Episode 254: Escaping the Burnout Trap | Michelle Smith | Coach for Women in Leadership
Michelle Smith spent decades leading in the male-dominated world of action sports before walking away to launch her own coaching practice. Today, she helps ambitious women lead with clarity, set powerful boundaries, and define success on their own terms. In this episode, Michelle and Kara talk about corporate burnout, the lessons of managing people well, how to lead with presence, and the cost of staying silent. They explore self-trust, gender bias in the workplace, and what it really takes to juggle family and ambition. If you’ve ever felt like you're doing it all but losing yourself in the process, this conversation is a must-listen.
“Both your female and your male energy needs to be embodied to be a great leader. As women we are underutilizing all the tools we have access to to reach people on so many levels.”
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Chapters:
(00:00:00) Breaking Into Action Sports as a Woman Leader
(00:03:00) Launching a Coaching Business for Women
(00:06:00) Confidence, Mentorship, and Building Presence
(00:08:45) From Yoga to Mindfulness to Coaching
(00:11:00) Boundaries at Work and at Home
(00:14:15) Self-Worth, Pay Equity, and Career Advocacy
(00:17:00) Trusting Yourself and Unlearning Perfectionism
(00:20:00) Relationships, Management, and Team Culture
(00:26:30) Redefining Leadership as a Woman
(00:30:00) Delivering Hard News and Having Tough Conversations
(00:33:45) Curiosity, Travel, and Growth
(00:36:30) What Makes a Powerful Lady
Follow along using the Transcript
I always loved when I would talk to someone in their review and say what do you wanna do? And they would say I want your job. Amazing because I want my boss's job. That's Michelle Smith. I'm Kara Duffy, and this is The Powerful Ladies podcast.
Welcome to the Powerful Ladies Podcast. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I love when I get to use this podcast as an excuse to brag to the world about some of my favorite people, and then I get to hang out with my favorite people in the excuse of making a podcast recording. And that is includes you.
We met when we were both working at Supra. Correct. Which feels like a hundred years ago now. Absolutely. And there aren't there are more women than you would think that are working in the skate and action sports space. But I would say that there's only a handful of women who I have met in that space where I'm like, yep, you, you are awesome.
We're on the same page. And that's how I really felt working with you. And it was really fun to have, a powerful. Has their shit together, knows what they're doing, woman to work with and be inspired by. Yeah, I, I feel the same. It was so much fun. I think that we both embrace the fact that we could accomplish so much more together. And, we had different responsibilities, but when we came together it was like, it was so much fun and that that powerful lady like you starting that I'm so proud of you as well. And it's so amazing to see what women are accomplishing in the world today.
It's inspiring. Yes. It, thank you. And it is there's so many stories of people who no one knows about that are doing tremendous things. And when we only see the Beyonces and the Taylor Swifts and the. I'm all Clooney of the world. It seems very far away and like we can never make an impact, and that's just such a lie.
Absolutely. I think that's why I pivoted and am doing what I'm doing is to inspire ambitious females, like how you can make a difference and how you can demand respect in the world, in the workplace, and in the home life, really. Let's jump back to tell everyone. Your name, where you are in the world, and all the exciting things you are up to now.
Okay. Michelle Smith. Where I am in the world right now is a little tiny town in western Pennsylvania called Ligonier. I feel like I've come full circle. I was born and raised in Montana. I couldn't wait to get out, and now I'm back in what? Is essentially exactly the type of town I grew up in.
So it's funny. What I'm up to is I've just last year launched Michelle Smith coaching which is focused on females who want to really excel in their career but also need that work-life balance. And that's something, as. I achieved everything in my career. I was sacrificing everything in my personal life.
And then when I had children, it just was like, fuck and crushing down. So I wanna be there for women, I wanna help them make a difference, help them get focused on both self advocating, in the workplace, at home and really excel in both areas. I'm so excited that you're offering this now because there's so much women can learn from you.
And something that I think made us like aligned is that we have no room for like dumb extra things. And part why we don't have this room is because we are so committed to the other things that are happening in our lives. And there's so many times, especially in the corporate space where. People want to do things and you're like, why?
