Episode 330: Designing a Life You Love | Laura King | Gravel Cyclist and CMO at Paradis Sport
What happens when you refuse to choose between your passions, your family, and your career? Laura King has built a life where all three thrive. As a professional gravel cyclist, mother of two, and CMO at Parity Sport, she’s redefining what’s possible for women in sports. In this episode, she shares her journey from endurance racing to leading a women’s activewear brand, the lessons she’s learned from cycling through pregnancy, and how she and her husband balance adventure, parenting, and business. We talk about breaking barriers in male-dominated sports, the power of female mentorship, designing a life on your own terms, and finding joy in pushing past fear. Whether you’re an athlete, entrepreneur, or someone seeking the courage to chase big goals, this conversation will leave you inspired to ride toward your own version of success.
“It’s so much more than underwear — it’s about what we stand for and how we can uplift and empower women.”
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Follow along using the Transcript
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Parody Sport and Laura King
01:18 Meet Laura King: A Multifaceted Athlete
03:08 The Rise of Gravel Cycling
06:00 Balancing Motherhood and Cycling
10:31 Endurance Sports and Personal Growth
18:39 Empowering Women Through Sport
26:21 Women Empowering Women in Cycling
27:09 Balancing Family and Athletic Life
29:28 Support Systems and Childcare
32:00 Living a Full and Balanced Life
35:32 The Power of Community and Environment
38:29 Defining Powerful Women
43:36 Reflections on Powerful Women and Personal Growth
51:08 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
We make underwear for active women. I always say I'm glad we make an amazing product, but really why I love working for this company is interfacing every day with really inspiring women who are pushing barriers and boundaries and doing huge things.
That's gravel cyclist and CMO of Parody Sport. Laura King. I'm Kara Duffy, and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast.
Confident, courage and curiosity are linked in ways that we don't discuss enough and definitely aren't teaching enough specifically in my opinion, in regards to. How to have your all and where true success comes from. Today's guest, Laura King, is a professional cyclist, a brand ambassador, CMO at Parody Sport, one half of a cycling power couple mother of two, and passionate outdoor community member who relies on those three words daily. She, along with her husband, have designed lives that are 100% in alignment with their values and passions. She's an example of how you can say yes to everything you want and build the structures to make it work along the way.
Welcome to The Powerful Ladies Podcast. Thank you so much. It's nice to meet you. Likewise. Let's dive in by telling everyone your name, where you are in the world, and what you're up to, because you are up to a lot of things.
Yeah. My name is Laura King and I reside in Ri, a little town called Richmond in the state of Vermont. And I guess as a, as best I can summarize, I am a pro gravel cyclist. I am a mom of a three and 5-year-old. I, my husband and I kind of work in the cycling industry. I run marketing for a small active active women's underwear company called Parody Sport. And yeah, no shortage of lots of adventures and fun things happening all at once.
You were referred to us from a previous guest who just had the nicest things to say to you about you. And I'm gonna quote something that she said, Laura is truly an inspiration, not just for women, but for humankind as an example of what it means to be a good person and lead with tenacity.
Oh, that is very kind. Lenny's an amazing person. I just listened to her episode and it, it's cool because you touched on one facet of her life, which is beginning the brand Chug water, but there are so many facets you guys weren't even able to get to. And we're lucky that at Parity Sport, I now work with her as a colleague. So it's fun to get to collaborate with her every day.
How does it feel to have someone who, say that you are an inspiration for humankind?
Maybe a bit hyperbolic, not totally deserved, but very flattering. I could only hope to have people who are maybe take some inspiration from something I do or say. Yeah, I'm very flattered.
The, there's so much change happening in sport nowadays from equipment changes to safety, changes to rules changing. How is the cycling world and in particular, your, is it gravel cyclist that you mostly race in? Yes. So how is the world of, gravel cycling, changing in ways that you never expected it would when you first started?
Both my husband and I never expected to carve out. A job within the gravel category of cycling. And just for anyone who isn't familiar, probably many people aren't familiar with gravel because it's fairly new. It's a burgeoning category of cycling, I think. People are drawn to it because you're getting off of the road. It has a, so there's a level of kind of adventure and safety as it compares to the road. And there is this it started as very much it's like a marathon race where the pros can line up and the amateurs line up with them and everyone's together. So there's this inclusivity that exists and it's a little bit more, I'd say not as intimidating maybe as the road cycling scene. And so a lot of people are being drawn to it. So sorry, your original question was what's changing? I think actually cycling is what's changing. It's almost too, or it's, gosh, we're only like, I guess we're like five to nine years into what is even being able to say gravel cycling as a thing. Nine years ago there weren't, wasn't even such a thing as like a gravel bike. And a gravel bike is in between a road bike and a mountain bike. It's basically gravel is just means a category of cycling that is multi terrain. So you can ride pavement, but you also hit dirt roads, sometimes single track.
