then a roof and then a driveway and then all this other stuff. So, um, you know, we, we often have to be willing to say, you know, my confidence is going to grow, um, as I build the bricks and as I, I, I move through the process. And, and, um, as I go through this, my confidence will grow.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. As far as that, yeah, great, great example. Anybody give— anybody share, Margaret, before I go?

Yeah, so, um, so Gina shared, um, I'm currently in transition for my career. I'm concerned that I would be judged by my HR experience, um, because I'm not in an organization during COVID-19, though I'm keeping my skills up to date through webinars and supporting my HR community. And that's valid. I think, um, one of the areas that that I saw, Jane, and I think I'm sure you can attest to this. And Gina, thank you for sharing. During '08, during the '07, '08, '09, when the economy was really in the toilet bowls and we were all struggling, one of the groups that we started down here in Florida was HR in Transition. And we started working with HR professionals who had lost their job during the economic downturn. And one of the things that we found is for HR, when we aren't in the mix of things, our confidence really takes a hit. And it may not take a hit as much if we're in some other profession. It'll take a hit because we are— if you're working in manufacturing, it'll take a hit because you don't have the job. But I think for HR professionals, because we are such people-driven and we are driven to manage and help people, when we are out of the game called HR, it's earth-shattering. And it is a confidence zapper. And I think that— To answer your question, Gina, I think what you're doing is correct. You're staying abreast of what's going on, and you are making yourself skilled in this area, even though you're not in an organization right now managing a team. So don't, don't ever think that what you're doing is not important. I think COVID-19 and the best practices around it is going to be with us for a long time. Time. And a lot of HR practitioners— and the, the positive I would say to you is a lot of HR practitioners who are now working in the field don't have time because they are putting out fires right now. They don't have time to gain the skills, all the skills they need to manage COVID-19 effectively. So I honestly think that you're doing webinars, you're doing the support things that you're doing is going to make you a more rounded person in terms of skills in your toolbox versus practical application of the skill. I think skills in your toolbox, for all of you on this call, skills in your toolbox is a massive confidence builder. Jane, what do you think? Yeah.

Yeah, no, I think that is exactly right. Keeping yourself up to date. And Gina, what I would say for you, and whether HR, whatever profession, that too often people identify who they are by their job. And it's— our jobs is just a— it's not sustainable. It's who we are at that moment. I have this saying that I am who I am wherever I go. And so I worked really hard over the years that I never identified with a title because I knew that you could lose your job, and when you lose your job, so many people lose themselves. So this is actually a good time for you to maybe in this webinar today that you can pick some things away that, who am I? And You know, I'm just— HR is just one thing, one component. And because if that one component in your life is not working, then so many other things in your life does. So I would say, you know, continue to be— keep it from, as I call it, the head. The head, which is the business part and learning new skills. And the heart is some of the work that you want to be doing on yourself. Because at the end of the day, as you come out of this. You want to come out of this emotionally okay, and then also from the, the structural, for the business part, stronger as well. So, um, thank you for that comment. Thank you. So this, um, so to end this particular part of, of the webinar, we'll be talking about beliefs and confidence. And so I believe that acting confidently is great for us to impression. Absolutely. You act confident. Boy, that woman or that man, he's a confident man. Shake my hand. But feeling and believing in your confidence leaves a lasting impression because you're gonna not only act it, you're gonna feel it, you're gonna believe it. And that does come out. And that, once again, we're going back to finding your voice, finding the authenticity. So now let's go move into your communication skills, and because we have got the beliefs, we got the confidence, but now we've heard through some of the chat that what is your communication? What style of communication do you have? We're not going to get into too much of the actual communication, like the how-tos, but I want to identify some things where I felt in this relationship, making connections with people. These are just some of the ones that I've identified. And it's empathy. We have conflict resolution, empathy, negotiations, and that's negotiations from how to negotiate perhaps a salary or negotiate a job, a new job offer, or something that you want from your boss. Appreciation, how to negotiate or how to communicate appreciation. And what I mean by that is saying to someone, I value your, I value you, I value you. That becomes important. Now, in order— what I discovered in my work with people on self-worth and self-esteem, that for those who don't feel so great about themselves and their worth, they found it hard to give appreciation to others. And this becomes an important thing because as we, you know, sort of are going to be rounding up what we're going to bring, bring it all together, The relationship that you have with others is an important part of finding your voice, and so that becomes an important part as well. Difficult conversations. We started off by talking, was there a situation that occurred where someone had a difficult conversation or a situation where you wanted to deal with? And then the last area which I thought of that had to do with all this is assertiveness. And that has to do with, I don't know necessarily how to say what I am saying. I don't know how to say it in the right, right way. And when I remembered, I don't know if anybody on this call, so I'm gonna go here. I'm gonna go right to this one. Has anybody taken a course, listened to a podcast, or read an article? I should have put on here recently on how to be assertive. This is more of, I guess, a curious question. Have you, whether it's at your company, are they teaching assertiveness skills? So Tricia raised her hand. Anybody else there that have, and I'm talking recently too, as far as someone that perhaps has learned a little bit about this skill and you have been using it in a way that you're using the language. Do we have anybody raising their hands? Okay. So I think that this one area of assertiveness is an area where it could prevent people from actually Speaking up. And so assertiveness, having a showing confident, forceful personality, someone who could stand up on their own, ability to get the point across. This has all to do with our ability to speak up. And so in our ability to speak up, it's using the right words, the right language, in a calm and positive way without being evilly, either aggressive up passively, because there is a difference of assertiveness versus aggressiveness, an ability to get your point across. So I'd love to get a showing of hands of how many people on the call feel that they're pretty good about getting their point across without upsetting others, that you can do it without others being, oh, I don't know, disappointed or insulted. That you— so two participants raised their hand. Max, so Max, do you feel that you are able to do it where you're heard and you feel good about the conversation?