That is not getting to our objective, that is not making anything happen that needs to, and you're adding hours of work and usually money on top of it. Like how have you managed those situations and how have you kept your cool when you realized everyone in the room was out of their mind?
I love that question because as at the end of our tenure together it was definitely a challenging environment. Yes. And so I think I. Really looking at the entire picture, knowing that there's things to achieve that are much bigger than everyone in the room. Understanding that you have to be present.
You can't worry about what just happened. You can't worry about what is going to happen. You had to be present. And I think, a lot of people forget that. And they get their ego and they start thinking about like themselves. And there's so much more to creating success in the workplace.
So that's really, I think for me, what was a. Constant reminder is just stay true to the objective. Remove yourself from the situation and take deep breaths. Always. Another thing that's always really impressed me with you is like the confidence that you have, is that something that you always had or is that something that you built up over time?
It's interesting that you say that I was an only child. I think my parents really instilled in me that I could succeed in anything. But I also, when I first moved to California, was really timid and shy in the fact that. I was from a small town, that, back woods girl, if you will.
I really attribute, I had two incredible mentors in my corporate career. Both male, which is interesting, but that really pushed me to pushed my limitations supported me if I failed. And so I think I really developed it over time. In using those mentors and really what I'm hoping to do for women today.
And how did you end up in action sports in the first place? It's interesting, I had just moved back from Maui and had done six months over there just for fun. Was looking for a job and just stumbled into working for an apparel company in the action sports industry. I'd always been friends with people who skateboarded or people who surfed and I was an active snowboarder. And once I discovered that there was an entire genre to be had here I really embraced it and then stayed in that industry. You mentioned that there was that turning point for you when you had kids and realized. Like I can't keep operating in this corporate space the way I was before.
'cause you were traveling a lot. You were constantly on the go. There, I think it's always crazy when people are asking us to fly on weekends and give up all our personal time so we can be there for the 8:00 AM meeting on Monday. No one needs those. So what really was that pivot point when you said, I need to start exploring the, these other avenues to find balance?
And where did you first start? Was it yoga training? Was it just, reprioritizing? Like how did you begin the process of rebalancing where your focus was? Yeah, it was an immediate hard stop in leaving, the corporate world. It was like, that's enough. And I took a couple weeks.
I'd already done yoga teacher training. And just dove into that and really embracing mindfulness and yoga. And I taught for a year and I, took classes and created kind of events and different retreats for women specifically on how to be mindful, how to be present. And then I did a stint.
My children go to a school here in town and I did a stint with them as the director of development, which is all the fundraising for the school and. It was something that I had never planned on doing, right? It wasn't like a career path that I chose. I just stumbled into that as well. And it was like doing good for kids, right?
But. Education is not my passion. Being in that environment wasn't my passion and I started to look at what can I do that is giving back that I get rewarded for? But takes everything that I learned in the corporate space combined with mindfulness and yoga, and that's when it happened. Yeah.
Excuse me. And then so you, from the yoga to mindfulness and now to coaching Yeah. What has that experience been like to go into it, this new space? Absolutely incredible in the sense of partnering with females and. Diving into what their challenges are. And it's similar as of managing people.
Yes. Like you, you're a coach in that sense. When you're managing people, you're pushing them to do bigger things. You are picking them up when they fail. But they're not, like when you're a manager, the people underneath you are not necessarily choosing. Actively for your coaching advice where you're just doing that because that's what you need to do as a great manager.
Where in what I'm doing now is people are choosing to partner with me and take my advice, and that's one of the questions I ask everyone before they come on board. Are you coachable and are you willing to get uncomfortable? Are two of my kind of qualifying questions. And when they say yes, like it can be magic on how much they can learn and grow.
And what kind of areas are people coming to you for? Is it career oriented? Is it like relationships, life, money? Mostly career, but also that work life. So I'm focused on like really being able to focus on your career but maintain work life balance. Yeah. And I think as females, right? You talk female energy and masculine energy and as females we have a hard time setting boundaries.
So we focus a lot on that, on not only with like your boss or your coworkers or the company you work for, but your partner, your friends, your parents really how to manage all those different relationships so that you can be successful. And being. CEO of a house is very similar to being CEO at a company.