It's just a variety of terrain. So yeah, my husband actually was his career has been in cycling. He rode in the Tour de France and i've had a background in endurance sports from triathlon to now just mostly cycling. And so upon kind of meeting him and getting married, we have focused a lot of our energy and just into the sport as kind of ambassadors and personalities.
We, the, I think while we s we, we were at the tail end of our kind of competitive racing careers. But what's unique about Gravel is that you're able to show up and represent the sport and represent other brands for the sport. And I think do us doing that kind of, we do it as a family. And so we have an interesting niche within this sport that isn't, that maybe is representative of more of.
You know the general population, whether they're looking at us and saying, if that family can do that, maybe we can do it too.
When I was preparing for this episode, I couldn't believe how many articles about you were shock of like pregnant and still cycling and it was like just this, like everywhere you look, the article is can't believe she's still riding a bike.
And at first I was like, yeah. Yes. Thank you everyone else in the world for catching up to how pregnant women are still badass. Yes. And then I also got have not even having met you yet, started getting defensive of like she is more than just a pregnant person. Cycling.
Thank you.
So like how is that experience for you?
Because I think so often women, the power that we give to women is so often by them. And I'm saying we, from a cultural perspective, it's like when they surprise us oh, I didn't know women could also do that. Meanwhile, those of us who are women in the world today, every day you're doing 5,000 things and you're not getting credit for those other 5,000 things. So what was your experience like when people were just like, let's write about the fact that you're pregnant and cycling and that's all we wanna talk about for a little while. Not going to the, gravel championships and everything else that was happening.
I think I welcomed it because I, it's been I unintentionally, I think have been able to show others that maybe. Pregnancy isn't. While it's hard, and especially if you're an active woman, it's, it can be a real challenge. It's not it doesn't mean that you have to put aside like the things that you like to do for a long period of time. And, also there's this narrative of that I heard constantly.
It was like, enjoy it now because it's about to be all, it's about to be over. And that frustrated me. 'cause I thought really what it comes down to is what you prioritize at the end of the day. And this is something really important to me and something that gives me so much, it's not just about racing.
It's about. Friendships and just my happy mental state. And it's just about, it fulfills so many things that are important to me that I'm gonna carve out a space for it and I intend to do that. And I think that it can happen. So I appreciated that I could have my voice out there to be able to say, Hey, it doesn't have to be this way, or it's not this way for everyone. It depends what the path that you want to take and this is the path that I'm choosing and my husband and I have decided to choose and we're excited about what it's gonna look like.
Now you have an entire cycling family, that you can you get to, like how could you not pass that on to your kids? Like how soon were you putting kids on their own bikes?
Yes. They, while cycling is important to us, we're also just, we just love the outdoors and love being active. And honestly, I have to say, when people say do you think they're going to pursue cycling in the way that you both have pursued cycling?
I'm like, I don't know if I want them to. 'cause they, there's a danger to it. And now I have this, I'm like, I have this new kind of mom worry that I am always hoping that they stay safe. And yeah, the reality is, and I think about it a lot cycling is, there are, they're far more kind of safer activities, but I just hope that they take from it like a diligence towards working to be good at, or working to be your best at something.
Just yeah, pursuing. Mastery of anything and or a passion that following your passion so many, there's so many aspects of it. Whether it's they pursue a sense of adventure from what they learn from us or they pursue or they just take after, the habit of every day getting out there and putting in your time to be good at something. There are just so many kind of takeaways that could help them in the world, that hopefully that's what they take away at the end of the day, whether they wanna be a bike racer or not.
I recently read an article that was talking about how if we praise kids for working hard and being diligent or persistent, it's a healthier accolade than saying you're smart because once fixed and one is like constantly in that space you were talking about of the pursuit and the training and the, seeing how far you can go or it's a mix of the working hard and the curiosity component, which I thought was really interesting because hu humans love to just label things really simply.
Absolutely. And when you look at an endur endurance sports, there's nothing simple about endurance sports in general. How has, first how did you get into endurance sports and then how has it changed who you are or who you were to who you are today?
Oh, good questions. I got into endurance sports later in life than many.
And that was in just starting high school. I joined swim team and had a natural aptitude towards swim team and joined a club team. And that just means you swim a whole lot every day and that's the only sport you can really do 'cause you, your days are morning and afternoon swimming.
But I just, I was also highly involved in music at the time and at a crossroads of do I pursue music and put all my kind of continue. Hopefully, pursue that path and maybe it will lead towards an eventual profession or, and now I'm at this crossroads of, oh, I really also am finding success in sport.