Let's see. While we're waiting for Max's answer, Gina said presence. Andrew says background for me. I work in sales. And I listen to Cardone University every morning. And I listen to Darren Hardy. So he's listening to people to help him with his assertiveness. And Max says, "I'm very careful about my tone, but it gets the point across." Okay, good, good.

Because this part, so if you haven't learned a little bit about assertiveness, that one of the things that I see unfortunately with some of that, whether it's a podcast or whether it's a book that you read, that it's one way. And assertiveness, the best way to learn is to role-play. Now we all hate that role-play. Role play. Many of us do, but it's really about how do we come across. And when we get to practice it, then we get to know how that sounds like. So practice and even practice with a partner, per se. So now let's sort of move on. So we've talked about the beliefs. We talked about our confidence. That's real important. We've talked about our communications because, and once again, these are all foundational skills built upon each other. And now it's about having those courageous conversations. So before I go further on this one, I'd love to hear, once again, through the chat, 'cause this will help me as I go into the last section, and then we're gonna, certainly we wanna open up more to have more questions and also get some conversation going of us helping you. What conversation do you want to have right now with a boss or a coworker that you just, gee, I just don't know where to begin? So you can even just put in the chat as far as I want to have a conversation with my boss about my working hours. I want to have a boss about not giving me enough responsibility. I want to have a conversation with my boss about not being able to have taken on additional responsibilities, whatever that may be. What conversations are people wanting to have that they just don't know if they're ready to have?

Yeah, that's a great question, because sometimes I think I often find that I want to have a conversation and I will role-play that conversation in my head over and over and over again, but I still won't have the conversation with the person. I'll be busy role-playing and mulling it around in my own head rather than picking up the phone and calling, or because I don't want to be confrontational. That's always a challenge is having courage to have conversations is hard. I mean, it's a hard place to be. Yeah, yeah, it's really hard to do that. Especially with people that you care about. If you care about them or even when you're in a superior position, subordinate role, you know, where you have this person at a higher level and you really want to talk to them. And I feel honestly that this COVID-19 and the way that we are operating right now with everybody being at home, I think that may affect how courageous people are right now in their conversations. They may be really afraid to say what they feel because, ugh, you know, do I really want to say it now?

Yes, exactly. So Margaret, I have a— I'm looking at the chat. Do we want to address some of— are we going to wait to address some of the questions? So I— because I'm reading here, Hal Elrod from his newest book, Miracle Equations: Unwavering Faith and Extraordinary Effort. Effort equals Miracle Equation. I love that.

Yeah, yeah, that was a good book recommendation from Andrew.