Like you can't do it alone. You have to have your team. There needs to be like standard operating procedures. There has to be. Exactly. There's a p and l. Yes. Yeah. And I think that we step over that. You're not supposed to carry it all on your own back and like you would never expect to know everything.
About a company if you would go to run it. So why would you ever expect to have to know everything about how the house and the family and food, like everything else works? Absolutely. We're just, so do you think we're breaking through in women being less mean to themselves and or is it still like, where are we on the path of.
Stepping into our power, our boundaries, and having a sense of reality of what it means to do all the things that we care about. I think there's still a lot of work to be done, unfortunately. Yeah. I think that the majority of women out there still beat themselves up, think that they have to do it all.
I also think that there's potentially a lack of, embracing each other still today. And so I think, and that's again, what is a huge inspiration is like breaking down those barriers and bringing women together and, you don't have to do it all and it's okay when you make a mistake. Those are things that I think women still need to learn.
Where are we gonna learn them? Is it something that we like? It's going to be people like you, and that's the girl. Like the, it's gonna have to be something extra. Do you see paths for like, how do we start shifting this at a bigger level? And I don't know, maybe it's not even possible. It's interesting.
I was really thankful at the end of 2023. I was hired by a company here in the area in Westmoreland County that is definitely a male dominated company. And they hired me to do a professional development training with only their female executives. And I was shocked. One of the things I really pushed back on is there can't be change if I'm only training the women and not the men, but at least I got to make a difference in those women's lives.
So I think it's. One woman at a time. In addition, I'm hoping that by Q2 of this year I can create an online platform. So it's more of a community. I can scale it. There's only so many hours in the day to coach one-on-one, as yes. So can I scale something that is starting to help others and, articles and social media, hopefully that all starts to make a bigger difference.
It is always really interesting to me because I'm in this conversation all the time running a company called Powerful Ladies. Right? And I find it interesting when there's people who are like, isn't that conversation like done? Didn't we have the Barbie Taylor Swift Beyonce year? Are we good?
And I don't think people, one, I think it's coming from people who have never traveled and. Sure And not even traveled abroad but haven't traveled inland in some capacity. And it actually reminds me of when we would talk about the core demographics in action sports, like every four years it was a brand new person.
There wasn't always crossover, even knowing athletes and riders and 'cause it's a new 14-year-old. And I think we're also forgetting that's what's happening. With generations of women too. It's like it's a new 18-year-old, it's a new 21-year-old. And what they're, the messages they're getting are so different than the messages you or I were getting at that age.
And there's things we're forgetting, it still blows my mind that my mother couldn't open her own bank account until she was like 26. She had, and you're like, that's not long enough ago. And absolutely. There seems to be this idea that like we've, and I think Roe v Wade woke people up with that a little bit of things that, the things that seem like they've been in place forever, really haven't been, they're not strong enough foundationally for us to stop talking about them. 100%. I did some research when I was first putting together what I wanted to focus on for my coaching, and it's 2024 and it's something like 83% of women are still under compensated compared to their male counterpart parts.
Yeah. That's unbelievable. And I'm not like, I'm not this huge feminist that is like, women should do every job. Women should play every sport, women should do this, do that, but women should be compensated equally. And so I think there's still a lot of work to do. And having a daughter, when you enter into those conversations, it's like nothing fires me up faster.
Yeah. And 'cause you have twins. So it's al, it's so easy to see the his versus her. 'cause they're going through similar stages, whether they're at the same stage or not in that moment, but it's very black and white. I imagine the comparison. Absolutely. Even there's, conversations with a whole class, call it 24 kids, half boys, half girls, and you still see at that age the words that are associated with reactions that the females have versus the males have.
It. There's movies about it, there's books about it there. The list goes on of, there's songs about it. So it's really how do we take that younger generation and continue to teach them, advocate for them and hopefully they can continue to make change long after I'm doing what I'm doing.
One of the things I've been talking to a lot of people about lately is self-trust. And I see this coming up on all genders that I coach with, and it's been really interesting to see how there's so many cultural things that undercut a girls or women's trust in their knowing, their intuition, their gut feeling.
And so it's been something I've been looking at a lot. We're talking about doing some self-trust workshops or even a panel about it. Because there's so many things that we know and we're told, oh, don't be ridiculous. Oh, don't they're always telling us that we're wrong, whether it's about medical conditions or knowing how someone feels.