And I really felt in sport, like I found my people. I really felt like the people I was surrounding myself with were incredibly inspiring to me. I was just, it really felt like I had found my niche. And from that to make a very long story short I eventually transitioned into triathlon and was lucky to, I think, upon just pursuing what you're passionate about.
I realized I was hoping that my career could also follow that path, and that led me to a job within sports nutrition at Power Bar and Goo And I've continued to work in this, active outdoor space. And so that's been really neat to just see how your passion for something and what people see and just how you work hard at something can also lead to an awesome career.
And now remind me if I'm answering your question.
My fault, I gave you a twofer. How has the endurance component of the sports that you've chosen changed who you are? And Yeah, like just how has it changed you? Because I think that there's such a, it's a different neurological lane than anything else.
Yeah. One of the main things I would say is it's encouraged me every. To ask to think big and to think of something that seems scary and outlandish to me, and then to ask, but what if you could do it? What would that look like? And that's how I got started in, in triathlon. I asked my, I did a sprint triathlon, and that was scary to me.
And then you ask, can I I just did that. Do you, maybe I could do the next distance at the Olympic distance. And then I said maybe I could do a half iron Man. Those people that do Iron Man are crazy. And then you do that and every step along the way becomes like, your eyes just become a little bit more open to the possibilities of something bigger.
And I, I just have noticed over the span of my life, like I really thrive in. Seeing that goal out there and being scared of it and then pushing myself to go do it. Like one another example, this year I have long avoided public speaking. I changed my major in college because I was so terrified of the prerequisite of a class, of taking a public speaking class.
And just slowly over time have had jobs that pushed me a little bit to, to speak. And finally, 20 years later, culminated this year I was asked to be a keynote speaker for this women's event, Nordic ski event for 250 women. And my, I was so flattered that they would ask me, didn't really feel qualified, but also thought, my first inclination was to say, you don't want me to do that?
No, you actually shouldn't have asked me. I'm not your person. But I was given enough of a span of time to prepare that I thought. Laura, why not? Take this time, prepare as well as you can and see what happens. And just, I, it's so similar to sport, but it was so scary and so daunting to me, and then so exhilarating to get to that point. And I felt like I, I didn't just do the thing, but I felt like I did it well. And I get the same kind of like fulfillment out of that process as I do within sports.
Very often I'll have clients ask me like, how can I be more confident? How can I, and I always come back to you have to be brave first. And most people don't want to be courageous and do something that scares them. And I think that's such a missed opportunity to. Know yourself in a different way. Meet people you never would've met, see things you never would've seen. Do you think that you were born curious and courageous? Or did something push you into doing that more than not?
Ooh I think I'd have to lean towards a lot of it being innate. I'm, I think back from my youngest years and I, anything I did, I wanted to do as best as I could and take it further and further. And I've always been a competitive person, so I think that's helped drive that too. So yeah, I think a lot of it has been innate.
I'm one of four girls. I'm the oldest of four girls and I think. Being a part of a big family like that, we are all we all watch each other and are influenced by each other and motivated by what the other one's doing. So I think that's certainly been a motivation, motivating factor as well.
I am also the oldest of four. Whoa. Not all girls. There's three girls and then a brother. But there is something very true about that birth order component. Yes. And I don't I really think it's so interesting because I've never asked permission to do things and I think it's so interesting to see younger siblings asking for permission first.
And I'm like, what did all of us older siblings do to you where you think you need to ask before you just go? Or no one's also. I ever shown me people have shown me how to do things, but I've, I'm so open to just being like, I'll figure it out. Like I don't need to know the, how, the same way I see younger different birth order siblings really wanting to like, not mess up and know all the steps first.
And I'm like, wow. I'm just, I feel so lucky that I was, a first born because those skills that are assigned to that st, ranking stereotypically, I can't imagine living without them. Absolutely. Yeah. I feel like I do think makes us a little crazy though. Yeah.
I fit the birth order description pretty closely.
Yeah. You mentioned a lot of the community. Prior to my current jobs, I spent 20 years working in sport on the footwear and apparel side. Oh. And I loved it because we were working with athletes all the time. I was a college athlete until very recently, I would say I was still an athlete. But there's, I just love the space of anything is possible.
And when you're in working with athletes to increase performance and increase what they can do, there's a level of, it's so different than working in fashion spaces where. It's way more storytelling and less prove you can do it type of a space. Anyone can come. If you wanna get on the bike, get in the gravel and go, whether you win or not is like another question down the line.
But that community orientation I wish people could feel it who haven't been a part of those groups. And businesses in sports carry that through and have the privilege often to champion people to have it as a lifestyle and a profession. How would you describe the community to people who haven't had the experience?