Extraordinary effort, one consistency, practice. Yes. And visualize your goal and continue on the path as a person who is unfaltering. Yes, yes, absolutely. I love that one. Um, so we have here, love the story, write out the message, great book recommendations, Andrew. Career, yep.

I appreciate the kind words. Yeah, I think we've answered it. If anyone else has, you know, questions, please put them into the chat box as we move through. We have about 15 minutes or so left in our webinar, so definitely put in your information. And I have here Ian Cutty.

I'm glad someone had mentioned Ian Cutty because Ian Cutty, She's got that famous book about the Poles, the women Poles. So it's good that you have some of those references and books to use. So yeah, yeah. So now, you know, as I say, are you ready to have those conversations? So as we think about what— so I have this thing like, okay, wait. And now we're going to think of the other component of bringing all together. Because if we don't have sort of this working relationship, so the question becomes, do you have a good working relationship with your manager and leadership where you feel comfortable speaking up, sharing ideas, or confronting conflict? So, if you don't, so often we say, okay, I wanna have a conversation with my boss, and I'm gonna go go in and have this conversation. And I'll give you an example where someone— I do a lot of mentoring and I have this mentee and she's in her late, late 20s. And she started off at her company, she was there for about 2 weeks. And she was working with the CEO, it's a smaller company, with her manager, and she was in HR role. And they were in discussing a situation with about this employee that they needed to work out. They were maybe going to put them on performance, but they weren't quite sure what to do, and the CEO said something, and the inexperienced person said, "Oh, that's illegal. Hmm, so let me see. 2 weeks into the job and you say that's illegal, right?" Well, it didn't go over well, as you can imagine, but she has a wonderful boss that took her aside and said, okay, we're going to work on, on your language and how you want to say it. And so fast forward, she's been there 8 months, and we had a conversation about this. And I said, so what would you have done differently today? And of course, we talked about what that was. But we talked even more importantly about what the relationship is. Because if you don't have a good relationship with your manager, with your leader, with your colleagues, with a friend, a family, then having these conversations is more than likely not going to turn out well. When I think back of my career, that I was known— it's my number one value— of being able to speak up to my manager, to leader, when I felt something wasn't right.. And it was not always the most popular thing to do. I've gone to, I've done it twice in my career where I've gone to the boss's boss to say, to complain about my boss after I tried very unsuccessfully to work through some issues with my boss. And the boss's boss, I remember one in particular, he said, Jane, what do you want me to do with this information? And I said, I'd like you to talk to my boss.— and this was like in my first career. And I took the chance that his boss was going to talk to him about me as the employee. And when the boss said to me, "Why didn't you come to me directly?" And I said, "Because I tried and it didn't work." And so we continued to work through it. He understood where I was coming from. But I developed develop the relationship first with my bosses before I was able to have these conversations. So here's the key, that if you want to really be speaking up and having honest conversations, you need to be able to have this relationship first. And so it's really about having relationships that are finding your voice. So finding your voice, so this is bringing this all together here, is when your foundation of concrete is filled with positive self-beliefs, high confidence, good communication skills, and effective relationships. These all come together and you work on these simultaneously. And so my book, and that's what we started off with, was my book. I wrote this book out of a passion because I saw too, too often in my work as a consultant in the networking part that people who were network— my clients who were networking were networking only for the benefit of themselves. They missed the point of relationship building for the person they were meeting with. And so out of frustration one day, I just said, no, no, no. You gotta— it's really all about you. It's about you, then it's about me, then it's about you. So I developed this concept where the first stages, you initiate, you engage, you develop, and you strengthen. Because when you work on a relationship as the foundation when you go in, and this starts when you get hired, this starts in the beginning of your job. I am, I have one, another one of my mentees that I'm coaching, and I love that he wanted to work on relationship building, and he has made unbelievable progress. I love the, the fact of what he wants to be doing and how do I say this, and I have seen him progress so nicely on. Now it comes a little bit more natural to him. So how do you build a strong relationship? You ask 3 or 4 questions of the other person. So now we're going back to some basics here, but even as you're meeting with your manager, you want to get to know that manager as a person. You want to know how to best work with that person. You use positive body language to show interest, so it's positive language but also our body language to show interest in others. Then we want to build your next question, so it's more of building and asking them questions about them so that you show that you're interested in them and not all about you. And then you can try to talk— when you start talking about yourself, then you bring in some commonalities. So it's still, it's all about you, it's all about you, then it's about me, then you bring it back to the other person. And everybody builds relationships in very different ways. If this was I teach, I do a webinar on just the book itself on how to use these concepts. But I really felt strongly that in order for us to find our own voice and to have it and to speak up, when I think of all the situations that I have spoken up to and been respected for it is because I had a relationship with the person first. So then I'd say to you, which relationship skill do you need to develop? It's all about what do I need to get better at. So once again, in the chat, is there a— I'd love to hear what other relationship-building skill that you feel that you want to be working on. Is there anything in particular that could help you in, you know, your relationship building that would help you overall? Anyone just want to make one comment? Okay, so if there is someone— so I think it was Gina who was networking— if you want to be doing a job search, that you want to be learning a lot more about how to build an effective relationship, because the relationship is, once again, is the foundation of what you will need as you go forward, because other people will be helping you. And remember, it's not all about you. It's about really the other person as well. You can get my book, You, You, Me, You. It's available on Amazon. It's on Kindle and also the paper book. And it's a very short read, and I Margaret Spence actually wrote it and wanted it in a paper book so you could just put it into your pocket. But it has some great tips on how to effectively build these relationships, because that's the found one of those foundational skills that bringing it all together, it's going to help you in finding your voice and being able to speak up as well. So we talked in the beginning about the pieces of the puzzle. And so it's about our beliefs. It's our beliefs and what we think about ourselves. It is the confidence. Do I have the confidence externally and internally to move forward? Do I have the right communication skills? And then also, do I have the right connections to do that? And when we put all these together, then there is a puzzle. And remember, the puzzle is what is it that you want to look like act like, and feel like as we continue to grow in all of your careers. So some parting thoughts before we continue to look in the chat. I believe that when our relationships are built upon trust, integrity, empathy, and compassion, focusing on others first, and this does not mean that your needs are not met. That's not what I'm talking about. About, but I'm talking about how we're gonna treat each other. So when we have those difficult conversations, so when we have those difficult conversations, or ask for what we need and want, and you will, and you will want to be able to speak up, the chances of being heard and acted upon increases. And I speak from experience that When I say to you, I'll give you another example. When I think about the integrity, that in one of my first career, I was at a time when the company was going through a lot of changes and my name was on a list to be let go. And there was a meeting that was held and there were 5 managers in the room and they said, "No, no, you can't let go Jane, not her." So my position was saved. But at that time I was doing, I'm a race walker. So I would be race walking at lunch to get exercise. And I would come back always to go to work, but everybody else, the engineers would always go to lunch. So I had to stop race walking. Then unfortunately my father passed away and I felt I needed I needed to go out walking. And my boss said, I told him, I said, "I am gonna have to start walking again," 'cause he knew me. And he says, "Okay, but can you walk behind the building?" And I said, "No." I said, "Bill, if I can't walk in front of the building, and if they're going to let me go because of that, so be it, because it's too important for me." It was a relationship that I had on trust and integrity that I was able to do that. And I can give you many, many other examples. So don't underestimate the power of your relationship, that you will be able to have your voice heard and really get acted upon. So beliefs, a beliefs, comfort, foundation, connections, bringing it all together. So I want to thank you all for your patience, your attention today, your questions today, and so, Margaret, let's open it up if there are more questions, because I think I saw other people in the chat room as well.