And it's been really interesting to see, however, the magical algorithm works that I'm getting things popping up in my Instagram feed that are showing. People doing the opposite. Whether it's people acknowledging when someone says, are you okay telling the truth versus just saying, I'm fine.
Because that's a really passive way to start telling someone that your emotional intuition is off, and like the unlearning that women have to do is at a level that I don't think we realize in the moment so much. In your space alone, like there's so much unlearning of how to be a professional female.
So what are mistakes women making to be the professional female versus how they could really step into their power? I think one of the biggest mistakes is trying to compete with the male persona and embody that in yourself 100%. It's you're a female and you can still be a badass even though you're a female in the workplace.
And so I really, one of the things I try to coach people on is how to balance and go between your mail. Female energy, right? Because both have a place. And so when you're negotiating and you wanna come across as powerful, tap into your male energy. But when you're working with your team and someone had a tough experience, tap into your female energy.
Both need to be embodied to be successful. I think the other thing that I think females really underestimate the importance of in the workplace is relationships. I don't know if you remember, but you'd be in the workplace and, the male boss is like wandering around the offices, shaking hands, kissing babies and females were at their desk like.
Getting it done. Yes. And so how do you teach that and how do you embrace that as a female when you find it to be a waste of time? But I think relationships are really underutilized in the workplace when you're a woman. Yeah. And I think that there's also, we know how much has to get done.
And most of the powerful women that I have worked with are able to see beyond their own roles and responsibilities, understand the breadth of all the things that no one has decided on yet. Like how are we actually gonna get there? What's this actually gonna cost? So like we're already. Thinking at a much more complex level than we've been asked to.
And when we know we have to get it all done, 'cause we have to get out the door to get either pick up the kids or get to the next thing. There's, we know the limitation the I and I think that there's a, I see a swing in women having to be. In that 100% productive space or else. That is so hard to I have to unteach all of my clients that your self-worth is not based on your output.
Absolutely. And it's I don't like that conversation of like, why aren't we walking around? Most people have panic attacks about, oh, it takes so much time to manage people. I'm like. Yes and no. Depends on how you're doing it. But yes, you do have to remember if you have team members, like you need to leave room in your schedule for the people.
Yes. 'Cause relationships have built my entire life in business. Absolutely. And I wasn't walking around shaking hands and kissing a lot of babies, but it mattered Like, it, it having. Being able to know when I think to pause and go have lunch with people. Or to even just work on projects together versus solely at your desk.
Absolutely. What are some of the, your favorite relationships or relationship stories that meant a lot to you as you're building your career? Yeah. There are definitely some great relationships with, males that I worked with. Yeah. But I think some of my favorite female relationships as I was in the sales space and having good relationships with the product people you come to mind for sure. And there's another person who worked with me at DC Shoes forever. And we had a fantastic relationship in the sense of really pushing each other because we both reported into, males who were strong personalities, and so we had to learn to hold our own. And so we really pushed each other.
To this day, I, I keep in touch with her and we'll push each other even from afar which is amazing. You mentioned managing people takes a lot of time. I love managing people. Me too. I think that's one of the things I miss most about not being in the corporate space, is like my team.
And those relationships, I still to this day, look back and think, oh my gosh, what an amazing group of people. That we were able to. Really work hard, really play hard travel the world like all of that. Yeah. I loved, yeah, I know. It catches me off guard when I have clients who are petrified about hiring and building a team and managing them.
And I have to remember that for some people it's more innate than for others. But there are people who. Were interns for me that I, 20 years ago that I still have relationships with because they showed up and worked hard. And one of my philosophies is always, once I respect you, then we can hang out together.
Like you have to prove you can work first. And I think there's so many. People who go friend first, and I'm like, it will never work that way. How would you advise someone to build a great relationship with somebody that they just brought on board? That is such a great question. I fully agree with you on, you have to respect them first.
They have to. Be willing to work hard for you, and you have to be willing to work hard for them also. And so building that foundation in the workplace before you become a friend I think is very key. But it's also, I always loved when I would talk to someone in their review and say what do you wanna do?