The community, just like within the outdoor industry and, sure. Yeah. That's a big question. I guess I'll, just speaking about my job currently, we make underwear for active women and. I always say I'm glad we make an amazing product, but really why I love working for this company is interfacing every day with really inspiring women who are pushing barriers and boundaries and doing.
Huge things. And also connecting some of those women. We have an ambassador team of over 30 very inspirational athletes. And I was just on a bike ride the other day saying, I can't believe it. Yesterday I got to speak to this amazing woman who was on this crazy expedition to Baffin Island outside of Greenland doing this trek across sea ice on skis and getting a first ascent of this rock climb.
Like just things that, that's an arena I don't have a lot of expertise or knowledge in. But I got off the call thinking, I can't believe I just got to spend an hour hearing this woman's story being inspired by her. And then being able to be a small part of the expedition and, it equipping her with gear that's gonna be not gonna get encumber her her expedition in any way.
And it's just whether it's that or it's being a part of an organization that's called, like we're a part of an organiza organization or we support an organ organization called for All Mothers. It's supporting women in sport and helping provide them with scholarships so that they can, go to the Olympics and take their son or daughter with them, or providing them races, encouraging them to have like lactation tents.
It's just it's so much more than underwear. Yeah, and I guess that's what it comes down to. It's it's so great that we have a, this wonderful product, but it's really about what that product what we stand for and what our brand stands for, and how we can uplift and empower women.
That's really what I feel like our everyday mission is. And through that we have this business, it feels like it's taking off and starting to thrive. And so that's really exciting when you can. Put all those things together. It's like this magic formula.
It's my favorite type of formula there.
There's so many businesses that I've worked with who are wondering why things aren't working anymore, and I go, guys, like you don't have your soul as the core focus anymore. Like ultimately, you guys are in a women's empowering business that happens to make underwear, right? Like you couldn't have inserted any product into that.
I'm sure there'll be more that'll be inserted as a, as it goes on.
And, but that kind of authenticity is just, yes, it's so obvious. It's so obvious that we're using real people and real athletes in our imagery and in our storytelling and, it's just that I. That comes across and people see whether it's real or not. And they're attracted to that realness.
And people want to be in that inspiring, supported space. Like part of why powerful ladies even exists is I was so over either being all bad news or only talking about women who had so much money that people couldn't ignore them anymore. And I'm like every, there are so many women every day who are so much more inspiring not to take away from the people who get lots of media attention, but by any means.
But I think it sets a precedent that's it makes it very hard for women to have self-confidence when the only option is like. Beyonce or Taylor Swift and that's it. Those are your two choices. If you don't hit that level, you haven't succeeded. And meanwhile, as like all these women that you know from the community and from the the athletes you're supporting, there are women that people have never heard of who are doing incredible things every day. And to them it's just another regular day.
True. It is so true.
And I'm like that's, it's a completely different head space to be in. It's a completely different community to be a part of. And it dawned on me the other day, I was talking to a potential client who was really upset that they work with so many negative people.
And I was like, wow, that's, it hit me. I'm like, I don't have people like that in my life. And they were like, I said it out loud and they were like, what? I'm like, yeah, of course. People like come in, but they quickly get bounced out. I'm like, yeah. No, there's not room for it because it just doesn't work in this bubble that I've created of community and network and friends and podcast guests and clients, like everyone here, like wants to have a great time, but wants to follow their curiosities and figure it out and work together and they were just like, that sounds unimaginable.
It blows my mind that people don't choose Yeah. What they can have. Exactly. What advice would you give to women who are debating getting into cycling at whatever age they are? Like should they do it no matter how old they are? Should there be things that they're mindful about?
That's a great question because my mom is 70 and. Talks to me sometimes about getting into cycling. I'm like, oh, please don't. She's just, she still thinks she's in a 30-year-old body. And I'm always like, mom, you're gonna hurt yourself. My mom is fearless. So that's what first comes to mind is unfortunately the repercussions of falling off your bike are, exist and there is a risk for injury.
But it really, it really just depends. Yeah. If you're drawn towards endurance sports, it's, it is what I do like about cycling it is it is a lifelong sport. It is easy on your body some people are like aghast when I tell them how quickly I was back on the bike after having a baby.
And it's, I have to explain to them like, no, it's actually more gentle than walking. Like it supports your pelvis. It's a gentle exercise. A lot of times when you have surgery on your knee, that's like the first thing that for rehab, they have, you get on a exercise bike. I love that.
I'd say, the things to be aware of is it's a gear intensive sport, so it's not inexpensive to get into, so you do wanna make sure that you are that the investment will be worth it. Testing it out or having a bike to borrow or whatever whatever could be helpful.