Yeah, Jane, thank you so much for doing this webinar. I think that there were some great points that you went through, and some of the key takeaways for me was around self-belief. You know, what do we believe about ourselves and how is that showing up in the work that we try to do or the work that we are doing? And I think that's something that we don't often talk about enough. And I think self-belief is always in the back of our mind. You know, whatever we believe about ourselves, even if we're showing up one way or not, it is affecting who who we are and what we do. So I think that was one of my big takeaways from your presentation. And the other one was sustaining confidence. I think that especially now— I mean, I keep saying that. I sound like a broken record. But I think being able to sustain your confidence is huge for organizations. You'll go ahead and put back your contact information. I think that's super important. Yeah. So I think it's really important that we maintain our confidence and continue to maintain what we are doing in our path now. I think it's even more important for us to do that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I don't see a lot of comments in our, in our chat, but if you have a thought, a parting thought about this, we'll also be sending you out a survey at the end. You will all get a survey about the presentation, and, and we will go through just asking you a couple questions on the presentation and other things that you'd like to see, both from Jane and from from us. I also want to take this opportunity to tell everybody about the Employee to CEO Project, which is how we are hosting this webinar. It's employeeceoproject.com. And one of my life work is helping women specifically build their career path and really helping managers learn how to see what's possible for women in their career. I also have a great— book that— we'll do this shameless plug. It's Leadership Self-Transformation. And it's the 52 career-defining questions that every high-achieving woman must answer. It's also on Amazon. And it's a great complement to your career in terms of what questions, especially now, and for those of you who are in transition— I know Tricia, I think it was, that said that she was in transition. Or Gina was in transition, what are the questions that you need to ask yourself about your career today that's going to impact where you go from here? What's your next step in terms of your career growth and your career movement beyond where you are right now, I think is important. And even if you are not in transition, I think this period is a great time to reflect not only around the stuff that Jane talked about, but around, you know, what are we going to look like when this ends? I think it's a question I keep asking myself and I keep asking other people. What will we change about ourselves going forward? You know, what will this next phase look like? So Andrew said he's got a really good thought. He says, aside from you wonderful ladies, what do you think about other inspiring leaders? And yes, Andrew, I do agree. Tony Robbins, Brene Brown, there's lots of other people out there who are doing phenomenal work that I think we all should tune into. Deepak Chopra has done some great meditations. I think, you know, all of these great inspirational leaders are who's going to help us get from point A to point B. Absolutely.