And they would say I want your job. Amazing because I want my boss's job. Not being afraid to backfill yourself. Not being worried that they really will take your job someday. And giving them all your knowledge, I think is a great way to manage people and have a tremendous relationship.
They also then learn to respect you, right? Yeah. Because you're not you're not afraid of them. Yeah. The illusion that you need to be the nice boss, I think is another lie that we tell ourselves. For sure. All the data says that people prefer someone who's consistent over nice. And all the people I know who are worried about being that, asshole boss, like they never could be.
They're so far on the other side of the spectrum, right? That I often have to tell people to be less nice. Yeah. 100%. I, there's a joke among my friend group, like whenever they say she's really nice, or he's really nice. I'm like, oh, that's the worst thing you could ever say about me.
And it's so funny, like you are so nice, but it would never be in the top 10 words I would use to describe you. 'cause there's so many other interesting better words, right? That's the worst thing to say about someone. Yeah. That's funny. I think too that you and I were both going through corporate careers when.
Our career started at a very different place than where they, where we left the corporate space in regards to how women were expected to show up. And I had plenty of female leaders or bosses who were really leaning in on that. I need to act like a man and be tough and be aggressive, and just be jerks and cutthroat.
And there was, it was so unnecessary. And then there wasn't an example often of just say, well-balanced has their shit together, female leader, which changed as like my career changed. But it was so crazy to, like you said, so many of my mentors were men Also, the spaces we were working in just disproportionately had more men.
Sure. I think I wanna give credit to all the, like the great male leaders and mentors who never thought twice about having a woman at the table or in the room and were like, I don't care who the it is. Like we're all gonna do the same work. Yes, go get it. Because that, there had to be room for that, for the shift to happen, I think from absolutely, power suit, way too many shoulder pads into oh, we're all at the same table and we're all.
For better or worse wearing jeans and t-shirts at this table. Do you remember moments when you were like, oh, like that's what a female leader can look like? I do. It's interesting. In my corporate career, I never reported to a female, not once. I always had a male boss. But I remember the company I worked for at the time was going through upper management changes and I was responsible for going up to Zoomies.
Yeah. And sitting down with their current, I guess she would've been the CEO at the time and delivering some news that was not going to be pleasant. And the best conversations. Absolutely. And everyone who was above me had, left the company and there I was. And I remember sitting across this boardroom table from her and being like, wow.
She is incredible. She is, all female from like the way she was dressed and her persona and everything, but she was like a badass. And I still remember that conversation and she looked at me in the eye and said, do you understand what you're saying to me? And I had to like. Pull my pants up and say, I absolutely understand what I'm saying and I'm sticking to my word.
And she stood up and we shook hands and I was like, yes.
Yeah. It was really a pivotal moment that I look back and think, wow. That was like one of the first females where I was like, she's, she has done it. That made me just think about how many times I, I know that a handful of times, if not many in my career, where the men who were in charge became chickens and they were like, you can deliver this noose.
And being like, wait, what? But it was such good training for me. But did that happen to you as well, where they'd be like you can do this. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think part of my coaching for females is like delivering bad news. Never ever run from it. Like face that head on. Similar with any challenge, right?
Don't procrastinate. Rip the bandaid off, get it over with, and you will gain respect. And from a mental standpoint, you're healthier because you've moved on, you've done it. But yes. And I think the same thing applies to asking the questions that you don't wanna ask. There's so often that we don't ask our partners, our employees.
A vendor we're working with. Like we don't wanna ask the scary question that's really gnawing at us. And we don't always know how it's gonna go. Like it's scary to ask 'cause we're worried about the 5 million possibilities. That will be bad. Not any. That would be good. But I get so much power out of asking the question, I'm afraid to ask.
Just as much as you mentioned, getting power from sharing news that I don't want to. Because, we put the words good and bad on things so often, but like all the significance we've added and absolutely what we think is like horrible news to share with somebody could be no big deal in their world and we're like completely unraveling because of it.
Absolutely. How has your training shaped, wow. Shaped how you think about the significance of things and get back to how it fits in the balance of your world. Yeah, I think that I feel like when we were younger, we were taught to like, think about all the different ways a conversation could go.