There is maybe the way to go before, like diving in and investing in all the gear all at once. But I'd say, one of the things that cycling is still a very male dominated sport. When I started gravel cycling and started, my husband and I ran our own gravel event called Rooted Vermont for a number of years, and were, I had a mission, a personal mission to help en encourage more women in the sport.
This most gravel events would get about a 20%. This, the women's field would be about 20% of the entire field. And so it's cool to see that. Some of the things that I've worked, the projects I've worked on have also been. With the, so many other women doing the same thing. So it's been this huge collective effort but it has affected change.
And now you're seeing sometimes 50 50 parity at cycling events. And the one thing I think one barrier, when we had, we hosted a cycling, a women's like clinic weekend, the feedback we would get was, I only have like my boyfriend to ride with. Or I, my brother got me on a bike. But very, but women were hungry for, to learn from other women, to see other women as an example.
We saw so often that when they would see another woman perform a certain skill, it was. They had much more confidence that they could do it too. And yeah, I think that is, was a powerful lesson and I think I would encourage any woman who is wanting to get into the sport to seek out those groups and to find other women who can inspire them, equip them, help them.
They're out there and there are people doing really great work to encourage cycling to not feel so intimidating. 'cause it can be really intimidating. It's just overwhelming with what you need to buy and where to go and route planning and what feels safe. So there's a lot of elements there that, just finding other women can really help break down those barriers.
Whenever you're an athlete, it can be the only thing that your life includes and you. Are married, you have a job, you have friends, you have two kids. You guys are both traveling a lot. Your husband has businesses, like there's a lot like when you look at having to be like family, CEO there's a lot happening.
Yeah. What are tactical things that you do on a regular basis to make it all work for you?
I have to brag about my husband a little bit because I have never met a more kind of he's extraordinary in how much he can balance and execute at a really high level to the extent that I thought I was impressive in that regard, and then I met him, and so he definitely just having another very capable partner certainly is a huge part of the formula and makes a lot of it possible.
He is just very equal in carrying load, if not. Carrying more of the load sometimes, so that's amazing. I think some people just innately have a capacity for more and he's one of those people. We are both pretty type A and organized. We keep a shared family calendar. We are always looking ahead and planning and trying to communicate about things on our calendar and also take turns trading off.
For example, in a couple weeks I'm planning a adventure, a mountain bike adventure with two of my girlfriends in Colorado. And he's made it possible for me to be able to go out and do that for a week and take care of things at home. And and I try to do the same for him. We both, I think it's special to be on the same page about, he never has to justify to me why he wants to go spend time on his bike, and I don't have to justify that to him. And, it's not a I think sometimes people will look at it and think, or look at our relationship and think, oh, that must be so easy. Both loves cycling and, there's pros and cons.
It's not it's not like it's a, it's no either way, whether you have a spouse or partner that enjoys the same things as you, you'll you'll have pros and cons like, maybe you have more time to ride your bike if your partner doesn't wanna ride. But it is helpful in understanding each other and like how we're wired and so yeah, I'd say those are the main things.
Do you guys have nannies, babysitters, family? Like how are you guys getting the extra support?
All of the above. Man, we are blessed to have some really great I don't, we don't call her a nanny. She's a family friend of ours that who has kids of her own and has helped be a huge part in taking care of our kids when we need help here and she'll be moving on.
'cause our kids are going on to be like, full-time school now. But that's been huge. Our families are not close by, but when they do come, they provide a ton of support and allow us to take some more longer, trips to Europe for cycling or whatever it might be, which is huge. And I am pretty.
I, my skill is finding childcare in any state of the country where we are traveling, which that is a skill and planning it out on to the point where we have a spreadsheet, so our travel is gone down a little bit, a notch, taken a, we've taken a notch down in the past few months, but at times we're on the, we've done cross country trips in our sprinter van going from race to race, being all together.
And so then that's where it gets really complicated. You're like, where are we gonna be? Who needs to train? Who needs to work? What are we gonna do? And yeah, there's a website called care.com that I've had amazing success with in finding childcare, otherwise like very reputable childcare. And then also, we're the cycling world is so small and it's a complete community.
So anywhere we're going, we often know people who have a recommendation or the race directors help us with a recommendation. And yeah, I've been proud that just with like enough planning and time, we can really put together something that's like. Workable and sustainable and allows us to be together as a family and still having all these adventures and still achieving our goals.
And I'm also lucky with Parity Sport that the owner of the company has allowed me to also balance this other side of my life and has this level of trust that she's, I think, I hope I've proven to her now that I can, just get my work done wherever I am in the country. And that's just like the cadence of how our life has been and what we're used to.