Brené Brown is one of my favorites. She's— her book, The Gifts of Imperfection, is a great book about the— their— your self-beliefs, along with my book about relationships, You, You, Me, You, which the infamous Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Yeah. And I hope that what you as the audience have come to understand, that it— there is not one thing that you need to do. There are many things that actually come together, and they're done simultaneously because it's some— it's something that you're building upon in your career. And I know, and I know Margaret as well, is that I want everybody to feel confident that they're worthy and deserving of being treated with nothing but respect, to ask what they want for, but ask with tact and diplomacy. Speak up even when someone else isn't speaking up, because you have to live with yourself more than you live with other people. It takes bravery, it takes courage, and it takes work. But the work on the end I will tell you, is far more rewarding. And I know that there are, as I call it, moment of darkness, but we cannot be come into the light until we have spent some time in the darkness. And the darkness for some is longer, but the light is just so much worth it. So, yeah, so I know I want to thank you, Margaret Spence, for this wonderful opportunity to invite me to be speaking here. And this is where I can be reached. And you heard about Margaret's project as well. Yeah, it's been, it's been, it's been great. Yeah, absolutely.

And I want to close the webinar with two questions. It's the questions I ask every single person that I encounter. And it's, it's some of what Jane said. It's what do you want? And why don't you have it now? Those are the two questions, and I think that we don't answer those questions effectively enough. And finding the self-confidence to ask for what you want and evaluate why you don't have it now is the critical two questions for everyone in life and in your career. And, um, it's the question. It's what we should be asking themselves. So thank you, Jane. This has been a wonderful collaboration, and we will do this again. Um, this was really amazing. And for all of you that attended, both live, um, here on Zoom with us but also live on YouTube, we appreciate you being here. Um, and if you have other topics that you want us to bring forward, it's really easy to reach me. Um, it's Margaret at margaretspence.com. Really simple. And, and you can reach Jane at careerengage.boston@gmail.com. Her website is careerengage.boston.com, and my website is employeetoceoproject.com. Thank you again for joining us, and have a wonderful day. Stay safe, social distancing, wash your hands, all that good stuff. And we will have our next webinar next month. And just before we go, I want to tell everyone I am doing a virtual career summit which will start on the beginning of May, and we're gonna do 5 days of 2 webinars a day and some ancillary programs and live coaching for new college graduates, people in transition, and those of you who want to learn some additional skills to move your career forward, so stay tuned for that, and I will be posting that shortly. Take care, everyone. Thank you. Take care.

Bye-bye. Bye-bye.