And so in your head, you're playing out all these scenarios and nine times out of 10, none of those scenarios. Actually happened. And so you spent all this time creating this like mental anguish over something that never came to fruition. And I think really for me, that's where the yoga and mindfulness training came in.
Like how to be present in the moment, how to not worry about. What is going to happen? Because the only thing you can control is right now. And so be prepared. You and I used to always talk, be data driven, right? Yeah. So be educated of what your conversation is about or the news that you have to deliver.
But don't create all that chatter in your brain beforehand because you can't control it. I think there's so much again, power or just like a, there's positivity and power, and also just saying what you're thinking right in the moment. And I've learned from working with people who English wasn't their first language, that when you don't have all the vocabulary to spin something politically and you can just say you seem upset.
What are you upset about? In a negotiation or a meeting and to just call out what one of my friends, when she first started working on our team, I saw her do that and I was like, I don't know if I would've had the balls to call out the CEO on. You clearly have something going on or a chip on your shoulder, but she just did it and she did it in it like it was she was so present and just so automatic in saying it that it didn't come off.
In any way other than a true, genuine question like a 6-year-old would have. And because of that, he couldn't react any other way than just answer. But it gave us so much information and visibility to what was actually going on. And we get, we try to control our words so much, and I think that there's a time and a place for it.
But again, this goes back to that self-trust concept of ask the question. Just say the thing. If you like, see it, say something. Because that's a whole skillset we have that we tend to turn off or to your point. Make go outta control with anxiety. Exactly. And we never really know what that other person's going through.
Like they could have had a bad morning. Traffic could have been terrible or a. Personal issues or all sorts of things can be going on with another person, and it's having the presence to acknowledge that and as you said, trust your instincts and be aware of the other person. For sure.
The client who had the s os just before I jumped on with you to record this, had a situation where they had a client who wants to change their rates. And we jumped right into like, how do we negotiate what those rates should be or how should I do it? And I'm like, but why do they wanna change the rates?
And I can't ask that question. I'm like, yes, you can. You can ask any question you want, but if you don't know why, you don't have any power to negotiate back. Are they just doing it? 'cause they right. Were like, Ooh, let's see, we can get a deal. It's a different conversation than. Oh, we're freaking out about this and this is all we have.
It's different. Is it a one time thing? Is it forever? I had so many questions and I think again, that's something that I so admired about working with you is you always had questions before you ever. Reacted. Even though both of us, we could always tell, we'd be like, oh, they're about to lose their mind, but I don't think anyone else knows.
But there's so we, we don't ask the questions out loud enough and we skip right over to fixing the problem when sometimes there is no problem. Absolutely. It's, there's the start with Why book, but there's so many more. Things to know then why? Absolutely. Yeah. How has being curious changed your life and your path?
Gosh. It's funny, I'm an only child, so I always had to be curious because I was alone. So like just being. Investigative, about life. I feel like in like COVID and post COVID, re-engaging and getting curious kind of really is what stimulated this transition and moving into coaching.
Maybe it was, you could step back and not a whole lot was happening in the world. And so you can invest in that, but. I always tell the twins like, be curious about things like don't. Don't ever stop asking questions. And then I also think, and you as well, but we both love to travel, right?
Yeah. And that just inspires curiosity on a whole nother level because it's culturally and the difference in language and. Cities and everything, like I think all of that and travel had changed my life for sure. My parents never wanted to travel outside the us. My mom's never been out of the us so having the ability to travel coupled with work was incredible.
Yeah. The number of core memories I have that involve. Ail spritz in Europe with a colleague, like Absolutely. I, we, yeah, I remember like we were in Amsterdam by the river and then we were on the roof at the hotel. I'm like, get these are markers, like I can map my, the good parts of my life through Ale Spritz milestones.
Absolutely. Absolutely. We've been asking everyone on the podcast like, what do the words powerful in ladies mean to you? And do their definitions change when they're next to each other? That's a great question.
I think potentially they change when they're together, right? Because powerful is then describing the lady. But powerful to me means embracing yourself, understanding your own values, your own worth wanting to make a difference in the world, I think are the things that come to mind when I think about powerful.
It's amazing to put the two together. And I think, I think you said like your mom couldn't open her own checking account. I think back to my grandmother who lived through the Great Depression and she was incredible. She lived to be 102. Ooh. And I would describe her as a powerful lady.