So yeah, it's been fun to be able to make it all happen. It's not without, its like bumps sometimes, but I feel like we're just getting better and better at it as, as we go along and learn from one year to the.
One of the. Methodologies in my coaching is something called the have your All method and it really sounds like you and your husband have mastered having as much of your all as you can. Most people think it's not possible for them. When I start talking about this, what advice would you give to people who want more, want to find more ways to layer in everything that matters to them and feel stuck?
I feel like I just like to not necessarily assume that the way you see everyone else doing something has to be the way.
I feel like I like to I don't know, just the same curiosity, like what if we could make this all happen? Yeah. It's not for everyone and it's not without its stressors and I think. I do think one thing my husband and I are not afraid of is sometimes the way we've chosen to live life also brings with it.
We more work to be honest. Like it is more work, but we accept that work because we feel like the outcome is worth it to us. So I think a little bit of knowing that it's not necessarily the easiest path, but like the outcome could be so wonderful if you are up for the challenge.
And I think that there's also a lot of things that when we choose a path that we know is ours, there's things that we say no to that.
Surprise people. There's an incredible woman, Jen Harper, who started Cheekbone Beauty, the first indigenous beauty brand in North America. She gave up TV for a year. She gave up alcohol. She's never gone back to alcohol since. But she's no. Like those things aren't values of mine building. This is, what are some examples of things that you've given up that might be part of someone's normal routine or life?
Staying out late? I'm very, I have been, since I've been young, I'm very protective of my sleep and I feel like. That's just good sleep habits. And even for our kids, just like boundary, I don't know if you call 'em boundaries, but maybe structure is a better word. Structure around sleep has been important to us and I think been helpful in helping our kids to also have good sleep habits.
And sleep, as we know, is pretty crucial to having, our ener our life demands a lot of energy and the only way I'm gonna ever gonna have enough energy every day to take, to have the energy to go do my intervals, to come back and be. Have my brain firing for work and whatever it might be, is to have enough sleep.
I'm a mess if that doesn't happen.
And there's also I think the big debate of like people being workaholics. And I think that it's unhealthy to be a workaholic if the work that you're doing isn't work that, fills your soul, and it's not work that's aligned with your values.
And when I think that you are able to build a life where the different parts of all of it, some of which are work and some of it aren't, or all just things that you enjoy doing, you might be working as in not, not doing, having a leisure time might be limited because your stay is so structured.
And other people might think oh, like how, when do you ever relax? But I would argue that you, the life is much more full. It's just choosing the full that works for you versus a full that you are in jail too.
Absolutely. I will say I never expected to find myself in Vermont. My husband and I lived in the Bay Area, that's where I met him.
And moving to Vermont has helped, I think, has very much helped us with our life balance. It is a place where we are on the go all the time. We're traveling, we're living a fast-paced life. And then I come home and I reset and everything slows down and there is a different pace here and there are different ideals that people have and that, they are, I feel like it's very much a place where people value their values are around.
Real interactions meaningful interactions. I, it took me a while to get used to people coming by the house unannounced to have a chat or folks we'd have here, like a plumber or somebody fixing our house would just also stand around and wanna talk. And people just the time their time is I don't know.
It's just it's a different pace and I have come to really appreciate what that brings to our life. And just also the seasons here. I'm a girl who really would love summer all the time. I love California. It was like my dream to live in a place where, it was fairly temperate all year round.
But I have come to appreciate the seasons and how it. Forces us to slow down winter here, forces us to slow down. And I've realized over time I'm a more healthy version of myself having living in a place like this. So I miss the sun all the time. But I'm really appreciating like what that's brought to my life.
I have the opposite where I grew up on the, in the Northeast and in New England and I'm in southern California now, and I crave the rhythm that the seasons give us. It's so easy for years to go by and you'd be like, I have no idea how long I've been here. I don't remember how old I am anymore. And there's something I think, really healthy for like your own cyclical sense of time.
Yes. When each season, what you do and where you go, like it changes. And even just the concept of. The preparations that you have to do for different seasons. I think there's a level of understanding, timeliness when you grow up in a place where you have to prepare. Or else you'll be in trouble and Yeah.
I think it's just ingrained in me to be like, oh, if we're gonna do something, we do it now. Yeah. And everyone's why? What's the rush? I'm like, what do you mean? There's always winter's coming and they're like, what are you talking about?
That must be where my husband got it. He's rubbed off on me now, but I've always just admired how he is a you do not wait to do something.
You do it now. Everything's immediately get it done now. So then you don't have it like looming over you and
Yeah. And if you have a, and if it's a great idea, that's fun and not it doesn't need to be practical. It's like, why would we wait for, have fun also? Yes, exactly. When you think of the words powerful in ladies, how would you define them?