She never would've thought that about herself, right? And so having the two words together I think is phenomenal, especially as we forge forward in the world. Yeah. We've also been asking everyone where you put yourself on the powerful 80 scale. So if zero is an average everyday human and 10 is the most powerful lady you can imagine, where would you put yourself today and on an average day?
I think today I would give myself an eight. I am feeling so inspired going into 2024 and all that I wanna accomplish and all the change I wanna make with other powerful ladies. So I'm gonna go with an eight. I hope my daughter sees me as a 10. I will say that, and on an average day, I probably six.
When you made the decision to move to small town, Pennsylvania what were you nervous about and what were you excited about?
I don't remember being nervous at all. I am open for change. With children it's harder because they have friends and as a. Preteen. Things are catastrophic on a daily basis, but I would pick up and move again in a heartbeat. Just for fun. Yeah. So I don't know what I was nervous about.
What I really don't like about being in a small town is the lack of available healthy food. That is really a challenge for me because that's so important. What I was most excited about is we live on 70 acres. So nature, it's like ingrained in me, and having the children being able to run barefoot through the yard and hike in the woods and all of that.
Yeah. But yeah, I would pick up and go somewhere fun, Amsterdam. Yeah, that's an option. And you've also, community is so important to people. When you have moved, how have you created community? What has that experience been like and has it been more challenging being in a small town or has it been easier?
I think it's a little bit more challenging, honestly. We made the decision to move here when the kids were four, knowing that we would be able to create a community around like preschool. Yeah. And so I think that's how I've developed that community. I've tried to really keep in touch with.
All of the people that I've met throughout my career. And stay in those relationships to have that community. Because what I do, and what my husband does and the action sports world is, people look at you like you have two heads almost. They have no idea about that industry.
Yeah. Yeah. That's been challenging of like really having that female kind of working female, I will say group that is like physically present. I just try to maintain that remotely. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And then what are you doing to fill your own cup up? Travel. For sure.
Yeah, for sure. Learning I've been. Like, so invested in learning. I'm obsessed right now with biohacking. Things that, like different things like that I'm hoping to incorporate in my coaching. What are those things that you can do mentally and physically that kind of push you ahead? So that learning about that different stuff, jim Quick is like a coach on how you can, like speed read and how different people learn differently. I don't know if you've heard of him. I'm obsessed with learning his stuff right now. So just all of that, like different stuff that you post different stuff that others coach post. Just trying to constantly learn.
And the occasional AAL spritz. Yes. We've also been asking everyone, what do you need? Powerful ladies is a big capable, connected group. What's on your to-do or to manifest this year and how can we help you? Yeah. I think one of the things I'm most excited about in 2024, I wanna create a tr a transformational retreat for women.
And so putting the word out for that, like how can we come together learn from each other, pull in different coaches from different genres, whether it's, some of the stuff I talked about with biohacking or just different things. How do we come together and then transform a group of women's lives so that they can be more successful?
That's a big thing. Yeah. I love that. That is on my list for the year as well, excellent. I hear collaboration. I hear collaboration. Amazing. Yeah, and I think, helping me put the word out for my coaching business so I can help other women would be amazing. So for all the women who want the elusive work life balance, who want to be thriving in all parts of their lives where can they find, follow you and connect with you? My Instagram is my mindful path and that's the easiest way. I have a free PDF on work-life balance that they can download, which then puts them into my weekly newsletter. That's the easiest way to get ahold of me. Okay, perfect. Thank you so much for taking time outta your busy day to hang out with me and to share some of your story and what inspires you.
Yeah, having you as a marker in my life and a woman who I could admire and be inspired by has meant so much. And I also just love that we kicked him ass and had a lot of fun too. Oh my gosh. I feel the exact same way. Thank you so much for having me spending time with me and helping me get my word out.
I appreciate it.
All the links to connect with Michelle and her coaching plus it is. Exclusive discount code for her coaching or in our show notes. Please subscribe and rate this podcast wherever you're listening. Join us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies. And if you're looking to connect directly with me, visit kara duffy.com or Kara Duffy on Instagram.
I'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Until then, I hope you're taking on being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
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Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
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Music by Joakim Karud