And do their definitions change when they're next to each other?
I've listened to this podcast a couple of times, so I actually did some thinking about this and asked chat GPT, what it would define as a powerful woman. And I loved what it, I loved what it said. I wanna read it. It says, A powerful woman is one who owns her agency, shapes her world through influence and competence, and lives in alignment with her values regard, regardless of societal expectations.
Her power is not merely positional or physical. It flows from a deep sense of self. The ability to command respect, inspire trust, and create change. She navigates challenges with resilience, exercises her voice with clarity, and makes decisions with both strength and compassion. Chat GPT. It's like pretty good. So I think that I couldn't have said it better.
And it's so interesting to me because I spoke to a woman the other day who I was told both, like someone connected us said you guys should meet. We met on Zoom. And she goes, I hate the word ladies.
I was like, okay. I don like the word ladies either.
Why don't you like it and what makes it maybe okay in the title of powerful ladies, and if it doesn't, let's talk about that too, because I think that's juicy.
I think about, I think about our parody sport as a business. And when I came into the business, I don't know, there are certain words like that we were using, the word undies to me just, I don't know, I have a little bit of a cringe with undies.
It's almost a little cutesy and there's nothing wrong with it. I'm sure I'd probably use it in everyday language, but when thinking about our marketing language, I like the word underwear. We're like strong, active women, and we wear underwear. I just, to me, undies is I don't know, it doesn't evoke like strong and individual and I don't know.
It just doesn't evoke the kind of feelings and things that I want to think about when I think about strong active women. I guess similarly for ladies, it's just a little bit, it doesn't, it just doesn't evoke the kind of same feelings that I feel about what I wanna think about when I think about strong women.
It's that's my best. I don't know how else to explain it. It's almost really a feeling.
I get that. And I also love that this is the first time in, 300 and almost 50 episodes. Someone's compared ladies to undies. So this is a whole new soundbite that we get to work with.
Maybe it's just an IES thing. I don't know.
It makes it diminutive. Yeah. I'd be like, ugh. No it's been a topic that we've discussed so much because coming again from the world of sport and a career where it was very masculine oriented, there was always room. I never felt like I didn't belong in the spaces. It was very I have very few typical, workplace patriarchal examples. But there is, I always had equal or more male friends so often, or mentors and. Every year it comes up of should we change the name and when I go out to the community and talk about it, it's so interesting the feedback that I get because like just call it powerful humans. I think I, at least once a year, this is a deep conversation the team and I have, and every time we're like, okay, I think it's time to change the name.
Yeah.
Then something happens in the world where you go, dammit, the world is not ready for us to take this name out of the title. And this year in particular, it's been such a roller coaster on like equality and what it means to be a woman and what space we are allowed or not allowed to have. And there are people I know right now who are pregnant and who.
Are like, aren't traveling to certain locations. It's too risky. I know, other women who have decided to, we're gonna go hang out in a foreign country for a couple of months 'cause I just need my nervous system to reset. And then there's like the, pe all of us who are still here woo.
And we're, you have to keep doing all the things right. And minimizing it. So it's been a very interesting, I did not expect and maybe it's my naivete of launching something called Powerful Ladies and thinking how inadvertently political it could become. That was never the purpose, I'm sure.
And yeah. But yeah, it's a I love asking this question because some people love it and why they love it is the same reason it comes from the same space of like, why you changed undies to underwear.
Yes.
And it's so fascinating to me the power of language and what we make words mean or not mean. And yeah, it just, it's so fascinating to me. I need to give this all these answers to like an anthropologist or psychologist to do some actual analysis on.
It's true. Not everyone on our team had the same feelings as I did about the word undies. Some people thought, there's nothing wrong with it. Why wouldn't you use it? Yeah, I understand.
You look at your life up to this point, how have other powerful women either supported or changed the path that you were on?
I feel, what is that quote? I. You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And when I look around at the people I am blessed to have in my life, I think I would be thrilled to be the average of the five people I spend the most time with of 10 15. I just feel really, I have so many incredible women in my life who are doing huge things.
One of my best friends is a Stanford physician, really pushing the boundaries with women's health and performance and, other women working in developing amazing products for sports nutrition. Just, I could go on and on and I just think if I'm able, if I am able to ever get even close to seeing, myself in the light that they're in my eyes. I would feel like a total success.
As we're wrapping up today, I have a few rapid fire questions for you. The first is, where do you put yourself on the powerful lady scale? If zero is average everyday human and 10 is the most powerful lady you can imagine, where would you put yourself today and on an average day?
Also thought about this and have gone back and forth on what I would answer. Concerning the definition that I read to you. And also thinking in the context of if it's true that I am the average of the sum of these people that I spend time with, then I would give myself. An eight because I think there is always room to grow. But I am proud of, just looking back and seeing the trajectory of the growth that has happened and giving myself credit for that. And the kind of key elements that chat GPT spit out were like, number one, being self-mastery. She understands herself, manages her emotions, makes deliberate choices.
Two influence. She inspires, persuades, mobilizes others toward a vision, resilience she adapts and e endures without losing her center integrity, acts of alignment, acts and alignment with her values, even under pressure. And then finally, courage. She's willing to stand apart, speak up and take risks for what matters.
Certainly we all have areas in which we want to improve in those five categories, but I feel like. I am also able to look at each one of those and tell you examples in the last year of, I think where I've made progress and I'm proud of myself for, becoming more resilient in certain areas. I would like to be more courageous and stand up and speak up and take risks for what matters.
But I know that I also have made steps forward in becoming more courageous. Yeah, on an average, or I guess asked, said today, so on an average day, oh gosh, I guess eight does feel a little bit high, but I also I'm gonna, I'm gonna go with it and I guess on a today I didn't do anything out of the ordinary, extraordinary today, but, I also think that, like I look at there are p there are women in my life.
Who I could tell you I've just given descriptions of who to the rest of the world are doing amazing things, but they're also moms who have sacrificed their career and are spending time at home with their kids. And they're equally doing amazing things. And to maybe some people in the world that might not be as like worthy of some kind of, I don't know, like amazing title or kind of lauding their accomplishments.
But my sister comes to mind, she's a mom of four and she inspires me every single day. She inspires me to be a better mom. She's, she puts a hundred percent effort into everything she does. Yeah, I think when I think of powerful women, it's not just the people who are s. Succeeding in their profession or it's all areas of life and Yeah.
Agree. Yeah. It's like how are you changing your home, your family, your street, your community, your industry, your town. It doesn't, the idea that it has to be this global impact measured on traditional success metrics is what I'm hoping we're breaking down with this podcast in some to some extent.
And I think we're so hard as women on judging ourselves and being someone who also comes from a competitive mindset. You're always looking at where the growth is versus where the successes have been. And that seems to be an innately and stereotypically like female oriented trait too, of like making things better, even if better is better, sleep schedules, better meals, better quality time, like it just.
We're always looking for the improvement, which I think is one of our superpowers too.
Are you familiar with the Enneagram? Yes. I'm an Enneagram three, which is like the achiever. Achiever. I think I'm always, I'm always trying to keep myself in check about that because it is my natural proclivity to want to achieve, especially as culture and the world tells us what achieving is and keeping in mind like it's not achieving isn't always it is being an attentive and loving parent that raises a wonderful human beings and just yeah, keeping my priorities in.
Check about that.
For everybody who wants to find support, cheer you on, follow you get some, powerful underwear for themselves. Yes. Where can
they do all those things? My I'm probably most active on Instagram. My name's Laura Cameron King on there. Please visit parody sport.com, which is P-A-R-A-D-I-S and I have to share, Marie Parody was an amazing woman who was the first mo woman to Summit Mont Blanc.
So that's what our company is named after. And you can use the code Laura 20 for 20% off your first order. Yeah, we're a really small team, but I am excited about just the space we're taking in the world of promoting and empowering women.
From the bottoms up. Yeah. I love it. Last question for today. What's on your wishlist manifest list? How can this incredible community cause create, give you the magic key you're looking for?
On my manifest list, I guess would be just finding new ways to push outside my comfort zone. I am proud of the ways that I've done that in the past year, and it was, it's so fun to see the growth as possible, even as we continue to age.
And I just continue to look for more ways to do that. And also just I think one challenge as a family that is transient, sometimes we're all over the country, it's just to stay rooted in community. And our community in Vermont is so important and we have I think the challenge is like.
Maintaining those connections and while still living our adventures. And that's one thing as I get older, I'm just really valuing those relationships and we may not have family close by, but some of the people that we have close to us are becoming our family. And so learning to or figuring out how to invest in those relationships and take care of them while still being able to live our most adventurous life that we love living.
Love it. It has been such a pleasure to spend this time with you and get to know you. It's great when referrals come in because they're always right about you being a great contribution to the world with powerful ladies. So thank you so much for being a yes. And sharing your story today, I can't wait to hear what people have to say and what further questions they have for you that might get sent your way.
Thank you.
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and share it with a friend. Head to the powerful ladies.com where you can find all the links to connect with Laura Parody Sport and follow her cycling adventures. Come hang out with powerful ladies on Instagram at Powerful Ladies, and you can find me and all of my socials@karaduffy.com.
This episode was produced by Amanda Kass, and engineered by Jordan Duffy. 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
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud
